Not news: Gessler raises specter of "dramatic" fraud, if election-day registration passed

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by: Jason Salzman

(Getting a bit threadbare, maybe? – promoted by Colorado Pols)

If you’re a reporter, you’re naturally inclined to pay attention to your Secretary of State when he or she warns that possible legislation could lead to “dramatic” vote fraud.

But if it’s Colorado’s Scott Gessler, we’ve all learned by now, journalists can relax. Just relax. No need to race to get it up on Twitter. No need to rush anywhere, because it’s not news. He’s lost his credibility way more than Chicken Little.

So, I hope you didn’t get excited if you happened to be listening to Greeley radio station KFKA Monday morning and heard Gessler say this to host Tom Lucero:

“IвЂ™ve heard a lot of radical stuff coming out of the Legislature. We’ll see what actually happens.

вЂњBut one of the things that IвЂ™ve heard that they want to push is same day voter registration, where someone shows up on Election Day and registers immediately. And that creates all kinds of havoc in our systems, and itвЂ™s not secure at all. WeвЂ™ve seen, you know, real, real, dramatic vote fraud in other states, especially urban areas that have used that same voter registration. So, IвЂ™m afraid that theyвЂ™re going to push it nonetheless, and despite all our success in voter turnout, and despite our increased participation, IвЂ™m afraid that theyвЂ™re going to claim that things are terrible nonetheless, and use that as an excuse to push for something that really opens us up to vote fraud.вЂќ

[Gessler said some other stuff about his work with the courts on other election matters, and you can listen here.]

But, please, we all know by now that if fraud were a real issue, the clerks would be worried. All of them may not be right all the time either, but they’re worth listening to.

And in any case, just for the sake of saying it, you don’t need to dig deep to find out that we can have safe election-day voter registration in Colorado. It doesn’t favor one party over another, which wouldn’t be a reason to oppose it, even if it did.

Bottom line for reporters: You can forget about this blog post and get back to real work.

12 thoughts on “Not news: Gessler raises specter of “dramatic” fraud, if election-day registration passed”

Gray in Mountains says:

January 24, 2013 at 10:33 am

Of course many states have had same day registration for many years without difficulty.

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1. BlueCat says:
  
  January 24, 2013 at 11:45 am
  
  My impression too. But Gessler says:
  
  “WeвЂ™ve seen, you know, real, real, dramatic vote fraud in other states, especially urban areas that have used that same voter registration.”
  
  So I would hope the next step will be reporters investigating whether or not that statement is backed by evidence.
  
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  1. Craig says:
    
    January 24, 2013 at 1:22 pm
    
    Sounds like a job for Jason.
    
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  2. Republican 36 says:
    
    January 24, 2013 at 1:28 pm
    
    Mr. Gessler needs to be called out on this everytime he attempts to lie and spred baseless fear on this issue. In Wisconsin today, two (that’s right Mr. Gessler, just two) people have been indicted for same day voter fraud. Both in Milwaukee. That apparently equals massive voter fraud in urban areas.
    
    http://mediatrackers.org/2013/01/24/same-day-voter-registration-system-used-in-alleged-voter-fraud-cases/
    
    In Ohio, a study of two elections where there were over nine million votes cast, there were four (that’s right Mr. Gessler, just four) voters who committed election day voter registraiton fraud.
    
    http://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/election-day-registration-encourages-voting-fraud-has-been-hard-to-find/
    
    In other words there simply isn’t any evidence to support Mr. Gessler’s statements.
    
    The truth is not in the man.
    
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    1. Jason Salzman says:
      
      January 25, 2013 at 11:00 am
      
      yes, you’re right. he should be called out every time. it gets boring, but it has to be done. i was trying to make a point in this blog post about how this guy has lost credibility, but I’ll keep reporting on his misleading or false statements, whenever I find them.
      
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Gray in Mountains says:

January 24, 2013 at 1:30 pm

if it is “dramatic” we ought to expect a reality series around it. Cool

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divergent_tdog says:

January 24, 2013 at 6:21 pm

I think a case could have been made years ago about same-day voter registration being a problem because it couldn’t be checked up on. But these days with instantaneous electronic communication, seems we should be able to pull our system into the 21st century. But then we all know that this isn’t about voter fraud, it’s about suppressing the urban, Democratic vote.

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1. Duke Cox says:
  
  January 25, 2013 at 8:00 am
  
  It appears there will be a new code word for minority and young voters…”the urban vote”.
  
  “WeвЂ™ve seen, you know, real, real, dramatic vote fraud in other states, especially urban areas that have used that same voter registration.”
  
  This is their justification for trying to rig the electoral vote by calculating votes by congressional district, rather than by state.
  
  If the system they are trying to implement had been in place nationwide in 2012, we would now be posting about President Mittens.
  
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GalapagoLarry says:

January 24, 2013 at 7:42 pm

” …despite all our success in voter turnout…”

Someone on his staff composes one letter to voters and stamps his name on it–whoopeee.

Is anyone else here who knocked on door after door, signed up new voter after new voter, dropped three trees’ worth of campaign literature on porch after porch, getting damned tired of him taking credit for all the work we did to increase voter turnout? While he did everything in the book to thwart voting, including fear mongering and threats?

What an insufferable little prick.

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gaf says:

January 24, 2013 at 9:21 pm

“Someone on his staff composes one letter to voters and stamps his name on it…”

…in a project paid for by a federal grant.

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rwnemanich says:

January 25, 2013 at 5:44 pm

lived and voted in same day state, less fraud that 30 day registration

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marklane1351 says:

January 25, 2013 at 6:29 pm

Ronald Reagan said it best trust but verify. I trust that Scott Gessler has found extensive voter fraud, but I wish to independently verify the existence of the problem before taking any action to fix it.

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