Guest Post by Emma Thoni
Emma attended the third annual True the Vote national conference this past weekend in Houston, Texas and contributed this report.
** 67% of Americans support the voter photo identification.
** There are an estimated 2,000,000 dead people on US voter rolls
** There are hundreds of US counties with over 100% of their population registered to vote
** 64% of Americans believe voter fraud is an issue
The Secretaries of State of Ohio, Kansas, Colorado, and Board of Elections Secretary of Virginia attended the conference this past weekend.
This weekend, the Tea Party Patriots sent me and several others to True the Vote’s third annual summit in Houston, Texas. The summit featured some truly amazing speakers, including author and syndicated columnist John Fund, former Treasurer of the United States Rosario Marin, and ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief. People from over thirty different states were in attendance.
Of particular interest was the panel composed of Secretaries of State Scott Gessler (CO), Kris Kobach (KS), and Matt Schultz (IA), who spoke with attendees about the incredible progress they have made in their respective states to clean the voter rolls, and ensure fairer elections. Kris Kobach recently passed the Kansas Secure and Fair Elections Act, which included a requirement that voters present photo IDs when they vote in person, a requirement that absentee voters present a full driver’s license number and have their signatures verified, and a proof of citizenship requirement for all newly registered voters. Kansas is the only state to enact all three of these voting reforms. Schultz also improved the state of elections in Iowa by removing voters from the state’s registration by comparing it with the Department of Transportation list and the federal immigration list, and allowing citizens to anonymously report voter fraud. Matt Schultz, currently being sued by The ACLU of Iowa and the Iowa League of United Latin American Citizens, described his liberal attackers, saying that “they try and basically call you a racist. They call you names to make you feel like you did something bad.” However, he slammed these critics, pointing out that not only is his wife Latina, but he is fluent in Spanish and lived for two years in Argentina. And in fact, revealed that “most of the people we’ve caught so far have been Canadians.”
It was refreshing to attend a conference that not only discussed conservative ideas, but that empowered its attendees to enact change in their local governments. Each member of the audience received information and resources about what they could do to fight for fairer elections on a local level. While the summit highlighted the very serious consequences of voter fraud and the obstacles America still faces in opposition to it, the summit also presented the achievements True the Vote made this year in supporting independent citizens and grassroots organizations in fighting voter fraud.
