The Voting Thread (Procedures, Turnout, Legal Challenges)(Update: Trump to file suit in PA, MI, WI, AZ, NV, GA) (3 Viewers)

[Lapaz]

There is a lot of push-back from Trump on voting by mail, but most states allow it, and 1/3 allow it without any excuse. His rationale is that it will lead to vast fraud, but of course that isn't his real reason. His real reason is that he thinks it will be worse for conservatives, but studies have shown that states that have instituted much broader voting by mail haven't had any statistical changes in party voting.

Stanford study: Mail voting doesn't benefit one party over another

Coronavirus-spurred limits have intensified a push to allow more mail balloting in November.

www.politico.com

Voting Outside the Polling Place: Absentee, All-Mail and other Voting at Home Options

Most states offer at least one method for any eligible voter to cast a ballot before Election Day. While some states provide early in-person voting, this webpage addresses absentee voting and all-mail voting.

www.ncsl.org

Although, normally voting by mail doesn't affect party votes, I bet it might this year if we have another resurgence of Covid, because I think the right is much more apt to discount the virus than the left. I know that is why Trump is against it.

Whether you're left or right wing, expanding mail in votes is the right thing to do to reduce the likelihood of spreading the virus, to expand voter participation, and to make it easier for those that do show up to stay distant. It will also allow any people with susceptibilities to remain safer. I think voting by mail could be made extremely secure by having people vote using traditional postal mail, coupled with requiring a confirmation either by phone, email or text. If done by phone, then voters can provide confirmation that can include confirming their form number. If done by email or text, it can include a picture of their form, and then confirmation that that was their form. Rather than staffers individually calling people, this can be automated by having voters call the number, text the number, or email the address provided to them on their form. A website can even be created with a database of those that have voted, and perhaps a link to allow people to confirm their vote was correctly registered. For people without computers, a site can include a means to access the database over the phone with some confirmation information. These types of systems are used extensively by banks and other sites that need security, so I think they are mature enough to use. We could even use such a site for people to confirm their vote on the day of the election.

 

[superchuck500]

Ideally, I'd like to see Dominion put FNC out of business. Never happen, but I can dream.

Some of that stuff is so wacko. Sidney Powell is effing crazy and there were people around Trump trying to get him to give her powers!

 

[MT15]

Can this stuff at least get Fox banned from military bases? The military shouldn’t be pushing that crap.

 

[MT15]

Some of that stuff is so wacko. Sidney Powell is effing crazy and there were people around Trump trying to get him to give her powers!

Some people pushed him to make her attorney general. Conspiracy theorists on-line were saying she already had broad military tribunal powers and was actually imprisoning folks for voter fraud.

 

[Bigdaddysaints]

James O'Keefe and Project Veritas settle suit over bogus voter fraud claims cited by Trump campaign​

O'Keefe and Project Veritas had boosted the claims of Richard Hopkins, a Trump supporter who worked as a mail carrier at the time and claimed that he'd heard Weisenbach make statements about illegally backdating mail-in ballots. Hopkins retracted his statement after it was cited by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in a 2020 letter to the Justice Department.

MSN

 

[bird]

How apropos…

JD Vance would have accepted Trump’s alternate electors if he was vice-president

“If I had been Vice President, I would have told the states like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors and I think the US Congress should have fought over it from there," Vance told ABC.

www.cleveland.com

The idiot known as a senator from my sad state of Ohio is clinging to the Velveeta Vulgarian’s azz like a remora.

 

[bird]

I am uncertain if the mods/admins will allow this as there is language issues. The language is not mine but is the writing of The Rude Pundit. If it gets removed that is OK.

JD Vance Proves Again What a Vile Motherfucker He Is

Politics and sometimes culture from a rude liberal in blog form.

rudepundit.blogspot.com

 

[Booker]

I am uncertain if the mods/admins will allow this as there is language issues. The language is not mine but is the writing of The Rude Pundit. If it gets removed that is OK.

JD Vance Proves Again What a Vile Motherfucker He Is

Politics and sometimes culture from a rude liberal in blog form.

rudepundit.blogspot.com

He's a complete piece of crap. He's basically advocating that following the Constitution is optional if it doesn't take you where you want to go.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Wasn't sure what thread to put this in
=========================

Hello Fight to Vote readers,

For the last few months, I’ve been following the case of Pamela Moses, a 44-year-old activist in Memphis who was convicted in November for trying to register to vote while she was ineligible. On Monday, Moses, who is Black, was sentenced to six years and one day in prison.

To my eye, the case is far more complex than it seems.....

