Opinion : To the Editor: Voting fraud hysteria in Iowa

To The Editor:

Something happened recently that received a little media coverage about the current Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate decision not to continue with the court appeal from his predecessor Matt Schultz in an attempt to remove thousands of Iowans from voter rolls to suppress voting in the guise of routing out illegal voting.

The voters scheduled to be removed would have to supply several indentifying documents to regain their right to vote even though there was no reason, other that having a so-called “foreign” name. A lower court ruled that Schultz’s attempt was unconstitutional and would put an undue burden on legal voters. But Schultz was undaunted and appealed the ruling.

The hysteria about voter fraud has been perpetuated by Republicans in 2008 and again in 2012 who could not accept that the majority of voters elected President Obama not once but twice. It could not be because that was the majority’s wishes. His election twice had to be a Democratic plot across the nation creating massive voter fraud hence de-legitimizing the election of President Obama. (Keep in mind the only election in recent history where one candidate won the popular vote and it has remained an unknown the real outcome of the electoral vote but was not declared the winner was in 2000. The Supreme Court stepped in prematurely and stopped the recount in Florida thus handing Bush the election without completing the process.)

States where Republicans controlled the Secretary of State’s and Governor’s office set out to prove this conspiracy by waging war on voter rolls with anyone of certain “foreign” names. Thousands of legitimate voters in several states were denied their right to vote until they proved that they were indeed US citizens.

An extra bonus for the GOP was that the suppression of voters they were targeting generally voted Democratic. The idea was that if Republicans could not win the Presidency because they had the best ideas, they were going to win it by suppressing Democratic voters.

In Iowa, former Secretary of State Matt Schultz took up the fight. He diverted over $250,000 of federal tax-payer money to increase voter turnout and waged an all out war on voting rights in Iowa. He also demanded that a DCI agent should be assigned to this cause, taking that person out of investigating real crime.

Nationally, as well as in Iowa, there was a belief that Democrats were facilitating massive in-person voter fraud scheme. What has been proved over and over again in states, including Iowa where this effort was launched that voter fraud, while it does happen, is miniscule and is not prevalent enough to change the outcome of races. In-person voter fraud is basically non-existent.

In Iowa, many of those few cases that were discovered resulted from confusion by Governor Branstad who rescinded an order by Governor Vilsack that restored voting rights to ex-felons after they had completed their sentence.

As in other states, most of these cases were people voting in the wrong precincts, going to the polls after they had sent in an absentee ballot, or confusion about their voting rights. A massive orchestrated voter fraud scheme of any kind and large enough to change the election outcome has never appeared in any state where this effort was conducted.

What also was discovered that in many cases where orchestrated voter fraud actually took place, Republicans were more often than not were caught up in the dragnet. For a detailed examination read http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/21/shocker-republicans-account-for-most-cases-of-u-s-voter-fraud/.

Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate, no flaming liberal, understands that the role of his office is to improve voter access and integrity not to spend thousands of dollars on a problem that does not exist and has pulled the plug on Schultz’s folly. No matter how hard he tried, Matt Schultz could not find massive voter-fraud in the state and that fact no doubt played into his decision not to run for a 2nd term and his inability to garner Republican support in Iowa’s 3rd District for his failed congressional bid.

The voter-fraud hysteria was perpetuated by Republicans whipping up conservatives who are susceptible to conspiracy theories and dislike for our President and Democrats. (By the way, since the Republicans fared better than Democrats in 2014, does that now mean that Republicans committed voter-fraud. I know it only happens when Democrats win!!)

I await all of the people who bought into the voter-fraud hysteria to now admit you are wrong. But I think I will be waiting a long time. This is from a party that after 6 ½ years of an Obama Presidency still cannot accept that the majority of people in this country voted for him twice.

- Rosemary Schwartz

Vinton