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The Brennan Center for Justice, “a nonpartisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve our systems of democracy and justice,” based at NYU School of Law, has compiled the studies concerning the Trump boogeyman claims of “noncitizens voting”. And they have concluded that — like the virtually non-existent problem of “voter fraud” (that ushered in the GOP-age of restrictive Photo Ids) — the latest GOP charge of “noncitizens voting,” is “vanishing rare.”
Brennan Center for Justice — January 25, 2017
Comprehensive Studies Find Noncitizen Voting is Vanishingly Rare
- Rutgers University political scientist Lorraine C. Minnite has studied voter fraud allegations for more than a decade. She has concluded that voter fraud, including noncitizen voting, is “extremely rare.” In one analysis of the first three years of a Justice Department initiative to uncover voter fraud ending in 2005, she found that there were only 14 convictions of noncitizens for voting.
- In another study, Minnite examined all complaints of voter misconduct received by the California and Oregon Secretaries of State for more than a decade. California received a total of 28 complaints of noncitizen voting, and Oregon, five. Out of that total, there were only four convictions.
- In 2007, the Brennan Center for Justice conducted a nationwide survey of a decade of news accounts and other complaints of noncitizen voting. The results showed that allegations of noncitizen voting that prove unfounded are far more common than allegations that turn out to be true. Some of the exaggerated or baseless allegations highlighted in that study include: A 2005 investigation into 1,668 Washington residents with “foreign-sounding names” which turned up no noncitizens; a 2000 investigation into 553 Hawaiians alleged to be improperly registered noncitizens, but none of whom had voted, and 2001 investigation in Milwaukee of 370,000 voting records that found four potential instances of naturalized persons voting before their naturalization date. Even if one accepts all of the allegations of noncitizen voting as true, noncitizens voters would have accounted for between .0002 percent and .017 percent of the votes in the relevant jurisdiction.
14, 4, 0, 0, 4 possible cases of Noncitizens voting — that is a far, far cry from the Millions and Millions, that the president has been Tweeting about, as to “the reason why he lost the Popular Vote.”
Occam’s Razor would say instead, that Trump lost the Popular Vote because, he just isn’t “popular”.
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Trump’s unfounded xenophobic claims are simply the latest rallying cry of Republicans, designed to “enable them” to enact even further restrictions (like the do in Kansas, of requiring Birth Certificates, or Visas) in order for Citizens to be able to Vote.
Casting such a very wide net — if it succeeds — will inevitably lead to “sweeping up” many more Citizen Voter Registrations, than it ever would accomplish in “blocking” those very, very, very rare cases of Noncitizens Voting.
Besides there are already laws in place to punish the rare cases of Noncitizen Voting. All the GOP needs to do is enforce the “laws already on the books” — NOT create a whole new system, that erects even more barriers, which will prevent actual American Citizens from exercising their Constitutional Rights — and Voting!
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From the Brennan Center for Justice
The Truth About Voter Fraud, found that most reported incidents of voter fraud are actually traceable to other sources, such as clerical errors or bad data matching practices. The report reviewed elections that had been meticulously studied for voter fraud, and found incident rates between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent. Given this tiny incident rate for voter impersonation fraud, it is more likely, the report noted, that an American “will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls.”
Analysis: Noncitizen Voting is Vanishingly Rare
Brennan Center for Justice: Research and Resources
Why are these voter ID laws so strongly opposed? — ProPublica.org
Voting law opponents contend these laws disproportionately affect elderly, minority and low-income groups that tend to vote Democratic. Obtaining photo ID can be costly and burdensome. While many states with strict laws offer a free state ID for people without any other way to vote, these IDs require documents like a birth certificate that can cost up to $25 in some places. According to a study from NYU’s Brennan Center, 11 percent of voting-age citizens lack necessary photo ID while many people in rural areas have trouble accessing ID offices.
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America should be about “Counting Every Vote”
not about as the GOP would have it: “Discouraging certain types of Votes”.
Since the GOP care so much about “removing barriers” for Business …
Shouldn’t they care at least that much about “removing barriers” for Voters?