Justice Moves Right

The New Yorker: Fact

Addressing the real but uncertain dimensions of voter fraud means risking potentially greater harm to legitimate voters. "There is no doubt that there has been fraud over the years — people voting twice, immigrants voting, unregistered people voting — but no one knows how bad the problem is," Lowenstein says. "It is a very hard subject for an academic or anyone else to study, because by definition it takes place under the table." And, despite its neutral-sounding name, "voting integrity"� has had an incendiary history. "It's one of those great euphemisms," Pamela S. Karlan, a professor at Stanford Law School, says. "By and large, it's been targeted at minority voters."

The New Yorker argues that a new shift in the Justice Department toward cracking down on voter fraud rather than ensuring voter participation will discourage minorities from exercising their right to vote, to the benefit of the Republican Party.