[EL] Tobin IDs the wrong problem

[Jerald Lentini]

Tobin's piece has two big problems. First, it's focused on a virtually nonexistent problem (in-person voting fraud). Second, it's drawing the wrong lesson from the history of voting fraud in America to justify the restrictions that--coincidentally, I'm sure--would benefit Tobin's political allies. Tobin writes: 


But the problem with this argument [that there's essentially no evidence of in-person voting fraud that could be stopped with ID laws] is that stuffing ballot boxes with ineligible, fictitious or multiple votes by the same person is as American as apple pie. Such practices date back as far as colonial days and have been pursued with vigor in big cities and small towns and in every region and state of the union.

Tobin thinks this justifies restrictions on VOTERS. He completely
      misses the point: the fraud he's describing is at the
      administrative level. I can't even imagine the stuffing process
      that would be stopped by a more strict ID requirement. The only
      problem Tobin has identified is one that requires greater
      oversight of vote counters, not greater burdens on voters.

-JR
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