Associated Press
In order to rationalize voter-suppression tactics, Republicans have to believe that voter fraud -- which is incredibly rare -- is rampant in the United States, tearing at the fabric of American democracy. They're wrong, but to acknowledge the truth would be to admit that GOP efforts like voter-ID laws are wholly unnecessary.
The trouble comes when Republican activists try to test their theories.
A Nevada Republican arrested for voter fraud in the 2012 election, after claiming she was trying to test the system's integrity, pled guilty and accepted a plea deal Thursday, forcing her to pay almost $2,500 and promise to stay out of trouble.
Roxanne Rubin, 56, a casino worker on the Las Vegas Strip, was arrested on Nov. 3, 2012 after trying to vote twice, once at her poling site in Henderson and then at a second site in Las Vegas. The poll workers at the second site said that she had already voted, but Rubin said that she hadn't and insisted on casting a ballot, which the poll workers refused to allow her to do.
According to Rubin's story, she wasn't trying to commit fraud to benefit her preferred candidates; she was trying to commit fraud to prove a point.
"This has always been an issue with me. I just feel the system is flawed," Rubin told the AP. "If we're showing ID for everything else, why wouldn't we show our ID in order to vote?"
First, it would appear voting-rights advocates are in Roxanne Rubin's debt -- she inadvertently helped prove just misguided her party's efforts really are.
And second, why is it that when actual, rare examples of voter fraud pop up in reality, they tend to involve Republicans?
For what it's worth, Rubin was sentenced to pay a fine, complete 100 hours of community service, and attend an impulse control course.
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I want to know what happened to the guy who got caught throwing away voter registrations...
Who was also a Republican
If they couldn't steal elections, Republicans wouldn't stand a chance... sigh
Republican/teabaggers - What a JOKE , Get them All out of these positions that they are in , They are Destroying America of which I believe is their goal !
I robbed the bank to test the security.....
Yeah, like he said, and also, he didn't snort coke, he just liked the way it smelled...
If she pled guilty, she had to admit all the elements of the offense, including the intention to support her candidate with an illegal vote.
She pled guilty because she couldn't have made her point, or any point, if she'd gotten away with casting the second, illegal vote. Her defense, that she merely wanted to make a point, would have been rejected by a jury if she went to trial.
BTW: It sounds like they caught her even though no voter ID was required. Computers and communications between polling sites stopped this voter fraud, not ID.
Shouldn't this be on that show where people do dumb things like test tasers on themselves?
Rubin was sentenced to pay a fine, complete 100 hours of community service, and attend an impulse control course..
A sound prescription for most Republicans. A few hours amongst the unwashed masses might open their eyes. And the Impulse Control Course? Too perfect.
Well, it just proves she could flunk the IQ test low enough to be a Republican.
Most places that have an IQ test uses it to get a score to see if it is high enough to perform the tasks required. The Republicans test to see if the IQ is too high that someone might not believe their rantings.
Didn't she just prove the system ISN'T flawed?
Maybe some things are fine as they are, but some people are just too stupid to understand them.
Of course, I'm sure the punishment would have been the same had the perpetrator been a Democrat....
Oh if it was a democrat it would be all over Fox News, Russ, and others they would demand he be sent to jail
Is it just me, or have some of you also noticed the Republicans among us (save me) seem to be engaged in a set of massive self-perceived prophesies, and I don't know if they know how to get out of such vicious cycles! -Kevo
Its true, and not just this. You saw it full force when the ACA negotiations were happening. They scream about what a costly boondoggle it will be, but it seems every change they managed to insert was there just to make it more costly, bureaucratic, and inefficient.
But of course she did not lose the voting rights that she abused.
One has to wonder if the impulse control class will cover habitually turning the AM dial to Rush, Hannity and Savage.
She just proved how corrupt the voting system is. They only stopped her from voting twice because she is a Republican. Its why the only cases of voter fraud that are coming up involve Republicans, because they let Democrats vote as much as they want.
(Sorry, just snarkin' atchoo.)
""This has always been an issue with me. I just feel the system is flawed," Rubin told the AP."
At 56 years of age, if she honestly believes that the "system is flawed" - then how about volunteering to be an elections official, or better yet try working within the system to change it? Exactly when did the "flawed system" start to bother you - was it after listening to too much Hannity, Limberger or O'Really? And more important - will this idiot be allowed to retain her right to vote? Because if anyone has abused it, it would be her.
Apparently not. "The Henderson woman took a deal from state prosecutors that will allow her to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempting to vote twice if she completes the requirements set by Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis within six months." -- LV Review-Journal
She decided it was flawed when it elected Barack Obama. Before that, two consecutive sketchy Bush elections, no problem!
