OPINION — Donald Trump wants the voter registration records for Utah and every other state. Surely nothing could go wrong with that request, could it? If Barack Obama had requested the same information from the states, surely nobody would be suspect, would they?
Trump wants all voter registration information to confirm his prediction that upwards of 5 million people voted illegally in the 2016 election. Surely, Trump must have won the popular vote. Surely, only voter fraud prevented him from winning the popular vote. And, surely, those conniving illegal immigrants and their Democratic Party enablers teamed up to undermine U.S. elections – not Russia, just illegals and Democrats.
Well, of course there is much more to this story. And don’t call me “Shirley.”
Trump’s Presidential Advisory Committee on Election Integrity sent a letter to every state requesting that they release voter registration records. Kris Kobach, the committee’s vice chairman, says it is seeking only “publicly available voter data.” Not any other information.
And that is true enough. The Advisory Committee seeks only what is already publicly available to any other person. It’s not asking for information unavailable to the public, unless the information is available.
The Advisory Committee’s letter requests the following voter data information:
the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in [the] state), [the] last four digits of social security numbers if available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.
That list of requests is far beyond publicly available information, and the Advisory Committee knows it. So why ask for unavailable information? Because Trump’s narcissistic personality forces him to. He is sure he is correct about extensive voter fraud and he is out to prove it.
The unavailable information allowing cross-referencing is exactly what he needs to help prove his case. In making this sweeping request of the states he can come back and ask the states to allow the sharing of all data requested when it becomes clear that what data is available is not enough information to ensure the integrity of our elections.
Voter information typically available to the public includes names, addresses, dates of birth and party registrations, hardly enough information to detect vast voter fraud. To really get into voter fraud, you need all of the other information requested. Here is what this game sounds like. This example is straight from the mouth of Kris Kobach:
For example, if a witness testifies before the Commission that a certain person voted fraudulently in a given state, the Commission needs to confirm that such a person even exists on the voter rolls and actually cast a ballot in the relevant election.
That’s just common sense, isn’t it? If Kobach testifies before Congress that widespread voter fraud exists, he would need to know all sorts of information!
That is what the game sounds like.
Here is what the game looks like. Trump wins the 2016 presidential election, but he loses the popular vote. Not only does that loss detract from any call for a mandate, it hurts his massive ego. To remedy both pains, Trump signs Executive Order 13799 on May 11 creating the Presidential Advisory Committee on Election Integrity and appoints illegal immigration stalker Kris Kobach, the author of Arizona’s unconstitutional SB 1070, to pursue voter fraud.
The Advisory Committee talks publicly about multiple registrations and dead people voting, but everyone knows the real target: voting by undocumented immigrants. It all kind of has that feel of the Committee on Un-American Activities back in the 1950s.
Back then, communists inside our government were the targets. And Senator Joe McCarthy actually found some communist sympathizers inside the Department of State. But his claim was that the enemy was widespread. Trump now makes a similar point: Foreigners are voting illegally in our elections and they must be rooted out.
As a declaration, it is hard to argue with. Of course we want to know of any illegality! Of course, we do not want our elections compromised by foreigners! So, of course, we must root them out! Well, not Russian hackers, just illegal immigrants.
In all seriousness, the better way to ask a reasonable question about voter fraud is to work with each state and discuss with states how we might better avoid voter fraud. But Trump is not reasonable. He is narcissistic and needs his ego fed.
In this case, there are more than enough nativists, such as Kris Kobach, willing to help Trump uncover the dark-skinned plot to overthrow America. But the rest of us should not buy into this mischief. Examine voter fraud, yes; demonize a group of people, no. Ensure the integrity of our elections, yes; stroke the ego of a delusional narcissist, no.
Paul Mero is an opinion columnist for St. George News. The opinions stated in this article are his own and may not be representative of St. George News.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews
There is no doubt Trump is a narcissist. And you may be right, that may be a large part of the motive for this.
But that doesn’t change the fact that there IS massive voter fraud that goes on in US elections. There is a simple solution: REQUIRE photo ID to vote. It isn’t rocket science, and it doesn’t disenfranchise anyone. You have to prove who you are for a myriad of services in this country (government provided and industry provided). Claiming that requiring a photo ID somehow disenfranchises voters is a lie.
What DOES disenfranchise voters is when their vote can be nullified by someone voting illegally, by the dead voting, by the same person voting repeatedly, by absentee ballot fraud, be electronic voting being tampered with, etc. All of these happen, and fixing any of these is fought tooth and nail by liberals.
I would gladly dip my finger in purple ink (instead of getting a worthless sticker) if it meant having my vote really count. But I’m sure liberals would claim that somehow disenfranchises someone (possibly those with an allergic reaction to purple ink on their right index finger).
So Trumps obvious narcissism and the poor approach to this attempt aside, we do need to fix voting security in this country. But I have no doubt this will be yet another thing on a long list of good things the rebublicans didn’t do in Trumps first term. They’re too busy trying to screw up healthcare for their own gain.
Witch hunt? How do you know that without data? Nelson Mandela brought voter ID to South Africa. People were proud of their ID and seemed quite capable of getting it.
Are Americans not equally competent? Incidents of voter fraud are regularly reported. Why no concern?
We even have a Governor allowing illegal aliens to vote and a party claiming people just cannot get voter ID.
Or, might there be those in the ruling class who know what’s best, like making sure Sanders could not win the primary.
I bet if some people stopped whining about voter ID, we could advance to the level of third world countries and institute voter ID.
One of our wonderful rights as a citizen is to vote. It’s sad when it’s triviliazrd rather than respected.
Paul, This is the way we drain the swamp !! If you don’t think it needs to be investigated, you are part of the problem..!!
What’s the big deal about showing your ID?
When you go to the bank to cash a check, you show your ID.
When you buy liquor, you show your ID.
When you check in at the airport, you show your ID.
When you go to Universal Studios, you show your ID.
When you buy ammunition or a firearm, you show your ID.
Why should it be any different when we vote? Anyone can show up and claim to be you. Imagine if all someone had to do was state your name and address. I don’t know about you, but producing a form of ID when I vote gives me some peace of mind that no one else is voting in my name.
However, for many insane and unjustifiable reasons, the liberals want to hide their voting supporters…whether dead or alive.
I had to show my ID to vote here in Oklahoma. So did everyone else here. Our votes are legit! I’m sure there were some that had fakd ID’s and such but this is a Trump state so any attempt to change the votes by voter fraud would require a mass amount in fraud.
As for California, no ID required so any jo schmo could vote for Hillary. Dead? It’s ok, cast your vote! Illegal? Come on down, it’s ok, vote twice! California was a Hillary state (democratic state that got stuck with Hillary)
Here’s the difference. The state of Oklahoma has 4 million people. The state of California has 39 million people. That’s why there is an electoral college so that one state can’t elect a president. I’m so glad I don’t live in California, too liberal, corrupt, and off the mark for me!
There you go again ladybugavenger, making sense. (Except for living in Oklahoma).
I’m in favor of a high voltage lie detector attached to the private parts of the person wanting to vote and answering one simple Q.
?
Paul Mero is as much a “prominent conservative leader” as Evan McMullin. A more accurate description would be “open borders proponent and Mormon doctrine enforcer”.
It takes more documentation to register you kid to play little league baseball than it takes to vote. Also, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim Russia interferred with the election but then refuse to validate the election results. Hypocrisy at its best.
To me voter fraud is more insidious than Russian interference. In Philadelphia there were 27 voting districts where Romney did not receive a single vote. Is that even possible?
Democrats resist voter photo ID for a reason. The same reason they don’t want to limit immigration. Votes.