Sunday, November 4, 2012

"Just Like Every Other Voter In Nevada, They Will Not Be Asked To Prove Citizenship."

From the LVRJ: Voter registration fraud is not a groundless conspiracy. It is not a hypothetical threat to election integrity.
In Nevada, a battleground state that could decide the presidency and control of the U.S. Senate, it is real.
Last week, I met with two immigrant noncitizens who are not eligible to vote, but who nonetheless are active registered voters for Tuesday's election. They said they were signed up by Culinary Local 226.
They speak and understand enough English to get by. But they don't read English especially well. They say the Culinary official who registered them to vote didn't tell them what they were signing and didn't ask whether they were citizens. The immigrants said they trusted that the union official's request was routine, thought nothing of it and went about their work.
Then the election drew closer. Then the Culinary canvassers started seeking them out and ordering them to go vote.
One of the immigrants was visited at home by a Culinary representative and said the operative made threats of deportation if no ballot was cast.
They didn't understand how, as noncitizens, they could be registered to vote if it's illegal for them to vote in a U.S. election. They didn't understand that, upon being signed up, not only is their registration public record, but the record of whether they've voted is public as well.
After a few days of early voting, the union knew the immigrants still hadn't voted. So union canvassers kept visiting.
One day, when a Culinary representative was told the immigrant wasn't a citizen and wouldn't vote, things got testy. The immigrant was "in so much trouble," the Culinary operative said, according to Brenda Moraine, a local immigrant advocate who was there....
I verified their identities, their lack of citizenship and their status as active registered voters in Clark County.
One of the immigrants validated my worst fears about Nevada's weak voter registration standards and voting safeguards.
"There are others," the immigrant said.
Other noncitizen Culinary workers are registered to vote?
"Yes."
The question, now that early voting is over and Election Day is just two days away, is how many of these ineligible voters have done the Culinary's bidding and submitted ballots, whether out of ignorance or fear, and how many have the knowledge and courage to follow the law and stay away from the polls.
In Nevada you never have to prove you're a citizen to register to vote or cast a ballot. Forget about showing government-issued photo identification at the polls, as several states now require. You don't have to show a photo ID at any point in the process. The immigrants I met could vote Tuesday just by showing a Culinary health insurance card and a power bill.
"One would establish identity and one would establish residence," Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said of state standards. "Just like every other voter in Nevada, they will not be asked to prove citizenship."  http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/how-many-noncitizens-are-registered-to-vote-177141441.html
So, we are on the honor system regarding voting?  May be in a couple decades ago, we could be on the honor system.  However, politics has become so divided, so partisan and so "win at any cost", that we have to scrap the honor system and have people prove that they are U.S. citizens.  And if we fail to do that, then we need to have some kind of voter ID to prevent illegal voting and illegal voter registration.

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