In “The case of ‘zombie’ voters in South Carolina” the Washington Post’s esteemed fact checker Glenn Kessler summarizes the unfortunately conclusive report that, despite repeated claims to the contrary, the dead have not, in fact, risen to assume the privileges of democratic citizenship.
Lawmakers in the state used the unsubstantiated claim that, “Well over 900 individuals appear to have voted after they died,” to push through a ridiculously biased voter registration law (the law is still pending a federal review). Unfortunately for them an extensive probe discovered firstly that the claims weren’t being made about a single election but rather 74 separate elections over seven years. Secondly, none of the claims were actually true.
You see, instead of the shambling, violent (but still conscientious) voters, we got hundreds of clerical errors, odd cases of death after absentee ballot and incorrect social security numbers. In short not one case of actual voter fraud was found. This was known, by the way, in May 2012. The report was only released now due to a Freedom of Information Act subpoena.
So, to repeat: no zombie electoral apocalypse; just clerical errors. Prepared survivors: please stand down!
