Pennsylvania House Majority Leader: Voter ID Laws to Help Romney Let us start with the obvious point: As states design and implement voter identification reform according to Republican desires, the process is usually justified under some variation of the rubric of preventing widespread vote fraud. Let us set aside, for a moment, that widespread vote fraud is a myth. The Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania met last weekend, and House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) explained what is really going on in the Keystone State. Kelly Cernetich of PoliticsPA reports: House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) suggested that the House's end game in passing the Voter ID law was to benefit the GOP politically. "We are focused on making sure that we meet our obligations that we've talked about for years," said Turzai in a speech to committee members Saturday. He mentioned the law among a laundry list of accomplishments made by the GOP-run legislature. "Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it's done. First pro-life legislation – abortion facility regulations – in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done." Democrats, naturally, jumped all over Turzai's words. "This is making clear to everyone what Voter ID was all about," said Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Montco). "This is about one thing: disenfranchising Democratic voters and rigging elections for Republicans. When they get behind closed doors, they admit it. And that's exactly what Turzai did." The Majority Leader's office tried to walk back the statement, but even that was a questionable tack. "Rep. Turzai was speaking at a partisan, political event. He was simply referencing, for the first time in a long while," explained spokesman Stephen Miskin. "He was simply referencing, for the first time in a long while, the Republican Presidential candidate will be on a more even keel thanks to Voter ID." It's a strange explanation that seems to amount to, We're not trying to throw the election, but merely tilt the field to help one party. Miskin also invoked a case of voter registration fraud, asking, "Do you remember Joe Cheeseboro?" As one blogger reminds: Many knew that was the case and that the GOP legislators were lying when they said it was only about "voter fraud", a supposed "real problem" and so very "widespread" that they cannot demonstrate to be so at all (citing hmmm, one instance "Joe Cheeseboro" in the city of Philly). Not Rep. Turzai's spokesman Stephen Miskin, not Attorney General and now Governor Tom Corbett. Honestly, guys, if it's so pernicious a problem, your offices should be overflowing with instances that you should be constantly be handing out, not getting constantly caught with your figurative pants down. But we can pause here for a moment. As one of our neighbors recently explained: "In general, when one encounters political positions that make no sense to one, yet nevertheless command widespread support from large segments of the electorate, it's best to approach the situation with a certain humility and attempt to figure out just what the hell is going on. Typically, you'll discover that there exists some alternative perspective from which these positions appear coherent and principled, and which you will need to account for and address if you are to have any hope of formulating any kind of effective political rhetoric in response." And, indeed, if we apply that alternate reality also known as the conservative outlook—or, "The Bubble", "The Echo Chamber", &c.—one can simply see that Rep. Turzai simply isn't good with words. The key sentence: Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done. The apparent underlying philosophy is that Obama's victory in 2008 could only have been fraudulent. Which means some 620,478 people, at least, fraudulently voted for Barack Obama. And this is what Turzai might be trying to say: Voter Identification, which (is going to get rid of several hundred thousand fraudulent votes) is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania (because Barack Obama and the Democrats cannot win without these fraudulent votes). Certes, one might point out that if there were several hundred thousand fraudulent votes cast in Pennsylvania's 2008 general election, we would have heard about it by now. As it is, though, instead of the approximately 10.35% fraud rate derived from the Pennsylvania results, spokesman Miskin has cited an incident suggesting vote fraud at a rate just over .00000003%. But that doesn't matter to the conservative outlook. We've known for a while that the whole voter fraud cry from the right wing is excrement. As I noted three years ago, "I'm sorry, but two ten-thousandths of a percent is not a number I'm going to lose sleep over. Nor is nine one-millionths of a percent." In the conservative Bubble, though, these minute percentages are irrelevant. There is a vast voter fraud conspiracy of some sort that nobody can find but is definitely the reason why the other side might win an election. And once we recognize that this is how Republicans and conservatives see the world, Turzai's comment does not stand out so much as an acknowledgment that his party is trying to use the law to rig the election, but, rather, a very poorly worded expression of a conservative delusion. The number one rule of politics is to never come right out and say it. Turzai's statement breaks that rule, and we now see the problem that such forthrightness invokes. Either Turzai and his fellow Republican legislators are delusional, or they're trying to throw the election. We probably should skip wondering what Turzai might have to say about his Republican colleagues in Indiana, such as former Secretary of State Charlie White, who was convicted of multiple felonies including voter fraud, and Governor Mitch Daniels, who waited to fire the state's top election official in hopes that the convictions would be reduced to misdemeanors, because, you know, if it's only a misdemeanor, then the elections chief convicted of vote fraud can keep his job. ____________________ Notes: Cernetich, Kelly. "Turzai: Voter ID Law Means Romney Can Win PA". PoliticsPA. June 25, 2012. PoliticsPA.com. June 26, 2012. http://www.politicspa.com/turzai-voter-id-law-means-romney-can-win-pa/37153/ Club Schadenfreude. "Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – Pennsylvania legislators tell the truth .... inadvertently". June 26, 2012. ClubSchadenfreude.WordPress.com. June 26, 2012. http://clubschadenfreude.wordpress....nia-legislators-tell-the-truth-inadvertently/
Just at face value, it appears that he's saying Democrats employ voter fraud to win elections. But given that there is no evidence for widespread voter fraud, and GOP tactics above and beyond (or, below and beyond) the voter ID thing, he can't really believe that what they're doing is leveling the playing field. Whether his comment was a slip of the tongue, or just poorly-worded, he must know that the voter ID initiative is a nefarious plot to cheat Americans out of votes.
