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 (2 Viewers)
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coldseat
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Texas officials have been forced to debunk a voter fraud conspiracy theory after it was shared on social media by Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo.
On Sunday, the news personality suggested on X that Democrats were registering immigrants to vote at several locations in Fort Worth and Weatherford, Texas……
The story attracted the attention of the Texas Department of Public Safety, who said it was “simply false,” according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The Star-Telegram pointed out that there’s no DMV office in Weatherford. However, there is a Texas Department of Public Safety Driver License office - but it had no tent or registration site set up last week.
“None of it is true,” DPS spokesperson Sgt William Lockridge told the newspaper, noting that suggesting non-white Texas residents who were in line to get their licenses would be immigrants or illegal was “kind of racist.”
Lockridge added: “Just because these people aren’t white, that doesn’t mean they’re illegal.”……
Texas officials totally debunk Fox News host’s voter fraud conspiracy theory
‘Just because these people aren’t white, that doesn’t mean they’re illegal,’ says Texas Department of Public Safetywww.independent.co.uk
Tell Maria Bartiromo's friend of a friend that the reason all of the appointments were full and she had to go to 3 drivers license locations is because Republicans and that state government in this state don't invest in services for the citizens who live in this state. They purposefully make it difficult for people to get identification, drivers license and to register to vote, register for medicaid/medicare, get any type of service such as unemployment, etc.. It's not a bug, it's a feature. The government in this states works first for the Republican rage machine and then for business interest in the state. The citizens come way at the end of the line, if anything is left over.
If her friends wants better services, then she should stop blaming illegal immigrants, demand the state government step up and stop voting for Republicans!
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zztop
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who would have guessed this would be a thing a certain group tries to do
www.vox.com
Republicans ask the Supreme Court to disenfranchise thousands of swing state voters
A new Supreme Court case could potentially hand Arizona to Donald Trump.
www.vox.com
Optimus Prime
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Texas’s highest criminal court announced on Wednesday it would again consider the case of Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced to five years in prison for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election when she was ineligible to vote.
The announcement from the Texas court of criminal appeals is the latest step in a nearly eight-year case that has captured national attention because of the severity of Mason’s sentence. Mason, who lives in Fort Worth, attempted to vote in 2016 while on supervised release – which is like probation – for a federal tax felony. Texas, like several other US states, bars people convicted of a felony from voting until they have completed their sentence.
Even though her supervised release officer testified they never advised her she could not vote, prosecutors argue she knew she was ineligible and tried to vote anyway. Her ballot was never counted.
Many voting rights groups see the prosecution of Mason, who is Black, as a clear example of voter intimidation, and have pointed to other white defendants who have received lesser punishment for knowingly committing election crimes. Mason has always maintained she did not know she was ineligible.
It will be the second time the case comes before the court. In 2022, it ordered a lower court to revisit a decision upholding the sentence. The lower court did so and threw out Mason’s conviction in March. While some of Mason’s lawyers expected that would be the end of the case, Phil Sorrells, the local district attorney, decided to appeal the decision.
“While I am ready for this case to be over and for my acquittal to stand, I will continue to maintain my faith that justice will be done,” Mason said in a statement.…….
www.theguardian.com
The announcement from the Texas court of criminal appeals is the latest step in a nearly eight-year case that has captured national attention because of the severity of Mason’s sentence. Mason, who lives in Fort Worth, attempted to vote in 2016 while on supervised release – which is like probation – for a federal tax felony. Texas, like several other US states, bars people convicted of a felony from voting until they have completed their sentence.
Even though her supervised release officer testified they never advised her she could not vote, prosecutors argue she knew she was ineligible and tried to vote anyway. Her ballot was never counted.
Many voting rights groups see the prosecution of Mason, who is Black, as a clear example of voter intimidation, and have pointed to other white defendants who have received lesser punishment for knowingly committing election crimes. Mason has always maintained she did not know she was ineligible.
It will be the second time the case comes before the court. In 2022, it ordered a lower court to revisit a decision upholding the sentence. The lower court did so and threw out Mason’s conviction in March. While some of Mason’s lawyers expected that would be the end of the case, Phil Sorrells, the local district attorney, decided to appeal the decision.
“While I am ready for this case to be over and for my acquittal to stand, I will continue to maintain my faith that justice will be done,” Mason said in a statement.…….
Texas to reconsider case of Black woman sentenced to five years for trying to vote
Move is latest step in case of Crystal Mason that has captured US attention because of severity of sentence
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MT15
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This is somewhat alarming. Paxton is as crooked as they come, and has bragged about his efforts to help Trump win in TX by purging voter rolls (although some say he was exaggerating). Bexar County is home to San Antonio and reliably votes D.
He’s MAGA Trumpublican. If he is bragging about it then either he is already doing it or he is planning it.
Optimus Prime
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just in case the people don't vote the way they are supposed to
Why would anyone vote in favor of this?
