Betty Hamilton – 4/25/14

This page was last updated on April 27, 2014.

Voter fraud claims meant to keep voters away; Betty Hamilton - Daugherty Twp. Election Board; Beaver County Times; April 25, 2014.

Ms. Hamilton (D) won her position as “INSPECTOR OF ELECTION DAUGHERTY TWP 1 (Prec-1501)” in the November 2013 election. As you read her letter, ask yourself if it makes sense to have an “INSPECTOR OF ELECTION” as biased as Ms. Hamilton.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Every time we approach another election we see only those on the right pushing an agenda to suppress or otherwise make a citizens [sic] constitutional right to vote harder and harder to exercise.”

[RWC] When leftists talk about “an agenda to suppress or otherwise make a citizens [sic] constitutional right to vote harder and harder to exercise,” they mean requiring a voter to present a photo ID to vote. There is a discussion of the PA voter ID law with a Beaver County Reds leader on the Facebook version of The Bird’s Eye View.

Most of us know most U.S. leftists oppose photo ID for voting because they claim the requirement is too onerous for their constituency and amounts to voter suppression. Keep that in mind as you read a piece published by the folks at Beaver County Reds (aka Beaver County Blue) telling us how wonderful the Venezuela voting system is. The author wrote, “As our election approaches and I have watched with outrage the efforts by the Republican Party to limit access and the right to vote here in Pennsylvania and a variety of other states, I find myself wishing that our system here in the US was as fair and democratic as that in Venezuela.” According to the author, she “was invited to participate by the National Lawyers Guild (NLG).” Surprise! The NLG is a leftist organization and – despite its name – you don’t need to be a lawyer to join.

When I finished reading the article I noticed there was no mention of voter registration/ID or details of the “Sophisticated technology … used to eliminate all possibilities of fraud or manipulation of data” beyond using voting machines with a paper “receipt that can be viewed by the voter to confirm that his or her vote has been properly registered.” It took about a minute of search time to learn why. You see, Venezuela requires everyone to possess a national ID card complete with the person’s signature, photo, and a fingerprint. For all practical purposes, citizens must carry the card at all times. To vote, the voter must present the card to a poll worker. According to the Associated Press, “The country’s electoral council has long used fingerprint scanners at the entrance to polling places to ensure voter identification. But this year, the readers will be hooked to the electronic voting machines themselves. Citizens must press down a thumb to activate the ballot system.” Not only does Venezuela require photo AND fingerprint ID to vote, the photo and fingerprint must match what is in a central government database.

Here’s the bottom line. U.S. lefties tell us requiring a photo ID to vote in an affluent country like the U.S. “suppress[es] or otherwise make[s] a citizens [sic] constitutional right to vote harder and harder to exercise” but requiring photo AND fingerprint ID with real-time database verification is not too onerous for a Third-World country like Venezuela. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a lefty to rationalize this apparent contradiction.

“Often the old false excuse of voter fraud is trotted out and waved about, never mind that in person voter fraud is statistically non-existing. The stories of its existence are made up, outright lies published by those who stand to gain suppression and those who gain by helping spread those fables to a gullible public.

“There have been a handful of substantiated cases of individual ineligible voters attempting to defraud the election system. But by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare. You have a better chance of being hit by lightning than discovering an incident of polling place fraud.

“From 2000 to 2010 there were 649 million votes cast in general elections and 13 cases of in-person impersonation. That is 0.000002 percent of all votes cast.”

[RWC] Note Ms. Hamilton didn’t cite the source of her data, but it appears to have come from Mother Jones, a popular lefty political magazine. No bias there, I’m sure. <g> I concede I haven’t investigated the underlying data, but only “13 cases of in-person impersonation” over 11 years and “649 million votes cast in general elections” doesn’t pass an initial smell test.

“Of course the target demographic is mostly poor, minority, or rural. Those very people most likely to vote for the ‘other’ party.”

[RWC] This is the same old BS. What keeps a “poor” or “minority” person who is legally eligible to vote from getting a valid photo ID?

Regarding “rural” voters, Ms. Hamilton hasn’t been paying attention. In PA, rural voters tend to vote Republican more than Democrat. It’s urban voters who tend to vote Democrat more than Republican. For example, Pittsburgh has been run exclusively by Democrats for decades. This is true for most large cities.

“I am highly suspect of any politician who believes it is OK to mess with your constitutional rights to vote to advance their own chance of being elected.”

[RWC] I don’t believe most Democrat voters support Ms. Hamilton’s position. During the summer of 2011, Rhode Island passed a law requiring a photo ID to vote. RI voters reliably vote Democrat and Democrats hold overwhelming majorities in both houses of the General Assembly. The governor is an independent, a former U.S. Senate RINO with high ADA Liberal Quotients. Further, leftist darling former-President Jimmy Carter supports a photo ID for voting. This is info we’re not supposed to know.

Heck, even President Obama is all for voter ID, as long as we’re talking about Kenya and not the U.S. Why?

Finally, awhile back I was with a bunch of local election officials and mentioned I thought photo ID to vote was a good idea. Without hesitation, all of these folks – both Democrat and Republican – agreed immediately. Sure it was a small sample, but it’s clear many Democrats don’t share Ms. Hamilton’s position.