GOP Will Use Russian Hack Of Voting Systems To Further Restrict Voting Rights

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that the Russian hacking of our election in 2016 was far, far broader than had previously been reported and actually effected four out of every five states in the country. In addition, the hacks went far deeper that anyone had imagined, to the point where the Russians had the ability to edit the voter rolls in a number of jurisdictions.

According to the report, the Russians did not find a way to change any vote tallies nor did they try. And apparently the Russians did not mess with the voter rolls despite having the opportunity to do so. But that probably needs more investigation, simply because the Republicans were engaging in mass purges of the voter rolls in a number of states as well. I think we deserve a real investigation and a real assurance that the Russians did not change the voter rolls in conjunction, not necessarily in coordination, with those purges. This is especially true because the breadth of the Russian hack seems to grow wider and wider as the investigation continues.

There is already a mountain of evidence that the Russians tried to influence the election so that Donald Trump and the Republicans would win. It is reasonable to believe that that effort would involve suppression of Democratic votes by scrubbing the roles. The Bloomberg story claims that the Russians did not make any efforts to actually scrub the rolls because the Obama administration warned the Russians off. But that warning did nothing to stop the flood of leaks to support Trump and the Republicans which makes it a little hard to believe that it kept the Russians from messing with the voter rolls. I have no evidence that, of course, but it does seem logical.

While the Republicans cling to the fact there is no evidence that any vote tallies were changed, that is kind of a red herring simply because striking one Democratic voter off the rolls accomplishes the very same thing as reducing the Democratic vote tally by one.

As the contours of the Russian hacking become clearer and we see just how widespread their efforts were, it is important to remember that the Republican leadership refused to support a bipartisan statement on the extent of Russian hacking back in October when the intelligence community reached its finding about that issue. Instead, Mitch McConnell declared that he would consider even making a statement about the Russian hacking a partisan attack. And the leadership clearly knew that the Russians were trying to help Trump and Republicans get elected at that time.

Lastly, I am willing to bet that the GOP will use the Russian hack of the voter rolls as an excuse to create even more roadblocks to voting, requiring more IDs and creating other impediments. And, rather than blaming the need for these restrictions on largely Democratic voters on voter fraud, they will move to the excuse that it is to protect from the election being hacked. This fits in perfectly with the party’s current MO. James Comey hands the election to them on a silver platter and the GOP praises his actions. But then those same Republicans go and fire Comey for his inappropriate actions regarding Clinton’s emails when his investigation gets too close to the truth about the GOP. Trump and the Republican gain power with the help of the Russians and they will then use that hacking as a reason to disenfranchise even more Democratic voters.

It is the tactic of the authoritarian where they can say two things completely in opposition to each other at almost the same time and demand that they both be true. It is a display of power to control the “truth”. It is today’s Republican party.