|
Post by the Scribe on Jul 18, 2021 2:34:21 GMT
Georgia purged almost 200,000 voters that should have not been purged, mostly minority right before the election so they couldn't vote. AND THE CONS still lost!. Imagine how much more Trump would have lost by if those people could have voted!Georgia county OKs voter purge reforms to stop NAACP lawsuitwww.yahoo.com/news/georgia-county-oks-voter-purge-175351743.html Kierra Frazier Fri, July 16, 2021, 10:53 AM
A Georgia county has agreed to create new policies for the eligibility of all voters based on their residency, resolving a lawsuit claiming DeKalb County purged its voter rolls, Bloomberg reports. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-14/georgia-county-agrees-to-voter-purge-reforms-to-end-naacp-suit?srnd=politics-vp&sref=yLCixKPR
Why it matters: The agreement highlights the voting battle being fought in Georgia, which helped President Biden claim victory and gave Democrats control of the Senate.
Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free
The big picture: The lawsuit was filed in February 2020 by the NAACP and the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda.
The groups claim that election officials violated federal law by purging voters from the rolls and would target people living in transitional housing or those experiencing homelessness.
The agreement states that DeKalb County will reinstate dozens of eligible voters who were purged from the voter rolls before the suit was filed in February 2020.
What they're saying: The deal “is a critical step to protecting DeKalb County voters from illegal purges during upcoming municipal elections and the 2022 election cycle,” said Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, per Bloomberg.
More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Jul 20, 2021 8:25:01 GMT
This lying idiot needs to read through this thread and then tell me who has been stealing elections for decades.Trump spokeswoman says no 'next election' without 2020 'fix'www.yahoo.com/news/trump-spokeswoman-says-no-next-015400430.html Jake Dima, Daniel Chaitin Mon, July 19, 2021, 6:54 PM
Former President Donald Trump's spokeswoman delivered an ominous warning about the future of democracy in speaking to her boss's claims of a stolen election in 2020.
Liz Harrington, a former Republican National Committee official, told One America News Network there would not be another election without a "fix" to the November contest, which election authorities have defended against Trump's allegations of widespread fraud. www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/rnc www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/2020-elections
"When all these Republicans and RINOS suddenly start pretending like they cared about election integrity, it's always the next election. Well, what the base is focused on, what the average American is focused on, regardless of your party if you were paying attention during the election, what you were focused on, is we can never allow this to happen again. And we have to fix what happened in 2020 or otherwise there's not going to be a next election," Harrington told host Natalie Harp on Monday.
JUDGE TOSSES LAWSUIT ATTEMPTING TO OVERTURN GEORGIA SENATE RUNOFF ELECTIONS www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/judge-tosses-lawsuit-attempting-to-overturn-georgia-senate-runoff-elections
Harrington said GOP opposition to H.R. 1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, voting reform bills backed by Democrats in U.S. Congress, is an "admission" that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, a claim that's been widely disputed by election officials on the federal, state, and local levels, as well as voting technology companies at the center of many of the allegations. www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/republican-party apnews.com/article/donald-trump-voting-racial-injustice-bills-voting-rights-1c5847d0454f98ed2f9529afc3d1559d
“Really, all this talk now of election integrity and stopping H.R. 1, stopping the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, isn’t that an admission that something was wrong on Nov. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7? All the aftermath and all the rigging and all the cheating that went on — that is an acknowledgment that the system that the Democrats and their allies in big tech put into place [that] they're trying to make permanent," she said.
“The best poll was Election Day, seeing the turnout and really the best truth because we know these counties like Fulton County in Georgia, Wayne County in Detroit, in Phoenix, Maricopa, in Allegheny, in Philadelphia. We know they’ve been crooked for decades, but the turnout on Election Day made them take it to a whole different level," she added.
Harrington said Republican leaders have been "way too silent for way too long" on the 2020 contest, and she vowed to keep the pressure on.
“We’re not gonna stop getting to the bottom of it," she said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER washingtonexaminer.com/
Trump has not publicly said whether he will run again for the White House in 2024 after losing his reelection bid to President Joe Biden last year. Still, he has taken an active role in helping Republicans in their campaigns for the 2022 midterm elections and opposing those he views as political enemies. www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/white-house
Trump and his allies filed a wave of lawsuits challenging the 2020 results, but they have been widely rejected by courts around the country. They have now turned their attention and hopes to the GOP-led Arizona Senate's controversial audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County and any others that pop up. www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/arizona-senate-powerless-recall-electors-president
Legal experts have been busy over the past several months pushing back against claims by Trump allies such as My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and attorney Sidney Powell, saying there is no legal mechanism for a former president to be reinstated. www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/mike-lindell-concedes-trump-may-not-be-reinstated-by-august-as-advertised
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Jul 26, 2021 12:15:49 GMT
This is how they, the minority party, do it. Stop the vote any way possible. Make the vote count so close it is easy to steal an election. This has been the conservative m.o. for generations. Hello Ron DeSantis in 2024.‘We’re f---ed’: Dems fear turnout catastrophe from GOP voting lawswww.yahoo.com/news/death-1-000-cuts-dems-033007305.html Maya King, David Siders and Daniel Lippman Sun, July 25, 2021, 8:30 PM
ATLANTA — After Georgia Republicans passed a restrictive voting law in March, Democrats here began doing the math.