The case caught my attention for a few reasons. First, it is rare to see a prosecutor bring criminal charges against someone for election crimes, and I was curious whether this was a bona fide case of fraud or of someone who had made a mistake. Second, there has been growing awareness of racial disparities in punishments for election-related crimes. Black people such as Crystal Mason and Hervis Rogers have faced years in prison for making mistakes about their voting eligibility. White voters have received much lighter sentences for election-related crimes.

Weirich’s office did not respond to interview requests, but the more I looked into Moses’ case, the more I realized the case wasn’t straightforward at all. Behind the scenes, Tennessee officials conceded that they had made a series of mistakes concerning Moses’ voting eligibility.

In 2015, when Moses pleaded guilty to her felony, she says no one told her she couldn’t vote. “They never mentioned anything about voting. They never mentioned anything about not voting, being able to vote … none of that,” Moses told me last year. (She added she hadn’t discussed the case with her two sons, 24 and 13, but described it as “traumatic”.)

At the time, election officials should have removed her from the rolls, but the court never sent election officials in Memphis the documents they needed to do so, according to a letter from an election official I obtained.

Moses didn’t know anything was amiss until 2019, when she launched a long-shot mayoral campaign. Election officials said she couldn’t appear on the ballot because of her felony. When they began to look into her eligibility, they also realized she had never been taken off the voter rolls. Moses went to court and asked a judge to clarify whether she was still on probation, and the court confirmed that she was. What happened next is at the crux of the case against her.

Moses did not believe the judge had correctly calculated her sentence. So she went to the local probation office and asked an officer to figure it out. An officer filled out and signed a certificate confirming her probation had ended. In Tennessee, people with felony convictions who want to vote need that document from a correction official. Moses submitted it to local election officials along with a voter registration form.

But the day afterwards, an official at the corrections department wrote an email to election officials saying a probation officer had made an “error” on Moses’ certificate. Moses was still serving an active felony sentence, they wrote, and was not eligible to vote. The department offered no explanation for the mistake.

Such errors are actually fairly common in Tennessee, where the voting rules are extremely confusing for people with felonies, Blair Bowie, an attorney at the Campaign Legal Center, told me. A 2017 study found that about 8% of the certificates submitted were rejected because the voters remained ineligible. Bowie said she was unaware of any voter in the state ever facing criminal charges for submitting a certificate but later turning out to be ineligible to vote..............

The Black woman sentenced to six years in prison over a voting error

A Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence for Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected.

Mason, now 49, attempted to vote in Fort Worth in the 2016 even though she was ineligible because she was still on supervised release – which is like probation – for a tax felony. She has always maintained she had no idea she was ineligible and only tried to cast a ballot because her mother urged her to.

A judge convicted her in a 2018 trial that lasted just a few hours.


Mason’s case became well known nationally and struck a chord as an example of an egregious punishment for a voting mistake.

In 2022, Texas’s highest criminal court told a lower appellate court it had to reconsider a ruling upholding Mason’s conviction. On Thursday, that court said there was not sufficient evidence Mason knew she was ineligible to vote.…..

Crystal Mason: Texas woman sentenced to five years over voting error acquitted

Appeals court rules Mason, now 49, did not know she was ineligible when she voted in 2016 and throws out conviction

www.theguardian.com

 

[DaveXA]

A Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence for Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected.

Mason, now 49, attempted to vote in Fort Worth in the 2016 even though she was ineligible because she was still on supervised release – which is like probation – for a tax felony. She has always maintained she had no idea she was ineligible and only tried to cast a ballot because her mother urged her to.

A judge convicted her in a 2018 trial that lasted just a few hours.


Mason’s case became well known nationally and struck a chord as an example of an egregious punishment for a voting mistake.

In 2022, Texas’s highest criminal court told a lower appellate court it had to reconsider a ruling upholding Mason’s conviction. On Thursday, that court said there was not sufficient evidence Mason knew she was ineligible to vote.…..

Crystal Mason: Texas woman sentenced to five years over voting error acquitted

Appeals court rules Mason, now 49, did not know she was ineligible when she voted in 2016 and throws out conviction

www.theguardian.com

Unequal justice under law is closer to reality than the other way around.

I will say though, thanks to the appellate court for throwing out the conviction.

 

[superchuck500]

A Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence for Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected.

Mason, now 49, attempted to vote in Fort Worth in the 2016 even though she was ineligible because she was still on supervised release – which is like probation – for a tax felony. She has always maintained she had no idea she was ineligible and only tried to cast a ballot because her mother urged her to.

A judge convicted her in a 2018 trial that lasted just a few hours.


Mason’s case became well known nationally and struck a chord as an example of an egregious punishment for a voting mistake.

In 2022, Texas’s highest criminal court told a lower appellate court it had to reconsider a ruling upholding Mason’s conviction. On Thursday, that court said there was not sufficient evidence Mason knew she was ineligible to vote.…..

