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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Bexar County officials moved forward Tuesday with a plan to mail county residents voter registration forms, defying Attorney General Ken Paxton’s threat to use “all available legal means” to quash the effort.
Paxton followed through Wednesday morning, filing a lawsuit in a state district court in Bexar County that seeks an emergency order to block the program. The lawsuit contends that counties lack the authority to send out unsolicited registration applications, while also arguing that Bexar County officials erred by awarding the contract without going through a competitive bidding process.
The legal clash escalates a brewing fight between Texas Republicans and some of the state’s largest counties over initiatives to proactively send registration applications to people who are eligible but unregistered to vote. Harris County leaders are weighing a similar plan, and Paxton warned the two counties against such efforts Monday evening, claiming they would run afoul of state law and risk adding noncitizens to the voter rolls.
Rebuffing those claims, Bexar County Commissioners Court voted 3-1 to approve a $393,000 outreach contract with Civic Government Solutions following three hours of fervent discussion at Tuesday’s court meeting. Local GOP activists spent more than an hour blasting the deal as an illegal waste of taxpayer money and insisting it would be used to disproportionately register Democrats, citing past comments from the firm’s leaders indicating support for Democratic candidates.
Democratic commissioners, backed by a county legal official, said Paxton’s legal threats were misleading and unfounded. And the firm’s chief executive said the outreach efforts would be strictly nonpartisan — a requirement of the contract, he said — and pose little risk of registering noncitizens.
“I have a personal view on who I would like to win the federal election. That is not to say that the contracts that we undertake with governments are in any way partisan,” said Jeremy Smith, CEO of Civic Government Solutions.
He noted the company uses a mix of public records and county data to identify people who could have recently moved and are unregistered, with a contractual obligation to contact “every eligible person who arises in any of those datasets.”
The court’s approval of the outreach contract came less than 24 hours after Paxton sent a letter to Bexar County commissioners warning the deal was illegal because the county “can take no action without a grant of legal authority,” and Texas law does not explicitly allow counties to mail out unsolicited registration forms...........
Ken Paxton sues Bexar County over voter registration outreach effort
The move escalates Texas Republicans’ brewing fight with urban counties over initiatives to proactively send applications to unregistered voters.
www.texastribune.org
Optimus Prime
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State Republican parties have nominated 14 of the 84 fake electors from the 2020 presidential election to serve again as Republican party presidential electors, an indication of the legitimacy that election deniers continue to hold in some quarters of the GOP.
The Republican parties of Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Nevada have each nominated one or more electors who attempted to submit themselves as electors for Donald Trump and Mike Pence in 2020 despite the former president losing in their states.
Presidential electors typically perform a rote but critical behind-the-scenes role in elections. Electors are first nominated by their political party, before voters choose their preferred candidate by casting a ballot. The National Archives explains the process: “When you vote for a Presidential candidate, you aren’t actually voting for President. You are telling your State which candidate you want your State to vote for at the meeting of electors.”
In 2020, despite a majority of voters in New Mexico, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan voting for Biden, Republican electors went ahead and submitted certificates for Trump, mimicking the process they would have performed if Trump had won there.…….
www.theguardian.com
The Republican parties of Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Nevada have each nominated one or more electors who attempted to submit themselves as electors for Donald Trump and Mike Pence in 2020 despite the former president losing in their states.
Presidential electors typically perform a rote but critical behind-the-scenes role in elections. Electors are first nominated by their political party, before voters choose their preferred candidate by casting a ballot. The National Archives explains the process: “When you vote for a Presidential candidate, you aren’t actually voting for President. You are telling your State which candidate you want your State to vote for at the meeting of electors.”
In 2020, despite a majority of voters in New Mexico, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan voting for Biden, Republican electors went ahead and submitted certificates for Trump, mimicking the process they would have performed if Trump had won there.…….
State Republican parties renominate electors who were on fake slate in 2020
Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Nevada submit election deniers who attempted elect Trump in 2020
Optimus Prime
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When Pennsylvanians vote by mail, they must seal their ballots inside secrecy envelopes and place them into outer envelopes that they are required to sign and date. The ballots must be received before 8 p.m. on Election Day. Local election workers track when ballots arrive.
In recent elections, if a voter misdated or forgot to date the outside envelope, their otherwise valid ballot would be thrown out. But last month, a panel of state judges ruled that not counting those votes over “meaningless and inconsequential paperwork errors” infringed on the state’s constitutional right to vote.
Now, with weeks to go until Pennsylvanians start voting, Republicans are pressing for the state Supreme Court to overturn that decision, arguing that mail-in ballots without a proper date should be tossed out.
The effort is part of a nationwide legal campaign that the GOP has waged since 2020 to reject mail-in ballots. Republicans say the litigation is aimed at enforcement of election law, down to the letter. But critics see a strategy that has nothing to do with election integrity and everything to do with disqualifying voters who cast ballots by mail, an overwhelming majority of whom support Democrats.
