Customer Reviews

Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy

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John Fund writes about the stories that you do not read in most newspapers or hear about on the network news. Civil rights are violated when someone doesn't get to vote, but also when their vote is negated by fraud on the part of others. Not only are there people out there running scams to steal people's votes through things like absentee ballot fraud, but there is a growing trend to settle elections by lawfare rather than allowing every vote to be counted. Fund may be a conservative, but facts are facts. Read the book and judge for yourself.

This book is completely different from the earlier version and is a must read for anyone concerned about the upcoming election.
Fund uses numerous examples to back up his claims regarding vote fraud. Vote fraud is not a myth as evidenced by the felony convictions of various members of ACORN (a group Obama worked for and backs). ACORN creates fraudulent voter registration lists in order to get the candidates they back elected to office.
Fund also discusses voter ID laws and outlines the battle that ended at the Supreme Court earlier this year with the decision that voter ID laws are constitutional despite what liberals cry.
It's truly amazing how little policing there is of who votes and when and where in this country. All citizens with the right to vote should be concerned about the issue of vote fraud because every time someone without the right votes, it dilutes legitimate votes.
The first reviewer's rant about all things Republican seems misplaced - this book is about ensuring democracy for all, not partisan politics.

As we approach the 2008 Presidential election it is difficult not to be alarmed at what has become of the election process in this country. John Fund brings us all up to date on just what is going on in the updated version of his 2004 book "Stealing Elections, Revised and Updated: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy". If you are as concerned as I am about the myriad problems we face in conducting elections in this nation then I urge you to take the time to read this extremely important book.

The problems appear to have started in 1994 with the enactment of the Motor Voter Law. This innane act allows individuals to register to vote in church, at the laundromat or at just about any government agency. What is particularly outrageous about this practice is that absolutely no identification is required to register in most states. When I first read about this many years ago I recall thinking just how ridiculous this law was. People can also register by mail, again with no identification required. And the consequences of this law should not be at all surprising. We now have many more fraudulant votes being cast by illegal aliens, convicted felons, people who moved away years earlier and yes even by dead people!!! Have you read the news about ACORN lately? As a result the ballots cast by legitimate, law-abiding citizens are being negated. It is an absolute outrage!

Another way elections are being stolen in this country is by the use of absentee ballots and extended election periods. It used to be that a citizen needed to present officials with a legitimate reason for being sent an absentee ballot. Today, in the name of "convenience", standards have been greatly relaxed and more and more voters are opting for absentee ballots. The opportunities for voter fraud increase exponentially in such a scenario. God forbid people have to wait in line for half an hour once every four years to do their duty as citizens! Did you know that in 2008 in the state of Ohio people are being allowed to cast their votes in person some 5 weeks before Election Day? Is this really necessary? And who stands to benefit from such a law? Meanwhile in Oregon virtually all balloting is now done by mail. Melody Rose, a professor at Oregon State University observes in "Stealing Elections": "Vote by mail brings a perpetual risk of systemic fraud." In such a system ballots can easily be stolen from mailboxes and once again the opportunity for all kinds of hanky panky dramatically increases.

Voter fraud is certainly not the only way that our elections are being compromised today. John Fund points out significant problems that have occurred with just about all of the new technologies including touch screens and scanners. With just about all of these systems there is no paper backup available. As a result the potential for fraud is tremendous. Democrats have bitterly complained that irregularities in the State of Ohio in 2004 cost Kerry the election. And even if these machines do happen to be in good working order on Election Day recent history has taught us that many poll workers are poorly trained and often do not know how to operate these machines properly. And then there is the requirement for issuing complicated "provisional" ballots in many states. Our election process is a mess and all of these issues need to be addressed.

As an important first step to remedy some of these issues and to return some level of sanity to the process, John Fund proposes that photo identification be required before voting. This seems like a reasonable idea. A poll taken in 2004 found that 89% of Bush supporters and 75% of John Kerry voters approved of this proposal. Yet Civil Rights groups fight such an idea tooth and nail. It is also clear to me that much of the new voting equipment in use might not be quite ready for prime time use. It is imperative that before a state commits to such new technologies that adequate testing be done beforehand. After all, what is the big rush? Are we falling all over ourselves just so the networks can get faster results on election night? Let them wait!

In "Stealing Elections, Revised and Updated: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy" John Fund has painted a chilling picture of what our elections are turning into. Unlike some other books out there I thought that Fund's approach was remarkably fair and balanced. I take this book very seriously and worry what the ramifications might be if people come to believe that elections can be easily manipulated or even stolen in our country. These are issues of the utmost importance that all of us should become acquainted with and reading "Stealing Elections" is a great way to get up to speed on these issues. Highly recommended!

