A top federal voting official is facing a call to step down after accusing Democrats of encouraging “open borders” and widespread voting by “illegal citizens,” because “they need the votes.”
The outlandish conspiracy theory is common on the far right. But its embrace by Christy McCormick, a Republican member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), part of an unhinged public rant against Democrats, raises serious questions about her ability to help states administer fair and impartial elections, and to retain public trust.
“They need the votes. They’re losing ground,” McCormick said Wednesday at a panel discussion on voting at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute (AFPI), when asked why she thinks the left opposes measures to tighten voting rules. “Everybody is seeing how people are going toward the right. They are progressively going left and over the cliff to socialism and communism. As we see with the Mamdani — or, is that his name? Mamdani in New York. This is dangerous for this country and I think a lot of people see that and are moving toward the right.”
“They need open borders, they need illegal citizens to increase their votes,” McCormick continued. “And this is why they’re fighting so adamantly against us.”…