Joe Miller & 20 Million Mexicans

I’m sure you saw this last week in the ADN, or you might have even seen it in your mailbox. Joe Miller claiming that Mark Begich wants these tattooed Central American ‘gang’ members to not only become citizens… but also vote.

“And if 20 Million illegals vote, you can kiss the 2nd Amendment goodbye. I am the only candidate who favors Voter ID.” -Joe Miller

Let’s break this down, Joe. First, according to the US government and the Pew Hispanic Trust numbers, there are 11.7 million immigrants living illegally in the country. So I’m not sure where the 20 million comes from, other than the insane racist mind of another Joe, Joe Arpaio, who runs a tent prison in Sarah Palin’s new state of Arizona. Both she, and Arpaio just endorsed Joe Miller for US Senate.

Let’s also take into consideration that there are only 40,000 hispanics in the state of Alaska – half of which are eligible to vote – and half of that number actually do. Pew Research also points out that there are: “nine states whose Hispanic eligible voter samples (U.S. citizens, ages 18 and older) in the 2010 American Community Survey are not large enough to generate reliable estimates for the profiles: Alaska, Delaware, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia. So clearly Joe doesn’t have to worry about losing any votes by putting out an ad that portrays immigrants as violent tattooed gang members.

But I get it – Joe’s not concerned with the hispanics that are here, but the droves that are coming over the border, buying a car, driving the 4387 miles from Reynosa, Mexico to Anchorage, Alaska to vote for Mark Begich. Right. Because that’s something that happens.

Well, actually it doesn’t. Not as in “it’s not something to be worried about,” but as in IT DOESN’T HAPPEN AT ALL. Like, ever.

Illegal immigrants do not vote for one simple reason. You need to tell the government (the people that are looking for you) where you live on your voter registration form. There’s a reason why immigrants are statistically the most law abiding people in the country – they don’t want law enforcement to find out that they exist. A study by the University of California found “Nationwide, Immigrants are Five Times Less Likely to be in Prison Than the Native-Born.”

This fear game is not something new to Republicans, I’ve been covering this story with BBC’s Greg Palast for nearly a decade now. Back in 2008, I went undercover following Palin friend and co-creator of SB1070, Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce. Pearce is one of the countries loudest proponents of Voter ID laws claiming that 5 million Mexicans were crossing the border to vote in his state. We spent a year investigating these charges, and found nothing. Even the names that the Arizona State Senator provided us were pure bullsh*t – all of them were made up.

The push for voter ID is meant to do one thing, make it more difficult for people who are statistically more likely to vote for Democrats to be able to vote in the first place. In Indiana in 2008 12 nuns were refused the right to vote in the primary for President. That story you might have heard, but what you didn’t hear is that 144,896 other legal voters were instantly denied the right to vote in that election as they did not have the proper identification to vote, and did not have a way to get it.

The same will happen in Alaska if voter ID is pushed through. Black, hispanic and Native voters are statistically less likely to have the necessary paper work to receive a photo ID. And thus they’ll lose their right to vote. That’s a fact. And if that’s the sort of democracy you want in Alaska then I say vote for a candidate that supports voter ID.

I should note that this years election will be the first in decades that Alaskan Natives votes are not protected by the Voting Rights Amendment – and that changes in election law do not need to pre-cleared by the Federal government. For that, you can thank Mead Treadwell and Dan Sullivan (R-OH-DC).

So get out there and vote Alaskans, while you can. But don’t worry, I’m sure that Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell, who oversees the state’s elections will make sure that every vote counts.

If you want to learn more about voter ID and election theft – be sure to read Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps by Greg Palast (co-researched by myself) 

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