Malpractices during Elections Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Malpractices during Elections - Essay Example Hans Von Spakovsky argues that in order to ensure a democratic election process, the election board and authorities should ensure safety and security just before elections, during the election and after the election. He argues that this encompasses preparations made before voting that include ensuring that there is a credible voters register, ensuring that during voting process all legible people are allowed to vote peacefully and ensuring that the vote counting is conducted with a lot of integrity. Hans acknowledges that the use of IDs by voters can help in curbing election irregularities that may occur as a result election malpractices. He points out that use of IDs can to a certain extent deter people from impersonating other voters, prevent illegible people from voting and prevent people from casting their votes in more than one state or region. Hans argues that unless the use of voters IDs is launched then it will be futile trying to charge those caught in voters’ fraud. This is because of lack of sufficient proof to charge those caught committing election crimes. Hans further argues that fears by a section of the public that use of IDs would result in lower voter turnout are baseless. He justifies his sentiments by arguing that almost all American adults have IDs and those without can easily acquire them with ease. He backs up his sentiments by pointing out that during the 2008 presidential primary elections, Georgia one of the states in the USA with existing strict voter ID laws registered the highest of voters (Louis 407). Therefore Hans concludes by stating that voter identification is one logical way that can be employed in the USA to prevent election irregularities and hence ensuring a democratic election process that most Americans deserve. Contrary to arguments put forward by Hans that voter fraud is real in the USA and voters IDs can be used to curb down on these irregularities, Chandler Davidson argues that identification cards cannot elim inate fraud if at all exists. He instead argues that trying to impose the use of IDs is discriminative and would result in lower voter turnout because minority groups such as the elderly might not take part in the elections. Edward Foley, on the other hand, argues that both arguments presented by conservatives and liberals are logical and therefore should be addressed cautiously. He asserts that identification of voters can be discriminative to a certain degree and therefore may have an influence on the voter turnout and at the same time it can be used to a certain extent to address issues related with voters’ fraud. He instead proposes that a more valid and logical way that can be used to ensure democracy in elections is by employing the use of digital technology. Ha argues that voters should be allowed to present digitized photos of themselves at the voting venue. This he argues can be used to confirm the true identity of the voters. He argues that a digital photo can easil y be obtained therefore fears that use of drivers license, passports or other forms of IDs could be a burden to some people won’t arise. He further proposes that for absentee voters they could email a copy of their digitized photo alongside their ballot to help in confirming identity. This could help in eradicating fraud among the citizens who may not personally go to the polling stations (Louis 413).