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Rover The Voter They say a dog is man's best friend, but in St. Louis it is also a potential voter. It is not just dogs registering to vote. The dead and convicted felons have also recently tried to register to vote in St. Louis. We have also seen people registered under false names. And some tried to register with addresses that belong to empty lots. Now, I did not major in mathematics in school, but with more registered voters in St. Louis than there are people of voting age, even I can see that St. Louis has a severe problem. In fact, it is really a national embarrassment. Voting is our most important civic duty and responsibility. The principle of "one person, one vote" is fundamental to our democracy. It should not be diluted by fraud, false filings in lawsuits, judges who don't follow the law, or politicians who try to profit from confusion. Let us be clear: vote fraud is not about partisanship. It is not about Democrats against Republicans. It is not about the North side of St. Louis versus the South side of St. Louis. Vote fraud is a criminal, not political act. Illegal votes dilute the value of votes cast legally. When people stuff the ballot box, what they are really doing is stealing political power from those who follow election laws. In St. Louis, a City Grand Jury is now investigating fraudulent voter registration, and the U.S. Attorney is reviewing a 250-page report detailing alleged voter fraud. How can we be sure this never happens again? It is up to the Department of Justice to prosecute wrongdoing. But Congress also has a role in reforming the law. I have introduced the "Safeguard the Vote Act" to plug loopholes in federal law which have made it easier for people to commit vote fraud in St. Louis and elsewhere in the country. Our first task is to eliminate bogus voter registrations. With dead people re-registering, fake names, and phony addresses, it is clear the system is being abused. Nearly all of the fraudulent registrations in St. Louis came via mail-in registration forms. My plan addresses this type of fraud with a few simple reforms. 1) First-time voters who register by mail would be required to vote in person, and present a photo ID the first time. That way we can be sure there is a real, live person behind that voter registration card. 2) When the U.S. Postal Service returns a voter registration confirmation card to an election board as "undeliverable," it usually means that a bogus address was used. When these cases are confirmed, states would be allowed not to add these fraudulent registrations to the voter rolls. 3) I propose to give states the power, if they choose, to require notarization or other form of authentication when people try and fill out voter registration cards. Under current federal law states are actually prohibited from including this safeguard. These safeguards would make it harder for people to run up an illegal vote count by using absentee ballots to cash in on false names on the voter rolls -- a common vote fraud scheme seen today in St. Louis. My bill will also help protect voter rolls. First, it would require states to clean up registration lists when there are more folks registered to vote than there are people of voting age in that area. My bill would also require folks on an inactive voter list -- usually a sign they have moved recently -- to present a photo ID for the first time after having appeared on the inactive list. That will help stop people from voting at their old and new addresses. After the election mess in St. Louis during the November 2000 general election, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District issued a solid decision that should guide our reform efforts. "...(C)ommendable zeal to protect voting rights must be tempered by the corresponding duty to protect the integrity of the voting process....(E)qual vigilance is required to ensure that only those entitled to vote are allowed to cast a ballot. Otherwise, the rights of those lawfully entitled to vote are inevitably diluted." Nothing we do as citizens is as important as our vote. Our confidence in our nation is tied to our confidence in the election process. We simply cannot - and should not - tolerate vote fraud anywhere. President Harry Truman once said that if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. But I think even he would agree that we should keep our canine friends out of the voting booths. |
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