The liberal media are so desperate to find a single instance of so-called “voter suppression” that they’re resorting to suggesting voters incorrectly filling out forms and clerical snafus were evidence of Republicans stealing the right to vote from black Americans. Or, as they ridiculously call it, “Jim Crow 2.0.” This was the case on Tuesday afternoon's CNN Newsroom as they spoke with a Texas voter.
The segment was helmed by co-host Alisyn Camerota, who leaned on hyperbole to drive the narrative. She suggested “[t]he controversial voting law passed in Texas last year is already creating problems for voters,” and declared: “the worst fears are already coming to pass…”
For the supposedly blatant example of voter suppression, Camerota brought on Pam Gaskin of the League of Women Voters who had her application for a mail-in ballot rejected twice.
Oh, how horrible! She must the victim of a targeted effort to prevent her from voting!
But according to her own account, Gaskin filled the form out incorrectly. The first time, the elections officials for Fort Bend County had put up the form from 2021 instead of 2022:
The first rejection was because I downloaded the form from my county, Fort Bend County’s website and they had posted last year's form. So, the letter said “through no fault of yours, your application has been rejected.”
As NewsBusters described in our explainer video (embedded below) on the media’s big lie about “voter suppression,” this is a procedural mishap.
The second rejection was convoluted as Gaskin contradicted her own testimony. “This time 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 explained.
Gaskin admits that “they wanted me to include the last four digits of my social security number” but she instead used her driver’s license number despite knowing that “my driver's license number was not in my original voter record. I didn't use that to register to vote.”
“I mean, this is bureaucracy at its worst but it's also possible it's intentional impediments,” Camerota clownishly declared while shaking her head, after she herself couldn’t get Gaskin’s story straight (click “expand”):
CAMEROTA: Right! They want – Just be clear, they wanted you to include the same, I think, driver's license number from 46 years ago that you had used then, is that right?
GASKIN: No, they wanted me to include the last four digits of my social security number.
CAMEROTA: And had that changed in the past 42 years?
GASKIN: No. The problem is that my driver's license number was not in my original voter record. I didn't use that to register to vote.
Gaskin went on to argue that “the application is in-artfully and, I think, deliberately misleading.” And she then admitted she did end up getting her ballot after she filled the form out in its entirety:
It says you must include one of the following. The first one is your driver's license. I put that in. The next line says if you do not have a Texas driver's license, then put in the last four digits of your social. Well, I did that and guess what, I got rejected. The next time I filled it out, I just filled in every blank. Every blank that there was, I put an answer in it.
So, clearly, this case was a combination of poor housekeeping work by elections officials by keeping the wrong form on the website and a poorly filled out form. And perhaps the language on the document could be cleaned up. But again, these are procedural mishaps and not efforts to suppress the vote.
But that’s not how Gaskin would see it. Proclaiming herself “a super voter,” she grew indignant at the idea she may not have filled the form out correctly. “I know what the rules are. I follow the rules. I tell folks I have a degree from the University of Texas at Austin in English. I know how to read and follow directions,” she said.
But a short time later, she couldn’t remember the rules for who could apply for a mail-in ballot in Texas: “They're very few people in Texas who can vote by mail. You have to be 65 or over, which that's the class I fall into. Disabled, out of the county or -- I forgot what the last one is.”
And providing no evidence outside her own bungled application, Gaskin concluding by suggesting, “This law is, I think, intentionally, designed to allow legislators to pick their voters instead of voters to pick their legislators.”
These aren’t facts. They’re conjecture, which makes sense because this is CNN.
CNN’s false narrative about so-called “voter suppression” was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Sleep Number and Subway. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN Newsroom
February 15, 2022
3:19:55 p.m. EasternALISYN CAMEROTA: The controversial voting law passed in Texas last year is already creating problems for voters. Early voting there started yesterday. And by multiple accounts, the worst fears are already coming to pass with a big increase in reject ballots and problems with voter registrations. One election watcher put it this way, quote, “everything that can go wrong, has been going wrong.”
Joining me is Isabel Longoria elections administrator for Harris County, the largest county in Texas, which includes Houston. And Pam Gaskin, a long-time member of the League of Women Voters and the daughter of civil rights activists, who’s already encountering problems trying to vote.
