By Jane C. Timm
Reported UFO sightings happen far more than voter fraud, Mother Jones reports.
Republican legislatures are quick to legislate against supposedly rampant voter fraud, but a new report finds that UFO sightings are far more likely than actual voter fraud: 3,615 times more likely, to be exact.
"Voter laws are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist,” PoliticsNation host Al Sharpton said on Thursday.
In 2000 to 2010, just 13 cases of credible, in-person voter fraud were found in the 649 million votes cast in general elections, but the legislative efforts to curb the supposed fraud are huge: in the last 10 years, nearly 1,000 bills have been introduced in 46 states to tighten voting laws. 24 voting restrictions have passed in 17 states in the last year and a half and five important battleground states—Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—will have tighter voter restrictions than they did in 2008.
On the bright side, not all Republicans are on the same page on the issue: Michigan Governor Rick Snyder recently vetoed large parts of a package of bills that would have made it harder for minorities and poor people to vote, claiming the laws would cause "confusion." He added, "Voting rights are precious and we need to work especially hard to make it possible for people to vote."
Pennsylvania House of Representatives Majority Leader Mike Turzai, who voted for a bill in Pennsylvania that could disenfranchise as many as 10% of Pennsylvania's eligible voters, likely doesn't see eye to eye with Snyder on the importance of voting rights for everyone. He recently blurted out his motives with voter laws: securing a battleground state for Romney.
“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation–abortion facility regulations–in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
“This is about helping Republicans get elected, not fraud,” Sharpton said.
These laws make it harder for minorities and students to vote, two voting blocs that tend to lean Democratic. Twenty-five percent of voting-age African-Americans don’t have the photo IDs many of the laws require. One Texas law prohibits the use of college photo IDs, while allowing concealed-handgun licenses as proof of identity. More than 5 million people could be disenfranchised in the upcoming election, Mother Jones found.
“I have my doubt about UFOs, but there’s more of chance they’re out there than voter fraud,” Sharpton concluded.