[EL] Public Opinion on Voter Fraud

[Lori Minnite]

I fail to see the relationship between attitudes toward voter fraud and 
whether voting should be "easier" or "harder" as relevant to electoral 
policy changes "aimed at easing hyper-partisanship," as stated in the 
/USA Today /story below.  I just don't get the connection between voter 
fraud and the shutdown/showdown in Washington, and I wonder if anyone on 
this list has any insight.  The public discourse on voter fraud is 
nothing if not "hyper-partisan," and framing 'more access' as a 
trade-off of 'electoral integrity' is misleading; doing so has only 
generated more partisan rhetoric, propaganda and conflict.  So the poll 
is guilty of contributing to the problem it is aimed at easing.  The 
facts - that voters are not a threat to electoral integrity and 
elections are not imperiled by a criminal class of voters lurking in the 
wings - simply don't seem to matter much.  I say this because these 
facts are ignored by journalists, pollsters and other producers of media 
when they frame the issue this way.  That self-identified Democrats and 
Republicans come out differently says little to me except that all the 
coded language and propaganda aimed at confusing people about voting 
rights is working.

Lori Minnite
>
>
>     "Poll: Americans support fine-tuning election policy"
>     <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55989>
>
> Posted on October 14, 2013 8:10 pm 
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=55989>by Rick Hasen 
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> USA Today 
> <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/10/14/americans-election-policy-usa-today-bipartisan-policy-center-poll/2983159/>:
>
>     A nationwide USA TODAY/Bipartisan Policy Center poll finds a
>     majority of Americans support a range of proposals aimed at easing
>     hyper-partisanship and building confidence in elections. Some
>     command the sort of broad bipartisan backing rare in national
>     politics.
>
>     Allow independents to vote in primaries? Yes. Require photo IDs to
>     curb voter fraud? Definitely. Find an alternative to having
>     legislatures draw congressional districts? Maybe. Vote over the
>     Internet? Well, no.
>
> And there's this, which supports what I've been seeing for the last 
> few years:
>
>     Republicans and Democrats have sharply different priorities when
>     it comes to elections. By 54%-43%, a majority of Republicans say
>     it's more important to make sure no one commits voter fraud and
>     harms the rights of legitimate voters. By 78%-20%, Democrats say
>     it's more important to make sure every individual who has the
>     right to vote is allowed to exercise that right.
>
>
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