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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The rightwing fifth circuit court of appeals has agreed to consider an electoral redistricting case emerging from Galveston county, Texas, a move that poses a fresh threat to the Voting Rights Act – the signature legislation of the civil rights movement.
In an order released from their base in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Tuesday, the court’s 17 active judges have agreed to consider a challenge to the way the act is used to protect the voting rights of citizens of color. Six of the judges were appointed by Donald Trump.
The court’s decision to hear the case en banc – in front of its full bench – could have serious implications for the future of the Voting Rights Act. An adverse ruling could deliver yet another blow to the country’s prime legal safeguard of access to the ballot box for Black and Latino voters.…..
www.theguardian.com
In an order released from their base in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Tuesday, the court’s 17 active judges have agreed to consider a challenge to the way the act is used to protect the voting rights of citizens of color. Six of the judges were appointed by Donald Trump.
The court’s decision to hear the case en banc – in front of its full bench – could have serious implications for the future of the Voting Rights Act. An adverse ruling could deliver yet another blow to the country’s prime legal safeguard of access to the ballot box for Black and Latino voters.…..
Rightwing appeals court to consider Texas map in fresh threat to Voting Rights Act
Court largely appointed by Donald Trump agrees to review lower court ruling to strike down Galveston voting map
Optimus Prime
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It was the perfect story and Donald Trump pounced.
In the final weeks of the 2020 election, officials in Luzerne county in north-east Pennsylvania had discovered nine mail-in ballots in the trash. Several of them were cast in favor of Trump, who had been railing for months that the election was rigged against him. William Barr, then the attorney general, briefed Trump on the matter before it was public and Trump immediately began spinning it.
“They were Trump ballots – eight ballots in an office yesterday in – but in a certain state and they were – they had Trump written on it, and they were thrown in a garbage can. This is what’s going to happen,” Trump said at the time. In an unusual move, the justice department quickly announced it was investigating the matter. Months later, it would announce the incident was caused by human error.
Several months later there was a new election director in place. But there was also a new problem. When Republicans went to the voting machine in the primaries, a header popped up on their ballot telling them they were voting an “official Democratic ballot”.
When the midterm elections came around in 2022, there was another new election director . Again, there was a problem. Just after the polls opened, many precincts quickly reported they did not have enough paper to feed the voting machines, prompting delays and forcing some voters to be turned away.
All three incidents were caused by unintentional human error, exacerbated by a high level of turnover in the election office of a politically competitive county in a battleground state. (Trump won the county by 14 points in 2020, a five-point drop from his 2016 margin.) Between 2016 and 2019, the median experience for staffers in the office was between 17 and 22 years, according to an analysis by the news outlet Votebeat, which has reported extensively on the election office’s turnover. In 2022, the median level of experience was just 1.5 years.
“It’s a good example of an office that hasn’t been invested in and it shows,” said Jennifer Morrell, the CEO and co-founder of The Elections Group, an election administration consultancy that worked with Luzerne county to improve processes in 2021. “I think there are a lot of other offices like that maybe haven’t had the public problems, but it’s probably because they’re kind of holding things together by a thread. Or more likely by duct tape.”
While the turnover in Luzerne county has been exceptionally high, it is emblematic of a larger crisis facing American elections. Experienced election officials, long underresourced and underpaid, are leaving the profession as they face a wave of threats and harassment, seeded by Trump and allies who have spread the myth that US election results can’t be trusted. About 20% of local election officials are projected to be working their first presidential election in 2024, according to an April survey by the Brennan Center for Justice. Nearly 70 election directors or assistant directors in 40 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have left since 2020, according to Al Schmidt, the secretary of state.
With this exodus comes a massive loss of institutional knowledge. The people who know exactly how to proof a ballot, test election machines, or troubleshoot problems on election day won’t be there. The result is a toxic cycle, where a lack of experience produces human error, fueling distrust in elections and anger, then pushing election officials to leave.
“Any wrinkle in an election process is immediately the subject of conspiracy theories,” said Robert Morgan, who served as Luzerne county’s election director for most of 2021 and was in the role when the ballot header issue occurred. “If you experience that level of turnover, there is a concern that you may not be as experienced, and you may not have handled this, or handled something this large, and yes, that doesn’t help. That doesn’t build confidence.”…….
www.theguardian.com
In the final weeks of the 2020 election, officials in Luzerne county in north-east Pennsylvania had discovered nine mail-in ballots in the trash. Several of them were cast in favor of Trump, who had been railing for months that the election was rigged against him. William Barr, then the attorney general, briefed Trump on the matter before it was public and Trump immediately began spinning it.
“They were Trump ballots – eight ballots in an office yesterday in – but in a certain state and they were – they had Trump written on it, and they were thrown in a garbage can. This is what’s going to happen,” Trump said at the time. In an unusual move, the justice department quickly announced it was investigating the matter. Months later, it would announce the incident was caused by human error.
Several months later there was a new election director in place. But there was also a new problem. When Republicans went to the voting machine in the primaries, a header popped up on their ballot telling them they were voting an “official Democratic ballot”.
