The claim of “massive voter fraud” in the 2016 election is false.
But Trump and his surrogates have repeated it so often that, according to a Politico/Morning Consult survey, 25 percent of American voters now believe that millions of votes were cast illegally in the 2016 election.
What do we do when we have a president and White House surrogates — along with enablers in the right-wing media — who continuously lie about something as fundamental to our democracy as whether we’ve got massive voter fraud?
The answer is we find the truth. We spread the truth. And we demand that big lies like this be corrected.
A new report on voter fraud from the Brennan Center for Justice confirms that multiple nationwide studies have uncovered only a handful of incidents of noncitizens voting. Based on state prosecution records, votes by noncitizens account for between 0.0003 percent and 0.001 percent of all votes cast.
Election officials agree that noncitizen voting is not a problem. The Republican-majority National Association of Secretaries of State said they “are not aware of any evidence that supports the voter fraud claims made by President Trump.”
Federal law and the laws of every state bar noncitizens from registering to vote or voting in elections. Experts believe that the severity of the penalties for violating these laws serve as a significant deterrent. Also, it is relatively easy for a noncitizen to get caught.
There is no evidence of voter fraud in the 2016 election.
What about those “busloads” of thousands supposedly brought into New Hampshire?
Never happened. New Hampshire’s former attorney general and prominent Republican Tom Rath tweeted: “Let me be as unequivocal as possible — allegations of voter fraud in NH are baseless, without any merit — it’s a shame to spread these fantasies.”
Trump’s false assertion of massive voting fraud has one purpose: to legitimate more voter identification laws.
These laws are spreading rapidly. Before 2006, no state required photo ID to vote, according to the Washington Post. Now, 10 states have this requirement, and 33 have some sort of voter identification rules.
The purpose is to further entrench Republican officials.
New research from the Post shows a significant drop in minority participation in places with such laws — which is no surprise, since members of racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to have photo IDs.
The research also shows that because minority voters tend to be Democrats, voter ID laws tilt the primary electorate, more than doubling the turnout gap between Republicans and Democrats, from 4.3 points to 9.8 points.
The truth: There’s no voter fraud. State ID laws intended to stop voter fraud are really intended to stop Democrats from voting — and that has been their effect.
One of the most important common goods in our society is the truth about our democracy. Trump is pulverizing that truth — laying the groundwork for more state restrictions on access to the ballot by American citizens.
This is beyond shameful.
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