Ken Cuccinelli, the former acting deputy secretary for Homeland Security, is ripping Democrats for manufacturing a "myth of widespread voter suppression in order to impose a federal takeover of elections."
Cuccinelli’s comments came in a column posted by Fox News on Friday.
"If you listened solely to Democratic talking points, including the so-called mainstream media, you would be convinced that America is a systemically racist nation and that Republicans are somehow hell bent on disenfranchising large swaths of voters," he said. "Both of these notions are patently false."
"When the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, voter registration and voters turnout by minorities – specifically Black Americans – were the measure of whether voter suppression was taking place in a state. A moment’s consideration would lead an ordinary American to conclude those are sensible metrics to gauge minority voter suppression."
Cuccinelli, who is now leading the Election Transparency Initiative, said the Democrats developed the "myth of voter suppression" just so they could take over federal elections.
"The instrument of their proposed federal control over election law was introduced (and never passed) in the last Congress as H.R. 4, the ‘John Lewis Voting Rights bill,’" he said. "The biggest, but not the only, major change is that H.R. 4 would reinstitute the practice of requiring federal preclearance (i.e., federal permission) for any state election change, no matter how minor."
He maintained that preclearance had been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2013. And he claimed H.R. 4 is an attempt by Democrats to go around the court.
"The purpose of H.R. 4 is not to protect voting rights, it is to stop voting reforms going on in the states that are making our elections more transparent, secure and accountable," he said.
"Democrats and their allies in the media would have you believe that rampant and systemic voter suppression is one of the most crucial issues facing our nation. This assertion is quite simply false
"In reality, H.R. 4 is nothing but a power grab by congressional Democrats aimed at taking election powers away from the states. The takeover of all election reforms and redistricting by federal bureaucrats with a radical agenda under the guise of voter protection would set America back."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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