The HattiesburgAmerican weighs in on the coming Mississippi referendum on photo ID: The 2004 gubernatorial race in Washington State, for instance, was filled with voting irregularities. The election was contested, and a Washington court found that 1,400 felons voted illegally, along with the votes of 53 dead people and two non-citizens. There were also 27 double votes. There likewise has been evidence presented of dead people voting and helping to elect Ophelia Ford to the Tennessee state senate, and in another 2004 election, investigators in Milwaukee established that 4,500 more ballots were cast in excess of the number of voters who actually showed up to the polls, including 100 voters using fake names. In his book, “Turning Point,” former President Jimmy Carter discussed his race for Georgia State Senate in 1962, which involved a corrupt local sheriff who had cast votes on behalf of the dead.
Politicians are sometimes heard, in jest, sharing an adage with friends and neighbors: Vote early and often. Most snicker at the thought, knowing they would never partake in illegality, but understand nonetheless that voter fraud is a recurring problem as old as the ballot box itself.