Voting Rights Professional Blasts AZ Republican Who Says ‘All people Should not Be Voting’

Rep. John Kavanagh, chairman of the government and electoral committee in the Arizona House, says not everyone should vote and “the quality of the votes” is important. One of the best voting rights experts in the country breaks this rhetoric and suggests it is racist, “straight out of Jim Crow”.

“There is a fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans,” said Republican Kavanagh, as reported by CNN. “Democrats value as many people as possible who vote and they are willing to risk fraud,” he claimed, not only without evidence, but also falsely. While there are relatively few cases of electoral fraud and electoral fraud across the country, those who committed these crimes are almost always Republicans.

“Republicans are more concerned about fraud,” Kavanagh said, “so we don’t mind putting in place security measures that don’t let everyone choose – but not everyone should choose.”

“Not everyone wants to vote and if someone is not interested in voting it likely means they are completely uninformed on these issues,” added Kavanagh again without merit. “Quantity is important, but we also have to consider the quality of the voices.”

Legally and constitutionally, Kavanagh is wrong, which is even more worrying given that he is a former cop and retired cop who served with the New York and New Jersey Port Authority. Dr. Kavanagh is currently a part-time professor of criminal justice at Scottsdale Community College after serving as program director for the administration of judicial studies and forensic science programs.

Kavanagh’s remarks are viewed as racist by Ari Berman, a writer for Mother Jones and author of the book “Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Suffrage in America”.

“This rhetoric comes straight from Jim Crow and was used precisely to justify the mass disenfranchisement of black voters,” Berman said on Twitter.

NAACP Legal Protection and Education Fund President Sherrilyn Ifill also commented on the phrase “Quality of Voices”:

The “quality of the voices …” https://t.co/dhSr6ihupb

– Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) March 11, 2021

And Elie Mystal, Justice Correspondent at The Nation, also weighed:

These people act like the 15th addition literally doesn’t exist. https://t.co/C3BmNNBbY7

– Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) March 11, 2021

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