FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 1, 2022
NAACP’s historic voting rights objectives are synonymous with election integrity & transparency efforts
Arlington, V.A. – A week removed from election day, the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP has launched an anti-election integrity stunt directed at undermining the recently established Election Integrity Unit at the Office of the Virginia Attorney General.
“The purpose of the unit is to provide advice, support, and resources to ensure that Virginia election law continues to be applied in a uniform manner, and increase confidence in our state elections,” the attorney general’s office stated.
National Chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued the following statement:
“Election integrity protects the right to vote in elections voters can trust, regardless of where you live, your race, or party affiliation. It helps ensure that that every legal vote can be cast and counted fairly, openly, and equally in elections that are secure and accountable. Unfortunately, the Virginia Chapter of the NAACP seeks to abandon its historic protection of voting rights in favor of its preferred left-wing election outcomes. The reality is that elections are setting records for diversity and turnout—never before has it been easier to register and vote than it is today for voters of all types—a measure of progress of which we should all be proud. But the NAACP’s harassment campaign has nothing to do with stopping ‘voter suppression’ and everything to do with Democrats’ declining support among minority voters.
“We applaud Attorney General Miyares for protecting the right to vote in Virginia and making our elections more transparent, accountable, and secure. Every election law should be adhered to as written, and everyone should play by the same set of rules, otherwise legal votes are diluted and incompetence and cheating are rewarded.”
According to Robert Barnette, president of the Virginia NAACP, the Election Integrity Unit “is particularly alarming to Black Virginians, who have for generations endured racial discrimination, intimidation, and violence intended to prevent them from participating equally in our democracy.”
What does real “voter suppression” look like? The 1902 Virginia Constitution imposed poll taxes, literacy tests and even a civics test as hurdles to voter registration and voting, all intended to deny as many black citizens access to voting as possible. That same constitution also employed devices to allow illiterate whites onto the voter rolls. These included “going easy” on the civics tests for prospective white voters who could not read, as well as so-called “grandfather clauses,” by which illiterate whites whose father or grandfather fought for either the Union or Confederacy (virtually always the Confederacy) would also be able to register to vote.
Similarly, Georgia’s 1958 civics test was used to bar black citizens from voting, but it was not only southern states discriminating against voters. California, Connecticut, Delaware, and others also have had constitutional or statutory provisions to impede minority voting.
According to the University of Virginia Center for politics, actual election integrity does not reduce voter turnout.
“…[V]oting rules did not appear to have much impact on turnout and had no measurable impact on vote margins at the state level in the 2020 presidential election,” wrote Alan I. Abramowitz. “Both voter turnout and voting decisions in 2020 were driven by the strong preferences held by the large majority of voters between the major party candidates. That is very likely to be the case again in the 2022 midterm elections and especially in the 2024 presidential election.”
Polling released by the Honest Elections Project showed 77% of voters, including strong majorities of Republicans (92%), Independents (75%), and Democrats (63%) all support requiring voter ID. 64% of Black voters, 77% of Hispanics, and 76% of low-income voters reject the notion that presenting a form of ID at the ballot-box is a “burden.”
- NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist: 79% of voters believe government-issued photo I.D. should be required, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, whites and nonwhites.
- Pew: 76% of voters, including 61% of Democrats, favor “requiring all voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote.”
- CNN: 64% of voters believe requiring photo I.D. would make elections fairer.
- Associated Press: “Bipartisan agreement on requiring all voters to provide photo identification at their polling place.”
The Election Transparency Initiative, a partnership between the American Principles Project (APP) and Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America was organized to combat federal H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 legislation and advocate for state-based election reforms that voters can trust.
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