Now that several Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives have returned to the state, providing the House with a quorum, the Legislature intends to move forward with its election integrity bill—the bill Democrats cited as their reason for fleeing the state (on private jets).
The likely passage of the bill will engender another round of accusations and media stories, both in Texas and nationally, claiming that election fraud is nonexistent. Or at least the story will begin by saying there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and then subtly shift to implying there is NO voter fraud.
Voter fraud may not be widespread, but it does exist.
In Texas, the attorney general’s office highlights past and current cases. It cites 534 cases of “successfully prosecuted election fraud offenses against 155 individuals” since 2005. There’s also 510 pending cases against 43 defendants, and 386 currently active election fraud investigations.
While most election fraud cases involve relatively few fraudulent votes, not so for all.
For example, on November 6, 2020, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the state’s Election Fraud Unit, working with local law enforcement officials, charged “a social worker in the Mexia State Supported Living Center (SSLC), with 134 felony counts of purportedly acting as an agent and of election fraud.”
Note the fact that “local law enforcement officials” were involved. They are often the key to arresting and prosecuting voter fraud—as recently happened in deep blue California.
According to KTLA 5 on August 13, “A Compton city councilman and five other people were charged with obtaining fraudulent votes in a runoff election that was ultimately decided by one vote, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.”
The story continues, “[Isaac] Galvan and [Jace] Dawson, a former candidate for the Compton City Council, worked together to secure votes to ensure Galvan would retain his District 2 seat during a runoff election in June, the criminal complaint alleges.”
Note another important fact in this story: A few, or even one, fraudulent votes can decide an election. That’s more of a problem in local than statewide or national elections, and especially in runoff elections where voter turnout tends to be low. But fraudulent votes can determine an election’s outcome.
And one more point, both Republicans and Democrats can commit voter fraud.
Here’s a New York Post story from June. “The Staten Island District Attorney’s office is investigating allegations that a City Council candidate has committed massive election fraud—including registering a dead man to vote for him.” (Note these are just allegations, which led to a recount in July.)
The long-running joke is that dead people only vote for Democrats. In the example above, a dead man may have voted for a Republican.
August 24, 2021