C’mon in and vote!
As I’ve already speculated, one possible motive for giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants is that once they have licenses, it’s easy for them to register to vote.
I’m not the only one who suspects that might be true.
Here’s a piece from an Upstate NY paper, The Troy Record, reporting state Republicans’ claims on the matter.
The Republican-controlled State Legislature has directed the state Boards of Elections to ask people for their Social Security numbers “if there is any suspicion that the person is in the country illegally.”
Edward McDonough, the Democratic Board of Elections commissioner, has responded claiming the directive is a political stunt.
Okay. That’s to be expected.
But bear in mind — as the article points out — that in 2008, New York State may become a battleground state for a Hillary-Rudy presidential ticket.
Unfortunately the formatting in the article, at least in my browser, is horrible — there are no paragraph breaks — so you really have to slog to get to this little tidbit:
Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola, who filed a lawsuit Monday against the state Department of Motor Vehicles and its commissioner seeking to prevent the issuance of licenses to illegal immigrants, said he realized the potential for voter fraud when he received a directive from the DMV on Oct. 19.
The directive said the DMV removed a firewall in the computer system for processing “motor-voter” registrations, in which applicants for driver’s licenses can also register to vote, allowing a clerk to access “motor-voter” registration before an applicant’s Social Security number is confirmed, said Merola.
“The protection that was there is gone. It’s gone,” he said. “So now all we can do is register everybody that comes into the office.”
The story has also been picked up by The Buffalo News, which frames the motor voter registration change this way:
The state last week overturned a recent policy that required Social Security numbers to be shown for DMV clerks to register applicants to vote under the state’s Motor Voter Law.
Whatever else you can say about this, Spitzer sure doesn’t come across as squeaky clean.
Technorati Tags: Eliot Spitzer, drivers licenses, motor voter law