Voter fraud is not about actual illegal voting but about fabricated claims by Republicans that Democrats steal elections. Taking their cue from Trump, Republicans have worked tirelessly to cast doubt about elections to create chaos and undermine our confidence that voting is fair and honest, a belief that is the bedrock of the American political system. The fraud is on us.<\/p>\n
Recently, a friend* alerted me that the Georgia Secretary of State\u2019s office has come out with a new system for voter registration. Ostensibly streamlined to make procedures easier, the provision for cancelling one\u2019s registration is scary at least and doesn\u2019t pass the \u201csmell test\u201d for honest government.<\/p>\n
All you need to cancel someone else\u2019s registration is their<\/p>\n
1. Full Name
\n2. Full date of birth
\n3. The county they live in (NOT the full address)
\n4. Either their driver\u2019s license number or the last four digits
\nof their social security number.<\/p>\n
If your registration is being cancelled, you will be notified by mail and you have thirty days to respond or your registration will be automatically cancelled. Considering the glitches with \u201csnail mail\u201d these days, it is possible that one could easily miss cancellation mailings.<\/p>\n
It goes without saying that the new procedure raises one\u2019s eyebrows about voter security and the motivation to make changes by the Republican secretary of state\u2019s office. This is especially true when viewed against the backdrop of numerous controversies regarding Republican efforts to suppress voting and voter turnout in Georgia. Democratic state legislators quickly demanded that the web portal be taken down arguing that it \u201cempowers conspiracy theorists and other bad actors to deny Georgians the right to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alarmingly, shortly after the web portal went online, it quickly developed problems that confirmed its vulnerability to meddling by troublemakers. It inadvertently exposed personal voter data including driver\u2019s license information and partial social security numbers, just the kind of information that hackers use for identity or credit card fraud. Apparently, the exposed information was displayed long enough for use by any malicious actors who might be trolling the web. Saying the problems are fixed doesn\u2019t eliminate the potential in the present political climate.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, The Brunswick News<\/em>, the local newspaper, published an article extolling the virtues of the new system, noting that it will \u201cbe especially useful to registered voters who are moving\u201d and \u201cwould also help keep the state\u2019s voter registration database up to date without relying on sending out postcards.\u201d Further, \u201cThe good news is that it is just as easy to register to vote as it is now to unregister to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n The Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, you might remember, gained national attention during the 2020 presidential election when he refused to cave in to Trump\u2019s repeated efforts to change the vote count in Georgia. Still we might be forgiven for raising doubts about the new web portal given the transparent attempts to suppress votes in the state, especially those of Black voters who make up a vitally important part of the Democratic coalition.<\/p>\n The only voter fraud going on has been the fraudulent efforts by Republicans to discredit voting for their own benefit. The 2020 presidential election, for example, proved to be one of the most secure ever, despite over 60 lawsuits brought by Republicans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Voter fraud is not about actual illegal voting but about fabricated claims by Republicans that Democrats steal elections. Taking their cue from Trump, Republicans have worked tirelessly to cast doubt about elections to create chaos and undermine our confidence that voting is fair and honest, a belief that is the bedrock of the American political…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n