Congressman John Lewis (D – GA) became famous for his peaceful actions of protest during the Civil Right’s Movement in the 1960’s.
Lately however, he seems to have found the tactic of using loaded language and making fact-less exaggerations to be more effective in getting his voice heard.
In an appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews last week, Lewis made several vicious statements in an attempt to disparage those who are trying to limit the occurrence of voter fraud.
Lewis slammed the idea of voter ID laws, saying that they were similar to a “poll tax,” and that implementation of such laws would be a “sin.”
He also gave his opinion that voting should be as easy as “getting a glass of water.”
On Tuesday night, during a book signing for his newly released autobiography, Lewis avoided such loaded language for most of his speech. Instead, he called for civility, asking, “Can we be a little more human, can we be kind to each other?”
Upon reaching the topic of voter ID laws however, he excoriated those responsible for proposing such laws, saying that such laws are, “A deliberate, systematic attempt to make it almost impossible for people to participate in the democratic process.”
Attempting to misrepresent the true intentions of the proposed laws, he warned, “We cannot afford to let people steal an election before the election takes place.”
During the question and answer session, I asked him for his take on a recent poll which reported that a majority of American’s believe voter ID laws were necessary.
Completely ignoring the issue of voter fraud, he claimed such laws “would be a step backward,” and that he had heard about elderly people and people in rural areas who may have never owned a driver’s license.
However, I brought up the examples of voter fraud occurring in multiple states, including one instance where a poll worker was willing to give U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s ballot to a young man. He simply replied, “I don’t think you’re going to see anything like that enough.”
During his speech, Congressman Lewis called upon all who were present to speak out if they believed in something, saying, “You have to insist on the truth. Nothing is stronger than the truth.”
The truth is, voter is fraud becoming a huge problem in America today.
In Florida, election officials are examining 180,000 potential cases of registered voters who are not American citizens.
In the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Colorado, nearly 5,000 votes are believed to have come from individuals who were not citizens of Colorado. In that election, Democrat Michael Bennet narrowly defeated his Republican challenger, Ken Buck.
If a young male is able to walk into a polling place today, and be offered a voter ballot belonging to the U.S. Attorney General, without so much as an ID check, isn’t that alone enough evidence to support increased voter regulation?
With millions of illegal immigrants choosing to break the law every day by residing in a country without proper citizenship, who is to say they wouldn’t go a step further by trying to influence the passage of laws through illegal voting?
Rep. John Lewis was spot on in telling individuals to “insist on the truth.”
It’s time for America to insist on truth in their election results, a goal that can only be achieved by stopping voter fraud.
About John Twarog
It’s usually the biggest offenders are the loudest critics. How do voter ID laws affect anyone’s ability to vote if they’re entitled? Obviously this congressman has something to hide. One has to show ID when buying beer or carry a driver’s license when operating a car, how is it wrong to ask someone to identify themselves when they vote? You are required to sign a document and show your identification when you register. What’s wrong with comparing your identification with your voting registration? Therein lies the rub….fraud. .
I am taking no position on whether photo ID laws are a good idea or the motivations of the politicians who have passed them. But I would like to point out some issues with the evidence cited in this article.
You cite articles noting that non-citizens are registered to vote in Florida and Colorado and that, in Colorado, some of them voted in the 2010 election.
Non-citizens may obtain drivers’ licenses in both Florida and Colorado:
http://www.gathergoget.com/resources/default.aspx
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1251714422992&ssbinary=true
So passing laws that require voters to show a photo ID such as a driver’s license when they vote will not prevent non-citizens from voting. Solving this problem requires some other solution.
As for the Eric Holder incident, the imposter was not offered a ballot: “The video shows the man entering a polling place in Washington, D.C., then cuts to the man asking a poll worker, ‘Do you have an Eric Holder?’ After the O’Keefe associate confirms Holder’s address, which is censored, the poll worker offers him the voter roll and says, ‘Please sign your name there.’ The fake Eric Holder then says he left his ID in the car and leaves.” http://mediamatters.org/blog/201204090013. The imposter would have had to successfully forge Holder’s signature so that it matched the authorized signature in the poll book before he would have been offered a ballot. Because the imposter did not try to do that, he did not actually test the existing safeguards in the system. Had the imposter attempted to forge Holder’s signature, and had the signature not matched, the poll worker may have challenged the imposter and denied him a ballot. Or maybe not. But we’ll never know because he did not try.
If you are interested, I am monitoring and reporting on the legal challenge to the PA Photo ID Law here: http://freeandequalpa.wordpress.com/