Left’s Latest Election Myth //
Liberal activists, with the support of corporate media allies, have been propagating the myth that there is a wave or “voter suppression” across the country for years. This false claim was made by opponents to commonsense reforms like voter identification, as evidenced by the record turnout and record registration numbers in recent elections.
The latest myth they are spreading is that there is a rising tide of violent threats against election workers in the country . This is “pervasive and unrelenting.”
In his recent speech at Union Station in Washington, D.C., President Joe Biden reiterated this theme. Federal agencies like the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI also circulated a memo alleging that there is a “heightened risk” of violence against “election workers.”
No one condones violence or threats against election officials, voters, or poll watchers. I can speak for myself as a former county elections official in two states. Numerous federal and state criminal laws prohibit such behavior.
Is this a true claim or a false one similar to the 2016 fraudulent claims that the Russian government conspired with Trump to fix the elections?
Let’s take a look at the numbers.
How many American election officials are there? The U.S. Election Assistance Commission released a comprehensive report about the 2020 presidential election. It listed a total of 132.556 polling stations in the country and 775.101 election officials.
Biden Justice Department created an Election Threats Task Force 2021 to address this “rising threat” because it included the Criminal Division and the Civil Rights Division. The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service.
The Justice Department published a press statement on August 1, 2022. Its head, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Kenneth Polite Jr. was present at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled “Protecting Our Democracy’s Frontline Workers”.
Polite reports that the task force received more than 1,000 complaints of “hostile” or “harassing behavior. Only 11% of those received complaints of “hostile” or “harassing” behavior. This means that only 1 out 10 complaints were sufficiently substantial to warrant a federal investigation.
How many of these complaints did the task force find sufficiently serious to warrant prosecution after investigating them? Five. Polite claimed that “many” of those they investigated were hostile, but he acknowledged that they did not include threats of unlawful violence.
Polite’s testimony describes the extensive efforts of the Justice Department to ensure that the entire election community was aware of this task force so they could notify anyone who was threatened or assaulted.
This effort included virtual meetings with election officials, their organizations, such as the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors. The National Association of Election Officials, National Association of Counties and many other “non-profit organisations acting as liaisons to election community.”
However, the number of federal prosecutions for threats and actual violence against election officials over a period of more than a decade was only five. This is statistically insignificant when compared with the three-quarters million election workers across the nation.
Even one such threat or attack against citizens who serve our democracy by taking on the sometimes difficult and frustrating task of overseeing our elections is a threat to their rights. Is it a rising tide? Or a persistent and unrelenting problem? The numbers don’t support this.
You have to wonder: Are election officials becoming upset that the public is finally paying more attention to how they do their jobs? They are asking questions.
These people questioning their election officials are not more “domestic terrorists” than the parents who were questioning their school boards, regardless of how Attorney General Merrick Garland or the Left try to label them.
We hope that violence does not occur during this crucial midterm election. If violence does occur, federal and state law enforcement will act as they should. A few isolated cases are not enough to make us disproportionately concerned. This kind of myth should not be encouraged by anyone.
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The post The Latest Voting Myth – Left was originally published on The Daily Signal.
