If Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson has ever entertained the thought of resigning from that sham national commission created to search for instances of voter fraud to make President Donald Trump feel better about losing the popular vote by such a significant margin last fall, now would be the time.
Earlier this week, the vice chair of the commission, voter suppression crusader Kris Kobach of Kansas, suggested he may have found a smoking-gun instance of voter fraud by suggesting that a close New Hampshire U.S. Senate seat was decided by votes cast fraudulently by people holding drivers licenses from other states.
Furthermore, he suggested even the state’s presidential race could have been affected.
Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire and its 4 electoral votes.
He was wrong, of course. And he would have known his notion was wrong before making the public claims if he’d done minimal research.
According to FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, New Hampshire is one of 15 states that allows same-day voter registration. “That means eligible voters can show up and vote on Election Day if they sign an affidavit attesting that New Hampshire is their ‘domicile.’ They also must present valid identification, which can include as an out-of-state driver’s license,” the website stated.
“As the secretary of state website explains, ‘Your domicile is that place, more than any other, where you sleep most nights of the year, or to which you intend to return after a temporary absence’,” FactCheck.org explained. “State law spells out clearly that that specifically includes college students (provided they don’t also vote in another state — which would be illegal).”
In essence, what happened in New Hampshire was well within the framework of its voting law.
Kobach, however, went off halfcocked when he wrote an op-ed last week for the alt-right publication Breitbart claiming he had found evidence that the New Hampshire Senate seat narrowly won by a Democrat last fall could have been won by the Republican if so-called fraudulent votes had not been allowed.
New Hampshire officials pointed out Kobach’s flawed interpretation of its voting process, and he has since softened his claims, although not completely. Kobach is still attempting to set the stage for further attempts to suppress votes using the oddly named Presidential Commission on Voter Integrity.
The entire premise for the creation of this commission was based on Trump’s false contention that 3-5 million illegal votes were cast in the 2016 election, and that’s what cost him the popular vote. No evidence exists
of any widespread voter fraud, yet the commission, with Kobach at the helm, continues to press its agenda, as shown by Kobach’s recent conduct.
Indiana’s Secretary Lawson, as a member of the commission, is wasting her time if she really thinks what’s happening is in the best interests of election integrity in this country. What’s more, she may be jeopardizing her good reputation as overseer of Indiana’s election system by being a participant in Kobach’s flawed crusade. It may be time for Lawson to consider leaving that commission and devoting her time to more productive pursuits.
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