Justin Levitt's The Truth About Voter Fraud

The Voting Rights Act, signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson, made it explicitly clear that denying the right to vote based on race or color was illegal. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act states “no voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied… to deny or abridge the right of any citizen… to vote on account of race or color” (CITE). Voting is a right, not a privilege, and nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than the right to vote. Therefore, the creation of Voter Identification laws takes this country back to a time where voting was a privilege held by a select few— white men— rather than ta right bestowed on the entire nation. Currently,

However, nearly all cases in which voter fraud was found were events of human error. In Justin Levitt’s report The Truth About Voter Fraud, he explains that “voter fraud” is almost always due to human or clerical errors. Due to the fact that there are millions of eligible voters, “voter fraud” due to human error or typos is unavoidable and guaranteed to occur. As Levitt writes, “voter fraud is often due to error in the poll books. It is easy to make an entry in a poll book next to the wrong voter’s ” (Levitt). Another instance of human error in poll books can be attributed to legitimate voters making a mistake, as in California in 1994. Clerical error, such as typos in one’s records, are also ways that interferes with attempts to validate a voter’s information. Another common cause for error is “Bad ‘Matching’” which is an error in the underlying information and partial stories. For example, partial matches, when neglecting middle names or suffixes, can lead to accidental claims of voter fraud. Another distinction that must be made under the wide umbrella of “voter fraud” is the difference between malicious intent and mistakes. Many voters who mistakenly cast ballots are, in fact, citizens rendered ineligible to vote due to criminal conviction (CITE). Election officials, even with special training, still get the law wrong. Clearly, human error can bet attributed to many claims of voter fraud, and is the prime reason that voter fraud