This is, IMO, going to be a big topic in the coming year. Republicans have stated their aim to make voting more restrictive in just about every state where they have the means to do so. Democrats would like to pass the Voting Rights Bill named after John Lewis. I’m going to go look up the map of all the states which have pending legislation to restrict voting. Now that we have the election in the rear view, I thought we could try to make this a general discussion thread, where people who have concerns about voting abuses can post as well and we can discuss it from both sides. Please keep memes out of this thread and put them in the boards where we go to talk about the other side, lol.
Voting Law Proposals and Voting Rights Efforts (1 Viewer)
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Optimus Prime
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Looks like the new law is having the desired effect
It would be interesting to see the demographic breakdown of these rejections
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Texas' new voting law and supply chain problems are causing a shortage of paper registration and mail ballot application forms and a spike in rejected absentee ballot applications ahead of the states' March 1 primaries.
A new identification requirement has caused Travis County, home to Austin, to reject half of absentee ballot applications so far, County Clerk Dana Beauvoir said on Thursday. Harris County, home to Houston, has rejected 16% of absentee ballot applications, according to KHOU News. Bexar County, home to San Antonio, has seen a large share of ballot applications rejected for not complying with the identification law, KSAT reported.
Senate Bill 1, which the Republican-controlled state legislature passed along party lines in 2021, bans temporary pandemic-era voting expansions, tightens voting rules especially around absentee voting, empowers election observers, and adds a slew of new restrictions and penalties on election officials, which Beauvoir said is impeding her ability to help voters whose ballot applications risk getting rejected.
"If I seem a little upset by this, it is because voters are being mistreated in this circumstance," Beauvoir, a veteran election official retiring after 2022, said in a Tuesday news conference...........
Texas, which already restricts absentee voting to those with a documented excuse, now requires voters to include identifying information — either their driver's license number, state identification number, or Social Security number — when applying for an absentee ballot.
As Texas Monthly and VoteBeat reported in July 2021, the new rule also requires the number the voter provides on their application to match whichever number they provided when they first registered to vote. If the numbers don't match, the application is rejected, a rule that officials say is driving the high rate of rejections.
"The voter is playing a guessing game with this," Beauvoir said. "The voter is trying to remember the number they signed up with at the voter registration office 10, 15, 30 years ago."
Beauvoir also pointed out that an identification number is also required on the return envelope for the ballot itself, creating two opportunities throughout the voting process for a voter to make a mistake that could get their ballot getting rejected..............
It would be interesting to see the demographic breakdown of these rejections
===================================================
Texas' new voting law and supply chain problems are causing a shortage of paper registration and mail ballot application forms and a spike in rejected absentee ballot applications ahead of the states' March 1 primaries.
A new identification requirement has caused Travis County, home to Austin, to reject half of absentee ballot applications so far, County Clerk Dana Beauvoir said on Thursday. Harris County, home to Houston, has rejected 16% of absentee ballot applications, according to KHOU News. Bexar County, home to San Antonio, has seen a large share of ballot applications rejected for not complying with the identification law, KSAT reported.
Senate Bill 1, which the Republican-controlled state legislature passed along party lines in 2021, bans temporary pandemic-era voting expansions, tightens voting rules especially around absentee voting, empowers election observers, and adds a slew of new restrictions and penalties on election officials, which Beauvoir said is impeding her ability to help voters whose ballot applications risk getting rejected.
"If I seem a little upset by this, it is because voters are being mistreated in this circumstance," Beauvoir, a veteran election official retiring after 2022, said in a Tuesday news conference...........
Texas, which already restricts absentee voting to those with a documented excuse, now requires voters to include identifying information — either their driver's license number, state identification number, or Social Security number — when applying for an absentee ballot.
As Texas Monthly and VoteBeat reported in July 2021, the new rule also requires the number the voter provides on their application to match whichever number they provided when they first registered to vote. If the numbers don't match, the application is rejected, a rule that officials say is driving the high rate of rejections.
"The voter is playing a guessing game with this," Beauvoir said. "The voter is trying to remember the number they signed up with at the voter registration office 10, 15, 30 years ago."
Beauvoir also pointed out that an identification number is also required on the return envelope for the ballot itself, creating two opportunities throughout the voting process for a voter to make a mistake that could get their ballot getting rejected..............
