How is it possible to forge a voter registration form that actually passes? Don't we all need SS numbers? Am I wrong in thinking that after the forms are handed over to the county elections board, they verify the ss numbers?

Also, How is it possible to actually vote more than once, if you have just been registered to vote more than once, like some people claim to be? Again, if you give your SS number, then wouldn't registering to vote more than once just be reconfirming that your original registration?

In other words, I don't see at all how the local elections board could possibly be fooled by any of this if they have a database of SS numbers to work off of, which I'm pretty sure they all do.

Acorn sucks, clearly, but I'm having trouble understanding how fraud could actually be perpetrated by some idiots forging registration rolls.

Well, the Republicans seem to understand how it could be done, so I'm inviting them to try. After all, if Democrats are stealing votes, they need to balance things out, don't they?

However if they end up in prison for vote fraud, I take no responsiblity for their actions. I will however laugh up my sleeve.

Another check besides SS# would be street addresses. These have to be valid for the voting district.

Well, I don't buy the argument that voter fraud is rampant or even noteworthy. But, for the sake of argument, you could use fake social security numbers (or whatever ID number is used -- here in Florida we use driver's license numbers).

Also, you could register in more than one state and vote absentee. I'm not sure to what extent states share voter rolls. I have friends who live in my former hometown in another state and they say when they sign in to vote they still see my name there -- even though I haven't lived there for years and I'm registered elsewhere. I could probably cast ballots in both states without anyone noticing. But it's hard, really impossible for me to imagine a campaign taking advantage of these glitches to orchestrate some kind of subversion of the system.

I agree Lizzie... voter fraud is possible but not really that plausible on the large scale. I'd be more concerned about it in small elections for mayors and city council and such, where a few cases make a much bigger difference than in a national election where the total effect is negligible. This is not to say that those found engaging in it or proven to be promoting it shouldn't be punished.

the voting-in-more-than-one-state thing might be plausible, but I haven't heard that one yet.

In regards to acorn, the issue is multiple registrations.

Someone mentioned fake SS numbers. Well I thought the whole point of getting an SS number was that, since they are unique, it is used to "check you off" the registration list. I don't see how you could fake them, unless there's a bigger conspiracy in the state... but thats not the kind of fraud that gets talked about.

I'm trying to be open minded about the republican cry that there's lots of voter fraud, but the pieces don't seem to fit here. Acorn forged a bunch of names, and was promptly caught, because registrations are checked against state databases. How is this not a case of "problem solved."?

jwschmidt:

I'm trying to be open minded about the republican cry that there's lots of voter fraud, but the pieces don't seem to fit here. Acorn forged a bunch of names, and was promptly caught, because registrations are checked against state databases. How is this not a case of "problem solved."?

I don't think voter fraud occurs. I think registration fraud occurs, but that just slows down the checking of legitimate registrants, so that would be of more benefit to the other political party.