Voter fraud not widespread problem

In a July 7 letter ('Voter ID capable of stopping voter fraud”), Laddie D. Oliver makes the following statement with no documentation:

'The increased reports of voter fraud by the news media support a call for a thorough investigation by a neutral Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Oh, really? What substantiated reports?

Some Americans believe that voter fraud is a widespread problem, and that such fraud has swung elections one way or another. In fact, however, voter fraud is largely a myth.

Even here in Iowa, an ambitious Secretary of State spent $250,000 over a period of two years to uncover a shocking fact: about three-fourths of 1 percent of all votes cast in Iowa over two years may have been irregular.

According to records in the Secretary of State's office, 1,589,951 votes were cast in the 2012 general election alone. In all Iowa elections between 2012 and May 2014, DCI investigators identified 134 possible cases of fraudulent voting. Some of those cases are still pending, while other charges have been dismissed or those charged adjudicated not guilty.

Statistics nationally suggest that voter fraud is virtually nonexistent. A recent New York Times report substantiates this assertion (Brendan Nyhan, the New York Times, June 10, 2014: 'Voter Fraud is Rare, but Myth is Widespread”).

If we as citizens need to get upset about illegal shenanigans, there are many issues of far more significance and prevalence than voter fraud. Let's save our wrath for real issues.

John Klaus

Mount Vernon