Although to answer my own question, it's to convince majority of republican voters in a mostly Republican state to vote to give the majority republican politicians the power to overturn any bleeding heart liberal measure that accidentally gets approved (or MAGA measure they really want gets voted down)
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Republican-controlled Legislature will ask voters in November to relinquish some of their rights to lawmakers who want the ability to change state ballot measures after they’ve passed.
Frustrated by a recent state Supreme Court ruling, lawmakers called a special session Wednesday in which both chambers swiftly approved an amendment to Utah’s constitution that would grant them greater power over citizen initiatives. The Legislature used its broadly worded emergency powers to hold the session.
If a majority of Utah voters approves the amendment this fall, it would give lawmakers constitutional authority to significantly rewrite voter-approved ballot measures or repeal them entirely.
Democrats decried the decision as a “power grab,” while Republicans argued it would be dangerous to have certain laws on the books that cannot be substantially changed. The proposal would let lawmakers apply their new power to initiatives from past election cycles.
“We’re asking our constituents to turn over more power to us,” said state Sen. Nate Blouin, a Millcreek Democrat. “We are patronizing our constituents. We’re telling them that we know better while feeding them a spoonful of sugar to make it go down easier.”..........
apnews.com
Why would anyone vote in favor of this?
Although to answer my own question, it's to convince majority of republican voters in a mostly Republican state to vote to give the majority republican politicians the power to overturn any bleeding heart liberal measure that accidentally gets approved (or MAGA measure they really want gets voted down)
==========================================
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Republican-controlled Legislature will ask voters in November to relinquish some of their rights to lawmakers who want the ability to change state ballot measures after they’ve passed.
Frustrated by a recent state Supreme Court ruling, lawmakers called a special session Wednesday in which both chambers swiftly approved an amendment to Utah’s constitution that would grant them greater power over citizen initiatives. The Legislature used its broadly worded emergency powers to hold the session.
If a majority of Utah voters approves the amendment this fall, it would give lawmakers constitutional authority to significantly rewrite voter-approved ballot measures or repeal them entirely.
Democrats decried the decision as a “power grab,” while Republicans argued it would be dangerous to have certain laws on the books that cannot be substantially changed. The proposal would let lawmakers apply their new power to initiatives from past election cycles.
“We’re asking our constituents to turn over more power to us,” said state Sen. Nate Blouin, a Millcreek Democrat. “We are patronizing our constituents. We’re telling them that we know better while feeding them a spoonful of sugar to make it go down easier.”..........
Utah lawmakers want voters to give them the power to change ballot measures once they've passed
Utah’s Republican-controlled Legislature will ask voters in November to relinquish some of their rights to lawmakers who want the ability to change state ballot measures after they’ve passed.
apnews.com
Optimus Prime
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Only months before November’s elections, the Republican National Committee has launched a new legal attack on the rules that govern federal elections. Supported by 24 states, the RNC is seeking, on an emergency basis, a Supreme Court ruling that the United States Congress lacks the constitutional authority to regulate presidential elections—congressional elections, yes, but not elections held to select presidents. The petitioners’ immediate goal is to allow the state of Arizona to impose a “proof of citizenship” requirement as a condition of a person’s right to vote for president.
If they are to succeed, the Court will have to suddenly, with mere weeks left before people start voting, abandon or explain away a decision it rendered in 2013—that Congress has the power to establish rules for voter registration in presidential elections. But even if the suit fails, it risks achieving some success in sowing doubt about the integrity of elections, highlighting claims of illegal voting by immigrants, and laying a foundation for post-election allegations of fraud and related legal challenges. (I have advised the national Democratic Party on this suit and have been further monitoring it as part of nonpartisan work to support election administrators in their preparation for the fall elections.)
The RNC target in this suit is a federal statute, the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), enacted in 1993 to establish uniform, simplified, and nondiscriminatory rules for the registration of voters in federal elections. NVRA requires states to provide registration opportunities at their motor-vehicle departments and public-assistance agencies, and directed the adoption of procedures to keep voter rolls accurate and current. The law also mandated a federal voter-registration form that states must “accept and use.” The form requires an attestation of citizenship under penalty of perjury and no further documentation.
But in 2022, Arizona passed a law requiring its voters to submit, along with the federal form, documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC), such as a passport or a birth certificate. Under that law, Arizonans who register to vote with this form but do not provide DPOC would be barred from voting at all for president, and from voting by mail in any other election in the state. The state has never enforced the law, for one reason: In 2013, the Supreme Court had held that the NVRA preempted an earlier version of this requirement—constitutional-law-speak for not permitting the state to add its own DPOC mandate to the attestation called for by the federal form. This meant that the state could impose its own requirement only for state elections. Ever since then, only those Arizona voters who do not use the federal form to register have had to supply DPOC.............
www.theatlantic.com
If they are to succeed, the Court will have to suddenly, with mere weeks left before people start voting, abandon or explain away a decision it rendered in 2013—that Congress has the power to establish rules for voter registration in presidential elections. But even if the suit fails, it risks achieving some success in sowing doubt about the integrity of elections, highlighting claims of illegal voting by immigrants, and laying a foundation for post-election allegations of fraud and related legal challenges. (I have advised the national Democratic Party on this suit and have been further monitoring it as part of nonpartisan work to support election administrators in their preparation for the fall elections.)