The state’s new voter I.D. requirement for mail-in ballots could affect the more than 270,000 Georgians lacking identification. The provision cutting the number of ballot drop boxes could affect hundreds of thousands of voters who cast absentee ballots that way in 2020 — and that’s just in the populous Atlanta suburbs alone. www.ajc.com/politics/drop-box-use-soared-in-democratic-areas-before-georgia-voting-law/N4ZTGHLWD5BRBOUKBHTUCFVOEU/
It didn’t take long before the implications became clear to party officials and voting rights activists. In a state that Joe Biden carried by fewer than 12,000 votes last year, the new law stood to wipe out many of the party’s hard-fought gains — and put them at a decisive disadvantage.
Democrats in other states where similarly restrictive voting laws have passed are coming to the same conclusion. Interviews with more than three dozen Democratic elected officials, party operatives and voting rights activists across the country reveal growing concern — bordering on alarm — about the potential impact in 2022 of the raft of new laws passed by Republican legislatures, particularly in some of the nation’s most competitive battleground states.
“I’m super worried,” said Max Wood, founder and CEO of Deck, a progressive data analytics company that analyzes voting behavior. “I try to be optimistic, and I do think there are times when this kind of stuff can galvanize enthusiasm and turnout. … But I don’t know that that will be enough, especially with how extreme some of these laws are.”
Democratic efforts to model midterm turnout under the new laws remain in their infancy. But even without a sophisticated understanding of the practical effect, there is widespread fear that the party isn’t doing enough to counter these efforts, or preparing for an election conducted under, in some instances, a dramatically different set of rules governing voter access.
“If there isn’t a way for us to repeat what happened in November 2020, we’re f---ed,” said Nsé Ufot, CEO of the Stacey Abrams-founded New Georgia Project. “We are doing what we do to make sure that not only our constituents, our base, the people, the communities that we organize with, get it. We’re trying to make sure that our elected officials get it as well.”
Since Jan. 1, at least 18 states have passed laws that restrict access to the ballot, according to the Brennan Center’s voting laws tracker, ranging from voter I.D. requirements to provisions making early and absentee voting more difficult. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-july-2021
In Michigan, voting rights activists are fighting a push by Republicans to require voters who cast ballots without a photo I.D. to take additional steps to verify their identity within six days of voting. In 2020, about 11,400 voters cast ballots without a photo I.D. — a tiny proportion of the electorate, but almost exactly the margin by which Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016. www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/01/garlin-gilchrist-condemns-gop-plan-circumvent-veto-election-bills/4840675001/ apnews.com/article/donald-trump-michigan-bills-government-and-politics-62f480dcf5f1ceb5a17b2fe75dc5f6f4
“If you make all of those people vote by provisional ballot and you make them go back to their clerk’s office, some number of people are not going to take that extra step,” said Nancy Wang, executive director of Voters Not Politicians, a Michigan-based ballot initiative which has shifted its focus from redistricting to voting rights.
Republicans, Wang said, are “trying to peel away Democratic-leaning voters wherever they can. … It’s sort of death by 1,000 cuts.”
Georgia Democrats are rushing to develop a strategy to work around their state’s voting law, which GOP Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law in March, on the heels of unexpected Democratic victories. It has been widely viewed as a blueprint for similar measures in other states.
The state Democratic Party aims to confront the law by building on their voter education program established after the 2018 midterms. They are training county chairs, volunteers and voters on the law’s terms in Zoom and in-person sessions. The goal, according to one party official, is to train volunteers on how to obtain a voter I.D. in all 159 of Georgia’s counties. The party also brought on three new deputy political directors for Black, Latino and Asian American outreach.
This November’s mayoral election in Atlanta represents a test-run of the law and how its requirements will impact voters. While Democrats aim to apply lessons from this election to next year’s midterms, they recognize that the heavily Black, safely Democratic city is a far cry from a statewide race.
“Certainly, the city of Atlanta is very different than other parts of Georgia,” said Saira Draper, voter protection director for the Georgia Democratic Party, pointing out that Fulton County is Georgia’s most populous. “The fact that they’re going to have this opportunity to go through the process, that's a good thing. And the problems that they encounter, if they encounter problems, it might be a way for us to steer other counties away from these problems.”
What’s missing, however, is an overarching tactical plan to counter the restrictions in the states where they stand to wreak the most harm on Democratic chances. The party and its affiliated interest groups are preparing to spend millions of dollars litigating against restrictive voting laws and bolstering turnout operations, but Democrats have been largely splintered in their response. One reason: widespread hopes and expectations that Washington or the courts will provide some remedy.
