Law enforcement will be on the lookout for those attempting to illegally vote in the midterm elections Tuesday, and President Trump said anyone caught unlawfully attempting to vote would face legal consequences.
“Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesday’s Election (or Early Voting),” Trump posted to Twitter Monday morning. “Anyone caught will be subject to the Maximum Criminal Penalties allowed by law. Thank you!”
Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place in Tuesday’s Election (or Early Voting). Anyone caught will be subject to the Maximum Criminal Penalties allowed by law. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2018
The Justice Department released a statement Monday that said it would be sending personnel from the Civil Rights Division on Tuesday to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 35 jurisdictions and 19 states.
The Civil Rights Division makes sure that federal voting rights laws are being followed. These laws protect citizens’ rights to access polling places and ballots to cast their vote in elections.
“This year we are using every lawful tool that we have, both civil and criminal, to protect the rights of millions of Americans to cast their vote unimpeded at one of more than 170,000 precincts across America,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. “Citizens of America control this country through their selection of their governmental officials at the ballot box. Likewise, fraud in the voting process will not be tolerated. Fraud also corrupts the integrity of the ballot.”
According to the statement, the Civil Rights Division has regularly monitored elections and deployed personnel to different areas of the country to protect these voter rights.
Multiple studies, however, have found that voter fraud is rare and typically doesn’t happen on such a scale that it could sway an election one way or the other.
The Brennan Center for Justice released a report in Jan. 2017 that said an individual was more likely to be struck by lightning then impersonate another individual when voting. In fact, it found that the incident rate of voter fraud was somewhere between 0.0003 and 0.0025 percent.
PBS found when studying elections between 2000 and 2016 that the instance of voter fraud was only 0.0000044 percent.
Voter suppression has been a hot-button issue in the campaigns for the 2018 midterms.
Georgia Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp announced Sunday that Democrats are under investigation for allegedly attempting to hack the state’s voter registration files.
“While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cyber crimes,” said Candice Broce, Kemp’s press secretary, said in a statement just two days ahead of the elections. “We can also confirm that no personal data was breached and our system remains secure.”
Democrats said Kemp was abusing his power as attorney general and denounced the claim as bogus, the New York Times reported.
Native American tribes in North Dakota are also facing issues with voter suppression, especially those who live on reservations.
In order to vote, the state says that the about 5,000 Native American citizens who may want to vote must obtain a state-issued or tribal identification card showing their street address.
Many, if not most, of these citizens have their address listed as the post office box they use to collect their mail.
Native Americans could be turned away at polling places when they present their current ID, and absentee ballots also require a home address to be listed, not a post office box.