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Reader's View: GOP laws aren’t about preventing voter fraud

Rigging elections takes at least thousands of people willing to risk felonies and who likely are motivated financially.

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In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court nullified Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, meant to challenge states, particularly those with histories of racism, to justify changes in their voting laws, thus preventing undue burdens on voters. But the Supreme Court and many U.S. voters apparently were lulled into complacency after President Barack Obama, of African heritage, was elected to his second term. The Supreme Court apparently assumed states with histories of suppressive Jim Crow-like voting laws no longer needed pre-approval.

When a narcissist tries to process losing by 7 million votes, and losing the electoral vote as well, what does that person do? Why, he seeks to prevent minorities from exercising their constitutional rights in the future, thus reducing the number of minority votes.

Currently, some states want partisan actors to circumvent their governors’ vetoes and are seeking to restrict the window of time to apply for mail-in ballots as well as shorten the deadline for delivering them. Michigan and Pennsylvania are restricting voting laws by legislatively creating constitutional amendments to disempower governors. And Georgia criminalized giving water to voters waiting In line for many hours, after willfully reducing the number of polling places (which creates those long lines in the first place).

Rigging elections takes at least thousands of people willing to risk felonies and who likely are motivated financially. So, prohibiting drive-through voting, 24-hour voting, or any reductions in voting hours will not prevent fraudulent votes. If bogus ballots are discovered, why wouldn’t they be discovered after using drive-through voting or after reducing voting hours? Wouldn’t Republicans also be vigilant in those cases?

In reality, it seems to me and many others, the GOP’s voter-suppression laws are intended to reduce minority votes, not prevent fraudulent votes. Think about it.

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Peter W. Johnson

Superior


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