“If you talk to election officials, we will tell you that date is utterly meaningless. It serves no purpose to our operations for administering elections,” said Forrest Lehman, director of elections in Pennsylvania’s Lycoming County, a GOP-leaning area in the center of the state. “I got into this business to count ballots not to look for excuses to throw them out.”
Republicans have engaged in similar legal battles to throw out mail-in ballots over technical reasons in other states, including those, like Pennsylvania, considered crucial to the outcome of the presidential vote.
In Wisconsin, where voters are required to have witnesses sign their mail-in ballots, Republicans unsuccessfully sought to have votes rejected if the witness fills in an incomplete address.
In North Carolina, Republicans are suing to throw out ballots if the inner secrecy envelope isn’t fully sealed.
In Georgia, Republicans have fought to have ballots thrown out if voters fail to accurately write their birth date on the outer envelope.
In Michigan, Republicans sued for stricter enforcement of signature matches on mail-in ballots.
And in Nevada, which allows mail-in ballots to be received up to three days after Election Day as long as they are postmarked on or before that day, Republicans sued in May not to count late-arriving votes.
In most cases, GOP lawyers point to specific rules or laws that they say should invalidate the ballots. But sometimes they are blunt about the political motives.
In an April filing in a Minnesota case over mail voting requirements, Republicans cited data showing that mail-in votes were more likely to be cast for Democrats. As a result, the GOP brief concluded, it was “reasonable” for the party to “fear that if duly enacted restrictions of voting by mail go unenforced, the resulting increase in mail ballots may impair their prospects for electoral success.”...............
In recent elections, if a voter misdated or forgot to date the outside envelope, their otherwise valid ballot would be thrown out. But last month, a panel of state judges ruled that not counting those votes over “meaningless and inconsequential paperwork errors” infringed on the state’s constitutional right to vote.
Now, with weeks to go until Pennsylvanians start voting, Republicans are pressing for the state Supreme Court to overturn that decision, arguing that mail-in ballots without a proper date should be tossed out.
The effort is part of a nationwide legal campaign that the GOP has waged since 2020 to reject mail-in ballots. Republicans say the litigation is aimed at enforcement of election law, down to the letter. But critics see a strategy that has nothing to do with election integrity and everything to do with disqualifying voters who cast ballots by mail, an overwhelming majority of whom support Democrats.
“If you talk to election officials, we will tell you that date is utterly meaningless. It serves no purpose to our operations for administering elections,” said Forrest Lehman, director of elections in Pennsylvania’s Lycoming County, a GOP-leaning area in the center of the state. “I got into this business to count ballots not to look for excuses to throw them out.”
Republicans have engaged in similar legal battles to throw out mail-in ballots over technical reasons in other states, including those, like Pennsylvania, considered crucial to the outcome of the presidential vote.
In Wisconsin, where voters are required to have witnesses sign their mail-in ballots, Republicans unsuccessfully sought to have votes rejected if the witness fills in an incomplete address.
In North Carolina, Republicans are suing to throw out ballots if the inner secrecy envelope isn’t fully sealed.
In Georgia, Republicans have fought to have ballots thrown out if voters fail to accurately write their birth date on the outer envelope.
In Michigan, Republicans sued for stricter enforcement of signature matches on mail-in ballots.
And in Nevada, which allows mail-in ballots to be received up to three days after Election Day as long as they are postmarked on or before that day, Republicans sued in May not to count late-arriving votes.
In most cases, GOP lawyers point to specific rules or laws that they say should invalidate the ballots. But sometimes they are blunt about the political motives.
In an April filing in a Minnesota case over mail voting requirements, Republicans cited data showing that mail-in votes were more likely to be cast for Democrats. As a result, the GOP brief concluded, it was “reasonable” for the party to “fear that if duly enacted restrictions of voting by mail go unenforced, the resulting increase in mail ballots may impair their prospects for electoral success.”...............
Optimus Prime
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State and local election officials from across the country on Wednesday warned that problems with the nation’s mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming presidential election, telling the head of the US Postal Service (USPS) that it hasn’t fixed persistent deficiencies.
The officials said in a letter that over the past year, including the just-concluded primary season, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted.
They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned to them as undeliverable.
Repeated outreach to USPS to resolve the issues had failed, the officials added.
“We have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerns,” stated the letter. “In fact, many of the issues raised by election officials are echoed in the recent findings of the USPS Office of Inspector General Audit, Election Mail Readiness for the 2024 General Election.”
The letter to Louis DeJoy, the US postmaster general, came from two groups that represent top election administrators in all 50 states.
A message seeking a response from USPS was not immediately returned.
The two groups, the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors, said local election officials “in nearly every state” are receiving timely postmarked ballots after election day and outside the three to five business days USPS claims as the standard for first-class mail.…….
www.theguardian.com
The officials said in a letter that over the past year, including the just-concluded primary season, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted.
They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned to them as undeliverable.
