Problems on the local voting front

Do we have a voting fraud issue in our country?

Let’s take a look at what happened in South Carolina in 2012. In 2012, the South Carolina Attorney General (a Republican) made this statement on Fox News; “We found out that there were over 900 people who died and then subsequently voted. That number could be even higher. We know for a fact that there are deceased people whose identity are being used in elections in South Carolina.”

At the same time the governor of South Carolina (a Republican) said this on Fox News: “Without voter IDs, let’s be clear, I don’t want dead people voting in the state of South Carolina.”

The so-called votes by dead people were the result of clerical errors or mistaken identity. Sometimes a son had the same name as a deceased father and poll workers mixed up a dead father with a living son. Or bad data matching. The scanners used in the polling places were too sensitive and mistakes by the scanners happened. In one case someone cast an absentee ballot before dying (his/her vote still counts under the law).

In the end, the probe by the State Law Enforcement Division found just five votes that remained unresolved after the extensive investigation. The total number of votes cast were 1,365,480. Not one of the five errors that were unresolved were due to zombies.

We do however have a voting problem in our country. During 2012, the last Presidential Election had only 57.5 percent of eligible citizens voting. Some countries make it a requirement to vote, sort of like the requirement to show up at the courthouse for jury selection. We as a country should be finding ways to encourage and to make it easier for citizens to vote, not make up stories about zombies.

Michael Grimes

Sequim