Why Voter Registration Fraud Matters

Conn Carroll / October 23, 2008

Buried deep in this Slate article Jack Shafer finally gets around to explaining why ACORN’s indisputably proven record of voter registration fraud matters:

As [University of Kentucky professor Tracy Campbell] notes in his book, compromising an election’s integrity in any way qualifies as fraud, whether it changes the outcome or not. So when John McCain shouts fraud in response to the sham voter-registration forms submitted by ACORN for “Mickey Mouse,” “Donald Duck,” and the Dallas Cowboys starting lineup, he’s right. Just because these registrations might have been purged before a vote could be cast with them doesn’t invalidate his charge. Fraud is fraud.

The more aggressive the Democratic registration effort, the more likely that “quality control” will suffer and fraud will result, and every relaxation of voter-registration rules increases the likelihood of “mischief.” For example, while the passage of the “motor-voter” bill in 1993 enfranchised many of the disenfranchised, it also made it easier to commit voter fraud. (See this think-tank critique, which declares the whole motor-voter process highly corrupt.)