Guest Commentary: Our President Is Threatening the Right to Vote, as Well as Public Safety

By Vanguard AdministratorSeptember 8, 202035 comments

By Diana Becton, Garry L. McFadden and Miriam Aroni Krinsky

As we approach November, our nation’s access to a free and fair election — the very basis of our democracy — is being tested.

Over the past month, the Trump administration has launched deeply concerning and escalating attacks on the right to vote. This includes floating intimidation tactics such as sending law enforcement officers to police polling sites — reminiscent of a shameful time when Black people were kept from the polls by similar terrorization — and publicly undermining the U.S. Postal Service to mislead voters about the reliability of mail-in voting.

Most recently, the president suggested voters in North Carolina vote twice, once by mail and once at the polls, to test the integrity of the system (thereby committing a federal crime). And Attorney General Bill Barr further stoked voter fears by saying America was “playing with fire” by using mail-in voting, but he was unable to identify any evidence supporting this narrative of widespread fraud and further professed to have no knowledge as to whether the law prohibited voting twice.

Make no mistake: The Trump administration is the one playing with fire here.

These attacks on voting rights and our democracy, by our president, imperil the legitimacy of our entire government and put public safety at risk. That’s why, this past week, 79 elected prosecutors and law enforcement leaders from across the nation, including nearly a dozen attorneys general, issued a joint statement condemning these attacks. They have come together to say “the right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and our identity as Americans, regardless of political affiliation. It is a constitutional right and, ultimately, a public trust and safety issue.”

Let’s set the record straight.

From our many years of experience working in law enforcement, we know there’s simply no need for law enforcement at the polls. We have also served as public officials and know that voting by mail is a proven, reliable method of taking part in our democracy. Policing the polls is nothing but blatant voter intimidation. And it threatens to take us back to a dark time in our country, when voter intimidation was the norm for Black people and came in the form of threats of violence, lynchings and, when all else failed, an overthrow of Black elected officials by force.

Today, millions of protesters in the streets underscore that we must do everything possible to distance ourselves from that era of American history. Civil unrest across our country comes at a time when trust in our systems and institutions is at a historic low. Only 13% of people have confidence in Congress. And with the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, confidence in police fell to 48% this year, the lowest confidence level in law enforcement ever recorded by Gallup in the nearly 30 years it has been tracking public sentiment on this question. When trust in law enforcement falls, public safety suffers. Our work depends on members of the community reaching out when they need help, reporting crime, cooperating in investigations and collaborating to promote justice.

All of us will suffer if we cannot turn the tide and restore faith in the integrity of our government systems.

The safety and well-being of our communities relies on a social contract dependent on confidence in the rule of law and a system of checks and balances that holds people accountable and promotes just results. But when one of our systems is attacked and fails — especially one as integral to our democracy as free and fair elections — public trust is compromised, along with the ability for all our government systems to function, including our criminal legal system.

Right now, law enforcement leaders are facing the unprecedented challenge of keeping our communities safe and healthy in the midst of COVID-19, while also confronting systemic racism that has been a blight on American history and filled our criminal legal system with too many Black and brown bodies. As voters look at the tragic cost communities of color have paid because of COVID-19, and then turn their gaze toward equally concerning and racially disparate incarceration rates, it is critical they feel like they have the power to bring about change.

As leaders committed to justice and fairness, we are unwilling to resurrect our nation’s most shameful behaviors and we are intent on doing everything in our power to prevent it. The ability to vote safely and protect access to the ballot box for all, without intimidation, is inextricably tied to keeping our communities safe.

As we approach November, our nation’s access to a free and fair election — the very basis of our democracy — is being tested.

Over the past month, the Trump administration has launched deeply concerning and escalating attacks on the right to vote. This includes floating intimidation tactics such as sending law enforcement officers to police polling sites — reminiscent of a shameful time when Black people were kept from the polls by similar terrorization — and publicly undermining the U.S. Postal Service to mislead voters about the reliability of mail-in voting.

Most recently, the president suggested voters in North Carolina vote twice, once by mail and once at the polls, to test the integrity of the system (thereby committing a federal crime). And Attorney General Bill Barr further stoked voter fears by saying America was “playing with fire” by using mail-in voting, but he was unable to identify any evidence supporting this narrative of widespread fraud and further professed to have no knowledge as to whether the law prohibited voting twice.

Make no mistake: The Trump administration is the one playing with fire here.

