The big lie: Stop using race to promote a false voting narrative

Don Coble

Vice president Kamala Harris said she won’t “absolve” anyone who doesn’t vote for the federal takeover of elections.

That’s all right with me. I hope to be absolved by a higher authority.

She joined other fringe Democrats in saying the country’s democracy is at stake. She claims there is voter suppression. She doesn’t believe voters should have to show identification at the polls. Moreover, she believes anyone should be able to register and vote on the same day – all without providing ID.

And if you don’t agree, you’re a racist.

We generally step aside from national debates here, but this affects all of us. And it’s a big lie.

And we should demand better.

Nobody is denied the opportunity to vote as long as they’re registered – and alive. Many far-left-leaning Democrats suggest current voting laws are created to restrict minorities from going to the polls. The facts, however, prove they are both misinformed and deceitful.

What is more disgusting is the way some of our leaders, particularly President Joe Biden, said if we support voter identifications it connects us with those who believed in segregation, or even worse, a racist.

How dare he.

The man who was elected because he said he will unite the country and end COVID-19 now tries to divert the nation from the failures of his two lynchpins of his presidency by now telling us to pick sides. How does that unite us?

Comparing anyone who doesn’t agree with him to a segregationist is disturbing and pathetic.

As long as he’s arguing about the false narrative of voter suppression, we aren’t talking about our sloppy withdrawal from Afghanistan, more than a million people crossing our southern border last year and the fact more people have died of COVID-19 under his watch than the previous president.

If the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 is passed – and it won’t – you won’t have to show an ID; ballots can be dropped off at drop boxes (many that aren’t secured) and you can cast a ballot at the wrong precinct.

In reality, you could show up at a poll in Green Cove Springs and tell the workers your name is Joe Smith. And since you don’t have to show an ID, you could also go to Fleming Island and vote as Joe Jones, then to Orange Park as Joe Johnson and Oakleaf as Joe Robinson.

If the identification process is relaxed for absentee ballots and blank ballots are mailed to everyone, how can anyone believe they are filled out solely by the registered voter?

It’s difficult to embrace the integrity of proposed changes if the president is willing to lie about restrictions that don’t exist.

However, the provision of the voting rights bill to make election day a national holiday is a good idea.

To be clear, an overwhelming number of Americans want IDs to be part of the voting process. According to polls from Monmouth University and Forbes, 80% of the county wants voters to show IDs at the polls or when requesting an absentee ballot.

Major League Baseball took the All-Star Game away from Georgia last summer because the state said it wanted more safeguards against possible corruption. Lawmakers voted to stop the practice of sending absentee ballots to all voters, even if they didn’t request one. And the state wants voters who request an absentee ballot to provide their names, addresses and date of birth.

Georgia makes voting easier than many other states. It’s why Biden won that state. It’s why two Democrats were elected to replace Republicans in the U.S. Senate.

The state, however, got a semblance of retribution when the Atlanta Braves won the World Series.

That’s real absolution.