Va. (State Police) investigates voter fraud

[underpants]

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch

As Virginia legislators hotly debated a voter ID bill that narrowly passed the General Assembly, many were unaware of a state police investigation that, so far, has resulted in charges against 38 people statewide for voter fraud. Warrants have been obtained for a 39th person who can't be located.

A majority of those cases already have resulted in convictions, and 26 additional cases are still being actively investigated nearly 3½ years after the state Board of Elections forwarded more than 400 voter and election fraud allegations from 62 cities and counties to Virginia State Police for individual investigation.

"If we have a widespread number of felons showing up to vote when they can't, then the voter ID law is not going to fix that," Del. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond) added.

"If someone tells someone that they can vote, and they believe it, and they present themselves and don't change their identity, then that might be a mistake," Sen. Henry L. Marsh III, (D-Richmond) said. "But that's not voter fraud in the sense that we were told that it existed."

Read more: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/news/2012/apr/22/tdmain01-va-investigates-voter-fraud-ar-1859666/

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There were just under 3,000,000 votes cast in Virginia in 2008
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/states/virginia.html



--From link on the original story--
Fraud complaints

Voter fraud complaints investigated in Virginia from 2008 general election*

Still active 26

Unfounded 119

Closed with arrest 38

Inactive 1

Inactive WOF 1

Closed service 29

Prosecution declined 194

Total 408

Key:

Active: cases still under investigation

Unfounded: investigation reveals event did not occur

Closed with arrest: alleged offender has been arrested

Inactive: no investigative leads exist or all leads have been exhausted

Inactive WOF: case successfully concluded with a warrant on file, but no arrest because offender can't be located

Closed service: inquiry incomplete with no further police action necessary

Prosecution declined: case where commonwealth's attorney declined prosecution

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/apr/22/tdmain07-voter-fraud-complaints-ar-1859668/

[Bjorn Against]

1. Of the 38 arrested how many would have been stopped by voter ID?

38 is a tiny number to begin with, but when you think that typically most voter fraud cases are cases of felons voting illegally you realize that voter ID would not even stop a small fraction of an already tiny number of voter fraud cases.

[peacebird]

2. 408 cases in 2008, of which 38 convictions, and only 26 still under investigation... 64 out of?

I am guessing that puts the fraud level at a fraction of a percent.....?

[underpants]

3. 64 (total possible) / 2,800,000 (round number) = ..... 0.0000228571428

http://www.online-calculator.com/


the 38 arrests equals 0.0000135714285

[obxhead]

4. There is an easy fix for this "fraud."

Stop punishing felons for a lifetime by denying them the right to participate in our election process.

[groundloop]

5. Can't do that, it would deny Repugs their justification for voter ID laws

It's a non-existent problem and without some way to gin up a problem they couldn't justify their voter suppression tactics.

[patrice]

10. Agreed! There's nothing quite like making a bad situation for a person even worse.

Convicted felons are probably alienated anyway, so there's nothing quite like making them even more alienated by disenfranchising them.

[ieoeja]

12. If you categorize the list of wrongs in the Declaration ...

Generic Tyranny would be the largest category with Draconian Law Enforcement and Punishment the 2nd largest.

Modern Americans do not realize just how important an issue that stopping excessive punishment was to the people who led the American Revolution.

[zbdent]

6. Ann Coulter ... no punishment ...

yeah, they're really serious about preventing voter fraud ...

[thorolyfedup]

7. this story needs context

This story is meaningless without context, e.g. who prepetrated the voter fraud (was it just convicted felons?); was it a general election or was it a primary?; which party?; was there intentional ballot stuffing?

In many of the recent cases of voter fraud, actual party representatives were guilty of manipulating the vote rather than people voting fraudulently.

[AlbertCat]

8. was it a general election or was it a primary?; which party?; was there intentional ballot stuffing?

How much did it cost to investigate????

[Festivito]

9. "None of the cases appeared to involve someone who misrepresented his or her identity at the polls"

None.

Right there in the article. Somewhere in the middle.

Repubs were having trouble getting voter I D passed. No "widespread voter fraud" Dems would say.

Suddenly, some group (they cannot find) told felons it was okay now, new laws were passed.

Some of the felons sign up to vote. REGISTRATION FRAUD!

Some of the felons sign up and vote. BOTH REGISTRATION FRAUD AND VOTER FRAUD!

Now Repubs can say it is widespread.

Suddenly, some group has a writing campaign of 400 letters complaining about election fraud.

Finally, some M$M paper writes an article that obfuscates the none: no fake identities.

But, plenty of widespread fraud quotables.

[drm604]

11. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

[balboabolt]

13. Minor voter fraud

The Math doesn't add up to much of a percentage, Check out a calculator and figure it out