Repeated outreach to USPS to resolve the issues had failed, the officials added.
“We have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerns,” stated the letter. “In fact, many of the issues raised by election officials are echoed in the recent findings of the USPS Office of Inspector General Audit, Election Mail Readiness for the 2024 General Election.”
The letter to Louis DeJoy, the US postmaster general, came from two groups that represent top election administrators in all 50 states.
A message seeking a response from USPS was not immediately returned.
The two groups, the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors, said local election officials “in nearly every state” are receiving timely postmarked ballots after election day and outside the three to five business days USPS claims as the standard for first-class mail.…….
US Postal Service delays threaten to disrupt election voting, officials say
Local election offices reportedly received mailed ballots days after the deadline to be counted ‘in nearly every state’
Optimus Prime
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Fears are rising that the vote count in November’s presidential election could be disrupted as a result of the proliferation of Donald Trump’s lies about stolen elections and rampant voter fraud in the key swing states where the race for the White House will be decided.
A new survey of eight vital swing states reveals that at least 239 election deniers who have signed up to Trump’s “election integrity” conspiracy theories – including the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him – are actively engaged in electoral battles this year. The deniers are standing for congressional or state seats, holding Republican leadership positions, and overseeing elections on state and county election boards.
The report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a watchdog group focusing on special interests distorting US democracy, reveals the extent of denial in the eight critical states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It shows that corrosive efforts to damage public confidence in elections have proliferated there despite the drubbing the election denial movement received in the 2022 midterms.
Among the deniers identified by CMD are: 50 Republicans running for Congress; six vying for state executive offices; 81 leaders of local Republican organizations; and 102 current members of state and county election boards. They have all backed attempts to delegitimize elections even to the point, in some cases, of participating in the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.
“What was striking to us about our research is how much election denialism and the voter fraud lie have infiltrated and taken over the Republican apparatus in each of these critical states,” said CMD’s executive director Arn Pearson.
The danger inherent in the spread of election denial in the battleground states is amplified by the harrowingly close state of the presidential race. The latest New York Times – Siena Collegepoll puts Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice-President Kamala Harris, essentially neck-and-neck in seven states (the poll does not include New Mexico).
With the margin of victory expected to be razor thin in at least some of these states, there are likely to be opportunities for bad actors to wreak havoc during the vote count. Meanwhile, Trump continues to pour fuel on the fire with his inflammatory remarks, repeating the lie that he won in 2020 during Tuesday’s presidential debate.
CMD’s most disturbing finding is that there are more than 100 election deniers currently sitting on election boards that can influence the way the vote is counted and certified. The boards span 61 counties across all eight swing states.…….
www.theguardian.com
A new survey of eight vital swing states reveals that at least 239 election deniers who have signed up to Trump’s “election integrity” conspiracy theories – including the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him – are actively engaged in electoral battles this year. The deniers are standing for congressional or state seats, holding Republican leadership positions, and overseeing elections on state and county election boards.
The report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a watchdog group focusing on special interests distorting US democracy, reveals the extent of denial in the eight critical states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It shows that corrosive efforts to damage public confidence in elections have proliferated there despite the drubbing the election denial movement received in the 2022 midterms.
Among the deniers identified by CMD are: 50 Republicans running for Congress; six vying for state executive offices; 81 leaders of local Republican organizations; and 102 current members of state and county election boards. They have all backed attempts to delegitimize elections even to the point, in some cases, of participating in the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.
“What was striking to us about our research is how much election denialism and the voter fraud lie have infiltrated and taken over the Republican apparatus in each of these critical states,” said CMD’s executive director Arn Pearson.
The danger inherent in the spread of election denial in the battleground states is amplified by the harrowingly close state of the presidential race. The latest New York Times – Siena Collegepoll puts Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice-President Kamala Harris, essentially neck-and-neck in seven states (the poll does not include New Mexico).
With the margin of victory expected to be razor thin in at least some of these states, there are likely to be opportunities for bad actors to wreak havoc during the vote count. Meanwhile, Trump continues to pour fuel on the fire with his inflammatory remarks, repeating the lie that he won in 2020 during Tuesday’s presidential debate.
CMD’s most disturbing finding is that there are more than 100 election deniers currently sitting on election boards that can influence the way the vote is counted and certified. The boards span 61 counties across all eight swing states.…….
Fears mount that election deniers could disrupt vote count in US swing states
At least 239 election deniers have signed up to Trump’s ‘election integrity’ conspiracy theories, survey finds
Optimus Prime
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Republican Party sued North Carolina’s elections board on Thursday to block students and employees at the state’s flagship public university from offering a digital identification as a way to comply with a relatively new photo voter ID law.
The Republican National Committee and North Carolina filed the lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court three weeks after the Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections approved the “Mobile UNC One Card” generated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a qualifying ID.
The law says qualifying IDs must meet several photo and security requirements to be approved by the board. The UNC-Chapel Hill digital ID, which is voluntary for students and staff and available on Apple phones, marks the qualification of the first such ID posted from someone’s smartphone.
