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A thread about Kris Kobach & Crosscheck and its role in the current chaos about "The Big Lie" that the election was stolen from Trump.
In May 2017, I sat at my kitchen table, confused & dispirited.
I'd just spent the better part of 4 months learning everything I could about Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck, a program run by KS SOS Kris Kobach & widely thought to be a tool of broad disenfranchisement.
I'd just spent the better part of 4 months learning everything I could about Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck, a program run by KS SOS Kris Kobach & widely thought to be a tool of broad disenfranchisement.
My research had revealed that, despite the fact-free memes circulated by a certain expert, Crosscheck wasn't used to remove people from the voter rolls on any scale.
Its functionality was so primitive that the results appeared to not be used at all.
I'd started looking
Its functionality was so primitive that the results appeared to not be used at all.
I'd started looking
into Crosscheck out of concern that KS couldn't afford to provide an expensive, sophisticated data matching program to 30+ states for free.
My independent research had revealed that KS was providing a pointless, inaccurate data matching program to 30+ states for free.
My independent research had revealed that KS was providing a pointless, inaccurate data matching program to 30+ states for free.
Now that I knew it was no more expensive than running a SQL query, did I need to still be concerned about the cost to Kansas? We weren't really paying anything to run the program.
So maybe I should drop the inquiry?
But two things nagged at me.
So maybe I should drop the inquiry?
But two things nagged at me.
1st, if we (Kansans) weren't funding a sophisticated program, we had no business managing the 100 million private voter records from 27+ states because we probably weren't protecting them.
This flaw eventually lead to Crosscheck being federally suspended (based on my work).
This flaw eventually lead to Crosscheck being federally suspended (based on my work).
But the second question really nagged at me. Why?
Why were Crosscheck's supporters - Kobach, primarily, plus his buddies at PILF - so insistent that Crosscheck was this vital tool in rooting out fraud?
States weren't using the results because they were so fraught with error.
Why were Crosscheck's supporters - Kobach, primarily, plus his buddies at PILF - so insistent that Crosscheck was this vital tool in rooting out fraud?
States weren't using the results because they were so fraught with error.
50-90% of the voters identified by Crosscheck as possibly registered in two states were false positives.
The flaw that made it useless for cleaning up voter registration files
- highly inaccurate data matching -
made it good at manufacturing false evidence of fraud.
The flaw that made it useless for cleaning up voter registration files
- highly inaccurate data matching -
made it good at manufacturing false evidence of fraud.
Crosscheck produced enormous numbers - 7 MILLION PEOPLE DOUBLE REGISTERED -
which were baselessly converted from "possible double registered" to "double voters" to "Evidence of Election Fraud Everywhere" on live TV.
which were baselessly converted from "possible double registered" to "double voters" to "Evidence of Election Fraud Everywhere" on live TV.
This crisis of 2021, that Trump has convinced millions that he was cheated out of a win, was built on a cynical, deliberate process by Republicans to tell voters - without basis - that there is proof of massive fraud.
And PS - manufactured data from Crosscheck was used, in part, to convince a credulous #ksleg to pass the documentary proof of citizenship law (SAFE ACT).
