In Florida in the 2020 election, election officials made 75 referrals to law enforcement agencies on potential voter fraud. That was 75 out of over 11 million voters. 75 out of 11,000,000. Four of those cases were deemed worthy of prosecution.
Nonetheless, earlier this month the Florida legislature created “the election police” to go after voter fraud. Of course this will discourage participation. My mailing address is Lehighton. On the petition I just signed, I must enter my name written and printed, then my house number, then my street, and then my “municipality.” Suppose I write down Lehighton, my address, instead of Towamensing, my municipality? Is that “fraud”? Can I be arrested? Best not to even sign the petition. And that is what these laws are about. If you can get arrested for an honest mistake, maybe you are better off not voting. That is what we call voter suppression.
Statistics for this post are from Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti, “GOP pushes voter fraud crackdown,” New York Times, republished in the Morning Call, March 22, 2022, p. 19.
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