The states have failed to protect the voting rights of their citizens; the liberals want to codify that failure into law.

In today’s OpinionJournal.com:

…Despite a tactical retreat this week–he says he will only give illegal immigrants a license that isn’t valid for airplane travel and entering federal buildings–Mr. Spitzer has taken active steps to obliterate any distinctions between licenses given to citizens and non-citizens.

In a memo last Sept. 24, he ordered county clerks to remove the visa expiration date and “temporary visitor” stamp on licenses issued to non-citizens who are legally in the country. A Spitzer spokeswoman explained the change was made because the “temporary” label was “pejorative,” given that some visitors might eventually stay in the U.S. Under fire, Mr. Spitzer backed down this week, delaying the cancellation of the “temporary visitor” stamps through the end of next year.

But he has not retreated from another new bizarre policy. It used to be that county clerks who process driver’s licenses were banned from giving out voter registration forms to anyone without a Social Security number. No longer. Lou Dobbs of CNN reported that an Oct. 19 memo from the state DMV informed the clerks they don’t “have any statutory discretion to withhold a motor voter form.” What’s more, the computer block preventing a DMV clerk from transmitting a motor voter registration without a Social Security number was removed.

Gov. Spitzer’s office told me the courts have upheld their position on Social Security numbers. Sandy DePerno, the Democratic clerk of Oneida County, says that makes no sense. “This makes voter fraud easier,” she told me.

The potential for [voting] fraud is not trivial, as federal privacy laws prevent cross-checking voter registration rolls with immigration records. Nevertheless, a 1997 Congressional investigation found that “4,023 illegal voters possibly cast ballots in a disputed House election” in California. After 9/11, the Justice Department found that eight of the 19 hijackers were registered to vote.
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Despite her muddled comments this week, there’s no doubt where Mrs. Clinton stands on ballot integrity. She opposes photo ID laws, even though they enjoy over 80% support in the polls. She has also introduced a bill to force every state to offer no-excuse absentee voting as well as Election Day registration–easy avenues for election chicanery. The bill requires that every state restore voting rights to all criminals who have completed their prison terms, parole or probation.

The integrity of DMV data is already dubious at best, as this Washington Times report indicates:

A federal database of more than 40 million “problem drivers” contains hundreds of thousands of phony Social Security numbers, a new report says. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General estimates there are more than 600,000 invalid Social Security numbers — such as 111-22-3333 and 222-33-4444 — in the National Driver Registry. The database also contains about 161,000 duplicate numbers in which different drivers are using the same Social Security information.
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But millions of other problem drivers still could have become licensed undetected, according to the report by Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III. The report was issued earlier this week to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and obtained by The Washington Times yesterday.

The report found that records for millions of problem drivers “were not recorded until at least one year after conviction — and incomplete or inaccurate information on Social Security numbers and drivers’ physical attributes such as height, weight and eye color.” The lack of timely reporting by states could allow drivers convicted of drunken driving and other offenses to get licenses in other states, the report found.

In addition, the report estimated there are 161,000 records in the national registry in which the same Social Security number is used by more than one driver in the same state. “Until corrected, these invalid and duplicate Social Security numbers could result in confusion and impede states’ ability to identify problem drivers,” the report concluded.

Federal law does not require states to verify Social Security numbers before issuing a driver’s license, but the Real ID Act of 2005 requires verification by December 2009, according to the report. Millions of records in the national registry do not contain Social Security numbers, the inspector general found.

This would also eliminate the obstacle, in some states, of the requirement to show photo ID before voting. If illegals have a license and have registered to vote, they will be handed a ballot.

Liberals like to sling around phrases like ‘rule of law’ yet they circumvent and eliminate laws that ensure our ‘one man; one vote’ voting system is protected. For them, giving illegals drivers licenses “makes sense” as it gives them the opportunity to vote illegally with the expectation those illegal votes will be cast for them.