Say Anything Blog

A reader emails this along in response to my posts about excessive voter registrations in Indiana (where Indianapolis has 105% of eligible voters are registered) and West Virginia (where Lincoln County has 112% of eligible voters registered):

In the 2004 election, voter registration was roughly 72% nationwide. Nearly 89% of that 72% who registered actually voted (or, put another way, roughly 64% of voting aged America voted). Source: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html
Furthermore, in Lincoln county, WV (where there is apparently 112% voter registration), the number of people who were voting age was roughly 16139 in 2000 and roughly 16321 in 2006…a very modest (barely more than 1%) growth rate. Source: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/54/54043.html
So, for mere population growth to account for the increase in voter rolls in Lincoln county, WV, we’d have to believe that 1958 voting-aged people moved to a county that enjoys a poverty rate that is well above the state average, as well as median income rates and property value rates that are well below the state average (Source: census quickfacts again). That sort of growth rate would blow away the modest growth rate from the previous 6 years.
Even if you were to suspend disbelief that the population absolutely exploded in the last two years in one of WV’s poorer counties, you’d still be at pains to explain a rate of registration WELL above the national average.

Indianapolis, IN, enjoyed only a 0.5% growth rate from 2000 to 2006. To grow away the difference in, they’d have to have a growth rate of about 5% over two years…TEN TIMES the rate of the preceeding 6 years. Plus, you’d STILL have a rate of registration WAY above the national average. Source: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/18/1836003.html
The more you look at it, the less up and up it seems. There is clearly registarion fraud going on, and registration fraud is a precursor to outright electoral fraud.

These aren’t statistical anomalies.  This is fraud.

Again, you’d think someone, somewhere might want to do something about this.