Thoughts about Voter Registration Fraud and Trump's Wall

RESOLVING THE QUESTION OF VOTER FRAUD

There may be a problem with voter fraud in America but it is difficult to prove.  Is there a significant number of people who vote twice (in two different voting districts) or who cast votes for still-registered voters who have either moved away or died?  We will never know until we establish a national voter registration database and also require voters to present positive ID when they vote.  After the recent Presidential election candidate Jill Stein requested a vote recount in the State of Michigan.  Candidate Hillary Clinton's people joined this endeavor.  But when it was discovered that there was extensive voter fraud in the city of Detroit and that the more accurate count favored candidate Trump, the recount was called off.  So the extent of voter fraud will never be known.

When one moves from one voting district to another the new voting district officials do NOT always ask where one was previously registered.  Is the information that I have changed my voting district forwarded to the prior voting district?  Whose responsibility is it to de-register me from the prior voting district?  This needs to be uniformly addressed across the nation.  And what constitutes my legal address and voting address?  This needs to be defined uniformly across the nation.  I know of neighbors (in New York) who live in New York year-round.  If these neighbors ever travel out of state during the year it is no longer than a few days at a time.  Yet all their automobiles have Florida license plates.  I assume they claim to the State of Florida that Florida is their primary address (so that they do not have to pay New York State income taxes nor the high New York State auto insurance rates for these cars).  But they still live more than 50 weeks of every year in New York.  Are they voting in both states during presidential elections (in one state with an absentee voter form and in the other state voting in person?)  Only a national voter registration database will identify these individuals so that action can be taken.

So while the number of people that vote twice or illegally in national elections may be small and insignificant we will never truly know its extent until there is a national voter registration database.  Furthermore I do not understand the objection to requiring that a voter present positive ID when they vote.  Why would a voting district not want to know who is presenting themselves to vote in their district?  Unless they are hoping to bolster illegal votes for their candidate from non-citizens and other illegal voters.  I cannot borrow a book from a public library without presenting properly vetted ID.  So why not when I vote?  And the excuse that the requirement for ID prevents the poor from voting is utter nonsense.  Any citizen can present themselves to their local motor vehicle department and request a State-issued non-drivers ID.  If they cannot prove that they are a U.S. citizen (through birth record or naturalization records) and cannot prove where they reside (through tax records, utility bills, cancelled mail, Social Services benefit ID, etc.) then they should not be able to vote anyway.  Even the poorest citizen can manage this simple requirement.

THE BORDER WALL

I am not especially in favor of border walls.  They send the wrong message.  But they are built for the right reasons.  Sovereign nations have the right to know and to control who passes through their borders.  Historically walls have been used to deter invading forces.  The Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall, and chain-link fences that factories and businesses erect around their property perimeters are intended to keep unwanted invaders out and to protect their interests.  The Berlin Wall was erected to keep its own citizens imprisoned within its borders and therefore was an immoral wall.  But the US-Mexican border wall, if completed, would have a three-fold purpose. First, it would control immigration into the United States.  We have acknowledged a problem of unregistered foreigners within our borders who do not pay taxes but still expect tax-payer provided social and medical services.  Secondly, we have a drug epidemic in this nation which we cannot seem to bring under control.  The majority of the illegal drugs that enter this country enter unchecked across the US-Mexican border.  Thirdly, there are many enemies to America, particularly radical Islamic terrorists, who enter America illegally and unregistered with the intention of doing us harm.  While they have many other entry points including legal ones (such as visitor visas or student visas or work visas) crossing the US-Mexican border undetected is the easiest way for them to enter.  This leak in our national security needs to be plugged up.

This wall would not be built to keep American citizens from leaving the U.S.  They would continue to be free to do so.  Nor would it be built to keep Mexicans or other foreign citizens from legally entering the U.S.  All legal methods and entry points will remain in effect.

Two problems exist that cannot be resolved by building this wall.  It is estimated from numerous sources that at least two billion U.S. dollars are sent by Mexicans, who are in the U.S. legally or illegally, EVERY MONTH to their families back in Mexico.  This is money they earn in the U.S. off-the-books, unreported and untaxed.  $24 billion every year is now flowing in the direction to Mexico from the U.S.  This is a drain on our assets and needs to be stopped.  This is truly the reason President Pena Nieto of Mexico opposes the wall.  He will lose this $24 billion annual income.  But while building a wall may lessen the number of illegals in the U.S. it cannot completely control the U.S. dollars flowing out of our economy.  This problem still needs to be addressed.  And the second problem is the ill-will that a wall will create between the U.S. and Mexico.  The wall will become a symbol that says the U.S. does not want visits from its neighboring Mexican people.  While this is not the whole story it will become the perception.  But Mexico bears the major responsibility for this problem by not properly providing for its own citizens.  A wall will not be fool-proof.  Illegals will find a way to tunnel under the wall and even to sneak through the legal check points.  But it will be a deterrent and must be built.  Hopefully there will come a day when Mexico is so prosperous that they do not have to look to the USA for work and revenue, and when that day comes the wall can be dismantled.