The Republican groups said state law clearly requires any of several categories of permitted identifications — from driver’s licenses to U.S. passports and university and military IDs — to be only in a physical form.
The law doesn’t allow the state board “to expand the circumstances of what is an acceptable student identification card, beyond a tangible, physical item, to something only found on a computer system,” the lawsuit reads.
The state and national GOP contend in the lawsuit that the board’s unilateral expansion of photo ID before registering and accepting voters at in-person poll sites “could allow hundreds or thousands of ineligible voters” to vote in the November election and beyond.
North Carolina is a presidential battleground state where statewide races are usually very close.……
apnews.com
The Republican National Committee and North Carolina filed the lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court three weeks after the Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections approved the “Mobile UNC One Card” generated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a qualifying ID.
The law says qualifying IDs must meet several photo and security requirements to be approved by the board. The UNC-Chapel Hill digital ID, which is voluntary for students and staff and available on Apple phones, marks the qualification of the first such ID posted from someone’s smartphone.
The Republican groups said state law clearly requires any of several categories of permitted identifications — from driver’s licenses to U.S. passports and university and military IDs — to be only in a physical form.
The law doesn’t allow the state board “to expand the circumstances of what is an acceptable student identification card, beyond a tangible, physical item, to something only found on a computer system,” the lawsuit reads.
The state and national GOP contend in the lawsuit that the board’s unilateral expansion of photo ID before registering and accepting voters at in-person poll sites “could allow hundreds or thousands of ineligible voters” to vote in the November election and beyond.
North Carolina is a presidential battleground state where statewide races are usually very close.……
Republicans challenge North Carolina decision that lets students show university's mobile ID
The Republican Party has sued North Carolina’s elections board to block students and employees at the state’s flagship public university from showing a digital identification to comply with a photo ID law.
apnews.com
Nebaghead
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I guess the GOP doesn’t realize several states use digital ids too. No coincidence this is targeting UNC an overwhelmingly liberal demographic of the state. Not only students but in the Research Triangle.RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Republican Party sued North Carolina’s elections board on Thursday to block students and employees at the state’s flagship public university from offering a digital identification as a way to comply with a relatively new photo voter ID law.
The Republican National Committee and North Carolina filed the lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court three weeks after the Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections approved the “Mobile UNC One Card” generated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a qualifying ID.
The law says qualifying IDs must meet several photo and security requirements to be approved by the board. The UNC-Chapel Hill digital ID, which is voluntary for students and staff and available on Apple phones, marks the qualification of the first such ID posted from someone’s smartphone.
The Republican groups said state law clearly requires any of several categories of permitted identifications — from driver’s licenses to U.S. passports and university and military IDs — to be only in a physical form.
The law doesn’t allow the state board “to expand the circumstances of what is an acceptable student identification card, beyond a tangible, physical item, to something only found on a computer system,” the lawsuit reads.
The state and national GOP contend in the lawsuit that the board’s unilateral expansion of photo ID before registering and accepting voters at in-person poll sites “could allow hundreds or thousands of ineligible voters” to vote in the November election and beyond.
North Carolina is a presidential battleground state where statewide races are usually very close.……
Republicans challenge North Carolina decision that lets students show university's mobile ID
The Republican Party has sued North Carolina’s elections board to block students and employees at the state’s flagship public university from showing a digital identification to comply with a photo ID law.
Optimus Prime
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania voters could have their mail-in ballots thrown out if they do not write accurate dates on envelopes they use to return them under a state Supreme Court ruling issued Friday that could impact the presidential race.
The state’s high court ruled on procedural grounds, saying a lower court that found the mandate unenforceable should not have taken up the case because it did not draw in the election boards in all 67 counties.
Counties administer the nuts and bolts of elections in Pennsylvania, but the left-leaning groups that filed the case only sued two of them, Philadelphia and Allegheny counties.
Commonwealth Court two weeks ago had halted enforcement of the handwritten dates on exterior envelopes.
The Supreme Court’s reversal of that decision raises the prospect that thousands of ballots that arrive in time might get thrown out in a key swing state in what is expected to be a close presidential contest.
Far more Democrats than Republicans vote by mail in the state. In recent elections, older voters have been disproportionately more likely to have had their mail-in ballots invalidated because of exterior envelope date problems.
The justices ruled 4-3, with two Democrats joining both Republicans on the Supreme Court to vacate the Commonwealth Court decision.
The dissent by three other Democratic justices said the high court should have taken up the dispute.
“A prompt and definitive ruling on the constitutional question presented in this appeal is of paramount public importance inasmuch as it will affect the counting of ballots in the upcoming general election,” wrote Justice David Wecht. He and the two other dissenters would have ruled on the matter based on written briefs.
The lawsuit, brought in May, argued that the mandate was not enforceable under a state constitutional provision that says all elections are “free and equal.”
