01 Feb 2012 Illegal ‘Ghost Voting’ is Worse Than a Poll Tax or Literacy Tests, Legal Expert Says, Yet Eric Holder Opposes Efforts to Stop Illegal Voting Schemes

Attorney General is Wrong to Call Voter ID Unconstitutional, Says Horace Cooper of the National Center for Public Policy Research

Washington, D.C. – Responding to a tsunami of evidence that opportunities for fraudulent voting have reached crisis levels, National Center for Public Policy Research Adjunct Fellow Horace Cooper is criticizing Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. Department of Justice for opposing efforts to crack down on illegal voting schemes.

Cooper, a legal commentator, is the author of the just-released “When the Dead Vote, the Living Suffer; Department of Justice is Wrong to Oppose Voter ID,” published by the National Center.

“Illegal ghost voting is worse than a poll tax or literacy tests or even campaigns of physical intimidation – these naked assaults on voting can be seen by all Americans,” said Cooper. “Ghost voting is more sinister precisely because it is hidden and operates under the radar – operating with the same purpose, subverting the will of the electorate. ”

“Yet,” Cooper adds, “According to Attorney General Eric Holder, requiring all voters, regardless of race, gender, or age, to show the same kind of ID they would need to rent a car, fill out a job application, or pick up any number of commonly prescribed medications, would violate the Constitution.”

Referring to a new video by Project Veritas showing how easy it is to commit voter fraud, Cooper said, “The latest evidence is in – in living color and it shows undercover reporters with their hidden cameras rolling, strolling into New Hampshire polling locations and asking to vote in the Granite State’s presidential primary. Using the names of recently deceased voters, a technique many critics have long known to be possible, they were allowed unfettered access to the polling booth.”

“This problem isn’t isolated,” Cooper adds. “Just this week, in West Virginia, the County Sheriff and the County Clerk admitted that they tried to ‘fix the outcome of local races by illegally manipulating absentee ballots.’ Time and time again the evidence of illegal ghost voting is brought to the public attention and yet Attorney General Holder and the Justice Department continually oppose efforts by states to adopt the simplest illegal voting solution – ID requirements to cast a vote.”

Cooper continues: “In our system of self-government, voting is a fundamental right. And that right is profoundly diminished when the political voice of a voter – Republican or Democrat – is effectively and so easily silenced by a fraudster equipped with a phone book and the obituaries section of a local newspaper. Every time a fraudulent vote is cast, a real vote, the political expression of a real voice goes unheard, unacknowledged, uncounted.”

“Illegal ghost voting is worse than a poll tax or literacy tests or even campaigns of physical intimidation – these naked assaults on voting can be seen by all Americans, says Cooper. “Ghost voting is more sinister precisely because it is hidden and operates under the radar. Instead of using his position as chief law enforcer to oppose efforts to expand Voter ID requirements, Attorney General Holder should stand up for the rights of Americans who’s voice is silenced by ghost voting.”

Cooper’s new paper, “When the Dead Vote, the Living Suffer; Department of Justice is Wrong to Oppose Voter ID,” is available online at https://nationalcenter.org/NPA631.html.

Horace Cooper is an adjunct fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, a member of the African-American leadership group Project 21 and a legal commentator. He taught constitutional law at George Mason University in Virginia and was general counsel to U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

The National Center For Public Policy Research (https://nationalcenter.org) is a conservative, free-market, non-profit think-tank established in 1982. It is supported by the voluntary gifts of over 100,000 individual recent supporters, receiving about one percent of its revenue from corporate sources. Contributions to it are tax-deductible.

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