Previously:

Once again, some Meta (August 23, 2014)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r) – in Warrensburg – August 22, 2014 (August 23, 2014)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r) – in Warrensburg – August 22, 2014 – Q and A on farming (August 24, 2014)

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) held a campaign event in Warrensburg Friday evening. Toward the end of the evening she addressed the seated crowd (about forty-five people) and then took a few questions. Toward the end of the question and answer period:

Question: Vicky, I looked at the last election and I’ve been schooled in what’s been [inaudible] and it’s just so obvious that the election was stolen from us last time. How do we combat that? How do we, how do we deal with voter fraud and still get Republicans in office?

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r): You think, uh, stolen as in presidential level, national level [crosstalk] or statewide?

Question: [inaudible] When, when there was a precinct that voted for, uh, a hundred and twenty-five percent of the precinct voted to, for Obama and zero for Romney in the last presidential election. Well, there’s something stinking about that.

Representative Hartzler (r): You know, I, I think, uh, we need to focus on making sure our statewide Secretary of State elections, when we focus on ’em, there is, there’s been some, um, Democrats over the past years that have focused on trying to get, uh, target and get their people in Secretary of States and that’s some position maybe sometimes doesn’t get as much attention as it should. But, they’re the chief election officer of each state. And it, uh, I, I’m not saying that the others aren’t doing it, but it, we need to make sure we put people in there that, you know, ensure a fair election. We feel confident in that. I, I think that’d be a good place to start. Is every time there’s somebody’s up for Secretary of State making sure that there’s somebody we trust and, uh, but, I, I don’t know what else, you know.

Second Question: There were a number of people over at the university they were trying to get students to sign, sign on for the petition so that they could increase the election from one day to two weeks or four weeks.

Representative Hartzler (r): Right.

Second Question: And like they were just having people, they just need enough signatures or live bodies that are eighteen years old. And so, people didn’t know.  I said, well, I’d have to think about it then I thought about it and I went back and asked them again. I said, well, I think that would cause quite a bit of voter fraud. And one of them said, oh there’s never been a case of voter fraud in Missouri. [laughter] I said, well, I said, then that’s my, my argument right there, why would you ever want to change it, make it two weeks. You know, people voting for two week, I mean, it would be very costly and it would be ridiculously hard to, you know, say who’s the person voting [inaudible], who voted…

[….]

[The conversation included the Johnson County Clerk who described the process of checking voter databases for “snow birds” who might register in two states – people who resided in warmer parts of the country for half of the year.]

Third Question: Vicky, what’s the level of support in the House for voter ID?

Representative Hartzler (r):  Well, I think there’s, [crosstalk] I think, I think there’s a lot of support.

[….]

“…it’s just so obvious that the election was stolen from us last time…”

Think about that for a minute. That’s from the republican base.

“…they just need enough signatures or live bodies that are eighteen years old…”

Think about that. To sign a petition you must be a registered voter. Since when is it an affront to Democracy for any voter to sign any petition? Just asking.

Did you catch the shift from discussing hypothetical voter fraud abetted by eighteen year olds signing petitions to checking on “snow birds” who reside in warm weather states six months of the year? Correct me if you think I’m wrong, but “snow birds” tend to be a much older demographic and are generally more well off than those who don’t travel to follow the warm weather. Who might they vote for? Just asking.

And then think about the implementation of voter ID to address the non-existent plague of voter impersonation fraud at the polls.

Finally, documentation of voter impersonation fraud in Missouri. Zero. (August 12, 2012)

News21, “a cornerstone of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education” funded by The Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation recently released an investigative project on changes in election laws and voting rights:

Exhaustive Search Finds Little Voter Fraud

Despite the push for strict voter ID laws in a charged partisan and racial debate, the most exhaustive study ever of American election fraud reveals the rate is infinitesmal. Since 2000, a time when 146 million Americans were registered to vote, News21 found 10 cases of in-person voter fraud, which only photo ID laws would prevent. That would be about one case for every 15 million eligible voters.

[….]

Bad things happen when good people vote (June 17, 2014)

[….]

Missouri GOP: If Polls Are Open Too Long, Voters Will Commit Fraud

The state’s Republicans are advancing a measure to expand early voting, but Democrats say that’s not the whole story.

-By Dana Liebelson

Tue Jun. 17, 2014 6:00 AM EDT

….In early May, after hundreds of volunteers collected signatures in church basements and break rooms, citizens delivered a petition with more than 300,000 signatures to Missouri’s secretary of state, whose office has until August to verify the signatures and decide whether to place the measure on the November ballot. But Missouri Republicans won’t let that happen without a fight.

On April 1, a couple months after the petition drive had begun, Rep. Tony Dugger (R-Hartville) sponsored a competing measure. In May, the GOP-led House passed a version of the bill that expands early voting by six days-excluding the weekend-to a limited number of polling places, while also prohibiting same-day voter registration. If the citizens’ initiative is approved, both measures will appear on the ballot in November. “The testimony in the Legislature in favor of the sham early voting bill was actually testimony against early voting,” says Lara Granich, the director of Missouri Jobs With Justice. “That makes the real motivation behind it clear. They want it to be more difficult for folks to vote….”

[….]

It’s all about suppressing voter turnout as an article of republican faith.