Rand Paul: GOPers May Have ‘Over-Emphasized’ Voter Fraud

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. walks towards waiting reporters in front of federal court in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014. Claiming the Obama administration is violating Americans’ constitutional rights, Sen. Rand Pa... Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. walks towards waiting reporters in front of federal court in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014. Claiming the Obama administration is violating Americans’ constitutional rights, Sen. Rand Paul and a conservative political group are filing a lawsuit over the National Security Agency’s surveillance program. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) thinks Republicans may have “over-emphasized” the issue of voter fraud, according to The Washington Post.

Paul made the comments on Tuesday during a sit-down interview with former senior Obama adviser David Axelrod at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. Here’s the portion from the transcript highlighted by the Post:

Paul: Dead people do still vote in some elections. There still is some fraud. And so we should stop that, and one way of doing it is (driver’s licenses).

Axelrod: Although the incidence of fraud is relatively small.

Paul: It probably is, and I think Republicans may have over-emphasized this. I don’t know.

The Post noted that Paul said he supports voter ID efforts as a way of providing a minimal standard at the polls. But he said efforts to curtail early voting is a “mistake.”

“I don’t think early voting is biased one way or the other,” Paul said. “So I think eliminating it is a mistake for the — Republicans who want to make their whole thing eliminating early voting, I think that’s a mistake.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Paul is in the stage of his campaign where he says as close to nothing as possible. When asked about tough issues he will re-state the question and talk about both points of view, but rarely will he offer any sort of personal opinion, solution, or policy.

  2. Not an original thought of mine, but I can’t remember whose it was–pretty sure it was one of the Balloon-Juicers.

    If a single fraudulent vote is such an intolerable insult to democracy that no amount of money or effort devoted to eliminating it is too much, how is it that preventing hundreds or thousands of people who are eligible to vote from voting is no big deal?

  3. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) thinks Republicans may have “over-emphasized” the issue of voter fraud, according to The Washington Post.

    Ya think?
    I bet Hugh_Everett is apoplectic right about now

  4. Does this ding bat understand that not everyone has a driver’s license? That not everyone who votes owns a car or needs a driver’s license.

  5. Paul: Dead people do still vote in some elections.

    Only if you watch the “Walking Dead” TV show there, Mr Paul.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

17 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for doctora Avatar for ncsteve Avatar for lonewolf_93 Avatar for easydm Avatar for theleftrevac Avatar for arrrrrj Avatar for DocMagnus Avatar for spacepenguin Avatar for sandyh Avatar for cliffhendroval Avatar for dbushik Avatar for baffie2 Avatar for weatherservo9 Avatar for rbinnc Avatar for pine Avatar for darrtown Avatar for omarque Avatar for brwneydbob

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: