Jefferson City News Tribune’s Bob Watson’s article, “One way or another, the Voter ID battle will be settled next month” [1] is more interesting than its title lets on. Although Watson does not make his own conclusions within his story – he instead leaves that to his readers – he does lay out a pretty decent timeline of events and facts that would lead any reasonable reader to determine that the idea election fraud by voters in Missouri is just that: a fraud.

As we have all learned here in Missouri, politics and the media run the course of “if you repeat it enough, it must be true.” Unfortunately, few reporters are diligent, or intellectually curious, enough to ask the right questions when dealing with repeated sound bites from right-wing political spinsters and their press releases spouting phony facts. The messages get freely broadcast, and the cycle of distortion continues.

Watson and the Kansas City Star [2] are among the very few media outlets thus far who have gone into the underlying purported motivations for the Republican leadership’s determination to impose regressive election laws: to combat “election fraud.” What they have reported is that the election fraud that the Republicans claim is prevalent and cause for punishing all voters simply does not exist.

Some excerpts from Watson’s article on photo ID:

“...The new law's supporters - primarily Republicans - argued during last spring's legislative session that the law is needed to prevent fraud…”

…[Judge] Callahan's “Findings of Fact” included: “Governor Matt Blunt, when he was Missouri's Secretary of State, stated…that Missouri's statewide elections in 2002 and 2004 … ‘were two of the cleanest and problem-free elections in recent history.'…“Governor Blunt, also while he was Secretary of State, in a 2004 letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, similarly characterized these elections as ‘fraud-free.'”…

…When asked to cite specific examples of the fraud they're concerned about, Paul Sloca, the Missouri GOP spokesman, said in an e-mail: “In 2000, at least 1,500 fraudulent ballots were cast in the St. Louis area including 14 dead people and a dog.”…

…When the U.S. Justice Department sued St. Louis and won a consent agreement with the City and its Board of Election Commissioners in August 2002, the issue wasn't fraud at the polls, but the city's failure to maintain active voter registration lists that followed federal law… “Certain eligible but inactive voters were unable to vote in the November 2000 election” the settlement said…

…In January 2001, as she was leaving office, then-Secretary of State Rebecca Cook made similar findings…” (emphasis added)

As Democrats, we are plagued by the misuse of words and definitions by the other side and often strategically try not to repeat the language. But in this particular case, the motivation for the Republicans to push through regressive election laws that threaten constitutional rights of Missouri voters IS absolutely fraud. But it’s not the “fraud” to which they refer.

FRAUD (from dictionary.com)

fraud  /frɔd/

–noun

1. deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.

2. a particular instance of such deceit or trickery.

3. any deception, trickery, or humbug.

4. a person who makes deceitful pretenses; sham; poseur.

In short, the reasons the Republicans are pushing these burdensome new laws are, absolutely, a fraud. But not the kind of fraud they’ve been trying to say exists. Their failed policies have put them in a precarious position – one of extreme unpopularity from the national right on down to the local level.

People are ready for a change. But the only thing that matters to the Republicans is holding on to power. And the only way to hold on to power is to win elections. And if they can’t win fairly and honestly, then winning will require manipulating the system and changing the rules. How can they manipulate the system and change the rules? By deceit, trickery, sharp practice, and breach of confidence perpetrated for profit and to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage. The Republicans’ making up phony facts and statistics as reasoning to change the rules of our elections is textbook fraud.

It doesn’t matter to the Republicans if people’s constitutional rights are risked. Especially if those voters are the ones whose quality of life has already been further negatively impacted because of the Republicans’ social policies (low-income voters who lost their health care, for example). All that matters to the Republicans is that they hold on to power. At any cost.

The war on people’s voting rights is not yet over. The Missouri Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an appeal of the photo ID ruling on October 4^th. The US House of Representatives last week passed a national photo ID bill and it’s uncertain how it will play out on the federal level.

When our citizens are not able to vote, whether because of stringent, unnecessarily rules or intimidating messages that result in them staying home rather than voting, our democracy is at risk. Reporters, advocates, political leaders, citizens – now is not the time to feel fatigued and lie down…now is the time to keep fighting for truth and democracy.