The RNC target in this suit is a federal statute, the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), enacted in 1993 to establish uniform, simplified, and nondiscriminatory rules for the registration of voters in federal elections. NVRA requires states to provide registration opportunities at their motor-vehicle departments and public-assistance agencies, and directed the adoption of procedures to keep voter rolls accurate and current. The law also mandated a federal voter-registration form that states must “accept and use.” The form requires an attestation of citizenship under penalty of perjury and no further documentation.
But in 2022, Arizona passed a law requiring its voters to submit, along with the federal form, documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC), such as a passport or a birth certificate. Under that law, Arizonans who register to vote with this form but do not provide DPOC would be barred from voting at all for president, and from voting by mail in any other election in the state. The state has never enforced the law, for one reason: In 2013, the Supreme Court had held that the NVRA preempted an earlier version of this requirement—constitutional-law-speak for not permitting the state to add its own DPOC mandate to the attestation called for by the federal form. This meant that the state could impose its own requirement only for state elections. Ever since then, only those Arizona voters who do not use the federal form to register have had to supply DPOC.............
Republicans’ New, Dangerous Attempt to Break the Election
Even if the Supreme Court rejects this plea, the GOP will advance its cause of sowing doubt in the electoral process all the same.
Optimus Prime
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guess this can go here
don't think I've heard of a 'ballot selfie' before
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A woman is suing the North Carolina elections board over state laws that ban most photography in polling places after she took a selfie with her ballot in March.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Eastern District Court of North Carolina by Susan Hogarth.
The lawsuit centers around a letter Hogarth said she received from the North Carolina State Board of Elections asking her to remove a post on X that included a selfie she took with her completed ballot during the March primary election.
She says the letter and the laws underpinning it are unconstitutional. She is suing the Board of Elections and the Wake County Board of Elections.
Hogarth, a Wake County resident, took a “ballot selfie” in her voting booth on March 5, the lawsuit said. She then posted her selfie on X, endorsing presidential and gubernatorial candidates for the Libertarian Party — something she does to “challenge the narrative that voters can only vote for major party candidates,” according to the lawsuit.
The suit says Hogarth received a letter two weeks later from a state Board of Elections investigator asking her to take down the post, or she could face a misdemeanor charge. Hogarth refused.
“It would have been easier to just take the post down," Hogarth said in a statement. “But in a free society, you should be able to show the world how you voted without fear of punishment.”
Photography and videography of voters in a polling place is mostly illegal in North Carolina unless permission is granted by a “chief judge of the precinct." Photographing completed ballots is also prohibited under state law.
One reason for outlawing ballot photos, the state elections board says, is to prevent them from being used "as proof of a vote for a candidate in a vote-buying scheme.”
The North Carolina State Board of Elections and the Wake County Board of Elections declined to comment on the litigation.
Most states have passed laws permitting ballot selfies and other photography, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Some states, such as Arizona, ban photos from being taken within a certain radius of a polling place. Other states, such as Indiana, have seen ballot photography laws struck down by federal judges because they were found unconstitutional............
apnews.com
don't think I've heard of a 'ballot selfie' before
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A woman is suing the North Carolina elections board over state laws that ban most photography in polling places after she took a selfie with her ballot in March.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Eastern District Court of North Carolina by Susan Hogarth.
The lawsuit centers around a letter Hogarth said she received from the North Carolina State Board of Elections asking her to remove a post on X that included a selfie she took with her completed ballot during the March primary election.
She says the letter and the laws underpinning it are unconstitutional. She is suing the Board of Elections and the Wake County Board of Elections.
Hogarth, a Wake County resident, took a “ballot selfie” in her voting booth on March 5, the lawsuit said. She then posted her selfie on X, endorsing presidential and gubernatorial candidates for the Libertarian Party — something she does to “challenge the narrative that voters can only vote for major party candidates,” according to the lawsuit.
The suit says Hogarth received a letter two weeks later from a state Board of Elections investigator asking her to take down the post, or she could face a misdemeanor charge. Hogarth refused.
“It would have been easier to just take the post down," Hogarth said in a statement. “But in a free society, you should be able to show the world how you voted without fear of punishment.”
Photography and videography of voters in a polling place is mostly illegal in North Carolina unless permission is granted by a “chief judge of the precinct." Photographing completed ballots is also prohibited under state law.
One reason for outlawing ballot photos, the state elections board says, is to prevent them from being used "as proof of a vote for a candidate in a vote-buying scheme.”
The North Carolina State Board of Elections and the Wake County Board of Elections declined to comment on the litigation.
Most states have passed laws permitting ballot selfies and other photography, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Some states, such as Arizona, ban photos from being taken within a certain radius of a polling place. Other states, such as Indiana, have seen ballot photography laws struck down by federal judges because they were found unconstitutional............
