From the Democrats come accusations of voter suppression and intimidation, while Republicans have fired off charges of voter registration fraud and hint of serious election corruption to come.

It all sounds pretty scary. So I asked two of the best political scientists I know to share their non-partisan analysis of what’s really going on.

The good news, say University of New Mexico political science professors Lonna Atkeson and Christine Sierra, is that there seems to be no evidence of widespread, systemic voter suppression OR voter fraud during this election.

The bad news is, such allegations are distressingly common at election time and always coalese sharply along partisan lines.

“In general, the Democratic Party has proposed expanding the electorate and lowering the bar for prospective voters. The theory goes that the Dems are trying to expand the franchise to non-voters, a good many of whom are racial minorities or disadvantaged people — and who generally tend to vote Democratic,” said Sierra, who focuses on on Latino politics, Latino mobilization on immigration reform, Hispanic political behavior in New Mexico and Chicana/Latina politics.

“The Republicans tend to ask for stricter rules and regulations involving the voting process, because they often allege that people are voting illegally. And that is exactly how it is coming down in this state.”

Atkeson, who studies New Mexico political behavior, campaigns and elections, public opinion, political psychology, political parties, media and politics and political methodology, puts a finer point on it.

“Republicans are very concerned about fraud. Democrats are concerned about access. It’s gotten very partisan.”

The great fear among small “d” democrats and people who care about maintaining the right to vote is that all this talk about corrupted elections will cause people to stay home, say both Atkeson and Sierra.

 ”Lonna and I, we are democrats with a small d. We just like to see democratic participation.” 
   
Voter suppression has always been around – it’s just taken different forms, said Sierra.

Back in the 1960s, racist Jim Crow Democrats used arbitrary literacy tests and poll taxes to keep chronically poor and uneducated black people from voting. 

(Historical context: Jim Crow Democrats in the single-party “solid South”  bore no similarity to Democrats of today, Sierra said. After Democratic president Lyndon Johnson spearheaded the Civil Rights Act, the South became solidly Republican.) 

Similar poll taxes and literary tests were used against Mexican Americans in the Southwest, she added.

Videotaping people outside the polls or having random people ask voters standing in line to provide proof of citizenship or other documentation was a form of voter suppression that was attempted in the 1970s, said Sierra.  It cut down on voting because people felt they were being surveilled and might end up being punished for their vote or arrested for other infractions.

Another historic method of disenfranchising voters is purging the rolls, or arbitrarily deleting registered voters, forcing them to re-register or miss voting altogether.

“It’s especially been used against people of color -– racial and ethnic minorities — people who’ve had a history of being underprivileged and having obstacles put in their path. So when you have the perception that a certain kind of process is being aimed at disenfranchised people, you have to take it seriously. That is why the Voting Rights Act needed to be extended and continues to be so important today.”

Voter fraud, on the other hand, seems to be the bogeyman that Republicans historically chase but never seem to catch, said Atkeson. 

“I think there’s not a lot of evidence of systemic voter fraud. You chase these stories down and you can’t seem to find anything. I mean, that’s why that whole thing with (former New Mexico U.S. Attorney) David Iglesias happened. He was pursuing that stuff and he couldn’t find any evidence to actually prosecute any cases.”

Atkeson added that there seems to be a lot of confusion currently about the difference between voter registration fraud, which rarely results in actual votes being cast, and actual voter fraud, which requires much premeditation and is a serious crime. 

That said, it is important for any allegations to be swiftly and thoroughly investigated, said Atkeson, who added that she is heartened by the election protection measures that have been put in place in the state for this election cycle.

“In particular, Common Cause has really tried to reach out to county clerks in New Mexico. They are looking at this as a long-term process. I guess my question is, how do you maintain voter integrity and voter confidence. I’m not sure that when you build those institutions into the political process, you aren’t sending a signal that there is a problem.”

In all, the most important thing is that people inform themselves and get out to vote, no matter what negative things they are hearing about the election.

“Both sides are really pushing the envelope. And, looking at the bigger picture, this is really bad for our voting process. And it’s bad for voter confidence,” said Atkeson.
“Democracy is fundamentally about citizens participating by electing their governmental officials. So my bias as a political scientist is just wanting people to vote.”