On Voting

This weekend, my local paper, the Star-Tribune, published one of the most breathtakingly stupid op-eds I’ve ever read. No surprise that it was written by one of Trump’s many sycophants that has a nebulous job title like “adviser” because I guess “assistant grifter” would be too on the nose. His name is Justin Clark and he is a senior adviser and senior counsel to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., which is the president’s re-election campaign. Basically, the idea behind this piece is that mail-in voting would be very bad and we should not do it.

Good ol’ Justin kicks things off as most of the bad faith arguments do. Something like: please, reasonable sir, I am only here to explain this to you. From his opening graph:

On July 5, the Star Tribune published an editorial that conflated absentee voting with universal vote by mail (“Mail-in voting can keep us all safer”). There is a huge difference between the two, and it’s important for the American people to understand those differences as Democrats continue to call for a radical overhaul of our nation’s voting system just four months ahead of the election.

You see, stupid person? They’ve conflated two things that ARE the same with minor technical differences. That means there is a HUGE (YUUUUGE) difference between them, dummy. Leaving aside the fact that it was obvious in April that COVID was going to impact elections and the administration should have started putting a plan in place for safer elections, it isn’t just Democrats that are calling for changes. It’s pretty much everyone who lives in a populated area. Granted, in Bumfuck, Iowa where there’s two polling places for every person, voting during COVID isn’t going to be a big deal. But in cities or even dense suburbs, there is potential for nightmare scenarios: long lines, outbreaks, and ultimately being disenfranchised.

Clark is a great representative of Trump, in that he feels entitled to define your rights for you. Isn’t that nice? He’s got lots of thoughts on how your rights, which belong only to you, should be exercised and used. What a peach!

In order to obtain an absentee ballot, a registered voter must request a ballot through their state government….There are two keys to this process. First, the onus is on the registered voter to request the absentee ballot. Requiring some form of voter responsibility and accountability is important to the integrity of the vote. Second, certain inherent and prescribed security measures exist with this type of process….Voting absentee requires heightened security measures because, by not voting in person, the voter is not identifying himself or herself with an election judge or poll worker.

Take a look at that fourth sentence. “Requiring some form of voter responsibility and accountability is important to the integrity of the vote.” Uhhhh, what? What does this even mean? If we don’t ask for our rights we shouldn’t be given them? What other right works like this? Should I have to file a request to speak? It’s obvious that Clark and people like him (WHITE PEOPLE) view voting as a privilege that we ALLOW others to participate in. If you don’t use it correctly, then you don’t deserve to have it.

Justin’s big problem with what is being suggested now is that states want to send mail-in ballots to everyone registered. That means, oh god the horror, some people might get ballots who have moved or died. NOOOOO! THE INTEGRITY OF THE ELECTION IS RUINED FOREVER!!!

As Justin sagely points out:

A reasonable person can surmise the potential for voter fraud under an all-mail-in voting system, as President Donald Trump has rightly pointed out. Because many states lack up-to-date voter registration rolls, sending ballots to all the registered addresses included in a state government’s registered voter database is likely to include discrepancies, like the inclusion of dead voters and voters who have moved. 

Yeah, unless you’re one of those UNREASONABLE people, then you understand how imperiled our system is. Also, note how BOOTLICKER JUSTIN had to get in one reference to his boss. That man loves seeing his name in the paper! But back to the corrupt and illegitimate election. If we allow mail-in voting then our elections will be tarnished forever!

Oh, wait. No, they won’t. Sorry to get hysterical. I pictured a bunch of crooks gathering up ballots and filling them out for whoever they supported. But it’s actually not like that at all. “Absentee ballots are counted only if the information matches personal identifying information supplied by voters, (SoS) Simon said, making them secure from mailbox theft. Voters sign them under penalty of perjury, and the number of actual voter fraud cases remains extremely small.” This comes from the editorial that our boy Justin had such an issue with. But does that stop him from falsely scaremongering? NOPE.

A mail-in voting system is much more exposed to fraud and abuse than an absentee voting system for a number of reasons. In many cases where all-mail-in voting has taken place, partisan political organizations engage in what is known as ballot harvesting to influence elections. When combined with ballot harvesting and a movement by Democrat operatives to eliminate security measures typically used with absentee ballots, an all-mail-in election is exposed to exponentially more opportunities for fraud and abuse.

Ballot harvesting, which allows anybody to collect voters’ ballots to turn into a polling location, is especially susceptible to fraud and sets a dangerous precedent. It allows anyone, including political operatives and campaign staff, to show up and take possession of a voters’ completed ballot for delivery.