Pam, I want to start with you because you are a dedicated voter. You vote in every election. You send away early for your absentee ballot. You’ve done this for years. This year, when you did it after the new law just passed, your application was rejected. Do you know why?
PAM GASKIN: Yes, I was actually rejected twice. The first rejection was because I downloaded the form from my county, Fort Bend County’s website and they had posted last year's form. So, the letter said “through no fault of yours, your application has been rejected.”
So, they put up a correct form. I downloaded the correct form. I filled it out and, voila, it got rejected again, a second time. This time 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.
CAMEROTA: Right! They want – Just be clear, they wanted you to include the same, I think, driver's license number from 46 years ago that you had used then, is that right?
GASKIN: No, they wanted me to include the last four digits of my social security number.
CAMEROTA: And had that changed in the past 42 years?
GASKIN: No. The problem is that my driver's license number was not in my original voter record. I didn't use that to register to vote.
CAMEROTA: (shaking her head): I mean, this is bureaucracy at its worst but it's also possible it's intentional impediments.
And Isabel as you listen to this, I mean, this is one woman's story who’s a dedicated voter. First, the form is wrong. Then they don't tell her exactly which form of ID she’s supposed to use. She's trying to download it, she tries to correct it online, it's not working. I mean, this is madness.
ISABEL LONGORIA: It's madness and I wish I could say Ms. Gaskin was an unfortunate anomaly in the system but it's not true. We're seeing 11 percent of our mail ballot applications being rejected for those same issues.
Either, as Ms. Gaskin said, having two numbers – both of them legal, both of them correct, both of them true – but because you didn't have to register with your driver's license in the past, you put down your social security number but now you put down your driver's license number because maybe you felt more secure with it, those numbers are good but they don't match each other and it's that kind of, as you put it, bureaucracy that red tape that is now leading to 11 percent of applications being rejected but also 40 percent of mail ballots, which have to have the same IDs on them now, being sent back in Harris County. And I think those statistics if I'm not incorrect are matching basically across Texas.
CAMEROTA: Pam, how did you feel when your application was rejected?
GASKIN: First, I was in shock and disbelief. I'm a super voter. I vote every time the polls are open. I have been on the board of directors for the League of Women Voters. I know what the rules are. I follow the rules. I tell folks I have a degree from the University of Texas at Austin in English. I know how to read and follow directions.
The application is in-artfully and, I think, deliberately misleading. It says you must include one of the following. The first one is your driver's license. I put that in. The next line says if you do not have a Texas driver's license, then put in the last four digits of your social. Well, I did that and guess what, I got rejected. The next time I filled it out, I just filled in every blank. Every blank that there was, I put an answer in it.
CAMEROTA: And did that work?
GASKIN: That worked. And I got my ballot. The first time I applied was January 3 and I got my ballot on January 31. It took 28 days and three tries.
CAMEROTA: We reached out to the leading Republican who was behind this new law, Senator Bryan Hughes to tell him about the problems that you were encountering, and he did not respond to CNN. So Pam, first to you, what do you want him to know?
GASKIN: Well, I want him to know that I too believe that we should not have voter fraud. But making it hard to vote is not the same thing as eliminating voter fraud. People who are -- They're very few people in Texas who can vote by mail. You have to be 65 or over, which that's the class I fall into. Disabled, out of the county or -- I forgot what the last one is.
However, we are already registered voters. When you apply for a ballot by mail, you are already a registered voter. So, it shouldn't – who’s trying to commit fraud here? This law is, I think, intentionally, designed to allow legislators to pick their voters instead of voters to pick their legislators.
CAMEROTA: Isabel, I’ll give you the last word, what do you want him to know?
LONGORIA: Absolutely. I hope the state legislature hears it when myself and other election officials testify about these bills. These are now the consequences, you know, of those well-predicted actions.
And so, I hope that the legislature takes this to heart in the next season but until then, my job is to jump through hoops so voters don't have to. And I'm sorry Ms. Gaskin you had to go through that and all we can do is try to prevent as many people going forward as we can here in Harris County.
CAMEROTA: Yeah. It sounds like you're going to be busy.
