RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA—June 4, 2013— Today at 12:30, in front of the State Legislature, the Voter Integrity Project announces the formation of an Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee to run advertisements that demonstrate how easily a criminal enterprise could steal elections unless the NC Senate corrects flaws in the current voter ID bill (HB 589). Supporters will then fan out to distribute DVD copies of the ad to NC Senators.
“We learned from an April 10 Legislative hearing that people were showing up at the polls with no idea where they lived until they read their address off pieces of paper,” said Jay DeLancy, Executive Director of Integrity Project of North Carolina. “We decided to dramatize how large-scale voter fraud would be a simple task under House Bill 589.
One hearing witness, Louis Stannard, reported seeing “many times over” people not knowing their address until they read it off pieces of paper. Several voters he observed used freshly printed utility bills to proof their identity.
“Beyond vote fraud, we cannot explain how large numbers of people could live somewhere long enough to get a utility bill but still not know their own address,” said DeLancy.
Current law allows utility bills and bank statements to serve as voter ID, but HB 589 would require photo ID cards from 76 public colleges and universities along with expired driver’s licenses and hundreds of various government employee ID cards. The VIP-NC concern is that too many types of ID cards make it impossible for poll workers to spot a fake.
“The main impact of the current voter ID bill,” he said, “is to raise the cost of a fake ID card from a nickel to about a dollar, so our commercial will help explain the problem to the public.”
The ad, called “Stealing Hands,” shows just hands distributing fake ID cards to three different people, while the ring leader explains how they won’t get caught.
“The current bill allows hundreds of different ID’s and none of them can be verified at the polls,” DeLancy said. “With today’s technology, it’s an open invitation to use fake ID cards for stealing elections.”
The ad closes by urging viewers to contact their NC Senators and to fix the House bill. The NC Voter Integrity PAC website (www.Fix589.org) explains the details.
