The Texas secretary of state’s office has revealed that 95,000 documented non-citizens are on certified voter rolls in the Lone Star State, and 58,000 have voted in one or more elections. The office released this information as part of an advisory to county voter registrars meant to help ensure the accuracy of voter rolls throughout the state.
President Trump tweeted the news as a sign that non-citizen voter fraud is indeed a real issue. He was met instantly with a furious media backlash that shows Democrats and their allies simply do not want to safeguard the integrity of our electoral process. The intensity of the attacks shines a light on the total hollowness of all that babbling about “the sanctity of our elections” found amid these outlets’ ridiculous claims that Russia hijacked the 2016 presidential vote.
Directed Coverage
The controlled media spin – armed with the usual “fact checks” – immediately kicked in that Trump was “distorting” the figures because it has yet to be confirmed that all 58,000 of the documented non-citizens who voted were in fact ineligible, as there is a chance some may have become naturalized along the way. By hyping this angle, the media showed that the true point of the outrage exercise is to discourage any and all attempts to crack down on illegal voting whatsoever.
For while Democrats and biased reporters want you to think that the 95,000 figure is a final finding stretched out over years and therefore small beans in a state where some 15.8 million people are registered to vote, Texas officials have stated that this is only the beginning of their efforts to root out illegal voting. Those accusing the president of manipulating numbers are in fact promoting a much greater distortion by failing to accurately report this crucial fact.
The hard-left Houston Chronicle reported the news in a mostly appropriate manner when it first broke. The paper wrote that the 95,000 figure is the first drop in a new commitment to ferret out ineligible voters via “better technology” that will allow state officials to check voter rolls with driver’s license records. Non-citizens in Texas can get driver’s licenses but, of course, are still not eligible to vote.
The paper reported that secretary of state spokesman Sam Taylor said the 95,000 figure is merely the “initial backlog” to this endeavor. “It is important to note that we are not using information self-reported by the person regarding citizenship status; rather, we are using documents provided by the person to show they are lawfully present in the United States,” state director of elections Keith Ingram wrote to Texas county registrars, the Chronicle reports.
Why They’re Upset
In other words, if you are listed as a non-citizen on an official document, such as a work visa or green card, the state of Texas wants to make sure you are not voting in its elections. Who could possibly take offense at such a sensible and salutary action? Democrats and their progressive allies, of course.
“There is no credible data that indicates illegal voting is happening in any significant numbers, and the secretary’s statement does not change that fact,” Beth Stevens, voting rights legal director with the Texas Civil Rights Project, bemoaned. [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”24″]…the further pursuance of actionable information on possible illegal voting that has leftists up in arms.[/perfectpullquote]
That argument would seem to be meaningless as this is an introductory step in an ongoing program meant to provide “credible data” and then follow up on it. But, of course, what has already been discovered most certainly does “indicate” potential illegal activity. And that is the problem for progressives. Make no mistake. It is really the further pursuance of actionable information on possible illegal voting that has leftists up in arms.
Of course, these are the same people who told us that Russian bots on the internet working to elect Donald Trump president in 2016 gave irrefutable proof of “foreign attacks on American democracy,” nothing less than an existential threat to our entire standing as a nation. Handwringing about the sacredness of our elections apparently doesn’t count for these people when it comes to foreigners stepping inside our voting booths and casting a ballot.
There is obvious reason to suspect that a number of non-citizens residing in the state of Texas may have chosen to flagrantly flout our election laws. Each act of illegal voting is a second-class felony. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott summed up the situation perfectly in a tweet about the conviction of an illegal alien in San Antonio who used a fake ID to vote, most likely for years.
Another illegal immigrant who illegally voted in Texas is headed to prison—this time in federal court. Illegal voting is a crime with our democracy the victim. It won’t be tolerated. We will continue to fight for integrity of the ballot box. #txlege https://t.co/SZjpeIGOar
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 26, 2019
Beyond all the spin and bluster, one chief attribute remains. It is not in the narrow, selfish interests of the Democratic Party and its supporters to keep non-citizens from voting. Everything else is just talk.
