DENVER, CO – Vice President Kamala Harris conveyed some interesting ideas about what she believes life in rural America is really like in an interview that aired over the weekend.
Harris blasted voter ID requirements, like those in Colorado, that in many cases require voters to produce photocopies of their identification.
The Vice President claimed requiring voters to produce photocopies of their ID was unfair because, she claimed, many rural Americans don’t live near an Office Max or Kinkos.
NEW – Kamala Harris claims it is "almost impossible" for rural Americans "to Xerox" [photocopy] their ID. pic.twitter.com/Ple1uRqoBX
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 10, 2021
Setting as aside the fact Kinkos has not existed for 13 years, it’s unclear whether Harris has actually spent much time in rural Colorado. The Vice President might be surprised to discover that most rural communities do in fact have modern conveniences like drug and office supply stores.
Harris’s ignorance is reminiscent of former New York City Mayor Bloomberg who once proclaimed Pueblo and Colorado Springs lacked basic infrastructure like roads.
Additionally, voter ID laws certainly didn’t impede 2020 turnout in rural areas where ballots were returned at high levels along with the rest of the state.
All of this begs an important question: will Secretary of State Jena Griswold correct the Vice President’s woeful misunderstanding of how Colorado’s voter-ID laws impact rural communities?
Griswold never missed an opportunity to attack the Trump administration for perceived slights against Colorado’s election laws. If Griswold wants to show she wasn’t just playing politics with a Republican administration, correcting Harris would be a good place to start.
If you are covering Vice President Harris’s comments please consider the following statement from Compass Colorado.
“Jena Griswold knows full well rural Coloradans are more than capable of navigating the state’s voter ID requirements,” said Compass Colorado Executive Director Kyle Kohli.
“If Griswold is truly concerned about correcting misinformation regardless of who is in office, she ought to rebuke VP Harris’s classist insult and defend the integrity of Colorado’s voter ID laws.”
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