The Man that Rigged the 2016 Election is Leading Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity — and He Just Made His First Move
On May 11, Trump signed an Executive Order creating the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in order to “enhance the American people’s confidence in the integrity of the voting processes used in Federal elections.” And he placed the man responsible for rigging the 2016 Elections — Kris Kobach — at its head.
Kobach is an open white nativist and a star legal operative of the hate group the Federation for Immigration Reform, or FAIR.
FAIR was founded by one of the most active and politically powerful eugenicists in American politics — Henry Laughlin. Laughlin himself had gained notoriety by producing a piece of sample legislation designed to encourage states to adopt compulsory sterilization programs for those deemed genetically unfit by the ruling white elite. A total of 30 states would ultimately adopt compulsory sterilization laws — 18 of which modeled their legislation after Laughlin’s work.
Laughlin’s model was so successful — it was adopted by the Nazis. As a result, 350,000 German citizens were sterilized against their will and Henry Laughlin was awarded with an honorary doctorate from Heidelberg University in Germany for his work on the “science of racial cleansing.” The following year, Laughlin co-founded the Pioneer Fund which funded the creation of FAIR.
And thus, the torch of political cleansing was passed from the American Eugenics Society to the Federation for Immigration Reform.
Anti-immigration crusader and Ku Klux Klan conspirator — John Tanton — was placed at the head of the organization. Tanton, who is still listed as a member of FAIR’s Board of Directors, is most famously quoted for his assertion:
“To govern is to populate … Will the present majority peaceably hand over its political power to a group that is simply more fertile? … As Whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?”
Today, FAIR boasts 1.3 million members and funding from close to 50 private foundations supporting their agenda which includes:
“Reducing legal immigration from well over one million presently, to 300,000 a year over a sustained period will allow America to more sensibly manage its growth, address its environmental needs, and maintain a high quality of life. To make that happen, we work for policies that put the interests of American citizens ahead of big business and special interests demands.”
During the Reagan Administration, FAIR incorporated the Immigration Law Reform Institute into its structure and the ILRI became the legal arm of the white supremacist political powerhouse. Kris Kobach, would go on to become one of their star players.
Kris Kobach has, under no uncertain terms, made a career for himself designing and diffusing legislation geared at the intentional deprivation of rights of black and brown communities.
He is the author and figurehead of Arizona’s SB 1070, which has been labeled as “the most racist law in modern history.” This legislation, largely funded by the Koch brothers and the Donor’s Trust, gave police they authority to stop, detain, and demand proof of citizenship from anyone they choose without cause. It was used to specifically target people with brown skin and allowed the police to detain a citizen or non-citizen indefinitely until citizenship was proven. Most of this legislation has since been struck down, but key components remain.
He has consulted Trump on the design and implementation of the Muslim Ban, the Wall between the United States and Mexico, and assisted in increasing the use of the Department of Homeland Security as a central component of deportation and immigration prevention. And as Secretary of State, Kobach attempted to use false accusations that Barack Obama was not born in the United States to prevent his name from being listed on the Kansas ballots.
While Kobach is skilled in the design and diffusion of numerous white nativist policies, his specialty is deprivation of voting rights.
Seeking to cleanse voter registration rolls of black and brown citizens, Kobach successfully prevented a minimum of 22 million voters from being able to exercise their constitutional right to vote in 2016 alone. His strategies have been so successful, they have cost the Democrats the House, the Senate and now the White House and handed them over to the Republican party.
By spreading voter ID restrictions across the nation, Kobach has successfully wiped out the voting rights of 21 million poor voters and voters of color from the registration rolls. Through the Interstate Crosscheck System, Kobach was able to purge over 1 million voters from key states and counties just prior to election day.
Kris Kobach’s ability to rig elections using a combination of wide spread voter suppression tactics such as voter ID restrictions and targeted purging in key states and counties through Crosscheck guaranteed the 2016 Presidential elections for the GOP. And for his services, he is being given the opportunity to take these tactics nationwide to secure victories for the GOP in all major upcoming elections for the foreseeable future — with or without help from Russia.
As previously reported by SIIP:
“Without voter purging in key states, Donald Trump likely would not have won the 2016 presidential election. In Arizona, Trump probably would not have been able to secure the state’s 11 electoral votes without purging almost 271,000 voters. The difference between candidates in this state is approximately 85,000. In Michigan, the difference between candidates vying for the state’s 16 electoral votes was well under 11,000 — almost 450,000 voters had been purged. And in North Carolina, Trump won 15 electoral votes by approximately 177,000 votes. Close to 600,000 votes had to be purged from the system to accomplish this.”
