Everybody's talking about voter fraud these days. Republicans are using it as a smokescreen to make it harder (or impossible) for minorities and poor people to vote. (Rand Paul says it's no big deal, but Rand Paul is a racist piece of shit, so you should always do the opposite of everything Rand Paul says.) In response to all this, Bill Fletcher Jr. at the New Pittsburgh Courier revives a very important argument against voter fraud:

A fascinating article in Mother Jones from July 2012, which I only just discovered, contains the sorts of ammunition that is needed in this debate, ammunition that really can not only end the argument but open up the real question: Why are the Republicans trying to make it more difficult to vote?

The article, by Hamed Aleaziz, Dave Gilson and Jaeah Lee contains this little factoid at the end: Between 2000 and 2010 there were 649 million votes cast in general elections; 47,000 UFO sightings; 441 Americans killed by lightning; and 13 credible cases of in-person voter impersonation.

If you subtract racism and classism, there's no real reason for Republicans to be pursuing this agenda right now. It makes absolutely no sense.