Iowa spent a lot of time, money and rhetoric on a witch hunt for illegal immigrant voting. As summarized by VerifiedVoting <read>
Former Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz’s two-year, $250,000 witch hunt ended ignobly Friday. Schultz’s successor, Republican Paul Pate, dropped his office’s Iowa Supreme Court appeal of a lower court ruling that held Schultz overstepped his authority in a crackdown on immigrant voters. Schultz had broad-based GOP support as a candidate condemning what he suggested was widespread voter fraud, particularly by documented immigrants who were not citizens. Schultz’s exhaustive investigation compared voter registration lists with federal and state immigration lists, including the federal database used to verify entitlement benefits. So instead of targeting the behavior based on evidence of unlawful voting, Schultz went hunting for voters he suspected might be immigrants.
The Iowa ACLU and League of Latin American Citizens filed suit, claiming the targeted enforcement was discriminatory and beyond Schultz’s authority. Schultz lost his first round in court and appealed. On Friday, his successor withdrew the challenge.
So how effective was Schultz’s obsession?
His own report disclosed evidence suggesting 117 illegally cast votes. Considering that 1.6 million Iowans voted in 2012 general election, Schultz’s success rate was no better than .0073 percent. The investigation led to six criminal convictions, or .00037 percent. Lottery players would seem to have better luck.
I guess you could say there is votER fraud, yet it does not hold a candle to votING fraud via absentee voting or insider manipulation. If I were an illegal immigrant, my goal would be to stay under the radar. I would avoid speeding, drunk driving, and doing anything that might get me caught.