These attacks on voting rights and our democracy, by our president, imperil the legitimacy of our entire government and put public safety at risk. That’s why, this past week, 79 elected prosecutors and law enforcement leaders from across the nation, including nearly a dozen attorneys general, issued a joint statement condemning these attacks. They have come together to say “the right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and our identity as Americans, regardless of political affiliation. It is a constitutional right and, ultimately, a public trust and safety issue.”

Let’s set the record straight.

From our many years of experience working in law enforcement, we know there’s simply no need for law enforcement at the polls. We have also served as public officials and know that voting by mail is a proven, reliable method of taking part in our democracy. Policing the polls is nothing but blatant voter intimidation. And it threatens to take us back to a dark time in our country, when voter intimidation was the norm for Black people and came in the form of threats of violence, lynchings and, when all else failed, an overthrow of Black elected officials by force.

Today, millions of protesters in the streets underscore that we must do everything possible to distance ourselves from that era of American history. Civil unrest across our country comes at a time when trust in our systems and institutions is at a historic low. Only 13% of people have confidence in Congress. And with the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, confidence in police fell to 48% this year, the lowest confidence level in law enforcement ever recorded by Gallup in the nearly 30 years it has been tracking public sentiment on this question. When trust in law enforcement falls, public safety suffers. Our work depends on members of the community reaching out when they need help, reporting crime, cooperating in investigations and collaborating to promote justice.

All of us will suffer if we cannot turn the tide and restore faith in the integrity of our government systems.

The safety and well-being of our communities relies on a social contract dependent on confidence in the rule of law and a system of checks and balances that holds people accountable and promotes just results. But when one of our systems is attacked and fails — especially one as integral to our democracy as free and fair elections — public trust is compromised, along with the ability for all our government systems to function, including our criminal legal system.

Right now, law enforcement leaders are facing the unprecedented challenge of keeping our communities safe and healthy in the midst of COVID-19, while also confronting systemic racism that has been a blight on American history and filled our criminal legal system with too many Black and brown bodies. As voters look at the tragic cost communities of color have paid because of COVID-19, and then turn their gaze toward equally concerning and racially disparate incarceration rates, it is critical they feel like they have the power to bring about change.

As leaders committed to justice and fairness, we are unwilling to resurrect our nation’s most shameful behaviors and we are intent on doing everything in our power to prevent it. The ability to vote safely and protect access to the ballot box for all, without intimidation, is inextricably tied to keeping our communities safe.

An election in which countless citizens are prevented from exercising their constitutional right to vote will irreparably damage trust in government. For the sake of our common good, we call on all leaders around the nation to join us in condemning these disheartening and destructive efforts. And we urge all citizens to not be intimidated — our democracy is on the line. Make a plan for voting, figure out how you’re going to vote now, and follow through.

Protecting an election process that ensures the voice of all voters will be heard is not a partisan issue — it is fundamental to our American ideals and essential to a democratic process we can and should all, jointly, stand behind.

Diana Becton is the elected district attorney of Contra Costa County. Garry L. McFadden is the sheriff of Mecklenburg County, N.C. Miriam Aroni Krinsky is the executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution and a former federal prosecutor.

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35 comments

  1. Democratic operative says he’s been committing voter fraud for decades

    The operative explained that the ballots themselves were easy to reproduce and feature no security features. He would put them into a copy machine and make his own. However, the return envelopes are “more secure than the ballot,” so he procured them from legitimate voters by canvassing neighborhoods with other staff members and convincing voters to give them their completed ballots.
    He’d then take the legitimate ballots home, steam the envelopes open, and remove the real ballot. Then he would put the fraudulent ballot inside the signed certificate and reseal the envelope before putting the ballots into several mailboxes, as to draw less attention.
    Nursing homes, he explained, are also fertile ground for fraud.
    “There are nursing homes where the nurse is actually a paid operative. And they go room by room by room to these old people who still want to feel like they’re relevant,” said the whistleblower. “[They] literally fill it out for them.”
    He said some postal workers participate in voter suppression by throwing away ballots in heavily Republican areas. Others would use the mail as a procurement tool for envelopes.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/democratic-operative-says-hes-been-committing-voter-fraud-for-decades-warns-theres-a-war-coming-november-3rd-over-this-stuff

    1. We’ve covered this ground, before… either the “informant” was a liar, or, is a ‘confessed criminal’ hiding behind a reporter… or, the ‘reporter’ is lying… ‘making the story up’… it has been known to happen…

      The account “sniffs”, not surprising given the media that published it.

