Claims of voter fraud are tough to verify, experts say

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004 | 11 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's voter registration controversy illustrates larger problems with the country's voting system as a whole, some election analysts say.

Claims of voter fraud and election tampering are nothing new, especially as Election Day gets closer, experts say, but whether it is partisan finger-pointing or real injustice remains to be seen.

"It is not always easy to draw that line," said Deborah Goldberg of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. "We hope partisanship never plays a role in judicial opinions, but if that charge only comes up when you don't get what you want, it makes those claims a little suspect."

State Democrats filed suit last week claiming Democratic voter registration forms taken by Voters Outreach of America, a group funded by the Republican National Committee, were destroyed and now people who thought they were registered would be denied the right to vote.

District Judge Valerie Adair ruled Friday that the state would not reopen voter registration for people who said they filled out forms that may have been thrown away because to do so would allow people to register who did not try to register by the deadline.

The state Democrats still have not decided if they'll appeal, spokesman Jon Summers said. Individuals can still sue if they feel their rights have been violated and Summers noted Adair's ruling did not draw any conclusions as to whether the forms had been destroyed.

Some voters were planning their own lawsuits.

Doug Lewis of The Election Center, a nonpartisan organization of government employees that work in elections administration, noted that the allegations of voter fraud could help drive voter turnout.

"One way to make sure your voters go to the polls is to (make them) feel they have been wronged," he said.

However, he said that "more often than not all the (voter fraud) allegations prove not to be true."

Lewis said he was not denying that fraud can take place, but this close to an election, political parties want to be sure to get people registered who will vote for their candidate.

"You see it on both sides of the aisle," he said. "You see more often than not at this time of year, when passions are high, that people do things people wouldn't normally do."

Lewis said voters may not find out until after the election what actually happened.

"That's unfortunate but that's probably what it is going to take," Lewis said. "Everyone needs to stand back, take a deep breath and realize the process itself needs everyone's cooperation to work."

Goldberg said she has not yet read Adair's opinion but based on what she has heard about it finds it to be a "disappointing decision."

"One would hope the court would realize this would be an appropriate remedy," she said on reopening voter registration. "Opening registration is a relatively simple solution, assuming the allegations are true."

Each state runs its own election and has some form of voter registration before an election. Only six states allow Election Day registration, where people can go straight to the polls, register and vote. Nevada is not the only state with allegations of registration problems but they are different here.

Tova Wang, a democracy fellow at of The Century Foundation, a progressive policy research institute. said Nevada's problem is different than other states' voter registration conflicts because it's illegal to shred or throw out voter registration forms.

"Clearly you have a situation in Nevada where criminal acts may have been committed," Wang said.

Having a judge make a decision puts a partisan hue on the outcome. While judges are elected in non-partisan races, they usually have party affiliations, even if it's simply on their voter registration form.

"States need to explore non-partisan election administration," Wang said. "People would have a lot more faith in the voting system. It could be trusted and not be a political football."

Rob Richie, executive director of the Center for Voting and Democracy, a non-profit organization whose funding sources include the Ford Foundation, said the role of the judiciary is too much in the elections process now.

"Everyone knows the partisan consequences of those decisions," he said.

Richie also said the right to vote is not protected federally. The only protections in the Constitution say that states cannot deny anyone over the age of 18, women or minorities the right to vote, but there is no federal right to vote, which gives the state court even more power.

"If there is clear evidence that a number of people not registered to vote thought they were, the state should bend over backwards," Richie said. "There is no good democratic reason in a sense of democratic theory, it's only for administrative convenience."