Patterico's Pontifications

3/15/2011

Clear Evidence of Voter Fraud in New Mexico

Filed under: General,Immigration — Patterico @ 5:14 pm



What will the voter fraud denialists say about this?

The New Mexico secretary of state’s office is cross checking the state’s voter rolls with a list of thousands of foreign nationals who have been issued driver’s licenses.

The work is far from done, but Secretary of State Dianna Duran testified during a House committee Tuesday that the review has turned up evidence of foreign nationals obtaining a license, registering to vote and casting ballots.

In case you were wondering, that’s not supposed to happen.

A spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez, Scott Darnell, says the initial report from Duran’s office should concern every New Mexican.

He says every illegally cast vote disenfranchises a New Mexican and this is another reason why the governor wants to stop issuing licenses to illegal immigrants.

Under a 2003 law, the state has issued more than 80,000 driver’s licenses to foreign nationals, including illegal immigrants.

There seems to be very little coverage of this.

I have been sounding the alarm on voter fraud by illegal immigrants for some time now. Immediately after the disastrous election of Obama, I wrote:

Several days ago, I asked you: “What do you think is the single greatest source of voter fraud in this country?” To me, the answer is obvious and intuitive: votes cast by illegal immigrants.

By all accounts there are far more than 10 million illegal immigrants in this country. Most estimates are around 12-13 million; some are 16-17 million; some are as high as 20 million. We have gotten about 500,000 new illegal immigrants per year every year since 2004; from 2000-2004 this number was even higher, ranging from 800,000 to 850,000 new illegals every year.

We all know that these illegals do much of what citizens do: drive, work, receive health care, etc.

Many do these things off the books, driving without licenses and working without documentation. But many others do these things with phony documentation, obtaining fraudulent licenses and filling out work papers with bogus information.

Why wouldn’t they vote, too?

It certainly seems logically possible that there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of illegal votes cast in this past election. If this is true, it is possible that illegal immigrants decided this election.

I have also discussed the problem here (responding to ACORN apologist Peter Dreier) and here (discussing the increasing worthlessness of your vote).

The problem is not limited to illegal immigrants, by the way — they are just the most egregious example of non-citizens voting. Indeed, it doesn’t even have to be the case that the non-citizen intends to defraud the system: some think they are entitled to vote.

We don’t know what the numbers will be in New Mexico. We will keep a close eye on this and report the numbers when we hear them. (Keep in mind that this review will catch only fraud by foreign nationals who have gotten a driver’s license. The fraud could be much more widespread than this review will reveal.)

Every state should be doing what New Mexico is doing. It’s an easy and undeniable way to attack voter fraud on a wide scale. That is, if you think voter fraud matters. Me, I do. Because it carries the potential to cancel out my vote in favor of someone who has no right to cast a ballot.

If California ever tries to conduct such a review, prepare yourself for the cries of profiling! and racism! But really, absent such cynical and dishonest arguments, is there any reason not to do this?

72 Responses to “Clear Evidence of Voter Fraud in New Mexico”

  1. As long as the Democrat wins, what’s the problem? (I grew up in Chicago, lol.)

    oldirishpig (5d9ea3)

  2. Not to mention ACORN encouraging them to vote.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  3. xenophobic, natavist, candy-azzed RINO, Birther, knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, blah, blah, blah.

    daleyrocks (ae76ce)

  4. There is pretty good evidence that Loretta Sanchez was elected by illegals in her first Congressional race. The margin was about 400 votes.

    Mike K (8f3f19)

  5. Our new governor is trying to end the drivers licenses for illegals. This may be the impetus she needs to get the legislators to do it.

    Newtons.Bit (5f834b)

  6. Did New Mexico elect a new Repub Gov. or Sec State, etc? Or one of the few Dems left with integrity?

    There was a reason the Dems went after those state offices.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  7. Why do you think it is called NEW Mexico?

