U.S. intelligence concludes Russian hacking affected the presidential campaign, but did it affect the vote count in Trump’s key Wisconsin and Michigan wins? The Washington Post dug into recount data and found that voting technologies in Michigan and Wisconsin treated candidates Trump and Clinton the same, at least in places where votes were recounted.
A former Republican legislative aide testified that state legislators were “giddy” at the prospect that a radical rewrite of voting laws would benefit their political prospects. The aide was in the room in 2011 when Republican state senators were scheming to enact Wisconsin’s voter ID law, and in his testimony, he named names. > The Nation
Two weeks after President Trump announced a commission to investigate illegal voting, Democrats are responding with a new effort to highlight voter suppression and debunk claims that voter fraud is a widespread problem. The Commission on Protecting American Democracy from the Trump Administration is part of the DNC’s new Voter Protection & Empowerment Unit. > Huffington Post
Both the Washington Post and PolitiFact Wisconsin have applied their fact-checking chops to the claims made by Priorities USA (a left-leaning group) that its study findings show Wisconsin’s voter ID laws reduced November turnout by 200,000. The truth-o-meter reading? Mostly false, since correlation isn’t always causation.
A new report has called into question whether President Trump would have won Wisconsin’s electoral votes without the state’s strict voter ID law, suggesting the law suppressed the votes of more than 200,000 residents. With Trump winning by only about 23,000 votes, Democracy Now takes a deeper look. (available in video and downloadable audio)
In November, Wisconsin experienced its first presidential election in which voters needed a photo ID at the polls – a requirement aiming to address nonexistent “voter fraud.” There is little doubt that the law disenfranchised tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of eligible voters, including seniors, the poor, citizens of color – and college students. > Press release
Most political scientists agree voter ID laws make it more difficult for some Americans to vote. There’s debate, however, over how big an impact those laws have, and liberals should think twice before overstating. Republicans writing these laws to disenfranchise minorities and Dem voters doesn’t have to swing an election to be shameful. > Slate
