How to deal with the 5 dumbest arguments of the “voter integrity” bills in Texas.
The first time I registered voters was back in college. As often as I can, I work as a Texas elections clerk, and my parents do too.
There’s just nothing better than being a part of the greatest experiment in republicanism and democracy. I love helping The People vote.
This is why it’s infuriating to watch 2021 Texas politicians behave like the 1901 legislature that implemented a poll tax which caused “the number of black voters decreased from 100,000 in the 1890s to 5,000 by 1906.”
These are the most common myths which attempt to support the latest chapter in a thick history book full of shameful attempts to keep Texans from voting.
Myth #1 The “Voter Fraud”
The claim that there was mass voter fraud in Texas is a lie, and we should be blunt with those we love about that. Not in Texas, not in Georgia, not anywhere in the United States is there evidence of mass irregularities and infractions to justify these bills.
(Trump’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)
Most obviously, if Texas leaders even had a whiff of fraud, wouldn’t politicians like my State Senator Brandon Creighton call for a recount? Wouldn’t he challenge the results in Texas in 2020? Wouldn’t his silly sidekick, Paul Bettencourt, demand an investigation? What inspired these legislators to sponsor these bad bills?
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton spent Texas dollars and 22,000 Texas hours to find 16 cases of flawed registration cards amongst 2.4 million registered voters.
Harris County is the focus of Paxton and Abbott’s wrath because they’re — get this — trying to give Texans more freedom on when and how and where to vote.
Harris County allows you to vote anywhere in the county. They offer early voting. They offered 24 hour voting. They offered drive up voting — a common practice at every voting location in Harris County for voters with sleeping newborns in the car or an elderly parent in the front seat or anyone in need of ADA assistance.
A bi-partisan election security task force reviewed recent expansion of choices in Harris County after the 2020 Election and “found no vote harvesting, tampering, and that was a good sign,” explained the Special Assistant County Attorney.
So where’s the evidence of fraud? Where’s the overwhelming threat to The Vote to justify the real threats created?
What is evident is the gross mismanagement of Texas taxpayers’ dollars and the grievous perpetuation of lies and attacks on our very Republic.
Myth #2 “Republicans believe in individual freedom, choice, and small government”
We have to be clear that today’s GOP attacks local government nonstop. The insane law in Georgia now allows the state election board to fire and replace a probate judge or entire county elections board who might, oh — you know, be unwilling to lie about fraud in their county just because the state legislature wants them to? Here in Texas, large counties constantly suffer assault from Governor Abbott from everything from COVID protocols to expanding acces to vote. Preserving the power and integrity of local and small government is not a value for the GOP.
We have to be clear that the Texas GOP does not want you to have the freedom to choose where to vote. Harris County has expanded Texans’ freedom to vote close to work or close to home or anywhere in our county which we choose is best for us. Republicans don’t value choice.
We can be clear that they don’t think you should be automatically registered to exercise your most obvious and sacred American right; you gotta ask permission, dude! No, you can’t register online. No, you can’t register the day of or the week before or a fortnight before Election Day. Expanding the individual freedom to register to vote is just not a GOP value.
Clearly, the Texas GOP doesn’t want you to vote by mail. States like Nevada and Vermont automatically mail you your actual ballot. This Texas bill won’t even allow counties to automatically mail you the application for that same ballot.
This Republican Party thinks you need to ask permission to vote at home if you feel like it. If you want to vote from home so you can look up candidates and review policy proposals with time and care and your cell phone— again, like they do automatically in states like Idaho and Colorado — that’s too bad. Both my brother and my mother-in-law live in states which automatically send your ballot to your house. Without surprise, they both took advantage of this option. My brother was one of 3.5 millions registered voters in Washington state to vote early and my mother-in-law one of 99% of those who voted by mail in Colorado.
Texas is one of seven stupid states which condescendingly call for constituents to provide a good enough “excuse” during a global pandemic to safely vote from home.
They just don’t care about local decisions or your freedom to choose — even though other states have proven it’s safe, secure, and super popular.
Myth #3 Measures like Voter ID aren’t suppression!
We know they are. Republicans have admitted it again and again.
