Voter ID Equals 'Jim Crow'? Nonsense!

By Gina Miller
DakotaVoice.com

On Tuesday’s broadcast I featured the deranged thinking of the communist Left that was displayed in a column from the Communist Party USA’s website written by someone calling himself Gus Hall (although I doubt it was the Gus Hall, since the column was supposedly written in 2001, and Mr. Hall died in 2000).

During my visit to the CPUSA website I also noticed another column in the People’s World section that reported union leadership has declared state attempts to get voter identification laws passed are equivalent to Jim Crow tactics. The term “Jim Crow” refers to a system of laws and beliefs which were used before the Civil Rights era to harshly and unfairly deny black people equal access, treatment and opportunity. Thankfully, Jim Crow’s funeral was many decades ago.

The People’s World column grabbed my attention, partly because of the patently stupid assertion of the headline: “Unions say “Voter ID” is Jim Crow revisited.” It also drew me in, because here in Mississippi, the citizens of the state managed to collect more than the required number of signatures to put a voter ID initiative on this November’s ballot. The citizens of the state of Mississippi will decide whether or not we should have to prove we are who we say we are in order to vote.

Hopefully, this ballot initiative will easily pass. After all, who could be against a common-sense requirement that helps keep our votes a little more protected from voter fraud? Those who would be against such a practical law would be the very people who wish to engage in voter fraud, of course.

However, those on the communist Left deny that is the case at all. Instead, they engage in a preposterous campaign of lies that claims having to prove you are who you say you are will somehow rob certain people of their right to vote. This is insanely wrongheaded, to be sure, but I suppose that’s the best stupid argument with which they can come up, since their position, as with most leftist positions, is dead wrong.

Taking a look at the tortured logic of the people cited in the communist news article, we see a desperate attempt to deceive the public, which is nothing new for those on the Left. After all, deception is their default setting.

The column’s author, Mark Gruenberg, reports,

“Calling state ‘voter ID’ efforts moves reminiscent of the days of Jim Crow segregation and poll taxes in the South, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker says the federation is lobbying the Obama administration vigorously to battle such moves. The AFL-CIO executive council, meeting here this week, issued a formal statement on the issue.

The federation is also mapping plans to educate its members, other workers and the wider electorate in how to overcome efforts to suppress the right to vote, according to Holt-Baker. ‘We’re making everyone among our allies aware so these Jim Crow tactics and this modern poll tax will not deter people from voting,’ she said.”

There is simply nothing right in those two paragraphs. Ms. Baker is calling on the Obama administration to fight voter ID legislation, as if that corrupt administration is not already busy enough fighting the American people in so many other ways, including suing states for voting to enforce immigration laws to help fight the illegal alien invasion of our country.

She claims that having to present valid identification will suppress people’s right to vote and amounts to a poll tax. That is utter nonsense, and she surely knows it. In our nation, American citizens have identification, and are required to present it for a myriad of reasons. Even if you don’t drive and have no need of a driver’s license, you still need a state-issued ID card to cash a check, apply for a job, and for countless other reasons.

The only place where we see the communist Left pitch a hissy fit over having to present identification is to vote. These people like Ms. Baker are lying when they say our push to require photo ID to vote is in any way an attempt to prevent American citizens from voting. No one is trying to suppress anyone’s voting rights. Voter ID proponents are trying to regain the integrity of the ballot box, and that is all.

If there really were such a widespread epidemic of people not possessing valid ID, then agitator groups like ACORN would certainly step up to make sure all their Democrat constituents were able to get that identification. The fact is these people do have ID. Otherwise, how could they apply for all the government taxpayer money handouts that many of them receive? We do not hear people like Ms. Baker railing against citizens having to show identification to apply for or receive government “benefits” now do we?

In truth, the two groups of people affected by voter ID laws are illegal aliens and American citizen fraud voters. Since the Democrat agenda is based on faulty, evil ideas that the majority of Americans do not accept, they need all the votes they can get by hook or crook. The illegal alien vote is essential to Democrat power, as are fraudulent votes by American citizens. Voter ID laws will help curb such criminal activity.

After Ms. Baker made her remarks, the AFL-CIO Executive Council released its own statement on, as the column’s author put it, “state moves restricting voting rights,” which is a gross mischaracterization, of course.

In part, the statement declared,

“Other states have passed laws requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote – laws that have a disparate impact on naturalized immigrants and on elderly, poor and other citizens who lack this documentation.”

Reading between the lines here, voter ID laws thwart illegal alien voting.

The statement also claimed,

“… that supporters of strict voter IDs say they’re needed to combat fraud – but can’t prove the fraud occurs.”

There is yet another false statement. A simple Internet search for “convicted voter fraud” yields over 50,000 results in under two seconds, and the first page alone is loaded with ACORN and NAACP voter crimes.

ACORN is a leader in voter fraud, as the website Rotten Acorn documents. They have a voter fraud map that cites ACORN and its Project Vote fraud going back to 1998, with many of entries being from the 2008 election. The list includes these voter crimes, among others,

“AR 1998 A contractor with ACORN-affiliated Project Vote was arrested for falsifying about 400 voter registration cards.

CO 2004 An ACORN employee admitted to forging signatures and registering three of her friends to vote 40 times.

FL 2009 In September, 11 ACORN workers were accused of forging voter registration applications in Miami-Dade County during the last election. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state attorney’s office scoured hundreds of suspicious applications provided by ACORN and found 197 of 260 contained personal ID information that did not match any living person.

IN 2008 Election officials in Indiana have thrown out more than 4,000 ACORN-submitted voter registrations after finding they had identical handwriting and included the names of many deceased Indianans, and even the name of a fast food restaurant.

MO 2008 Nearly 400 ACORN-submitted registrations in Kansas City have been rejected due to duplication or fake information.

MO 2003 Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally.

NM 2008 Prosecutors are investigating more than 1,100 ACORN-submitted voter registration cards after a county clerk found them to be fraudulent. Many of the cards included duplicate names and slightly altered personal information.

WA 2007 Three ACORN employees pleaded guilty, and four more were charged, in the worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history. More than 2,000 fraudulent voter registration cards were submitted by the group during a voter registration drive.”

The list goes on, but you get the gist of it. When those on the communist union Left claim no one can “prove” voter fraud, they are simply lying, which is certainly nothing new for the Left.

The unions are desperate to hold on to their power, and they are alarmed as they see Americans waking up by the millions and saying, “Hold on! We can’t afford these exorbitant union salaries and pensions!” So, the unions and others on the communist Left are doubling down on their efforts to prevent anything that might stop their insatiable money and power grabbing agenda. Voter ID laws are near the top of their hit list.

It is critical that we enact voter ID laws in as many states as possible. Although they will not stop all voter fraud, they will go a long way in thwarting it.

For those of us here in Mississippi, this November 8^th, one of three ballot initiatives is voter ID, and it will say this on the ballot,

“Should the Mississippi Constitution be amended to require a person to submit government issued photo identification in order to vote?”

The obvious answer it YES.

Mississippi also has two other very important ballot initiatives along with voter ID. One would define personhood as beginning at conception—that life begins at the moment of fertilization, and the third would place limits on state and local governments’ ability to seize private property by eminent domain. These are critical initiatives, and all would amend the Mississippi State Constitution.

So, let’s be sure to turn out every one to vote in this important election on November 8^th.

Gina Miller, a native of Texas, is a radio commentator. She also works with her husband installing and repairing residential irrigation systems and doing landscaping on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.