One time Georgia Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams just said that the U.S. Constitution is to blame for what she claimed was the origins of “the practice of voter suppression” in America, as she continued promoting vote-by-mail options for the upcoming election.
“Voter suppression was baked into the notion of America,” Abrams told Vanity Fair in an interview. “It was embedded not in our Declaration, which was a glorious document, but the Constitution began the practice of voter suppression.”
A must-read: @vanityfair talked to @staceyabrams on voter suppression, systematic racism, and more. https://t.co/9jvT3AOn68
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) July 7, 2020
Abrams: ‘Voter fraud over 20 years, at best, occurred 1,300 times’
“We are reaffirming the experiment now, but we are also seeing some terrible examples of the original flaw in our design, which is that we have delegated to the states the ability to determine not eligibility, but access,” Abrams said.
She continued, “Luckily, we have 34 states that already have some version of vote-by-mail with no excuses. We have 16 states that do it to a lesser degree.”
Abrams’ comments come in the wake of her also saying that “voter fraud is not real” and “does not affect the outcome of elections” after President Donald Trump criticized voting by mail.
“We know that, but we cannot allow them to frame voter fraud and treat it as an equivalence to voter suppression,” Abrams said. “Voter suppression denies the right to vote to millions.”
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams joins The Post to discuss the protests, legislation to end police brutality and voter access for the 2020 elections. https://t.co/YHkrXtComk
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 29, 2020
“Voter fraud over 20 years, at best, occurred 1,300 times,” she said. “Millions every year versus thousands over twenty years. There is no comparison.”
“Delegitimization of elections happens when the numbers are close and one of the ways that those who engage in voter suppression can claim victory, either in reality or putatively, is that they can shave the margins like anyone who tries to steal,” she finished.
President Trump has said of vote-by-mail, “We’re not going to destroy this country by allowing things like that to happen. We’re not destroying our country. This has more to do with fairness and honesty and, really, our country itself.”
AG Barr on mail-in voting: ‘It can upset and undercut the confidence in the integrity of our elections’
Last month, Attorney General William Barr warned mail by vote nationwide was a recipe for disaster.
“Those things are delivered into mailboxes. They can be taken out,” Barr told Fox News. “There’s questions about whether or not it even denies a secret ballot, because a lot of the states have you signing the outside of the envelope.”
AG Barr: Using the coronavirus as a reason to justify fraudulent voting—
AG William Barr has warned of the dangers of vote by mail which he says will "open the floodgates to fraud" and will undermine public confidence in the integrity of elections. https://t.co/ZAXESlPmE0— C h y a n n e ? (@Chyanne1107) June 23, 2020
RELATED: Hillary Clinton Advising Democrats, Blames Loss on Voter Suppression
“So, the person who opens — person who opens the envelope will know how people voted,” the AG continued. “There’s no — right now, a foreign country could print up tens of thousands of counterfeit ballots, and [it would] be very hard for us to detect which was the right and which was the wrong ballot.”
Barr concluded, “So, I think it can — it can upset and undercut the confidence in the integrity of our elections. If anything, we should tighten them up right now.”