Lying about illegal voting is cover for election manipulation

[suffragette]

17. The problem is that they'll limit it to voting fraud and not investigate election fraud.

I don't disagree with what you are proposing. Unfortunately, history shows that's not the direction the Republican majority would allow or take.

They've done that before when they tried to overturn Sanchez's victory over Dornan in California.

Back then, even all the attempts to repress the Latino vote (and there were many documented ones) weren't enough to keep Dornan in his seat.

Dornan kept screaming about voter fraud by "illegals" and throwing out wild stories about 'proof' that undocumented people had voted for Sanchez. He was very similar to Trump in many ways.

The LA Times ran quite a number of articles on this at the time, including investigative reporting that debunked some of his most flagrant lies.

Republicans in DC pushed for an investigation. They supposedly found a certain number of fraudulent votes. That number and the supposed fact that some were found was reported, of course as fact even though that was suspect as well. Still, not surprisingly, they could not find enough of a difference to overturn the result that Sanchez won.

While they were doing this, they also pushed for new legislation to make it even harder to register and vote. That is another part of why they push this BS about voter fraud so hard.

Meanwhile the genuine issue of the voter repression that occurred was not given the attention and was not being investigated.

http://articles.latimes.com/1997/sep/28/local/me-37111

At issue is whether illegal votes were cast, and for whom. Dornan has long contended that efforts to recruit new minority voters for Sanchez helped result in voting irregularities that cost him the election. Sanchez's campaign hotly disputes that.

Sanchez spokesman John Shallman said that if Republicans can show there are 984 individuals who voted fraudulently and that they cast ballots for Sanchez, then there should be a new election.

However, he said Sanchez and Democrats have reservations about the objectivity of the investigation.

"Thus far, the investigation has been anything but fair," he said. "It has been a farce."

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/13/cq/sanchez.html

"The fact that we ended up with 748 illegal votes makes it clear his allegations had merit," Ehlers said.

Democrats have characterized the probe as a witch hunt, charging that Republicans sought to unfairly single out and intimidate Hispanic voters. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the lone Democrat on the task force, said of the panel's recommendation, "It's never too late to do the right thing."

Sanchez celebrated surrounded by House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo., and cheering Democratic lawmakers and staff at a rally held just after the task force's decision. "I feel great," Sanchez said. "When you stand up and you fight for something and you know that you're right, justice can prevail."

Gephardt said: "Loretta won this election fair and square. There's never been a doubt in my mind."

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/feb/13/local/me-18643

In a report released Thursday, Republican members of the committee provided new details about the investigation. The details, however, cast doubt even on the 624 votes that were identified as illegally cast because of citizenship questions.

The committee had arrived at this figure by matching Orange County voter rolls with data provided by the INS. But in at least 226 of the cases, differences in addresses or signatures raised questions about whether the matches were precise.

"We categorically deny that there is substantial proof that there is anywhere near 600, 500, 400, 300, 200 improper votes," said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), a member of the task force that conducted the probe. "Our analysis shows that their number is wildly inflated."

Republicans on the oversight panel said that while investigators were unable to prove there were more illegal votes than Sanchez's margin of victory, the findings were nonetheless troubling.

On top of all that, Dornan and his family actually made money from all this.