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Comment by yehi | Hacker News Reader

Is that a rhetorical question? The reason given for requiring voter IDs (while possibly not the primary one) is to prevent voter fraud. Are you asking if there has every been a case of voter fraud? If so, here is one example [1].

[1] https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/oagnews/release.php?id=...

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I think the above poster is implying that voter fraud is so infrequent as to not be a problem.

I also note that mandatory ID laws wouldn't have stopped the case you linked - they had IDs but the fraudulent bit was the citizenship!

I'm not from the US but don't IDs require proof of citizenship? I mean, if an illegal immigrant were to try to get a driver license wouldn't they have to prove that they were legally in the US? Or can anyone from any country take a driving test and get a legal American drivers license?

If the later, then I can understand why people are against requiring such an arbitrary form of identification.

One can be a legal resident of the US, have a driver's license, and be unable to vote. I know a number of foreign nationals with licenses.

A bored immigration guy in Detroit once amused himself by pointing out that neither my driver's license nor my draft card showed that I was in fact a citizen of the US, or I guess a legal resident. When I said that this was the only ID I was carrying, and shrugged, he waved me through.

if an illegal immigrant were to try to get a driver license wouldn't they have to prove that they were legally in the US?

Varies from State to State as far as know. At least in some states it's enough to prove that you live in the state, not that you are living there legally.

There's been activity to standardize checks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REAL_ID_Act

I definitely had to show the 4 types of documents the last couple of times I've moved (photo/birth/status/address). Stupidly, the first id that was obtained by showing that stuff didn't serve as proof of the first 3 when I moved again.

Youve linked an example of a woman who registered some non-citizens to vote which did not sway the election in her favor. I agree that non-citizens should not vote, but i do not agree with increased regulation from the government in order to fight against voter fraud which did not influence an election.

Can you link to a single instance of voter fraud effecting the outcome of an election?

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article322208/Missouri-...

I'll admit that I am surprised youve managed to find an election influenced by fraud, unfortunately the proposed solution of voter id laws dont seem to address this situation.

How would voter id laws prevent an american citizen from voting in a different district?

For example the texas election ID doesnt even include your address.[1]

[1]http://www.dps.texas.gov/DriverLicense/electionID.htm

I was answering a direct request for "a single instance of voter fraud [a]ffecting the outcome of an election". I have no comment on voter ID laws.

areyousure?

im kidding, but seriously thats a really interesting article/event - what search terms did you use, or did you have prior knowledge of that incident?

I do find it amusing to post under my username, but perhaps it is a bit caustic.

I found the incident a few months ago when I simply tried to collect a bunch of data on voter fraud in order to estimate how prevalent it is. Because the issue is so highly politicized, you have to dredge through an excessive amount of bullshit just to find references to specific elections. That election is mentioned in this article (which I, incidentally, recommend reading in full) about Hans von Spakovsky in the New Yorker, albeit in a VERY different guise than two relatives of the candidate: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/29/the-voter-fraud...

A much more interesting election is that of Loretta Sanchez to the House of Representatives in 1996. That resulted in a Congressional investigation that lasted for over a year, whose findings are worth reading if you're interested in analysis of voter fraud. For a quick link to an article from the time, see for example http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/13/cq/sanchez.html

Can you link to a single instance of a voter affecting the outcome of an election?

Yeah, i noticed this a couple hours ago, but after the edit time had expired.

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