With another election just a couple of weeks away I keep hearing people beating the drum about having to stop voter fraud. It reminds me of the joke about the guy who frantically hops and flails his arms about... another guys says "what are you doing?" and the guy flailing his arms says "keeping elephants from trampling everybody". The other guy responds "there are no elephants within thousands of miles of here" then frantic man responds "see, it's working".

If you Google "voter fraud convictions in Montana" you won't find a single article regarding a conviction. Even in Texas, the 2nd most populated state in the country there were only a total of 46 convictions of voter fraud over an 11 year span. That's slightly more than 4 per year in a state with 26.4 million people. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning.

On November 6th you'll have to opportunity to vote on ballot initiative LR 126. According to it's supporters it's "An act protecting the integrity of Montana elections by ending late voter registration". Could there one day be a voter fraud conviction in Montana? Possibly but what is the point of excluding people from voting when there are no convictions of voter fraud? The fraud would be to keep citizens from exercising their right to vote.

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