Activist groups are sowing electoral doubt, not electoral integrity

Activist groups are flooding local election departments with voter roll challenges. They are undermining the electoral process they claim to protect.

on monday, our editorial colleague Hojun Choi reported that the Collin County Department of Elections has received almost 10,000 challenges. Denton County had more than 17,000, or about 2.6% of all voters there.

A similar pattern has emerged in other states.

Most challenges prove fruitless. County election departments verify voter lists. Collin County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet estimated that up to 80% of recent challenges related to cases his department had already reviewed.

A driving force behind this trend is the far-right group Really Votewhich made a fool of itself by denying the results of the 2020 presidential election. The goal of groups like this is to defeat election offices and cast doubt on the integrity of the election.

We reached out to True the Vote on Tuesday. No one there returned our message.

Even more troubling, election divisiveness increasingly aligns with the goals of the Republican Party. Since Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, electoral mistrust has moved closer to the center of the party's platform. Now, many mainstream Republicans will not commit to accepting the results elections if they don't go their way.

Voter fraud exists. This newspaper has reported on several cases over the years. But it hasn't happened on the massive scale that some conservatives claim, as Republican officials and conservative groups that have investigated the concerns have found.

Elections should be scrutinized by concerned citizens. We would not deny True the Vote the right to raise concerns. But crippling election departments by flooding them with weak challenges is a cheap scam that costs taxpayer dollars.

Every feeble challenge that groups like True the Vote mount at taxpayer expense is evidence that their goal is to disrupt American elections rather than improve them.

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