League: Not voting is the real scandal. Voter fraud is not a problem

1. The headline on KPVI, a Pocatello station, was “Voter fraud is rarer [in Wyoming] than UFO sightings.” The Heritage Foundation agrees. It doesn’t list a conviction for voter fraud in Wyoming since 2014—a felon convicted in Alaska voted in Park County. The previous conviction was in 2001: a married couple moved, but voted absentee in Natrona County. The list is current. Other states have fraud cases. Look at Mississippi with 6 in 2019. Voter fraud is not a problem in Wyoming. Felons who vote, and there are some, are not being prosecuted. Showing an ID at every election doesn’t solve that. This bill solves a problem that doesn’t exist. It’s a popular solution because it explains unpopular election results.

2. Let’s look at what this bill thinks needs to be prevented:

A. Someone, a cheater, wants to vote using a registered voter’s name and address because:

1. He’s not a citizen

2. He’s not 18

3. He’s a felon whose rights have not been restored

4. He’s not a resident of Wyoming

5. He wants to see if he can

5. He is willing to lie and is perhaps being paid by someone else who wants to change a race’s outcome.

B. What does the cheater or his boss need to know?

1. Name and address of the voter to impersonate

2. That the person isn’t going to vote and didn’t cast an absentee ballot

3. That an election judge won’t catch the impersonation (Wyoming is a big small town)

C. Is this information readily available? Part of it is.

1 . People or organizations with a valid reason can obtain a list of registered voters with their names, addresses, and parties.

2. But safeguards are in place.

a. Voter rolls are run through the Social Security Administration data base so that the decreased are removed.

b. Absentee voters are identified in poll books with their ballots’ stage noted–requested, mailed, returned, processed. The information is confirmed with the clerk’s office if a person turns up saying he lost his absentee ballot.

3. Cheaters have to know that the person is not going to vote in this election.

Do enough people fit this outline that stopping one cheater is worth having everyone show an ID at every election?

We don’t think so. If someone wanted to change the outcome of an election in Wyoming, it would be more efficient to find a method with a greater impact instead of looking for individual cheaters willing to pretend to be someone else and keep quiet about it.

And is requiring an ID which a voter must buy reinstating something like a poll tax? Even an ID from the state is $10; a passport is $145. A Shoshone ID is free if one is over 60. Then there’s the unfunded mandate of finding staff or volunteers to checks IDs and process provisional ballots.

Our federal legislators have frequently told other federal officials that Wyoming does government right and they should be copying us. We don’t need to be copying other states’ bad ideas. We should lead the way facing the real problem: our low voter turnout. In the 2020 election according to the Secretary of State’s web site, 31.5% of the voting age population voted in the primary and 62.6% of the voting age population voted in the general election. That’s the real scandal.