The “Voter Fraud” Myth

by Stuart Shapiro

The myth that President Obama stole the 2008 election persists in the loony circles.  It has been the impetus behind laws that are ostensibly designed to curb voter fraud but will likely just make it harder for poor and minority voters to cast their ballot.  So has there been voter fraud?  Few have put it better than Ari Berman

Indeed, between 2000 and 2007, there were 32,299 UFO sightings in the United States, 352 deaths caused by lightning, but only nine cases of voter impersonation, according to a great new infographic by Craiglist founder Craig Newmark.

Yet conservatives continue to hype the extremely rare occurrence of election fraud as if it were something that happens every day and is somehow responsible for the election of Obama and Democratic candidates across the map.

So I’ll tell you what.  I’ll support all of these laws designed to curb voter fraud if those supporting them will come out in favor of a massive program to combat alien attacks.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.