During these recent elections, between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, America has been going through a period of stress and confusion with voting and the election results. Many media outlets have been covering the elections, possible results, and the voting turnouts and due to the chaotic amount of coverage on the elections, there are many claims and rumors of voter suppression and voter fraud. According to The Associated Press, the current results of the 2020 election at the time of this article are 290 electoral college votes for Biden and 214 votes for Trump. Regardless of the fact that Biden is the president-elect, Trump's accusation and attacks against mail-in ballots have left many debating the possibility of voter suppression and voter fraud during this election.
Before discussing the recent events regarding voting, it is crucial to know that voter suppression is a strategy to influence election outcomes by preventing certain groups of people from casting their ballot. Some methods include spreading misformation of election timings, using authorities like the police to physically prevent certain racial groups from voting, and even passing laws to restrict voting. The US has a long history of voter suppression, so it's not surprising that there are claims made of voter suppression during this election. The biggest of these claims is when Trump accused and repeatedly attacked mail-in ballots for being a “political hack”. Mail-in ballots are implemented to allow citizens to vote without risking their safety, which helps many citizens to feel secure and safe during this global COVID pandemic. Additionally, mail-in ballots increase voting turnouts due to their accessibility.
Despite the benefits of mail-in ballots, Trump continuously attacks the Democratic Party for sending out ¨80 million¨ unsolicited mail-in ballots to “steal the elections”. He argues, ¨We need nine [Supreme Court] justices. You need that. With the unsolicited millions of ballots that they’re sending, it’s a scam; it’s a hoax. Because what they’re doing is a hoax, with the ballots. They’re sending out tens of millions of ballots, unsolicited — not where they’re being asked, but unsolicited. And that’s a hoax, and you’re going to need to have nine justices¨ (Sept. 22, speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of White House). Despite the lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud, not only is Trump falsely accusing the Democratic Party of trying to ¨harvest” votes to discourage mail-in votes, which can potentially increase the transmission of COVID at voting centers, but he also spreads misinformation regarding mail-in ballots.
He states, “And, I mean, some of the states, they have no signature necessary, no verification necessary. Nevada, you don’t have to verify the signature. There’s no verification. It is a disgrace that this can happen.” (White House briefing, Sept 17). By discouraging voters to sign their mail ballot, it can result in a massive amount of invalid ballots, resulting in low voter turnouts which support Trump's goal since he publicly argued that he believes high turnout will hurt him (Levitz, 4). This common pattern of Trump constantly attacking Democrats and governors for voter fraud only proves itself hypocritical, when there is more significant evidence of Trump and his administration's partially successful attempts to restrict voting.
According to Intelligencer´s article, ¨Trump’s Voter-Suppression Strategy Is a Crisis (Even If It Backfires)¨, ¨The Republican Party is actively trying to slow the counting of ballots in Pennsylvania. As the New York Times reports: The Trump campaign has leaned on Republican allies who control the Legislature to prevent state election officials from bending those rules to accommodate a pandemic-driven avalanche of absentee ballots, as many other states have already done¨ (Levitz 7). Trump and his party have tried to prevent mail-in ballots from being cast and counted by delaying the process, causing the ballots to be counted after Election Day. Even according to MSNBC, ¨ Republican party has tried to narrow the number of eligible voters who get to vote — whether by restricting registration, requiring identification, or limiting voting days¨. Trump and his administration have been suppressing votes by spreading misinformation, falsely claiming and attacking mail-in ballots, and even slowing down the counting of the votes which is enough to say that there is voter suppression in the 2020 Elections.
Sources:
Levitz, Erica. “Trump's Voter-Suppression Strategy Is a Crisis (Even If It Backfires).” Intelligencer, 29 Oct. 2020, nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/10/historic-voter-turnout-trump-voter-suppression.html.
Vance, Joyce. “Trump's 2020 Election Strategy Is to Desensitize America to Brazen GOP Voter Suppression.” MSNBC, NBCUniversal News Group, 4 Nov. 2020, www.msnbc.com/opinion/trump-s-2020-election-strategy-desensitize-america-brazen-gop-voter-n1246369.
Kiely, Eugene, and Rem Rieder. “Trump's Repeated False Attacks on Mail-In Ballots.” FactCheck.org, 25 Sept. 2020, www.factcheck.org/2020/09/trumps-repeated-false-attacks-on-mail-in-ballots/.
Janicki, Mary M. “Voter Fraud Penalties .” Voter Fraud Penalties, 0AD, www.cga.ct.gov/PS98/rpt\olr\htm/98-R-0565.htm.
Roos, Dave. “How Voter Suppression Works.” HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 15 May 2012, people.howstuffworks.com/voter-suppression2.htm.
Written by: Erum Khan