Texas political analysts say we should not be alarmed by an Associated Press report that determined that as many as 500 people may have voted 'improperly' in last November's elections, largely due to confusion over the revised Voter ID law, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Cal Jillson, a political analyst at Southern Methodist University, tells News Radio 1200 WOAI this does not appear to be a case of widespread voter 'fraud,' so much as it is confusion and opposition to the Voter ID law.
"People who don't have a photo ID with them can sign an affidavit that they either don't have a photo ID or don't have one with them," Jillson said. "Now, they're supposed to come back with that photo ID and show it later. Now the AP has found that several hundred people did not do that."
Jillson and other analysts say much of this was 'confusion' over the revisions to the photo ID law that were made immediately before the election.Following a challenge from civil rights groups, the state Photo ID law, which was the toughest in the country, was thrown out and a last minute compromise was cobbled together which allowed people who don't have a Photo ID to sign an affidavit, show some sort of other ID like a utility bill, and, if they can't do that, they were to be allowed to cast a 'provisional ballot' until they can prove their identity.
Many Elections Adminis trators told the AP that some voters flat out told the poll workers that they had an ID but were going to be refuse to show it to show their opposition to the law.
"In other cases, poll workers interpreted the revised Photo ID law 'openly,' and erred on the side of letting people vote.
Many analysts point out that to make it to the 'show your ID' phase of voting, a person has to be legally registered, so this was not a case of ineligible or illegal voters simply walking up to the polls and casting ballots. And while 'voter impersonation' was possible, Jillson says even if that was the case in every single incident cited by the AP, which is unlikely, 500 improper voters would not be enough to make a difference in a County Constable race, let alone in the race for President.
"That does not mean that in a nation where 120 million votes are cast in a Presidential election, you are not going to find some of these instances," he said. "It's not that there were none, it's just that there were too few to affect outcomes."
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