Because the Reconstruction-era Fifteenth Amendment bans using race to disfranchise Americans, the operatives and politicians camouflaged their discriminatory intent behind the charge of voter fraud to create the illusion that their primary concern was election integrity and democracy. And by deploying the pretense of defending a significant state interest—protecting the sanctity of free and fair elections—rather than the more distasteful power grab based on pandering to racism and xenophobia, lawmakers legitimized a number of policies to disfranchise millions of American citizens.