“I don’t think the Democratic Party as a whole is prioritizing this issue and its potential damage in the way that they should,” said Doug Herman, who was a lead mail strategist for Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. “We just went through an insurrection that was stoked by voter fraud lies, and the reaction to that from the Republican Party is to restrict the voting process so severely that only their voters can participate. And I don’t understand the lack of fierce resistance to that from Americans and Democrats.”
The restrictions advanced by Republicans affect so many facets of voting that Democrats cannot agree on which provisions are the most problematic. Some Democrats cite signature-matching laws. Others point to fewer drop boxes or shorter time frames for early voting. Still more consider voter identification requirements especially crippling.
Aneesa McMillan, Priorities USA’s deputy executive director, who runs the group’s voting rights program, said the “most ridiculous thing we’ve had to sue over” was a Michigan law that prevents hiring people to transport voters to the polls. www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/10/22/appeals-michigan-law-bans-hiring-voter-transportation/3726365001/
Yet it’s difficult to project the effect of various laws on 2022 turnout because the rules are so new — and because the last election was held under pandemic conditions that are unlikely to be as severe in 2022. On top of that, even if Democrats can get their voters to the polls, stricter I.D. requirements and other restrictions in some states could make it easier to disallow their votes.
Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said that in addition to portions of laws seemingly designed to curb turnout, “what is even more nefarious is what happens once people, if they can get through all the hurdles that they’ve set up, what happens to their vote once it has been cast?”
Citing a provision of the law in Georgia giving Republican lawmakers more power to intervene in local elections operations, he said, “That is not America, that’s Russia. I mean, that is some straight-up dictator-type stuff.” www.reuters.com/world/us/big-changes-under-georgias-new-election-law-2021-06-14/
Vice President Kamala Harris this month announced a $25 million expansion of the DNC’s “I Will Vote” campaign to bolster voter registration, turnout and election protection programs. Harrison said the DNC in 2022 will have the largest voter protection program it has ever had, doubling the size of its staff, including embeds in states.
“Over the last 3 decades we have witnessed the Republican Party, especially at the state level, put up enormous roadblocks to the freedom to vote for every citizen and part of the problem is that there is one party that believes every American citizen deserves the freedom to vote while the other party erects barriers to the ballot box,” said Donna Brazile, a former DNC chair.
Some statewide elected officials expect a possible blowback effect on Republicans, saying that once Georgia Democrats understand the new rules in place, they will be even more motivated to turn out.
“That may incentivize more voters to turn out and do what needs to be done, to ensure that their ballot is cast,” said state Rep. Sam Park, whose district includes suburban Atlanta’s populous Gwinnett County, the state’s most diverse. “When you see politicians coming after your ability to cast your vote, it's a reminder of how much power you really have, how powerful the vote really is.”
Harris met with a group of voting rights activists at the White House in mid-July to discuss protecting ballot access, particularly among Black voters. Veteran civil rights leaders have also pulled the president’s ear on the issue, suggesting a number of filibuster workarounds to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act or For the People Act.
But even the White House’s heightened attention isn’t enough to erase the pessimism among many on the left.
“I’m pretty well convinced that it’s going to hurt Democrats significantly in the long run,” said Brian Fallon, co-founder and executive director of Demand Justice, which supports Supreme Court reform. “There’s definitely no combination of lawsuits or Biden remaining popular or voter registration that’s going to overcome that, so I think it’s pretty bleak.”
Congressional Democrats have yet to reintroduce the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would restore a requirement that certain jurisdictions receive approval from the Justice Department or D.C. district court before making changes to voting laws.
Senate Democrats used a first-in-two-decades field hearing last week in Atlanta to draw attention to voting rights and say they plan to continue holding field hearings in other places where state lawmakers are considering or passing legislation that limits access to the ballot.
Yet they did not provide a clear strategy for how Democrats could counter Georgia’s law and the nearly two dozen newly passed laws like it.
“Hope is quickly turning into frustration,” said Latosha Brown, co-founder of the Georgia-based voting rights group Black Voters Matter. “Constantly, we are showing up to protect democracy. When in the hell are those who claim that they are committed to democracy going to show up to protect those that protect democracy?”
Brown and Ufot pointed to Texas, where statehouse Democrats vacated the state in protest of its voting bill, as one example of the heights they would like to see other Democrats go to in pushing back against punitive voting measures in other battleground states.
“Texas Democrats were out of moves, and the only thing they could do to deny quorum was to take their families and leave the state in the middle of the night,” Ufot said. “That’s the kind of response and leadership that this moment requires, and I am waiting for the administration to match the energy of state and local Democrats across the country who are fighting these fights.”
Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Aug 4, 2021 10:08:44 GMT
How the GOP Is Stripping Students of Their Voting Rightswww.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/how-republicans-are-stripping-students-of-their-voting-rights-791980/ “If you stand to be at a disadvantage when more people vote, then the problem isn’t with the voters — the problem is with you,” says 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg
By TESSA STUART
A group of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students tweet out information after a news conference, in Parkland, Fla. A day after graduating from high school, the group of Florida school shooting survivors has announced a multistate bus tour to "get young people educated, registered and motivated to voteSchool Shooting Bus Tour, Parkland, USA - 04 Jun 2018
Young people are more engaged in politics than they have been in decades. But laws introduced by the GOP will make it harder for students to vote. Wilfredo Lee/AP/REX/Shutterstock
In November 2016, Republicans in New Hampshire gained complete control of the state government. GOP Representative Michael Moffett was nonetheless displeased with the results. Moffett logged onto Facebook, where he griped that “[m]any out-of-state college students in Durham, Plymouth, Keene, Manchester, Henniker and Hanover registered late and most voted Democrat… [Former GOP Sen. Kelly] Ayotte had her reelection stolen from her by out-of-staters…and Clinton’s razor-thin victory was stolen as well.”
Moffett was not alone in his irritation at these impertinent young people exercising their right to vote. State Sen. William Gannon publicly bemoaned the fact that students who attend school in New Hampshire don’t “really have skin in the game.” His colleague Sen. Dan Innis agreed: “If you’re from Boston and you’re up here eight months out of the year and you’re registered to vote there, you shouldn’t be able to vote here.” All three men would go on to support HB 1264, a measure that passed both chambers of the state legislature last year and was signed into law by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. www.fosters.com/news/20161113/college-towns-have-big-impact-on-nh-election www.governing.com/topics/politics/tns-new-hampshire-voting-residency.html
The law, set to go into effect this July, would force residents with out-of-state driver’s licenses to obtain a New Hampshire ID and register their car in the state before voting — or else face criminal charges punishable by up to a year in jail. The fees to make the switch can run into the hundreds of dollars, according to the ACLU, which filed suit Wednesday on behalf of two Dartmouth students challenging the law. The civil liberties group is arguing the fees constitute a poll tax on college students, young voters and those new to the state. www.rollingstone.com/t/voting/
“Younger voters historically have a lower turnout, and I think that politicians start to get nervous when they see, in 2018 for example, that the young people’s turnout was a lot higher,” says Julie Ebenstein, senior staff attorney for the ACLU. “I think a lot of politicians see that and they get concerned that the dynamics of elections are going to change if young people start voting. I think there is an attempt to suppress the votes of young voters.”
It’s not just New Hampshire — conservative politicians in Wisconsin, Arizona and Florida have, in recent years, sought specifically to limit college students’ access to the ballot box. At the same time, students are also disproportionately impacted by voter ID laws, on the books in some 34 states. www.wpr.org/voter-id-linked-lower-turnout-students-people-color-elderly-most-affected
“It’s worth questioning why anybody in politics is motivated to do this,” Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and now a candidate for president, tells Rolling Stone. “If you stand to be at a disadvantage when more people vote, then the problem isn’t with the voters — the problem is with you. Why wouldn’t we want every eligible voter to vote and win fair and square a contest of ideas among those voters?”
As a candidate for president in 2020, and someone who is making millennial concerns a centerpiece of his campaign, Buttigieg has a vested interest in making sure young people can get to the polls. New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary has the potential to make or break those presidential ambitions. But, he says, everyone should share that interest.
“The bottom line is that young people have as much or more interest as anybody in political decisions that are being made,” Buttigieg says. “My observation has been that our generation, as the one that has provided the most troops in the post-9/11 wars, that will be on the receiving end of climate change decisions, and in a thousand other ways will be impacted by these decisions — the longer you’re planning to be here, the more you have a stake in every decision that is made.”
Youth turnout surged in 2018, tipping close elections in at least three states, according to a study by Tufts University. Voters under 30 preferred Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers to his rival, Scott Walker, by a 23-point margin, helping Evers squeak out a 1.2 percentage point win over Walker. In Nevada, they chose Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Gov. Steve Sisolak over their Republican rivals by 37 and 31 points, respectively, carrying both to victory. And in Montana, overwhelming, 40-percentage-point support for Democratic Sen. Jon Tester contributed to his victory over Republican Matt Rosendale. civicyouth.org/young-people-dramatically-increase-their-turnout-31-percent-shape-2018-midterm-elections/
And the power of younger voters is only expected to grow in the coming years. This year, millennials are projected to surpass baby boomers as the largest living adult generation, according to the Pew Research Center. They still lag boomers’ voter participation levels, comprising 27 percent of the voting-eligible population in 2016 compared to boomers’ 31 percent, but that could change before the next presidential election. Some 22 million Americans will turn 18 before 2020. At the same time, young people are engaging with the political process at a higher rate than they have at any period since Vietnam. www.rollingstone.com/t/millennials/ www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/03/millennials-approach-baby-boomers-as-largest-generation-in-u-s-electorate/ civicyouth.org/from-parkland-to-the-polls-teen-activism-and-youth-voting-in-2018/
Incidentally, the first time New Hampshire tried to restrict the youth vote was in 1972 — the year after Congress ratified the 26th Amendment, lowering the voting age to 18. Then, as now, young people were increasingly drawn into politics, galvanized by a campaign that asked why, if they were old enough to be drafted, were they not old enough to vote.
