Voter Fraud

   Voter fraud is virtually nonexistent in America, despite all the rantings of the Radical Right.
   The Republican nominee for President claimed this week that "We have people vote ten times," adding that "If you don't have voter ID, you can just keep voting and voting and voting."
   Here are some facts gathered from the election of 2000, when Republican George W. Bush won through to the White House:
   More than 100 million people voted that year. Subsequently, a five-year probe by the Justice Department found a total of 120 allegations of voter fraud. That amounts to 0.000001 percent of all voters. And of those 120 allegations, just 86 were proven.
   More recently, research conducted by an affiliate of Arizona State University found that in the 12 years after the 2000 presidential election, there were about 2,000 cases of voter fraud nationwide, an average of less than 200 a year.  Only 10 of all those cases alleged voter impersonation.
   Do the math: 10 cases of impersonation fraud over a 12-year period involving millions of voters each year doesn't yield much proof of a perceived problem threatening the American system.
   So why all the fuss about a virtually nonexistent issue?
   Since all the fuss is coming from Republicans, and the alleged problems are in districts with minority groups who are heavily Democratic voters, one conclusion would be that the campaign against supposed fraud is racist.
   Here are two more numbers to consider: Of the 2,472 delegates to the Republican National Convention this year, just 18 of them were of African-American heritage.