Election Interference & Illegal Immigrants Voting – Top 3 Takeaways – September 5th, 2024
- Accurate reporting by the MSM is rare, yet it does occasionally happen. That is what came to mind as I read the AP story entitled: Illegal voting by noncitizens is rare, yet Republicans are making it a major issue this election. I’ll come back to that in a minute. Yesterday the Justice Department addressed election integrity concerns, specifically threats against election workers and this cycle’s alleged Russian and Iranian election interference campaigns. AG Merrick Garland outlined several actions taken against individuals who’ve threatened those who conduct elections across the country. He also detailed a specific Russian interference operation that the DOJ had broken up along with 34 related websites the government had taken down (no word on which candidate(s) or party were being targeted). He spoke of Iranian efforts to attempt to undermine Donald Trump’s campaign, and as we came to know following the assassination attempt on Trump - to threaten his life – but no specific actions taken against Iran...Say what? Something must be done to combat Russian interference but nothing from Iranian influence against Trump? Nothing to see there, right? Also, show of hands...
- How many people think the Biden-Harris administration has credibility pertaining to alleged Russian election interference? After all it was just about four years ago at this time that we were hearing from 51 intelligence officials that colluded with the Biden campaign to denounce Hunter Biden’s laptop as being Russian disinformation. It was of course eight years ago at this time that the Trump-Russian collusion investigation and narrative was underway. But hey, I’m sure they’re being honest and decent brokers of truth and justice this time, right? But here’s the thing. Whatever the truth is pertaining to the DOJ’s announcement yesterday... Foreign interference in our elections is real. Now, I’m curious. What’s your definition of rare? In the context in which it’s used in the aforementioned AP story the definition is this: not occurring very often. Now, if something has happened in every state that has investigated this issue would you suggest it’s something that’s “not occurring very often”? If something has been evidenced to have happened in every election cycle for which it’s been investigated, would you suggest that “it’s not occurring very often”? And if thousands of instances of an issue were discovered within just a few states that have looked into the matter, would you call that something that’s “not occurring very often”? Yet the Associated Press does. In the AP’s story they state this as their supporting evidence for the alleged rarity of illegal immigrants voting: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said this past week that more than 6,500 potential noncitizens have been removed from Texas voter rolls since 2021, including 1,930 with “a voter history” who have been referred for investigation by the attorney general’s office. Texas has almost 18 million registered voters. Are we to take that to mean that it’s totally cool that 1,930 illegal immigrants have voted recently and over 6,500 could have in this year’s presidential election in Texas because, you know, there are 18 million possible registered voters? See, that’s what apparently makes it rare. The AP also cited this out of Ohio: Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, said in August that he referred for potential prosecution 138 apparent noncitizens found to have voted in a recent election and 459 more who registered but did not vote. Those figures were higher than reviews from previous years but a small fraction of the more than 8 million registered voters in Ohio. Well, again – it’s apparently totally cool if hundreds of illegal immigrants are able to vote in Ohio as long as it’s only a small fraction of the registered voter population. The third example used was Alabama where the AP offered up this: Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, a Republican, recently announced that 3,251 people previously identified as noncitizens by the federal government are being switched to inactive status on the state’s voter registration rolls. They will be required to provide proof of citizenship and fill out a form to vote in November. Alabama has more than 3 million registered voters. Again, where’s the issue with thirty-two hundred potential illegal immigrant voters in Alabama among friends? Now, here’s what’s especially telling. These are three examples cited by the AP in three diligent red states...and even then, over 10,200 illegal immigrants were found on voter rolls with thousands who’d already voted. So...if that’s what’s happening in three diligent red states that carefully reconcile their voter rolls...
- What’s happening say, in traditional blue states and key swing states with Democrat governors? Do you think it might be fair to say there’s at least as much of that as what’s been found in the meticulous red states? And as for what the AP determined was a number of illegal voters that they’re comfortable characterizing as rare. Clearly 537 votes out of nearly 6 million cast would be considered “rare” by the AP and yet that’s the margin of victory for George W. Bush in Florida in 2000. In Arizona in 2020 Biden carried the state by fewer than 10,500 votes. In the same election he carried Georgia by 11,779 votes. But again, many millions voted in those states so what’s the big deal about potentially having thousands of illegal immigrants voting among friends. Yes, as the AP reported it is illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. It’s also illegal for illegal immigrants to be here in the first place! So, the real question is what’s happening in states where there isn’t transparency? And in the case of the Justice Department that’s once again drawing attention to a new Russian conspiracy – what's the other hand doing?