For all the liberal media’s efforts to claim the Republican Party was trying to scare its base to the polls, they were really working hard to paint the GOP as racist bogeymen. During Thursday’s CBS Evening News, the broadcast network parroted Democratic talking points, asserting the GOP was purging the voter rolls in Georgia of minorities.
With no apparent effort to corroborate the claims or explain how the voting processes worked, anchor Jeff Glor kicked off the segment by declaring: “The Democratic candidate charges the Republican is working to suppress minority voting. Republicans say they are trying to stop voter fraud.”
Chief congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes tipped her hand right at the start of the report with a soundbite of one black woman telling her “the votes are being purged.” The CBS reporter followed that up by saying “the right to vote” was one of the biggest issues for Georgia in 2018.
“Democrat Stacy Abrams, who is vying to become the nation's first female African American governor, accuses her GOP opponent, Brian Kemp, of trying to restrict black voting,” Cordes repeated. She threw suspicion on GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp because he “currently serves as secretary of state, which means he runs Georgia's election system.”
“Democrats say he has dropped more than one million voters from the rolls since 2012,” she parroted. “[S]huttered polling places in African American communities, and championed the state's new ‘exact match’ law, which put the registrations of 53,000 voters, most of them minorities, on hold.” To also illustrate where she was coming from, Cordes also cited statistics from the leftist Brennen Center for Justice.
There was seemingly little research done into what the law actually did since Cordes was clearly relying on things “Democrats say.” “Kemp's campaign declined our request for an interview, but on Fox News, he insisted ‘exact match’ won't prevent people from casting their ballots...Election experts say the policy could still cause confusion.” she noted without saying who the “election experts” she talked to were.
But there really was nothing to be confused about. While Cordes seemingly refused to look into the law, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution did the digging:
In a letter describing the process earlier this year, the state Attorney General’s Office said voters are actually removed from the rolls only after they have not had any contact with election officials in Georgia for a minimum of seven years and they have not returned a notice to confirm their residence.
Clearly, there were stop gaps and efforts to protect people who were registered. And regarding those 53,000 voters, Cordes was worried for, reporting by The AJC stated “can cast a ballot if they show a government photo ID that substantially matches the registration application.”
And if they didn’t have one of the six forms of acceptable ID (“a state driver’s license, a state or federal ID card, a valid employee ID from any government agency, a U.S. passport, a U.S. military ID or a tribal photo ID”), they can still fill out a provisional ballot.
To make Cordes’ report even sillier, it came directly after a segment by foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata about the upcoming elections in Afghanistan. There, he reported that voting places had been shut down due to bomb threats by the Taliban and a candidate was killed when a bomb hidden in his couch exploded.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
October 18, 2018
6:42 p.m. EasternJEFF GLOR: 18 days now until the midterm elections in this country and early voting has begun in Georgia which is electing a new governor. The Democratic candidate charges the Republican is working to suppress minority voting. Republicans say they are trying to stop voter fraud. Here's Nancy Cordes.
[Cuts to vide]
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN 1: The votes are being purged.
NANCY CORDES: The talk of the Georgia governor's race right now isn't the economy or jobs. It's the right to vote. Democrat Stacy Abrams, who is vying to become the nation's first female African American governor, accuses her GOP opponent, Brian Kemp, of trying to restrict black voting. You think this is voter suppression?
STACY ABRAMS: It is absolutely voter suppression.
BRIAN KEMP (on Fox News): Oh, that's a smoke screen trying to hide her radical views.
CORDES: Kemp currently serves as secretary of state, which means he runs Georgia's election system. Democrats say he has dropped more than 1 million voters from the rolls since 2012, shuttered polling places in African American communities, and championed the state's new "exact match" law, which put the registrations of 53,000 voters, most of them minorities, on hold.
The new law suspends Georgians from the voter rolls if there is any discrepancy in the way their name is spelled in state databases, even something as simple as a missing hyphen is enough to keep them off the list. For Marsha Appling Nunez it was a missing letter "A."
MARSHA APPLING NUNEZ: I just assumed because evidence a registered voter and have been since I was 18 that I would always be in the system, that I was active, that it would be enough.
CORDES: Kemp's campaign declined our request for an interview, but on Fox News, he insisted exact match won't prevent people from casting their ballots.
KEMP: All they have to do is go to the polls, show their photo I.D., and they can vote.
CORDES: Election experts say the policy could still cause confusion. These Abrams supporters say the controversy has made them more motivated to vote.
DORIS LAMPKIN: Everyone that I can call on this phone, I've been burning it up hot.
CORDES: Nancy Cordes, CBS News, Hinesville, Georgia.
