Voting Fraud Exists – It Just Does

Crimes are being committed in the United States every time there is an election. In states across America there are plenty of illegally registered voters on the rolls and a good portion of them are casting ballots. Some are not citizens of the United States. Others flaunt the law and vote in more than one state or vote after posing as a registered voter who is dead.

These are facts. This is voter fraud, folks. So don’t let those who pooh-pooh the existence of voter deception tell you otherwise.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation, a group that proclaims it is “dedicated to election integrity,”, reports that Virginia quietly struck 5,556 non-citizens from its voting rolls between 2011 and last May.* Why were those people registred, I wonder? And how did 1,852 of them proceed to cast a total of 7,474 illegal ballots during various elections?

And get this, Terry McAuliffe, the democratic governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, refused to sign a bill earlier this year that would have investigated areas where voter rolls had more registered voters than eligible citizens. Why would a public official hesitate to take steps to uncover potential voter fraud?

Maybe there’s something to the idea that most non-citizen voters are minorities and minorities most often vote for democrats. Maybe that’s why it is mostly democrats who sneer at the idea that there is a problem and something should be done to determine exactly how widespread it is. Instead, like one-time presidential candidate and self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders, they deny the facts and conjure up conspiracy theories.

“At a time when we already have one of the lowest voter turnouts of any major country Republicans are working overtime trying to make it harder for poor people, people of color, older people and young people to vote,” Sanders said.

Please, can someone tell me how cleaning up the voter registration rolls will stop any legally eligible voter from voting for the candidate of their choice. That’s like saying if authorities investigate possible bank fraud charges it will keep people from being able to make transactions at the bank. That makes zero sense to me.

And realize, Virginia is not the only place in which voter deception has been uncovered.

North Carolina’s voter rolls were so out of whack a few years ago that the Board of Elections found 35,750 in residents were registered to vote both there and in another state – and had voted in both places in the 2012 general election! In addition, officials had to admit that more than 13,000 dead people were registered to vote, the names of at least 81 of them were recently used to cast illegal ballots.

Yet some still insist there is no meaningful voter fraud in America. I would argue that any illegally cast ballots should raise major red flags and spark automatic investigations and prosecutions.

In Southern California last spring, investigative reporter David Goldstein of KCBS was able to do what election officials were apparently unable or unwilling to do. He identified at least 265 dead voters in his area of the Golden State, many of whom had cast ballots “year after year.” For the record, most had been registered as democrats, 86 of them were Republicans.

In Ohio earlier this year, at least 821 non-citizens were discovered illegally registered to vote and more than 100 of them had recently cast tainted ballots. Ohio’s Secretary of State, Jon Husted, points out that, “When you consider that in Ohio we have had 112 elections decided by one vote or tied in the last three years, every case of illegal voting must be taken seriously.”

Given that America now has 200 million registered voters are the cases cited here a drop in the bucket? Yes. But we really have no idea how many of those 200 million people should not be on the rolls. We don’t know how widespread the problem is because no one has ever really looked into it.

In May, President Trump appointed a bi-partisan commission to study the issue of election integrity but it is already being attacked as unnecessary and, as the League of Women Voters President put it, will likely “undermine our elections by spreading falsehoods.” The commission’s work is condemned before it even starts.

One side says voter fraud is non-existent yet there is proof it exists. When confronted with the facts they switch tracks and proclaim the problem really isn’t that bad. They maintain their political foes are up to no good and their real goal is voter suppression. I suppose they also worry that the sun may not come up tomorrow.

It all comes down to one common sense question:  How many illegal votes are okay with you? I say the answer should be — none. Or as close to none as we can possibly get.

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30 Comments

  1. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 9:39 am

    ABQ Journal Reader Doug Antoon writes:

    O! Diane–will you please stop using facts and making so much sense. You’re muddying the script. And it’s just plain irksome.

  2. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 9:41 am

    ABQ Journal Reader Jerome Shea writes:

    “Public Interest Legal Foundation”? Oh, my, there’s a impeccable and unbiased source, eh? This whole flap started because of one man’s overweening narcissism: Clinton’s popular vote victory HAD to have been due to massive voter fraud.

    Spare us, Ms. Dimond.

