# Florida Republicans Admit Voter Suppression Was The Goal Of New Election Laws **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 27, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305 "2012-11-27T20:41:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/41 "2012-11-30T19:17:43Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Speaking of which, here’s a curious question: > > In the states which have enacted provisional ballots, what percentage of these ballots turn out to be invalid? The usual case is that the Voter will have some time period (a week?) to prove that they were eligible to vote. Unless that is then challenged (say in a recount) then there is seldom if ever any effort to determine or prove that the ballot was invalid. My point being that it is never determined how many provisional ballots were “invalid”. Sort of like nobody in the US is ever found innocent, just not guilty. This is not picking nits, because if the election-night results went the way the provisional voter preferred, then they have little motivation to pursue having their vote counted. Should we call the ballot “invalid” if a legitimate provisional voter didn’t bother to follow-up because it wouldn’t sway the outcome? In most cases, though, the above is totally moot. What actually happens is that the provisional ballots are totally ignored unless there is a race close enough to potentially be determined by them…in which case a recount will probably happen, and the provisional ballots might possibly be considered. The actual purpose of provisional ballots is to placate people who have been purged from voting rolls so they don’t raise a huge stink at the polling place. That they might sometime be used to determine a close race is just a side effect. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/42 "2012-11-30T19:24:38Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > It took me about 5 minutes to come up with the “voter experience poll” idea. You call registered voters asking about their most recent experience voting at their location. > > Q1) You are listed as having voted in this past election, would you mind answering questions about your voting experience? > Q2) did you actually vote? > > If a voter who is listed as voting says “I didn’t vote” someone may have impersonated them. > The question is why does nobody look? That’s a good point. But possibly there are other forms of voter fraud (more below). > [@](#): > > Why don’t people who claim to think this is important refuse to even TRY to look? I think the nature of it is hard to pin down. > [@](#): > > Out of idle curiosity, did your relative impersonate someone, vote while not registered (but would legally be allowed to vote if he bothered registering) or simply vote from the incorrect location? What he did was register to vote while in his early teens, pretending to be about 40. He was intending to vote absentee and he picked an older age because he didn’t want to get called in to the selective service (this would have been in the early 90s). For some reason (I forgot why) he ended up actually voting in person. As he left, he heard one of the elderly people manning the place say to another something like “they’re getting younger and younger these days …”:). My point with that is that this is an incident which happened, and nobody would know about it because no one pays he slightest bit of attention to voter fraud issues. The reason I don’t think voter fraud is a factor in elections is because I think anything on a scale big enough to influence elections would have attracted some notice on its own. But it happens. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/43 "2012-11-30T19:28:08Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > In most cases, though, the above is totally moot. What actually happens is that the provisional ballots are totally ignored unless there is a race close enough to potentially be determined by them…in which case a recount will probably happen, and the provisional ballots might possibly be considered. OK but there have been some very close races where every ballot has been fought over (e.g. Franken vs. Coleman). Any in states which have provisional ballots? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/44 "2012-11-30T19:41:08Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > My point with that is that this is an incident which happened, and nobody would know about it because no one pays he slightest bit of attention to voter fraud issues. Not quite true. A woman in Clackamas County, OR has been actually charged with voter fraud for forging signatures on petitions, filling in circles for Republican candidates where a voter left it blank, and dumping Democrat registrations. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/45 "2012-11-30T20:05:45Z")
So FP, your argument is that these laws were not proposed by people who are evil, merely incompetent or interested in proposing laws for which they don’t have data - one way or another (well, there is data, it just supports the “this does more to add to disenfranchisement than it does to reducing fraud” side) - to support a change in the status quo (which would just be a different flavor of incompetent)? The “we aren’t evil, we are just incompetent” defense isn’t the best one. Wouldn’t it be better to be able to have the data that supports systematic voter fraud and how these laws IN PARTICULAR would address the types of fraud being committed before passing laws - you know, so that you know you are addressing a real problem in a way that will give you a real solution and close real loopholes. Even given rampant fraud, can we assume that the types of laws we are passing would address it (they wouldn’t have addressed Chefguy’s example - or what Acorn did)? