The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity was in New Hampshire on Tuesday to look into the state’s same-day voting system. And in the wake of their inquiries, the liberals of MSNBC were up in arms with claims of voter suppression and denials of voter fraud existing at all. But Commentary magazine Editor John Podhoretz laid out the facts regarding the reality of voter fraud during MSNBC’s MTP Daily.
After coming back from a commercial break, moderator Chuck Todd played a clip of Kansas Secretary State Kris Kobach, the vice chairman of the commission explaining why they were there:
Simply looking at some of the numbers, hard statistics about individuals who used an out of state driver's license to vote on the same day, register and vote on the same day in New Hampshire. This has been an issue the legislature has been grappling with for some time here.
Todd quickly handed the floor to Voto Latino President Maria Teresa Kumar so she could smear Kobach and the commission with claims of targeted voter suppression. “It speaks to a larger narrative. Kris Kobach wants to figure out how to prevent young people and disproportionately people of color, and poor people from participating at the rolls,” she asserted with no evidence.
In obvious agreement, Todd questioned Kobach’s motives as he turned to Podhoretz. “He's trying to conflate. He knows this was not fraud that was perpetrated in New Hampshire,” Todd claimed. “Yes, you can say students made the difference between Maggie Hasan and Kelly Ayotte. Okay. But it was perfectly legal.”
“Okay, but look. There are problems with the voter rolls. I'm sorry, I know this is like not something you're supposed to say,” Podhoretz mocked them. “I am myself registered to vote in two different places in New York City. Because I lived in Brooklyn. I now live in Manhattan. I get mailings from both.” And as though to derail him a little bit, Todd joked that Podhoretz wasn’t hip since he moved out of Brooklyn.
And to get back to his point, Podhoretz noted that he’s “not off the rolls in Brooklyn Heights. In theory, I could go right back to my polling place from 2000.”
At that point, the panel was triggered and tried to talk over him. But he did not relent:
PODHORETZ: The point I'm trying to make is: In a razor thin election, like let's say the Wellstone/Franken—the Franken/Coleman election in 2008. That was won by 350 votes. You think out of 11 million votes, there's not, there are not 350 questionable votes being cast? It is preposterous.
[Crosstalk]
PODHORETZ: It’s preposterous to claim that's not a plausible theory. The Democrats are now in the position of arguing that there is no voter fraud whatsoever in the United States. 130 million people are voting.
“We know as a matter of statistics that one percent of votes are either spoiled or false or wrongly cast or potentially fraudulent,” he added. “It may be to clean these rolls and go after voter fraud the way they’re going at it is draconian and intended to benefit one side and on side only, that doesn't mean this is not an issue.”
Transcript below:
MSNBC
MTP Daily
September 12, 2017
5:51:11 PM EasternKRIS KOBACH: Simply looking at some of the numbers, hard statistics about individuals who used an out of state driver's license to vote on the same day, register and vote on the same day in New Hampshire. This has been an issue the legislature has been grappling with for some time here.
CHUCK TODD: Welcome back. That was Kanas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the vice chair of President Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity explaining one of the reasons he took the panel all the way up to New Hampshire today.
(…)
First, New Hampshire is a same day voter registration state. It drives some Republicans crazy that college campuses in New Hampshire get to see a surge of new voter registrations on those days. They use out of state IDs. This is what he was trying to highlight. It is not voter fraud. It is certainly a different decision that New Hampshire does that other states don’t. Where is this headed?
MARIA TERESA KUMAR: I mean, the majority of states do allow for folks that are out of state as long as they are paying tuition and they are demonstrating they are living there.
(…)
KUMAR: But the fact it has been certified. And what he’s saying. He's trying to push this narrative that there is voter fraud when the secretary of state is saying there has not been voter fraud. This is legitimate voters. It speaks to a larger narrative. Kris Kobach wants to figure out how to prevent young people and disproportionately people of color, and poor people from participating at the rolls.
(…)
TODD: John, it does feel like he's trying conflate. He knows this was not fraud that was perpetrated in New Hampshire. Yes, you can say students made the difference between Maggie Hasan and Kelly Ayotte. Okay. But it was perfectly legal.
JOHN PODHORETZ: Okay, but look. There are problems with the voter rolls. I'm sorry, I know this is like not something you're supposed to say. I am myself registered to vote in two different places in New York City. Because I lived in Brooklyn. I now live in Manhattan. I get mailings from both.
TODD: He’s no longer hip. He’s no longer hip. Since you left Brooklyn.
PODHORETZ: Totally unhip, that’s exactly right. But I am not off the rolls in Brooklyn Heights. In theory, I could go right back to my polling place from 2000–
KUMAR: Nobody is arguing –
PODHORETZ: The point I'm trying to make is: In a razor thin election, like let's say the Wellstone/Franken—the Franken/Coleman election in 2008. That was won by 350 votes. You think out of 11 million votes, there's not, there are not 350 questionable votes being cast? It is preposterous.
[Crosstalk]
PODHORETZ: It’s preposterous to claim that's not a plausible theory. The Democrats are now in the position of arguing that there is no voter fraud whatsoever in the United States. 130 million people are voting.
(…)
KATY TUR: You have to look at the independent studies down this. You might say there are questionable cases and people don't argue there are questionable cases. But there have been so few cases that have been questionable that have proven to have resulted in fraud. I mean, there's a Loyola City that said out of a billion votes cast, it could find 30 questionable cases. The Brennan Center.
PODHORETZ: The Brendan center is not independent. Come on that liberal Democratic institution.
[Crosstalk]
PODHORETZ: It is beyond logic to say that in a country in which 130 million votes are cast, that there is not voter fraud. We know as a matter of statistics that one percent of votes are either spoiled or false or wrongly cast or potentially fraudulent. It may be to clean these rolls and go after voter fraud the way they’re going at it is draconian and intended to benefit one side and on side only, that doesn't mean this is not an issue.
(…)
