But Mr. Obama has not proposed creating yet another Big Government program to provide the elderly, the poor, and minorities with free or subsidized photo-ID’s so they might participate in any or all of the activities I mentioned above. Instead, his solution to the voting issue is to recklessly resist improving ballot security by opposing efforts to implement and enforce photo-ID at the polls.

How about redirecting the court costs of challenging state Voter ID laws to providing photo IDs for those the ACLU and NAACP claim can’t get IDs on their own?

If passed in the fall, the Republican-led amendment would require all voters to provide a state-approved photo identification card at polling stations. And it would change the way college students with temporary residency could vote in local elections, especially on school referendum and property tax ballots. . .

In order to vote, the proposed law states the voter must have an “original receipt for a new, renewed or updated driver’s license, state identification card, or voter identification card” that clearly lists the residency within the precinct. A student I.D. will work only if it is coupled with a state-issued driver’s license with a current address.

Far from “disenfranchising” students as some critics contend, the proposed ID requirement offers student voters a choice, as pinpointed in an MPR commentary:

A student may have been here for years attending a Minnesota college or university, have lived in Minnesota the whole time and still have a driver’s license and vehicle registration from another state. This student may have a difficult time getting a valid Minnesota I.D. without becoming a resident of Minnesota.   This does not mean that they cannot vote; they just have to vote in their state of residence, or become residents of Minnesota.

According to Citizens Against Voter Abuse (CAVA) President, Mary Helen Flores:

“The pattern is for the politiqueras, which is a person paid by candidates, to go and specifically take votes from people, the mail in votes, they go and they pick up the mail in ballots from people who live in assisted living centers, the nursing homes. They take their ballots, fill them out for them and then mail it and those votes are not valid votes, they’re stealing votes and so it ruins the authenticity of all our elections,” says Flores.

The watchdog group is asking residents to stand up and help put a stop to this illegal activity… A member of the group has put up a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of any person committing voter fraud here in our county.  “There is a lack of enforcement, a lack of redress from the state level on down with regards to how the mail in system works,” says Flores.

CAVA isn’t the only group concerned with mail-in ballot fraud.  Investigative journalists at Texas Watchdog have reported extensively on the persistent problem of vote harvesting, including a Dec 2010 story of politiquera Dora Gonzalez who confessed to illegally harvesting 100+ ballots on behalf of a Val Verde County Commissioner in the March 2010 Democrat primary.  A judge ordered a new election, but Gonzalez wasn’t charged.  Most perpetrators aren’t, as prosecutors say “the penalties are so small they don’t deter the crime.”

TW also interviewed politiquera Zaida Bueno about her vote harvesting activities, for which she and two others received “a year of probation, a 180-day suspended jail sentence, a $200 fine and 40 hours of community work.”  Bueno claimed she didn’t know vote harvesting was illegal.  “After all, it was the candidates themselves who were giving her the instructions, she said.”   

Along with minimal risk of punishment is the potential for big rewards.  Starr County election administrator Rafael Montalvo testified to the state legislature’s Elections Committee in 2008 that sometimes politiqueras receive $10 per voter and can make good money during an election period – as much as $30,000 a season, by some estimates.  So will the threat of reward-motivated informing to authorities deter these professional fraudsters?

What about legislative action to deter mail-in ballot fraud?  Again via TW, “Without a doubt we have a problem,” said state rep. Aaron Pena, whose district includes most of Hidalgo County in South Texas. Over his four victorious campaigns, he’s been approached by vote harvesters, or politiqueros, with promises of vote delivery.  When he refused, he said he was told he was courting ‘political trouble’ and making himself a target.”    But so far most Texas legislators have been hesitant to propose substantive changes to secure mail-in balloting.  Perhaps in its next session, Texas will consider the recommendations of the American Civil Rights Union’s “Protect Your Vote!” project, as already implemented in Kansas’ SAFE Act, and pass legislation requiring signature verification and an acceptable proof of ID when voting by mail – just as soon as they finish litigating their in-person photo Voter ID law.