LIBERADIO(!)

On Tuesday, May 12, Rep. Gerald McCormick (R-Chattanooga), will ruin our nice (but a little wet) spring and make a motion in the House State and Local Government Committee, to recall two Voter suppression ID bills – HB 0639 by Rep. Debra Maggart (R-Hendersonville) and HB 1838 by Rep. Curry Todd (R-Collierville).

So why the renewed push to pass legislation that is a solution in search of problem? Especially since both bills were assigned to, and failed to get out of, the now-closed Elections Subcommittee?

Apparently, it’s because these three Tennessee legislators believe in voter suppression, also known as the Paul Weyrich model of democracy:

WEYRICH: “Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome – good government. They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

“Voter fraud,” which is what McCormick, Maggart, and Todd say these bills will prevent, is when a voter attempts to vote more than once or by impersonating someone else.

There are no documented instances of “voter fraud” in Tennessee – and barely any in the rest of the country, as reported by the American Prospect:

“Since 2002, the Justice Department’s Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative has, as [disgraced U.S. Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales put it, ‘made enforcement of election fraud and corruption offenses a top priority.’ And yet between October 2002 and September 2005, just 38 cases were brought nationally, and of those, 14 ended in dismissals or acquittals, 11 in guilty pleas, and 13 in convictions.”

The Ophelia Ford case, which Republican legislators are so quick to cite as “voter fraud,” was in fact “election fraud,” a systematic effort by those with power to steal an election through vote manipulation and/or voter suppression. And even though Mark Goins doesn’t know the specifics of the Ford case, we do – three election workers were caught manipulating the vote. Voters had nothing to do with it.

“Voter suppression,” however, does exist and it will be the (intended) consequence if either the photo ID to vote or the citizenship to register bills become law.

I hope the Democrats on the State and Local Government Committee continue to push for examples from Rep. Maggart and Rep. Todd of instances of “voter fraud,” because waving papers around in a committee meeting and saying you have proof is not actually, you know, proof.