Quid Est Veritas: Defacto, Dejure

By Patrick Weadon

The issue of voter fraud raises two important questions: Is there voter fraud in the state of Maryland? And, if so, what can the state do to ensure that every vote that is cast is legitimate? To answer these questions, I reflect on an incident that happened to me recently.

This year, I served as the manager of Severna Park High School’s ice hockey club. During a tournament game, a Severna Park player engaged in fisticuffs and was suspended by the league for several games. The following Monday, Severna Park played Eleanor Roosevelt High School in College Park. The mighty Falcons won 7-2, but — per the rules of the league — yours truly failed to ensure that the suspended player’s name was entered on the official score sheet.

The next day I received an email from a senior league official informing me that because of the omission, he could only assume that the suspended player had played and that we would have to forfeit the game.

I protested vehemently and noted that the player in question was at the game but had watched, not played in the contest. Despite my protests, the commissioner remained unconvinced, and it appeared that our team’s perfect record was in jeopardy.

Undaunted, I spoke with one of the player’s parents who had taken a slew of wonderful pictures of the match. It turned out that several of the photos clearly showed the player in question watching the game from behind the glass. Presented with this evidence, the commissioner eventually relented and ultimately reversed his decision.

I mention this incident because it struck me that the commissioner’s initial narrow interpretation was based not on the truth of what had happened, but rather my failure to meet an administrative requirement. A skeptic might conclude that he was using the rules to circumvent the real facts of the situation.

In the same vein, when reactionaries use administrative rules to deny innocent people the right to vote, they do great harm to our democracy. The fact is that there is little proof of legitimate voter fraud in our nation. As Professor Alan Lichtman of American University has noted, for years the Bush administration made the discovery of voter fraud a top priority, but its labors uncovered scant evidence of any wrongdoing.

From 2002 to 2007, only 120 persons nationwide were charged with voter fraud. Furthermore, a 2005 report by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU found that voter ID laws were far more likely to prevent legitimate voters from casting ballots than to prevent fraud.

Voters have a duty to prove that they are who they say they are. However, the rules should not limit the means available to prove their eligibility. In the midst of today’s incredible information revolution, it would only require a little technology and ingenuity for our state to have on hand at the voting booth a wide range of tools allowing judges to easily confirm voter identity.

I am not against some effort to encourage positive voter identification, but the state should bend over backwards to help people do so. In the aggregate, all of this could be solved by issuing everyone a national ID card with biometric information. This card would not only be helpful at the voting booth, but could also list the number of firearms a person owns — but that topic however is one for another day.