Twitter Transcript of Federalist Society Voter ID panel


@TheRepLawyer: For those Twitter challenged, below is the tweeting transcript of the voter ID panel at the Federalist Society Convention.  Remember, the tweets are in reverse order.  The panelists included: Hans von Spakovsky, John Fund, Spencer Overton and Daniel Tokaji.


von Spakovsky discusses Ike Brown case


Fund: “it is often minority voters that are victims of vote fraud”


Fund: “it is very difficult to prove vote fraud after it happens”


Fund interviewed former Congressman Artur Davis who saw vote fraud firsthand


Audience member points out there was a lot in Milwaukee Police Report that Tokaji failed to mention


von Spakovsky: only 1 lawyer in DOJ prosecuting election crimes, but had 42 lawyers prosecuting violations of voting rights laws


Fund: small numbers can have “profound consequences” in close elections


Fund: NY Daily News in 2004, found that 46,000 people in NY were registered to vote in NY and FL


Overton: “double voting should not be tolerated”


Tokaji admits he has never been a poll watcher


Roman Buhler: Overton sounded like was praising Rhode Island voter ID


Roman Buhler: we heard sworn testimony that individuals said don’t have to be citizen to register to vote


von Spakovsky: some states have special notation on face of license that indicates whether is citizen


von Spakovsky: GA allows student IDs to vote


Overton: MOVE Act was important piece of legislation


von Spakovsky: can combine voter ID with other reforms to combat other vote fraud


von Spakovsky: House Administration report concluded that preponderance evidence that 600-700 non U.S. citizens voted in 1996 Sanchez race


Tokaji concedes that surveys of people without ID may be too high


Fund: let’s get IDs for those people who do not have ID


Fund: every empirical study shown that voter ID not depress turnout


Fund: judge said that arguments of voter ID opponents were “utterly incredible and unreliable”


Fund: there are ways to vote without undue burden in Indiana and Georgia if come without a photo ID


Overton: Alvarez study did not find racial differences in turnout


Overton claims Davis wrote about absentee ballots, but Davis actually wrote “I’ve changed my mind on voter ID laws”


Overton claims Davis wrote about absentee ballots, but Davis actually wrote said “I’ve changed my mind on voter ID laws”


von Spakovsky: majority of black counties voted in favor of voter ID in Mississippi


von Spakovsky: no one says that requesting ID for checking into hotel or going on airplane is Jim Crow


von Spakovsky: “claims that this is Jim Crow are historically preposterous”


von Spakovsky: plaintiffs claimed hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised voters but failed to find a single witness


von Spakovsky: increase in turnout of African Americans in GA climbed between 2008 and 2010


von Spakovsky: Fairfax County turned over names of hundred voters that are not U.S. citizens that are registered to vote


von Spakovsky: Indiana voter ID law stopped voter who pulled out a Florida drivers license when tried to vote in Indiana


von Spakovsky: photo ID in name “John Smith” prevent impersonation as well as double voting


von Spakovsky mentions Heritage study – read it


von Spakovsky – voter ID was 6-3 decision written by Justice Stevens


von Spakovsky – no decrease in turnout after voter ID laws


von Spakovsky – Lincoln Chafee signed photo ID law and calls it “reasonable request to ensure the integrity of our elections”


von Spakovsky – tells fellow panelist “hope you didn’t miss your train because they were asking for photo ID”


Tokaji mentions Milwaukee Police Department Report


Tokaji admits that there are a lot of problems with our election systems


Fund: we have two civil rights to protect: to have access to the vote and to not to have anyone’s vote cancelled out


Fund: Congressman Artur Davis who seconded Obama’s nomination wrote op-ed that had no evidence when opposed voter ID


Fund: African American Speaker Gordon Fox, African American Harold Metts helped pass voter ID in Rhode Island


Fund: Clinton and Wasserman Schultz compare voter ID to Jim Crow


Fund: 25% statistic that African Americans don’t have voter ID is false


Fund: examples of vote fraud in Troy, New York and Madison County, Florida


Fund: voter fraud can make a difference


Fund: 144 people convicted of voting illegally in Minnesota Senate race


Fund: Minnesota’s Senate race decided by 312 votes, giving 60th vote which was crucial in passage of Obamacare


Fund: Supreme Court held that there were “flagrant examples of voter fraud”


Fund: without photo ID, you can’t cash a check, rent a video, enter a federal building


Fund: President Carter called photo ID “a move forward” that is “nondiscriminatory”


Fund: should try to make it ‘easy to vote, hard to cheat’


Fund: in Washington state governor’s race decided by 129 votes, King County found votes 17 times