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/46 "2012-11-30T20:20:45Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > That’s a good point. But possibly there are other forms of voter fraud (more below). I think the nature of it is hard to pin down. > My point with that is that this is an incident which happened, and nobody would know about it because no one pays he slightest bit of attention to voter fraud issues. There are undoubtedly a variety of ways to improperly vote. It is a problem with some complexity. If you have an honest interest in making sure voters are legitimate, you need to study the topic before going forward with a fix. You do this because it is complex, and you want your fix to actually fix something. If you study the topic, you can balance the impact of fraudulent votes with the impact of improperly cancelling legitimate votes. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2012, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/47 "2012-11-30T23:06:43Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#): > > For those who thought that making restrictive voting laws was all about the “integrity of elections” and to ensure “illegal aliens didn’t vote” (we’ll see if the biggest supporter of these theories here, **Bricker** , rears his head), well, **Republicans down in Florida were refreshingly candid about their attempts to actively disenfranchise Democratic voters** : https://www.youtube.com/embed/J6_1Pw1xm9U?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/48 "2012-12-01T03:10:33Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15750499&postcount=3115](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15750499&postcount=3115) Christian Slater’s vote not counted. DMV screwed up and then the board of elections. He also waited in line 5 hours. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/49 "2012-12-02T16:22:56Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > It’s not stupid. It’s human nature. > > You and yours are equally “stupid” in much the same manner, and you don’t see it because you’re also in “de river called De Nial”. I’m sure there are plenty of issues that Democrats in general are misled about. But there’s no cosmic principle which states that there will always be equal levels of (foo) between both parties, where (foo) is just about any facet of the human experience. If you want to argue that such an equivalence is the case, go ahead, but you have to present actual evidence and specificity, as opposed to just asserting “you guys do it too and equally so” and acting as if you’ve demonstrated something. Here’s an interesting question: there are plenty of states with Republican-controlled assemblies, and in many of them these efforts have been afoot. There are also plenty of states with Democrat-controlled assemblies. Why don’t we hear stories about how in (some liberal state) the heavily-Republican areas have had polling locations closed, hours shortened, etc.? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/50 "2012-12-02T21:24:13Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Here’s an interesting question: there are plenty of states with Republican-controlled assemblies, and in many of them these efforts have been afoot. There are also plenty of states with Democrat-controlled assemblies. Why don’t we hear stories about how in (some liberal state) the heavily-Republican areas have had polling locations closed, hours shortened, etc.? **Bricker** maintained that Rhode Island was an example that both sides do it. I will [quote myself from another thread] ([http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15653615&postcount=76](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15653615&postcount=76)): > [@A former Republican's awakening about voter ID laws.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-former-republicans-awakening-about-voter-id-laws/637911/76): > > I am getting sick of **Bricker** ’s “B-b-b-but Rhode Island” response so I did a little search into the single Blue State out of eight passed Vote ID laws in 2011. I found this compelling: > > > [@](#): > > > > Voter ID bills are nominally designed to safeguard against voter impersonation, but this argument is generally considered dubious, since there is scant evidence of such fraud. (Ari Berman in Rolling Stone and Ryan Reilly in TPM have done an admirable job outlining the problems with voter ID justifications.) Rhode Island, where voter impersonation has never been proven, is no exception. But anxiety over voter fraud carries particular weight in the Ocean State, which has a long legacy of political corruption. The author of the bill, Rhode Island Secretary of State Ralph Mollis (a Democrat), told me he introduced it not in response to specific charges of impersonation, but to “address the perception of voter fraud.” Local journalist Ted Nesi echoed the sentiment, telling me, “People in Rhode Island assume everyone’s on the take.” > > > > [The New Republic](http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/100429/rhode-island-voter-id-laws-hispanic#) > > So to recap: > [ul] > [li]Rhode Island is an anomaly. It is disingenuous to scream and point to one state out of many more and scream “both sides do it.”[/li][li]The law was brought about by the same unproven accusations as it was in every other non-Blue State. Bad legislation can come from both sides of the aisle, but again, it is disingenuous to scream “both sides do it.”[/li][li]The law in Rhode Island came about from people scared of a minority group wielding more electoral power. It is just as reprehensible when Black Liberals want to disenfranchise Hispanic voters as it is when white conservatives want to disenfranchise other voting groups. Many decried when black liberals voted against gay marriage in California. It’s still wrong no matter who does it. But again, it’s disingenuous to scream that “both sides do it.”[/li][li]The Rhode Island law was not jammed through to cause chaos in the current election cycle. It has until 2014 to be implemented. This is a huge distinction from the laws in Pennsylvania and other states where court challenges and appeals from the state kept things in limbo right up to the cusp of the vote.[/li][/ul] > > So please, enough false equivalencies, Bricker. Rhode Island is not evidence that Voter ID laws do not discriminate. Rhode Island is evidence that sometimes the discrimination comes from unexpected sources, but it’s still discrimination and it happens considerably less from them than the usual suspects. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/51 "2012-12-02T21:30:56Z")
> [@Untoward\_Parable](#): > > Ya I wasn’t trying to say that under current law that people could be arrested for this under any provision (though Im no lawyer so who knows whats in the code in various places). > > Certainly though I’d like to add it. Along with people shorting the US stock market and trying to destabilize it to cash in the crash. There are certain crimes that are crimes against the nation and all it’s people. A new legal concept of “crimes against the people” strikes me as something that might just potentially, in some circumstances, be used in regrettable ways . . . ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/52 "2012-12-03T03:32:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > A new legal concept of “crimes against the people” strikes me as something that might just potentially, in some circumstances, be used in regrettable ways . . . Your unwillingness to agree with the accepted thinking has been noted. When the officers arrive at your door, please do not resist. You’re already being charged with crimes against the people, don’t make it harder on yourself. Yeah, can’t imagine how that could be misused… ---
**Author:** ![Untoward\_Parable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Untoward\_Parable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Untoward_Parable)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/53 "2012-12-03T03:55:12Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Your unwillingness to agree with the accepted thinking has been noted. When the officers arrive at your door, please do not resist. You’re already being charged with crimes against the people, don’t make it harder on yourself. > > Yeah, can’t imagine how that could be misused… Again with conflated nonsense logic. This is not a call for punishment for thoughtcrime or anything of the sort, it’s a call to punish people who abuse their official powers to damage the ability of certain demographics of citizens to vote in order to subvert democracy. We have very good evidence and testimony that this is wholly intentional. When this succeeds you have stolen the voice of American citizens, you have degraded their dignity as a participant in the political process and diminished the integrity of our entire nation. This is a violence against the soul of our country and the fundamental rights of its people. I will not stand for it being minimized. Not everyone has gobs of time to be involved in politics, or a bunch of cash to buy media and bribe politicians. Every adult citizen should at least have the right to vote. And if there are no real consequences from the theft of that right by supposedly upstanding officials they will continue to push the envelope of voter suppression with fear only of being unelected or replaced by another official, a fear that only encourages them to abuse their power to suppress the vote even more. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/54 "2012-12-03T04:08:29Z")
**John\_Stamos’\_Left\_Ear** , you copied and pasted a very long section of that New Republic article into your posts. I’ve shortened it. In the future please use a reasonably short portion of the article and let people follow the link to see the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/55 "2012-12-03T04:58:45Z")
> [@Untoward\_Parable](#): > > Again with conflated nonsense logic. > [@Untoward\_Parable](#): > > Certainly though I’d like to add it. Along with people shorting the US stock market and trying to destabilize it to cash in the crash. **There are certain crimes that are crimes against the nation and all it’s people.** Emphasis added. You’ve already admitted that you don’t want to stop with public officials suppressing the vote as part of this “crimes against the people” stuff. It’s not “conflated nonsense logic” when you have already started down the slippery slope (and particularly since your second example is an action committed by private citizens NOT public officials). ---
