Court Ruling May Impede Thousands of Ohio Voters

With three weeks until Election Day, partisans on both sides are once again drumming up fears that the voting process in Ohio is tilted against their side. Republicans rail about an army of fake voters; Democrats say Republicans want to disqualify newly registered voters, who are expected to favor Barack Obama.

The evidence suggests both sides have little to fear.

A 2005 report by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, for example, found that of more than 9 million votes cast in the state's 2002 and 2004 general elections, there were four instances of ineligible people attempting to vote. The data were collected from interviews with all 88 county Boards of Election.

This year, Davidson, as co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and other GOP leaders are complaining that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's interpretation of election law has favored Democrats while opening polling places to voter fraud.

Republicans are accusing ACORN, Obama and Democrats in general of "massive vote fraud" based on problem registrations.

Here is the fact: "From 2002 to 2005 only one person was found guilty of registration fraud. Twenty people were found guilty of voting while ineligible and five people were found guilty of voting more than once."

That is the entire United States. 26 examples of vote fraud in four years. THIS is what Fox News, CNN, all of talk radio, all the right-wing blogs, etc. are going on about 24 hours a day right now -- 26 cases in four years.

Reference: Lorraine C. Minnite, [http://www.demos.org/pubs/Analysis.pdf "An Analysis of Voter Fraud in The United States,"] Dēmos, Undated, (Adapted from the 2003 report Securing The Vote, by L. Minnite and D. Callahan, with updates.)

From The Progress Report: The Truth About Voter Fraud

Also, take a look at the Election Protection Wiki.