Democrats Just Lost the Narrative on Voter Fraud
New Jersey officials confirmed over 6,600 illegal immigrants were registered to vote due to what the governor called a software error, though the vendor IDEMIA rejected blame and said the state is responsible.
According to Joe Concha writing in Washington Examiner, Democrats and legacy media have consistently pushed the same talking point for years: illegal immigrants either don’t vote in America, or do so in such insignificant numbers that it makes no difference to election outcomes.
That narrative collapsed this week when New Jersey officials confirmed the disturbing revelation. Governor Mikie Sherrill attributed the mass registration to a “software error” that predated her administration.
But the company being blamed is rejecting that explanation outright.
IDEMIA, a French multinational firm specializing in biometrics and cryptography for identity services, had secured a contract with New Jersey’s Department of Motor Vehicles several years ago. The company issued a statement making clear where responsibility lies.
The voter registration data is sent to the New Jersey Department of State, Division of Elections, which holds ultimate responsibility for verifying voter eligibility, IDEMIA explained. Information submitted by the company must still be validated and approved by the Division of Elections. IDEMIA’s function is merely to transmit information through the motor vehicle system.
In short, IDEMIA maintains it simply processed voter information provided by the state and had no role in placing more than 6,600 illegal voters onto New Jersey’s rolls.
Despite the significance of this development, the scandal is already being quietly buried by most legacy media outlets, many of which are dismissing it as an isolated incident that doesn’t point to any broader systemic problem.
As of Friday afternoon, the New York Times had published exactly one article on the scandal, which uncritically accepted Sherrill’s version that the software company was responsible for the “error.”
On the cable news front, CNN has largely used the story to continue arguing that President Donald Trump is promoting a voter fraud narrative that doesn’t exist beyond a few minor examples with no real electoral impact.
ABC News has followed a similar editorial line.
The coverage comes after Trump delivered a primetime address on July 16 making the case that voter fraud is a serious problem deserving bipartisan attention.
Every American should be able to agree that we deserve the most secure, honest, and fair election system anywhere in the world, Trump stated during the speech, calling for unity across party lines on election security.
Viewers of ABC, NBC, or CNN never saw the president’s remarks live that evening. Those networks refused to carry the address, apparently concerned about their inability to edit or fact-check Trump in real time. Afterward, the speech received immediate dismissal and ridicule from the same media figures who spent years insisting without evidence that Russia had stolen the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton—a claim thoroughly debunked by the Mueller report three years later.
CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter compared discussion of Trump’s speech to talking about explosive diarrhea cases across the country, calling it gross, ugly, and something that should be stopped. He suggested networks faced a difficult decision about whether to show it live or interrupt if lies became too serious, adding that coverage should start from the premise that most Americans disapprove of Trump and don’t believe his election claims.
ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl went further, claiming that the intelligence community—in documents Trump himself declassified—assessed that falsely convincing Americans their elections had been rigged would be among the most damaging actions a foreign adversary could take. Karl accused Trump of attempting to do exactly that over nearly six years, most dramatically on Thursday night.
The New Jersey voter registration scandal raises fundamental questions about election security that extend far beyond one state’s borders, questions that apparently make the political establishment and their media allies deeply uncomfortable.
With information from Washington Examiner
