Fraud: CBS News Discovers Hundreds of Dead Voters in Greater Los Angeles

Electoral integrity advocates are frequently scolded and demagogued by the Left for supporting and pursuing voter ID laws, which institute a simple and straightforward manner of asking eligible voters to prove that they are who they say they are when they arrive at a polling station to cast their ballot. Such legislative efforts are not foolproof catch-alls that root out all forms of fraud, but they erect a minimally-burdensome safeguard against certain types of illegal voting. Nevertheless, these bills are often met with fierce, loud opposition from people who claim the proposed legislation is a "solution in search of a nonexistent problem," and probably a nefarious racist scheme to disenfranchise voters of color. These disingenuous arguments require anti-ID forces to ignore or shrug off tangible instances of genuine voter fraud. Here's the latest example via CBS 2 in Los Angeles:

A comparison of records by David Goldstein, investigative reporter for CBS2/KCAL9, has revealed hundreds of so-called dead voters in Southern California, a vast majority of them in Los Angeles County. “He took a lot of time choosing his candidates,” said Annette Givans of her father, John Cenkner. Cenkner died in Palmdale in 2003. Despite this, records show that he somehow voted from the grave in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010. But he’s not the only one. CBS2 compared millions of voting records from the California Secretary of State’s office with death records from the Social Security Administration and found hundreds of so-called dead voters. Specifically, 265 in Southern California and a vast majority of them, 215, in Los Angeles County alone. The numbers come from state records that show votes were cast in that person’s name after they died. In some cases, Goldstein discovered that they voted year after year.

This one local reporter, using this one method, uncovered hundreds of dead voters in just one small corner of the country -- some of whom "voted year after year" after their deaths. When I tweeted about this story yesterday, a number of lefties trotted out their familiar refrain: This is an isolated incident that is in no way indicative of any larger problem. This argument requires its adherents to flat-out pretend that contradictory evidence does not abound. See, for example, this story out of Florida. Or this story out of North Carolina. Or this story, wherein a convicted fraudulent voter and poll worker in Ohio was cheered at a Democrat-sponsored anti-ID rally in Ohio. Or these instances of elected Democrats being charged and convicted of illegal voting. While you're at it, don't forget about Rhode Island's voter ID law, passed by a Democratic legislature and co-sponsored by black Democrats who stated that they'd personally witnessed fraud. The anti-voter ID crowd must be forced to explain just how much fraud they're willing to accept. Double voting, non-citizens voting, dead people voting, etc. I'll leave you with a friendly reminder that there is an overwhelming bipartisan consensus in support of these common sense laws. These Q-poll numbers were released earlier this month: