GOP Should Introduce the Nelson Mandela Voter Protection Act

Photo via AFP, ANNA ZIEMINSKI/Getty Images

RICOCHET

For years, conservatives have warned of voter fraud and pushed for stricter voter identification laws. Democrats hate these efforts because cheaters, convicted felons, and the deceased tend to support liberal candidates.

Instead of admitting their Dig Up The Vote strategy, the Democratic Party offers a nuanced argument against voter ID advocates: “YOU'RE RACIST!!!” It’s time to turn the tables.

The GOP should introduce the Nelson Mandela Voter Protection Act.

As you can see in the photo, the lionized founder of modern South Africa is a big fan of voter identification. Strict ID requirements are the law of the land, helping to minimize voter fraud from Cape Town to Pretoria. Mandela understood that this simple law ensures that every voter of every race can make their voice heard on election day:

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Mandela’s legacy of turning South Africa from a violently discriminatory country to a nation in which open and fair elections take place has earned him a place in world history. The South Africa he left behind has a constitution described by The Economist as “one of the most progressive in the world.” Signed into law by Mandela two years after his historic 1994 election, the document has been praised because it “enshrines a wide range of social and economic rights as well as the more usual civil and political freedoms.”

Think Progress, a liberal media outlet, praised the South African constitution while it eulogized Mandela, writing, “The truth, however, is that the United States could learn a great deal from South Africa’s constitution.”

That constitution allows for and supports a rigorous election integrity process far more stringent than anything GOP lawmakers have proposed…

One of the many ways Congress can honor the late President Mandela is to bring U.S. voter ID requirements up to South African standards.