    Jerome Shea
    Albuquerque=

    • Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 9:42 am

      Mr Shea:

      Sorry that THAT is what you took away from the column. The issue of the last presidential election wasn’t even mentioned.

      • Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 9:42 am

        Mr. Shea responds:

        Ah but it was hovering like Banquo’s ghost. Anyway, thank you for the quick reply; I do learn some useful stuff from your columns (no snark).

  3. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 9:44 am

    Reader Reggie Roberson writes:

    Nice Article Printed In Albuquerque Journal this morning. We need more big picture thoughts like this rather than politics. With articles like this we can actually educate America.

  4. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 12:08 pm

    Reader Whitney Buchanan writes:

    Diane,

    Are you as innumerate as our idiot President? The population of Virginia is over 8,400,000. And you’re taking up 1/3 of a page of newsprint sounding the furious, righteous alarm that 1,852 of them were unlawfully registered over the last 5 years and shaming Democrats for not being equally agitated over this ’emergency’?

    Here’s the math: 1852 divided by 8400000 is 0.00022. Does that account for the 3 million more votes that Mrs. Clinton received? Not even 3% of that 3 million vote surplus, if extrapolated to the U.S. population as a whole.

    And by the way, did you notice that the nation is in an actual crisis over the moral bankruptcy of our fascist, racist, isolationist President? Maybe that would be a more urgent, cogent topic to write about. Or maybe you think everything is fine because your head is also buried in the sand.

    Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

  5. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 12:09 pm

    ABQ Journal Reader Larry Sullivan writes:

    Ms. Dimond:

    Interesting column today in the Albuquerque Journal. I always enjoy the tortured logic of Republicans. I hadn’t seen drivel like yours since I was in the Florida Keys. Governor Jeb Bush had 700,000 black voters purged from the voter roles in 1999 and 2000. Well, the rumor was that his mistress, Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State did the heavy lifting. I worked for the Monroe (Everglades and Florida Keys) County Election Commission during 2000 and most of the wealthy snowbirds in the Keys are registered in multiple states but you’re not interested in curbing their votes since they vote Republican. Not a single Spanish surname was removed by Gov. Bush.
    That’s an amazing piece of racism since virtually all career criminals in Cuba have transferred to Miami. Virtually everyone black in Florida named Johnson was removed as a voter. Love them voter IDs!

    Larry Sullivan, past President
    Big Pine Key Civic Association

  6. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:25 pm

    Facebook Friend Bill Voinovich writes:

    We FIX IT when we get a group of HONEST POLITICIANS in office….Not BEFORE…..
    As long as they can work the system to THEIR ADVANTAGE, they’ll fix NOTHING….

  7. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:25 pm

    Facebook Friend Pat Kelley Wittorf replies:

    “Honest politician”? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

  8. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:26 pm

    Facebook Friend Lynda Walker writes:

    Stop the Gerrymandering!

  9. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:27 pm

    Facebook Friend Amber Briscoe writes:

    With the political climate in this country, don’t you think The Resistance would be screaming about voter fraud right now if we believed it was a legitimate issue? J Christian Adams (Public Interest Legal Foundation) espouses white Nationalist ideas and is pushing a pro-white agenda. Have you seen this source? https://www.brennancenter.org/…/debunking-voter-fraud-myth

    • Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:27 pm

      Diane Dimond replies:

      Yes. I’ve seen it. The point is: We don’t really know how badly the rolls are out of whack because no one has taken a deep dive look. We just keep playing politics with it. How many illegally cast votes are okay? I say, none.

      • Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:27 pm

        Amber Briscoe replies:

        And if you talk to someone on the left, they would say the problem is voter suppression. My mom witnessed it first hand in Phoenix where there is now a DOJ investigation into just WTH is going on there. So let’s say both sides agree there is a problem we just see it as opposite. I’d love to see a bipartisan dive but with such divergent POVs, I just don’t know how that would work.

  10. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:28 pm

    Facebook Friend Madeline Michele Hovey writes:

    Fix it but yes this is about the last rigged election that’s why Mueller investigating it ..

