(Opinion) Republicans’ new voter fraud scare tactic: Election police – By Zeeshan Aleem (MSNBC) / March 21, 2022
Gimmicky new voter fraud enforcement programs could help foster rising authoritarian sentiment on the right.
Republicans in multiple states are pushing a new tactics and programs to tackle the mythical problem of voter fraud: election police.
In Florida, Georgia and Texas, Republicans have passed new policies and laws that have created costly new infrastructure and enforcement mechanisms to crack down on what they claim is voter fraud, despite the fact that there is no evidence that voter fraud is remotely serious problem in our democracy or in need of additional surveillance.
These programs are, at the very least, wasteful. But they could also potentially dampen voters’ inclination to enter the voting booth out of fear that making some kind of mistake in casting their ballot could be severely penalized. And over the longer term, gimmicky voter fraud enforcement bureaucracy could help foster rising authoritarian sentiment on the right by lending more weight to the idea that Democratic electoral wins should be met with suspicion.
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