This book provided well documented shocking new information that I had never heard and I live in Palm Beach County which was ground zero for the 2000 election "recount" farce. I never learned of the disproportionately high percentage of spoiled ballots or the disproportionately low percentage of votes for George W Bush in Palm Beach County.

Since then I have served as a poll watcher and can assure you that there are Democrats who would tamper with ballots to insure a Democrat victory. On the good news front better technology is making ballot tampering more difficult.

Every voter in our democracy should read this excellent update of John Fund's book. We must all be careful and alert that our voting is not corrupted by those who wish to take shortcuts to victory. Pay particular attention to the forthcoming election processes in Minnesota and Georgia.

Informative and educational. This book is an eye opening work that should cause the generally apathetic population to rethink their contribution to the election process.

This is an excellent and needed book. It is perhaps more useful because it was written before the controversial recounts after the elections and special elections of 2008-2009 as well as the Acorn revelations. One measure of the usefulness of a book is the power to predict, and by that measure this book is very powerful indeed.

I am an active member of a political party, and continue to be amazed at how little concern there is over voter fraud. The general attitude seems to be that everyone does a little, but it all cancels out, and anyway the goal is to get enough votes for your side so that fraud won't matter anyway. (Of course, no one personally knows of any fraud and would be shocked, yes shocked if they ran across it).

There is also a feeling that if one side "plays fair" this will give an advantage to the other side. Think of unilateral disarmament.

Voter fraud will not go away on its own. It thrives in darkness, deceit, and ignorance. This book lights a much needed candle. Anyone concerned about the honesty of elections will profit from reading it. Hopefully, you may even be motivated to get involved.

An important book, especially in today's climate. Carefully presented, well-written and researched.

The end justifies the means mentality of those who perpetrate election fraud is very disturbing. It is even more alarming how well organized the perpetrators of election fraud are.

John Fund has written a very interesting book on the history of voter fraud and includes many recent elections and how the vote count came out as less than true. Interesting enough Mr. Fund takes exception with both parties and is equally critical of their tatics.

While I'm a political "junkie" I truly believe anyone with an interest in what truly goes on in our election process would get a lot from this book. They certainly won't be bored.

An interesting side note is that as I write this Al Franken is trailing Norm Coleman by a small margin of 340 votes in the Minnesota Senatorial race. He is considering an appeal to the Senate who has the right to determine who the winning candidate is. This same thing happened in a previous Congressional election and the majority party put their candidate in even though he didn't have the most votes. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

John Fund's excellent non-partisan "Stealing Elections" is a tough look at one aspect of America's broken democracy -- election fraud -- and does a competent job of covering this growing problem. He takes both Democrats and Republicans to task for underhanded behavior. He does a particularly good job at researching recent developments from a reporter's neutral viewpoint. Still, the seriousness of the subject suggests a need for a well-funded study run by academics who could apply more analytical rigor. Still, Fund's book is the best we've got.

America's election system is perhaps the "modern world's sloppiest election system" writes Mr. Fund. It's haphazard and fraud prone. The US ranks near the bottom among world nations in terms of voter participation (139th of 163 democracies). Local election offices are cash-strapped and voter rolls are flawed; voter ignorance, lackadaisical law enforcement and shortages of trained volunteers further compound the problem. Reform is easy to talk about, hard to do. A close election risks a legal battle fought by armies of lawyers, so it's necessary to win "beyond the margin of litigation" he writes.

Voting is problematic because it's a private act done in public for a political purpose. So it's difficult to know whether an election result is valid since much of the choosing is concealed from public view.

Mr. Fund criticizes both sides for underhanded tactics. In somewhat of a stretch, he tried to apply Thomas Sowell's "unconstrained" and "constrained" categories to voting (I wonder what Mr. Sowell might think about this). The connection is somewhat loose -- Democrats prefer fair outcomes (votes cast) while Republicans prefer fair process (playing by the rules) and I agree with Mr. Fund's general direction, but it's still a stretch. In a ballsy move, Mr. Fund declares Democrats are more likely to indulge in vote fraud than Republicans (and I think he's right) yet he does this without seriously undermining his neutral stance as a non-partisan. He doesn't dance around this issue, and I applaud him for his bluntness.

