On 08/01/2014 13:54, Gervase Markham wrote: > That's not my question. My question is to you: if you think we should > do nothing about voter fraud until evidence of it exists, how might > you expect such evidence to come to light? For example, you might say: > "Well, someone who committed such fraud might become a Christian and, > as part of their repentance, spill the beans about their deeds." Or > something else. My point: absence of evidence is not evidence of > absence. I feel the burden of proof here is on those who say that > there's no need to identify voters.
The obvious metric is complaints to the police. Widespread voter fraud will be detectable by those involved in the process in a number of ways, such as election results wildly out of whack with canvassing data, individuals being seen voting more than once (political activists for parties will move between wards throughout the day), people voting twice, (Once legitimately, once fraudulently by an imposter) known deceased people voting, and excessively high voter turnout. Despite this, only 25 allegations of voter impersonation at a polling stations were recorded by the Electoral Commission in 2012[1] - 19 of which related to one specific area. (Peterborough) The commission also highlights that none of these cases had any influence on any election result. So why the push for ID? The Electoral Commission's own paper on the issue gives the answer.[2] They are pushing for ID checks for voters not because of fraud or even because THEY think it will reduce fraud, but purely because the PUBLIC think it will reduce fraud. [1] http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/155336/Analysis-of-cases-of-alleged-electoral-fraud-in-2012.pdf, paragraph 1.16. [2] http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/155335/Electoral-fraud-evidence-and-issues-paper-2013.pdf, paragraphs 3.28 onwards -- Please support ORG's work - join and help fund our future: https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [email protected] or use https://lists.openrightsgroup.org/listinfo/org-discuss
