MAGA activist warns about voters with ‘Hispanic-sounding’ names

A video obtained by CBS News and published this week offers a clear window into the bigotry motivating the MAGA movement’s voter suppression efforts.

The video shows North Carolina conservative activist James Womack directing members of his “election protection” group to be on the lookout for voters with “Hispanic-sounding last names,” claiming their voter registrations could be “suspicious.”

Womack’s organization of activist volunteers is part of a coalition of groups challenging people’s voter eligibility called the Election Integrity Network, which is headed by election-denying attorney Cleta Mitchell.

In the video, which CBS says was provided by a progressive watchdog group and independently verified by the outlet, Womack discusses how to identify “suspicious” voters:

If you’ve got folks that you, that were registered and they’re missing information and they were registered in the last 90 days before the election and they’ve got Hispanic-sounding last names, that probably is, is a suspicious voter. … It doesn’t mean they’re illegal. It just means they’re suspicious.

Womack told CBS he believes the voter lists are “corrupt” and said “citizens have a right to that information and they analyze that information to identify potential illegal or improperly registered people.” He said the group takes multiple factors into consideration when flagging suspicious voters.

The “Hispanic-sounding last name certainly is not exclusive,” Womack told CBS, adding that “mispronunciations” and misspellings of “Arab” names could also be suspicious. 

Womack said his group doesn’t target people based on race. But there’s literally no reason other than xenophobia to think someone having a “Hispanic-sounding” surname or mispronounced “Arab” name (whatever that means) should heighten suspicion that they’re an illegally registered voter.

This is the natural result of Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress and conservative media figures promoting bigoted conspiracy theories alleging Democrats are deliberately welcoming migrants into the country to have them vote illegally. It cannot be overstated that this is a lie that aligns the GOP with the racist screeds of several mass shooters.

The Womack video offers yet another example of today’s conservative movement relying on Jim Crow-style tactics to hoist its candidates into office this election cycle.

And lest you believe this kind of targeting can’t have an impact, Republicans are seeking to purge thousands of voters from voter rolls (though their efforts are largely failing, as my colleague Lisa Rubin wrote for the MaddowBlog this week). And we’ve already seen examples of these challenges disproportionately sweeping up eligible voters of color. On the campaign trail, Trump has started routinely raving about wanting to revive the United States of the 1890s, and even the 1790s. He longs for an era before nonwhite people were afforded equal access to participate in our political system. And his supporters are trying their hardest to give it to him, one racist voter suppression scheme at a time.