The simple fact of the matter is in US elections, there is no voter fraud. Or if there is, it's so rare it doesn't matter. This is a documentable fact. Sure there are accounts of people who fix elections but those are documented, ie we know about them. And they're not widespread. They're localized to one election, not multiple ones. We know about them because they tempted the voting system and it held up. Multiple reports by multiple administrations say the same thing. Voter fraud, especially in person just doesn't exist. There is no tampering with the election to favor one party or a position, etc, or in other words no voter fraud. Yet with what's happening in Georgia there's a voting law in place supposed to confront this 'serious problem' that will require time and energy to fix. Ignoring for a second the obvious political advantages this gives the GOP, what do people mean by 'voter fraud'? It must refer to something, but that something that doesn't matter. More importantly than that, it must be a serious issue if they're going to potentially disenfranchise people. So what's going on? It can't be they're worried about election fraud, because it just doesn't happen. What does 'voter fraud' actually refer to?
Yeah but what does the law mean to someone who isn't a lawyer. It doesn't matter too much. What matters more is how lay people understand it.
I have been pondering this question since Trump's first accusations because I didn't understand the BASIS of his allegations. Surely, there HAD to be something that caused him to believe voter fraud happened. At that time, I couldn't imagine that he simply pulled a conspiracy from thin air. I honestly believe that he monitored various message boards and just repeated what he heard from some of his supporters as he has yet to present anything close to the accusations that have been made. With that said, the party now has a very serious problem. They can't say aloud that Trump lost fairly because that (1) means they backed a pathological liar in his attempts to strongarm election officials into giving him the election, and (2) they will lose the financial support from people willing to donate to help them fight "the steal", and (3) they would have to accept that Democrats won. None of those are acceptable so the only thing left to do is voter suppression. If they can't beat Democrats at the polls, they need to stop (or slow) them from being able to vote. Even some posters here have said that people should not be afforded a vote if they "aren't educated enough on the issues" (translation: vote the way I think they should vote) when, in reality, there is no educational requirement to exercising one's right to vote. In short...I believe that abuse of democracy is what should constitute "election fraud".
Honestly it wasn't Trump for me but the posters I've had to talk to when I kept saying that 1/10 Americans don't have photo id. They couldn't wrap their minds around the idea their position was so out of touch with reality. It's honestly bewildering.
I've all but given up on that particular topic. All they think is that those people are "just lazy" and it's so easy to get the documentation and paperwork (and sometimes legal processes) to get a valid photo ID. I did suggest they seek out those that don't have them and help them through the process to obtain an ID. That fell like a lead balloon.
I feel like it's more than just that though. Like because they're "so lazy" they aren't really Americans like they are, those that do have ID. Or vice versa maybe.
I suspect you are correct. I was shocked the other day when a poster said that we aren't equal. I asked for clarification on that but the poster didn't respond. My next question would have been "If you openly admit that we aren't equal, isn't it disingenuous to blame/shame and negate the experiences of people that point out that inequality?" My best guess would be that would have been immediately dismissed as unimportant (which is EXACTLY why it should be important). Fortunately, as I've matured, I've become better about distancing myself from those that live and breathe toxicity.
Voter fraud is the practice of submitting illegal ballots. The illegality is defined in state election laws. One can abuse democracy outside of elections. Voter fraud is only one way to abuse.
