Posted on March 19, 2020

The ‘Voter Suppression’ Smear Is Back

Karl Rover, Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2020

Democrats have accused Republican officials of closing voting locations and rationing voting machines, forcing primary voters to wait hours to vote. This is a distortion of the truth, but it fits the narrative that the GOP will do anything to stop racial minorities from voting. {snip}

Former Attorney General Eric Holder, founder of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, and Stacey Abrams, the defeated Georgia gubernatorial candidate, focused in a recent NDRC fundraising email on “brutal Republican voter suppression” in Texas, where “the state has closed hundreds of polling sites in communities of color and people were forced to wait as long as seven hours to vote!” Their message was simple: “When Republicans can’t win, they cheat.” {snip}

Democrats were particularly taken with Hervis Rogers of Houston, an African-American man who waited more than six hours to vote at Texas Southern, a historically black university. {snip}

“We need to restore the Voting Rights Act and stop Republican elected officials from shutting down polling sites,” Hillary Clinton tweeted. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, joined her: “This is unacceptable—and a result of continued GOP attacks on the voting rights of American citizens.”

Such moral outrage. {snip} Such baloney.

{snip}

A 2019 study from the Leadership Conference Education Fund, a civil-rights group, found that Texas counties with rapidly growing Latino and black populations reduced their numbers of voting sites. A Texas Democratic Party spokesman blamed Republican officials for it, adding, “People have died to fight for the sanctity of the vote.” Racist Republicans? Look more closely. Out of 254 Texas counties, the three biggest reductions in polling places since 2014 were in Dallas (74); Travis (67), home to Austin; and Harris (52). All three have Democratic county executives, court clerks and tax assessors making the decisions.

{snip}

Accusations of voter suppression are an essential part of the Democratic playbook. So let’s be clear about what these are: cynical attempts by Democrats to generate votes by inciting racial division. People like Mr. Holder, Ms. Abrams, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Schumer will knowingly undermine confidence in America’s election system and sow racial resentment with baldfaced lies to win. We just witnessed their willingness to use this shameful tactic when, really, local Democratic officials were to blame.

They’ll do it again.