She took a 'ballot selfie.' Now she's suing North Carolina elections board for laws that ban it
A woman is suing the North Carolina State Board of Elections after she says she received a letter from a board investigator asking her to remove a “ballot selfie” from a post on X.
apnews.com
Optimus Prime
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A coalition of anti-immigrant and election-denying activists called Only Citizens Vote Coalition has joined forces with the powerful rightwing American Legislative Exchange Council(Alec) to draft a model bill requiring citizenship for voting in “all public elections”.
Non-US citizens are already forbidden from voting in federal elections, and could face felony charges and even deportation if they attempt to do so. All evidence suggests non-citizens rarely attempt to cast a ballot illegally.
But as the 2024 general presidential election approaches, a group of Donald Trump allies – among them, Only Citizens Vote Coalition – have joined together to elevate fears of non-citizens voting.
The claim, peddled by figures on the right from the Republican US House speaker, Mike Johnson, to the tech billionaire Elon Musk, stokes doubts about the US electoral process that Trump raised after losing the 2020 election.
It also provides a justification for draft legislation such as Alec has recently put forward, which voting rights advocates warn could make it harder to cast a ballot and result in large-scale purges that could remove eligible voters.
“[They’re] just creating extra barriers with the real game of doing two things, in my opinion: one, creating doubt in the system as a whole, and; second, disenfranchising people,” said TR Edwards, a staff attorney with the elections-focused Wisconsin group, Law Forward.
It’s not clear how certain aspects of the policy would affect voters. For example, the text of the model bill says that the state head of elections is required to confirm the citizenship status of voters by comparing voter rolls “with the citizenship data available from the state’s department of motor vehicles and the Help America Vote Verification (Havv) information system maintained by the Social Security Administration”. Anyone registering to vote through the DMV must already attest to being a US citizen, under penalty of perjury.
But Jon Greenbaum, a voting rights attorney who has argued against proof-of-citizenship requirements for voting in Georgia, said the policy – if adopted – would probably require a higher standard of proof.……….
www.theguardian.com
Non-US citizens are already forbidden from voting in federal elections, and could face felony charges and even deportation if they attempt to do so. All evidence suggests non-citizens rarely attempt to cast a ballot illegally.
But as the 2024 general presidential election approaches, a group of Donald Trump allies – among them, Only Citizens Vote Coalition – have joined together to elevate fears of non-citizens voting.
The claim, peddled by figures on the right from the Republican US House speaker, Mike Johnson, to the tech billionaire Elon Musk, stokes doubts about the US electoral process that Trump raised after losing the 2020 election.
It also provides a justification for draft legislation such as Alec has recently put forward, which voting rights advocates warn could make it harder to cast a ballot and result in large-scale purges that could remove eligible voters.
“[They’re] just creating extra barriers with the real game of doing two things, in my opinion: one, creating doubt in the system as a whole, and; second, disenfranchising people,” said TR Edwards, a staff attorney with the elections-focused Wisconsin group, Law Forward.
It’s not clear how certain aspects of the policy would affect voters. For example, the text of the model bill says that the state head of elections is required to confirm the citizenship status of voters by comparing voter rolls “with the citizenship data available from the state’s department of motor vehicles and the Help America Vote Verification (Havv) information system maintained by the Social Security Administration”. Anyone registering to vote through the DMV must already attest to being a US citizen, under penalty of perjury.
But Jon Greenbaum, a voting rights attorney who has argued against proof-of-citizenship requirements for voting in Georgia, said the policy – if adopted – would probably require a higher standard of proof.……….
Anti-immigrant activists draft bill requiring US citizenship proof to vote
Activists partner with powerful rightwing council Alec to prevent rare instances of illegal non-citizen voting
Optimus Prime
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Conservative activists in Georgia have worked with prominent election deniers to pass a series of significant changes to the procedures for counting ballots in recent weeks, raising alarm about the potential for confusion and interference in the election certification process in a key swing state this fall.
Since the beginning of August, the five-member state election board has adopted rules that allow local election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before they are certified, and to allow any local election board member “to examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results”.
The same rule also requires local boards to reconcile any discrepancies between the total number of ballots cast and the number of voters who check in. If it can’t reconcile the numbers, the board is authorized to come up with a way to figure out which votes count and which do not.
At its upcoming meeting in September, the board is also expected to approve a measure that would require local officials to hand-count ballots to check the machine tabulations. Experts have warned that hand-counts are unreliable, costly and time-consuming.
Georgia law requires county officials to certify an election no later than 5pm on the Monday following election day (the deadline will be one day later this year because of a state holiday). Legal experts have noted that state law is clear about that deadline and that none of the recent rules change that.
But at the same time, observers are concerned new changes are seeding the ground to give local county commissioners justifications to object to the certification of the vote.
“State law clearly states the certification deadline. They can add on whatever they want, but cannot go against the existing state law that says it has to be certified by a specific date,” said Julie Houk, a voting rights attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
At the same time, she added: “What’s going to happen when they have not completed a review of those thousands of records? Are the board members going to say ‘we can’t certify’ even though it requires them to?”