I think it is pretty clear, especially when you look at the laws, that they are intended to suppress voting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression
Actual Voter Fraud An Actual (Gasp!) Case of Voter Fraud The GOP hunt for voter fraud to justify their state-by-state voter ID campaign occasionally turns up a hit. Such as earlier this year when Indiana's former Secretary of State Charlie White—you know, the guy in charge of the state's elections?—was convicted of multiple felonies including voter fraud. Gov. Mitch Daniels took what seemed to him a reasonable route in response; he kept White at his post in hopes that the courts would knock the charges down to misdemeanors. Because, well, voter fraud isn't so bad, coming from a Secretary of State, if it's just a misdemeanor. But worry not! Such embarrassing lone-wolf scandals aren't the only thing going on. Word has emerged of another voter fraud case, and this one from Arizona: A Pinal County supervisor candidate has withdrawn from the race in the wake of voter-fraud allegations involving a former companion who, records show, has continued to vote by absentee ballot in the five years since her death. John Enright, 66, had been seeking the Republican nomination for county supervisor of District 5, an area that includes Apache Junction and Gold Canyon. He withdrew from the race Wednesday in a letter to Pinal County Elections Director Steve Kizer. In a written statement issued hours later through his attorney, Enright said he entered the race "wanting to bring a voice to Pinal County government" but was leaving it "for several reasons, including an almost year-long battle with cancer" .... .... Enright expressed surprise at the voter-fraud allegations, but he didn't deny them. "I do not know who is responsible for this, and at this time, it is difficult to respond to what are now assumptions, assertions and innuendos," Enright said. "But what I can say is I look forward to learning more about these allegations. If they are indeed formal allegations, I will defend myself. I very much look forward to clearing my name. "At this point, I simply ask voters in Pinal County to focus on the issues and take a critical eye towards allegations that are surfacing just ... weeks before the election voting process begins." Pinal County Recorder Laura Dean-Lytle said her staff took the allegations seriously and turned over evidence to the Pinal County Attorney's Office. A spokesman there said he could "neither confirm nor deny an investigation into such a case." "This, in my opinion, is an absolute act of fraudulent voting," Dean-Lytle said. Voter fraud is a Class 6 felony. Steve Benen commented, "It's also worth noting that voter-ID laws—the preferred Republican method of cracking down on fraud—wouldn't have prevented the kind of scheme Enright allegedly used in Arizona." In fairness, the fact that the deceased woman has cast ballots since her passing does not convict Mr. Enright or his current wife of any wrongdoing. It is certainly within reason that the apparent voter fraud has nothing to do with them. And even as such, it is not unreasonable that the scandal is not strictly coincidental to Enright's resignation. If I was trying to win an election campaign while trying to survive cancer, well, maybe I'm projecting too much, but I can see news of something like this clinching the decision: This job is officially too much to handle; I need to stop this and live. But neither does this help the coincidence of Republican proximity to actual voter fraud in a year that they are pushing voter-ID laws under a pretense of preventing fraud. That the voter-ID laws proposed would not have prevented this case does not help, either. ____________________ Notes: Collom, Lindsey. "Pinal County supervisor hopeful John Enright quits". The Arizona Republic. July 26, 2012. AZCentral.com. August 1, 2012. http://www.azcentral.com/community/...25pinal-supervisor-hopeful-enright-quits.html Benen, Steve. "Actual GOP voter fraud in Arizona". The Maddow Blog. August 1, 2012. MaddowBlog.MSNBC.com. August 1, 2012. http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/01/13068791-actual-gop-voter-fraud-in-arizona
