[EL] Lead Penn Voter ID Plaintiff gets her ID

Fri Aug 17 13:55:54 PDT 2012

I'd like to see John Fund put the same level of energy he puts into 
misleading the public about voter fraud into reporting on the thousands 
of citizens in federal elections who are eligible to vote, want to vote, 
try to vote and don't get their votes counted.  Election administration 
is still a mess, despite all the good intentions, money, and 
civic-mindedness of election officials, poll workers, and volunteers.

Here is a place for John Fund to begin his new line of research:

I recently moved from New York City to New Jersey.  In June, I spent 
three days driving here and there to obtain a copy of my birth 
certificate ($20), applying for a new Social Security card which I lost 
decades ago, and transferring my drivers license and car registration.  
At the DMV I was asked if I wanted to register to vote.  I said yes.  
Later that day, I mailed in a form to the New York City Board of 
Elections requesting that my voter registration be cancelled because I 
had moved, and supplying my new address.  I changed my address online 
with the U.S. Postal Service.  It's August 17th, and I do not show up on 
the voter rolls in New Jersey; today, a former house mate reported that 
a brochure from the New York City Board of Elections on how to vote on 
the new machines arrived in the mail addressed to me.  I'm still on the 
rolls at my old address in Manhattan.

So here we have a situation, more and more common it seems to me, where 
nothing works.  I did not get registered as I should have in compliance 
with federal law; my registration at my old address has not been 
cancelled despite my reasonable effort to cancel it; and a change of 
address with the USPS registered two months ago did not prevent a 
mailing from an elections board going to my old address.  If I weren't 
me, I might not pay attention to all of these bureaucratic failures and 
show at the polls in NJ in November, only to be turned away.

Where is the outrage, John Fund?  Many, many more people have their 
votes "cancelled out" and "diluted" by these kinds of problems than they 
do by any fraudulent vote, but we are still having this stupid 
discussion with right-wingers about voter fraud.

Lori Minnite

On 8/17/2012 4:06 PM, Justin Levitt wrote:
> Well, for those (vanishing few) who are _actually_ interested in the 
> facts, I'd recommend that people read the actual report referenced in 
> Fund's article, rather than Fund's gloss, which (as usual) conflates a 
> whole lot of irregularity that ID requirements couldn't possibly help 
> stop.
>
> The actual report that Fund references (available, among other places, 
> here 
> <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27249508/Voting%20Irregularities%20Report.pdf>), 
> as I've said 
> <http://department-lists.uci.edu/pipermail/law-election/2012-July/004105.html>, 
> appears to be far better researched than most.
>
> Justin
>
> On 8/17/2012 12:43 PM, John Meyer wrote:
>> I think many of you may have read this, but it is relevant to the 
>> question of need for voter ID requirements with specific reference to 
>> Pennsylvania
>> as it includes reference to an actual, recent look at various voting 
>> irregularities in Philadelphia:
>>
>> http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314273/voter-fraud-keystone-state-john-fund
>>
>> I certainly am not an expert on Pennsylvania voter problems, but it 
>> is well-known in political circles that both parties used to have 
>> areas where they would
>> manufacture votes by various methods. with the demise of big-city 
>> Republican machines, the tendency became more party-specific -- and 
>> even more so with
>> the collapse of some of the Republican suburban machines, such as 
>> Nassau county in New York (I don't know if Nassau County R's actually 
>> manufactured votes
>> or if they only followed the 1% of salary for all public employees 
>> tradition).  Anyway, I do recommend the article.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> *From:* Jon Roland <jon.roland at constitution.org>
>> *To:* law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
>> *Sent:* Friday, August 17, 2012 12:26 PM
>> *Subject:* Re: [EL] Lead Penn Voter ID Plaintiff gets her ID
>>
>> In general there are no requirements for a plaintiff to prove 
>> identity to file a case, in any jurisdiction. Identification comes in 
>> with being a witness and providing evidence, such as presenting an 
>> affidavit, which must be sworn before a notary or other designated 
>> verifier. Of course, the attorney will be expected to provide his 
>> name, address, and bar card number, but he will usually not have to 
>> otherwise prove he is who he says he is, and his client can be a 
>> "John Doe". Even a witness may be anonymous with the consent of the 
>> court.
>>
>> The elevation of personal identity to the importance accorded it 
>> today is an innovation in our legal tradition. Historically it has 
>> had much less importance, usually where ownership of property was 
>> involved.
>>
>> On 08/17/2012 11:07 AM, Michael McDonald wrote:
>>> The state of Pennsylvania has a more strict
>>> identification law for voting than to be a plaintiff in a case?
>>
>>
>> -- Jon
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------
>> Constitution Societyhttp://constitution.org
>> 2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322twitter.com/lex_rex  <http://twitter.com/lex_rex>
>> Austin, TX 78757 512/299-5001jon.roland at constitution.org  <mailto:jon.roland at constitution.org>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Law-election mailing list
>> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu 
>> <mailto:Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>
>> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Law-election mailing list
>> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
>> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>
> -- 
> Justin Levitt
> Associate Professor of Law
> Loyola Law School | Los Angeles
> 919 Albany St.
> Los Angeles, CA  90015
> 213-736-7417
> justin.levitt at lls.edu
> ssrn.com/author=698321
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20120817/5dd378b8/attachment.html>