    Arizona Bob (911aa5)

  8. I doubt that the greatest sort of voter fraud is from illegal immigrants themselves… my guess is that they are being voted for “on the behalf of” by wonderful helpful people who only wish to help the disenfranchised.
    Really, who wouldn’t fill out an absentee ballot for someone who may not know how to really vote?
    It is almost lie you might need some state school kids to check the boxes on all the ballots or something

    SteveG (cc5dc9)

  9. As long as the Democrat wins, what’s the problem? (I grew up in Chicago, lol.)

    Comment by oldirishpig

    Dumbest thing said here in awhile, since New Mexico has Republicans elected up and down the state, including the Sec of State in this non-story of Patterico (a preliminary report showed something!) and the 2 term governor.

    timb (8f04c0)

  10. Oh, boy, timb is back! Does that mean he’ll be posting more links that don’t say what he says they do? I can hardly wait!

    Some chump (e84e27)

  11. timb

    The point that you missed in saying its a non story is Hispanics vote between 30 and 50% for Republicans, they by nature tend to be more conservative than blacks who vote 90% and above – post great society – for Democrats

    the other point you missed is illegals shouldn’t be getting drivers licenses and I’m all for all states having a federal reuirement to verify citizenship of licenses and voter registration in the next 12 months

    After all you have to do it for work

    EricPWJohnson (b12494)

  12. No verification, no vote, no verification arrest and deportation.

    EricPWJohnson (b12494)

  13. timb – Governor and Lt. Gov. just flipped Republican in New Mexico last year. Sorry.

    daleyrocks (ae76ce)

  14. but if they don’t get driver’s licenses they will have to vote by absentee ballot…

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  15. If California ever tries to conduct such a review, prepare yourself for the cries of profiling! and racism! But really, absent such cynical and dishonest arguments, is there any reason not to do this?

    Of course it should be done, but I have as much chance of being elected emperor as Dems allowing such an investigation to take place.

    in_awe (44fed5)

  16. I have no problem with giving driver’s licenses to illegals. Just so long as the license states citizenship (US or other country) and if not US the visa status (permanent, temporary (date), or none).

    Kevin M (298030)

  17. In Houston, the last weekend of this month, there will be a seminar on voter fraud in the U.S. People will be taught how to go to their country court houses and validate the voter rolls in their counties.

    I will be there along with others from 26 different states.

    Voter fraud is a problem and it can be traced back to the MotorVoter Act. Oh, yeah, there is a question “Are you legally eligible to vote?” No problem, just check “yes”.

    Think it’s not a problem going back decades? Think again. When the voter registration rolls in Harris County, Texas were check, it was learned that Angel Resendez, aka The Railroad Killer, had voted TWICE in Harris County, one a presidental election. If there is a more infamous illegal immigrant, I don’t know who it would be.

    Groups have been formed to fight voter registration/vote fraud and what is the Democrats answer to that? These groups are sued. To the Dems, it’s not how you play the game, it’s simply what ever it takes to win.

    retire05 (63d9af)

  18. Kevin M, illegals don’t have visa status. That’s why they’re illegals.

    Duh!!!!!

    retire05 (63d9af)

  19. Some years ago there was an interesting article on a prosecutor in Florida (where there are chronic problems with vote fraud). The prosecutor was unusual in that he took on those cases, when most prosecutors he knew would not. (Prosecutors seem a little more willing to pursue cases when the vote fraud occurs in primaries, because then they can’t be accused of having partisan motives.)

    This prosecutor occasionally ran into non-citizens voting. What did he do? Typically, he said he just told them to sin no more. Often, as you say, the non-citizens voters he ran into thought they were supposed to vote.

    Jim Miller (d77521)

  20. I have no problem with illegal aliens having licenses, but they should not be voting. Those who did, or who voted for them, should be prosecuted.

    aphrael (48e4d7)

  21. A more famous illegal immigrant…
    How about the guy who assassinated the candidate for the Mexican Presidency in (?) TJ.
    He was registered to vote in San Pedro CA as a Dem, and had voted several times.

    AD-RtR/OS! (34e966)

  22. Kevin:
    If you’re illegal, you shouldn’t have a DL, you shouldn’t be driving, and you certainly shouldn’t be here!

