We’re being told that voter fraud is rampent. In Minnesota there is a constitutional amendment on the ballot that, if passed, would require voters in the state to present state issued photographic identification in order to vote. Minnesota Republicans have been blaming two of their highest profile losses on voter fraud. I’m here to tell you that voter fraud is a real threat, it is happening, but it’s happening in the courtroom not at the polling places:
Around the country, Republican operatives have been making moves to keep Mr. Johnson from becoming their version of Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate whose relatively modest support cut into Al Gore’s 2000 vote arguably enough to help hand the decisive states of Ohio and Florida to George W. Bush.
The fear of Mr. Johnson’s tipping the outcome in an important state may explain why an aide to Mr. Romney ran what was effectively a surveillance operation into Mr. Johnson’s efforts over the summer to qualify for the ballot at the Iowa State Fair, providing witnesses to testify in a lawsuit to block him that ultimately fizzled.
Libertarians suspect it is why Republican state officials in Michigan blocked Mr. Johnson from the ballot after he filed proper paperwork three minutes after his filing deadline.
And it is why Republicans in Pennsylvania hired a private detective to investigate his ballot drive in Philadelphia, appearing at the homes of paid canvassers and, in some cases, flashing an F.B.I. badge — he was a retired agent — while asking to review the petitions they gathered at $1 a signature, according to testimony in the case and interviews.
The Republican Party has been doing its best to prevent Gary Johnson from appearing on the ballots just as the Democratic Party previously attempted to do to Ralph Nader. Both major parties have a history of actively trying to prevent potential competition from being valid options in presidential races.
What’s more fraudulent, a potential handful of individuals voting multiple times or major political parties actively trying to silence those who oppose them? I would say the latter. Preventing candidates from appearing on ballots not only takes votes away from those candidates but it also disenfranchises supporters of those candidates. If you believe the voting system is how an individual expresses their desire during an election and Gary Johnson is prevented from appearing on the ballots how can a libertarian express his or her desire during the presidential election? They can’t. Doesn’t that effectively cheat libertarians out of expressing their desire in this system where everybody supposedly has a voice?
If you want to address voter fraud look no further than these tactics being used by the two major political parties to silence third party candidates. Entire blocks of the voting public are being prevented from expressing their desires during the election.