Voting Law Proposals and Voting Rights Efforts (1 Viewer)

[MT15]

This is, IMO, going to be a big topic in the coming year. Republicans have stated their aim to make voting more restrictive in just about every state where they have the means to do so. Democrats would like to pass the Voting Rights Bill named after John Lewis. I’m going to go look up the map of all the states which have pending legislation to restrict voting. Now that we have the election in the rear view, I thought we could try to make this a general discussion thread, where people who have concerns about voting abuses can post as well and we can discuss it from both sides. Please keep memes out of this thread and put them in the boards where we go to talk about the other side, lol.

 

[Optimus Prime]

When Shasta county had to search for a new official to oversee its elections earlier this year, there was an obvious candidate.

Her name was Joanna Francescut, and she had been the assistant elections clerk and registrar of voters in this remote region in California’s far north.

Francescut had worked in elections for more than 16 years, oversaw the office of the county clerk and registrar of voters for months after her boss went on leave, and was endorsed by elections officials and prominent area Republicans alike.

Instead, the ultra-conservative majority on Shasta county’s board of supervisors in June selected Tom Toller, a former prosecutor who had never worked in elections and vowed to change the office culture, improve public confidence, and “clean up” voter rolls.

Were it any other California county, the decision would have been shocking. But Shasta county in recent years has made a name for itself as a center for far-right politics and the election-denial movement, which maintains that Donald Trump, and not Joe Biden, won the 2020 presidential election.

In the past year, the majority on the board of supervisors, the county’s governing body, has cast doubt on the integrity of the local elections office and sought to rid the county of voting machines.

The move fueled anxiety among some of the county’s residents. Before one of the most turbulent and consequential races in recent history, Toller will be in charge of administering the election to 114,000 voters with just a few months’ experience under his belt…….

How an ultra-right majority in California’s far north picked a novice to run its elections

Shasta county has made its name as a hotbed of the election-denial movement – and the snubbing of a well-respected election clerk has caused alarm

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

The criminal trial of two rural Arizona county supervisors who initially refused to certify election results in 2022 will not occur before this year’s elections after it was again delayed.

Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, two of the three supervisors in the Republican-led Cochise county, face charges of conspiracy and interfering with an election officer, brought by the Democratic attorney general, Kris Mayes.

The trial has been pushed back multiple times and is now set for 30 January 2025, the court docket shows. The delay was mutually agreed upon, the attorney general’s office said.


Despite the county’s typically low profile, the trial is being watched nationally as elections experts anticipate a potential wave of local officials refusing to certify results if Trump loses. The red county, set on the US-Mexico border, has a population of about 125,000.

Charges like those against Crosby and Judd should send a message to many of those who would consider taking similar actions, democracy advocates say.……..

Trial of Arizona officials who refused to certify 2022 election delayed until next year

Cochise country supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd face charges of conspiracy and interfering with an election officer

www.theguardian.com

 

[MT15]

Youngkin getting sued by the Justice Dept for his illegal purging of voter rolls in VA.

 

[MT15]

A bit of good news from GA, where the election board is trying to change the rules to allow county officials to refuse to certify their elections based on suspicion.

 

[Optimus Prime]

CNN) — A judge in Georgia has paused a new rule from the Georgia State Election Board that would have required officials to hand-count the number of ballots cast at each polling place.

“No training has been administered (let alone developed), no protocols for handling write-in ballots … have been issued, and no allowances have been made in any county’s election budget for additional personnel and other expenses required to implement the Hand Count Rule,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order Tuesday.

“The administrative chaos that will – not may – ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the SEB) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal, and orderly.”

Democrats cheered the ruling Tuesday evening. “From the beginning, this rule was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the outcome, and our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block it. We will continue fighting to ensure that voters can cast their ballot knowing it will count,” the Harris campaign, Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of Georgia said in a joint statement…….

Judge pauses rule that would require Georgia counties to hand-count ballots | CNN Politics

A judge in Georgia has paused a new rule from the Georgia State Election Board that would have required officials to hand-count the number of ballots cast at each polling place.

www.cnn.com

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

CNN) — A judge in Georgia has paused a new rule from the Georgia State Election Board that would have required officials to hand-count the number of ballots cast at each polling place.

“No training has been administered (let alone developed), no protocols for handling write-in ballots … have been issued, and no allowances have been made in any county’s election budget for additional personnel and other expenses required to implement the Hand Count Rule,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order Tuesday.

“The administrative chaos that will – not may – ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the SEB) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal, and orderly.”

Democrats cheered the ruling Tuesday evening. “From the beginning, this rule was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the outcome, and our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block it. We will continue fighting to ensure that voters can cast their ballot knowing it will count,” the Harris campaign, Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of Georgia said in a joint statement…….

Judge pauses rule that would require Georgia counties to hand-count ballots | CNN Politics

A judge in Georgia has paused a new rule from the Georgia State Election Board that would have required officials to hand-count the number of ballots cast at each polling place.

www.cnn.com

Every reason the judge cited for putting a hold on those policies are there by design! Those are the key features of the " hand counting" procedures.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Every reason the judge cited for putting a hold on those policies are there by design! Those are the key features of the " hand counting" procedures.

As they say “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature”