President Trump’s Election Integrity Commission arrived in New Hampshire recently to discuss the issue of alleged voter fraud. However, reflecting upon the facts surrounding the history of voting, suffrage, and voter suppression in the United States, it is clear that the creation of this commission stems from a long-standing tradition spearheaded by conservative lawmakers to strip the right to vote from millions of people across the country — not from a concern over fraudulent voting patterns.
From voter ID laws, to gerrymandering, to mass incarceration — which currently disenfranchises 6.1 million Americans — there is hard evidence demonstrating that voter suppression — not voter fraud — has had damaging effects on both access to the ballot box and the ability of the American democratic process to truly represent all of those living within its borders. Democratic candidates seek to benefit from high voter turnout, especially when single women and people of color are beginning to make up a larger portion of the electorate. Many on the right have an interest in keeping laws on the books that tend to make voting more difficult, despite the fact that we know the impact of these laws are felt more acutely by people of color, the poor, and students — the core of the democratic base.
Not by coincidence, the 2016 election was also the first presidential election in over 50 years to be conducted without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act, meaning that jurisdictions previously required to clear new laws with the Justice Department before changing voting or election rules no longer need to do so. The practice of effectively restricting the right to vote under the guise of protecting voters from fraud is one of the clearest examples of gaslighting our democracy has ever witnessed. Don’t fall for it.
Mariel Brown-Fallon
Colrain