Against Obama in 2012: “Think about this: We cut Obama by 5 percent, which was big. A lot of people lost sight of that. He beat McCain by 10 percent; he only beat Romney by 5 percent. And I think that probably photo ID helped a bit in that.” -Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Robert Gleason
In 2013, North Carolina GOP precinct chairman, Don Yelton: “if it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that wants the government to give them everything, so be it!”
That same year at a Dallas County GOP event, the question was raised: how was the Republican Party— mostly led by the Tea Party — reaching Black voters in Texas?
Against Hilary in 2016: “Well I think Hillary Clinton is about the weakest candidate that the Democrats have ever put up and now we have photo ID. I think photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference as well.” — GOP Wisconsin Congressman Glenn Grothmann
So even though voter ID has been the law of the land for some years now, let’s not pretend that these laws weren’t constructed to “hurt” certain people.
Let’s not be ignorant of our history stretching back to the 1866 Texas Black Codes which restricted Black Texans: “they were not allowed to testify against whites, serve on juries or in state militias, or to vote.”
Despite the 14th and 15th Amendments, Texas instituted poll taxes and qualifying test and hurdles to do exactly what the GOP continues to perpetuate today: “everybody shouldn’t be voting” because “quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.” -Rep. John Kavanagh 2020,chairs the Government and Elections Committee in Arizona.
In response to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and in anticipation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Republican National Committee started “Operation Eagle Eye,” which would put 100,000 poll watchers to “successfully challenge or to discourage from voting 1,250,000 persons.”
Republicans propose this same tactic today. A GOP official recently called for a 10,000 Republican “army” — specifically in Harris County — to come together for an “election integrity brigade.” This guy circles his red laser pointer around and around the center of Houston on his screen, continuously claiming fraud that we know doesn’t exist.
He calls for people from the ‘burbs to “have the courage” to come into town. Republicans are trying to pass legislation right now to allow poll workers to be armed.
This is a tired tactic used by the most ruthless authoritarians. Whether right-wing extremists like the Nazis or left-leaning Chavistas, you just have to repeat a lie long enough to discredit elections. You fill people with anger and fear, you arm them, and you allow the chaos that ensues to justify the most Draconian measures.
Myth #4 …but I have no problem voting!
We’ve all heard something like this one, right?
I’ve never been offered a hot dog or a water while waiting to vote like in Georgia!
In fact, I’ve never had to wait to vote at all! My experiences are representative of my entire state and everyone in America. My neighborhood has plenty of voting locations and times of availability because Republicans supported early voting…because it increased their turn out Once Upon a Time.
So what if I happen to live in a county gerrymandered to conveniently benefit those Republicans? So what if they made damn sure that we have access to go vote for them every election as conveniently as possible?
Sure – the data shows that Georgia’s long lines were predictable due to the conscious failure to increase polling locations in nine counties surrounding Atlanta to keep with the increase of registrations, but — I’ve never experienced that, so does it even really exist?
Voter advocate and woman-who-intimidates-me Stacey Abrams explains the difference between the news that just passed and what Georgia has done for the last 15 years: “What is so notable about this moment, and so disconcerting, is that they are not hiding. There is no attempt to pretend that the intention is not to restrict votes.”
But I’m going to continue to pretend to not understand her and express how easy and not-a-problem voting is for me.
Myth #5: this is about equality.
Texas is as diverse an economy as it gets. While Houston was founded on oil gigs, the Medical Center serves doctors and nurses working late-night shifts. Single mother’s fight the ever-growing traffic to pick up the kids from daycare, feed them, and maybe have time to vote. Young 18-year old students without a vehicle struggle to get IDs during the week while attending school.
The value of allowing small government to work is that it make decisions that reflect the needs of its constituents.
Harris County serves 2.4 million registered voters while Hall County serves 2,004.
Standardizing hours, limiting drop boxes, debuting flexibility of polling location, and obstructing the diversification of ways to vote doesn’t lead to an equal system. My second grader could understand the obvious inequality created when only one drop box was made available in Hall versus Harris County.
Where was the outage from Texas Republicans about the deviation from our laws? Ken Paxton sued other states for an indiscretion Texas was committing too. The difference? Other states were making it easier and safer for their constituents to vote while the Texas Governor created an obstacle for Texas voters.
These laws are scary. The cacophony of conspiracies can threaten our very Constitution. That’s why it’s important to ask questions, call out misinformation, and challenge the Mythology behind these un-American laws.