    AD-RtR/OS! (34e966)

  23. giving illegal aliens drivers licenses is gay

    happyfeet (ab5779)

  24. Our former governor was Bill Richardson, timb. He was Obama’s original choice for Secretary of Commerce prior to the New York AG finding out that Richardson was involved in pay-to-play schemes.

    Newtons.Bit (922da8)

  25. Comment by Newtons.Bit — 3/15/2011 @ 7:55 pm

    Don’t feed facts to timmie, it will only confuse him.

    AD-RtR/OS! (34e966)

  26. There are only about two things most U.S. citizens get to do that are unique to our nation in the sense you have to be citizen: vote and serve on a jury. Both are important and both should be reserved for citizens.

    I have never seen nor heard an argument that is honest when saying that the most important thing is all eligible voters exercise their right. The argument is always about disenfranchisement to the point that actual citizen votes are secondary.

    Ag80 (efea1d)

  27. As an Army recruiter, when Motor Voter came out, we were required by law to ask every applicant if they wished to register to vote.

    When I asked the Brigade JAG if that included I-551 holders, the answer eventually came back “Yes”

    XBradTC (b5e8fe)

  28. ____________________________________

    If a high percentage of the “undocumented” were perceived as favoring politicians and policies of the right, I bet a lot of the MSM and, of course, the Democrat Party hierarchy would start greatly sympathizing with the concept of: “Close the border, close the border, ship ’em out, ship ’em out!!”

    Mark (3e3a7c)

  29. Under Bill Richardson, New Mexico was — according to the FBI — consistently one of the 5 worst states in crime stats. Bleeding-heart liberalism come home to roost.

    Icy Texan (361f6c)

  30. I haven’t seen anything purporting to be an empirical study, but my hunch is that —

    a tiny, tiny fraction of Republican-voting native-born American citizens hold the mistaken belief that illegal aliens may, legally, vote;

    a sizable plurality, possibly in the 30-50% range, of Democrat-voting native-born American citizens believe that illegal aliens should, legally, be permitted to vote;

    a smaller but still sizable plurality, possibly in the 15-30% range, of Democrat-voting native-born American citizens hold the mistaken belief that illegal aliens may, legally, vote;

    the smallest non-zero fraction would be the naturalized American citizens, regardless of their voting habits, who believe that illegal aliens should, legally, be permitted to vote; and

    essentially zero naturalized American citizens hold the mistaken belief that illegal aliens may, legally, vote. It is inconceivable that one could go through the naturalization process and not know that.

    Beldar (a197ec)

  31. What do you think is the single greatest source of voter fraud in this country?” To me, the answer is obvious and intuitive: votes cast by illegal immigrants.

    I disagree. Coming from Washignton State, where Democrats have successfully stolen several elections, and having observed the same tactics in other states, I am certain the illegal immigrant vote pales in comparison to ballot box stuffing.

    First Democrats get ACORN and Union members to inflate the voter rolls with phony names, dead people etc (A woman was just prosecuted recently here in WA for submitting hundreds of fraudulent voter registrations), and then, as they did in Washington and Minnesota, Democrats suddenly “find” bags of uncounted ballots in heavily-Democratic precincts.

    While they simultaneously go to courts to get judges to order more invalid and suspect provisional ballots to be counted.

    And finally, when they have manufactured enough votes to put them in front, they demand the counting stop.

    It works. It worked at least twice in WA (once against Rossi, once against Slade Gorton), its worked in Minnesota, it almost worked in Florida 2000, and I have little doubt its worked other places as well. Perhaps Nevada?

    And the more it works the more Democrats in other states do it.

    Republicans must figure out a way to stop it, especially since election results the past decade or so have become so close.

    Yes, we also had illegal aliens voting, but they paled in comparison to the number of “found” (read manufactured) ballots.

    American Elephant (fd23b9)

  32. XBradTC: were you also prohibited from telling them that it was a crime to do so, and that they could be deported if convicted of it?

    aphrael (9802d6)

  33. XBradTC: were you also prohibited from telling them that it was a crime to do so, and that they could be deported if convicted of it? That could give you an out.

    aphrael (9802d6)

  34. “Republicans must figure out a way to stop it, especially since election results the past decade or so have become so close.”

