That is the headline from this article by Robert Reich today (February 16, 2017) which links to something I hadn’t seen posted or heard much about before today. A recent study on the racial gaps in turnout in republican controlled states with strict voter ID laws.
At this point it’s hard to say what is the most shameful thing the Trump regime is doing and threatening to do. Picking a segregationist, Jeff Sessions, as the US Attorney General is certainly right at the top of a long list. (and this impropriety problem is in addition to Jeff Sessions, who was part of the Trump campaign, heading the DOJ investigation and possible prosecution of the Trump/Russiagate — where he must recuse himself according to DOJ rules)
Robert Reich keeps it short, factual and to the point.
He begins here with the latest lies coming out of the White House:
On Sunday, White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller claimed 14 percent of non-citizens are registered to vote.
“We know for a fact, you have massive numbers of non-citizens registered to vote in this country,”
he said, appearing on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos.
“The White House has provided enormous evidence with respect to voter fraud.”
Miller is repeating an assertion Trump continues to make.
It is absolutely false.
Robert Reich provides several links to sources of overwhelming evidence proving the republican “voter fraud” as a con job... which hasn’t much fazed the GOP from telling it. The Brennan Center for Justice that has done nationwide studies de-bunking the in-person and non-citizen voter fraud lie that republicans have doubled down on. Election officials, the National Association of Secretaries of State, even republican politicians, in their own words, when it’s convenient, have de-bunked their own voter fraud narratives
Most of this evidence exposing the lie behind the “voter fraud” gambit republican politicians tell in order to disguise their Jim Crow tactics has been around for awhile now, but one thing that Robert Reich included in his post is new research out that has measured the racial gaps in voter turnout in states with strict voter ID laws.
by Zoltan L. Hajnal, Nazita Lajevardi and Lindsay Nielson | February 15, 2017
an excerpt from the article; according to their analysis:
All else equal, when strict ID laws are instituted, the turnout gap between Republicans and Democrats in primary contests more than doubles from 4.3 points to 9.8 points. Likewise, the turnout gap between conservative and liberal voters more than doubles from 7.7 to 20.4 points.
By instituting strict voter ID laws, states can alter the electorate and shift outcomes toward those on the right.
Where these laws are enacted, the influence of Democrats and liberals wanes and the power of Republicans grows. Unsurprisingly, these strict ID laws are passed almost exclusively by Republican legislatures.
Some ideas on what to expect from the White House and republican shills in the future:
In repeating this blatant, proven false “voter fraud” lie long past the campaign season, (which so far, seems to be the knowledge limit of the Trump regimes style of governance by propaganda, tweet, & edict), what the republicans/Trump appear to be telegraphing is twofold;
1) that they have every intention of continuing this false ‘voter fraud’ propaganda campaigning as appeasement for the “alt-right” racists - their extreme voter base, and...
2) as the alternate facts campaign rolls on, in order to justify the continued disenfranchisement of peoples Right to Vote with strict voter ID laws, the republicans have shown their true colors by unanimously confirming Jeff Beauregard Sessions to fill the position of the top law enforcement officer in the land; US Attorney General, for the purpose of enforcing those unconstitutional voter disenfranchisement laws — imo
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Some good things. People fighting back: