Where's The Beef?
Updated: Oct 28, 2021
In reaction to virtually no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election, GOP state legislators have reacted to the Big Lie by seeming to solve a mythical problem: Exactly how much of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s $1 million voter fraud bounty was paid out to anyone? The answer: Zilch! The chief of elections at the Texas secretary of state’s office recently told House lawmakers, “Texas had an election that was smooth and secure.”
"Texas had an election that was smooth and secure.”
According to published accounts, a few dozen cases in which jail time was given have been prosecuted by the attorney general’s election integrity unit. None involved widespread voter fraud. Specifically:
16 minor cases in Harris County all involved residents who gave false addresses on voter registration forms. None were sentenced to jail. (Houston Chronicle)
1 case in Bexar County involved illegal harvesting of ballots. (Texas Scorecard)
1 case in Limestone County involved numerous voter registration applications being sent in by a social worker for residents at an assisted living center. (Texas Scorecard)
The AG’s web pages on voter fraud and notable news show nothing at all about the 2020 election. You would think that if widespread voter fraud was discovered, there would be a press release, at least, to that effect.
Nevertheless, our governor decided to make election integrity a priority legislative item. Why? And what does that really mean?
If SB7 and HB6 are any indication of what might emerge as new law, then we are all in for a rough ride. Yes, it will affect you.
Do you want severely restricted hours when you can vote? I like the options early voting gives me. Do you want to have to prove in advance that you are disabled before being allowed to vote by mail? Do you want to give up the convenience of drive-thru voting sites? How about outlawing monitored drop-off stations? Do you want poll watchers to cite you for getting help in filling out your ballot from a legitimate poll worker? How about not being able to drop off an absentee ballot on Election Day?
All of these solutions to a non-problem are waiting to be made into state law.
We must stop it. What’s really going on is not preventing voter fraud, but instead is a knee-jerk reaction by our state’s GOP to fear of losing political power as state demographics shift. When will they wake up and smell the roses of a changing electorate? Only when we show them, overwhelmingly, that the electorate is really changing.
“Where’s the beef?” is a trademark of Wendy’s. If you’re too young to remember it, read about it here.