The \u2063New York Times is concerned<\/strong> that informed citizens\u2062 are actively participating in \u200celection oversight.<\/p>\n

Trump’s Allies Ramp Up Campaign Targeting \u2062Voter\u2063 Rolls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the headline “Trump’s Allies Ramp\u2062 Up Campaign Targeting Voter Rolls,” Times writers Alexandra Berzon and Nick Corasaniti complain<\/a> \u200babout voters who are concerned that outdated voter registration \u200drolls could lead to fraud at\u2062 worst and sloppy election\u2064 administration at best. These concerned \u200bcitizens, \u2062they say,\u2063 have “pressed local officials in \u200cMichigan, Nevada, and Georgia to drop voters from the rolls\u200d en masse,” and have “at times targeted \u2064Democratic areas, relying on new \u2062data programs and novel legal theories to justify their push.”<\/p>\n

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On\u200d the other hand, perhaps Democrat-led cities deserve<\/a> higher scrutiny from informed citizens when it comes to elections\u2062 because those areas often won’t do\u200b it \u200bthemselves.<\/p>\n
Voter list maintenance is\u200b crucial<\/strong> to ensuring that only eligible individuals vote. Los Angeles County is just one example of a Democrat-led area that was not complying with voter roll maintenance\u200d standards until\u200b it was sued.<\/p>\n
Judicial Watch filed a suit in 2017\u200d alleging the county was \u200cnot removing inactive registrations from its records. As part of\u2063 the \u2063settlement, the\u2062 county was required to contact “as many \u200cas 1.5 million people” whose voter records are inactive, \u200bto determine whether they are still\u200b eligible. But \u2064even the L.A.\u200b County Democrats admitted the concession would not harm any eligible voters.<\/p>\n
“Nothing in\u2062 the agreement will jeopardize even one eligible Los Angeles County voter,” L.A.\u2064 County Clerk Dean Logan \u2064said, according to The Associated \u2062Press<\/a>. \u2063California\u200c Secretary of State\u200b Alex Padilla said at the time \u200dthat\u200b the move would “not lead to unnecessary removal of active\u2063 and eligible voters.”<\/p>\n
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It took a court to\u200b force county officials \u200bto do their jobs, after a nudge \u200dby citizens concerned \u200cabout election integrity. But Los Angeles County wasn’t the only place where concerned citizens had to go to the courts to get election administrators to take their concerns \u200dseriously.<\/p>\n
Maine Secretary of\u200d State Shenna Bellows,\u200b who single-handedly \u200ctried to remove former President Donald Trump from\u200c the ballot in her state, fought tooth\u200d and nail<\/a> to prevent a good government group \u2062from inspecting\u200d state voter rolls.<\/p>\n
But a \u200dBiden appointee, Judge Gustavo Gelp\u00ed, ruled Bellows must\u2062 allow the Public Interest Legal Foundation \u200bto\u200d inspect the state’s \u2063voter\u200c rolls, as\u200c mandated by law under the National Voter Registration Act.<\/p>\n
“[W]hether\u2064 voter registration rolls \u2064are accurate and current cannot be determined without inspecting the Voter file,” Gelp\u00ed ruled. “In other words, the evaluation of \u200cvoter registration rolls would be impossible if the \u2062results of Maine’s voter \u200dlist registration and maintenance activities were not subject to \u2063public \u2062disclosure.”<\/p>\n
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Sloppy voter rolls create opportunities for\u200c votes \u2062to be cast\u2062 illegally, either nefariously \u200bor by accident. When \u200billegal votes are counted, even when \u200dit \u2063doesn’t change the outcome of an election, it undermines voters’ confidence \u200din their electoral process.<\/p>\n
In Michigan, for\u200d example, an\u200b audit<\/a> after the \u20642020 election found \u200d1,616\u200c votes\u2063 cast by voters who \u2062had died\u200d before Election Day. Twenty of those\u2062 voters, noted Bridge Michigan<\/a>, were dead “before the absentee voting period began.” Some of these votes, the outlet noted, were likely instances \u2062of “sloppy record keeping” when a dead \u200cvoter \u2062shared a name with another\u2063 person on the voter rolls.<\/p>\n
Furthermore,\u2062 although Berzon and Corasaniti fail to \u200bmention it, one of the programs they tried to slander \u2014 Check My Vote \u2014 was \u2063only launched<\/a> after \u200dMichigan’s Democrat Secretary of \u200dState Jocelyn Benson refused to remove\u200d ineligible or dead voters\u200c from state rolls following the \u20632020 election. \u2064There were\u200d 26,000 deceased registrants on the rolls, according \u200bto a lawsuit filed by\u200c the \u2063Public Interest Legal Foundation.<\/p>\n
Yet, the Times \u200devidently doesn’t think it warrants \u200dAmericans’ attention.<\/p>\n
“Investigations\u200c into voter fraud have\u2063 found that \u200bit is exceedingly rare and that \u2063when it\u2063 occurs,\u200d it is typically isolated or even\u200c accidental,” Berzon and Corasaniti assure \u200ctheir readers. “Election officials say that there is no reason to think that the systems\u2062 in\u2062 place for keeping voter lists up-to-date are failing.\u200b The bigger risk, they note, is disenfranchising voters.”<\/p>\n
There is indeed \u200da real\u2063 risk voters will\u2063 be disenfranchised<\/a> \u2014 except it’s not\u2064 the voters\u200b Berzon and \u200cCorasaniti are \u2062referring \u200bto. Eligible voters are disenfranchised every single \u2064time a\u200c ballot is illegally cast, no matter how “rare” \u200dit is.<\/p>\n
In elections like the 2017\u200c Virginia House race between incumbent Republican David Yancey\u2064 and Democrat challenger Shelly Simonds that ended<\/a> in a perfect\u200d tie, an illegally\u200d cast\u200b ballot dilutes the weight \u2062of eligible voters’ choices and can skew the outcome. Further, just because something is “rare” or “accidental” \u200dis not\u200d a\u2062 “get out of jail \u2062free” \u200bcard for\u2062 election malfeasance.<\/p>\n