“What’s going to happen if certain board members or boards determine that now that we have all the records we’ve demanded, we can’t get through them in time to certify?”
The changes have caused considerable alarm in one of the most competitive battleground states this presidential cycle, which is expected to be extremely close. Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 by 11,799 votes, a razor-thin margin.
Georgia’s state election board, charged with making election rules consistent with Georgia law, was not really paid attention to until this year. But in recent months it has moved forward with a blitz of changes.
Earlier this year, Republicans essentially forced out a member who had rebuffed proposed changes and replaced him with someone who has been more sympathetic to the changes.
That new member, Rick Jeffares, has previously posted in support of Trump’s election lies, though he recently told the Guardian he believed the former president lost in Georgia in 2020. He also said that he had proposed himself for a job with the Environmental Protection Agency in a second Trump administration……
www.theguardian.com
Since the beginning of August, the five-member state election board has adopted rules that allow local election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before they are certified, and to allow any local election board member “to examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results”.
The same rule also requires local boards to reconcile any discrepancies between the total number of ballots cast and the number of voters who check in. If it can’t reconcile the numbers, the board is authorized to come up with a way to figure out which votes count and which do not.
At its upcoming meeting in September, the board is also expected to approve a measure that would require local officials to hand-count ballots to check the machine tabulations. Experts have warned that hand-counts are unreliable, costly and time-consuming.
Georgia law requires county officials to certify an election no later than 5pm on the Monday following election day (the deadline will be one day later this year because of a state holiday). Legal experts have noted that state law is clear about that deadline and that none of the recent rules change that.
But at the same time, observers are concerned new changes are seeding the ground to give local county commissioners justifications to object to the certification of the vote.
“State law clearly states the certification deadline. They can add on whatever they want, but cannot go against the existing state law that says it has to be certified by a specific date,” said Julie Houk, a voting rights attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
At the same time, she added: “What’s going to happen when they have not completed a review of those thousands of records? Are the board members going to say ‘we can’t certify’ even though it requires them to?”
“What’s going to happen if certain board members or boards determine that now that we have all the records we’ve demanded, we can’t get through them in time to certify?”
The changes have caused considerable alarm in one of the most competitive battleground states this presidential cycle, which is expected to be extremely close. Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 by 11,799 votes, a razor-thin margin.
Georgia’s state election board, charged with making election rules consistent with Georgia law, was not really paid attention to until this year. But in recent months it has moved forward with a blitz of changes.
Earlier this year, Republicans essentially forced out a member who had rebuffed proposed changes and replaced him with someone who has been more sympathetic to the changes.
That new member, Rick Jeffares, has previously posted in support of Trump’s election lies, though he recently told the Guardian he believed the former president lost in Georgia in 2020. He also said that he had proposed himself for a job with the Environmental Protection Agency in a second Trump administration……
Georgia election deniers helped pass new laws. Many worry it’ll lead to chaos in November
Boards can hold an inquiry into election results, and ballots might be hand-counted, which experts say is unreliable
Optimus Prime
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said earlier this month he had issued an executive order removing 6,303 noncitizens who had “accidentally or maliciously attempted to register” to vote.
He said in an interview that he was “not suggesting there is widespread voter fraud,” but had said in an earlier interview, “Call me crazy, but I think American elections should be decided by American citizens.”
The news quickly spread. Former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson and others praised Youngkin’s order, in tweets and retweets, saying he was keeping “illegals,” “illegal aliens” or “noncitizens” from voting.
Yet the governor’s Aug. 7 order didn’t state whether any of the 6,303 people removed from the voter rolls over the past 18 months were noncitizens who actually voted or if there was an error and they later turned out to be citizens. His office didn’t provide that information when asked by NBC News.
But months before Election Day, the Republican rhetoric around “noncitizen voting” is propagating the falsehood that masses of undocumented immigrants are voting in U.S. elections, according to voting, civil and immigrant rights groups. Such rhetoric contributes to the erosion of confidence in the electoral process, the groups say.........
www.nbcnews.com
He said in an interview that he was “not suggesting there is widespread voter fraud,” but had said in an earlier interview, “Call me crazy, but I think American elections should be decided by American citizens.”
The news quickly spread. Former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson and others praised Youngkin’s order, in tweets and retweets, saying he was keeping “illegals,” “illegal aliens” or “noncitizens” from voting.
Yet the governor’s Aug. 7 order didn’t state whether any of the 6,303 people removed from the voter rolls over the past 18 months were noncitizens who actually voted or if there was an error and they later turned out to be citizens. His office didn’t provide that information when asked by NBC News.
But months before Election Day, the Republican rhetoric around “noncitizen voting” is propagating the falsehood that masses of undocumented immigrants are voting in U.S. elections, according to voting, civil and immigrant rights groups. Such rhetoric contributes to the erosion of confidence in the electoral process, the groups say.........
