Slate - "Trump's Voter Fraud Panel - First Public Meeting - Featured Lie After Lie After Lie"

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/07/the_first_public_meeting_of_trump_s_voter_fraud_panel_was_a_parade_of_lies.html

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Mendacity

The first public meeting of Trump’s voter fraud panel was a horrifying parade of outright lies.

By Mark Joseph Stern

On Wednesday, Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission held its first public meeting, allowing each participant to voice his or her utterly unjustified belief that fraudulent voting is a rampant problem in the United States. (The commission has already held a private meeting that may have violated federal law.) During his remarks, Kris Kobach—Kansas’ Republican secretary of state and vice chairman of the commission—asserted that more than 18,000 noncitizens may have registered to vote in Kansas. He also alleged that the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, which compares states’ voter rolls, has uncovered “literally millions of people” who are registered in at least two states. Both of these claims are completely false.


Let’s start with the Kansas lie. When running for secretary of state in 2010, Kobach repeatedly insisted that voter fraud in the state, particularly noncitizen voting, was “pervasive” and “massive.” Then–Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh—a Republican who served in that position for 16 years—responded that “the voter fraud Kris Kobach speaks of does not exist.” Researchers found that, over the previous decade, the government had uncovered just seven instances of unlawful voting in Kansas, none of which involved noncitizens. Yet Kobach persisted, as this crude nativism was central to his campaign. A week before the election, he said he’d found a smoking gun: A deceased man named Alfred K. Brewer, Kobach claimed, had likely cast a vote in the August primary.

Reporters found Brewer in his yard, alive. “I don’t think this is heaven, not when I’m raking leaves,” he explained. Kobach had confused Brewer with his father, who was deceased, and who had not cast a vote since he’d shuffled off this mortal coil.

When Kobach presented these findings in the state Legislature, the gallery broke out in laughter.
These embarrassments did not thwart Kobach. Once in office, he continued to contend that noncitizens were casting ballots in droves, although he could not produce evidence of this ostensibly widespread problem. (Kobach has successfully prosecuted exactly one noncitizen voter.) He promoted, then implemented, a stringent law requiring proof of citizenship (like a birth certificate) for all new voter registrants. As of Dec. 11, 2015, about 35,314 Kansans had their voting rights suspended for failing to submit proof of citizenship; 12,227 of these voters were purged from rolls altogether. Voters between the ages of 18 and 29 were three times more likely to lack proof of citizenship than other voters.


snip - more anger - inducing words at the link above

[skylucy]

1. This is very very scary.

[SHRED]

2. They want to suppress the vote

And they will lie to do it.

[malaise]

3. And M$Greedia covered it

They should cut with the first lie

[The Genealogist]

4. Witch hunt, pure and simple

After reading the article, it is clear that Kobach is either exceptionally paranoid or is pretending to be. I think he is paranoid, but also licking his chops, as are other Republicans, to get people who don't vote for them off the rolls.

[Ms. Toad]

5. I'm pretty sure my spouse is one of those millions of "illegal" doubly registered voters

Exact same name, including middle initial, and exact same birthdate as someone in another state.

(We know because their medical records got mangled together when the other person started using our old mail-order pharmacy and we started getting notices with her drug information, billing notices, etc. I'm guessing that there are probably many more of my spouse out there - since it would be unusual for the only two people with that name and birthdate to have landed on the same mail order pharmacy . . . )

Just because name and birthdate match doesn't mean they are the same person.

Morons.

[sharedvalues]

6. Excellent journalism! Protecting the truth, not repeating lies.

I love articles like this. Don't let these attackers of democracy get away with lies unchallenged.

"allowing each participant to voice his or her utterly unjustified belief that fraudulent voting is a rampant problem in the United States."

YES!

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Mendacity

Good!

The first public meeting of Trump’s voter fraud panel was a horrifying parade of outright lies.

Please, more of this!

Slate, please teach the NYT how to conduct journalism in 2017.