“Voter Fraud” is a fraud. Any reasonable person understands that President Trump’s hyped-up claims about voter fraud are flat out wrong. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)– who is not typically known for being reasonable – came out and said he would not allow federal funds to pay for an investigation into non-existent voter fraud. Literally, there is no evidence of voter fraud.
But that didn’t stop President Trump from creating a new voter fraud commission through Executive Order today. What President Trump is really doing is providing cover for new voter-suppression laws being proposed in at least 20 states – mostly Republican-led -- that will make it more difficult for people to vote. Especially black, brown, disabled, elderly, mass-transit dependent, wage-workers, and students.
For example, in New Hampshire, there are 10 bills before the state legislature that would change voter registration requirements. One bill would require residents to live in the State for at least 210 days in order to vote. Another would require people submit additional documents when they register to vote. These changes would make it especially challenging for students and military personnel in the state.
To make matters worse, in 2013 the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which required states with a history of voting discrimination to submit any changes to voting laws to the federal government for approval. Without those protections in place, we’re seeing a resurgence of Jim Crow laws to block people – especially black people – from voting.
In 2015, a year after Alabama began enforcing a new voter-id law, the state shuttered 31 DMV offices in majority-black counties making it harder for people to get the id’s they now were required to have when voting.
The real fraud taking place is being perpetrated by billionaires, and entrenched corporate interests – Donald Trump is merely their latest and loudest mouthpiece. This has been going on since the 1970’s when then corporate lawyer Lewis Powell wrote his infamous memo urging business to build political power in order to push back against new environmental and consumer protection laws. Later, when Powell became a Supreme Court Justice, he wrote the Buckley v. Valeo decision that declared that – for political purposes – money is the same as speech and it’s protected by the First Amendment.
In other words, money talks.
Later, in the Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. the F.E.C., the court closed the circle saying that if money is speech and corporations are people, then corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections.
As a result, corporations have wildly expanded power and voice in Washington. And people power is diminishing.
What can we do? We can resist. We can rise up. We can elect a new Congress – a brand new Congress – that will restore the Voting Rights Act and pass a 28th Amendment to overturn Citizens United and get big money out of politics. We need a sustained resistance and a massive demonstration of support to reform our democracy.
Over 65,000 people have already joined StampStampede.org and are legally stamping messages like "Not To Be Used For Bribing Politicians" and “Don’t Block Black Votes” on dollar bills in order to build the movement. Now we have a new stamp that says “Voter Fraud” is a Fraud – RESIST. Every stamped dollar will be seen by an estimated 875 people over two and half years. As more and more stamped dollars enter into circulation, we will create a visible and sustained petition on steroids that Congress cannot ignore.
