Voting Law Proposals and Voting Rights Efforts (1 Viewer)

[MT15]

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.

 

[MT15]

Wanna challenge a person's right to vote? There's an app for that...

A half-million records and one app: The group behind a massive effort to ‘clean’ voter rolls | CNN Politics

Police officers in Texas, senior citizens at a nursing home in Pennsylvania and people who had registered to vote at a Marine base in California.

www.cnn.com

I saw where GA just rolled out a page online where you can cancel a voter registration with only a first and last name and birthdate. It’s supposedly intended to be used only by people who have moved or by next of kin after death, but the potential for abuse is huge. It’s not a challenge, it just cancels your registration. And people targeted wouldn’t know until they get to the polls.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Wanna challenge a person's right to vote? There's an app for that...

A half-million records and one app: The group behind a massive effort to ‘clean’ voter rolls | CNN Politics

Police officers in Texas, senior citizens at a nursing home in Pennsylvania and people who had registered to vote at a Marine base in California.

www.cnn.com

Also, I might've been hit by this myself. In the recent primary election, I somehow had to fill out paperwork because I apparently didn't live where I have been living since 2016 (only changed apartment # in that time). Was told that the thought was I moved back and voted in New Orleans. My vote was considered provisional and I had to fill out all of this stuff on this form.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I saw where GA just rolled out a page online where you can cancel a voter registration with only a first and last name and birthdate.

I did?

 

[MT15]

I did?

Yeah, lol. Here’s the form.

 

[MT15]

I am just now realizing you don’t even have to have a first name, just an initial. Surely if you enter someone’s info it takes you to a second page where more information is needed?

 

[Maxp]

What a disaster, I really hope the people on the ground in Georgia are ready to combat this blatant voter suppression.

 

[Sharon]

What a disaster, I really hope the people on the ground in Georgia are ready to combat this blatant voter suppression.

But what a boon to the bored Karens of the world. Do you even have to be in Georgia to cancel someone's vote?

 

[Nebaghead]

But what a boon to the bored Karens of the world. Do you even have to be in Georgia to cancel someone's vote?

My assumption is tracking will
Occur when you use the site. Not hard to cover up with VPN but the damage will be done by the time anyone investigates.

 

[bird]

There is no right to vote. Voting is the mechanism used to elect the officeholders but the constitution does not lay out a “right” to vote.

This is why legislation is critical.

 

[Optimus Prime]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge dismissed a lawsuit Monday that challenged absentee voting procedures, preventing administrative headaches for local election clerks and hundreds of thousands of voters in the politically volatile swing state ahead of fall elections.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit Thomas Oldenberg, a voter from Amberg, Wisconsin, filed in February. Oldenberg argued that the state Elections Commission hasn't been following a state law that requires voters who electronically request absentee ballots to place a physical copy of the request in the ballot return envelope. Absentee ballots without the request copy shouldn't count, he maintained.

Commission attorneys countered in May that language on the envelope that voters sign indicating they requested the ballot serves as a copy of the request. Making changes now would disrupt long-standing absentee voting procedures on the eve of multiple elections and new envelopes can’t be designed and reprinted in time for the Aug. 13 primary and Nov. 5 general election, the commission maintained.

Online court records indicate Door County Circuit Judge David Weber delivered an oral decision Monday morning in favor of the elections commission and dismissed the case. The records did not elaborate on Weber’s rationale. Oldenberg’s attorneys didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment...........

Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging absentee voting procedure in battleground Wisconsin

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging absentee voting procedures in swing state Wisconsin. Thomas Oldenberg is a voter from Amberg, Wisconsin.

apnews.com

 

[SFIDC3]

The US has exceptionally safe and secure elections. We don’t have any problems with them.

Yup, this is clearly manufacturing/creating a problem where non exists because one side lost.....and someone will never admit it.....it's disgusting and goes against everything this country is supposed to stand for.....

And it's clearly their playbook, accuse the other side of what they are doing.....every accusation is a confession....

Trump and his Maga hoard tried to suppress thousands of legitimate votes, I simply can't understand how they are getting away with it....should all be incarcerated by now....

