The sanctity of suffrage is relied upon by Americans. Constitutionalists believe that if the founding document is to be re-enshrined as the law of the land, then they must be free to elect those men and women who will not only restrain themselves according to the fetters forged in the Constitution, but will firmly secure those same shackles on the federal government, as well.
If the integrity of America’s elections was in dispute, then so too would be the legitimacy of the hope of many that there is yet a peaceful method of restoring its limited, constitutional government. Unfortunately, there have been several disturbing examples of the disintegration of the dignity of America’s electoral process published by The New American.
In Colorado:
Congressman Gregg Harper (R-Miss., above left) is chairman of the House Administration Committee and he is concerned about the number of illegal aliens casting votes in elections around the country.
The latest report comes from a study in which as many as 5,000 foreign nationals voted in elections held in 2010 in the state of Colorado.
Gregg called the study’s findings a disturbing wake-up call.
The findings come from a study conducted by the Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler. Gessler told the committee that his departments investigation revealed the names of nearly 12,000 non-citizens who were registered to vote in Colorado.
About 5,000 of those actually cast ballots in the 2010 elections. In that election, Democratic Senator Michael Bennet narrowly defeated Republican Ken Buck in the race to represent Colorado.
The same situation exists in Colorados southern neighbor:
Earlier this week, New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna J. Duran announced that her office has made a disturbing discovery.
After a two-day-long probe into possible fraud in the voter registration rolls, Duran and her team reported that their investigation revealed that at least 117 names of foreign nationals appeared in that database.
Whats more troubling is that every one of those 117 individuals used a social security number that did not match their name. The final result of this cross-checking of files revealed that 37 of those foreigners who illegally registered to vote actually did cast ballots in New Mexico elections.
According to the statement released by Duran, her office scoured documents going back eight years. Bobbi Shearer, the director of the state Bureau of Elections, told reporters that the process of checking this information was arduous, involving very detailed surveys of thousands of names.
Regarding the findings, Shearer commented, “There’s evidence that they’re in the foreign national database, that their name and date of birth matches, and their Social Security number in our database is not valid, and that they did cast votes.
There seems to be an emerging coalition of illegal aliens, non-citizens, and disenfranchised felons that are exerting a substantial and illegal influence on elections. Typically, these voters cast ballots for Democratic candidates, but that is hardly the issue. The fundamental aspect of such rampant voter fraud is the resulting erosion of the integrity of the system as a whole.
The scope of the ongoing assault on the American electoral system is described by an article published last year on americanthinker.com:
Motor Voter opened the door to a massive increase in fraudulent registrations. For example, the number of registered voters in Philadelphia increased by 24% from 1995 to 2004, even as the city’s population declined by 13%. By 2009, an independent study estimated that America’s voter registration rolls included more than 16 million invalid voters. This provides fertile ground for ACORN and other groups that seek to turn phony registrations into votes.
Democrats have consistently attacked anti-fraud proposals, claiming that they violate voters’ civil rights. In particular, they oppose requiring voters to show identification. A recent poll found that 82% of Americans think a photo ID should be required to vote. However, only 25 states check any form of voter identification, and a photo ID is required by just seven.
A PowerPoint presentation available at ElectionCenter.org describes new election legislation proposed by congressional Democrats. They intend to nationalize voter registration and force the states to eliminate voter ID checks, provide absentee ballots to all voters, register voters on Election Day, and permit felons (who overwhelmingly support Democrats) to vote. Each of these measures would create new opportunities for fraud.
This dispiriting dilemma has not come about by accident, however. This synopsis comes from the same article:
The changes that have made our election system less manageable, less accountable, and more vulnerable to fraud did not come about by accident. They are entirely consistent with the Cloward/Piven strategy, which seeks to undermine government institutions by overwhelming them with demands for services. The goal is to achieve a socialist state that will redistribute the nation’s wealth. ACORN was specifically created to execute this strategy, targeting U.S. elections through its voter mobilization arm, Project Vote. Cloward and Piven themselves were longtime proponents of the Motor Voter Act, and they appeared on the podium with President Clinton for the signing ceremony. Earlier this year, Frances Fox Piven joined the Board of Project Vote.
Witness these reports of rampant voter fraud perpetrated during the last election cycle in 2010:
Daytona Beach City Commissioner Derrick Henry and his campaign manager Genesis Robinson face dozens of felony charges involving alleged absentee ballot fraud from Henry’s re-election campaign two months ago.
Authorities say they illegally obtained 92 absentee ballots to boost Henry’s re-election chances. Some voters said they never requested absentee ballots that were in their names, which is a common complaint we have been hearing from across the country, and it echoes a new potentially explosive case.
And:
In Pennsylvania, in the Eighth Congressional District of Bucks County, authorities tell us more than 500 absentee ballot applications are allegedly fraudulent.
Voter Patricia Phipps said someone came to her home, and “asked me to sign my name to prove that he was there. He told me that if he collected enough signatures, he would get to meet President Obama. I was never told that I was signing an absentee ballot request.”
Voters also say they received letters soliciting absentee ballot applications from the “Pennsylvania Voters Assistance Office,” threatening that they may not be able to vote if they did not cooperate and sign an absentee ballot application. The only problem? There is no such office. The letter said it was actually “paid for by PA Victory 2010, a project of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee.”
And from the Empire State:
The Bucks County absentee ballot case appears similar to the ongoing case in Troy, New York, that we have extensively covered.
A special prosecutor has taken DNA samples from nine Troy public officials and political operatives, including five Democratic members of the City Council, in an absentee ballot scandal stemming from the 2009 Working Families Party primary there. The DNA will be compared to samples recovered from dozens of absentee ballots and ballot applications that were allegedly fraudulent. As in Bucks County, voters in Troy said they never filled out the applications.
These stories are chilling to constitutionalists. The avenue that leads toward restoration of America to its constitutional cornerstones federalism, popular sovereignty, enumerated powers, and separation of powers is accessed, it is hoped, through the free and frequent elections of representatives. Were this road revealed to be nothing more than the primrose path to tyranny, where would constitutionalists have to turn in their quest to save the country?
The remedy, as in so many other cases of coordinated abuses of the system, likely is found in state houses and the check the sovereign states are meant to be on the egregious overreaching of the federal government.
