Suspicious voting patterns in a local Alabama election serve as a clear reminder of the need to fight potential voter fraud and protect the sanctity of elections.
According to a report Thursday in the Tuscaloosa News, 125 percent of the voting age population cast ballots in a Perry County municipal election held Tuesday in Uniontown. This includes an unusually high 45% of the total votes cast being absentee ballots, compared to a 3-5% statewide average, according to the report. 130% of the town’s population was registered to vote in the election.
“I seriously doubt that this is an isolated mistake, but rather serves as a glowing example to any naysayers that voter fraud is real,” Alabama Senate Majority Leader Jabo Waggoner said. “We have an obligation to protect the democratic process we hold so dear and will continue working to identify ways to fight against abuse,” added Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh.
Under current Alabama law, citizens may present one of 19 acceptable forms of identification in order to vote, but many of them, including utility bills, bank statements and pay stubs, do not contain photos and are easily stolen, borrowed or replicated.
The Legislature last year approved a new, stricter standard requiring voters to present a photo ID in order to cast a non-challenged ballot. The law, which is slated to go into effect during the 2014 primary elections, provides free photo ID cards to citizens who do not already possess or cannot afford to purchase one.
“The Obama Justice Department has already blocked photo voter ID requirements in states like Texas and South Carolina, and it is likely it will continue its hostile actions towards Alabama, as well,” Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard said. “By working diligently against this needed and valuable honest elections tool, Obama’s liberal cronies and extremist groups like the ACLU are turning a blind eye to ballot box stuffing and making the case that the only way their side can win is through cheating.”
The Uniontown election provides clear evidence that Alabama’s recently passed photo Voter ID requirement should be approved by the U.S. Justice Department and put in practice for the 2014 statewide campaign cycle.
UPDATE: Thanks to a commenter I remembered a video from earlier this year of Alabama State Representative Jay Love sparring with Al Sharpton over this exact issue…
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
the argument should be here that one voter disenfranchised due to voter fraud is one too many.
period.
the left loves to throw that word (disenfranchisement) around, we should throw it back in their faces.
the left doesn’t want an honest and open process because they’re against it.
period.
@Cole: Here’s a link to the court’s opinion striking down the Texas law (I struggled through the first 5 pages):
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/104431094?access_key=key-1a207wkxw33cd28nalld
Even with FREE ID, the court argues that there’s non-zero effort required in order to get one. So now, I guess asking someone to lift a finger is racist? Wow, I’m so sick of faux racism charges:
http://uncleham.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/despicable-divisiveness/
LOL…I’m guessing my IP address has betrayed my location. You’ll love the halloween street, but get ready to spend some money keeping up with your neighbors in October. Good luck on the move.
The last line of this post says: “The Uniontown election provides clear evidence that Alabama’s recently passed photo Voter ID requirement should be approved by the U.S. Justice Department and put in practice for the 2014 statewide campaign cycle.” We all should hold Beth Chapman’s office accountable to investigate this situation, but suggesting that absentee ballot issues in Perry County creates clear evidence of the need for photo IDs is a bit of a stretch.
Fair point. Btw, I’m moving into your neighborhood next week…apparently onto what everyone over there calls “halloween street.”
This incident isn’t about voter id as much as it proves to all the liberals that there is voter fraud in alabama. All everyone has heard is show me voter fraud, there’s no reason for any voter id, all Republicans are racist, voter suppression because no one can point to any voter fraud, well here you go. There are many examples in the past decade, but the media has ignored, this one happened this week, hard to ignore.
And whose face do they check it against since the voter is, in fact, absent? In other words, this incident in Perry County is being used as an example of why we need photo ID laws, however the fishy numbers involve absentee ballots where photo IDs are useless (The voter isn’t standing there to compare their photo ID to). Obviously, we should be concerned about the statistical abnormality of absentee votes in Uniontown, but I’m failing to see how this absentee ballot situation has any bearing on the photo ID debate. Am I missing something here?
How exactly would requiring photo ID keep absentee ballot voter fraud from happening?
Chris – you have to provide a photocopy of a valid photo ID when mailing in the absentee ballot.
If we GIVE anyone a free voter ID, I don’t see the issue here. Here’s a question though – - what do you have to show to get a photo ID?
I never understood why I had to show my idea to get into sam’s but not to elect the president of the united states.
Auto correct. Obviously that should say “id” not “idea”
Cue Al Sharpton & co. in 3…2…1…