A Virginia voter roll purge sparks renewed rhetoric over 'non-citizens' casting ballots
Local Virginia officials attributed much of the presence of possible noncitizens on the voter rolls to errors made when people fill out paperwork or answer questions online.
www.nbcnews.com
GrandAdmiral
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I regularly check my registration status in the Geaux Vote app after my status was challenged. It's a damn shame that this is the world I live in.
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coldseat
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Let's hope this goes somewhere and the courts actually work to prevent the chaos Republicans intend to carry out.
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Democrats, with the backing of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, on Monday sued to block controversial new election rules in Georgia that they warned could lead to post-election “chaos” in the presidential battleground state in November.
The lawsuit, filed in Georgia state court by the Democratic National Committee, the Georgia Democratic Party and Democratic members of several county election boards, takes aim at two rules passed recently by the Georgia State Election Board that allow election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results and permit members of county election boards to investigate ballot counts.
The lawsuit marks a significant escalation of a controversy that has been brewing for weeks over the action of three Republican members of the state elections board, who recently won praise from former President Donald Trump for their moves.
Trump lost Georgia by just over 10,000 votes in 2020, and it was at the center of his attempt to overturn the election with claims of voter fraud, though none was found.
Democrats are seeking a court ruling that makes clear that election superintendents do not have the discretion to delay the certification of election results or to refuse to certify the results altogether.
They are asking for the court to declare that “absent a valid judicial order to the contrary, election superintendents must certify the results of the November 5, 2024 election no later than 5:00 P.M. on November 12, 2024.”
The complaint cites several cases dealing with Georgia elections to argue that “Georgia law has long treated election certification as non-discretionary.”
“If election officials have concerns about possible election irregularities, they are free to voice those concerns at the time of certification, so that they may be considered and adjudicated, by judges, in any subsequent election contest,” the lawsuit said. “But they may not point to those election irregularities (or anything else) as a basis for delaying certification or denying it entirely. Absent a valid court order, certification by the deadline is mandatory.”
Certification is the official confirmation of voting results. It is a mandatory part of the voting process as a final check to verify the results with the secretary of state’s office.
===============
www.cnn.com
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Democrats sue to block new GOP-backed Georgia election certification rules
Democrats, with the backing of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, on Monday sued to block controversial new election rules in Georgia that they warned could lead to post-election “chaos” in the presidential battleground state in November.
The lawsuit, filed in Georgia state court by the Democratic National Committee, the Georgia Democratic Party and Democratic members of several county election boards, takes aim at two rules passed recently by the Georgia State Election Board that allow election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results and permit members of county election boards to investigate ballot counts.
The lawsuit marks a significant escalation of a controversy that has been brewing for weeks over the action of three Republican members of the state elections board, who recently won praise from former President Donald Trump for their moves.
Trump lost Georgia by just over 10,000 votes in 2020, and it was at the center of his attempt to overturn the election with claims of voter fraud, though none was found.
Democrats are seeking a court ruling that makes clear that election superintendents do not have the discretion to delay the certification of election results or to refuse to certify the results altogether.
They are asking for the court to declare that “absent a valid judicial order to the contrary, election superintendents must certify the results of the November 5, 2024 election no later than 5:00 P.M. on November 12, 2024.”
The complaint cites several cases dealing with Georgia elections to argue that “Georgia law has long treated election certification as non-discretionary.”
“If election officials have concerns about possible election irregularities, they are free to voice those concerns at the time of certification, so that they may be considered and adjudicated, by judges, in any subsequent election contest,” the lawsuit said. “But they may not point to those election irregularities (or anything else) as a basis for delaying certification or denying it entirely. Absent a valid court order, certification by the deadline is mandatory.”
Certification is the official confirmation of voting results. It is a mandatory part of the voting process as a final check to verify the results with the secretary of state’s office.
===============
Democrats sue to block new GOP-backed Georgia election certification rules | CNN Politics
Democrats on Monday sued to block controversial new election rules in Georgia that they warned could lead to post-election “chaos” in the presidential battleground state in November.
www.cnn.com
Optimus Prime
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Republican-controlled county in Pennsylvania violated state law when election workers refused to tell voters that their mail-in ballot had been rejected and wouldn't be counted in last April's primary election, a judge ruled.
As a result, voters in Washington County were unable to exercise their legal right either to challenge the decision of the county elections board or to cast a provisional ballot in place of the rejected mail-in ballot, the judge said.
The decision is one of several election-related lawsuits being fought in Pennsylvania's courts, a hotly contested presidential battleground where November's contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could be razor close.
“It’s a great day for voters in Washington County,” David Gatling Sr., president of the NAACP branch in Washington, Pennsylvania, said in a statement Monday.
The NAACP branch sued the county earlier this summer as did seven voters whose ballots had been rejected in the April 23 primary and the Center for Coalfield Justice, accusing Washington County of violating the constitutional due process rights of voters by deliberately concealing whether their ballot had been counted.
In his decision Friday, Judge Brandon Neuman ordered Washington County to notify any voter whose mail-in ballot is rejected because of an error — such as a missing signature or missing handwritten date — so that the voter has an opportunity to challenge the decision.