    Federal, rather than local, handling of elections would be a nice start IMHO.

    Gnafron (0692b1)

  35. Republicans must figure out a way to stop it, especially since election results the past decade or so have become so close.”

    Federal, rather than local, handling of elections would be a nice start IMHO.
    Comment by Gnafron — 3/16/2011 @ 3:42 am.

    With Holder as head of the DOJ?

    joe (93323e)

  36. Our esteemed host wrote:

    We will keep a close eye on this and report the numbers when we hear them.

    At least one of us suspects that there won’t be any final numbers, nothing released publicly, because the methodology will be found to be flawed or the numbers questionable, or would lead to further discrimination against legal immigrants, whatever bovine feces excuses seem convenient at the time.

    The Dana who expects the answers to get buried (3e4784)

  37. Besides Voter fraud another issue is that illegal aliens are counted in the Census and used to determine Congressional Districts.

    That disinfranchises American Citizens.

    It lowers the number of Congressional representation in some States and adds those seats to the States with massive numbers of Illegal aliens

    Amend the Constitution to read in the 14th Amendment section 2 to read citizens rather than persons

    Dan Kauffman (9a7fc3)

  38. As long as Holder is the AG, we’re never going to see any meaningful enforcement of the voter laws.

    Rochf (f3fbb0)

  39. In CA, you don’t even need a drivers license to vote. You just need to sign the registration application where it asks you if you are a citizen of the United States. That’s it. You don’t even need an address. You can mark a place on a map.

    Once registered, they can’t check your id at the polling place.

    I cannot imagine a more inviting situation for illegal immigrants who want to vote.

    MayBee (081489)

  40. Anecdotally..
    I had just moved to LA prior to the 2008 elections. I hired people to do home renovations, many of whom I am certain were illegal immigrants. That’s neither here nor there to me personally, but the interesting thing was several of the guys from different crews told me they heard John McCain wanted to kill or deport Mexicans.
    So there was obviously a useful rumor going around….

    MayBee (081489)

  41. Voter fraud in new mexico?

    Your insulting Holder’s people with those insinuaitons /Sarcasm

    DohBiden (984d23)

  42. Isn’t failure to investigate voter fraud the reason the Bush admin fired David Iglesias from his position in New Mexico?

    Think about how the lefty bloggers turned that into a scandal. Congress was motivated to hold hearings on the completely legal firings. That’s pretty good (circumstantial) evidence that illegal voting is very important to the left.

    MayBee (081489)

  43. MayBee – minor quibble. Since HAVA, if you registered by mail and did not provide your SSN, the first time you vote, poll workers in California are required to check your ID.

    [I worked as a poll worker for almost every election from 1992 through 2008; I’m speaking from experience on this issue. Very few such first-time voters ever actually came in, but they are clearly marked in the book as requiring an ID check.]

    aphrael (9802d6)

  44. aphrael- do they actually check the SS numbers when registering?

    MayBee (081489)

  45. Oh, and thanks.

    MayBee (081489)

  46. MayBee: I have no clue what the process is for handling registrations; that’s above my pay grade. 🙂

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  47. aphrael, and what serves as I.D.? And if an illegal can get a driver’s license in South Carolina, does California then issue a driver’s license to an illegal that moves there using the S.C. license as a reference?

    You want I.D.? Simple, Trader’s Village in Houston has people that will sell you a Social Security card, a fake driver’s license, a fake birth certificate. Average cost? Around 100 bucks.

    retire05 (63d9af)

  48. Why do illegals have to be in the country to vote? What stops them from getting an absentee ballot? We know palestinians donated to Obama, how many voted for him too? Of the 80,000 that got driver’s licenses how many are still in New Mexico?

    Voter Fraud has to be dealt with, they will do anything to win!

    Dan (2a1c4f)

  49. retire05: california ID or DL.

