Elections

Husted: Executive Orders and Immigrants Will Compromise Our Elections

Written by SK Ashby

This isn't actually true, but it sounds sexy so Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) said it anyway.

In a Jan. 27 letter to Obama and Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Husted says Obama's executive actions would provide millions of non-citizens with valid Social Security numbers and driver's licenses - credentials that can be used for voter registration.

"By enabling millions of non-citizens to access valid forms of the types of identification required to register to vote, the recent executive actions have increased the risk that non-citizens may illegally register to vote and vote in our elections," his letter said.

More specifically, Husted alleges that non-citizens may be "mistakenly" registered to vote when they apply for a driver's license, but as a resident of Ohio I can tell you that the only way that could happen is if a state employee does not follow standard procedure. A federal copy of your birth certificate is required for doing so and, obviously, non-citizens will not have access to one of those.

I expect to see a lot of similar talk over the next two years as the Republican party's share of the Latino vote plummets in the polls even further.

Voter fraud is not a serious problem in this country, but it's a useful boogeyman when you have nothing else.