A Courageous Liberal Tells the Truth on Voter ID

The political left has been viciously attacking Congressman Artur Davis for simply stating that vote fraud exists and admitted that he was once wrong on voter ID. The attacks are a sad comment on the political left. They can't meaningfully debate the issue and instead attack those who support voter ID. They have even accused Davis of wanting to switch parties, all because he told the truth about vote fraud and voter ID.

The political left's next target will likely be African American senior citizen, Rhode Island State Senator and Voter ID law sponsor Harold Metts after what he wrote yesterday. First, Senator Metts addresses the fact that most voters and Democrats, other than those in the political class, already know: vote fraud exists.

I cannot accept the logic of those who dismiss this by saying that "there have been no formal complaints filed." The old system was not set up to readily weed out fraud; and it would be very hard to prove. Moreover, winners on election night would soon forget about any fraud, while the losers' concerns would be dismissed as sour grapes.  We know that many rapes and other crimes go unreported. Does this mean that unreported rapes did not occur? We cannot allow the integrity of our system to be violated. 

Senator Metts summarizes what every impartial observer and most of the rest of the world knows: vote fraud exists, and most of the time its goes unreported or is not prosecuted. Further, as Metts says there is a price in "sour grapes" allegations if you do fight against vote fraud, even the worst fraud. If then Senator John Ashcroft complained about vote fraud in his narrow 2000 defeat when polls were kept open in only a few Democrat precincts to allow a dead man the opportunity to vote in 2000, would he have been confirmed as Attorney General by a Democrat-controlled Senate? If then Rep. John Thune had fought his narrow defeat for the 2002 South Dakota Senate election in light of massive evidence of vote fraud on Indian reservations, would the people of South Dakota, who were sick of politics, elected him Senator in 2004 over then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle? Metts understands. Unfortunately the political left doesn't or more likely is protecting vote fraud.

Metts, like Congressman Davis, before him is being attacked by the political left:

I had personally reached a point where I could no longer duck this issue. Little did I know at the time that I would become part of the national debate.  I have been accused of being a "sell out" by many on the left, and defecting to the Tea Party.  I have also been complimented by those on the right (although they feel that the R.I. law is too liberal).

Metts' courage is admirable. He is ignoring the political left who have almost certainly never been to his district and is instead listening to the people, his constituents, who, by the way, are minorities and Democrats who support voter ID (emphasis added):

My motivation, as I said, was in direct response to the concerns of my constituents (a majority of them Democrats in a majority minority community), who have complimented me for the passage of the Voter I.D. Law.  

The Democrats have also tried to dismiss his sponsorship of a voter ID bill as a fluke of Rhode Island and not the same as other voter ID laws. Senator Metts does not back down there either (emphasis added):

But this is not the Jim Crow south of the 1960s, and Rhode Island has been traditionally a majority Democratic state for many decades.  For this reason, the passage of the R.I. law was seen as an anomaly on the national landscape.  But it is important to remember that the R.I. law incorporates provisions from the Indiana photo I.D. law that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2008; and it includes a free state voter I.D. card for anyone who needs one. 

The political left is scared. If people understand that voter ID laws in places like Indiana, that happen also to be sponsored by Republicans, help prevent fraud and are not remotely racist, they will back them like Senator Metts did for his Democrat minority constituents.

Thank you for your courage Senator Metts. I hope the left will not attack you personally, but unfortunately if they want to disagree with you it will be hard for them to do anything else. For if you look at the truth on vote fraud as you did, they will have to conclude that voter ID should be supported.