After Republicans responded to the 2020 elections with an avalanche of conspiratorial lies, GOP officials embraced a variety of regressive policy measures, including new voting restrictions, intended to address a problem that didn’t exist in any meaningful way.
But as we’ve discussed, Republicans in several states went considerably further, creating “voter fraud units” and “election integrity units” composed of investigators who would focus exclusively on election-related crimes.
Predictably, these forces have failed to produce evidence of a systemic problem because, as reality keeps reminding us, there is no systemic problem. An Associated Press investigation found late last year that these election units simply didn’t have much to do, because the crimes are uncommon.
That’s not, however, the only problem. The Washington Post published the results this week of a related investigation into those prosecuted by election integrity units and found the units “overwhelmingly targeted minorities and Democrats for prosecution.”
The analysis found that 76 percent of defendants whose race or ethnicity could be identified were Black or Hispanic, while White people constituted 24 percent of those prosecuted by the units. Registered Democrats made up 58 percent of those charged whose party could be identified, while registered Republicans were 23 percent. In the rest of the cases, the defendant was not registered with a particular party.
The Post’s reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, is based on analysis of nearly every prosecution pursued by these state-based voter fraud units.
Because I’ve internalized Republican talking points, I have a hunch some on the right will see these findings and argue, “See? Minority voters and Democrats are getting caught by these election integrity units because it’s minority voters and Democrats who try to get away with cheating.”
Except that’s wrong, too. “The cases that the…
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