Despite warnings from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about the potential of voter fraud taking place in the upcoming primary election, Louisiana’s chief election officer says there’s no need for voters to worry about a “rigged election.”
“For (every) 10 complaints, we maybe get one thing of some substance, and usually it is something ridiculously minuscule,” Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler tells the Manship School News Service.
Schedler says Trump is “overplaying the fraud card” and he disagrees with the notion that voters need to watch out for voter fraud on Election Day. Schedler, a Republican, says he sees comments like the ones made by Trump as actively working against his goals of higher voter turnout.
“As an election official, I don’t like it,” he says. “My job is to make voting operationally easy, practical, efficient, and (to) make it difficult to cheat. So when a candidate or someone of that magnitude says that, it doesn’t help the cause of voter participation.”
Schedler recently unveiled a new “I voted” sticker featuring artist George Rodrigue’s iconic “Blue Dog” as part of a new initiative to encourage voter turnout. He says anyone feeling skeptical of the validity of the voting process can call his or her election official, or the secretary of state’s office.
“If you give me 20 or 30 minutes on the phone, or in my office, you’ll walk out a disbeliever in the things you are believing in,” Schedler says.