Based on recent Pennsylvania elections, more than 10,000 ballots in this year’s general election might be thrown out over bad or missing envelope dates, which could be enough to swing the presidential race. Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes makes it the largest prize among the seven swing states.….
apnews.com
The state’s high court ruled on procedural grounds, saying a lower court that found the mandate unenforceable should not have taken up the case because it did not draw in the election boards in all 67 counties.
Counties administer the nuts and bolts of elections in Pennsylvania, but the left-leaning groups that filed the case only sued two of them, Philadelphia and Allegheny counties.
Commonwealth Court two weeks ago had halted enforcement of the handwritten dates on exterior envelopes.
The Supreme Court’s reversal of that decision raises the prospect that thousands of ballots that arrive in time might get thrown out in a key swing state in what is expected to be a close presidential contest.
Far more Democrats than Republicans vote by mail in the state. In recent elections, older voters have been disproportionately more likely to have had their mail-in ballots invalidated because of exterior envelope date problems.
The justices ruled 4-3, with two Democrats joining both Republicans on the Supreme Court to vacate the Commonwealth Court decision.
The dissent by three other Democratic justices said the high court should have taken up the dispute.
“A prompt and definitive ruling on the constitutional question presented in this appeal is of paramount public importance inasmuch as it will affect the counting of ballots in the upcoming general election,” wrote Justice David Wecht. He and the two other dissenters would have ruled on the matter based on written briefs.
The lawsuit, brought in May, argued that the mandate was not enforceable under a state constitutional provision that says all elections are “free and equal.”
Based on recent Pennsylvania elections, more than 10,000 ballots in this year’s general election might be thrown out over bad or missing envelope dates, which could be enough to swing the presidential race. Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes makes it the largest prize among the seven swing states.….
Pennsylvania mail-in ballots with flawed dates on envelopes can be thrown out, court rules
Pennsylvania voters could have their mail-in ballots thrown out if they do not write accurate dates on envelopes they use to return them under a state Supreme Court ruling.
apnews.com
Optimus Prime
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — In the heart of Las Vegas’ Chinatown, on the second floor of a sprawling shopping plaza that serves as a hub for the city’s Asian community, residents gather for a celebration of the annual Dragon Boat Festival.
Some stop in to grab shiny, red packages of premade zongzi, a rice dish wrapped in bamboo leaves often eaten during the Chinese holiday.
Others talk with advocates who are on hand to educate people about the importance of elections. They grab flyers decorated with a colorful dragon boat and something else: a QR code taking them to information about how to vote – all translated into Chinese.
Longtime community leader Vida Lin walks in and flashes her own “I Voted” sticker, having already cast her early ballot in the state primary.
Nine years ago, Lin founded the Asian Community Development Council, and since then, she has fought for the very information attendees are getting today: details about how to register to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day, translated into their primary language.
For Lin, these resources help increase civic engagement among one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the state and nation. That, she says, is the only way her community can gain power.
“If you don’t come out to vote, you don’t get your voices heard, you’re not going to get these issues that we have taken care of,” Lin says. “It’ll be like what happened 30 years ago when I came here with no services, no help, nowhere to go. We’ll be stuck there.”
Nevada, like the nation, is growing ever more diverse. These population shifts bring their own challenges to ensuring democracy is open and available to all American citizens, no matter what language they speak.
This November, under a provision of the federal Voting Rights Act, some 24 million citizens are entitled to assistance that will allow them to vote in their primary language.
Section 203 of the act requires communities meeting certain population thresholds and other requirements to provide language assistance to groups that have “suffered a history of exclusion from the political process” – specifically Spanish-speaking, Asian and Indigenous populations.…..
apnews.com
Some stop in to grab shiny, red packages of premade zongzi, a rice dish wrapped in bamboo leaves often eaten during the Chinese holiday.
Others talk with advocates who are on hand to educate people about the importance of elections. They grab flyers decorated with a colorful dragon boat and something else: a QR code taking them to information about how to vote – all translated into Chinese.
Longtime community leader Vida Lin walks in and flashes her own “I Voted” sticker, having already cast her early ballot in the state primary.
Nine years ago, Lin founded the Asian Community Development Council, and since then, she has fought for the very information attendees are getting today: details about how to register to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day, translated into their primary language.
For Lin, these resources help increase civic engagement among one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the state and nation. That, she says, is the only way her community can gain power.
“If you don’t come out to vote, you don’t get your voices heard, you’re not going to get these issues that we have taken care of,” Lin says. “It’ll be like what happened 30 years ago when I came here with no services, no help, nowhere to go. We’ll be stuck there.”
Nevada, like the nation, is growing ever more diverse. These population shifts bring their own challenges to ensuring democracy is open and available to all American citizens, no matter what language they speak.
This November, under a provision of the federal Voting Rights Act, some 24 million citizens are entitled to assistance that will allow them to vote in their primary language.