When the midterm elections came around in 2022, there was another new election director . Again, there was a problem. Just after the polls opened, many precincts quickly reported they did not have enough paper to feed the voting machines, prompting delays and forcing some voters to be turned away.
All three incidents were caused by unintentional human error, exacerbated by a high level of turnover in the election office of a politically competitive county in a battleground state. (Trump won the county by 14 points in 2020, a five-point drop from his 2016 margin.) Between 2016 and 2019, the median experience for staffers in the office was between 17 and 22 years, according to an analysis by the news outlet Votebeat, which has reported extensively on the election office’s turnover. In 2022, the median level of experience was just 1.5 years.
“It’s a good example of an office that hasn’t been invested in and it shows,” said Jennifer Morrell, the CEO and co-founder of The Elections Group, an election administration consultancy that worked with Luzerne county to improve processes in 2021. “I think there are a lot of other offices like that maybe haven’t had the public problems, but it’s probably because they’re kind of holding things together by a thread. Or more likely by duct tape.”
While the turnover in Luzerne county has been exceptionally high, it is emblematic of a larger crisis facing American elections. Experienced election officials, long underresourced and underpaid, are leaving the profession as they face a wave of threats and harassment, seeded by Trump and allies who have spread the myth that US election results can’t be trusted. About 20% of local election officials are projected to be working their first presidential election in 2024, according to an April survey by the Brennan Center for Justice. Nearly 70 election directors or assistant directors in 40 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have left since 2020, according to Al Schmidt, the secretary of state.
With this exodus comes a massive loss of institutional knowledge. The people who know exactly how to proof a ballot, test election machines, or troubleshoot problems on election day won’t be there. The result is a toxic cycle, where a lack of experience produces human error, fueling distrust in elections and anger, then pushing election officials to leave.
“Any wrinkle in an election process is immediately the subject of conspiracy theories,” said Robert Morgan, who served as Luzerne county’s election director for most of 2021 and was in the role when the ballot header issue occurred. “If you experience that level of turnover, there is a concern that you may not be as experienced, and you may not have handled this, or handled something this large, and yes, that doesn’t help. That doesn’t build confidence.”…….
Exodus of election officials in one county rings alarm for US democracy
High turnover in the election office in Luzerne, Pennsylvania, exacerbated human errors, fueling anger and distrust – and is emblematic of a larger crisis facing elections
superchuck500
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Marc Elias (@marc.e.elias) on Threads
🚨Election vigilantism is the biggest threat to voting rights in 2024. "CBS News obtained video and transcripts from 11 separate sessions this year in which activists are seen strategizing how best to deploy voter challenges across the country."...
www.threads.net
Bigdaddysaints
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LOL @ Widespread Voter Fraud.
But i will say this is what happens when you actually have proof, not just made up claims that can't be backed up like you know who...
But i will say this is what happens when you actually have proof, not just made up claims that can't be backed up like you know who...
Democrat Election Win Declared Void After Widespread Voter Fraud Discovered
UriUT
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This gave me a good chuckle. LOL. He won because of one vote!!!! It turns out that he voted and his opponent did not.
Optimus Prime
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Deb Cox has been elections director of Lowndes county in southern Georgia for more than a decade – and has never before received so many time-consuming demands for public information.
Like many elections officials across the country, Cox has been inundated with Freedom of Information Act and open records requests from rightwing activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
That’s forced her and other local officials to spend an unusual amount of time and money providing polling documents to partisan groups – an additional burden as they scramble to prepare for the fraught 2024 presidential election.
Cox, a military veteran with prior law enforcement experience and an unflappable approach to her work, is in charge of preparing and managing all processes regarding voting and elections in the mid-sized county that hugs Georgia’s border with Florida and includes the small city of Valdosta.
Responding to open records requests used to be a small part of her job – but it’s continued to grow. Before the 2020 election cycle, Cox says her office would receive about three to five FOIA requests a month.
Now, she says, they’re receiving that amount each week – and she expects that number to keep rising as the election nears.
“Some [open records requests] take 20 minutes. Some take hours and hours, and multiple staff people,” Cox told the Guardian.
Across the country, election-denying rightwing activists have demanded reams of information from local election officials to try to substantiate the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him – and attempt to make sure future elections don’t go the same way.
That adds more stress and more work for these workers, who often have limited resources and are putting in extra hours to respond. Counties in swing states like Georgia have taken the brunt of these requests.……
www.theguardian.com
Like many elections officials across the country, Cox has been inundated with Freedom of Information Act and open records requests from rightwing activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
That’s forced her and other local officials to spend an unusual amount of time and money providing polling documents to partisan groups – an additional burden as they scramble to prepare for the fraught 2024 presidential election.
Cox, a military veteran with prior law enforcement experience and an unflappable approach to her work, is in charge of preparing and managing all processes regarding voting and elections in the mid-sized county that hugs Georgia’s border with Florida and includes the small city of Valdosta.
Responding to open records requests used to be a small part of her job – but it’s continued to grow. Before the 2020 election cycle, Cox says her office would receive about three to five FOIA requests a month.