Democratic underhandedness often involves a push for greater numbers of voters, regardless of legality. Bill Clinton's 1993 "Motor Voter Law" required persons visiting their local DMV's to be offered a chance to register to vote. From 1994 to 1998, there was a 20% increase in "voters" but one study found few of these drivers who registered actually voted. Motor-Voter fueled an expansion of phantom voters. In a related effort, Hillary Clinton supported the "Count Every Vote Act" (2005) to boost voter participation despite this going against the Constitution's requirement that states (not the federal government) control elections. Senator Clinton estimated that of the roughly five million disenfranchised felons, most would lean Democratic; but do we really want felons voting? Supposedly some jailbirds in Maine and Vermont actually voted from their cells. Other questionable tactics by Democrats include shuttling homeless people to the polls on election day. Since many likely Democratic voters tend to be poor, they're more susceptible to bribes.

Republican have their bag of dirty tricks too. One operative hired a firm to repeatedly call Democratic "get out the vote" phone banks on election day. This tied up their lines. The operatives were caught and spent 7 months in jail after a lawsuit, although this is one of the few instances where vote fraud was actually punished with jail time. Republicans sometimes hire police officers to hang around polls to intimidate some voters. Understandably Republicans prefer requirements such as identification cards with photographs.

Absentee ballots increase the risk of vote fraud, in his view. It lengthens the actual time of an election, making it harder to oversee and police. Television exit polls are totally bypassed by mailed-in ballots, so there is no media check on election accuracy when absentee balloting becomes extensive. The author sees a dangerous trend towards use of absentee ballots since it is very convenient for an apathetic public to vote with very little effort. Thirty states now allow absentee ballots without an excuse. In elections in Washington, California and Arizona, about half of all votes cast were absentee ballots. It's easier for party operatives to target the elderly, infirm, low-income, and non-English speaking persons, and deliver their "vote". Commentators from both left (Norman Ornstein) and right (George Will) have voiced opposition to absentee balloting.

The author thinks George W. Bush won Florida, despite the media outcry, based on a media consortium examining 170,000 disputed ballots. Florida is still the "gold standard for botched elections" he writes. Liberals persist in thinking the election was stolen despite fairly definitive proof that Bush won the state.

An activist group called ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) has promoted voting in low income areas, with a left-leaning agenda. But it has often been associated with voter fraud. It helped submit names in Seattle for voting, but 97% of 1805 names were later ruled invalid. He notes presidential candidate Barack Obama was linked with ACORN as their attorney in 1995 and as a trainer of ACORN staff. He sees Barack Obama as a "faux reformer".

Mr. Fund points out electoral fraud in places like Mississippi, Milwaukee, Seattle, and gives examples from Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign as well. He discusses vote fraud from history. Tammany Hall used devices such as pre-marked ballots and preyed on vulnerable immigrants. From 1868 to 1871, votes totaled were more than 8% of the actual population.

Mr. Fund offers a list of intelligent steps to combat vote fraud. They include: ID requirements at the polls; discourage absentee balloting; rein in voter-chasing lawyers; centralized state-wide voter registration lists (to avoid duplication). He thinks same-day registration is a recipe for mischief. Surprisingly, he didn't have much commentary about whether electronic vote-counting machines were better than paper ballots; changes in voting equipment almost always pose problems, he writes. To replace an aging corps of elderly poll-worker volunteers, he'd encourage college students and graduating high school seniors to become involved (good idea). Other recommendations: require absentee ballots to be signed in the presence of a witness whose address & phone number are provided; only voters should be allowed to request an absentee ballot; campaign workers should be barred from delivering absentee ballots; states should run computer checks to compare voter lists against death notices and convicted felons; give state election officials power to examine vote fraud and disenfranchisement issues; put citizen appointees on election boards with equal representation from both parties which are overseen by a non-partisan. He whips out a surprise recommendation about "provisional ballots" (which allow a person who tries to vote but is denied to specify a choice anyway). This permits a later decision to overturn the rejected registration and actually cast a vote. In my view, this adds needless complexity and more mess to a difficult system.

Generally Mr. Fund's recommendations are sensible and smart but I see the problem as much, much deeper than electoral fraud. I think American democracy is decaying, and the problems are structural, systemic, and severe, and won't be solved with stop-gap solutions like Mr. Fund is proposing. I think the only recourse to save our Republic is a Second Constitutional Convention, and I am summoning this body to meet in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, beginning July 4, 2009, to craft a new Constitution, based on the old one, which restores our democracy along lines I've proposed in my book and in other reviews.

Thomas W. Sulcer
Author of "The Second Constitution of the United States"
(free on web; google title + Sulcer)