Today's Must Read
By Paul Kiel - January 9, 2008, 9:43AM
Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments as to whether Indiana's voter ID law breaks the law. If a law disenfranchises thousands of voters (mostly poor and minorities) to prevent a phantom crime, is that ok?
Of course, it's rare to hear the Republican supporters of voter ID laws admit that there's no evidence that voter impersonation, the kind of voter fraud the laws are meant to stop, occurs.
But that's just what happened yesterday when Warren Olney of KCRW's To The Point pressed Todd Rokita (R), Indiana's secretary of state and a named defendant in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board.
Have any cases of voter impersonation been prosecuted in Indiana? was the simple question. And as Olney pressed, Rokita went from one fallback argument to another. It started with this revealing exchange:
Q: ...Have there been cases in Indiana where people represented themselves as somebody else in order to be able to vote?
Rokita: Oh yeah, we suspect it happens all the time.
Q: You suspect?
Rokita: Mm hmm.
Q: Have you got any cases proven?
Rokita: Well, are you saying you want to define whether or not there’s fraud based on whether or not it’s prosecuted? Is that the question?
-snip
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/005040.php