The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #117906   Message #2546024
Posted By: Uncle_DaveO
22-Jan-09 - 09:44 AM
Thread Name: BS: Bush pardons Border Patrol agents
Subject: RE: BS: Bush pardons Border Patrol agents
PDQ, thank you for posting some documentation for your assertion about "million" or "millions" of illegal immigrants voting. That's what I was asking you to do.

However, the statement "In 2005, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that up to 3 percent of the 30,000 individuals called for jury duty from voter registration rolls over a two-year period in just one U.S. district court were not U.S. citizens" is potentially misleading, or at least not conclusive.

Note that "in just one U.S. District court" can cut both ways. As evidently intended in your use of the quote, one might assume that that percentage applies across the board across the country, and thus justify the "millions" figure. But which U.S. District Court? The jurisdiction with the highest number of illegal immigrants? The jurisdiction with the greatest proportion of illegal immigrants to total population? Or (and I'm doubtful that this is the case) the District which is most representative in those respects?

Next, voter registration figures, as someone has pointed out, do not equal, even in theory, votes actually cast. An individual may have registered for other purposes than actually voting in the first place; and then some undeterminable proportion of even those who intended to fraudulently vote may have backed out for reasons of right/ethics/legality, or may have forgotten to vote, may not have been able to get off work, or chickened out for fear of criminal sanctions and/or deportation.

But, while I question the impact of the quote, at least now I understand where you are coming from, and thanks.

Dave Oesterreich