ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: Real Election Reform Is What People Want

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Real Election Reform Is What People Want

By Victor Contreras
Chairman, Hispanos Unidos
          The op-ed written by Robert Stearns and Paul Stokes (in the April 11 Journal) was disturbing. The men are as confounded as our lawmakers regarding the issue of election reform in New Mexico.
        The one thing I do agree with the gentlemen on is that this has become a partisan issue. That is sad, and should be embarrassing to the Democrats who have controlled our House and Senate for nearly 80 years. Why are they so afraid of a checks-and-balances system that would bar fraud from our elections? One can only wonder if they are concerned that their power would wane upon such an occurrence.
        During this past legislative session, I attended one of the House Voters and Elections Committee hearings for photo ID requirements at the polls. One by one, citizens I had never met stood and told of experiences they had as poll workers, and the fraud they discovered. Democratic lawmakers on the committee summarily dismissed them, asserting that if cheating was averted by these citizens, the system works. When it was pointed out that there is reason to believe that many poll workers do not catch cheating, the same legislators demanded to know who had been prosecuted for election fraud. Without convictions, the problem doesn't exist, they insisted.
        It was an exercise in inanity that would be laughable if the issue weren't so gravely important.
        The governor and the secretary of state campaigned on the issue because the people of New Mexico want election reform. To us, it is not a partisan issue. I have more than 10,000 signatures from New Mexicans on a petition supporting photo ID at the polls. Democrats in New Mexico want election reform. So do Republicans, independents and Green Party members. They have all signed.
        As for denying election fraud exists, the gentlemen obviously haven't read "Stealing Elections" by Wall Street Journal editorialist John Fund. In his book, Fund thoroughly documented fraud found nationwide for decades.
        I met John Fund last year. He steered me to studies by academicians that show photo ID requirements at the polls have no effect on voter turnout in the states that have adopted the practice, except in Indiana. Jeffrey Milyo, Ph.D., found that in Indiana, overall statewide turnout increased by roughly 2 percentage points after a photo ID law was enacted. The estimated positive effect of photo ID on turnout was most significant in counties with a greater percentage of minorities or families in poverty. There was a greater turnout in Democratic-leaning counties.
        Currently in New Mexico, anyone can become a voter registration agent and register voters. No ID is required from registrants. A Social Security number is requested. If a fictitious person is registered using a Social Security number that begins with a 1, 2, or 3, it is doubtful any county clerk could detect fraud, as that would mean that the voter received his or her Social Security number on the East Coast. Some fraud has been found by county clerks when cheaters use a 585 prefix, common to New Mexican citizens. When they see that another voter in their county has the same Social Security number, they reject the new registration. But the odds are in favor of the cheaters.
        In the same way, this is how some fraud at the polls has been detected — the crooks simply get sloppy. When they appear during early voting to cast ballots for the fictitious people they have registered, sometimes they have slipped up, casting a ballot for a real person they registered by mistake. Sometimes they come to the polls and can't remember the address or year of birth of the make-believe person they are voting for.
        But if a group is competent and keeps good records, they can have their people cast countless ballots in New Mexico, without concern of prosecution. There is simply no way to catch them. So demanding convictions is ludicrous, especially coming from the legislative body that enacted such loosey-goosey election laws in the first place. Similarly, Stearns and Stokes' assertion that cheating is rare is misleading — there is simply no way for them to know. In New Mexico, election fraud is easy and, if executed properly, virtually undetectable.
        All three pieces of legislation introduced this year for a photo ID requirement included a provision for IDs to be given to citizens who don't have one and can't afford one, free of charge. American Indians were allowed to provide a tribal identification card in lieu of a photo ID.
        During this last legislative session, our lawmakers denied our citizens the two things polls show we want the most: 1) photo ID requirements at the polls, and 2) the cessation of issuing driver's licenses to non-citizens that look exactly like the licenses issued to New Mexicans. When the overwhelming majority of our citizens want these things, it makes us all wonder why our legislators refuse to do the will of the people.
        The implication is bone chilling — perhaps they don't have to.
        Hisapanos Unidos is a nonpartisan PAC registered in New Mexico dedicated to election reform and transparency in state government.

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