The experts are agreed: There is no data that shows we have a widespread voter fraud problem in our nation. That is, there is no evidence that bad actors are cheating the system in one way or another to change election outcomes via election fraud.
Conservative experts agree (here, from the Hoover Institute)...
https://www.hoover.org/research/no-evidence-voter-fraud-guide-statistical-claims-about-2020-election
The ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation notes... "The Heritage Foundation’s database includes 1,296 “proven instances of voter fraud” out of the hundreds of millions of votes cast going back to 1992. Of those cases identified, 1,120 resulted in criminal convictions."
[In fact, 1200 cases of fraud out of hundreds of millions of votes is an INFINITESIMAL amount of voter fraud. And, to be clear, HF described this, rather breathlessly as "Database SWELLS to 1,285 cases of Voter Fraud!!!" (emphases mine)... as if ~1300 cases out of millions is evidence of a problem, instead of evidence of NO significant problem. ~DT]
https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud
GOP voting experts agreed that there was no significant voter fraud happening leading up to the 2020 election...
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/republican-experts-are-in-agreement-the-2020-election-is-not-rigged-212332034.html
Experts agree...
"Despite this dramatic increase in mail voting over time, fraud rates remain infinitesimally small."
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/false-narrative-vote-mail-fraud
US Election officials agree...
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54926084
Over and over and over again, from GOP to Democrat, from election watchers to election experts... the people who know and who are responsible for free elections all agree that we have NO SIGNIFICANT ELECTION FRAUD happening in this nation.
Experts agree!
"That shouldn’t be a surprise. One exhaustive study of 12 years of elections in five states found only 500 cases of alleged voter fraud.
In 2016, North Carolina’s Board of Elections found that 4,769,640 votes were cast in November and that one would probably have been avoided with a voter ID law."
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article247291039.html
Trump's OWN LAWYERS didn't try to make that case in this last election, because they knew it was a stupidly false claim to make and they can get in trouble for that sort of foolishness.
"Trump Cries Voter Fraud. In Court, His Lawyers Don’t."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-cries-election-fraud-in-court-his-lawyers-dont-11605271267
The facts are not in debate by rational people who know what they're speaking about. We don't have election fraud problems of any significance in our nation. It happens, the experts are not saying that it doesn't happen. We know it happens because pretty regularly, Republicans get caught doing it.
"North Carolina Republican operative charged in election fraud scheme"
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-north-carolina/north-carolina-republican-operative-charged-in-election-fraud-scheme-idUSKCN1QG2FS
The experts are just noting that it's not a significant problem at all and doesn't impact elections.
Over and over again, I can cite the experts from across the political spectrum saying that there is no problem. Handfuls of voter fraud in hundreds of thousands of votes. Or 500 cases of voter fraud in millions of votes across many years.
Those are the facts, Trump and his useful idiots be damned.
So, after this last election, instead of agreeing with reality, some large number of GOP voters (70%!!) are denying reality and GOP politicians - many of them - are creating laws to restrict voting. IN SPITE of the reality that we have no serious election fraud problems. When they do this immediately following a loss due to high minority and young folk turn-out, people take note. We can SEE it's not because we have an election security problem. We can SEE that they're clearly doing this to try to maintain power in a nation where they are a decided minority and their candidates just can't win if they have a large population of brown/black/gay/young citizens to convince.
But what about the case for increasing election security, even though there is no significant election fraud?
First off, we have to admit that we're trying to find a solution for a problem that practically doesn't exist. But what IF we could more effectively prevent those handful of Republicans from cheating, by using Voter ID laws, for instance?
The problem in implementing "solutions" for non-existent problems is the consequences. If I were more naive, I might call them unintended consequences, but when the experts note that the restrictions put in place will tend (possibly) to damper more Democrat voters rather than Republican voters... at a time when the GOP voting base is dwindling... well, I'm not naive.
We could, for instance, be even more secure in our election process by demanding that each voter have an ID - better yet, three IDs! - and bring their parents along to confirm they are who they are? AND their pastor or rabbi or imam!? After all, having a photo ID AND parental confirmation AND religious leader confirmation would certainly dry up almost ALL cases of voter fraud of that sort.
