Before I get into any of the details, allow me to make an overarching observation. If you believe that you experience voter suppression, you are either an unthinking political partisan or … I hate to say … an idiot. There is not a mentally competent person in American who cannot “easily” cast a ballot – if they so desire.
For the better part of 200 years, Americans had to vote between the hours of six in the morning and six in the evening on Election DAY. Absentee voting was strictly for military and those infirmed. That was it. You also had to be a male and 21 years old until the passage of the 19th and 26th constitutional amendments, respectively.
To encourage more voter participation, states all across the nation passed laws to expand the opportunities to vote a LOT. There are now weeks – and even months – in which voters can cast their ballots at their convenience – including on weekends. That alone should dispel any fears of voter suppression.
If voters cannot get their arses to an early voting location in all that time, they are not voting because they do not want to vote … period.
But that is not the only way we have made it easier. The once limited absentee voting privilege has been expanded to a “no excuse” absentee voting. And tens of millions of Americans take advantage of that opportunity.
If you wish to vote but have not registered, you can register at the polling place on Election Day and cast what is called a “provisional ballot.” They are set aside to be verified after the fact. But to do that, you must present the same multiple forms of identification that you would if you had registered to vote earlier – in most cases, a photo ID.
More than ever, we have political, civic and religious organizations that volunteer to promote voter registration. They both encourage and assist voters in exercising their right to vote.
Voter suppression? It is arguably more difficult to not vote than to vote. Between the get-out-the-vote efforts and the extensive times and ways to vote, there is no excuse for not voting. There is no suppression.
No human activity can be carried out with perfection. There will always be mistakes and mischief. Voting systems and procedures are not different. And because vote fraud is among the most difficult crimes to prove and to identify the perpetrator — even when vote fraud is clear – it is essential that we create as safe a system as possible.
Wherever there is a weak point in the ballots “chain of custody,” you will find vote fraud. And yes, it does exist – and in some cases has resulted in stolen elections, mostly in local elections in major cities. Like murdered Blacks in segregated cities, the media does not pay much attention to local vote fraud. Yes, I know … I have heard the Democrats and their media cronies advancing the false narrative that election fraud simply does not exist. That is what the authoritarian class always says.
There are two facts that we need to take into consideration when assessing the left’s claim of voter suppression.
First … if suppression is so rampant – and if it hits hardest at minorities – how does one explain the SURGE in minority voting in recent years? Voter suppression REDUCES the number of voters – not increase.
Also, how does one square the claim that all those state election reform initiatives are a national Republican conspiracy when they also complain that it is happening in 47 states. Republicans do not control 47 states – and some of the measures have Democrat support back home.
Then it is necessary to look at the measures being enacted.
- Democrats complain that there is a closing – a consolidation of polling places. Well duh! That is because millions of Americans – in some cases, the majority of voters – are taking advantage of early voting and mail-in voting. Fewer and fewer are showing up at the polling places on the traditional Election Day. In the past elections, there were reports that as high as 70 percent of voters had cast their ballots BEFORE Election Day. (Just for the record, some of those long lines you see on television are from past elections, not 2018 or 2020. In other cases the lines “appeared” long because of social distancing and camera angle. That is what media propaganda looks like.)
- Democrats want to send out “live” ballots to ALL registered voters. That is an invitation for massive corruption. Democrats have introduced harvesting as the latest deceptive reform. Having millions of unrequested and unwanted ballots floating around WILL result in massive harvesting — vote fraud. It is the equivalent of displaying a banks’ vault combination in the window. Furthermore, they would send out ballots to the 21 million people (according to the liberal Pew Research) who are on the voting registers even though they are ineligible to vote and even dead – and millions of them voted in 2020. That is prima facia vote fraud.
- That also explains why Democrat legislatures had legalized vote harvesting – a tactic that has long been considered corruptive. That is why it was illegal in the first place. I guess if you legalize vote fraud, you can claim there is no illegal vote fraud.
- Democrats want to make permanent several voting procedures that were alleged to be TEMPORARY. This includes drive-by voting – which is logistically a nightmare, overly expensive and totally unnecessary. Also, all night voting – again logistically a nightmare, overly expensive and totally unnecessary.
- It should not take an Einstein to see how unguarded ballot drop boxes are a risk. They are about as secure as those clothing drop boxes. We already have a system for handling mail-in ballots. It is the United States Post Office – and they have many more locations.
- And then there is the Democrats’ opposition to voter ID. It – along with the refusal to remove ineligible voters from the register – clearly shows the Democrats do not want to fight vote fraud. The need for a photo ID is in no way a suppression of the vote. Very few people are without them – and if you lack the mental capability of acquiring a free one, you probably are not fit to vote.
Democrats and the left are making a serious attempt to nationalize our voting – taking control away from the states and giving it to an elitist-run government far from the reach of we the people.
That is the standard method of those who seek to make America a top-down – not a bottom-up – nation. God help us if they succeed in crushing the constitutional rights of the several states to run their own elections.
The new election safety laws are not a return to the Democratic Party election regulations in the old south., There, they violated laws and the Constitution to block Black voters. They used terrorism.
The only violation of the Constitution – and the rights of the people these days – is the Democrats taking away the right of the people of the states to determine their election laws and procedures. If the Democrats’ grand plan to have the federal government take control of elections – via HB1/SR1—I feel reasonably confident that the Supreme Court would strike it down. At least I hope so.
So, there ‘tis.