Early voting in Texas has been going on for a week but Monday’s Good Morning America on ABC highlighted a supposed voter suppression case where they complained it took the woman “28 days” to cast her ballot. It was the case of Pam Gaskin, the same woman CNN highlighted last week with the same convoluted, conflicting, and now-evolving story about how Republicans were suppressing her right to vote because she filled out the application incorrectly.
“[M]ore than a dozen states across the country have already passed laws making it tougher for people to vote. But we're getting the test of that in Texas where one voter says it took her 28 days before she could finally cast her ballot,” announced congressional correspondent Rachel Scott at that top of the segment while failing to disclose Gaskin's history as an elections activist, which she bragged about on CNN.
Complete with emotional music in the background, Scott told the story of Gaskin and her husband (who wasn’t mentioned in the CNN report):
SCOTT: 74-year-old Pam Gaskin has been voting by mail for nearly a decade. She says it's never been this hard to cast her ballot.
Have you ever experienced anything like this before?
GASKIN: No. [Transition] You don’t know which way to turn.
SCOTT: Pam and her husband Michael who suffers from Parkinson's Disease were denied ballots twice. And they are among thousands of voters who have had ballot applications rejected in Texas.
Of course, Scott didn’t include the part of the story where Gaskin told CNN she had downloaded the wrong ballot application form from the local elections website (the officials had either the wrong form up or failed to update with the new one). This was the first time her application was rejected.
But that didn’t stop Scott from complaining that the problem was that the form required extra information to verify the identity of the person requesting a ballot:
One reason, for the first time, voters are required to submit their social security number or driver's license number and it has to be the same form of I.D. they used when they registered to vote. For Pam that was 46 years ago.
“I'm 74 years old. I certainly didn't remember what I put on my application,” Gaskin told Scott. But that’s not what she told CNN.
Last week, she told CNN the second rejection was “because I did not include the form of ID that was used when I originally registered to vote which was 46 years ago in this county.” She admitted they “they wanted me to include the last four digits of my social security number” but she wrote down her driver’s license number instead, despite knowing “I didn't use that to register to vote.”
According to Gaskin, on her third attempt, she wrote down both her Social Security number and her driver’s license number. She was approved.
“It took three forms, 28 days, several calls, and some guessing before her mail-in voter was accepted,” Scott proclaimed, failing to note that the early voting window only opened last Monday (and runs until the 25th).
Scott made it clear that her concern was the proliferation of election integrity laws. She even dipped into deeper conspiracy theory territory by suggesting this was a “test run” for the midterm elections.
But on CNN, Gaskin suggested the form was “in-artfully” written. So, if the form could be more succinct, that would get worked out before the midterms.
ABC harping on the Big Lie of voter suppression was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from GEICO and Hyundai. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s World News Tonight
February 21, 2022
8:16:02 a.m. Eastern[On-screen headline: Texas’ strict new voting laws: Civil rights orgs fear that new rules will hinder black vote]
EVA PILGRIM: Well, now to marking Black History Month and President's Day with early voting underway in Texas. Deep concerns about the new laws that many people say makes it harder for people to cast their votes. Rachel Scott is back with more on the changes and the impact they are having. Good morning again, Rachel.
RACHEL SCOTT: Hey Eva, good morning. So, more than a dozen states across the country have already passed laws making it tougher for people to vote. But we're getting the test of that in Texas where one voter says it took her 28 days before she could finally cast her ballot.
[Cuts to video]
This morning with Texas voters heading to the polls for the nation's first primary --
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN 1: Get out and vote.
SCOTT: The state's new and strict election law is being put to the test.
What was the first thing that crossed your mind when you learned of the new election laws in the state of Texas?
PAM GASKIN: Jim Crow 2.0.
SCOTT: 74-year-old Pam Gaskin has been voting by mail for nearly a decade. She says it's never been this hard to cast her ballot. [Emotional music]
Have you ever experienced anything like this before?
GASKIN: No. [Transition] You don’t know which way to turn.
SCOTT: Pam and her husband Michael who suffers from Parkinson's Disease were denied ballots twice. And they are among thousands of voters who have had ballot applications rejected in Texas.
One reason, for the first time, voters are required to submit their social security number or driver's license number and it has to be the same form of I.D. they used when they registered to vote. For Pam that was 46 years ago.
GASKIN: I'm 74 years old. I certainly didn't remember what I put on my application.
SCOTT: It took three forms, 28 days, several calls, and some guessing before her mail-in voter was accepted.
GASKIN: These laws were to stop certain classes and categories of people from voting.
SCOTT: Across the country, 19 states have passed laws that make it tougher for people to vote. Civil rights organizations sounding the alarm.
MIMI MARZIANI (Texas Civil Rights Project, pres./CEO): We've seen extraordinary results coming from the power of the black community in Texas. And unfortunately, it is exactly because of that power that we've seen state officials react by trying to make voting more difficult for that community.
SCOTT: Republicans in Texas insist the new law protects the integrity of elections. Some voters support the changes.
In your opinion these new changes you see them as helping protect elections?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN 2: Yes, I do. I don't want any fraud.
SCOTT: But Pam worries others won't go to the lengths she did to cast their ballot.
GASKIN: I want everybody who can hear me say this to hear this, it is worth it. It is worth it. Don't give up. Don't give in.
[Cuts back to live]
SCOTT: So, some civil rights organizations say that this is a test run for that new election law, but they say what's even more concerning is that some states are looking to copy it ahead of the midterm elections. Eva.
PILGRIM: And the thing we all know: just how important it is for everyone to vote. Rachel Scott for us, there. Thank you.
