'How Politico's Negligence and Ignorance Helped Float Another DHS Lie'
(TPM) "Voting rights, voter intimidation and the politics of voting have been central themes of TPM reporting going back more than 25 years. Over a quarter century you develop a lot of institutional knowledge. Today we’re seeing some of the most egregious journalistic negligence, sloppiness and ignorance helping propel forward the Trump White House’s assault on the integrity of the 2026 midterms. The piece I want to point you to this evening is Politico’s claim that DHS found 'thousands of non-citizens on voter rolls in California and three other states.' "
"Versions of this claim have been made repeatedly by various right-wing groups and sometimes government agencies. In every case the original claims fall apart on closer scrutiny. In most cases they involve crudely cross-referenced databases in which similar names lead to misidentified individuals, or former non-citizens are listed on old databases who have subsequently been naturalized. In some cases, it’s sloppiness. In other cases, it’s malicious disregard designed to generate false claims."
"The key point is that there’s a long history of these claims and an equally long history of these claims falling apart in the face of the most basic scrutiny. Indeed, there have been repeated instances of detailed audits in red states, run by marquee Republican elected officials, who haven’t been able to come up with more than a handful of non-citizens on voting rolls. It’s even more rare that any of them actually vote. (That’s important because there are various ways non-citizens can end up on voter rolls through things like motor voter auto-enrollment. And being on a voter roll doesn’t mean anyone actually voted.) If you know anything about this topic you know these claims always fall apart."
"The Politico article notes that this is what DHS says. They don’t independently vouch for the claim. But I was surprised that they made no note of the history I explain above. Indeed, they don’t make the most cursory effort to examine the evidence. Indeed, the DHS claim of hundreds of thousands of non-citizens on voter rolls is based on the claim being made in 'a draft press release viewed Thursday by POLITICO.' "
Article at link:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/how-politicos-negligence-and-ignorance-helped-float-another-dhs-lie