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insidejob
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Isn't this just lovely. I have no clue if I used my social security number or LADL # when I registered at 18. That means I'd only have a 50% chance of my vote actually counting if this were to be the case in LA too.
Optimus Prime
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It wasn't for voting and I don't remember what it was for (credit card or insurance maybe) but I got into a whole thing with a customer service rep because I couldn't remember my years ago apartment number
Optimus Prime
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The county clerk has these rejection numbers, but unless I missed it, the article doesn't actually say that the voters are notified of the rejection so they can fix it prior to the deadline
Is that right?
Is it possible that nobody is notified and they don't find out their application has been rejected until they try to vote when it's too late?
Or not even then, they are allowed to cast their ballot and during the tallying process the system sees that the application was rejected and the vote is just tossed and the voter has no idea?
Or (tin foil hat on) "they" quietly notify the rejected people "they" want to vote of the rejection so it can be fixed and ignore the rest?
insidejob
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I was wondering that too.
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MT15
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It’s not tin foil hat thinking if they used to do it. And local voting officials all over the south used to quietly make sure white people were registered and could vote easily, and black peoples’ registrations were denied or lost, and they had to jump through hoops to cast their ballot.
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MT15
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Key word is still ‘broadcast’. Doesn’t apply to cable.Apparently, cable "news" channels don't have FCC broadcast licenses. Therefore, they have a lot more latitude in what they can report as "news" compared to the Big 3 public networks CBS, NBC, and ABC.
Despite this, I think the FCC does have the power to step in and regulate false reporting if they had the proper motivation. This is from their website:
The FCC is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press. It is, however, illegal for broadcasters to intentionally distort the news, and the FCC may act on complaints if there is documented evidence of such behavior from persons with direct personal knowledge. For more information, please see our consumer guide, Complaints About Broadcast Journalism.
Broadcast News Distortion
Broadcasters may not intentionally distort the news. The FCC states that "rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest."www.fcc.gov
Kerry Won Ohio
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As Dr. Strange told Iron Man in one of the Avengers' movies, "We're in the end game, now".
The Republican Party is just as evil as Thanos.
zztop
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some news:
apnews.com
Last straw: Fed-up Arizona Democrats censure Sen. Sinema
Leaders of the Arizona Democratic Party have voted to censure Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. She is growing increasingly isolated from some of her party’s most influential officials and donors after helping to scuttle voting rights legislation that many Democrats consider essential to preserving de
apnews.com
zztop
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hmm must just be coincidence that this was challenged after republicans didn't get their desired results
www.reuters.com
Three Republican judges agreed with the GOP who had challenged the law, Act 77, saying the state's constitution required people to vote in person unless they had a specific excuse, such as having a disability or being away from home on Election Day. Two Democratic judges dissented.
Implemented in 2019 with Republican support, Act 77 had eliminated such requirements for mail-in ballots. Democrats actively used the method of voting in 2020, helping U.S. President Joe Biden win the state over Donald Trump by some 80,000 votes.
Pennsylvania court strikes down state's mail-in voting law
A Pennsylvania court sided with Republicans in striking down a law on Friday that eliminated barriers to voting by mail, raising doubts over ballot access in the battleground state ahead of important election contests this year.
Three Republican judges agreed with the GOP who had challenged the law, Act 77, saying the state's constitution required people to vote in person unless they had a specific excuse, such as having a disability or being away from home on Election Day. Two Democratic judges dissented.
Implemented in 2019 with Republican support, Act 77 had eliminated such requirements for mail-in ballots. Democrats actively used the method of voting in 2020, helping U.S. President Joe Biden win the state over Donald Trump by some 80,000 votes.
insidejob
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They were all for it until they realized that 2020 proved they'll more than likely lose races because of easier voting access. They aren't even pretending there is another reason.
superchuck500
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The "conservatives" are now Roberts-proof.
Kerry Won Ohio
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Unfortunately, the Democrats deserve a lot of the blame. They saw this coming. If you know you're going to keep getting punched in the face, then you should protect yourself.
Put more Justices on the Supreme Court, Biden. Unless you just don't care what happens during the 2022 and 2024 elections.
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only a glimpse of what is in store for the next... decade? decades?