Neuman, elected as a Democrat, also ordered the county to allow those voters to vote by provisional ballot to help ensure they could cast a ballot that would be counted.
In the primary, the county rejected 259 mail-in ballots that had been received before polls closed, or 2% of all mail-in ballots received on time, the judge wrote. Roughly three-fourths of mail-in ballots tend to be cast by Democrats in Pennsylvania, possibly the result of Trump baselessly claiming for years that mail-in voting is rife with fraud..........
apnews.com
As a result, voters in Washington County were unable to exercise their legal right either to challenge the decision of the county elections board or to cast a provisional ballot in place of the rejected mail-in ballot, the judge said.
The decision is one of several election-related lawsuits being fought in Pennsylvania's courts, a hotly contested presidential battleground where November's contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could be razor close.
“It’s a great day for voters in Washington County,” David Gatling Sr., president of the NAACP branch in Washington, Pennsylvania, said in a statement Monday.
The NAACP branch sued the county earlier this summer as did seven voters whose ballots had been rejected in the April 23 primary and the Center for Coalfield Justice, accusing Washington County of violating the constitutional due process rights of voters by deliberately concealing whether their ballot had been counted.
In his decision Friday, Judge Brandon Neuman ordered Washington County to notify any voter whose mail-in ballot is rejected because of an error — such as a missing signature or missing handwritten date — so that the voter has an opportunity to challenge the decision.
Neuman, elected as a Democrat, also ordered the county to allow those voters to vote by provisional ballot to help ensure they could cast a ballot that would be counted.
In the primary, the county rejected 259 mail-in ballots that had been received before polls closed, or 2% of all mail-in ballots received on time, the judge wrote. Roughly three-fourths of mail-in ballots tend to be cast by Democrats in Pennsylvania, possibly the result of Trump baselessly claiming for years that mail-in voting is rife with fraud..........
Pennsylvania county broke law by refusing to tell voters if it rejected their ballot, judge says
A judge has ruled that a Republican-controlled county in Pennsylvania violated state law when election workers refused to tell voters that their mail-in ballot had been rejected and wouldn’t be counted in last April’s primary election.
apnews.comDaveXA
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Yeah, you'd think that's a pretty basic expectation. If you cast a ballot, you should be allowed to be informed as to the status of a ballot submitted.HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Republican-controlled county in Pennsylvania violated state law when election workers refused to tell voters that their mail-in ballot had been rejected and wouldn't be counted in last April's primary election, a judge ruled.
As a result, voters in Washington County were unable to exercise their legal right either to challenge the decision of the county elections board or to cast a provisional ballot in place of the rejected mail-in ballot, the judge said.
The decision is one of several election-related lawsuits being fought in Pennsylvania's courts, a hotly contested presidential battleground where November's contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could be razor close.
“It’s a great day for voters in Washington County,” David Gatling Sr., president of the NAACP branch in Washington, Pennsylvania, said in a statement Monday.
The NAACP branch sued the county earlier this summer as did seven voters whose ballots had been rejected in the April 23 primary and the Center for Coalfield Justice, accusing Washington County of violating the constitutional due process rights of voters by deliberately concealing whether their ballot had been counted.
In his decision Friday, Judge Brandon Neuman ordered Washington County to notify any voter whose mail-in ballot is rejected because of an error — such as a missing signature or missing handwritten date — so that the voter has an opportunity to challenge the decision.
Neuman, elected as a Democrat, also ordered the county to allow those voters to vote by provisional ballot to help ensure they could cast a ballot that would be counted.
In the primary, the county rejected 259 mail-in ballots that had been received before polls closed, or 2% of all mail-in ballots received on time, the judge wrote. Roughly three-fourths of mail-in ballots tend to be cast by Democrats in Pennsylvania, possibly the result of Trump baselessly claiming for years that mail-in voting is rife with fraud..........
Pennsylvania county broke law by refusing to tell voters if it rejected their ballot, judge says
A judge has ruled that a Republican-controlled county in Pennsylvania violated state law when election workers refused to tell voters that their mail-in ballot had been rejected and wouldn’t be counted in last April’s primary election.
GrandAdmiral
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When the Secretary of State AND the governor, BOTH Republicans are calling this board a hot, stinking mess, that should tell you something.Let's hope this goes somewhere and the courts actually work to prevent the chaos Republicans intend to carry out.
============Democrats sue to block new GOP-backed Georgia election certification rules
Democrats, with the backing of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, on Monday sued to block controversial new election rules in Georgia that they warned could lead to post-election “chaos” in the presidential battleground state in November.
The lawsuit, filed in Georgia state court by the Democratic National Committee, the Georgia Democratic Party and Democratic members of several county election boards, takes aim at two rules passed recently by the Georgia State Election Board that allow election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results and permit members of county election boards to investigate ballot counts.
The lawsuit marks a significant escalation of a controversy that has been brewing for weeks over the action of three Republican members of the state elections board, who recently won praise from former President Donald Trump for their moves.