The 1972 law, which required voters to have lived in the state for at least six months before voting, was ultimately struck down, and the Granite State, once a Republican stronghold, has lurched increasingly leftward ever since. The second time New Hampshire politicians tried to restrict the youth vote was in 2012. Bill O’Brien, then-speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, complained that college students, who skew overwhelmingly liberal, lack “life experience… they just vote their feelings.” As in 1972, the 2012 law was declared unconstitutional. www.nhpr.org/post/how-nh-went-deep-red-swing-state-over-course-few-elections#stream/0
Buttigieg is concerned about the broader implications of the new law in New Hampshire and others like it. “This goes beyond just young people: this is about whether democracy will be expanded or restricted in our lifetimes. Every American generation, I think, in history has seen our democracy become more not less democratic — going all the way back to expanding the franchise beyond property owners, to suffrage and voting rights and the direct election of senators — each turn in history has been one in which America has made it easier not harder for U.S. citizens, more of us, to vote. And the question, I think, is will my generation live to be the first where America is less democratic at the end of our lives than it was at the beginning.”
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Aug 12, 2021 18:52:12 GMT
America is waking up to RepubliConservative election shenanigans and it is things just like this in Texas that is doing it. Kudos to the Dems who believe everyone should be able to vote. Funny how the Cons continually blab about the Constitution and Bill of Rights yet when it comes right down to it they don't really believe in it nor practice what they preach.
Texas senator ends 15-hour filibuster over GOP voting billwww.yahoo.com/news/senators-filibuster-over-texas-voting-114746101.html
Texas State Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, wears running shoes as she filibusters Senate Bill 1, a voting bill, at the Texas Capitol Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Austin, Texas. A sign shows the Texas House Chamber Closed at the Texas Capitol, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Austin, Texas. Officers of the Texas House of Representatives delivered civil arrest warrants for more than 50 absent Democrats on Wednesday as frustrated Republicans ratcheted up efforts to end a standoff over a sweeping elections bill that stretched into its 31st day. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Thu, August 12, 2021, 4:47 AM
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas state senator ended a 15-hour filibuster Thursday in the Democrats' latest defiance over new voting restrictions, but it only delayed Republicans who went on to approve the sweeping elections bill just minutes after she wearily left the floor.
The GOP's sustained efforts to tighten Texas' election laws, however, remained no closer to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's desk than a month ago. Democrats are still refusing to show up in the state House of Representatives in a standoff that has now dragged on for 32 days, preventing the Senate bill from going any farther.
Democrat Carol Alvarado began speaking shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday even though she acknowledged that the filibuster would not block the legislation in the Senate. She was required to remain standing and speaking, was prohibited from taking bathroom breaks and wore running shoes on the Senate floor, just as former Texas legislator Wendy Davis did in 2013 when she filibustered a sweeping anti-abortion bill. apnews.com/article/5700ea2a548c402986aa0f37c71ab380
Related video: Back home, Texas Dems pledge to keep up voting rights fight Scroll back up to restore default view. “What’s wrong with drive-thru voting during a pandemic? What’s wrong with 24-hour voting? Why can’t we have expanded voting hours for the people who have to work late? Where is all the so-called fraud?" Alvarado said in the closing moments of her filibuster. “Where does it end?
She hugged her Democratic colleagues after finally putting down the microphone. Minutes later, the bill passed 18-11 in the Senate, but it is once again stalled since Democrats continue to their holdout at the other end of the Texas Capitol.
Alvarado's filibuster began hours after officers of the Texas House of Representatives delivered civil arrest warrants for more than 50 absent Democrats on Wednesday. Frustrated Republicans have ratcheted up efforts to end the standoff over the elections bill. apnews.com/article/joe-biden-texas-arrests-voting-voting-rights-99aaf409ee834db574a49531d41af07e
But after sergeants-at-arms finished making the rounds inside the Texas Capitol — dropping off copies of the warrants at Democrats' offices, and politely asking staff to tell their bosses to please return — there were few signs the stalemate that began when Democrats fled to Washington, D.C., in July in order to grind the statehouse to a halt was any closer to a resolution.
The latest escalation threw the Texas Legislature into uncommon territory with neither side showing any certainty over what comes next, or how far Republicans could take their determination to secure a quorum of 100 present lawmakers — a threshold they were just four members shy of reaching.
“I don’t worry about things I can’t control,” said state Rep. Erin Zwiener, one of the Democrats who was served with a warrant and has refused to return to the Capitol. “Nothing about these warrants are a surprise, and they don’t necessarily affect my plans.”
Democrats, who acknowledge they cannot permanently stop the GOP voting bill from passing because of Republicans' dominance in both chambers of the Texas Legislature, responded to the warrants with new shows of defiance. One turned up in a Houston courtroom and secured a court order aimed at preventing him from being forced to return to the Capitol.