But - and there's the vital part - it would certainly decrease the voter turnout and just wouldn't be necessary, given that this is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist!
That is, creating rules and restrictions that serve to decrease voter turn-out (especially of one party's voters... especially making it more difficult for the poor and marginalized) when there's not a problem that needs to be fixed, it's just wrong. It's creating more problems than the one they are trying to fix.
If the GOP wants to increase their chances of winning elections, let them do it by renouncing racist, misogynist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-environmental policies and win over their citizens by creating policies that more people will support... Or making a better case (if they can) for the policies they do support. In other words, let them do it by being candidates that appeal to more people.
But you don't do it by "fixing" problems that don't exist and especially not by lying and saying that there IS a significant voter fraud problem to (try to) scare people into supporting these unnecessary policies.
3 comments:
Haven't time at present to peruse your links, which I'm certain won't bolster your case as much as you want to believe they do...though I must, since I haven't read them, allow they might. But a few quick points:
1. It doesn't appear any of your links accounts for the recent census numbers which conflict with total ballot counts. That is, there were close to four million more ballots than voters according to census numbers. A disparity that large has never happened before, and in fact, the two counts are usually very closely matched. I'll provide a link to this info later.
2. Implementing policies that insure voter integrity does not lower voter turnout, except by those who aren't eligible to vote but were voting anyway. These are mostly pro-Democrat voters, and rather than pretend there's an issue with GOP policy proposals, the issue clearly seems to be corrupt leftists. For our part (conservatives) we don't care if we lose fairly.
3. Most of what you've produced refers to past elections, not the 2020 election for which greater disparities and irregularities existed as compared to past elections.
4. As you've done in the past, you again pretend that what has been proven represents the totality of voter/election fraud, rather than simply what they've been able to find and prove...the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Voter fraud is not necessarily easy to detect, and thus, to pretend "rare" is a legitimate argument against strengthening election integrity is fallacious.
Instead of the right seeking to provide solutions to a problem that doesn't exist, those like yourself falsely assert the problem isn't worth preventing...because your party depends upon fraud to insure victory, or won't prevent it knowing it does.
More later.
Blah blah blah.
DO YOU HAVE DATA, not words, to show that anything was wrong?
That is, put another way, DO YOU HAVE INFORMATION THAT ALL these experts somehow have overlooked? These GOP Election Officials, these election watchers, these experts from across the spectrum... that they've all missed? That Trump's own lawyers have missed?
Don't be a moron. If it sounds too unbelievable to be true, Marshal, then it's almost certainly not true.
"Problem isn't worth preventing"
I explained. We COULD be quite draconian in our efforts and absolutely guarantee 100% that NOT ONE SINGLE FALSE voted was cast or counted. BUT the result would be driving down voting participation. IF THERE WERE A PROBLEM, then we should do that.
But given the reality that THERE IS NO PROBLEM AND YOU HAVE NOT SHOWN THERE TO BE A PROBLEM, why would we discourage/push away voters IF THERE's NOT a problem to solve?
THAT is the question YOU MUST ANSWER if you want to comment on this post.
I don't give a damn about hearing any more wacky conspiracy theories from you about a problem that does not exist according to the experts.
The data that we do have re-titles your post to: Problems are raised that the solutions have nothing to do with.
The data that we do have is that Marshal and goons like him cry foul in so many areas. But the laws taken by GOP state legislators ignore what they say are the problems.
GOP state legislators are instead solely attacking the avenues a modern democracy has only recently provided for access to voting for all Americans. Avenues to get one's vote counted for people historically - IN OUR LIFETIMES - willfully denied the vote: black people, poor people generally.
Here again, the data shows that Marshal WILLS to be ignorant that the laws being considered and passed by GOP dominated states make America racist and bigoted again.
Here again, the data shows that Marshal and goons like him openly choose an idiot's justification to match open brutally unjust behavior.
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