  11. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:28 pm

    Facebook Friend Stephen Moscatello replies:

    Tell us what was rigged about it ? Oh you mean that Sanders was gyped by the DNC and HC or that HC was given debate questions and the AG gave her a pass , yes I guess your right it was rigged

  12. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:28 pm

    Facebook Friend Joya Colucci Lord writes:

    People who, like myself, have served in the military frequently end up changing their state of residence (difference from their home of record) for tax purposes and, therefore, end up registering to vote in their new state. For example, I joined the Army in Massachusetts, but ended up changing my RESIDENCE to Texas, because they have no state income tax. And then I changed to South Dakota, for the same reason, and because my late husband was from there. And for a short time, I changed it to Arizona. (All states with no income tax.)

    I would challenge anyone who has moved frequently to start checking the voter rolls in the states where they have lived previously to see if their name is still there. I did. It was quite interesting.

    • Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:29 pm

      Diane Dimond replies:

      Very interested to hear what you found, Joya. Were you still on the voter rolls in all those states?

  13. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:29 pm

    Facebook Friend Elizabeth Blackburn writes:

    Voter suppression exists. Not voter fraud.

    • Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:30 pm

      Diane Dimond replies:

      Guess you didn’t read the column, Elizabeth. People voting twice – in two different states, people using the names of dead people to vote — these are documented cases of voter FRAUD. Let’s clean up the rolls, folks. Voting is supposed to be one of the most cherished things we do in America …

  14. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:30 pm

    Facebook Friend Sandi Chaykin Teller writes:

    I see it a bit differently , with the amount of voters in this country there is going to fraud plain and simple unless a computerized system is put in place where you can vote on line from home with multiple proof of personal identity that simultaneously gets crossed checked with state registered information including , birth, death , citizenship, graduation from high school , home owner , social security , a variety of information

    • Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:30 pm

      Joya Colucci Lord replies:

      Or unless you require two forms of identification at the polling place.

  15. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:31 pm

    Diane replies:

    But, Sandi Chaykin Teller, by requiring on-line voting won’t there be those who will still complain about voter suppression of citizens who don’t have enough money for a computer, internet connectivity, etc?

    Some are already complaining that the idea to require everyone show a photo id at the polling place is a form of voter suppression. They say the poor don’t have driver’s licences or the $5 or $10 fee required to get a state issued photo id.

  16. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 1:45 pm

    Twitter Pal Estella Vidal@estellaines writes:

    ID like in many other countries

  17. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 2:17 pm

    Noozhawk Reader Rambler writes:

    What a load of junk. The reason voter rolls are almost always larger than the population of eligible voters, is that people move away or die and don’t get removed. Doesn’t mean they vote in two or more places.
    A more interesting statistic is that the number of eligible voters is always much larger than the number of people who vote.

  18. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 2:19 pm

    Noozhawk Reader Diane Dimond replies to Rambler:

    So the officials who are reporting that people have voted in two states are lying? And when citizens use the names of dead people to vote THAT’s okay with you?
    Not me.

  19. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 2:20 pm

    Noozhawk Reader LoneRanger writes:

    For certain we have voter fraud in Santa Barbara county. I would start with investigating voting in IV.

  20. Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 2:20 pm

    Noozhawk Reader GeeWillikersWally writes:

    “Fake news”

    • Diane Dimond on August 21, 2017 at 2:21 pm

      Noozhawk Reader bouchard replies to GeeWillikersWally:

      “Fake news?” No voter fraud exist? I got some land in florida to sell ya…

  21. Diane Dimond on August 24, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    Reader Frank Andazola writes:

    Dear Diane: So we have deceased people registered to vote? Perhaps the dead can choose better candidates than the than the unholy two that we had running for president last year.
    Sincerely yours,
    Franklin

  22. Diane Dimond on August 24, 2017 at 1:23 pm

    Noozhawk Reader Geoff- God of Biscuits writes:

    “…Santa Barbara County Grand Jury says there is clearly no proof of fraudulent voting in the county. But, in a new four-page report, it also says the process relies on the honor system to determine someone’s eligibility to participate.
    You have to be a citizen to vote, but the report notes that you don’t have to be a citizen to get a driver’s license, or social security card needed to register to vote. The application process requires people to declare they are a citizen
    and meet voting requirements, but there is no formal citizenship verification
    process.” (California Grand Jury News June 8, 2017). So honor system = no voter fraud? By that standard, the report should also say that there is also clearly no proof that voting fraud doesn’t occur in the county.

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