Liza Burrell-Aldana, a Fairfax County school teacher, went to an early voting site last week and showed her driver’s license. The poll worker asked if she was a citizen. Burrell-Aldana, a Colombian immigrant who has been a citizen since 2011, said that she was. The poll worker asked for proof of citizenship. “Why would I carry that with me?” she replied.
So begins a Washington Post article in today’s news feed. Then the Post goes on to say:
The incident played out as Donald Trump and many Republicans have falsely claimed that waves of noncitizens are voting, stoking fears. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has embraced the issue, pushing for a daily scrub of voter rolls. Voting rights activists throughout the country, meanwhile, are worried that this rhetoric will lead to eligible voters being harassed or afraid to cast their ballots.
See what’s going on here? The article slides from Donald Trump making false claims about noncitizens voting to Governor Glenn Youngkin “embracing the issue” by pushing for a daily scrub of voter rolls. There’s no quote of Youngkin making false claims, just an insinuation that he’s in the same camp as Trump and his stop-the-steal allies.
Then the Post goes on to describe voting-rights activists as worried that “this rhetoric” — whose rhetoric, Trump’s or Youngkin’s? — will lead eligible voters to being harassed or afraid to cast a vote.
In support of the voter-suppression narrative, the Post quotes Ryan Snow, a voting rights attorney, as saying that “incidents such as the one in Virginia” can be a barrier to voting.
The democracy-dies-in-darkness publication goes on to quote Burrell-Aldana as suggesting that the incident arose from bias. “I do look like a Latina and I sound like a Latina. I think that was the reason why.”
So… what became of Ms. Burrell-Aldana’s attempt to cast a ballot?
She was referred to a poll manager, who resolved the case and allowed her to vote.
Not only that, Fairfax County has “removed” the offending poll worker (whose version of the episode, incidentally, we never get to hear).
That’s where we are today: every time the voting qualifications of a naturalized citizen are questioned, regime media will elevate it into an issue of anti-immigrant bias and voter suppression. Regime media never tell us how often credentials are questioned for voters of all races, ethnicities, ages, and political persuasions.
My daughter was blocked from voting some 15 to 20 years ago when she moved from Wyoming back to Richmond and failed to transfer her registration in time. Tough cookies, kid. No Washington Post reporter elevated the incident into a sinister assault on voter rights. Similarly, my sister was denied the right to vote one year. I can’t remember the circumstances. All I can say for sure is that no mercy was shown.
I myself was briefly halted from voting several years ago. As I recall, I had changed my residence but my driver’s license didn’t reflect the fact. I was referred to a poll manager who resolved the discrepancy and allowed me to vote. I didn’t get outraged. It was a minor hassle, and I understood that rules and procedures must be followed.
There are roughly 160 million registered voters in the U.S. Millions move to new addresses every year. Millions change their names. Millions register for the first time. Millions die and drop off. Keeping track of all that activity is a monumental data-management challenge, especially when administration of the voter rolls is fragmented among thousands of local governments. It is inevitable that cases will arise in which poll managers are called in to resolve questions.
Regime media make much of the fact that a Georgia audit showed that only 20 noncitizens were registered to vote there. The implication: noncitizen voting just isn’t a problem. But then, regime media have yet to document one instance of an eligible Virginia voter being unable to cast a vote due to being scrubbed from the voter rolls.
Virginians of both political parties work hard to bolster election integrity in Virginia. The steal-the-vote people need to get a grip. Votes aren’t being stolen in the Old Dominion. And the voter-suppression people need to take a chill pill. Naturalized citizens aren’t being denied the right to vote. Voting is easier than ever. Here in Virginia, the system is working.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.