Candidates Perpetuate Fraud Against An Imagined Fraud.

A fraud about fraud

The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 notwithstanding, some Republicans seem bound and determined to come up with strategies intended to suppress turnout among people they can't imagine would cast a ballot for one of them.

And so, Hilda Legg, a Republican candidate for Kentucky secretary of state, who has been hot on the citizenship issue, has proposed that people wishing to register in Kentucky be required to produce a birth certificate or some other proof of citizenship. “This is not an immigration issue,” she insists.

Businessman Bill Johnson, who is opposing Ms. Legg in the Republican primary, opposes her proposals. But he assured people who tuned in to their recent debate that if he's elected, he will require potential voters to flash some other government-issued ID — a driver's license or a passport, for example.

Both positions are predicated on the specious notions that Kentucky's existing voting laws aren't working or that the state is a hotbed of voter fraud.

Neither is true. But truth can matter little when partisan politicians make xenophobic appeals pandering to Americans' insecurities during a time of demographic change and economic difficulties.

The two women facing off in the Democratic primary, incumbent Secretary of State Elaine Walker and attorney Allison Lundergan Grimes, insist that existing laws are sufficient. Claiming otherwise, Ms. Walker said, is “simply a red herring.”

It is indeed a red herring — one that has become malodorous after lying around so long, unrefrigerated by truth and common decency. Voters in this and other contests should take pains to reward qualified candidates who stick to the pertinent issues instead of a lot of foul diversions.