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Texas governor helps debunk his own voter-fraud argument
Source: MSNBC
Texas governor helps debunk his own voter-fraud argument
03/15/16 10:41 AM—UPDATED 03/15/16 11:14 AM
By Steve Benen
President Obama was in Texas late last week, and during an interview with the Texas Tribune, he took some time to criticize the state’s voting restrictions, which has led to lower voter turnout. Pointing specifically to Texas’ prohibition on online registration and onerous voter-ID laws, the president said, “(T)he folks who are currently governing the good state of Texas aren’t interested in having more people participate.”
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) yesterday responded to Obama’s comments, saying via Twitter, “Texas will continue to crack down on vote fraud.” The tweet included a link to this Dallas Morning News article about the governor’s position.
And as it turns out, that probably wasn’t a good idea. Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog went ahead and clicked on the link Abbott included in his message about preventing voter fraud, and found that the Dallas Morning News report told readers that there have been about 80 cases of voter fraud prosecuted in Texas since 2002, but “only a handful of those cases involved the kind of in-person voter fraud that Texas’ voter ID law aims to stop.”
The newspaper relied on research that found “fewer Texans commit in-person voter fraud than get struck by lightning.”
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03/15/16 10:41 AM—UPDATED 03/15/16 11:14 AM
By Steve Benen
President Obama was in Texas late last week, and during an interview with the Texas Tribune, he took some time to criticize the state’s voting restrictions, which has led to lower voter turnout. Pointing specifically to Texas’ prohibition on online registration and onerous voter-ID laws, the president said, “(T)he folks who are currently governing the good state of Texas aren’t interested in having more people participate.”
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) yesterday responded to Obama’s comments, saying via Twitter, “Texas will continue to crack down on vote fraud.” The tweet included a link to this Dallas Morning News article about the governor’s position.
And as it turns out, that probably wasn’t a good idea. Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog went ahead and clicked on the link Abbott included in his message about preventing voter fraud, and found that the Dallas Morning News report told readers that there have been about 80 cases of voter fraud prosecuted in Texas since 2002, but “only a handful of those cases involved the kind of in-person voter fraud that Texas’ voter ID law aims to stop.”
The newspaper relied on research that found “fewer Texans commit in-person voter fraud than get struck by lightning.”
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Read more: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/texas-governor-helps-debunk-his-own-voter-fraud-argument
6 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Response to Eugene (Original post)
Response to WhiteTara (Reply #2)
