For more than 15 years, Right Wing Watch has covered right-wing activist Ken Blackwell and his efforts to make it harder for people to vote. Back in 2004, Blackwell served as Ohio’s secretary of state, where he used the power of his office to “disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Ohio citizens, predominantly Minority and Democratic voters” to benefit the reelection of President George W. Bush. Today, Blackwell works for the religious-right group the Family Research Council, where he leads the organization’s “election integrity” effort which, predictably, is primarily focused on making voting more difficult.
Blackwell served as a member of former President Donald Trump’s farcical and short-lived “commission on election integrity,” which sought to prove Trump’s baseless claims that he lost the popular vote in 2016 only because of supposed voter fraud. After Trump lost the 2020 election, Blackwell was among the right-wing activists who refused to accept the results and worked tirelessly to overturn them.
Given Blackwell’s well-documented history of seeking to disenfranchise voters and prevent their voices from being heard, it is no surprise that he is outraged by policies in places like New York and Pennsylvania that automatically register people to vote.
Appearing on “Washington Watch” with FRC president Tony Perkins yesterday, Blackwell actually complained that automatically registering people to vote is taking away the freedom of people who don’t want to register to vote.
“This administration is attacking citizenship,” Blackwell said. “They in fact are creating, like in New York and Pennsylvania, automatic voter registration where, in fact, they take away the freedom of people to make a choice as to whether or not they want to be registered.”
Perkins agreed, warning that “if somebody doesn’t want to vote,” automatic voter registration “allows somebody to vote illegally for them.”
Only someone resolutely dedicated to making it more difficult to vote would have the gall to argue with a straight face that efforts to make it easier to vote infringe are “attacking citizenship.”
| Every day, Right Wing Watch exposes extremism to help the public, activists, and journalists understand the strategies and tactics of anti-democratic forces—and respond to an increasingly aggressive and authoritarian far-right movement. The threat is growing, but our resources are not. Any size contribution will help us continue our work and become more effective at disrupting the ideologies, people, and organizations that threaten our freedom and democracy. Please make an investment in Right Wing Watch’s defense of the values we share. |
