The ACLU filed suit against Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams who sponsored the law that requires a photo ID to vote. Secretary Adams shot back at the ALCU in a public response to the lawsuit, “because the far left is too extreme to win elections, they regularly seek to have courts, rather than legislators, write our laws… If these self-described advocates for democracy actually believed in democracy, they would let the democratic process work and let elected officials make policy.”
It’s obvious those on the left are saying there’s nothing to worry about with absentee ballots and that voter ID doesn’t make voting safer, but rather harder. But State Rep. Kevin Bratcher (Chairman of the State House Elections Committee) recently shared numerous examples of fraud that highlight the concerns behind mail-in voting.
– Ruth Robinson, the former mayor of Martin, Kentucky, was sentenced to 90 months’ imprisonment on a variety of charges that included vote buying, identity theft, and fraud. Robinson and co-conspirators James “Red” Robinson (her husband) and James Steven Robinson (her son) threatened and intimidated residents of Martin in the run-up to the 2012 election.
– Magoffin County. Randy Salyer, a member of the county board of elections, was convicted of paying voters $50 or more for their absentee ballots and was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2010.
– Robert Madon, a former mayor of Pineville, Kentucky, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to buy votes in his November 2006 election.
– Charles “Chuck” Hart, of Salt Lick, Kentucky, was found guilty of vote-buying, obstruction of justice, and lying to federal agents in 2007.
– Phillip Slone pleaded guilty to vote-buying in a federal election for offering to pay seven voters $50 dollars each for voting in the primary election. He was sentenced to three years’ probation in 2005.
– Willard Smith was convicted of conspiracy to buy votes and vote-buying in the Knott County primary election. He was accused of paying impoverished, handicapped, illiterate, or otherwise impaired persons to vote for Knott County Judge-Executive Donnie Newsome by absentee ballot. Smith was sentenced to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine. 2003
Rep. Bratcher also included four examples of voter fraud in Indiana, three in Tennessee, three in Illinois, one in West Virginia, and one in Missouri which all border Kentucky. It is encouraging that Secretary of State Adams and Rep. Bratcher are taking a stand against voter fraud, but they aren’t alone. Secretary Adams and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron created the Ballot Integrity Task Force, which will utilize federal and state forces seeking to minimize voter fraud. The left has continually used the COVID-19 crisis to push their progressive agenda, so it should come as no surprise that they are trying to use it now to push mail-in-voting. Mail-in-voting proponents are facing Kentucky’s top officials who are opposed to it.
Requiring a photo ID should be common sense, since every vote is a voice for the citizens of the Commonwealth, and of America. Everyone has to have a photo ID to drive a vehicle, buy cigarettes or alcohol products, so how does requiring one to vote suddenly cause a “hardship” or make voting more difficult? It DOESN’T, their logic and excuse is lame. Their is no additional cost placed on any voter for an ID, if they don’t have a valid drivers license. Positive ID helps to curtail voter fraud, which is the exact thing some in the political arena seem to want to happen
Hi JM,
Your comments are well taken and we agree wholeheartedly. The ACLU has been using the potential “hardships” as their argument for years, yet now their primary reason is COVID-19, ultimately their goal is to make Kentucky a ballot harvesting state.
-Ben Taylor, CPC Director of Content and Engagement