How this is accomplished is explained in a detailed report by Greg Palast, which describes:
“Mark Swedlund, a database expert whose clients include eBay and American Express, look at the data from Georgia and Virginia, and he was shocked…. Swedlund’s statistical analysis found that African-American, Latino and Asian names predominate, a simple result of the Crosscheck matching process, which spews out little more than a bunch of common names. No surprise: The U.S. Census data shows that minorities are overrepresented in 85 of 100 of the most common last names. If your name is Washington, there’s an 89 percent chance you’re African-American. If your last name is Hernandez, there’s a 94 percent chance you’re Hispanic. If your name is Kim, there’s a 95 percent chance you’re Asian.
This inherent bias results in an astonishing one in six Hispanics, one in seven Asian-Americans and one in nine African-Americans in Crosscheck states landing on the list.”
And now as Vice Chair of the Commission on Election integrity, Kobach has sent a letter to the Secretaries of all 50 States requesting the records of all voter information including:
“…full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available,
addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.”
And once again, using the complete lie and scare tactic that voter fraud is an epidemic to prevent tens of millions of more black, brown, incarcerated and Democratic voters from casting a vote in every state across the country.
Worse, unless the Democratic party strategically counters these efforts in the federal district and circuit courts — he will be successful. While currently a number of states have refused to turn this information over to him, it will only be a matter of time before Kobach, Trump and the GOP find a way to work around their refusals.
Fortunately, there are ways to stop Trump, Kobach and the GOP — and re-enfranchise the tens of millions of suppressed constituents that have been denied their Constitutional Right to Vote. SIIP reports:
“There are laws designed to protect targeted communities and defend the nation from a confederate take-over at the federal level. For example, 18 USC 241 reads:
‘If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured — They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both…’
And 18 USC 242 follows with:
‘Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both…’
Unfortunately, prosecution for violations of these laws fall under the authority of the US Attorney General and the Department of Justice. With Jeff Sessions in control, there is little to no chance the DoJ would investigate, let alone prosecute, the GOP for deprivation of rights.
Fortunately, there are other options.
The Democratic party can counter voter suppression efforts in the federal court system by bringing legal challenges under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. While it is true that the GOP dealt a huge blow to the Act when they gutted Section 5 through the case of Shelby County vs. Holder — Sections 2 and 11 are still fully intact. And they can be applied at the federal district and circuit court levels.
Section 11 of the Voting Rights Act reads:
‘No person acting under color of law shall fail or refuse Prohibitions to permit any person to vote who is entitled to vote under any provision of this Act or is otherwise qualified to vote, or willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report such person’s vote’
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act also specifies:
‘No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.’
The NAACP further clarifies that:
‘The types of voting practices and procedures that may violate Section 2 include, but are not limited to: (1) annexing largely white neighborhoods into districts where people of color are the majority; (2) moving from electing candidates by districts to at-large voting; (3) replacing elected officials with appointed officials; (4) moving conveniently-located polling locations to inconvenient locations; (5) closing or consolidating conveniently-located polling places; (6) reducing early voting opportunities or changing voting hours; (7) implementing restrictive photo identification laws for in-person voting; (8) limiting registration opportunities; (9) limiting multi-lingual voting assistance; (10) adopting onerous candidate qualifications; (11) adopting discriminatory redistricting plans that either pack together or crack apart communities of color; and (12) counting incarcerated people as residents of their prison communities for purposes of redistricting rather than as residents of their pre-prison home communities.’”
The town halls, marches, calls to Congress, and shame tweets that the left is relying on to counter the GOP will do nothing to stop Kobach, FAIR, and their billionaire funders from implementing their plan to permanently rig the election system in favor of white Republican voters. It will take widespread, immediate, and strategic legal action to block these criminal suppression efforts and enforce consequences on those actively depriving tens of millions of black and brown voters the right to vote.
To learn more about the Interstate Crosscheck System and Kris Kobach, go to:
- https://medium.com/@SIIPCampaigns/voting-is-for-white-people-the-origins-of-crosscheck-c91d5d4532cc
To learn more about GOP voter suppression strategies and their effects on the 2016 elections, go to:
To learn how people can support and pressure the government to take action against the GOP, go to:
- https://medium.com/@SIIPCampaigns/the-top-5-reasons-to-burn-your-indivisible-guide-e7b35ca85cb
- https://medium.com/@SIIPCampaigns/going-to-marchfortruth-heres-what-you-need-to-know-d59c91514b3b
