11 Apr 2012 If Eric Holder Isn’t Convinced About Voter Identity Theft Yet, He Obviously Must Not Care

Can it be made any more clear to Attorney General Eric Holder that voter identity fraud is a real and present danger?

During the recent Washington, D.C. primary election, an investigator from the James O’Keefe’s Veritas Project walked into Attorney General’s polling place and asked for Holder’s ballot.  Providing just the name and address, the election judge was prepared to hand it over — even after the investigator professed a desire to go back to his car for his ID.

That’s where the ruse stopped.  The investigator did not steal Holder’s vote.  But it’s obvious that he could have.

Even after this stark and chilling example, Holder is apparently undeterred in his challenge to state-level voter ID laws that would require people to show valid proof of identity at the polls.

Holder, as shown in the Veritas Project video, insists there is no systemic proof of widespread Election Day identity theft.  Without the means of checking at the time, it’s no wonder.  But there does seem to be a systemic problem of voter registration fraud (see here, here and here for starters), and a recent Pew Center on the States study found there are 1.8 million dead people on the voting rolls.

That’s plenty for identity thieves to work with.  And if there is nothing in place to stop it on Election Day, what’s to say that damage wasn’t done?

Systemic abuse wouldn’t have been needed to overcome the 312-vote margin that Al Franken was certified over Norm Coleman in their 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate face-off (and there are plenty of concerns about fraud in that race).  Or in a 2007 Virginia state senate race in which now Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli beat Janet Oleszek by just 92 votes.  A little can mean a lot.

Project 21 spokeswoman Cherylyn Harley LeBon, a former senior counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, is appalled at Holder’s willingness to continue to turn a blind eye to this obviously dire situation.  She said:

Eric Holder and his supporters say there is no proof that identity fraud in the voting process is widespread, but James O’Keefe’s investigative videos show how easy it is for someone to assume the identity of another person and steal their vote.  How much more proof does Holder need after his own ballot was almost compromised?  Even the weakest of voter ID protections would ensure these ballots remain secure and the elections cannot be improperly influenced.

The fact that this same drill was repeated in different primary elections around the nation with similar success shows that the ability to steal someone’s identity in polling places without voter ID protections is very real and very simple to do.

All this dispels Holder’s blind faith assertion that vote fraud is not a clear and present danger to our electoral process.

Adding insult to the whole process is that the U.S. Department of Justice — the physical headquarters for the lawyers challenging voter ID laws — has its own strictly-enforced ID policy to verify that visitors are who they claim to be.  In fact, as an investigative video from PJTV found, similarly strict ID policies are also enforced at the privately-owned buildings of many of the most vocal opponents of voter ID laws.

Cherylyn added about this hypocrisy:

If IDs are considered critical to getting on planes, cashing checks and getting into both private buildings and the U.S. Department of Justice where Eric Holder hangs his hat, then it should naturally be expected to be required at the polls.  Identity theft is a crime no matter what the case.  It’s not something you pick and choose to make political hay.