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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGreg Abbott’s bogus voter fraud crusade
Since taking office in 2001, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has called voter fraud an epidemic, and made cracking down on it a top priority. Now, as he runs for governor, hes touting his ongoing battle to implement the states strict voter ID law, arguing that the measure is crucial to combat fraud.
But over the 13 years of Abbotts tenure, his office can only cite two fraudulent votes that might have been stopped by the ID law.
To put that another way, such votes accounted for one out of every 18.7 million votes cast in Texas during that periodand thats counting only the general elections for statewide races. Meanwhile, 796,000 Texans, by the states own numbers, lack an ID.
The glaring difference between rhetoric and reality in Abbotts treatment of the issue underscores the comically weak case for voter ID measures, and highlights the lengths that their backers have gone tostill without successto find evidence of large-scale fraud. It also raises questions about Abbotts basic intellectual honesty as he works to persuade Texas voters to make him one of the most important Republican office-holders in the country.
The struggle over access to voting is already playing a major role in the governors race, where Abbott, a Republican, is favored over state Sen. Wendy Davis, a Democrat, this fall. On the campaign trail, Abbotts pledge to fight to the death over voter ID is among his top applause lines. Democrats fret that, if left to stand, the law could make it far harder for low-income and minority Texans to cast ballots. Meanwhile, a group of national Democratic operatives supporting Davis is working to register large numbers of new voterswhile Republicans and their allies put obstacles in their path.
More here: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/greg-abbott-bogus-voter-fraud-crusade
Gothmog
(145,243 posts)The Fort Bend District attorney and Greg was sent an example of voter fraud but they chose to ignore it because this fraud involved a republican voting twice http://www.juanitajean.com/2012/10/10/true-the-vote-can-kiss-my-big-blue-butt/
alp227
(32,025 posts)Rare enough that even the proponents of "VOTER ID" have to admit so.