Now, she says, they’re receiving that amount each week – and she expects that number to keep rising as the election nears.
“Some [open records requests] take 20 minutes. Some take hours and hours, and multiple staff people,” Cox told the Guardian.
Across the country, election-denying rightwing activists have demanded reams of information from local election officials to try to substantiate the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him – and attempt to make sure future elections don’t go the same way.
That adds more stress and more work for these workers, who often have limited resources and are putting in extra hours to respond. Counties in swing states like Georgia have taken the brunt of these requests.……
Local elections officials inundated with records requests by rightwing activists
Counties in swing states like Georgia overwhelmed with requests at the same time as they scramble to prepare for 2024
Optimus Prime
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DaveXA
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I wish it was all mail ballots tbh. Don't need to leave the house or take a day off from work. Just count everything on election day at a secure location.
LA - L.A.
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It's done here in CA and you can set up email alerts through CA.gov to give you a tracking update every time the USPS and the state scan the bar code on your ballot. The last confirmation comes from CA that your ballot was counted. Every stated can easily implement it. I think the federal government shroud require it in every state and pay for it, just so states don't have any legitimate reason not to do it.
Bigdaddysaints
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Most Republicans wouldn't want that. There is a reason why in areas with high minorities the lines are extemely long. they don not want them to vote, period. making it easier and even more transparent is just a big no no they want no part of...
Optimus Prime
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NAPOLEONVILLE, La. — When Dorothy Nairne missed an election, her mother scolded her so forcefully that it made her cry.
As a Black woman who grew up in the South, her mother had to pass a literacy test the first time she registered to vote. Nairne’s grandfather served in the Army during World War I but couldn’t cast a ballot until decades later.
“I don’t have the right to not vote,” Nairne, 57, said recently as trucks hauling sugar cane sped down the highway in front of her house in this rural village west of New Orleans.
Now, Nairne fears that her vote doesn’t carry the full weight it should because of how Republican lawmakers have drawn the state’s legislative and congressional districts.
She and other voters are suing to change those maps, joining a crush of litigation across the South that alleges Republican lawmakers illegally drew district lines to limit the power of minority voters. The outcome of the suits likely will influence which party controls the next Congress. The cases will also test how much a 58-year-old landmark of the civil rights era still matters.
Passed in 1965, the Voting Rights Act transformed who was eligible to enjoy the full rights of citizenship in the United States by effectively ending poll taxes and literacy tests like the ones Nairne’s family was forced to endure. It gave the Justice Department oversight of state voting laws in jurisdictions with a history of discrimination, most of them in the South, and helped expand Black representation to levels unseen during nearly a century of Jim Crow segregation……
Black voters in Louisiana have a majority in just one of the state’s six congressional districts, despite making up nearly a third of the statewide population.
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which assesses congressional and legislative lines for fairness, gave Louisiana’s congressional map an F in racial representation.
In the state legislature, Black voters have majorities in about a quarter of the seats. There are now fewer Black lawmakers in the legislature than there were in 1872, during Reconstruction.
Republicans have said they followed the law in drawing district lines and noted they added a majority-Black district in the Louisiana House. The districts must be redrawn after the Census every 10 years…..
As a Black woman who grew up in the South, her mother had to pass a literacy test the first time she registered to vote. Nairne’s grandfather served in the Army during World War I but couldn’t cast a ballot until decades later.
“I don’t have the right to not vote,” Nairne, 57, said recently as trucks hauling sugar cane sped down the highway in front of her house in this rural village west of New Orleans.
Now, Nairne fears that her vote doesn’t carry the full weight it should because of how Republican lawmakers have drawn the state’s legislative and congressional districts.
She and other voters are suing to change those maps, joining a crush of litigation across the South that alleges Republican lawmakers illegally drew district lines to limit the power of minority voters. The outcome of the suits likely will influence which party controls the next Congress. The cases will also test how much a 58-year-old landmark of the civil rights era still matters.
Passed in 1965, the Voting Rights Act transformed who was eligible to enjoy the full rights of citizenship in the United States by effectively ending poll taxes and literacy tests like the ones Nairne’s family was forced to endure. It gave the Justice Department oversight of state voting laws in jurisdictions with a history of discrimination, most of them in the South, and helped expand Black representation to levels unseen during nearly a century of Jim Crow segregation……
Black voters in Louisiana have a majority in just one of the state’s six congressional districts, despite making up nearly a third of the statewide population.
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which assesses congressional and legislative lines for fairness, gave Louisiana’s congressional map an F in racial representation.
In the state legislature, Black voters have majorities in about a quarter of the seats. There are now fewer Black lawmakers in the legislature than there were in 1872, during Reconstruction.
Republicans have said they followed the law in drawing district lines and noted they added a majority-Black district in the Louisiana House. The districts must be redrawn after the Census every 10 years…..
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DaveXA
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DaveXA
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That's the point of my post. Republicans screwing around while democracy burns and they say everything is fine.Dave the number of registered Rs removed was less than 200,000. Seems pretty fishy.
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OP
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MT15
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Oh I know, I just realized the R number wasn’t in the original tweet.
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