The next time someone claims there is voter suppression and fraud in our elections, surprise them by agreeing.
We’re now well over a month past Election Day 2020 and the only certainty we have is that Donald Trump told the truth when he refused to confirm he’d concede if he lost.
Unfortunately, this one time he told the truth is devastating to American democracy. Let’s look at the facts before us. Joe Biden is up by nearly 7 million popular votes and up 306 to 232 in the electoral vote. The President insists that his loss was due to mass voter fraud and suppression. The election was “rigged” as he’s repeatedly declared. Courts don’t agree. Donald Trump is now 1-39 in court, with the one victory a minor victory that ordered Pennsylvania to count votes in a manner they were already counting. Every one of the five states Joe Biden flipped from 2016 has now certified their votes in Biden’s favor.
But since the President brought it up, can we talk about the mass voter fraud and suppression in our elections? Yes. There was in fact mass voter suppression and fraud this election and it was designed to flip the election results—except it was perpetrated by Trump and the GOP.
Want proof? Here’s just a snapshot.
In Florida, the Republican legislature denied a vote to 900K returning citizens, even after Floridians voted to allow them to vote. Throughout the past decades the GOP has gutted the voting rights act, and the results have been devastating. In Texas, the GOP closed 750+ polling locations, and at one point only had one polling location for all of Harris County. In Milwaukee, there was in fact only one poll open. Just last December, the GOP voted against the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019. The GOP furthermore voted against three election security bills. While these bills passed the House, they’re sitting in the graveyard known as Mitch McConnell’s desk.
Trump appointed his lackey, Louis DeJoy, to oversee the USPS. DeJoy proceeded to slow down mail delivery. Notwithstanding how devastating this was to our veterans and seniors in need of medication, it hurt countless small businesses, and hurt our mail delivery—particularly in swing states. Then, the GOP blocked the Delivery for America Act to properly fund the USPS.
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Not content on legislative restrictions, Trump praised armed militias meant to intimidate the vote, even as they threatened to murder governors and burn down state houses. And now, Trump and his enablers have filed nearly 40 lawsuits to perpetuate the myth of fraud with the stated goal that they want to create confusion, even after admitting in court they have no proof of mass fraud.
And that’s all just this election. We haven’t even discussed widespread gerrymandering, purging voter rolls, and Facebook disinformation campaigns.
The only reason anyone should hesitate to say this was a free and fair election is because of the systemic disenfranchisement of Black and brown voters, of low income voters, and the mass disinformation perpetuated by Trump and the GOP to all voters.
And despite all of these efforts, leaders like Stacey Abrams and Black, Hispanic, and Native American voters overcame and pushed Biden/Harris to victory. A truly free and fair election would have been an unprecedented landslide for Democrats.
So next time someone claims there is voter suppression and fraud in our elections, surprise them by agreeing, and then be sure to lay out the proven examples of those cases of suppression.
Any Republican member of Congress still refusing to accept the will of the American people, refusing to accept the verdict of Courts across the country (many of whom were led by Trump appointed judges no less), and refusing to accept the verdict of basic math, are complicit in undermining our democracy.
If we truly want to make America great, let’s work to stop these oppressive and harmful tactics. Any politician who tries to win an election by decreasing the number of American citizens voting, is not a person who deserves the privilege of public office.
Qasim Rashid is an attorney, author, and former candidate for US Congress. He resides in Stafford, VA. Follow him on Twitter @QasimRashid.
