Dan Perry: The Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform

John R. Lott, Jr. is founder and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and is a long-time studier and researcher of voter fraud.

On September 20,2021 Lott delivered a talk at Hillsdale College which I found to be quite fascinating. He said that in 2005 the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform issued a report that proposed a uniform system of requiring photo ID in order to vote in U.S. elections

The report also pointed out that widespread absentee voting makes voter fraud more likely. Voter files contain “ineligible, duplicate, fictional and deceased voters, a fact easily applied using absentee ballots to commit fraud.” He further said, “Citizens who vote absentee are more susceptible to pressure and intimidators. And vote-buying schemes are far easier when citizens vote by mail.”

It is interesting to note that the Commission’s two ranking members were former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat and former Secretary of State, James Baker, III, a Republican. Other Democrats on the Commission were former Senate Majority Leader Tom Dashle and former Indiana Congressman Les Hamilton. It was truly a bipartisan Commission that made what seemed at the time to be common sense proposals.

Would you believe how things have changed? Some of the Commission members, Jimmy Carter among them, came out last year to discuss the Commission’s work. Despite surveys showing that Americans overwhelmingly support measures to election integrity – a recent Rasmussen survey found that 80% of Americans support voter ID requirements – Democratic leaders across the board opposed such measures in the strongest terms.

Speaking in Philadelphia some time ago, Present Biden condemned the idea of voter ID’s saying, “There is an unfolding assault taking place in America today – an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote in fair and free elections, an assault on democracy. An assault on liberty, an assault on who we are – who we are as Americans. For make no mistake, bullies and merchants of fear and peddlers of lies are threatening the very foundation of our country.” Sadly, but predictably, he went on to suggest that requiring voter ID would mean “returning people to slavery.”

Really, Mr. President? The fact is that the U.S. is on the outskirts among the world’s democracies in not requiring voter ID. Of the 47 countries in Europe today, 46 of them currently require government issued photo ID to vote. The odd man out is the United Kingdom, in which Northern Ireland and many locations require voter ID’s, but the requirement is not nationwide. The British Parliament, however, is considering a nationwide requirement, so very soon all 47 European countries will likely have adopted this common-sense policy.

Mr. Lott cited a number of examples of how absentee and mail in balloting led to widespread voter fraud. Present Biden and those who oppose election integrity reform here in the U.S. often condemn it as a means of “voter suppression.” But in Mexico, after reform was put in place the percent of people voting rose from 59% before reform to 68% after. It turned out that Mexicans were more, not less, likely to vote when they had confidence that their vote mattered. That makes perfect sense to me!

After all, in airports, doctor’s offices and many other places in America today, a photo ID is required. Why not at the voting polls which is at the heart of our political system. All they are trying to do is establish and confirm the fact that you are in fact who you are claiming to be. Everyone can easily get a photo ID – and it’s free! To claim “voter suppression” is absurd in my opinion, for history proves otherwise

As John Lott emphasized, “With loose absentee voting rules, a country is making itself vulnerable to voter fraud. With mail in voting, a country is almost begging for voter fraud.” I totally agree with his assessment.

In my opinion, if President Biden and the progressive left have their way we are moving in the wrong direction. As someone has said, “They are wrong as two left shoes.”

Mr. Lott wisely ended his remarks with these words: “Those opposing common sense measures to ensure integrity in U.S. elections – measures such as those recommended by the bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission in 2005 – are not motivated by a concern for democracy, but by partisan interests.

I say that’s putting it mildly! Unless we have a major overhaul in the 2022 and 2024 elections our country may have reached a point of no return.

I may be only a voice in the wilderness, but the bottom line is, we need to prepare now for those all important and critical elections!.