prior to 2002 the justice department only prosecute people who were purposefully trying to gain the system. This changed under Ashcroft/Bush

[quote]Officials at the department say that the volume of complaints has not increased since 2002, but that it is pursuing them more aggressively.

Previously, charges were generally brought just against conspiracies to corrupt the election process, not against individual offenders, Craig Donsanto, head of the elections crimes branch, told a panel investigating voter fraud last year. For deterrence, Mr. Donsanto said, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales authorized prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against individuals.

Some of those cases have baffled federal judges.

“I find this whole prosecution mysterious,” Judge Diane P. Wood of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, said at a hearing in Ms. Prude’s case. “I don’t know whether the Eastern District of Wisconsin goes after every felon who accidentally votes. It is not like she voted five times. She cast one vote.” [/quote]

And even in those situations, only 120 people were charged and 86 were convicted.

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If voter fraud is less than 1/1000th of the vote or 1 in Ten Thousand I do not see it as a big issue. I see disenfranchising of the vote trying to crack down on voter fraud as a bigger issue, disenfranchisement would sway more elections than voter fraud would.

Finally Voter ID will not stop many forms of possible voter fraud such as absentee ballots.