It seems as if over the last half year, Republicans have embarked on ever greater efforts to repress the vote. In recent months, we've seen a back and forth battle over issues such as voter purges, restricted voting periods and voter ID. These moves have inevitably hit the elderly, minorities and students the hardest, those least likely to be able to easily overcome such obstacles. However, good news has abounded as of late. Ohio saw early voting restored, Texas's voter ID law was struck down, Florida's voter suppression efforts were rejected in the courts, and voter ID laws in Wisconsin were similarly discarded.
However, the battle is not yet over, and one of the right's ongoing efforts is the attempt to purge voters from the rolls under the appearance of attempting to prevent voter fraud. In Texas this is an ongoing effort, despite all the evidence pointing to the fact that voter fraud is an exceptionally rare incident. In Texas, there have been only around fifty convictions in a decade's time.
With such a low rate of voter fraud, you would think the state of Texas would be more concerned with increasing voter turnout than prosecuting the exceptionally few cases of fraud that appear within the state year to year. However, that is not the case. Instead, Texas conservatives are still suspiciously eying certain counties for having too many people, and the attorney general is still claiming that voter fraud "is very real".
The truth is, there are so few cases that Texas' efforts are more likely to disenfranchise individuals than weed out any potential voter fraud. Throughout various counties in Texas, people have been receiving notices of their own death and erasure from the voting rolls. When combined with its now failed attempt at redistricting, a process that would have reduced the impact of minority voters, it seems that Texas' efforts aren't aimed at increasing election honesty but instead slanting the election in the favor of Republicans.
However, hope springs eternal, and at least in some counties there are election officials realizing that the voter purges are more likely to eliminate honest votes than anything else. Regardless of orders from higher up the political chain, people like Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Don Summers are refusing to make any attempts at a purge until after the 2012 elections. Meanwhile, at the state level, representatives like Senator Rodney Ellis are voicing their concerns over the timing of these laws. These are necessary steps in a state where 80,000 individuals are being targeted.
The bulk of the state's voter suppression efforts may have been rebuffed, but the old political machine is still trying its best to push down any voting efforts that would end the Republican stranglehold on the state. There are politicians fighting for the people, but the people have to get out and vote. There's never a year when it's okay to not vote, because the local and state elections have as large an impact on an individual's life as the impact of the presidential election. Texas is feeling the effects of large Republican turnouts, and now it's time for Democrats to return the favor, and end the silliness that is voter purging.
UPDATE
The original story states that there were 50 convictions. After a few responses, a double check was made to clarify.
According to the Attorney General in this article from KHOU, the total number of cases since 2002 are 62.
ABC News states that, total, there have been 51 convictions for voter fraud in the last decade, according to the Attorney General. Of those 51 convictions, 4 were for voter impersonation.
That would align closely with this research from News 21 confirming 3 convictions for voter impersonation in Texas. According to PolitiFact, the other 48 cases can range from voting twice, to voting using someone else's ballot or voting while ineligible.
Politifact also states that only 28 cases resulted in firm convictions. Again, the majority of these were not due to voter impersonation, of which there were only 3 or 4 cases. Even when taken all together, the total number of cases stated by the Attorney General equals less than a fraction of one percent of all voting.
Thanks to the commentators who helped provide feedback.