Democrats rely on these distorted terms because the vast majority of Americans support some basic voter-integrity laws. Take, for instance, Chait’s assertion that Pence wants to “restrict the franchise with strict photo-ID requirements, limits on early and mail voting, and so on.”
“Strict” does a lot of heavy lifting here. As far as I can tell, 80 percent of Americans support photo-ID laws. Now, we can disagree in good faith about the effects of forcing Americans to get a photo identification before helping decide the fate of the nation, but requiring a citizen to prove his identity falls well short of any definition of “authoritarian.” Or, if it is, then nearly every Western European country admired by the Left should be deemed an autocratic state.
It is quite something to read Chait, who spent years spinning conspiracy theories undermining the veracity of a presidential election (and as far as we know, he still believes the 2000 presidential election was stolen as well), contend that Pence does not have any evidence of “significant voting irregularities.” Now, I happen to agree. But if we’re right, why is it imperative to nationalize and reimagine the entire voting system? We already have constitutional protections for voting rights and a judicial system to adjudicate conflicts.
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