To the outside eye, the Obama administration does not seem adequately concerned about the potential for voter fraud [1] in today’s elections, where some states do not require photo identification to cast a ballot, an activity which is at the heart of our representative government.
The trend has been for more states to enact photo ID laws for voting [2], but the current administration is more than unfriendly to voter ID. Last December, Attorney General Eric Holder called for more aggressive federal review of states’ voter identification laws [3]. The AG has claimed that voter identification discriminates against minorities [4], but he is out of step with mainstream American opinion to believe so.
Interestingly, a similar poll last December showed that 69 percent of likely voters agreed that identification requirements don’t discriminate [5], so the administration is apparently losing the argument with the American people.
73% Think Photo ID Requirement Before Voting Does Not Discriminate [6], Rasmussen Reports, April 16, 2012
Despite his insistence that voter fraud is not a serious problem, Attorney General Eric Holder was embarrassed last week [7] when a video surfaced of someone illegally obtaining a ballot to vote under Holder’s name in his home precinct in Washington, D.C. Most voters consider voter fraud a problem in America today and continue to overwhelmingly support laws requiring people to show photo identification before being allowed to vote.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 64% of Likely U.S. Voters rate voter fraud at least a somewhat serious problem in the United States today, and just 24% disagree. This includes 35% who consider it a Very Serious problem and seven percent (7%) who view it as Not At All Serious. Twelve percent (12%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here [8].)
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on April 12-13, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.