    When I got my California ID, I had to provide either a birth certificate or a passport. But I wasn’t moving in from out of state.

    Apparently when I move to New York, to exchange, I will have to provide:

    * my CA DL.
    * my SS card.
    * two forms of ID.
    * two documents proving NY residence.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  50. It’s time to make absentee ballots extremely rare. The only justification for one should be military service or extreme medical hardship. Everyone voting should have to deposit a fingerprint and be marked with indelible ink.

    Everyone working elections should be subject to repeated sting operations akin to how cops send kids to attempt to buy booze. Even though I’m grateful for their volunteerism, it’s critical rolls are checked and rules are followed. Every single step, from registration to ballot counting, should be under a constant barrage of enforcement.

    Things are bad enough. Faith in the government is at an all time low. Faith in congress is even lower. If we lose faith in elections, things could get very ugly. The best way to preserve our country is to ensure the confidence of every step of our elections.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  51. Dustin: I’m in favor of rolling back the use of absentees, but I think you also need a provision for those whose employment requires them to be out of the jurisdiction on election day, at the very least, or in general those who are out of jurisdiction on election day for any reason.

    I would have no problem with repeated stings of election officers. 🙂

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  52. Dustin, along those lines, here’s one of my favorite poll worker stories.

    I was working at a polling place in a school library (in, IIRC, November). There were five precinct tables in the building – that is to say, five different polling places with different voter lists, sets of ballots, etc. (As an aside: it’s extremely difficult to prevent voters from one table from dropping their ballots in another table’s box, under such a setup). After the polls closed, the inspector (eg, the lead position) at one of the other polling places closed the doors to the building; she was cold.

    California law says that all activities in a polling place are open to the public. The public can watch whatever we’re doing – set up, tear down, reconciliation, etc. They may not interfere, and they may not watch someone cast their vote while close enough to see how they are voting, but they’re allowed to watch.

    Of course, this is meaningless if you can’t know anything is going on. The building had no windows; there would be no way for the public to have known that we were in their, reconciling ballots. So I reopened the doors.

    She closed them again.

    I called the county elections office and had them verify that I was right, told her that our bosses had agreed with me, and reopened the doors.

    She spent the rest of the night seething at me.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  53. I think you also need a provision for those whose employment requires them to be out of the jurisdiction on election day, at the very least, or in general those who are out of jurisdiction on election day for any reason.

    I understand that my prescription screws over a lot of good Americans. Truck drivers, for example.

    I think early voting is a potential solution, but I think it opens up at least some of the same problems with absentee voting, though not on the same scale.

    Maybe people should be expected to get to their precinct to vote. If they can’t, maybe they need to register to vote where they are able to get to.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  54. Dustin:

    Generally, early voting is less of a problem, because it’s run by staff who have direct access to the database of voters, the voter rolls are updated to reflect the early votes and thereby prevent double-voting, and the vote must be cast there (and so can’t be cast by other people).

    As an example of the kind of thing where this is a problem – I have a friend who was sent by his employer to Paris for a week to work on a joint project with someone there. While he was there, his employer decided he needed to stay and manage the project, potentially for two to three months.

    It seems unreasonable to disenfranchise him. And he wouldn’t be helped by early voting.

    That said, I don’t see a problem with requiring that people who are out of state / country swear to this under penalty of perjury, and provide documentation of some sort.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  55. As another example: When I was a pollworker, I basically had to vote absentee, because I was never assigned to work in the polling place where I was registered. It seems unreasonable to disenfranchise people in that situation. (Albeit: I can imagine special rules for pollworkers that aren’t applicable to everyone else).

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  56. OK. I can see you’re right. We need to at least require them to show up, at some point, in person, to swear out an affidavit for their need to vote absentee, unless they have an extreme medical hardship (which would still require an affidavit, but I wouldn’t demand they show up at the courthouse).

    Dustin (c16eca)

  57. It would be, I think, technically possible that all ballots, be it electronic or not, are accompanied with a scanned fingerprint or ink fingerprint on ballot. The fingerprints are identified with a name, if possible, only if a print appears multiple times or if there is another reason for suspecting a ballot (e.g., “dead people voting”, ID the owner of the finerprint).

