The small Village of Brockport, New York - population 8,338 - is living proof that requiring voters to show a valid photo ID before voting will not prevent voter fraud.
That’s because Brockport residents have been down that road and know it is a dead end.
Last year, two people were arrested, tried, and convicted of voting illegally in Brockport Village elections even though they didn’t live in the Village.
However, a police investigation showed that both of the people who committed voter fraud had valid, government issued photo ID’s (NYS driver’s licenses), which falsely stated that they lived in an abandoned funeral home in the Village.
The two people who committed the voter fraud actually lived 16 miles away in another town and another county.
So how is requiring a photo ID supposed to prevent voter fraud?
Yesterday, on Martin Luther King Day, United States Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a speech on voting rights at a rally at the South Carolina state capitol building in Columbia, S.C.
The rally was sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
South Carolina’s ultra conservative Republican lawmakers recently passed a tough new law that requires voters to present photo ID to election officials before casting a ballot.
Conservatives argue that such measures are needed to prevent voter fraud. But so far they have been unable to present any evidence to back up their claim.
That’s why last month the U.S. Department of Justice blocked South Carolina’s new voter photo identification law; under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, because, “The state had failed to meet its burden of proving that the voting change would not have a racially discriminatory effect.”
South Carolina has said it will appeal the decision.
According to the National Conference of State Legislators, eight States have recently implemented strict photo ID requirements for voters (Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, & Wisconsin). All of those States have Republican governors.
Seven other States have implemented less strict photo ID laws for voters (Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, South Dakota). All but one of those States has a Republican governor.
There is a definite pattern here, and it doesn’t make any sense.
“Indeed, responsible parties on all sides of this debate have acknowledged that in-person voting fraud is uncommon.”
United States Attorney General Eric Holder
January 16, 2012
Columbia, South Carolina
If you want to get a handle on how voter fraud actually happens, here’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about the voter fraud that happened in Brockport, New York.
On April 5, 2011 Rich Miller and his wife Kathleen were arrested by Brockport Police and charged with one count each of Perjury (a misdemeanor) and 3 counts each of Illegal Voting (felonies), because they had both voted in Village Elections on June 15, 2010, June 16, 2009, and November 3, 2009 even though they did not live in the Village.
The Miller’s had been voting illegally in Village elections for many years, even though everyone in the Brockport area knew they didn’t live in the Village.
But nobody would challenge their right to vote in Village elections, because of Rich Miller’s well-earned reputation for violence.
But in 2010 things changed. At a meeting of Village residents prior to the election, an eerie quiet settled over the room when someone asked, “Who’s going to challenge Rich Miller?”
Everyone’s eyes swept around the room, but no one spoke up. It was painfully obvious that people in Brockport were afraid of Miller because of his the violent reputation.
Then a 65 year old Vietnam Veteran raised his hand and said, “I’ll do it.”
You could hear a pin drop as every eye in that room turned to look at the small white-haired newcomer to Village politics.
The combat veteran could sense that everyone was looking at him, and he turned his head to his right and then to his left before speaking.
“What’s he going to do shoot at me?” He said, before dropping into the vernacular; “The North Vietnamese used to do that all the time, but it don’t mean nothin.”
“What do I have to do?”
When the Millers tried to vote in the June 2010 Village elections, the Vietnam Veteran was a poll watcher for one of the candidates for Village Trustee.
When the Miller’s reached the front of the line and tried to vote, he challenged their right to vote in the election.
The look on Rich Miller’s face was priceless – he had an “FU” look on his face as if he were invulnerable and above the law.
He was in for a rude surprise.
The diminutive Vietnam Veteran had fought to defend our voting rights, and he wasn’t about to back down to a two-bit punk, college-landlord, who had never lifted a finger to defend his country.
A Board of Elections official questioned the Millers about to their residence, and administered an Oath to the Millers, who swore under the penalty of Perjury, that they lived at 52 State Street in Brockport, which is location of the abandoned Fowler Funeral Home.
Then the Millers were allowed to vote.
On June 23, 2010 the Vietnam Veteran filed a formal complaint about the Miller’s voting illegally with the Monroe County Board of Elections and the Brockport Police Department.
During the next nine months, the Brockport Police Department conducted an extensive investigation in order to determine the Miller's legal residence.
The investigation determined that the Millers did not live in the Village, as they had claimed. In fact they didn’t even live in the same town or the same county.
The Millers actually lived at 16729 Lakeland Beach Road in Kendall, Orleans County, N.Y. 14476, which is 15.8 miles, and a 25 minute drive, northwest of Brockport.
Therefore, since Rich Miller and his wife Kathleen did not reside in the Village of Brockport they were not entitled to vote in the Village Elections on June 15, 2010, June 16, 2009, and November 3, 2009.
Log on to Google Maps. Enter both addresses, and see for yourself.
The investigation also revealed that Rich Miller and Kathleen Miller both had valid, government issued photo IDs – New York State driver’s licenses – which erroneously stated that they lived at 52 State Street in Brockport, the abandoned funeral home directly across the .street from the polling place.
The voter fraud case in Brockport, N.Y. is living proof that, requiring government issued photo IDs would not have prevented the voter fraud committed by Rich and Kathleen Miller. Only an honest citizen and good police work stopped the voter fraud.
In 2008 the United States Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit about a similar photo ID law in Indiana (Crawford v. Marion County Election Board).
However, they did so on the very narrow grounds that the plaintiffs could not prove that anyone had been denied their right to vote because they did not have a valid, government issued photo ID.
But South Carolina isn’t Indiana. While some parts of rural Indiana are considered red neck country, South Carolina is in the Deep South, where racism is deeply ingrained in a large segment of the white population.
After spending decades fighting for their voting rights, African Americans in South Carolina should have no trouble finding an eligible voter who has been denied the right to voter because he or she does not have a valid, government issued photo ID.
Then the case will work its way back to the Supreme Court.
Then the nine justices will have to consider what happened in Brockport when the people who committed voter fraud had photo ID that said they lived in an abandoned funeral home.
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