Can dead voters sway an election?

While there are genuine instances of people casting absentee ballots before passing away and dead voters simply being misidentified, there are also cases of voter impersonation and other types of fraud.

According to WMCTV in Tennessee, the Shelby County Election Commission has confirmed the 68 dead people have voted between 1994 and 2004. This is just one example.

Of course, it’s harder to determine the extent of voter impersonation as long voters are not required to prove their identities when they vote. But we know absolutely that the potential for fraud is great.

Earlier this year, officials in Florida reported that 53,000 dead people were on the registration rolls, based on a comparison to federal Social Security files. Furthermore, some 182,000 people who may not even be U.S. citizens were on Florida’s voter rolls. This in a state where the 2000 presidential election was decided by just 537 votes.

Likewise, The Charlotte Observer reported that 30,000 dead voters remain on the voting rolls in North Carolina.

Heritage’s Hans von Spakovsky and John Fund documented other examples of voter fraud in their new book, Who’s Counting? How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk.

And much to chagrin of voter ID critics, a recent investigation by Project Veritas journalist James O’Keefe proves the conspiracy to perpetrate voter fraud is indeed real — and serious thought has been invested on how to carry it out by at least one congressman’s son.

Given what we already know about voter fraud and its potential, it may be time to accept the condition that we start bringing our driver’s license with us next time we go to the polls.