What’s the matter with Kansas? Apparently, voter fraud: check out the image below, from Slate.com, the New America Foundation and News21, and see what you think (note: click-and-hold to move the map around and see the whole country, as with a normal Google Map).
But first, note that the total number of identified voter fraud cases in Kansas since 2000 is 97…out of literally millions of votes cast. The next two states? Connecticut (84) and Georgia (80). Next, note the distribution of states with Voter ID laws. Hmmm, except for a couple of outliers (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Indiana and New Hampshire), they’re concentrated in the deep South — basically, in the old Confederacy. And, Indiana’s a deeply conservative state (where there used to be quite a few “Sundown Towns”), and the Wisconsin ID law is part of a broader Republican push in that state. Also note that NONE of these states seems to have an abnormally high level of voter fraud, judging from the map.
Sometimes an image tells the story, and in this case, the story is that Voter ID laws are concentrated in formerly Confederate states, places where poll taxes and similar laws once kept black voters out of the political process. Coincidence? An interactive infographic can’t make that judgment…but I can.
– cpd