Christian Nationalist Spoofing

Right Wing Watch ✒ David Barton Falsely Claims Voter Turnout ‘Was 100 Percent’ in Early America Because ‘Churches Ran the Communities.’

Kyle Mantyla

Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton is currently traveling the nation delivering presentations in churches as part of the Faith Wins effort to mobilize conservative Christian voters for the midterm elections. As part of this effort, Barton is continuing his habit of making false and misleading claims about early American history.

During an event Monday at Truth Baptist Church of Mechanicsville, Virginia, Barton once again falsely claimed voter turnout in early elections was always 100 percent because “churches ran the communities.”

“Churches ran the communities, and the voter turnout was 100 percent,” Barton said.

That was for at least 70 years. When Daniel Webster ran for Congress, there were 5,000 voters in his district. Five thousand votes were cast, now he got 4,990 so the other guy—it must have been him and his family was all that voted for him—but nonetheless, it was still 100 percent turnout. We felt like that was a duty we would answer to God for [so there] was really high, high turnout [because] churches ran it.

Barton’s claim is absurd given that statistics show that voter turnout has never once reached 100 percent even in presidential elections.

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