Section 203 of the act requires communities meeting certain population thresholds and other requirements to provide language assistance to groups that have “suffered a history of exclusion from the political process” – specifically Spanish-speaking, Asian and Indigenous populations.…..
All welcome: Advocates fight to ensure citizens not fluent in English have equal access to elections
As demographics shift, advocates from Las Vegas to Alaska are fighting to make voting accessible for citizens who speak different languages.
apnews.com
GrandAdmiral
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So that's how it works. When you can't win, just change the rules...
www.cnn.com
September 14, 2024, presidential campaign news | CNN Politics
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump continue to make their pitch to voters with less than eight weeks until Election Day. Follow here for the latest live updates on the 2024 campaign.
www.cnn.com
Optimus Prime
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Fuel for their fire
============
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon officials acknowledged Friday that the state mistakenly registered more than 300 non-citizens as voters since 2021 in what they described as a “data entry issue” that happened when people applied for driver’s licenses.
An initial analysis by the Oregon Department of Transportation, which oversees the state’s Driver and Motor Vehicle Services, revealed that 306 non-citizens were registered to vote, said Kevin Glenn, a department spokesperson. Of those, two voted in elections since 2021.
State and federal laws prohibit non-citizens from voting in national and local elections.
The mistake occurred in part because Oregon has allowed non-citizens to obtain driver’s licenses since 2019, and the DMV automatically registers most people to vote when they obtain a license or ID, Glenn said.
“It’s basically a data entry issue,” Glenn said, explaining that when a DMV worker enters information about a person applying for a driver’s license or state ID, they can incorrectly code that the person has a U.S. birth certificate or passport when they don’t.
DMV Administrator Amy Joyce told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday that the office is checking for additional errors and will likely find more instances of registering non-citizens to vote.
Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said Friday in a statement that the 306 people involved “will be notified by mail that they will not receive a ballot unless they demonstrate that they are eligible to vote.”………
apnews.com
============
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon officials acknowledged Friday that the state mistakenly registered more than 300 non-citizens as voters since 2021 in what they described as a “data entry issue” that happened when people applied for driver’s licenses.
An initial analysis by the Oregon Department of Transportation, which oversees the state’s Driver and Motor Vehicle Services, revealed that 306 non-citizens were registered to vote, said Kevin Glenn, a department spokesperson. Of those, two voted in elections since 2021.
State and federal laws prohibit non-citizens from voting in national and local elections.
The mistake occurred in part because Oregon has allowed non-citizens to obtain driver’s licenses since 2019, and the DMV automatically registers most people to vote when they obtain a license or ID, Glenn said.
“It’s basically a data entry issue,” Glenn said, explaining that when a DMV worker enters information about a person applying for a driver’s license or state ID, they can incorrectly code that the person has a U.S. birth certificate or passport when they don’t.
DMV Administrator Amy Joyce told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday that the office is checking for additional errors and will likely find more instances of registering non-citizens to vote.
Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said Friday in a statement that the 306 people involved “will be notified by mail that they will not receive a ballot unless they demonstrate that they are eligible to vote.”………
Oregon DMV mistakenly registered more than 300 non-citizens to vote since 2021
Oregon officials have acknowledged the state mistakenly registered more than 300 non-citizens as voters since 2021.
apnews.com
Optimus Prime
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The second apparent attempt on Donald Trump’s life on Sunday is the latest episode this year to underscore the way that the threat of violence has become ubiquitous for public officials in American life.
It is a threat that touches officials at every level, from presidential candidates like Trump, who have around-the-clock protection from the Secret Service, to lower level judges and election officials, who do not have that level of security.
Violence has loomed over the 2024 election for months. Maine’s secretary of state Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, had her home swatted after she disqualified Trump from the presidential ballot late last year. Justices on the Colorado supreme court faced death threats after doing the same (their decision was eventually overturned by the US supreme court) in December.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who prosecuted Donald Trump in the hush-money case, received more than 60 threats targeted at him, his family, and his office, the New York Police Department said in an affidavit earlier this year. Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw that case, also faced significant threats.
For local election officials, who have tiny budget and were virtually anonymous until the 2020 election, the threat of violence has been particularly acute. In Georgia, one key battleground county in suburban Atlanta recently voted to approve $50,000 on panic buttons for election workers and an extra $14,000 to hire a security guard. Several other counties have reportedly expressed interest in the panic button.…..
www.theguardian.com
It is a threat that touches officials at every level, from presidential candidates like Trump, who have around-the-clock protection from the Secret Service, to lower level judges and election officials, who do not have that level of security.
Violence has loomed over the 2024 election for months. Maine’s secretary of state Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, had her home swatted after she disqualified Trump from the presidential ballot late last year. Justices on the Colorado supreme court faced death threats after doing the same (their decision was eventually overturned by the US supreme court) in December.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who prosecuted Donald Trump in the hush-money case, received more than 60 threats targeted at him, his family, and his office, the New York Police Department said in an affidavit earlier this year. Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw that case, also faced significant threats.