This women is a fine example of what we're up against. Even the fact that she was napped trying to vote twice, which gives credibility to voting integrity, still it did not penetrate her noggin. Several times I have proven with facts that bogus emails or statements are false by presenting those facts to the conservative in question. Don't bother, they either get uppity or totally ignore the facts supplied. You can do it graciously or you can do it mildly snarky, it doesn't matter.
She proved our point, She was caught, charged and convicted. Our voter fraud prevention system works.
Being a Republican must be something you're born with. Why would anyone choose to be willfully ignorant and unrealistic?
Amen
I believe that before the politician takes the cash, he/she has to make sure that the police knew it was coming and that they are in the next room with the cameras. Otherwise, the argument that goes, "I was really committing the crime to expose the security issue," does not work and you find yourself on the business-end of a jury.
The answer to why the voter fraud is predominantly committed by republicans is because the rank and file buy into what the party talking heads are selling. They genuinely believe that the liberals are rampantly rigging elections and the vote. The only way to counteract that (since they can't get their voter suppression laws passed) is to fight fire with fire. Hence they feel totally justified in committing the fraud because they have been led to believe that is what the other party is doing anyway. It all fits with the narrative too. Since any person with an ounce of brains (according to the GOP) would vote GOP, any electoral loss MUST be due to fraud!
Way to fall for anything you are told by MSNBC!
Voter fraud is committed by DEMOCRATS...."predominantly"..
Do your own homework and a simple google search will tell you the truth.
Try "democrat voter fraud" as a search subject.
Sometimes an "electoral loss" is due to people being uninformed and steered in the wrong direction by others who are using them for "useful idiots", I suggest you look up that term also.
Funny thing is, they caught her without the ID requirement. Moreover, an ID would not have done anything if they did not catch her. She didn't lie about who she was. She lied about whether she had already voted. I wouldn't object to the purple ink on the thumb.
Hello! the ID would have told EVERYONE she ALREADY VOTED! When a vote is registered, the name is recorded as "Already Voted" and when that person tries to vote AGAIN....they are not allowed.
Yet another example of why Republicans accusing the other side of what they actually do persists. With their worldview steeped in fear, greed, and hatred, they simply can't imagine that everyone doesn't have the same corrupt instincts as they do. It's also why Republicans always give their hypocrites a pass. They just don't believe that people of higher ethical and moral standards exist, because everyone they know is just like them.
Sounds like the system worked just fine. What was the point she was trying to make?
She expected to get away with it, so her 'point' would be that it is easy to commit voter fraud.
What I'd like to know is what she would have done afterwards if she had succeeded. Brag? And did she expect to be rewarded for her actions?
Yeah...democrats never do anything illegal when it comes to voting...
http://www.truethevote.org/news/eighth-democrat-named-in-new-york-vote-fraud-probe
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57539706/congressmans-son-resigns-after-voter-fraud-video/
http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA636.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/maryland-politics/post/maryland-democrat-quits-congressional-race-amid-vote-fraud-allegations/2012/09/10/d0ff9b1e-fb73-11e1-b2af-1f7d12fe907a_blog.html
just saying...
And not "sayin'" much, either!
Did you even bother to read the art...oh, never mind!
actually, I read them all....
your point?
just saying...
The point is, these prove that the system works, that your voter ID disenfranchisement isn't needed or necessary or even anything other than an attempt to narrow the voter field, and that the GOP will have to find another way to win elections. Maybe they could try not being racist, nationalist, corporation-humping extremists... it's not like they've tried that yet.
Yea..."not Needed"...
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/19/ohio-poll-worker-obama-supporter-investigated-for-potentially-voting-six-times/
Sheila, their goal is to destroy Obama. Destroying the country is just collateral damage. Quite acceptable if the Black man in the WH is destroyed.
I'm not so sure that destroying the country is just collateral damage. Would that it were so. Will things get better under the next Repub president?
The republicans think the system is flawed because they got away with voter fraud to elect Bush jr...... TWICE!
Actually, the Supreme Court said otherwise.
what is the matter with these people??
The same thing that is the matter with every Democrat that tries it.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/19/ohio-poll-worker-obama-supporter-investigated-for-potentially-voting-six-times/
Google this: democrat voter fraud
We didn't get our way. That HAS to mean voter fraud is rampant or we will create that smokescreen to cover OUR tampering and count stopping,
The Ultimate "fraud" was 2000 Bush - Gore - SCOTUS freak show.
This lady is thinking she fell on her sword for her party to prove… uh, she didn't get to vote twice, did she? But by golly, she did get … brownie points for … making a big show and keeping the term "voter fraud" bouncing around. For that, the GOP will pay her fine, but what if she went to jail for it?
Will she get the RNC to find some local "community service" sign her off?
It's the R's doing this just to keep their people on board with voter ID and purging voter rolls of registered Ds.