http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/01/opinion/the-measure-of-republican-integrity.html
The Measure of Republican 'Integrity'
Published: November 1, 1986
Republicans call their ''ballot integrity'' campaign a legitimate program to prevent voter fraud. Democrats say it's a ploy to reduce the participation of black voters. A memo released on the order of a Federal judge last week suggests, sadly, that the Democrats are right.
The G.O.P. program involved sending letters to registered voters in parts of Louisiana, Indiana and Missouri that cast at least 75 percent of their vote for Walter Mondale in 1984. An undeliverable letter might result in a challenge to the addressee's right to vote. Such measures are routinely, and legitimately, used to purge ineligible voters from the rolls. But the G.O.P campaign had an unfortunate hidden agenda.
Though Republican officials deny any intent to reduce black voting, the memo that surfaced in court proceedings suggests otherwise. It referred to use of the ballot integrity campaign in Louisiana, where a Republican Congressman, W. Henson Moore, was favored to win the state's open primary for the Senate seat now occupied by Russell Long, a Democrat. The Republican National Committee's Middle West regional director, Kris Wolfe, wrote to Lanny Griffith, the Southern regional director, urging adoption of the ballot integrity program before the Sept. 23 primary. ''I would guess that this program will eliminate at least 60-80,000 folks from the rolls,'' Ms. Wolfe's memo says. ''If it's a close race . . . which I'm assuming it is, this could keep the black vote down considerably.''
Thus exposed, the plan may have reverse effect. Mr. Moore failed to garner enough votes in the primary to avoid a runoff. His Democratic opponent, Representative John B. Breaux, is gaining strength. And a black electorate offended by the ballot integrity campaign could make the difference.
But the incident provokes a deeper question: What are the Republicans afraid of? Some Republicans, like Governor Kean of New Jersey and Charles Mathias, the retiring Maryland Senator, have shown how to seek and win black support. Black voters are not necessarily a monolithic, unalterably Democratic bloc. Trying to disfranchise them instead of competing for their votes reveals no integrity, just insecurity.