First time voters who registered by mail and did not present ID must show photo ID at the polls when they vote. Voters cant get around that requirement by voting absenteefirst time voters who registered by mail and did not present ID must send a copy of a photo ID with their mailin ballot. And HAVA provides for criminal penalties for violations for the foregoing-"any individual who knowingly commits fraud or knowingly makes a false statement with respect to the naturalization. citizenry. or alien registry of such citizen . . . shall be fined. imprisoned [for up to five years]. or both." The measure before us is a solution in search of a problem. The Department of Justice (DOJ). in its "Report to Congress on the Activities and Operations of the Public Integrity for 2004." reported that at the end of 2004. the Public Integrity Section had approximately 133 election crime matters pending nationwide. That is an average of just over two cases per state for the entire year--hardly an avalanche. In addition. most of the cases described in the report concerned campaign finance violations. not voter fraud. Only one described a votebuying scheme. and none referred specifically to noncitizen or double voting. On the other hand. the same Report noted that a total of 1.213 public officials had been charged with corruption in 2004. that 1.020 of them had been convicted of corruption. and that 419 cases remained pending. In other words. according to the DOJs own findings. the problem of corruption among public official is at the very least ten times worse than the problem of citizens cheating in elections.
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naturalization noncitizen