      Really… a Democratic operative spilling guts to a very conservative new source? Really? To what end?

    2. And, yet, the amount of voter fraud, particularly fraud associated with with mail-in ballots, is infinitesimal.

      While overall voter fraud is rare in America, less rare are crimes associated with absentee voter systems. In the 2012 research project, for instance, the journalists documented 491 cases of fraud involving absentee ballots — out of the billions of ballots that Americans had cast over 12 years — representing about one-fourth of all voter crimes the investigators found.
      https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mail-in-ballot-voter-fraud/

       

      1. And, a bunch of the accidental/intentional fraud was detected before the fraudulent votes were tallied…

        And yes, there is accidental fraud… where someone forgets they voted absentee, and mailed, then come election day they can’t find any evidence they voted, so show up at the polls and ask/demand a “provisional ballot”… the latter is almost always ‘weeded out’ before the tally…

        For some, an “inconvenient truth”…

    3. The Democrat informant, who by the way is a Sanders backer, laid out how they performed the fraud very convincingly.  What he says is exactly many of the things that we have been warned about.

      1. who by the way is a Sanders backer,

        Jeeeeeeeez, might explain why ” . . .  a Democrat ‘operative’ spill their guts to a very conservative news source?”  Ya THINK?!????!!!!   WM & DG think it’s just guys in white hats and guys in black hats (I’m sorry, was that racist?), like an old western . . .  oddly, a binary choice in a non-binary world.  Newsflash . . . people betray their parties for all sorts of reasons.

        1. BTW… Paladin always wore black hat and clothes… and he was a ‘good guy’! (think, have opinion, will post)

          Lincoln wore a black hat… always considered him a good guy…

          So, no, no sniff of racism, but a hint of a sniff of ‘binary thinking’, and “profiling”… (see big grin and wink)…

        3. Read the article… he has no way of knowing which votes were actually tallied… one thing to try to commit fraud, quite another to succeed… he is still a criminal hiding behind a reporter from a paper that is at least as conservative as Fox… or, a liar…

          And then there is the issue of the reporter… there was a female reporter, years ago, who got everyone up in arms about a girl’s plight, who didn’t exist… east coast as I recall… can’t remember her name… she was found out, recanted, and was fired.

          As you say, we are each entitled to our opinion… and early reports on the Watergate ‘break-in’ were reported as a minor burglary…  we’ll see… if there is fraud in November, I’d be almost the first to denounce it… the ‘fraud’ I’m MOST concerned about is to declare fraud, with little/no evidence, and negating the election… by fiat…

          Funny (not ha-ha)… FL VBMs are good… NV, no. According to POTUS…

        4. I think someone who has actually committed fraud and then spelling out how it was done is a very powerful statement.  As for reporting it to a conservative news source, do you think the left wing WashingtonPost or the NY Times would actually report this story?  Fat chance, it doesn’t fit their narrative.

          1. The problem is that there is no check there – unnamed source, no independent corroboration, biased publication.

        5. People need to wake up about the biased mainstream media.  On Yahoo early this morning five of their top six stories were anti Trump and the other story was pro Biden.

          The media isn’t even trying to hide their blatant bias anymore.

        6. … five of their top six stories were anti Trump and the other story was pro Biden.

          You can’t blame the media for the fact that the daily outrageous statements and lies, and the chaos and scandals of the Trump administration are more newsworthy than the Biden campaign. It’s the proverbial man bites dog vs. dog bites man thing.

        8. I was listening to a podcast last night that was discussing Democrats who were voting for Trump in several categories.  Admittedly this may not be a huge number, but it isn’t zero either and could make a difference in this tight election.  One of the categories was, “Mainstream liberals as a f*ck you vote to obnoxious, woke progressives”.

  3. Moderator, I emailed David about the deletion this morning and never received a reply.

    [Moderator: Concern about the removal of a comment should be addressed in an email to the Content Moderator. You have my email address.]