Trump lost Georgia by just over 10,000 votes in 2020, and it was at the center of his attempt to overturn the election with claims of voter fraud, though none was found.
Democrats are seeking a court ruling that makes clear that election superintendents do not have the discretion to delay the certification of election results or to refuse to certify the results altogether.
They are asking for the court to declare that “absent a valid judicial order to the contrary, election superintendents must certify the results of the November 5, 2024 election no later than 5:00 P.M. on November 12, 2024.”
The complaint cites several cases dealing with Georgia elections to argue that “Georgia law has long treated election certification as non-discretionary.”
“If election officials have concerns about possible election irregularities, they are free to voice those concerns at the time of certification, so that they may be considered and adjudicated, by judges, in any subsequent election contest,” the lawsuit said. “But they may not point to those election irregularities (or anything else) as a basis for delaying certification or denying it entirely. Absent a valid court order, certification by the deadline is mandatory.”
Certification is the official confirmation of voting results. It is a mandatory part of the voting process as a final check to verify the results with the secretary of state’s office.
===============
Democrats sue to block new GOP-backed Georgia election certification rules | CNN Politics
Democrats on Monday sued to block controversial new election rules in Georgia that they warned could lead to post-election “chaos” in the presidential battleground state in November.
Optimus Prime
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Offline
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order on Monday requiring all Louisiana government agencies that hand out voter registration forms to include a written declaration that non-citizens are prohibited from registering to vote or voting in elections.
“The right to vote in United States elections is a privilege that’s reserved for American citizens,” Landry said during the Monday press conference. “In Louisiana, election integrity is a top priority.”
Louisiana is just the most recent state to implement measures to ensure that individuals who are not American citizens are not voting in U.S. elections, even though there is simply no evidence to suggest that non-citizen voting is a real problem.
It is, of course, already illegal for non-citizens to vote in state, federal or even most local elections, and states themselves have measures in place to protect their elections from non-citizen voting, including severe penalties for doing so, like the risk of deportation.
“It is not something that anyone has an incentive to do given the severe penalties and the fact that we’re talking about casting a single vote,” Alice Clapman, senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights Program, previously told TPM. “It is feeding the disinformation that this is a problem, which obviously has become a talking point of the Trump campaign and frankly other political campaigns.”
In the rare instances where a non-citizen is found on the rolls, there is often a reasonable explanation, experts told TPM. For example, in states with automatic voter registration, there’s always a chance that non-citizens might accidentally get registered when completing other types of legal paperwork, even though they never attempted to vote.
Republicans’ new obsession with supposedly curbing alleged non-citizens voting is an extension of the rhetorical efforts by Donald Trump and his MAGA allies to stoke fears about election fraud in case the former president loses his third bid for the White House. It’s reminiscent of his efforts before and after the 2020 election to manufacture hysteria around mail-in voting and other pandemic mitigation measures, and in a way, it’s an extension of the Big Lie.
In May, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other House MAGA Republicans introduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which would make it illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, an act that is already illegal. That passed the House in July but, predictably, was not picked up by the Democratic-controlled Senate.............
“The right to vote in United States elections is a privilege that’s reserved for American citizens,” Landry said during the Monday press conference. “In Louisiana, election integrity is a top priority.”
Louisiana is just the most recent state to implement measures to ensure that individuals who are not American citizens are not voting in U.S. elections, even though there is simply no evidence to suggest that non-citizen voting is a real problem.
It is, of course, already illegal for non-citizens to vote in state, federal or even most local elections, and states themselves have measures in place to protect their elections from non-citizen voting, including severe penalties for doing so, like the risk of deportation.
“It is not something that anyone has an incentive to do given the severe penalties and the fact that we’re talking about casting a single vote,” Alice Clapman, senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights Program, previously told TPM. “It is feeding the disinformation that this is a problem, which obviously has become a talking point of the Trump campaign and frankly other political campaigns.”
In the rare instances where a non-citizen is found on the rolls, there is often a reasonable explanation, experts told TPM. For example, in states with automatic voter registration, there’s always a chance that non-citizens might accidentally get registered when completing other types of legal paperwork, even though they never attempted to vote.
Republicans’ new obsession with supposedly curbing alleged non-citizens voting is an extension of the rhetorical efforts by Donald Trump and his MAGA allies to stoke fears about election fraud in case the former president loses his third bid for the White House. It’s reminiscent of his efforts before and after the 2020 election to manufacture hysteria around mail-in voting and other pandemic mitigation measures, and in a way, it’s an extension of the Big Lie.
In May, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other House MAGA Republicans introduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which would make it illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, an act that is already illegal. That passed the House in July but, predictably, was not picked up by the Democratic-controlled Senate.............
Louisiana Becomes Latest Red State To Solve Non-Existent Problem That Trump Claims Exists
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order on Monday requiring all Louisiana government agencies that hand out voter registration forms to include a written declaration that non-citizens…
talkingpointsmemo.com
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