{"id":31961,"date":"2017-01-26T17:05:49","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T21:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=31961"},"modified":"2017-01-26T17:05:49","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T21:05:49","slug":"31961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31961.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump Must Not Have Read the Pew Report He Cited"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So much has happened in the past week. I\u2019ve watched in dismay as\u00a0Trump has signed executive orders and gagged federal employees. I can\u2019t cover everything, but I did want to draw attention to a specific piece I noticed\u2014and to see what we can learn from it. Trump has promised to launch an investigation into voter fraud, and especially into his claims that millions of illegal immigrants voted in last year\u2019s\u00a0election.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s this, from the transcript<\/a> of Trump\u2019s interview with ABC:<\/p>\n

DAVID MUIR: You say you\u2019re gonna launch an investigation.<\/p>\n

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Sure, done.<\/p>\n

DAVID MUIR: What you have presented so far has been debunked. It\u2019s been called\u00a0false.<\/p>\n

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, it hasn\u2019t. Take a look at the Pew reports.<\/p>\n

DAVID MUIR: I called the author of the Pew report last night. And he told me that they found no evidence of voter\u00a0fraud.<\/p>\n

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Really? Then why did he write the report?<\/p>\n

DAVID MUIR: He said no evidence of voter fraud.<\/p>\n

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Excuse me, then why did he write the report?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What is this Pew report? It\u2019s this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Inaccurate, Costly, and Inefficient:\u00a0Evidence That America\u2019s Voter Registration System Needs an Upgrade<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our democratic process requires an effective system for maintaining accurate voter registration information. Voter registration lists are used to assign precincts, send sample ballots, provide polling place information, identify\u00a0and verify voters at polling places, and determine how resources, such as paper ballots and voting machines, are deployed on Election Day. However, these systems are plagued with errors and inefficiencies that waste taxpayer dollars, undermine voter confidence, and fuel partisan disputes over the integrity of our elections.<\/p>\n

Voter registration in the United States largely reflects its 19th-century origins and has not kept pace with advancing technology and a mobile society. States\u2019 systems must be brought into the 21st century to be more accurate, cost-effective, and efficient.<\/p>\n

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Research commissioned by the Pew Center on the States highlights the extent of the challenge:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Approximately 24 million\u2014one of every eight\u2014voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate.<\/li>\n
  • More than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as voters.<\/li>\n
  • Approximately 2.75 million people have registrations in more than one state.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Meanwhile, researchers estimate at least 51 million eligible U.S. citizens are unregistered, or more than 24 percent of the eligible population.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    The report uses the term \u201cfraud\u201d exactly once:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    The inability of this paper-based process to keep up with voters as they move or die can lead to problems with the rolls, including the perception that they lack integrity or could be susceptible to fraud.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    There is nothing in the report\u2014literally nothing<\/em>\u2014about voter fraud.<\/p>\n

    In his interview, Trump asks why the report was written, if there was no evidence of voter fraud.\u00a0You need only to read the report to answer the question, which I am convinced Trump has not. The\u00a0report raises\u00a0numerous problems, such as voters\u00a0being purged from voter rolls after not voting in several elections, or voters\u00a0moving and assuming that their registration would switch automatically (it does not). At issue is a general lack of efficiency that costs taxpayers money, takes up an excess of election officials\u2019 time, and leaves eligible voters inadvertently without access to the polls.<\/p>\n

    Trump\u2019s response, in the end, was as follows:<\/p>\n

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: According to Pew report, then he\u2019s \u2014 then he\u2019s groveling again. You know, I always talk about the reporters that grovel when they wanna write something that you wanna hear but not necessarily millions of people wanna hear or have to hear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The report was not authored by a reporter.<\/p>\n

    Out of everything going on right now, why am I calling attention to this seemingly small piece? Because, in some small way, I find it illustrative of what is going on right now. There is a complete disregard of facts. There is also a lack of reading, and a lack of interest in actual understanding.<\/p>\n

    The Pew report Trump called attention to is indeed an interesting one, and it raises important points about inefficiencies in our voter registration system. I\u2019ve heard these points made by others, too\u2014for instance, some have\u00a0argued (and persuasively) that we should have universal voter registration, so that you don\u2019t have anyone prevented from voting because they didn\u2019t register in time. And yet, we have a president who is insisting (in blatant disregard of reality) that the Pew report is about voter fraud (it is not). Indeed, the report doesn\u2019t mention anything about undocumented\u00a0immigrants voting, which is central to Trump\u2019s completely unverified\u00a0claims about voter fraud.<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s another piece of this, too\u2014Trump won the election. Why continue to make claims about voter fraud? Trump has claimed, for example, that he would have won the popular vote if \u201cmillions\u201d of undocumented immigrants had not voted illegally (all for Hillary, he says). This isn\u2019t about efficiency or about ensuring our election system runs well. If it were, he would know what the Pew report actually says. It\u2019s not even about party politics at this point; Paul Ryan and others have called his allegations ridiculous. No, my friends. It\u2019s about ego.<\/p>\n

    As we enter a\u00a0Trump administration, there are quite a few things we\u2019re going to have to bear in mind. One is that facts do not matter to Trump. Reality does not matter. He has proven his willingness and ability to stand in front of the press and lie blatantly and nonstop. Another thing we will have to remember is that Trump is not going to\u00a0act like any president we have had in living memory. Time spent\u00a0trying to rationalize his actions into something that makes sense to us is time wasted.<\/p>\n

    This is not normal, but it is what we have to expect for the next four years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In his interview, Trump asks why the report was written, if there was no evidence of voter fraud.\u00a0You need only to read the report to answer the question, which I am convinced Trump has not. The\u00a0report raises\u00a0numerous problems, such as voters\u00a0being purged from voter rolls after not voting in several elections, or voters\u00a0moving and assuming that their registration would switch automatically (it does not). Trump does not appear to know this. <\/p>\n

    Click through to read more! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":31969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[568],"class_list":["post-31961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-donald-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Must Not Have Read the Pew Report He Cited<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is not normal, but it is what we have to expect for the next four years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31961.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Must Not Have Read the Pew Report He Cited\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is not normal, but it is what we have to expect for the next four years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31961.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-26T21:05:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2017\/01\/analysis-1841158_1920.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31961.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31961.html\",\"name\":\"Trump Must Not Have Read the Pew Report He Cited\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-26T21:05:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-26T21:05:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"This is not normal, but it is what we have to expect for the next four years.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31961.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31961.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/31961.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trump Must Not Have Read the Pew Report He Cited\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. 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