Ahead of the elections this November, some Republicans have continued to opt for dirty tricks. Supermajorities in both chambers of the Kentucky state legislature passed a bill punitively requiring the presentation of government-issued ID when voting, but the state’s Democratic Governor, Andy Beshear, has now vetoed the proposal — although it’s worth noting that those supermajorities mean that the state legislature could likely vote to override Beshear’s veto and establish the requirement. Fundamentally, the requirement could keep lower income, marginalized, and even elderly voters from the chance to cast their ballots because they’re more likely not to have the accepted forms of ID.
Besides noting that citizens trying to obtain appropriate government identification amidst the Coronavirus pandemic because of the Republicans’ legislation could end up in harm’s way because of the spreading virus, Beshear commented:
‘I am vetoing Senate Bill 2 because the provisions of the law would create an obstacle to the ability of Kentuckians to exercise their right to vote, resulting in fewer people voting and undermining our democracy. Furthermore, no documented evidence of recent voter fraud in the form of impersonation in Kentucky has been presented.’
It’s true — President Donald Trump himself has repeatedly claimed that there’s some vast voter fraud conspiracy in the United States. At times, he’s even claimed that millions of illegal voters have been cast in a single election — which there is not a shred of evidence for.
Yet, he’s still been loudly spouting off about baselessly supposed voter fraud anyway. Just this week, he suggested — without evidence — that “a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting.” In fact, just last month, Donald Trump himself requested an absentee ballot in Florida for the state’s presidential primary! Is he the one who he’s referring to when he makes vague, unsupported claims about fraud?
Republicans in Kentucky have also kept up with the raging. Secretary of State Michael Adams (R) insisted after Beshear’s veto:
‘I ask the legislators of both parties who believe in election integrity and passed this law to override this regrettable veto, and I hope the governor will eventually join me in governing from the center.’
His implication that opposing punitive voter ID is “extremist” is completely false.
Beshear got elected to his current position in a 2019 race against Trump ally Matt Bevin, who the president campaigned for. Beshear promptly got to work undoing Bevin policies like the imposition of a work requirement on Medicaid recipients, which could have punitively kept people in Kentucky away from the lifesaving resources that they need.
Heading into November, Democrats have been advocating for expanded vote-by-mail in order to help safeguard Americans against the possibility of the Coronavirus spreading at polling stations. A slew of Democratic presidential primaries throughout the year have already been postponed — although some states, like Florida in March and Wisconsin this week, have gone ahead and held their primaries, adding to the patchwork quality of the Coronavirus response across the United States. The U.S. has already suffered some 8,300 deaths and counting from the virus.
