Today, PoliticsNation host Al Sharpton was joined by Wisconsin Democratic state senator John Erpenbach and Marty McBeale, executor director of AFSCME 24, to discuss the Wisconsin recall election. As the election nears, a number of high-level Republicans and right-wing media outlets are claiming that "voter fraud" will allow Democrats to steal the election. Embattled Republican governor Scott Walker, who is fighting a recall, even claimed that voting fraud may account for "one or two points" of the election results.
"It's a completely made-up issue," said Erpenbach. "A few years ago a Republican attorney general did an investigation into voter fraud allegations in Wisconsin. They found eleven cases. Eight of those were convicted felons that a photo ID would've never caught to begin with. And three of them were actual cases of fraud. Three cases of fraud and they were prosecuted. We have laws on the book already. Voter fraud is all about voter suppression, and the Republicans know that."
Last week, Rachel Maddow pointed out that if Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus's claim that there will be one or two points of voter fraud in Wisconsin was true, that would mean "he’s talking about something like tens of thousands of votes," and no one has produced evidence of such elaborate fraud. A bigger problem than non-existent voter fraud is voter suppression, where onerous voter ID laws could disenfranchise thousands of young people, minorities, and the poor and other traditional Democratic voting blocs.