I have a great disdain for gerrymandering. I don't care if it favors my "side", it should not be a thing that exists. It is heavily abused. My understanding is that it could not be used as a tool for racism. This is Alabama, where people still fly confederate flags all over the state. Of course it targeted a certain group of people. This ruling by the SC seems to be "it's okay to use gerrymandering against certain races"
from the tweet above ^ he wrote an article about it
slate.com
Republicans’ claims were so weak that Roberts, who engineered the decades-long crusade against the VRA, could not bring himself to humor them. But on a 6–3 court, the chief justice’s vote doesn’t matter.
I have a great disdain for gerrymandering. I don't care if it favors my "side", it should not be a thing that exists. It is heavily abused. My understanding is that it could not be used as a tool for racism. This is Alabama, where people still fly confederate flags all over the state. Of course it targeted a certain group of people. This ruling by the SC seems to be "it's okay to use gerrymandering against certain races"
from the tweet above ^ he wrote an article about it
SCOTUS Just Blew Up the Voting Rights Act’s Ban on Racial Gerrymandering
By greenlighting Alabama’s egregious map, five justices declared open season on racial minorities’ voting power.
Republicans’ claims were so weak that Roberts, who engineered the decades-long crusade against the VRA, could not bring himself to humor them. But on a 6–3 court, the chief justice’s vote doesn’t matter.
H B Lowrey
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Changing residence or cell# can wreak havoc with all manner of "providers". Just try to set up an online account with the IRS these days, say you wanted last year's income tax filing to download or print. You will give up everything including the uploading of your driver's license and permission to ply biometric data. And then they'll still require you to upload a selfie video.
Optimus Prime
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Wasn’t sure which thread this belonged in
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It’s hardly surprising to hear that Republican Senate candidates are campaigning on the “big lie” that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud.
This has become so routine that it’s no longer treated as newsworthy, which further normalizes it, a terrible development that we should resist.
But at least four of these candidates have added an even more repulsive twist: In inventing widespread fraud in 2020, they go out of their way to emphasize that it took place primarily in urban centers.
What is it about urban centers that might make this lie attractive to GOP candidates?
In addition to its obvious racial implications, Republicans trafficking in this are following a path blazed by Donald Trump.
Fake GOP claims of voter fraud to justify voter suppression are an old story, of course. But Trump added his own toxic ingredients to the stew: a more explicit focus on cities, to create a pretext for express efforts to overturn election losses.
So it’s hardly a coincidence that Senate candidates adopting this line are among the most devoted Trump sycophants in the GOP. “Our concern is Milwaukee,”
Sen. Ron Johnson, who’s running for reelection in Wisconsin, recently said. “This is one of these big Democrat strongholds that just can’t seem to get their votes counted until they know exactly how many votes they need.”
Good one, Senator. You know who actually did pressure election officials in Georgia to “find” precisely the number of votes he needed to overcome his deficit?………
=========================
It’s hardly surprising to hear that Republican Senate candidates are campaigning on the “big lie” that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud.
This has become so routine that it’s no longer treated as newsworthy, which further normalizes it, a terrible development that we should resist.
But at least four of these candidates have added an even more repulsive twist: In inventing widespread fraud in 2020, they go out of their way to emphasize that it took place primarily in urban centers.
What is it about urban centers that might make this lie attractive to GOP candidates?
In addition to its obvious racial implications, Republicans trafficking in this are following a path blazed by Donald Trump.
Fake GOP claims of voter fraud to justify voter suppression are an old story, of course. But Trump added his own toxic ingredients to the stew: a more explicit focus on cities, to create a pretext for express efforts to overturn election losses.
So it’s hardly a coincidence that Senate candidates adopting this line are among the most devoted Trump sycophants in the GOP. “Our concern is Milwaukee,”
Sen. Ron Johnson, who’s running for reelection in Wisconsin, recently said. “This is one of these big Democrat strongholds that just can’t seem to get their votes counted until they know exactly how many votes they need.”
Good one, Senator. You know who actually did pressure election officials in Georgia to “find” precisely the number of votes he needed to overcome his deficit?………
FullMonte
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Well, to be fair, republicans weren’t “all for” no excuse mail in voting. It was a concession they gave to get a bill passed that had another voting issue in it (I think it had something to do with down ballot elections).
Also, this is a pretty simple ruling for the court. The state’s constitution specifies that a mail ballot can only be requested under specific guidelines (things like military members out of state, students out of state, etc). Since the constitution specifies that, it can’t be changed by legislation, it must be changed by a constitutional amendment.
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