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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week signed a bill requiring voters to present identification to show they are legally entitled to vote. Despite the fact that 80% of Americans support voter identification laws, progressives claim that these laws constitute “voter suppression.”
But to see what true voter suppression is, one only needs to travel west to California, where political leaders regularly act to overturn election results. Let’s count the paths.
First, last November, Californian voters approved Proposition 22, which allowed certain categories of concert workers to retain their status as independent contractors. But in what is just the latest example of progressive hypocrisy, there was a lot of cheering from the left side of the political aisle about a court ruling overturning Proposition 22, the initiative endorsed by the politicians. voters protecting drivers in the odd-job economy. When progressives don’t like the results of an election, they often try to get a judge to overrule the will of the electorate.
Second, voters also rejected legislation, via referendum power, that would have eliminated the cash bond in California. As it turns out, Californians are concerned about the increase in crime and still believe that cash bail is an effective way to ensure that those accused of crimes appear in court. But the California legislature has tried not once but twice to counter voter intent. First, a bill would reverse the way referendum votes are counted so that a “no” vote means “yes”. But since it would require a constitutional amendment, they are trying to weaken the cash bond system so severely that it would be an effective repeal. It is contrary to what the voters want.
Third, progressives are circling the cars to protect Gavin Newsom from a recall and have manipulated the election calendar in a way they believe would give them an advantage. While the rise of the new variant of Covid and endless wildfires have likely neutralized this strategy, you can’t say they haven’t tried. In fact, legislation changing the timing of the recall election was just one of many bills passed by progressives to give them an edge in electoral contests.
Fourth, well-known left-wing rights professors belatedly launched an attack on the recall process arguing that the recalls are unconstitutional. But even the progressive California court system disbelieved this argument and summarily denied the lawsuit that was brought.
Fifth, attempts to suppress voters also occur at the local level. In an editorial published in the Orange County Register, Ben Lee of the California Tax Foundation notes that the South Coast Air Quality Management District wants to prevent voters from having a say in a tax increase on essential businesses by claiming that ‘a significant tax increase is simply a “fee”.
Finally, perhaps the worst form of voter suppression is the threat posed by electoral irregularities. Without going into the extent to which there are voting irregularities in California, any illegal voting dilutes the votes cast by legal voters. Contrary to progressive protests, the integrity of the elections is weak due to the collection of ballots and obsolete voters lists.
It shouldn’t even be controversial to say that election integrity laws should make voting easy and difficult to cheat. Instead, progressives insist on laws that give us universal ballots, unattended ballot boxes, and ballot harvesting, while denouncing laws that implement reasonable measures to ensure that ballots. votes are legally cast and counted accurately.
The problem is easily solved with better laws, and more and more voters are realizing it. No wonder progressives are so angry with Texas.
Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
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