Ending voter fraud

By Bruce Walker
web posted October 25, 2004

Voter fraud is an unnecessary problem. Not only is voter fraud
easy to solve, but ending voter fraud forever would actually
make it easier for people to vote and end the need for poll
watchers, election lawyers, and vote registration campaigns.
How? Abolish the secret ballot.
 
The stakes could not be higher for America. Democrats steal
elections all over the Republic from mayoral races in cities like
Philadelphia and gubernatorial elections in states like Maryland
and senatorial races in states like Louisiana to presidential
elections themselves.

Almost all serious historians agree that the shenanigans of
Democrat bosses stole the 1960 presidential election for John
Kennedy. The risk to America, however, was slight. John
Kennedy was an imperfect man but a decent president, certainly
a patriot and someone who sought to inspire American
greatness, whether it was in defending freedom or in landing on
the Moon.

Venal, pampered Leftist politicians like Gore and Kerry are not
Kennedy. Stealing elections for men like that is simply business
as usual. This risks making the American Republic the equivalent
of any of the myriad other Democrat machines - Tammany Hall,
Boss Daley, Boss Hague or the KKK South - which have
corrupted state and local governments within America.

The Australian ballot (or secret ballot) was when the dominion
democracies of Australia adopted it in the 19th Century. Even at
its inception, there were obvious problems with a secret ballot.
When representative democratic bodies, like Congress, state
legislatures or city councils vote, we rightly insist that the votes
be public, not secret.

Part of the reason for that is so that our representatives can be
held accountable, but another equally important reason is to
make sure that voter fraud in those assemblies does not occur.
Consider how Democrats would react if Senate votes on cloture
for judicial nominations were all cast secretly and Vice President
Cheney, as President of the Senate, announced cloture had
passed by a margin of 62 to 38. Does anyone doubt Democrats
would cry "Foul!"?

What makes it certain that votes are not stolen in the United
States Senate, the Nebraska Legislature or the Topeka City
Council? Votes are publicly cast. Votes publicly cast can be
publicly counted and publicly accounted. That certainty is vital to
a healthy democracy.

Many parts of America, those dominated by Democrat
machines, produce results that reflect crimes much worse than
stolen votes. Assume the Vice President Cheney, after a secret
ballot vote of the United States Senate on cloture for judicial
appointments, announced that cloture had passed by a margin of
75 to 50, the requisite third thirds majority.

Because there are only 100 votes in the Senate, but 125 votes
were cast, there was obviously fraud, but the fraud was not
stolen votes but invented voted. Places in key states now have
more hypothetical "voters" registered to vote than citizens in the
area. Who doubts that the same Democrat operatives who
register fictitious persons will cast those fictitious ballots for
Democrats?

If there was no secret ballot, then hanging chads, dimpled chads
and the like would all be irrelevant. An individual could simply be
asked, if there was any question at all, what he intended by a
particular vote. More to the point, each registered voter could
have his vote available as a matter of public record and correct
it, if it was not properly recorded.

Eligibility to vote could also be much easier to determine.
Assume, for example, that a state had a thirty day residency
requirement and a mailing address requirement and nothing
more. If someone registered to vote and voted in violation to
those requirements, not only could the illegal voter be prosecuted
- along with any party hacks who aided him - but the particular
illegal vote could also be identified and cast out as well.

What about the great dread of intimidation? That did not prevent
the United States from having a very vigorous, closely
competitive system of elections during the decades leading up to
the gradual adoption of the secret ballot. Intimidation works very
poorly when it is difficult to predict who which candidate or
party will have power. The very close division of party power in
America, and the vigorous two party system in every state, make
genuine voter intimidation a very bad gamble.

Not only are their many more laws to protect voters against
intimidation or discrimination than when America had a
flourishing democracy and a public ballot, but actual voter
intimidation would also certainly backfire catastrophically into the
faces of those who tried it. What are Democrats doing right
now? Preemptively alleging voter intimidation!

Consider that already the vast majority of Americans voluntarily
chose to register as a member of one of the two major political
parties, rather than as independents. Are they not effectively and
publicly declaring their political allegiance?

Consider that everyone considers that secret campaign
contributions are a corrupting influence in politics, and that
supporting a party or a candidate with contributions is
considered essential to be public.

Consider that any good statistician can predict with about ninety-
five percent probability how a particular individual will vote
based upon his race, his sex, his religion, his income, his
residence and one or two other factors.

Now consider the alternative to abolishing the secret ballot:
elections by fraud, election results by litigation, elected officials
operating under a cloud of doubt. Most people, wrongly, assume
that the secret ballot is guaranteed in the Constitution. It is not
even guaranteed by federal law. If the is a mess in Florida and in
Ohio, those two states - both of which have Republican
legislatures and Republican governors - should enact genuine
election reform in January 2005: make the registration and
recording of votes simple, clear, easy - and public.

Bruce Walker is a senior writer with Enter Stage Right. He is
also a frequent contributor to The Pragmatist and The Common
Conservative.

Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com