Political Fact Checking

So, be sure to check out my favorite websites to the far right (you might need to scroll down). I refer to these often when checking for sources of information. I've just added Factcheck.org (click on the title of this blog to go to it), which is a non-partisan site created by the Univ. of PA Annenberg Public Policy Center. They're currently running info on the latest political ads coming from both Obama & McCain.

On another note, watch out for new laws or attempted new laws on voter registration fraud. Despite the fact that there has been very little individual voter fraud in the US, Republicans are latching on to the idea of requiring a valid driver's license before you can vote. No biggee, you think, right? Well, did you know that there may be as many as 21 million voting-age Americans who don't have a driver's license? In Indiana alone, 13% of registered voters "lack the documents needed to obtain state identification." (see http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/24/toobin-voter-id/). Students trying to vote near campus will be unable to do so because their college ID cards aren't eligible. A study done 2 years ago by John Lott Jr (see http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=925611) seems to suggest otherwise. When I did a Google search, it seems most fraud was done by groups (ACORN, county clerks, Republican staffers, etc.). It seems ironic that, up until the last election, no one really bothered that much about it because a large percentage of Americans weren't voting. (see http://www.electionstudies.org/nesguide/toptable/tab6a_2.htm). For instance, in '04, 23% failed to vote; in '02 38%. In 1990, 1994 & 1998, over 40% of Americans didn't bother to vote. For more interested details on American's and their voting habits, go to http://www.electionstudies.org/nesguide/gd-index.htm#6. (ANES is the American National Election Studies research database of election tools.). You can review some interesting tables at the Census Bureau, too (http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting/cps2006.html). Anyway, it seems to me that, with more registered voters (and more Americans vote Democratic than Republican), the goal should be to help, not hinder, the election. After all, politics has become such a dirty word you'd think our "fearless leaders" would try to do something to clean it up.