**Author:** ![Untoward\_Parable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Untoward\_Parable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Untoward_Parable)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/56 "2012-12-03T05:13:39Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Emphasis added. You’ve already admitted that you don’t want to stop with public officials suppressing the vote as part of this “crimes against the people” stuff. It’s not “conflated nonsense logic” when you have already started down the slippery slope (and particularly since your second example is an action committed by private citizens NOT public officials). You are ridiculous. Treason is already a crime and no one thinks it’s controversial. If you sell state secrets to a foreign power, you’re guilty of treason. If a group of investors shorted the US stock market while attempting to cause it to crash so they could make money off of the collapse, I don’t think people would have trouble with that being illegal too (It probably is already, If you just made money off of it predicting it to occur that’s a lot different.). A conspiracy to disenfranchise voters being illegal isn’t exactly chilling. That’s like saying that forcing businesses that work with the public not to discriminate against blacks or women is chilling. These are not slippery slope situations. It is easy to see why this should not be allowed and why voting shouldn’t be the only solution to a corruption of the voting process. (But whatever, you’ve already displayed clearly you’re over in la-di-da nonsense land so I don’t expect to convince you of anything.) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/57 "2012-12-03T06:58:45Z")
Nonetheless, I would still prefer that crimes against the people be punished by the people. Inform the people and expose the scoundrels, and let the people vote. All criminalizing is going to accomplish is less overt conspiracy. Quite a few of these people are lawyers; being a local prosecutor, for instance, is a well-worn path to a political career. Proving such a conspiracy in a court of law would be difficult to begin with, even more so when the perps are knowledgeable in the matter of fudging the line between guilty and convictable. Better we should work on expanding the voting public by wholly legitimate means. Nothing wrong with voter ID, if done the right way. And if the people still insist on electing scoundrels, well, so be it. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/58 "2012-12-03T10:24:35Z")
All right everyone, calm down. What we need here is a compromise. I suggest that we do two things: \*\*A) \*\*Allow early voting for at least 3 months before all elections in all 50 states plus D.C., and earmark federal grants to ensure that all precincts in all states have enough voting machines and election day personnel so that no one must wait more than 30 minutes to vote on election day. **B)** Go back to treating blacks as only 3/5ths of a person when counting their votes. In addition, use the 3/5ths law for Latinos, Asians, Native Americans and any other non-white person _IF_ they wish to vote for a Democrat. Easy-peasy! ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/59 "2012-12-03T14:09:25Z")
**C)** Only married (straight) women will be allowed to vote with premission of their husbands. **D)** Corporations get votes on a scale of one vote per $1000.00 donated. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305/60 "2012-12-03T17:34:40Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I’m sure there are plenty of issues that Democrats in general are misled about. But there’s no cosmic principle which states that there will always be equal levels of (foo) between both parties, where (foo) is just about any facet of the human experience. If you want to argue that such an equivalence is the case, go ahead, but you have to present actual evidence and specificity, as opposed to just asserting “you guys do it too and equally so” and acting as if you’ve demonstrated something. It’s not a cosmic principle, but it’s the null hypothesis, pending other evidence or rationale. > [@](#): > > Here’s an interesting question: there are plenty of states with Republican-controlled assemblies, and in many of them these efforts have been afoot. There are also plenty of states with Democrat-controlled assemblies. Why don’t we hear stories about how in (some liberal state) the heavily-Republican areas have had polling locations closed, hours shortened, etc.? I’m not aware of such stories in Democratic areas either, although I don’t follow such issues closely. What I do see from the level that I do follow it is generally the other way. Meaning the issues that tend to come up are where the normal hours are not sufficient and Democrats request special extended hours. Not knowning much detail, my inclination would be to assume that Democratic areas have more troubles because they tend to be in lower income districts, and because of the success of Democratic voter registration and turnout efforts. > [@Dangerosa](#): > > Wouldn’t it be better to be able to have the data that supports systematic voter fraud and how these laws IN PARTICULAR would address the types of fraud being committed before passing laws - you know, so that you know you are addressing a real problem in a way that will give you a real solution and close real loopholes. Even given rampant fraud, can we assume that the types of laws we are passing would address it (they wouldn’t have addressed Chefguy’s example - or what Acorn did)? > [@Cheesesteak](#): > > There are undoubtedly a variety of ways to improperly vote. It is a problem with some complexity. If you have an honest interest in making sure voters are legitimate, you need to study the topic before going forward with a fix. You do this because it is complex, and you want your fix to actually fix something. > > If you study the topic, you can balance the impact of fraudulent votes with the impact of improperly cancelling legitimate votes. That’s not how most laws are passed, in my experience. Some are based on studies, but most are primarily based on anecdotal evidence and testimony from a bunch of people about their personal experience plus testimony from some so-called experts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-republicans-admit-voter-suppression-was-the-goal-of-new-election-laws/642305.md?page=4)