Title: Who Can Vote? - A News21 2012 National Project
Headings: Comprehensive Database of U.S. Voter Fraud Uncovers No Evidence That Photo ID Is Needed
Comprehensive Database of U.S. Voter Fraud Uncovers No Evidence That Photo ID Is Needed
Content: You have to be able to show that people knew what they were doing and they knew it was wrong and they did it anyway,” she said. “ It may be in the end they (prosecutors) can’t really show that the people who have cast technically illegal ballots did it on purpose.” Felons or noncitizens sometimes register to vote or cast votes because they are confused about their eligibility. The database shows 74 cases of felons voting and 56 cases of noncitizens voting. Voters make a lot of mistakes, from accidentally voting twice to voting in the wrong precinct. Election officials make a lot of mistakes, from clerical errors — giving voters ballots when they’ve already voted — to election workers confused about voters’ eligibility requirements. “I don’t think there is a mature democracy that has as bad of an elections system as we do,” said Richard Hasen, a professor of political science and election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. “ We have thousands of electoral jurisdictions, we have non-professionals running our elections, we have partisans running our elections, we have lack of uniformity.” Voter-impersonation fraud has attracted intense attention in recent years as conservatives and Republicans argue that strict voter ID laws are needed to prevent widespread fraud. The case has been made repeatedly by the Republican National Lawyers Association, one of whose missions is to advance “open, fair and honest elections.”