Jackson Free Press

"I applaud the Supreme Court, the Attorney General and Tunica County District Attorney Brenda Mitchell for upholding our most important right—the right to cast a ballot in a free and fair election. In this case, Ms. Sowers was convicted of casting absentee ballots for individuals who never requested an absentee ballot or were dead. 

"There are those who would argue voter fraud does not exist in Mississippi. This is a prime example that not only does voter fraud exist, but those who are found guilty will be prosecuted and their prosecutions upheld. Voter fraud will not be tolerated in our state."

—Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann in a Nov. 30 statement.

Why it stinks: That whizzing sound you hear is political spin. We don't know who "those who would argue voter fraud does not exist" are. No person or group has ever claimed that voter fraud doesn't exist to our knowledge. What people argue against are laws that potentially disenfranchise voters while having absolutely no demonstrable effect on voter fraud.

The laws pushed by conservatives in state legislatures throughout the nation would not have prevented the case against Lessadolla Sowers, dating from 2007. A "habitual" forger with prior convictions, Sowers had numerous absentee ballots sent to a post office box. Then she used real names of voters (living and dead) on the ballots and submitted them.

Casting an absentee ballot does not require showing a voter ID, for example, and ending early voting will not end absentee voting.

The Sowers case also points out how ineffective it is for an individual to commit voter fraud and how rare it really is. To be truly effective, voter fraud needs to be carried out on a large and expensive scale—like making voting machines change votes or bribing politicians.

For Hosemann to glom onto a single, five-year-old absentee-ballot case as "proof" voter fraud exists demonstrates just how desperate he is to justify passage of a voter ID law—which would do nothing to stop people such as Lessadolla Sowers.