  5. One of the categories was, “Mainstream liberals as a f*ck you vote to obnoxious, woke progressives”.

    I can definitely see that… as I can see a lot of moderates voting ‘all over the place’ (including for third parties) saying, “a  f*ck you vote to obnoxious, woke progressives and posturing, and/or uber-‘conservatives’”.  POTUS is a ‘posturing conservative’… even some of the prominent conservative Republicans have figured that out, and are (weakly, sporatically) starting to speak out… to save their seats in ‘contests’…

    Will definitely be interesting… think the S&G lyrics to ‘Mrs. Robinson’… “laugh about, shout about, it any way you choose, either way you look at it, you lose…” [coo coo cahew]

  6. So this has been an interesting exercise in deflection and disinformation. In response to a commentary about voter suppression, one reader has cited an unsubstantiated report about voter fraud. The article doesn’t even meet the very basics of journalistic standards. Nevertheless, this article has been instantly magnified out through Fox News, shared on Twitter by right-wing sources, and by top officials in the Trump campaign and their allies.

    Some here may choose to believe it is true, but none of those folks who disseminated it at the national level care if it’s true. It just serves their purposes: suppress turnout, and cast doubt on the outcome of an election where mail-in ballots will probably be decisive. Why? Because Democrats are far more likely to vote by mail this year than are Republicans. Add to that the closures of polling places, the attempted purges of voter rolls, and the service cuts at the US Postal Service, and you see what appears to be a coordinated strategy to call into question the validity of the upcoming election.

    Media Matters gives the whole story of how this article spread here:

    https://www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-and-suppression/fox-pushing-ny-post-story-alleging-widespread-mail-ballot-fraud

     

    1. The article doesn’t even meet the very basics of journalistic standards.

      Such a softball.  I’m not even going to swing.  You all know what I’m thinking.  Whooooosh! Right into the catcher’s mit.

      Some here may choose to believe it is true, but none of those folks who disseminated it at the national level care if it’s true.

      Such tactics are limited to one side of the binary.                                                   My arse.

        1. It’s not that’s its one-sided.  It’s that the story is based on a single, anonymous source and there is no way to independently verify the claims.  We don’t know if the source is credible and we don’t know if Fox, I mean the NY Post (same owners), just made it up.  If you’re a Democratic operative and you have a credible story, you go to the NY Times, not the Murdoch tabloid.

        2.  It’s that the story is based on a single, anonymous source and there is no way to independently verify the claims.  We don’t know if the source is credible and we don’t know if Fox, I mean the NY Post (same owners), just made it up. 

          I have to laugh how you cite Fox and the NY Post as being tabloids but then Don Shor cites Media Matters.

          Media Matters for America(MMfA)[2]is a politicallyleft-leaning[3]501(c)(3), nonprofit organization which acts asmedia watchdogfor scrutinizing right-leaning media outlets. MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activistDavid Brockas a counterweight to the conservativeMedia Research Center.[4]It is known for its aggressive criticism of conservative journalists and media outlets, including its “War onFox News.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Matters_for_America

          BTW, the source for the article above was the Washington Examiner, not the NY Post.

          1. The NY Post is the publication that published the story, your link is to a report on that piece, not the original.

        3. If you’re a Democratic operative and you have a credible story, you go to the NY Times, not the Murdoch tabloid.

          And would the left leaning NY Times even print a story that puts Democrats in a bad light?  Maybe he knew better than to go the NY Times.

          1. Yes. But you can’t run it as a single source anonymous article. You keep dodging this point. Also the source of the article was the NY Post, they published the story. The Exminer simply reported on the Post article.

        4. I guess you haven’t been following the Atlantic story these days that’s all over the news?

          Have you never run a story based on a single anonymous source?

          1. The initial Atlantic Story suffered the same thing – however, there has been some corroboration since. Besides it’s not like anyone believes that Trump wouldn’t do that – and he’s basically done it since by attacking military leaders.

            But let’s examine the NY Post story for a second.

            Why would he need to protect his name?

            (1) If he’s telling the truth, he basically torpedoed his operation and the people who know what’s happening there know who it is. So it’s not like he can tell and then resume his life as normal if it’s true.
            (2) Criminal liability? Why? He could have simply gone to the feds, gotten immunity, and turned states evidence.

            This story is under-sourced and doesn’t pass the smell test. If you are going to blow things up, go to the authorities and you can’t blow things up and continue with your life as it was. So I don’t buy the source.

            So neither explanation makes a good deal of sense.

  7. An untruth, repeated enough (and almost verbatim), becomes ‘truth’ to those who “want to believe”…

    For those who get off on ‘conspiracy theories’, what better way for Russia to interfere, than by promulgating that ‘the election is suspect/invalid due to VBM’s’… that supposition would be ironic….  the conservative media being ‘useful idiots’ by a Russian plot…

    Will likely have more info next Thursday… not on ‘plots’, but on the mechanisms in place to prevent fraud…

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