https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/22/desantis-voter-fraud-arrests-felons-florida
Maybe there’s some fear mixed in with the dislike. After all, Florida’s Republican governor clearly plans to run for president, which might worry some Democrats, including the ones who run WaPo. Not only that. WaPo’s editorial board members are clairvoyant! They know what DeSantis is up to, maybe even better than he knows it himself! He might think he’s out to prevent voter fraud by people who are ineligible to vote in Florida’s elections. But WaPo knows that’s not the case. The fact that DeSantis has “trumpeted the arrests of 20 felons who allegedly voted illegally in the 2020 election” is, in actuality, “a clear effort to deter legitimate voting.”. . . Really?
In case any reader missed WaPo’s initial attack on DeSantis, a few paragraphs later the ALL-SEEING, ALL-KNOWING WaPo Editorial Board reiterates what IT KNOWS FOR A FACT to be true: “Mr. DeSantis’s broader goal is clear: to deter voting.” Again I ask: Really? If fraudulent or otherwise illegal voting does occur in any state in the Union, and if the governor of such a state takes action to deter illegal voting by announcing prosecution of individuals who have voted unlawfully, should that governor’s goal be labeled as an intention “to deter voting”? Shouldn’t state governments take some actions to deter ILLEGAL voting – which is NOT THE SAME as taking action “to deter voting”?
If you want any system of organized human activity to have integrity, especially a system that has huge real-world consequences for people’s lives, then that system must be scrutinized, safeguarded, and protected. Attention must be paid to possible violations of the system’s integrity. Given that elections are essential features of democratic societies, it is a serious mistake to simply assume that everyone who votes is entitled to vote. It’s also a mistake to assume that all voting by ineligible individuals is done innocently, without awareness of any violation of the law. Government officials should certainly not act to prevent eligible voters from exercising their constitutional right to vote. But given how high the stakes are in state and federal elections, we should not assume that the honor system will be enough to ensure that only eligible voters cast votes.