The Times also took umbrage with election integrity activists for\u2063 raising concerns about suspicious or incorrect addresses on voter registrations. After\u2064 the\u2063 2020 election, Mark\u2063 Davis,\u2062 a data \u200bexpert in Georgia, reported<\/a> \u2062tens of thousands of\u200c voters \u200bon file who “had filed changes of\u2064 address to an\u2064 address in a different county more than \u206430\u2063 days before the election” but still voted in their old\u200b county. \u200dAfter\u200b the\u200d election, Davis noted, “more than a\u200d third of \u200bthose voters” updated their voter registration or driver’s licenses to match their new address, further \u200dcalling the \u200dvalidity of their votes into question.<\/p>\n
But Berzon and\u200d Corasaniti didn’t mention Davis’ findings, instead \u200cdownplaying the concerns of citizens like him \u200dby dismissing the address discrepancies on voter rolls\u200d as simply “addresses with irregularities, such \u200das missing an apartment number.”<\/p>\n
When corporate \u200cmedia outlets treat citizens like\u200c conspiracy theorists for\u200d being\u2063 concerned about \u2064election integrity, it does the opposite of creating trust in elections. When they\u2063 shrug off indisputable \u2062problems, as \u200cthe Detroit Free Press<\/a> did in\u200d 2016, because they\u200b may not\u200c be\u2063 “sizable enough to affect\u2064 the outcome,” \u2063it leaves\u200d voters with less confidence in their electoral process.<\/p>\n
It also \u200dleaves them \u200dwondering \u2014 why are the corporate media and their Democrat \u200callies\u200c so uncomfortable with citizens who \u2062want to make sure their elections are secure?<\/p>\n
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rnrn <\/p>\n
What are the concerns raised by grity \u2063activists regarding voter rolls and how\u200d do they\u200b believe these\u200d efforts could potentially disenfranchise voters?<\/h2>\n
Grity activists targeting voter rolls, claiming that\u200c their efforts are unnecessary and could potentially disenfranchise voters. However, the reality is that maintaining accurate and up-to-date voter \u200blists \u2063is crucial for ensuring the\u200c integrity of \u200cour elections.<\/p>\n
In their article, the New York Times writers highlight the concerns of citizens \u200dwho believe that outdated voter\u200b registration rolls can lead to fraud and administrative\u2062 inefficiencies. These citizens \u2062have \u200cbeen pressuring local officials in states like Michigan, Nevada, \u2063and Georgia to remove ineligible \u2064voters from the rolls. According to the Times, these efforts have sometimes\u200b targeted Democratic \u200careas, \u200dusing new \u2064data programs and legal theories\u200b to support \u2062their cause.<\/p>\n
However, it \u200cis important to recognize that voter list maintenance is not a partisan issue. It is\u200b a fundamental requirement for fair and transparent elections. The article fails to\u2064 mention \u200cthat Democrat-led cities, like Los Angeles County,\u200c have also faced \u2063criticism for their lax approach to voter roll maintenance. In fact, it took \u2064a lawsuit by Judicial Watch to compel Los Angeles County officials \u200bto comply\u200c with voter roll maintenance standards.<\/p>\n
Similarly, in Maine, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows tried to prevent a good government group from\u2063 inspecting the state’s voter rolls.\u2063 It was only after\u200d a court ruling that she was compelled to allow the inspection, emphasizing the importance of public\u2064 disclosure and accountability in maintaining accurate voter lists.<\/p>\n
The \u200barticle \u2064also\u2062 dismisses the significance of sloppy \u2062voter rolls, arguing that voter \u2062fraud is rare and typically\u2062 isolated or accidental. However, instances of voter fraud, even if rare, undermine the confidence of eligible voters \u200din the electoral process. For example, an audit\u2063 in Michigan after the 2020 election revealed 1,616 votes cast by voters who had already died. Some\u200b of these instances were attributed\u2064 to sloppy record-keeping and the presence of deceased individuals sharing names with living\u200c voters.<\/p>\n
It is worth noting that one of the programs \u2064targeted by \u2063the article, Check My Vote, was launched in Michigan after the state’s Democrat Secretary of State refused\u2063 to remove ineligible or\u2062 deceased voters from\u2062 the rolls. The program aimed to\u2064 address the issue\u200b of\u200b deceased registrants, with a \u200clawsuit revealing \u2064that there were 26,000 such\u200c registrants on the rolls.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the \u2064focus should be on ensuring the accuracy and \u2063integrity of\u200d our voter lists. It is not about disenfranchising voters but rather about upholding the principle that every eligible citizen should have \u2064the opportunity to cast a\u200c legitimate vote. The concerns raised by citizens and activists regarding voter rolls deserve serious\u200c attention, as they play\u2063 a vital role in safeguarding\u200d the integrity of \u200cour democratic processes. Rather than \u200ddismissing their efforts, \u2064we should be encouraging and\u200c supporting their endeavors to ensure \u200dfair and transparent elections \u200dfor all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The New York Times worries about citizens engaging in election oversight. In an article titled “Trump’s Allies Target Voter Rolls,” writers Berzon and Corasaniti criticize voters who fear outdated registration lists may result in fraud or inefficient election management<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2193768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/NYT-building-e1709666153643.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2193767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/NYT-building-e1709666153643.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2193767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2193768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2193767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2193767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2193767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}