    But there would be reasonable concern about how this could be misused to avoid doing it.

    How about the purple finger approach like in Afghanistan, with long lasting ink if you request an absentee ballot?

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  58. Considering that I was an expat for 5 years, I’d like to give a hearty shout out of support for absentee ballots.

    OTOH, I have family members who, I have no doubt, would vote absentee for their deceased spouses if given the opportunity.

    As for the Soc Security requirement, considering every working illegal/legal immigrant in the US has provided a SS number to his employer, I don’t doubt they have one to give the Secretary of State to register to vote. I’d love an investigation into whether they check.

    I’d be happy to have aphrael as CA’s chief election official.

    MayBee (081489)

  59. Considering that I was an expat for 5 years, I’d like to give a hearty shout out of support for absentee ballots.

    OTOH, I have family members who, I have no doubt, would vote absentee for their deceased spouses if given the opportunity.

    As for the Soc Security requirement, considering every working illegal/legal immigrant in the US has provided a SS number to his employer, I don’t doubt they have one to give the Secretary of State to register to vote. I’d love an investigation into whether they check.

    I’d be happy to have aphrael as CA’s chief election official.

    MayBee (081489)

  60. MayBee: it’s probably a marginal problem, but I’ve always been bothered by this scenario:

    * person mails in absentee ballot ten days before election
    * person dies two days before election
    * vote is counted

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  61. Actually, I still don’t see why it is awful and bad to ask for a form of ID when voting. You can’t write a check without doing so.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  62. She spent the rest of the night seething at me.

    Felt pretty good to piss someone off by following the law, didn’t it… 🙂

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  63. It’s not that it felt good to piss her off; it annoyed me that she was pissed off. It annoyed me that she wasn’t taking the job seriously. I mean: as election officers, we have duties to carry out the law. Sometimes mistakes and problems are unavoidable. But deliberately violating the rules governing the conduct of elections is completely inappropriate.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  64. What the hell, Democrats have been blatantly rigging elections for about 150 years.

    At this point it’s a time-honored tradition.

    Dave Surls (6d95a5)

  65. Only in Chicago, Dave… Only in Chicago…

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  66. Amend the Constitution to read in the 14th Amendment section 2 to read citizens rather than persons

    Better still, amend it to read “Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature”. Minors, aliens, convicts, or anyone else the state won’t allow to vote, should not be counted in the census. That’s how it should have been from Day One, except that the South wanted to count their slaves. When that compromise was swept away after the Civil War, they should have gone back to that, instead of counting everybody.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  67. What the hell, Democrats have been blatantly rigging elections for about 150 years. At this point it’s a time-honored tradition.

    In 1876 the Republicans did the rigging.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  68. Milhouse #67 – ummm, do you have some sort of documentation for this assertion ?

    I’m sure that Republican shipowners did all sorts of rigging – but not of elections …

    So – please enlighten this most humble student of history …

    Alasdair (205079)

  69. The election of 1876 wasn’t pretty, but the dirty dealing went both ways:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1876

    Hayes was declared the winner, so the Democratic shenanigans are generally forgotten today, except for the part where Reconstruction ended as part of the bargain to elect Hayes, and blacks lost their civil rights for ninety years in the South. No real happy ending for anyone there.

    M. Scott Eiland (27aed4)

  70. “In 1876 the Republicans did the rigging.”

    To put it bluntly, that’s hogwash.

    The Democrats were pulling every dirty in the book to rig that election, up to and including the employment of cold-blooded murder.

    IOW, it was like every other national election up until the 1960s, when the Dems abandoned the murdering people part, and started sticking to just fraud.

    Dave Surls (5f1811)

  71. In my opinion, any illegal immigrant who is found to have cast a ballot should be deported. Those illegal immigrants who break other laws should be on our first priority list for deportation.

    James (0b0190)

  72. It’s critical that Democrats continuously add to the rolls of dependency in order to keep their base solid. You just don’t understand.

    drjohn (708eb9)


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