Rampant Identity Theft could undermine the right of every citizen to vote.
Two separate news stories when combined may have devastating effects on our nation’s sovereignty. The first one discusses how, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (IDTheftCenter.org), each year nearly 2.5 million Americans who are diseased are used by identity thieves to open credit accounts (Full article). These credit card accounts hurt the grieving family, merchants and consumers.
Identity theft is more than just fraudulent credit cards. With identity theft fraudulent social security cards and driver’s licenses are also issues, which then lead to other fraud like fraudulent health benefits, government assistance, tax refunds, criminal activities, etc. But, it was the second article that may tie together how identity theft is now affecting our nation’s solvency.
The second article reports that Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is demanding that the State of Florida halt the removal of ineligible voters from their voter’s rolls. According to Gov. Rick Scott, his office has identified as many as 182,000 registered voters who may not be US citizens. This does not include the dead who may also be registered. We all remember the 2000 presidential election and how only 537 votes determined the outcome. So one has to ask, what would 2.5 million or more votes do?
This is the same DOJ that also rejected South Carolina’s law requiring photo ID at the polling stations. The new voter ID law requires voters to show poll workers a state-issued driver’s license or ID card; a U.S. military ID or a U.S. passport. In a blog about “Alarming Vote Fraud Statistics” from 2010, Massachusetts had 116,000 dead voters, there were 15,000 dead Floridians, and all the other 48 States have the same register voter issue. Politico reports that 1.8M dead Americans are registered to vote.
These stories are not about politics but rather about how our national operates and the trust we must have in our government. It also shows that our voter registration system is antiquated. In the past I have posted how identity theft can affect the soundness of our currency and financial institutions but when it undermines this nation’s core beliefs of being a republic and that our vote matters, then we run the risk of complete anarchy. If we let criminals and corruption determine this country’s fate, then we might as well adopt the old adage, “When in Rome, ….”. Why should we abide to any laws or any authority?
The United States is made up great and noble people from all corners of the world with different beliefs and insights. It is this diversity that makes this nation strong for the overall betterment for everyone. And while there are differences that need to be resolved, we have far more commonalities than differences. Celebrate that we are Americans and we will not stand for our nation to lose its greatness because of the greed of the few. The only reason why the corruption exists is to pass agendas that normally are not acceptable to the populous.
Identity theft is a global problem that everyone has to take seriously. It is no longer just a news story about how one family opened their credit card bill and finding a $10,000 charge. Governments need to modernize and secure their databases of their citizens, businesses need to protect private information and people need to be more aware of what private information their share. Stopping identity theft can be solved if there is a collective effort.