Crystal Mason: Texas woman sentenced to five years over voting error acquitted

Appeals court rules Mason, now 49, did not know she was ineligible when she voted in 2016 and throws out conviction

www.theguardian.com

Should go in the racism thread. Just appalling.

 

[Lapaz]

Should go in the racism thread. Just appalling.

It is appalling, but I don’t blame racism. I blame Texas for being full of extremists, while Pennsylvania is too lax. That guy should’ve gotten some prison time.

 

[bird]

It is appalling, but I don’t blame racism. I blame Texas for being full of extremists, while Pennsylvania is too lax. That guy should’ve gotten some prison time.

Actually I blame both things. Had it been a white woman in TX I would have been extremely surprised if she would have gotten prison time.

 

[coldseat]

It is appalling, but I don’t blame racism. I blame Texas for being full of extremists, while Pennsylvania is too lax. That guy should’ve gotten some prison time.

They definitely target specific groups of people with those laws in Texas.

 

[DaveXA]

Actually I blame both things. Had it been a white woman in TX I would have been extremely surprised if she would have gotten prison time.

Clearly this. It's both without question.

 

[superchuck500]

It is appalling, but I don’t blame racism. I blame Texas for being full of extremists, while Pennsylvania is too lax. That guy should’ve gotten some prison time.

I hear you but the sentencing disparity by race in America is well documented. I strongly suspect you can find cases from Texas where white males engaged in similar conduct didn’t receive anything like five years. I’ll see if I can find an example when I get back from vacation.

 

[Lapaz]

I hear you but the sentencing disparity by race in America is well documented. I strongly suspect you can find cases from Texas where white males engaged in similar conduct didn’t receive anything like five years. I’ll see if I can find an example when I get back from vacation.

You may find examples of a white guy getting treated more leniently, but you should look for examples of all races that didn’t get the same sentence. I think you may find them if you go back about 10 years or more, because Republicans weren’t as extremists as they have become, especially since Trump has been in the picture. If you find one within the last 5 years, then I would agree that it is more about racism, rather than extremism.

 

[Optimus Prime]

An Iowa woman found guilty on 52 counts of voter fraud, carried out in support of her Republican husband, was given an eight-month custodial sentence.

Kim Taylor, of Woodbury county, will serve four months in prison and four in home confinement, KTIV, a Sioux City TV station, reported. Subject to two years’ supervised release, Taylor will also pay $5,200.

Each count carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison – or 260 years in all.


During sentencing on Monday, Leonard Strand, the judge, said a vastly lighter punishment was correct because of factors including Taylor’s caretaking role for her children and good community standing.

Taylor’s husband, Jeremy Taylor, ran for Congress in 2020, losing a Republican primary. He was then elected to the Woodbury county board of supervisors. He resigned as board chair after his wife was convicted but remains a board member. He was not charged in the voter fraud case but has said he will not seek re-election.

Last November, Kim Taylor was found guilty of 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, 23 counts of fraudulent voting and three counts of fraudulent registration.

The office of the US attorney for the northern district of Iowa said Taylor “perpetrated a scheme to fraudulently generate votes for her husband in the primary election for Iowa’s fourth US congressional district in June 2020.……

Iowa woman found guilty of voter fraud in support of Republican husband

Kim Taylor of Woodbury county given eight-month custodial sentence for helping Jeremy Taylor fraudulently win election

www.theguardian.com

 

[bird]

An Iowa woman found guilty on 52 counts of voter fraud, carried out in support of her Republican husband, was given an eight-month custodial sentence.

Kim Taylor, of Woodbury county, will serve four months in prison and four in home confinement, KTIV, a Sioux City TV station, reported. Subject to two years’ supervised release, Taylor will also pay $5,200.

Each count carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison – or 260 years in all.


During sentencing on Monday, Leonard Strand, the judge, said a vastly lighter punishment was correct because of factors including Taylor’s caretaking role for her children and good community standing.

Taylor’s husband, Jeremy Taylor, ran for Congress in 2020, losing a Republican primary. He was then elected to the Woodbury county board of supervisors. He resigned as board chair after his wife was convicted but remains a board member. He was not charged in the voter fraud case but has said he will not seek re-election.

Last November, Kim Taylor was found guilty of 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, 23 counts of fraudulent voting and three counts of fraudulent registration.

The office of the US attorney for the northern district of Iowa said Taylor “perpetrated a scheme to fraudulently generate votes for her husband in the primary election for Iowa’s fourth US congressional district in June 2020.……

Iowa woman found guilty of voter fraud in support of Republican husband

Kim Taylor of Woodbury county given eight-month custodial sentence for helping Jeremy Taylor fraudulently win election

www.theguardian.com

Hmmm, another case of projection. Republicans scream about voter fraud while committing voter fraud. How unusual.