Chuck Darwin<p>For decades, the right has targeted the protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, </p><p>most visibly via court decisions, <br>as well as spurious voter roll <a href="https://c.im/tags/purges" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>purges</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/gerrymandering" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>gerrymandering</span></a> efforts, <br>which warp territorial districting law to divide opponents and consolidate supporters.</p><p>One of the most reliable methods of suppression, though, <br>is to tighten <a href="https://c.im/tags/voter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>voter</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/identification" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>identification</span></a> rules. </p><p>Requiring <a href="https://c.im/tags/citizenship" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>citizenship</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/paperwork" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>paperwork</span></a>, which many (fully eligible) citizens do not possess, <br>leads to the emergence of a racially inflected pattern of <a href="https://c.im/tags/vote" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>vote</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/suppression" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>suppression</span></a>. </p><p>If you make voting as inconvenient and costly as possible, <br>by default, some percentage of those who are short on money and time <br>— people of color, students, low-income workers and others who juggle lots of obligations with few resources <br>— will decide that getting to the polls just isn’t worth it. </p><p>Maximizing this effect is the primary motive driving the rampant right-wing infringements on democratic participation, <br>Trump’s latest order included.</p><p>To justify these measures, the executive order <br>👉purports to combat large-scale voter fraud: <br>⚠️the familiar right-wing myth that millions of illicit votes are cast in the U.S., in numbers that could throw a presidential election. </p><p>(The real nationwide illegal vote count is a few hundred, at most</p><p>-- of those, quite a few were Trump voters.) </p><p>The type of voter fraud claimed by the right is so vanishingly rare as to be an utterly negligible force in U.S. politics. </p><p>If anything can be said to constitute actual substantive electoral fraud, <br>it is the right’s systematic and wildly successful campaign to <a href="https://c.im/tags/obstruct" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>obstruct</span></a> voting rights.</p><p>Trump’s order, <br>while perhaps the most aggressive foray into voter suppression of late, <br>is far from the only effort to impair democracy. </p><p>🔥Right now the SAVE Act is making its way through Congress; </p><p>the Republican-sponsored legislation would alter registration procedures <br>and demand proof of citizenship documents like <br>a passport, birth certificate or naturalization certification. </p><p>(As NPR reported, researchers have found that<br>👉 1 in 10 voting-eligible Americans don’t possess these documents.)❗️</p><p>There’s notable overlap between the two efforts <br>— the administration seems to be hedging its bets. </p><p>“A lot of [the executive order] tracks pretty closely with what’s in the SAVE Act,” <br>said Diaz. </p><p>Should the SAVE Act fail, the executive order may<br> allow “the White House to get around the congressional lawmaking process<br> -- and do whatever they want.”</p><p><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/trump-assumes-unheard-of-powers-in-ordering-federal-overhaul-of-elections/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">truthout.org/articles/trump-as</span><span class="invisible">sumes-unheard-of-powers-in-ordering-federal-overhaul-of-elections/</span></a></p>