Ridiculous Headline/Article at National Journal on Voter Fraud

Sarah Mimms at National Journal writes of the possibility of “massive voter fraud” thanks to the fact that people register in the states:

 Nearly 12 percent of Americans pack up and move every year. Most of them assume that by registering to vote in their new home cities or states, their old records will be invalidated. In many cases, they’re wrong. There is no unified system in the United States alerting election officials that former residents have moved away and plan to vote in someone else’s jurisdiction.

As a result, millions of Americans are registered to vote in more than one place in any given election, leaving open the possibility of massive voter fraud that would not be halted by voter-identification laws that have swept through the country, particularly in red states, in recent years.

This is the kind of alarmist writing I expect at some far right outfits, not at the National Journal. Yes, we need a national system of voter registration.  (I support universal voter registration conducted by the federal government coupled with a national voter id program.)  Yes, there have been some instances of people voting in two states. Yes ERIC and other systems help prevent that. But it is not a huge problem on the scale of things, and talking of “massive voter fraud” just feeds into unsubstantiated hystreria.

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