The NAACP also stepped in on behalf of the Texas Democrats, urging the Justice Department to investigate whether a federal crime was being committed when Republicans threatened to have them arrested. apnews.com/article/texas-arrests-race-and-ethnicity-naacp-1b3b91bc165315962a8341add8790813
Refusing to attend legislative sessions is a violation of House rules — a civil offense, not a criminal one, leaving the power the warrants carry to get Democrats back to the chamber unclear, even for the Republicans who invoked it. Democrats would not be jailed. Republican Travis Clardy, who helped negotiate an early version of the voting bill that Democrats first stopped with a walkout in May, said he believes Democrats can be physically brought back to the Capitol.
State Rep. Jim Murphy, who leads the Texas House Republican Caucus, said while he has not seen a situation like this play out during his tenure, his understanding is that officers could go to the missing lawmakers and ask them to come back.
“I am hoping they will come because the warrants have been issued and they don’t want to be arrested,” Murphy said. “It is incredible to me that you have to arrest people to do the job they campaigned for, for which they took an oath of office to uphold the Texas Constitution.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety, the state's law enforcement agency, referred questions about the warrants to the House speaker.
The move marks a new effort by the GOP to end the protest over elections legislation that began a month ago with 50 Democrats taking private jets to Washington in a dramatic show of resolve to make Texas the front lines of a new national battle over voting rights. apnews.com/article/explaining-texas-democrats-walkout-99429d735b2ddf3c54bf119175ddc84d
Republicans are now in the midst of their third attempt since May to pass a raft of tweaks and changes to the state’s election code that would make it harder — and even, sometimes, legally riskier — to cast a ballot in Texas, which already has some of the most restrictive election laws in the nation.
Texas is among several states where Republicans have rushed to enact new voting restrictions in response to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. The current bill is similar to the ones Democrats blocked last month by going to the nation's capital. It would ban 24-hour polling locations, drive-thru voting and give partisan poll watchers more access, among other things. apnews.com/article/health-government-and-politics-texas-voting-coronavirus-pandemic-9bc36a6e8c967757340ab25f49b8ddbf
It was unclear Wednesday how many Democrats remained in Washington, where they had hoped to push President Joe Biden and other Democrats there to pass federal legislation that would protect voting rights in Texas and beyond. Senate Democrats pledged to make it the first order of business when they return in the fall, even though they don’t have a clear strategy for overcoming steadfast Republican opposition. apnews.com/article/joe-biden-elections-senate-elections-bills-d417ab8e6db2726eb79a8f2ce28baeca ___
Acacia Coronado is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. www.reportforamerica.org/
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Aug 24, 2021 23:47:06 GMT
I fully expect the CONS to win elections they don't deserve, as usual. Unless some honest brokers step up to stop Republiconservatives from their continued election shenanigans to maintain power as the minority party then we can all expect to live under a tyranny of the minority who in actuality represent an oligarchy that controls America. New Laws Have Basically Ended Voter Registration Drives In Some Parts Of The U.S. www.npr.org/2021/08/23/1030430564/new-laws-have-basically-ended-voter-registration-drives-in-some-parts-of-the-u-s Updated August 24, 20213:04 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered FRANK MORRIS
3-Minute Listen ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2021/08/20210823_atc_criminalizing_voter_registration_drives.mp3?orgId=1&topicId=1014&d=223&p=2&story=1030430564&dl=1&sc=siteplayer&size=3574849&dl=1&aw_0_1st.playerid=siteplayer
Transcript
Voters cast their midterm ballots on Nov. 6, 2018, at Briles Schoolhouse in Peoria Township, Kan. Whitney Curtis/Getty Images
New state laws tightening voting restrictions come in two basic varieties: those that make it harder to cast a vote, and those making it more difficult to get registered to vote in the first place.
In Kansas, one law effectively shuts down voter registration drives.
Now, it's a felony offense to impersonate an election official and the law creates a vague standard for breaking it, a standard that depends on impressions. It criminalizes engaging in conduct that might seem like something an election official would do.
Map: See Which States Have Restricted Voter Access, And Which States Have Expanded It www.npr.org/2021/08/13/1026588142/map-see-which-states-have-restricted-voter-access-and-which-states-have-expanded
Davis Hammet, president of the Kansas civic engagement group Loud Light, says that subjective standard would probably include work his volunteers do, which is approaching people with clipboards and registering them to vote.
"So, if someone accuses you of being an election official or saying they were just confused and thought you were one, and you were arrested, you would be charged with a felony," Hammet says. "And so, a felony means you lose your right to vote. So, you could lose your right to vote for trying to help people vote."
So Hammet suspended his organization's voter registration drives, just as they would normally be ratcheting up to register hundreds of incoming college freshmen. Other organizations have shut down in-person registration drives too, including the League of Women Voters of Kansas.
This knocks a big hole in efforts to register new voters, because county elections officials rely on volunteer groups to do outreach.
"I don't have the staff that can go out to fairs and art events and set up a voter registration booth," says Douglass County Clerk Jamie Shew.
Shew says those events and other volunteer efforts are the best way to bring non-voting citizens into the democratic process.
Loud Light volunteer Anita Austin says new voter registrations have slowed. Frank Morris/KCUR
Kansas Republicans who pushed the law say shutting down voter registration drives was not their intent. GOP state Sen. Larry Alley says the idea was to stop random actors from cloaking themselves in sham authority through the mail, like sending out fake ballot applications bearing official-looking seals.
There hasn't been a problem with volunteers pretending to be elections officials. And Alley says they can stay out of trouble simply by making their identities clear.
"We want a fair and a secure and a transparent election to make sure that when you cast your ballot, you feel that you cast your ballot and it's going to be counted," Alley says.
Of course, Kansas isn't the only state changing election laws this year. And critics say these Republican-led efforts have less to do with secure voting than they do driving down vote totals for Democratic candidates.
A Texas Bill Would Make More Voting Crimes. Dems Say Mistakes May Put Voters In Jail www.npr.org/2021/08/03/1024108240/texas-voting-bill-would-add-criminal-penalties-such-as-helping-others-vote
Tammy Patrick has been tracking an avalanche of election-related legislation for the nonpartisan group Democracy Fund.
"There have been a little more than 3,000 bills introduced ... this legislative session and which is the most bills we've seen around election administration," Patrick says. "Many of them actually have included things very similar to the Kansas law."
That's new restrictions on who can register voters, and how forms have to be submitted. Patrick says some new laws even criminalize minor clerical errors sometimes made by elections officials.
In Kansas, voter registration groups are suing to stop the new elections law and have asked for a temporary injunction against enforcing the provision creating a felony offense for appearing to be an election official.
But in the meantime, new registrations have slowed, and Loud Light volunteer Anita Austin is frustrated.
"I'm a Black woman and it matters a lot to me because Black people have been disenfranchised," Austin says, clipboard in hand. "It is common day voter suppression. You know, we used to be able to just say, Blacks can't vote, women can't vote. Nowadays we got to come up with weird laws, like you're impersonating an election official."
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Aug 25, 2021 17:38:13 GMT
Conservative hoaxers face $5.1M fine for election robocallswww.yahoo.com/news/conservative-hoaxers-face-5-1m-152755529.html
FILE - In this. Oct. 8, 2020 image from video provided by the 36th District Court in Detroit, Jacob Wohl, left, and Jack Burkman, shown in the center left photo, are seen during an arraignment being conducted over Zoom in Detroit. The two conservative hoaxers face a record $5.1 million fine for allegedly making illegal robocalls to wireless phones without the owners' consent in the 2020 election. The Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2021, that the proposed fine for Wohl, Burkman, and Burkman's lobbying firm would be the largest ever for violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. (36th District Court/Zoom via AP Rile)
Jack Burkman Jacob Wohl DAVID EGGERT Wed, August 25, 2021, 8:27 AM·2 min readIn this article:
Jack Burkman American lobbyist and conspiracy theorist
Jacob Wohl American far-right conspiracy theorist, fraudster, and internet troll LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Two conservative hoaxers face a record $5.1 million fine for allegedly making illegal robocalls to wireless phones without the owners' consent in the 2020 election.
The Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday that the proposed fine for Jacob Wohl, Jack Burkman and Burkman's lobbying firm would be the largest ever for violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-21-97A1.pdf
The men already face criminal charges in multiple states over allegedly organizing 85,000 robocalls that falsely warned people in predominantly Black areas of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan that information gleaned from mail-in ballots could lead to their arrest, debt collection and forced vaccination. apnews.com/article/election-2020-technology-arrests-michigan-voting-rights-5f035e2a68394f9765d9c0d500538d94
The FCC said federal law prohibits making prerecorded calls to cellphones without the permission of those receiving the calls. The agency, which determined 1,141 calls went to mobile phones on Aug. 26 and Sept. 14, proposed a $4,500 fine for each one.
Regulators launched their investigation following consumer complaints and concerns raised by a national civil rights group, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The FCC said it worked with the Ohio attorney general's office to obtain subpoenas from two dialing service providers showing emails from Burkman and Wohl, including ZIP codes to target and “the tape we want to go out.” They will have an opportunity to respond before the commission takes action.
In an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday, Wohl said the Biden administration is looking to distract people from the U.S. pullout of Afghanistan and other woes, “but we will not be deterred or discouraged.” apnews.com/article/europe-poland-d395c4ffd6cc93072bc5d5d40e59fa34
A message seeking comment was left for Burkman.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, whose office is prosecuting the men, said “this massive fine properly reflects the seriousness of the allegations these two political operatives face.”
The FCC said it was the first time it issued notice of a fine without first issuing a citation, citing a 2019 change in the law.