Now, what he says is technically true. But notice the ominous, scary undertones he adds to the process? First, blaming Democrats, as if it hasn’t been Republicans most recently caught trying to defraud an election. Second, we know this happens because the PEOPLE GET CAUGHT. Voter fraud is an incredibly hard crime to pull off. Maybe, in a small town, local election, it would be worth it. But in a nationwide election where tens of millions of votes are cast, in order to effectively influence the election, you would need an organization in the thousands with complicity from multiple levels of government. The reason why the GOP is worried about this is BECAUSE THEY TRIED TO DO IT THEMSELVES. Only they failed. Because the system is mostly secure.

Justin later goes on to imply that voting in-person is somehow patriotic, despite his boss and most of his co-workers all voted by mail themselves. Trump, Pence, Barr, Ivanka, Devos, Conway, Azar… I mean. All of them. Just one more example of their utter hypocrisy.

The most central and important tenet of democracy is that the people who live in a given area get to decide how things work. Sometimes it’s a town. Sometimes it’s a state. No matter what the size and configuration of the electorate, it is the people who get to determine their governance. One man, one vote. That’s the idea.

I don’t want to get into the Electoral College today. It’s stupid and should be abolished. It diminishes the value of minority votes and exists to help prop up white supremacy. No, really, it does. It’s a major hurdle to ensuring true democracy and interferes with the people having a voice. Fuck the EC.

Republicans love to talk about how DemonRats (TM Judge Jeanine) cheat and steal elections. And sure, there’s been a bit of that. But what’s better than stealing elections? Ensuring a victory without having to cheat at all. If someone can’t vote in the first place, then you don’t have to worry about them. But how does a person disenfranchise someone like that? There’s a couple of ways.

Felons

In a number of states, felons lose their right to vote. Sometimes it’s forever. Sometimes it’s for a period of time and often there are a number of financial hoops to jump through to get your voting rights back. Just another example of how we aim to dehumanize and demonize criminals. We literally strip them of their most important rights, under the thinking that criminals have forfeited their rights to participate in our society. In some sense, it is logical. Yet another thing that in a vacuum makes sense but in practice becomes an awful, horrible thing.

Prisoners are disproportionately black. This means that a disproportionate number of minorities are having their votes taken away. What message is that society sending to these people? YOUR VOICE DOESN’T MATTER. This is not new. Americans have been denying their fellow citizens the right to vote since the beginning. It’s why we’ve had to keep making amendments to ensure everyone can vote. Today, we’ve come up with a brilliant system: deny felons the right to vote, lock up blacks, deny blacks the right to vote. Perfect.

Voter ID

This is probably the grossest and most racist form of voting discrimination we have. Yet again, in theory, this seems to be sensible. We should know who is voting. Asking to see an ID isn’t too much. Who doesn’t have a driver’s license (the privileged white people ask)? Well, I’ll tell you. Lots of people. The youths seem far less interested in driving than previous generations. People who grow up in a city and rely on public transit don’t get licenses. Poor people can’t afford the fees and costs associated with car ownership. Older people who don’t drive anymore. The point is that lots of people don’t have an ID.

What ID did our Founders use? I mean, since we love to slobber on them so much, what did they do for IDs? Property. That’s right. You could only vote if you owned property. But it’s not like Tommy J flashed his ID to get through the door. For white people, it is unimaginable to walk around with an ID. But for millions of people in different communities, it isn’t surprising. And because of this discretion between citizens, we cannot, under any circumstances, allow the government to have any requirements for voting.

Gerrymandering

People smarter than I have written about this so go read them. I wanted to include it because it does cause voter suppression. Basically, what gerrymandering allows political parties (both do it, GOP has utilized it far more often than Dems) to draw up districts in a way that either splits up rival voting blocks or encompasses an unnatural number of their party members. Look at some of these! Just ridiculous.

Shit doesn’t have to be complicated. The people get to decide what happens. Majority rules. If you live here, work here, raise your family here, then you should have a say in what happens. I don’t care if you’re a citizen or not. Democracy isn’t about kind of patriotic purity test. It doesn’t care if you committed a crime, if you can’t afford an ID, or if you came to this country illegally. Your voice should matter.

People like Justin and his boss will never understand this. They’ve been raised within the womb of white supremacy which teaches them that how WE do things is how EVERYONE should do things. Our way is best. Shut up and get in line.

White people have been denying others their voices since the beginning of this country. Frankly, oppressing people of color is what white people have excelled at since 1776. It’s kind of our JAM. Well, it’s time for a change. Here’s a radical idea: one voice, one vote. Let’s work towards making America a legitimate democracy.