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The Success of the Voter Fraud Myth
by The Editorial Board |
Sept. 20, 2016
How does a lie come to be
widely taken as the truth?
The answer is disturbingly
simple: Repeat it over and over again. When faced with facts that contradict
the lie, repeat it louder.
This, in a nutshell, is the
story of claims of voting fraud in America — and particularly of voter
impersonation fraud, the only kind that voter ID laws can possibly prevent.
Last week, a Washington
Post-ABC News poll found that nearly half of registered American voters believe
that voter fraud occurs “somewhat” or “very” often. That astonishing number
includes two-thirds of people who say they’re voting for Donald Trump and a
little more than one-quarter of Hillary Clinton supporters. Another 26 percent
of American voters said that fraud “rarely” occurs, but even that
characterization is off the mark. Just 1 percent of respondents gave the answer
that comes closest to reflecting reality: “Never.”
As study after study has
shown, there is virtually no voter fraud anywhere in the country. The most
comprehensive investigation to date found that out of one billion votes cast in
all American elections between 2000 and 2014, there were 31 possible cases of
impersonation fraud. Other violations — like absentee ballot fraud, multiple
voting and registration fraud — are also exceedingly rare. So why do so many
people continue to believe this falsehood?
Credit for this mass
deception goes to Republican lawmakers, who have for years pushed a fake story
about voter fraud, and thus the necessity of voter ID laws, in an effort to
reduce voting among specific groups of Democratic-leaning voters. Those groups
— mainly minorities, the poor and students — are less likely to have the
required forms of identification.
Behind closed doors, some
Republicans freely admit that stoking false fears of electoral fraud is part of
their political strategy. In a recently disclosed email from 2011, a Republican
lobbyist in Wisconsin wrote to colleagues about a very close election for a
seat on the State Supreme Court. “Do we need to start messaging ‘widespread
reports of election fraud’ so we are positively set up for the recount
regardless of the final number?” he wrote. “I obviously think we should.”
Sometimes they acknowledge it
publicly. In 2012, a former Florida Republican Party chairman, Jim Greer, told
The Palm Beach Post that voter ID laws and cutbacks in early voting are “done
for one reason and one reason only” — to suppress Democratic turnout.
Consultants, Mr. Greer said, “never came in to see me and tell me we had a
fraud issue. It’s all a marketing ploy.”
The ploy works. During the
2012 election, voter ID laws in Kansas and Tennessee reduced turnout by about 2
percent, or about 122,000 votes, according to a 2014 analysis by the Government
Accountability Office. Turnout fell the most among young people, African-Americans
and newly registered voters. Another study analyzing elections from 2006
through 2014 found that voting by eligible minority citizens decreased
significantly in states with voter ID laws and “that the racial turnout gap
doubles or triples in states” with those laws.
There are plenty of
shortcomings in the American voting system, but most are a result of outdated
machines, insufficient resources or human error — not intentional fraud. All of
these are made only worse by shutting down polling places or eliminating early
voting hours, measures frequently supported by Republican legislators.
Those efforts are especially
galling in a nation where, on a good day, only 60 percent of eligible voters
show up to the polls. The truth is that those who created the specter of voter
fraud don’t care about the integrity of the voting system; they want to
undermine the rights of legitimate voters because that helps them win
elections.
The scary thing is how many
Americans have bought into this charade. It shouldn’t be surprising that the
Republican Party’s standard-bearer, Donald Trump, has elevated the lie about
voting fraud and “rigged elections” to a centerpiece of his campaign.
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