Voter registration roles are being pruned in many states. Make sure your are registered to vote. Check voter registration status at the National Association of Secretaries of State.
Here’s the story that inspired this PSA.
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It isn’t just a matter of being on the voter roles, but having the documents to prove you are a citizen. In the case of the some 6300 people the Gov of Virginia is bragging about booting off the voter roles, were they really non-citizens, or did they simply lack the proof they are citizens?
Steve
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From the Executive Order:
Virginia is one of only three states in the nation that require those registering to vote to provide their full 9-digit social security number for registration. Over 90% of voters in Virginia submit electronic registration applications online through the Department of Elections (ELECT) which requires a valid Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) credential, or submit registration applications when conducting transactions with DMV.
DMV requires applicants to submit proof of identity and legal presence for those that do not yet hold a valid Virginia credential. When issuing a credential such as a driver’s license, DMV verifies applicants’ proof of identity and legal status with the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database and the Social Security Administration database.
All data collected by the DMV that identifies non-citizens is shared with ELECT which uses it to scrub existing voter rolls and remove non-citizens who may have purposefully or accidentally registered to vote.
DB2
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Are those DMV credentials free of charge? Poll taxes are illegal in the US.
Is that “proof of identity” free of charge? I had to pay for a certified birth certificate to obtain a “real ID” driver’s license. Poll taxes are illegal in the US.
What about the other 10%? Are they unable to vote, even though they may be native born USians?
Steve
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The Executive Order sounds nice. But it really doesn’t address where the 6,300 non-citizen registered/voters came from.
Were they all from the >90% of people that had a driver’s license? If so, how come they were registered in the first place?
Or did they come from the <10% of people that didn’t have a driver’s license?
And for those that came from the <10% of people without a driver’s license, what was the criteria for determining they were non-citizens?
And lastly, the biggest red flag for me, how many non-citizens who illegally registered to vote were prosecuted for registering/voting? I haven’t heard of any and I’m assuming if there were any, it would be well publicized. Plus, VA could pick up a cool million from the Texas DA.
I would find this more believable if the criteria for determining non-citizen people was more clear. Until then, count me as a skeptic.
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That is not necessarily a bad thing. Voter registration needs to audited on a regular basis to make sure names are removed whether because of death, new residence, or whatever. Government requires audits of so many things, why not voter registration?
My former hometown actually had a “redo” for sheriff because AT LEAST eleven people cast votes (some of them dead) that shouldn’t have. Highly surprised by the judges ruling but considering the original election was won by one vote, hard to argue against the reasoning.
Of we could just go the way of China (here is a list of approved candidates) or Venezuela (here is the results approved by the military).
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It is ABSOLUTELY critical for elections to be conducted in a manner that is transparently fair and secure. The legitimacy of our democracy depends on it. If that means paper ballots counted by hand in front of representatives of all parties, then so be it. Machines counts are far more accurate, much faster, but depend on trust in the mechanisms, and that seems to have been lost.
USAian ID via SS and drivers licenses became stupidly and dangerously obsolete decades ago, and the battles over that are now part of a dangerous and absurd racket run by one of the parties more than the other as to vote cheating.
d fb
(has assisted at polling stations multiple times)
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Here’s the follow up report. The winner wins again by a larger margin.
https://www.ktalnews.com/news/election/your-local-election-hq/2024-caddo-parish-sheriff-election-caddo-parish-election-results/
How did the ‘dead’ people vote? If someone voted in their stead were they prosecuted? I don’t generally worry about actual dead people on the voter rolls; they can’t vote. People who vote in their stead should be prosecuted.
JimA
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You don’t have to provide ID, so how could they possibly know who voted in their stead???
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I don’t know about your state, but, in Michigan, if you don’t have ID, you fill out a provisional ballot, and you have some number of days in which to show up at the clerk’s office with proof of identity.
This page lists the various sorts of documents needed to apply for a Michigan ID or driver’s license. Even the ID card is not free: $10 fee. If you want it to be a “real ID”, add the cost of a certified birth certificate, if you don’t already have one.
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What state do you live in? I have to show my id when I vote. I take both my driver’s license and my passport when I vote in case I am challenged.
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I have voted in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine, Illinois, and Tennessee. In every state I have had to show picture ID in order to vote. What state doesn’t require that?
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Maybe they do it differently in Louisiana, but around here, there voter registration rolls regularly undergo robust audits. The 2004 Washington gubernatorial race was extremely close and went through three recounts, with the Republican ultimately losing by a mere 133 votes out of nearly 3 million cast. The Republicans sued, claiming widespread voter fraud.
In open court however, the Republicans presented no evidence of fraudulent votes. Democrats were able to find evidence of four fraudulent votes for the Republican candidate
Based on the evidence, the judge ruled the election results should stand.
My point is that in an extremely tightly tight, high-stakes election where both sides are going over the voter roles with magnifying glass, only four fraudulent votes were counted out of 2.8 million cast.
That says to me, at least around here, voter rolls are pretty accurate and do a good job of screening out improper votes.
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Mail in balloting. By someone else obviously.
Agreed.
The mistake occurred in part because Oregon has allowed non-citizens to obtain driver’s licenses since 2019, and the DMV automatically registers most people to vote when they obtain a license or ID, Glenn said.
DB2
We should be very skeptical of Youngkin’s claims. In 2023, he had to admit that he had 3400 qualified and eligible voters mistakenly removed in another highly publicized purge of the voter rolls. And this from a governor who insisted on removing Virginia from a very successful ERIC system where states share voter info to keep their rolls accurate.
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And in Texas last month…
“Of the over 6,500 potential noncitizens removed from the voter rolls, approximately 1,930 have a voter history. The Secretary of State’s office is in the process of sending all 1,930 records to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation and potential legal action.”
DB2
And in Ohio…
“I’m duty-bound to make sure people who haven’t yet earned citizenship in this country do not vote in our elections,” said Secretary LaRose. “We’ve so far identified 597 individuals who’ve registered to vote in Ohio despite not being citizens of the United States, as our state constitution requires. The evidence includes 138 individuals who appear to have cast a ballot in an Ohio election during the time state and federal records show they lacked citizenship status. The law requires me to refer these individuals to the attorney general, and that’s what we’re doing today.”
https://www.ohiosos.gov/media-center/press-releases/2024/2024-08-21/
DB2
“Potential” as in not proven.
The larger problem is if, I said “if”, a state issues voter registration off of driver’s licenses, without any backup that the people they issue licenses to are citizens, there is potential for error.
What the state does about it is another matter. What stinky states can do is purge people who have been voting for years, without telling them. So they show up at the polls and are refused, and need to provide their papers, on a moment’s notice.
Steve
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