In Chinese tradition, 2019 is the year of the pig. On the Hebrew calendar, it is year 5779.
In America, it is the year citizens may finally get some protection against organized vote fraud.
In the year preceding a presidential vote, primary candidates and challengers advance swiftly past a toe in the water to full campaign immersion. Many Democrat notables are publicly eyeing a White House run in 2020 with a few swamp-qualified, establishment Republicans posturing behind the scenes.
While potential candidates muddle over presidential hopes, voters busy with daily lives are not thinking about whether their vote might get cancelled out by a fraudulent one. But that possibility has become a serious problem, one that threatens the very foundation of our democracy.
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (commonly known as “Motor Voter”) gave voting rights activists what they had sought for years – easy voter registration. Anyone getting a driver’s license or applying for a federal welfare benefit was eligible to be signed up to vote. However, the one and only provision in the law designed to protect citizens against vote fraud – Section 8 – which required that states and counties maintain accurate voter rolls, was ignored.
So today, voter rolls across the country are loaded with the names of millions of people who have died, moved away, are not U.S. citizens or have never even existed. That matters because a ballot can be cast in each, and every one of those names and those fraudulent votes dilute the value of every legitimate vote. Millions of dollars flowing from George Soros to register noncitizens and the refusal of activist election officials to remove ineligible names from the rolls has fostered organized vote fraud that is virtually undetectable.
As politicians and political analysts like to say, “elections have consequences.” Indeed, they do, and the corruption of elections have consequences as well, all of them dire.
A law can be on the books, but if it’s not enforced it might as well not exist. That has been the problem with Section 8 and why a federal lawsuit against Broward County, Florida now before the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has the potential to change the whole ballgame – in favor of legitimate voters.
The American Civil Rights Union v. Dr. Brenda Snipes will finally give NVRA Section 8 the teeth it needs to protect authentic votes by defining the processes and procedures election officials must take to keep their voter rolls clean and accurate – literally cutting off the lifeblood of vote fraudsters.
ACRU v. Snipes is scheduled for oral argument on March 12th and it’s the case that can make a difference in how honest our elections will be in 2020. Florida, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia are the key battleground states, and if even one outcome is stolen through fraud, the national election could be thwarted.
Florida’s Broward County had the most well-reported election integrity problems in 2018, but it is not alone. Voting rights activists who reject voter photo ID laws, citizenship requirements to register to vote, clean voter rolls, and other common sense election safeguards have diluted the votes of the conservative electorate, particularly in places like Orange County, California.
According to recent Census data, there are over 3 million more registered voters than there are living adults in the United States. The old joke “dead men voting!” is no joke at all. Yet anyone calling for accurate voter rolls is accused of “voter suppression” by the progressive left, an outrageous, specious and self-serving accusation.
Self-governance is our most precious civil right and cannot survive without honest elections. Vote fraud and stolen contests destroy the very underpinnings of our system. As ACRU v. Snipes proceeds, the facts about vote fraud and corruption in Florida will be made public.
In Chinese tradition, the Year of the Pig brings good fortune. In Hebrew lore, the number nine can represent purity. Let's hope this is true for our 2019.
Politicians, election officials, the media and voters should keep a close eye on ACRU v. Snipes. This groundbreaking case is changing the dynamic of our election process in favor of the American voter.
Mr. Blackwell is a Senior Fellow at the American Civil Rights Union and the Family Research Council in Washington D.C.