Democrat Senator Advances Conspiracy On Voting Rights

Yesterday the Senate Rules Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 4133, a bill to expand voter registration procedures online. 

Senator James Manning (D-Junction City), a supporter of the bill, advanced conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of other states’ election procedures and claimed that he did not currently have full voting rights or citizenship rights in Oregon.

“There is what I consider a Trojan Horse when it comes down to ‘well we are now concerned about BIPOC [an acronym for black, indigenous, & people of color] communities’ when that was never a concern. As a matter of fact, across the nation, there are certain states that are putting in restrictive voting requirements. They are purging systems for people who have been voting all their lives.”

“So for me, in good conscience to say that this is a bad bill and then we should wait… Well colleagues, how many more years do I have to wait in order to get full voting rights, in order to get full citizenship rights. Why do I have to keep going back to the trough, time and time again? I don’t think that that is fair.”

He offered no supporting evidence that other states are purging active voters from voter rolls, nor for the claim that he has been denied access to the ballot or other rights as a U.S. citizen. Oregon has some of the most permissive voting laws in the country.