Slate - "The Presidential Advisory Commission on Voter Suppression" (Kobach)
The president’s new “election integrity” group will find fraud where it doesn’t exist and make it harder for Americans to cast their ballots.
By Jamelle Bouie
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/05/kris_kobach_is_leading_trump_s_vote_fraud_commission_that_s_terrifying.html
As Donald Trump is fond of reminding his various interlocutors, he won the Electoral College, thus giving him the presidency. He lost the popular vote, however, by nearly 3 million votes, tainting his win with the stain of illegitimacy and suggesting that, even in victory, he isn’t the “winner” he imagines. But Trump had an explanation: voter fraud. “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” Trump tweeted in November. And just after his inauguration, in January, he vowed to open an inquiry. “I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD,” he said on Twitter, “including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!”
On Thursday, President Trump delivered on that vow, signing an executive order that would establish a commission to investigate alleged voter fraud and voter suppression in the American election system. According to the text of the executive order, the commission will be tasked with studying “those laws, rules, policies, activities, strategies, and practices that enhance the American people’s confidence in the integrity of the voting processes used in Federal elections” as well as those laws that “undermine” that confidence, in addition to “those vulnerabilities in voting systems and practices … that could lead to improper voter registrations and improper voting, including fraudulent voter registrations and fraudulent voting.”
In isolation, this sounds unobjectionable. There’s nothing inherently wrong with creating a commission to address problems in our election system. The trouble is who is leading that commission: Vice President Mike Pence and, more importantly, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Far from a neutral figure, Kobach is a fierce advocate for harsh, restrictive voting laws. By itself, his presence is a sign that this commission is a sham, and that the drive for “confidence” is actually a push to raise the barriers to voting and participation.
To understand why Kobach’s presence on this panel is so alarming, you need to know his background. The architect of draconian anti-immigration laws in Arizona and Alabama—as well as the mind behind Mitt Romney’s “self-deportation” rhetoric—Kobach has been a prominent champion for voting restrictions. In the aftermath of 2013’s Shelby County v. Holder, in which the Supreme Court struck down key parts of the Voting Rights Act, Kobach emerged as a major voice for voter suppression. He has backed strict ID laws and pushed for states to require a birth certificate or passport for registration, measures that primarily burden low-income voters, including many voters of color. From his perch as Kansas’ top election official, Kobach has launched a crusade against “illegal voting,” winning power from state lawmakers to prosecute “voting crime.” In keeping with most studies of voter fraud—which find little to no evidence of its existence—Kobach has found just nine cases of alleged fraud out of 1.8 million registered Kansas voters.
snip - much more to read at the link.
= new reply since forum marked as read
citizens who want to vote get the third degree if they have the wrong paint job. 