From Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson:
Let's talk about today's fears of "voter fraud," why the modern GOP pushes them, and how they have warped our politics since 1986, shall we?
In 1986, Reagan's sixth year, the GOP had to defend vulnerable Senators elected with him in 1980. (The House was already Democratic). But the Reagan Revolution already was unpopular. So, demanding "ballot integrity," the GOP sent mail to voters in Democratic counties Indiana, Louisiana, and Missouri. Undeliverable mail meant purging of those voters. A GOP leader from Louisiana explained: "I would guess that this program will eliminate 60–80,000 folks from the rolls. If it's a close race...which I'm assuming it is, this could keep the black vote down considerably." [primary source shown, quoted person is named Wolfe]
The idea at the heart of this purge was that anyone who did not believe in the destruction of the New Deal state was not a legitimate voter. Anyone who believed in business regulation and social welfare was unAmerican, and just wanted free stuff. The GOP hit black voters first. But also all "Liberals." By 1990, Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich was attacking even GOP President H.W. Bush as a "RINO" —Republican in Name Only — and Chamber of Commerce lawyer Grover Norquist got leaders to pledge that they would never, ever raise taxes. But it didn't work.
In 1992, voters elected Democrat Bill Clinton, whose policies were hugely popular. So in 1993, when Democrats expanded voter registration with the Motor-Voter Act, the GOP said that letting folks vote would pack elections in Democrats' favor. The GOP wanted FEWER voters; not MORE.
GOP leaders loathed Clinton, and argued that any voters who liked him must be fraudulent voters who didn't want what was best for America (if they did they would vote GOP). They were takers, not makers. They must be purged from the electoral process.
In 1993, GOP operative Ed Rollins claimed he successfully suppressed the black vote in New Jersey to get a GOP governor, and in 1994, losing GOP candidates charged that they lost elections because of "voter fraud," that is, people who should not be voting — often immigrants were.
In 1996, the GOP Congress launched a year-long investigation into elections in Louisiana and California won by Democrats. The investigations proved that the Democrats actually won fair and square, but they kept the issue in front of the country for a solid year. Guess who those winning Democrats were? Two women.
Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana (she went on to hold the seat until 2014), and Rep. Loretta Sanchez in California (she stayed in office until 2017, when she lost a Senate bid to Kamala Harris). How did the investigation play out?
Led by Gingrich, the GOP claimed it couldn't prove Sanchez had lost because it couldn't figure out voters' citizenship. As soon as the investigation ended, they introduced a bill to prove voters were citizens. Not a real bill, an attempt to keep the issue in front of GOP voters.
In Miami, the 1997 mayor's race was a mess. Independent Cuban-born Xavier L. Suarez beat Republican Cuban-American Joe Carollo (Loco Joe) in a chaotic election that was a national embarrassment and sent supporters of both men to jail. (Suarez was eventually declared the winner.)
In 1998, GOP-held Florida legislature "reformed" "voter fraud" by outsourcing "list maintenance" to a private company. A later study by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights concluded "extraordinarily high and inexcusable level of disenfranchisement" of black voters in Florida in 2000.
Indeed, the commission concluded that the story of the 2000 election, which came down to 327 votes in Florida, was really the story of more than 100,000 voters — mostly Democrats, and mostly African Americans, purged illegally from the rolls.
It appeared that Ed Rollins was right. Voter suppression worked. Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote but, thanks to Florida's vote count, Republican George W. Bush was in the White House.
Actual voter fraud is virtually nonexistent. But voter suppression is increasingly widespread. Exact match ID hits women and people of color hard; limiting voting places can shut out a whole population. In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The GOP likes suppression because it shrinks the electorate. The modern GOP has pushed "voter fraud" because they think anyone who believes the government should regulate business and promote social welfare (and infrastructure) is unAmerican. That means most voters. Cut them and win.
Even though we are a majority (especially as GOP policies have made more of us poor), we have no right to a say in our leadership because we oppose their extremist ideology. Playing on this history, Trump recently called his opponents a crazy mob, and with no evidence, said: "Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America's economy after Venezuala" [October 10, 2018, quoted in USA Today].
When you buy into the "voter fraud" myth, you are buying into a narrative established a generation ago to keep the GOP in power without a majority. That premise says that no one can oppose government by and for a few rich men, because only they know what is best for us.
This is not democracy; this is oligarchy. Opponents of this reactionary coup are not radicals; we are conservatives. As Lincoln said, it is imperative that we "highly resolve... that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
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