Frank Bruni Quotes

We have no standard by which to measure the disaster that may be brought upon us by ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined to corruption and fraud in the suffrage.

We may lessen the danger of buying and selling votes, by making the number of voters too great for any means of purchase.

We find that fraud in election is an old ulcer … it is too old, it is too malignant, to warrant any generous surgery. We have got to cut it out if healthy flesh comes with it. If we do disfranchise now and then an honest elector it is really for his own benefit and the benefit of his own State and county.

The vote, in the hands of an ignorant man, without either property of self respect, will be used to the damage of the people at large; for the rich man, without honor or any kind of patriotism, will purchase it, and with it swamp the rights of a free people.

Why do we want dumb votes?

Representative institutions are of little value, and may be a mere instrument of tyranny or intrigue, when the generality of electors [voters] are not sufficiently interested in their own government to give their vote, or, if they vote at all, do not bestow their suffrages on public grounds, but sell them for money, or vote at the beck of some one who has control over them

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of us all.

Two ways are open to succeed in the South: 1. A division of white voters. 2. Education of the ignorant. Bloody-shirt utterances prevent division.

For too many years, those eligible to vote in primary or general elections did not bother to do so. Those sensible centrists who do not go to rallies but care deeply about our country effectively silenced their own voices. That sent the message to incumbents that they were either doing the right thing or that we just did not care.

I've heard Donald Trump say some pretty unhinged things. I've heard them over and over and over again. But nothing is more dangerous to our democracy than his attacks on mail-in voting in the middle of a pandemic.

I think we need to start with Philadelphia and make sure that we actually get some election reform in Philadelphia. Actually, a recent election was thrown out by a federal judge because of corruption with the voting process in Philadelphia.

A better educated electorate might change the reason many persons vote.

Voting the names of the dead, and the nonexistent, and the too-mentally-impaired to function, cancels out the votes of citizens who are exercising their rights - that's suppression by any light.

It seems to me there has been some systematic disenfranchisement of voters … because people haven’t cared enough to spend the money to have good voting systems and voter education.

What they were seeking to steal was not the jewels, money or other property of American citizens, but something much more valuable—their most precious heritage, the right to vote in a free election.

The evidence in hand and accessible will show beyond peradventure that in many parts of the State corrupt and violent influences were brought to bear upon the registrars of voters, thus materially affecting the character of the voting or poll lists; upon the inspectors of election, prejudicially and unfairly thereby changing the number of votes cast; and, finally, threats and violence were practiced directly upon the masses of voters in such measures and strength as to produce grave apprehensions for their personal safety and as to deter them from the exercise of their political franchises.

… we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban—read African American voter-turnout machine.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

I don’t think as a general matter we should be encouraging people who don’t know anything about what they’re voting for to vote. That’s what Democrats do. Republicans shouldn’t follow suit on that.

With same-day registration, no requirement for a valid, dated photo ID for voters is an invitation to fraud and corruption of our electoral process.

During my time in the Texas State Legislature, I witnessed firsthand the lack of evidence behind the rampant claims of voter fraud and the obstacles voters would face if the 2011 photo Voter ID were put in place.

It is clear that the photo ID requirement is not a solution to a problem but is instead a political ploy to prevent traditionally disenfranchised populations from voting for the candidates of their choice.

Mail-in voting is a proven and significant threat to election integrity.

Up against the corporate government, voters find themselves asked to choose between look-alike candidates from two parties vying to see who takes the marching orders from their campaign paymasters and their future employers. The money of vested interest nullifies genuine voter choice and trust.

We have a president who stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation, employing Republican operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by disenfranchising thousands of blacks, elderly Jews and other minorities.