 

[DaveXA]

Yup, this is clearly manufacturing/creating a problem where non exists because one side lost.....and someone will never admit it.....it's disgusting and goes against everything this country is supposed to stand for.....

And it's clearly their playbook, accuse the other side of what they are doing.....every accusation is a confession....

Trump and his Maga hoard tried to suppress thousands of legitimate votes, I simply can't understand how they are getting away with it....should all be incarcerated by now....

Clearly Republicans don't think they can win so they resort to cheating. It's old hat now.

 

[Optimus Prime]

This is definitely a solution in search of a problem

This is one of those things that sounds fine on the surface "you should have to show your ID in order to vote. You have to show your ID when you check into a hotel or a dentist appointment, why not voting?"

Sounds fair, who could be against that?

But the type of voter fraud this would prevent (someone walking into an election precinct and claiming to be Optimus Prime) happens so rarely, I believe single digits out of the 120+ million votes cast, you have to wonder why so much energy is devoted to this 'solution'

To me, the only answer is the difficulty that would present to some people, and getting those people not to vote is the real problem that's being solved

And to me and many, having to spend a couple hours getting this taken care of in an office 20 miles away is a minor inconvenience, but to a lot of people they are major obstacles

 

[LA - L.A.]

What a disaster, I really hope the people on the ground in Georgia are ready to combat this blatant voter suppression.

Goose-gander if it's the only option.

 

[DaveXA]

Goose-gander if it's the only option.

I agree, it's only fair.

 

[Optimus Prime]

DENVER (AP) — A trial is set to begin Wednesday for former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, a hero to election conspiracy theorists who is accused of orchestrating a breach of election security equipment.

The case against Peters centers around accusations that in May 2021 she allowed a man using someone else’s security badge to make a copy of the Dominion Voting Systems computer’s hard drive while she and an aide watched after turning off surveillance video.

Colorado state election officials became aware of the Mesa County security breach a few months later when a photo and video of confidential voting system passwords were posted on social media and a conservative website after Peters joined Lindell onstage at a “cybersymposium” and promised to reveal proof of election rigging.

Peters, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, argued she had a duty to preserve the results of the election before the voting system was upgraded and that she should not be prosecuted for carrying out her job.

The hard drive copied included proprietary software developed by Dominion Voting Systems that is used by election offices around the country. The Colorado-based company has been the subject of conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Trump’s loss. It filed several defamation lawsuits as a result, settling a case against Fox News for $787 million last year............

Colorado clerk who became hero to election conspiracists set to go on trial for voting system breach

The former Colorado county clerk who has become a hero to those supporting conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election is set to go on trial Wednesday.

apnews.com

 

[MT15]

I am just now realizing you don’t even have to have a first name, just an initial. Surely if you enter someone’s info it takes you to a second page where more information is needed?

Okay, upon reading further, once you enter the info on the first page it takes you to another page where you have to know either a drivers’ license number or a social security number to actually cancel a voter registration. This is better than first thought, but still not reassuring. My own ss number was in a data breach as have been millions of other people in this country. And to top it all off, there was a “glitch” yesterday and for an hour if you looked someone up the site gave you their social security number and drivers’ license number.

All this for no reason. To “solve” a problem that doesn’t exist.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Okay, upon reading further, once you enter the info on the first page it takes you to another page where you have to know either a drivers’ license number or a social security number to actually cancel a voter registration. This is better than first thought, but still not reassuring. My own ss number was in a data breach as have been millions of other people in this country. And to top it all off, there was a “glitch” yesterday and for an hour if you looked someone up the site gave you their social security number and drivers’ license number.

All this for no reason. To “solve” a problem that doesn’t exist.

There has to be more (or less) to it than that, no way they have this many people's SSN or Driver's info

Bolding mine
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.........Though only a small number of people are routinely filing voter challenges, the open-ended nature of voter challenge laws has allowed these activists to cast a wide net. A 2023 ProPublica investigation found that nearly 90% of voter challenges filed since the passage of SB 202 — encompassing 89,000 voters — were submitted by just six people............

New Georgia law makes voter intimidation easier, critics say; affects Black voters most

Voter challenges, once an obscure practice, have become a mass movement in Georgia. Experts say a new election law will likely make the problem worse.

www.usatoday.com