Rigging the election?

Will the Nov. 8 General Election be rigged?

According to the polls, many supporters of Donald Trump believe the answer is yes. In the view of many on the right, legions of undocumented immigrants and minorities in the inner cities are poised to flood the polls, impersonating others to vote multiple times in an effort to tip the election to Hillary Clinton.

Such a scenario has been standard fare on conservative media for years, yet it is based on nothing more than vivid imagination, according to election experts. Indeed, those who actually try to motivate minority voters know how difficult it can be. African-American and Hispanics vote at significantly lower rates than do white Americans and the election a week from Tuesday will be no exception. Getting minority voters to vote once is challenging enough. The notion that a significant number of minority voters would stand in line for hours to vote, then turn around and stand for hours in another line in hopes of casting second ballot (and running the risk of a felony conviction at the same time) is preposterous.

The real story of minority voting in the U.S. isn’t about voter fraud— it’s about voter suppression. Conservatives recognize the demographic shift taking place in America. They also recognize that their policies and ideology are not widely supported by minority populations that are rapidly moving towards majority status. Rather than changing policies in an effort to attract more support from minorities, the GOP has opted for an organized effort at voter suppression, instead.

The fear-mongering on the right over voter fraud and “rigged” elections is an attempt to build support from white Americans for voter I.D. laws, stricter registration deadlines, and other means that discourage voting by minorities or the poor. Since 2010, when Republicans took power in a number of states, GOP lawmakers have used their new authority to pass sweeping changes designed to suppress voting among certain groups. Unlike claims of voter fraud, the impact of such policies are not imaginary. In North Carolina, for example, the Fourth District Court of Appeals recently overturned much of the state’s restrictive voting law, commenting: “the new provisions target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.”

They aren’t alone. Closer to home, neighboring Wisconsin and Gov. Scott Walker have come under similar scrutiny for the same kind of tactics. U.S. District Judge James Peterson, who heard a challenge to the law, was withering in his assessment. “The evidence in this case casts doubt on the notion that voter ID laws foster integrity and confidence,” Peterson wrote in his decision setting aside portions of the law. “The Wisconsin experience demonstrates that a preoccupation with mostly phantom election fraud leads to real incidents of disenfranchisement, which undermine rather than enhance confidence in elections, particularly in minority communities. To put it bluntly, Wisconsin’s strict version of voter ID law is a cure worse than the disease.” 

Voting is a basic right in America, as is due process. It’s often said “better a hundred guilty men go free than an innocent man be deprived of his liberty,” which expresses America’s devotion to our inalienable rights and privileges.

Yet when it comes to voting, the math is exactly the reverse and the devotion to our basic rights seems curiously absent among conservatives, who would rather disenfranchise 100 qualified voters, through onerous voter I.D. laws and other measures, than see one unqualified voter be allowed to cast a ballot.

And that’s the issue here. Voter fraud, particularly the voter impersonation fraud that conservatives constantly rail about, is extraordinarily rare, if for no other reason than engaging in such activity is difficult, time-consuming, and subject to stiff penalties, while the potential benefit of obtaining a second vote is so abstract as to be virtually meaningless.

Election fraud certainly does occur, but election experts say it’s far more likely in the absentee balloting process. Yet the voter I.D. laws now under scrutiny don’t really address concerns related to absentee balloting. They are being written for problems that don’t exist in a calculated effort to deny millions of poor and minority Americans their right to vote.

And voter I.D. laws do nothing to protect our electoral process from the ever-increasing risk posed from hackers. That’s, by far, the biggest threat posed to America’s electoral process today, and it argues for all balloting to be done on paper, a step that Minnesota has already taken to ensure auditing is possible.

There are legitimate issues when it comes to the security of our electoral process, yet Donald Trump isn’t addressing them in his racist appeals to supporters. His talk of “rigged” elections and voter fraud is just fanning the flames of resentment.