Representative John Thompson’s recent troubles have exposed more than one problem beyond the shenanigans of his residency and deadbeat dad status. He has met the legal requirements to vote in two states. I am not saying he has ever voted in two states, but he could if he chose because of the way Minnesota state law is written. That is a problem.
Minnesota and several other states have voting ID requirements lax enough to enable this problem, while Wisconsin (where Thompson has a drivers licence) has a photo ID requirement. The Minnesota list is as follows, which can be shown on an electronic device:
- Bill, account or start-of-service statement due or dated within 30 days of the election for
- Phone, TV or internet
- Solid waste, sewer, electric, gas or water
- Banking or credit card
- Rent or Mortgage
- Residential lease or rent agreement valid through Election Day
- Current student fee statement
The problem here should be obvious. Thompson has a Wisconsin drivers license which allows him to vote there and if he has lived in Minnesota for 18 years as he claimed them presumably he has a utility bill or the like which would allow him to vote in Minnesota as well. And since you can show an electronic copy of a bill just what is it that prevents anyone from creating a fake invoice from Acme Rental Agency and showing that on their phone as proof of residency?
There is absolutely no way for a state agency to track every single possible entry on that list and know if it is valid. And there is certainly no way for a state to check these items in other states and see if they were used to vote. The phrase “there is no evidence of widespread fraud” is so misleading because they have created a system where evidence does not exist in the first place.
A homeless voter may use any address within a specific county that he/she regularly returns to and has the intent to remain. This may include a homeless shelter, a homeless service provider, a park, a campground, a vacant lot, a business address, or any other physical location
Colorado Secretary of State website
I live in the state of Colorado which is supposedly the Gold Standard of Voting, but that is complete BS. The Colorado Secretary of State website clearly states that even if I am homeless I can use “any address” in the county to register to vote. And I can do it on election day. And what is the security feature here? They verify a signature.
So let me get this straight. I can walk into a polling center and declare that I am homeless with no ID, use the actual polling center address as my “residence”, sign a voter registration card with any name I choose, then walk over to the poll watcher and sign in to vote. Magically when they compare the signature on the voter registration card to the signature I used to sign in to vote, they will match. Brilliant!
Then I could drive a few miles away to another polling center and do it again with another name.
This is the so-called Gold Standard! And its complete crap. One person doing this probably won’t change an election. But a few hundred in strategically picked districts throughout a state could, and it would be completely untraceable.
A valid state issued photo ID needs to be the acceptable way to vote. States can generally keep track of and validate an out of state drivers license. That system could easily be improved so that you knew when a specific individual has already voted. Anything less is just asking for fraud in a system designed to leave no evidence behind.
