 | |||
| Publications | Issue List | Vote Analysis | Main Page |
| February 26, 2002 | |||
Reform in Election Reform Bill Threatened
Schumer Amendment Assaults Bill's Anti-fraud Provisions The Schumer Amendment threatens the anti-fraud provisions of the pending bill. Here's how:
When individuals can register to vote by mail and then turn around and actually vote by mail, the opportunities for fraud increase dramatically. There is, for example, the "drop-house scam" whereby one person submits multiple mail-in registration forms using one address. As an election approaches, that one person then requests absentee ballots for each of his phantom voters - and votes them all!
Senator Bond has explained to the Senate how the "drop-house" and other scams have been used in St. Louis to register dead neighbors, deceased aldermen, ghosts, and dogs.
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 ("Motor Voter") combats the "drop-house scam" and related frauds by allowing the States to require that individuals vote in person if they registered by mail and have never before voted in that jurisdiction. 42 U.S.C.A. §1973gg-49(c).
The anti-fraud provisions of the pending bill strengthen the provisions from 1993: Under S. 565, any person who registers by mail must, either when registering or voting in a Federal election, provide some form of identification that connects the name on the registration form to a real, live, qualified citizen who is of voting age. The requirement is not onerous. For identification, a person can use a current and valid photo identification; or a current utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, government check, or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter. Persons who do not have these types of identification (or who forget to bring them) may still cast a provisional ballot.
The Schumer Amendment (no. 2914, as modified) would allow a voter to confirm his or her identity by providing only a "signature or personal mark that matches the signature or personal mark of the individual on record with a State or local election official." The Schumer Amendment rips a large hole in the bill's anti-fraud provisions. Under Schumer, a voter may "confirm" his identity merely by showing that he is the same person who signed the registration card, irrespective of how many cards he may have signed or how many aliases he may be using.
The Schumer Amendment would match signatures with signatures, but such a provision should not be confused with an actual anti-fraud provision that seeks to ensure that voting will be done by actual, eligible voters, and only once each.
Top Publications Issue List Vote Analysis Main Page