The New York City Department of Investigation recently examined the integrity of the New York City election process. During the 2013 New York City Mayoral Election, they had undercover investigators deliberately attempt to cast fraudulent write-in ballots in the name of 63 legally ineligible voters. The undercover agents of the DOI* were told to write in the name of fictional candidate “John Test.” The votes were tallied on 61 out of 63 deliberately corrupt ballots.

A certain portion of the blogosphere reads about things like the easy voter fraud and therefore describes the current state of American Democracy as being a terminal failure. They go further and suggest we should just spurn the clever ideas of George Washington and admit that KG III had the whole thing right from Jump Street. I personally think the whole Monarchist Movement has truly gone fishing. The various Kennedy Family by-blows are as close as I ever hope to see America come to being ruled by The Spanish Hapsburgs or the declining end of the Romanov Dynasty. As for American Democracy degenerating, I am not as easily able to dismiss the reactionaries. A voter fraud success rate of 97% is not a positive development. In order to prevent this continued negative outcome, the Congress of the United States of America needs to pass a national Voter ID Law.

The potential worst-case consequences of such a high success rate at voter fraud are drastic in nature. We’re talking a 97% success rate at a crime that undermines the fundamental foundation of the American Republic. If we have no clear way to safeguard American elections, we will eventually reach a point where maybe 5-10% of votes in any close contest are fraudulent. At that point, does my vote really mean much in any closely contested race? Probably not. Whoever controls the fake balloting process controls America.

So what do we do? I’d suggest asking what’s correct with Kansas. You see, under Governor Brownback’s wise stewardship, the Kansas State Legislature passed legislation that accomplishes the following:

Voters would be required to provide an ID when they cast ballots starting Jan. 1, 2012. The ID could include a driver’s license, a state ID card, a passport, a military ID, or a license for carrying a concealed handgun. Exemptions could include people with permanent physical disabilities or active-duty military personnel and their spouses.
•A free state ID would be available to anyone 18 or older, as long they sign an affidavit stating they plan to vote and don’t have any other form of ID acceptable under the bill.
•Voters casting advance ballots by mail must provide a current driver’s license number, state ID card number or a copy of an acceptable ID form.
•Would-be voters must prove their citizenship when they register to vote beginning Jan. 1, 2013. Acceptable documents for proving citizenship include a birth certificate, a passport or a driver’s license from another state as long as the license shows they have proved their citizenship.

Congress should have no problem passing that as it reads in a stand-alone legislative act. If we are too afraid of the likes of Donna Brazile to pass it openly, we could make it a pre-condition to any state getting Federal Transportation money. We’ll clean up their pot holes when they clean up their corrupt electoral process. Do the rest of us really have to live under a President with electoral college votes from where voter fraud is 97% likely to succeed?

RS Community Member Rickbull made a very astute observation on one of my prior threads about Voter ID Laws. He gave us a list of things that you need ID to do, participate in or buy.

write a check, buy beer, buy cigarettes, buy other tobacco**, fill a prescription, drive a car, register your car, buy an over the counter antihistamine, buy Nyquil, buy mouthwash, buy liquor, get into a bar, buy spray paint, buy BB’s, buy a gun, buy ammunition, see a doctor, check into an emergency room, check into a hotel (except the ones that rent by the hour), post bail for someone, buy rubbing alcohol.

Here I’ll even give the reactionaries another point of agreement. Do you really want people voting who aren’t quite bright enough to buy rubbing alcohol legally? Can we dumb our voter pool any further down? Without the adoption of Voter ID Laws, “Yes We Can!”

Citizens of The United States of America are genuinely blessed to live in a Democratic Republic. We can keep that republic if we care enough to protect it. Adopting national Voter ID Laws would indicate that such is the case. Otherwise, if people deliberately seeking to cast illegal ballots are 97% successful in one of the largest population centers in America, the reactionary elements of American politics are probably correct to laugh at the naïve fetishism and lack of due diligence we sometimes show towards Democracy in America.

*DOI= New York City Department of Investigation.
**-This was before the Colorado Hash-Pipe Burn-Down Legislation.