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Trump’s False Claims of Rampant Voter Fraud Draw From a Well-worn Racist Playbook – Republicans have tried to suppress turnout among voters who are poor, disabled or people of color for many years.

Between the Repub­li­can Par­ty and Don­ald Trump, it’s hard to say which is more respon­si­ble for boost­ing vot­er sup­pres­sion into out­right elec­tion sab­o­tage. But it is use­ful to remem­ber upon whose watch the GOP learned how to sup­press turnout among vot­ers who are poor, Black, Lati­no, Asian Amer­i­can, Native or dis­abled in order to defeat Democrats. 

In a May 2007 sto­ry, The Fraud­u­lence of Vot­er Fraud,” I report­ed on the Bush administration’s purge of U.S. attor­neys, fired on the pre­text of fail­ing to pros­e­cute vot­er fraud (which nev­er actu­al­ly occurred). I wrote:

When Repub­li­cans talk about vot­er fraud they are refer­ring to ille­gal vot­ing by indi­vid­u­als, as opposed to vote fraud — sys­tem­at­ic attempts to steal an elec­tion by an orga­nized group of par­ti­sans. … On Feb. 15, 2005, the U.S. Sen­ate Repub­li­can Pol­i­cy Com­mit­tee issued a report, ​Putting an End to Vot­er Fraud,” which said, ​Vot­er fraud con­tin­ues to plague our nation’s fed­er­al elec­tions, dilut­ing and can­cel­ing out the law­ful votes of the vast major­i­ty of Americans.” 

… Lor­raine C. Min­nite, a pro­fes­sor of polit­i­cal sci­ence [and expert on vot­er fraud] at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty [writes]: ​The exag­ger­at­ed fear of vot­er fraud has a long his­to­ry of scut­tling efforts to make vot­ing eas­i­er and more inclu­sive, espe­cial­ly for mar­gin­al­ized groups in Amer­i­can soci­ety. With renewed par­ti­san vig­or, fan­tasies of fraud are being spun again to undo some of the progress Amer­i­ca has made low­er­ing bar­ri­ers to vote.”

… It appears that, under [Deputy Chief of Staff Karl] Rove’s direc­tion, the White House has been plan­ning to use U.S. attor­neys to fan nation­al fears of vot­er fraud. … In Arkansas, Bush fired a sit­ting U.S. attor­ney in order to appoint Rove pro­tégé Tim Grif­fin. … In Wash­ing­ton, [he] fired U.S. Attor­ney John McK­ay [who] had refused to pros­e­cute alleged vot­er fraud. … On March 6, McK­ay tes­ti­fied before the Sen­ate that after the elec­tion Repub­li­cans pres­sured him to open an inves­ti­ga­tion. He said his office had exam­ined the alle­ga­tions of vot­er fraud and decid­ed there was not enough evi­dence to pur­sue a case. 

Had any­one at the Jus­tice Depart­ment or the White House ordered me to pur­sue any mat­ter crim­i­nal­ly in the 2004 governor’s elec­tion, I would have resigned,” McK­ay told the Seat­tle Times. ​There was no evi­dence, and I am not going to drag inno­cent peo­ple in front of a grand jury.” 

… [Min­nite] has read through the reports [of fraud. She said], ​As I delved into it, I was faced with the ques­tion: ​Why do peo­ple think there is a lot of fraud when there isn’t any real evi­dence?’ I think peo­ple are being manip­u­lat­ed by pol­i­tics, which takes the form of these reports that are dumped on the pub­lic. It is as if you get a big enough pile maybe you will con­vince peo­ple that the vol­ume of fraud is quite large and that we have a seri­ous problem.” 

Some­one has learned Rove’s lessons well.

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Joel Bleifuss | Radio Free (2020-09-18T12:00:00+00:00) Trump’s False Claims of Rampant Voter Fraud Draw From a Well-worn Racist Playbook – Republicans have tried to suppress turnout among voters who are poor, disabled or people of color for many years.. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/09/18/trumps-false-claims-of-rampant-voter-fraud-draw-from-a-well-worn-racist-playbook-republicans-have-tried-to-suppress-turnout-among-voters-who-are-poor-disabled-or-people-of-color-for-many-y/

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" » Trump’s False Claims of Rampant Voter Fraud Draw From a Well-worn Racist Playbook – Republicans have tried to suppress turnout among voters who are poor, disabled or people of color for many years.." Joel Bleifuss | Radio Free - Friday September 18, 2020, https://www.radiofree.org/2020/09/18/trumps-false-claims-of-rampant-voter-fraud-draw-from-a-well-worn-racist-playbook-republicans-have-tried-to-suppress-turnout-among-voters-who-are-poor-disabled-or-people-of-color-for-many-y/
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Joel Bleifuss | Radio Free Friday September 18, 2020 » Trump’s False Claims of Rampant Voter Fraud Draw From a Well-worn Racist Playbook – Republicans have tried to suppress turnout among voters who are poor, disabled or people of color for many years.., viewed ,<https://www.radiofree.org/2020/09/18/trumps-false-claims-of-rampant-voter-fraud-draw-from-a-well-worn-racist-playbook-republicans-have-tried-to-suppress-turnout-among-voters-who-are-poor-disabled-or-people-of-color-for-many-y/>
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Joel Bleifuss | Radio Free - » Trump’s False Claims of Rampant Voter Fraud Draw From a Well-worn Racist Playbook – Republicans have tried to suppress turnout among voters who are poor, disabled or people of color for many years.. [Internet]. [Accessed ]. Available from: https://www.radiofree.org/2020/09/18/trumps-false-claims-of-rampant-voter-fraud-draw-from-a-well-worn-racist-playbook-republicans-have-tried-to-suppress-turnout-among-voters-who-are-poor-disabled-or-people-of-color-for-many-y/
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" » Trump’s False Claims of Rampant Voter Fraud Draw From a Well-worn Racist Playbook – Republicans have tried to suppress turnout among voters who are poor, disabled or people of color for many years.." Joel Bleifuss | Radio Free - Accessed . https://www.radiofree.org/2020/09/18/trumps-false-claims-of-rampant-voter-fraud-draw-from-a-well-worn-racist-playbook-republicans-have-tried-to-suppress-turnout-among-voters-who-are-poor-disabled-or-people-of-color-for-many-y/
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" » Trump’s False Claims of Rampant Voter Fraud Draw From a Well-worn Racist Playbook – Republicans have tried to suppress turnout among voters who are poor, disabled or people of color for many years.." Joel Bleifuss | Radio Free [Online]. Available: https://www.radiofree.org/2020/09/18/trumps-false-claims-of-rampant-voter-fraud-draw-from-a-well-worn-racist-playbook-republicans-have-tried-to-suppress-turnout-among-voters-who-are-poor-disabled-or-people-of-color-for-many-y/. [Accessed: ]
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» Trump’s False Claims of Rampant Voter Fraud Draw From a Well-worn Racist Playbook – Republicans have tried to suppress turnout among voters who are poor, disabled or people of color for many years. | Joel Bleifuss | Radio Free | https://www.radiofree.org/2020/09/18/trumps-false-claims-of-rampant-voter-fraud-draw-from-a-well-worn-racist-playbook-republicans-have-tried-to-suppress-turnout-among-voters-who-are-poor-disabled-or-people-of-color-for-many-y/ |

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