Recently, I learned that a member of my family was not able to vote in the mid-term elections as s/he was deemed “inactive” despite voting in the past two elections. I posted this on social media and people said, “All you have to do is fill out a form.” WRONG. My family member continues to seek an answer, a solution, a vote.

Any American should be floored by this.

In my world, I talk politics with my safe people- friends, co-workers, and people in the world willing to have an open-minded discussion. I shy away from being too public due to my job, as the organization for which I work is non-partisan and I want to make sure all people feel comfortable and safe. The situation with my family member is one that I am talking about publicly, as this impacts ALL of us.

Here are the words from the person impacted by this situation:

Democracy as a form of government is an ideal. Countries orbit nearer and farther away from this ideal yet are held in the grip of the fundamental attraction of this form of government, namely that it derives its right to rule from a mandate of its constituents rather than from heredity, religion, or force. Countries ebb and flow in their appeal to ‘a democratic ideal’ but sacred is the right of citizens to be able to engage the process: i.e.: the right to vote.

The Republican Party has undertaken a project to restrict eligible Americans from voting. Despite the long-standing National Voter Registration Act which expressly prohibits targeting voters for removal for failure to vote, the Ohio state government run by Republicans had their aggressive efforts to purge its voting rolls – arguing without evidence that they are needed to combat what they say is widespread voter fraud – supported this summer by the Supreme Court (Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute). Immediately similar legislative maneuvers started happening is a number of states (at last count, more than 18), and almost all Southern ones.

For example, Georgia Secretary of State, Brian Kemp (R) in the last 12 months has overseen purges that removed 1.3 million voters (18% of eligible voters in GA; almost 1 in 5 Georgians!) from the rolls. Just under 417,000 (30%) were removed because they were deceased, ineligible felons, duplicative registrants, had moved out of state, or for other legitimate reasons. The vast majority — more than 850,000 (70%) – were simply made ineligible to vote in the mid-terms. While they can go through a long process of re-registering, they will miss the election cycle, which is notable in that Brian Kemp the Republican candidate for Governor.

Why? The answer is simple, effective, and nefarious. Such methods disproportionately affect those who are less politically active: the elderly, infirm, poor, and minorities. And this is precisely the point. Voter suppression is a strategy to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting. It is not an attempt to address the cases of voter fraud, it is to make ineligible as many people as it can as this will have a disproportionate effect on those who tend to vote for the Democratic Party.

More than several studies in Political Science have verified this again and again.  The incident of ‘voter fraud’ in which a vote is deemed not from an eligible American voter is about 0.0025% (aka: 0.000025). Nearly all of these have been traced to clerical errors or bad data matching practices rather than the impersonation of another voter. The Washington Post found 31 credible instances of impersonation fraud from 2000 to 2014, out of more than 1 billion ballots cast (31/1,000,000,000 = a rate of 0.000000031). In a series of studies out of Arizona State University, in states where politicians have specifically argued that fraud is a serious problem, they found zero successful prosecutions for impersonation fraud from 2012-2016. Combatting voter fraud is not the goal. It is to limit Americans’ right to vote.

I have long supported everyone in my family to be politically active. I don’t care who you vote for, just be engaged. I would support real efforts with getting our elections in shape. There are a number of valid concerns from proper registration, the actual counting and accounting of voting, and polling availability. Therefore, the efforts made by the Republican Party are not just dirty tactics, to me this as an American and a Political Scientist, this practice is anti-democratic. It goes against fundamental values of America. It is anti-American. I note that this ‘destroying a village to save it’ approach affects Republican voters as well. But the primary aim is the numbers at the end. Those unfortunate Republicans are merely collateral damage in the greater game of winning at all costs.

Voter fraud does not meaningful exist. Voter suppression is an anti-democratic tactic. Eligible voters made to challenge their ineligibility – often not knowing they are ineligible until they go to vote and find that it is too late – is not an unfortunate casualty of electoral politics, it is another brick that falls out of the wall of democracy.

I am writing this to you as I went to vote the other day and found that I have been ‘purged’ (their word) for inactivity despite having voted in the last two national elections. I will not be able to vote in the mid-term elections on November 6. The Republican Party efforts to misshape the representative process in America has stripped me of the most fundamental right as a democratic citizen. I can handle the nastiness but being denied the opportunity to undertake this important act as a democratic citizen is an affront to me and to those that mean it when they say ‘democracy’.

I hold the Republican Party, its enablers, and voters in contempt for having taken my right to vote. You can no longer say that you do not know and I encourage you to consider your support for those who take such anti-democratic actions. Which is more important short-term victory or the long-term deterioration of a democratic nation?

I do not write looking for an answer. I am simply making you aware that I am very, very angry. From now on, passivity in the face of these and other anti-democratic actions will not be accommodated.

Enough is enough.

I stand with my family member. I won’t be silent. I will stand for what is right. So if you have the privilege of voting (although it should be a right), I hope you don’t vote straight party. Be informed about the candidates. If you don’t know, research it from a reliable source- not for the one that wave’s your team’s flag at all cost.

“Must be George Soros’s fault.”