I’m not sure where this will go. But one of the core issues in the debate over ‘vote fraud’ is that there’s virtually no recent evidence of voter impersonation fraud in the United States. People who get paid to register people do sometimes fill out registration cards for “Mickey Mouse” and “Mary Poppins.” But no one ever shows up to vote as “Mickey Mouse.” So even though that’s registration fraud, it’s not something that actually ends up affecting real elections. And remember, these claims of ‘fraud’ are what is behind efforts to make it a lot harder for people to vote.
One of the biggest peddlers of vote fraud tales is someone long-time TPMers will know well: Hans von Spakovsky. He’s the one who’s come up with what appear to be the most recent instances of actual impersonation, back in 1982.
But now it gets interesting. One of the most conscientious and knowledgable people to write about this subject is another person we’ve referenced many times: Rick Hasen, a professor at UC-Irvine who writes a blog on election law. He’s being trying to find a copy of the 1984 grand jury report that Spakovsky based his report on — the one about voter impersonation back in 1982. But he can’t find any copies. Anywhere. And von Spakovsky hasn’t replied to Hasen’s request to review the documents. Here’s the rest of the story.