For local election officials, who have tiny budget and were virtually anonymous until the 2020 election, the threat of violence has been particularly acute. In Georgia, one key battleground county in suburban Atlanta recently voted to approve $50,000 on panic buttons for election workers and an extra $14,000 to hire a security guard. Several other counties have reportedly expressed interest in the panic button.…..
Election officials ‘look over our shoulders more’ as US political violence surges
Public officials lower on the ticket, who don’t have Secret Service protection, say they are concerned after the gunman on Trump’s golf course underscored the rising threat of violence
Optimus Prime
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A state district court judge on Monday denied a request by Attorney General Ken Paxton to block a Bexar County plan to mail voter registration forms to county residents ahead of the November election, saying the request was moot.Bexar County officials moved forward Tuesday with a plan to mail county residents voter registration forms, defying Attorney General Ken Paxton’s threat to use “all available legal means” to quash the effort.
Paxton followed through Wednesday morning, filing a lawsuit in a state district court in Bexar County that seeks an emergency order to block the program. The lawsuit contends that counties lack the authority to send out unsolicited registration applications, while also arguing that Bexar County officials erred by awarding the contract without going through a competitive bidding process.
The legal clash escalates a brewing fight between Texas Republicans and some of the state’s largest counties over initiatives to proactively send registration applications to people who are eligible but unregistered to vote. Harris County leaders are weighing a similar plan, and Paxton warned the two counties against such efforts Monday evening, claiming they would run afoul of state law and risk adding noncitizens to the voter rolls.
Rebuffing those claims, Bexar County Commissioners Court voted 3-1 to approve a $393,000 outreach contract with Civic Government Solutions following three hours of fervent discussion at Tuesday’s court meeting. Local GOP activists spent more than an hour blasting the deal as an illegal waste of taxpayer money and insisting it would be used to disproportionately register Democrats, citing past comments from the firm’s leaders indicating support for Democratic candidates.
Democratic commissioners, backed by a county legal official, said Paxton’s legal threats were misleading and unfounded. And the firm’s chief executive said the outreach efforts would be strictly nonpartisan — a requirement of the contract, he said — and pose little risk of registering noncitizens.
“I have a personal view on who I would like to win the federal election. That is not to say that the contracts that we undertake with governments are in any way partisan,” said Jeremy Smith, CEO of Civic Government Solutions.
He noted the company uses a mix of public records and county data to identify people who could have recently moved and are unregistered, with a contractual obligation to contact “every eligible person who arises in any of those datasets.”
The court’s approval of the outreach contract came less than 24 hours after Paxton sent a letter to Bexar County commissioners warning the deal was illegal because the county “can take no action without a grant of legal authority,” and Texas law does not explicitly allow counties to mail out unsolicited registration forms...........
Ken Paxton sues Bexar County over voter registration outreach effort
The move escalates Texas Republicans’ brewing fight with urban counties over initiatives to proactively send applications to unregistered voters.
Bexar County attorneys argued in a hearing before Judge Antonia Arteaga on Monday that there was no reason for the court to issue an injunction because the forms were mailed last week, according to the San Antonio Report. Paxton’s office submitted an updated request before the hearing asking that no additional letters be sent out.
“The target of the mailing — qualified individuals who recently moved to or within Bexar County — have received those forms, and perhaps have already returned them,” said Bexar County Assistant Criminal District Attorney Robert W. Piatt III.
Ryan Kercher, deputy chief of the special litigation division in the attorney general’s office, argued that the plan could result in ineligible people registering to vote. Paxton appealed the decision on Monday evening, claiming Bexar officials "expedited" the mail out to take place before the hearing...........
Judge tosses Ken Paxton’s lawsuit targeting Bexar County’s voter registration effort
The county told a state district court judge that the applications were already mailed out and any ruling would be moot.
www.texastribune.org
Bexar County officials moved forward Tuesday with a plan to mail county residents voter registration forms, defying Attorney General Ken Paxton’s threat to use “all available legal means” to quash the effort.
Paxton followed through Wednesday morning, filing a lawsuit in a state district court in Bexar County that seeks an emergency order to block the program. The lawsuit contends that counties lack the authority to send out unsolicited registration applications, while also arguing that Bexar County officials erred by awarding the contract without going through a competitive bidding process.
The legal clash escalates a brewing fight between Texas Republicans and some of the state’s largest counties over initiatives to proactively send registration applications to people who are eligible but unregistered to vote. Harris County leaders are weighing a similar plan, and Paxton warned the two counties against such efforts Monday evening, claiming they would run afoul of state law and risk adding noncitizens to the voter rolls.
Rebuffing those claims, Bexar County Commissioners Court voted 3-1 to approve a $393,000 outreach contract with Civic Government Solutions following three hours of fervent discussion at Tuesday’s court meeting. Local GOP activists spent more than an hour blasting the deal as an illegal waste of taxpayer money and insisting it would be used to disproportionately register Democrats, citing past comments from the firm’s leaders indicating support for Democratic candidates.
Democratic commissioners, backed by a county legal official, said Paxton’s legal threats were misleading and unfounded. And the firm’s chief executive said the outreach efforts would be strictly nonpartisan — a requirement of the contract, he said — and pose little risk of registering noncitizens.
“I have a personal view on who I would like to win the federal election. That is not to say that the contracts that we undertake with governments are in any way partisan,” said Jeremy Smith, CEO of Civic Government Solutions.
He noted the company uses a mix of public records and county data to identify people who could have recently moved and are unregistered, with a contractual obligation to contact “every eligible person who arises in any of those datasets.”
The court’s approval of the outreach contract came less than 24 hours after Paxton sent a letter to Bexar County commissioners warning the deal was illegal because the county “can take no action without a grant of legal authority,” and Texas law does not explicitly allow counties to mail out unsolicited registration forms...........
Ken Paxton sues Bexar County over voter registration outreach effort
The move escalates Texas Republicans’ brewing fight with urban counties over initiatives to proactively send applications to unregistered voters.
No programs to register citizens to vote! How transparent and how could that possibly be illegal??
Vote suppression is the only path forward for MAGA, Texas MAGA. Unable to win open, free, and fair elections, with these efforts, they are in apocalyptic survival mode,A state district court judge on Monday denied a request by Attorney General Ken Paxton to block a Bexar County plan to mail voter registration forms to county residents ahead of the November election, saying the request was moot.
Bexar County attorneys argued in a hearing before Judge Antonia Arteaga on Monday that there was no reason for the court to issue an injunction because the forms were mailed last week, according to the San Antonio Report. Paxton’s office submitted an updated request before the hearing asking that no additional letters be sent out.
“The target of the mailing — qualified individuals who recently moved to or within Bexar County — have received those forms, and perhaps have already returned them,” said Bexar County Assistant Criminal District Attorney Robert W. Piatt III.
Ryan Kercher, deputy chief of the special litigation division in the attorney general’s office, argued that the plan could result in ineligible people registering to vote. Paxton appealed the decision on Monday evening, claiming Bexar officials "expedited" the mail out to take place before the hearing...........
Judge tosses Ken Paxton’s lawsuit targeting Bexar County’s voter registration effort
The county told a state district court judge that the applications were already mailed out and any ruling would be moot.
DJ1BigTymer
F-22A 1st Confirmed A/A Kill 4 Feb 23
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Voter suppression IS a Republican goal and they have been working to perfect voter suppression for decades. Whether its closing polling stations in densely populated area's, Gerrymandering districts to the point where they are selecting their voters, to actually running planted candidates in order to dilute the vote.
Bigdaddysaints
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they do not want minorities to vote and they don't want women to vote. its plain and simple to them..
Optimus Prime
Well-known member
Online
ATLANTA ‒ Nearly a dozen young men spent hours at Georgia STAND-UP one recent morning stuffing masks, mints and hand sanitizers in care packages for voters who may wait in long lines starting in October.
Across town, workers at The Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda set up voter registration tables at local colleges and senior citizen buildings.
At Clark Atlanta University, organizers with a group called RISE helped register students and collect pledge cards at the historically black college.
To combat what they call voter suppression efforts in Georgia, grassroots organizations aim to register thousands of voters of color urging them to cast ballots early, show up in person and turn out in record numbers so there’s little doubt who the winner is on Election Day.
With Georgia in play in the battle for the presidency, they are determined to help voters understand and navigate what they call the state’s restrictive election changes.
“The way you combat the voter suppression techniques or the barriers that they’re putting in place is having a large turnout,’’ said Helen Butler, executive director of the nonpartisan Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda. “We’re not telling people who to vote for, but we’re telling them to vote, to exercise their power… To do that you’ve got to have a large turnout so there isn’t any question by the election deniers.’’............
Across town, workers at The Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda set up voter registration tables at local colleges and senior citizen buildings.
At Clark Atlanta University, organizers with a group called RISE helped register students and collect pledge cards at the historically black college.
To combat what they call voter suppression efforts in Georgia, grassroots organizations aim to register thousands of voters of color urging them to cast ballots early, show up in person and turn out in record numbers so there’s little doubt who the winner is on Election Day.
With Georgia in play in the battle for the presidency, they are determined to help voters understand and navigate what they call the state’s restrictive election changes.
“The way you combat the voter suppression techniques or the barriers that they’re putting in place is having a large turnout,’’ said Helen Butler, executive director of the nonpartisan Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda. “We’re not telling people who to vote for, but we’re telling them to vote, to exercise their power… To do that you’ve got to have a large turnout so there isn’t any question by the election deniers.’’............
Georgia activists ramp up voter turnout efforts to push back against changes
Faced with election changes, activists in Georgia hope to turn out record numbers of voters of color so there's a decisive win on Election Day.
www.usatoday.com
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