___
Follow David Eggert at twitter.com/DavidEggert00 twitter.com/DavidEggert00
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Sept 13, 2021 1:58:56 GMT
Trump would rather see this country rip itself apart before admitting he lost in a fair election.
Hear the calls Trump made as he tried to steal the election 37,702 viewsSep 12, 2021
CNN 12.8M subscribers
Former President Trump and his inner circle were using all the powers of the presidential office to wage a high-pressure campaign, CNN's Drew Griffin reports -- not to stop the steal but to start it.
#CNN #News
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Sept 13, 2021 2:07:33 GMT
Whoa, listen to the Deplorables threaten this woman because she didn't help Trump steal the election.
'We're coming for you': Election director shares threatening voicemail 9,345 viewsSep 12, 2021
CNN 12.8M subscribers
Threats to election officials are on the rise. Experts say Trump and his Republican allies have injected enough doubt into the election process to threaten its stability. CNN's Drew Griffin reports.
#CNN #News
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Sept 13, 2021 2:12:47 GMT
Watch for the highlighted states steal elections for CONServatives starting next year as their suppression laws are put into place in a coordinated effort. I predict a civil war as a result if the GOP pulls off this election theft.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Sept 27, 2021 0:33:26 GMT
They accuse others of what they themselves are doing. They are fishing for a way to cheat every time they do a so called ‘audit’.
'Connect the dots': Pamela Brown on how Trump's Big Lie will affect future elections 138,549 viewsSep 26, 2021
CNN 12.8M subscribers
CNN's Pamela Brown says that GOP leaders who stay silent on former President Donald Trump's Big Lie about the 2020 election are spreading his message even further. #CNN #News #Politics
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Sept 29, 2021 23:25:26 GMT
The GOP is doing a purge of Republicons that didn't go along with Trump's BIG LIE that he won the 2020 election. If they can get their toadie cons elected and put into power you will find elections stolen for the CONS at every turn. The BIG LIE will become the BIG STEAL. If they get away with it and in fact OBVIOUSLY STEAL ELECTIONS it will become nothing short of civil war. The ENEMY IS WITHIN!
The 'Absolutely Frightening' Way Republicans Are Attacking Republicans
Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist and Jonathan Lemire discuss how Pro-Trump Republicans are taking revenge on Republican secretary of states who refused to cow-tow to 'big lie' tactics used to try to "steal the election."
Ken Burns gives dark comparisons for America’s current crises
Documentarian Ken Burns compares the current crises in the US to World War II, the Great Depression and the Civil War during a podcast with actor Will Arnett.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Oct 5, 2021 0:46:46 GMT
Eric Gay/AP Texas Republicans Are Pulling Out All the Stops to Dilute the Voting Power of People of Colorwww.motherjones.com/politics/2021/10/texas-republicans-are-pulling-out-all-the-stops-to-dilute-the-voting-power-of-people-of-color/ ARI BERMAN
In 2020, Democrat Candace Valenzuela, who was running to become the first Black Latina member of Congress, lost the closest congressional race in Texas to Republican Beth Van Duyne.
She was considering running again in 2022 for Texas’ 24th congressional district, once a stronghold of suburban Republicanism between Dallas and Fort Worth, but when she saw the redistricting maps for the US House released by state Republicans last week, “it was viscerally shocking to me,” she said.
Biden carried the 24th by five points in 2020, as the population of people of color surged in the suburbs and moderate white voters turned away from Donald Trump, but Republicans had transformed the district into a bastion of white Trumpism.
Texas Republicans are building a sea wall against demographic change—an early indicator of how the Republican Party nationally is responding to population changes not by reaching out to growing communities of color but by diluting their voting power.
The Dallas–Fort Worth area has grown faster than any part of Texas, with more Latinos living there than in the entire state of Colorado, notes Michael Li of the Brennan Center for Justice. Yet instead of creating a new majority-Latino congressional district, Republicans chopped up diverse cities like Carrollton, which is 60 percent nonwhite and where Valenzuela became the first Black woman to win a school board seat in 2017, into five different congressional districts to undermine minority voting power. She used to describe her district as a donut circling Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport. Now she calls it a “butterfly shrimp,” with its body in suburban red areas by the airport and its tail weaving in and out of the most conservative parts of Dallas.
“They weren’t just trying to extract people of color who are trending Democratic in order to protect Beth Van Duyne or other Republicans,” Valenzuela said. “They were trying to completely and totally neutralize their voting power. This is something that is happening across the state.”
Through the redistricting process, Texas Republicans are building a sea wall against demographic change—an early indicator of how the Republican Party nationally is responding to momentous population changes not by reaching out to growing communities of color but by diluting their voting power. At a time when Texas is becoming more diverse and Democratic, the new maps drawn by Republicans for congress and the state legislature would make the state’s political representation far whiter and more Republican, all but ending competition at the very moment when ascendant Democrats are finally making the state competitive.
White voters have been a minority in Texas since 2004 and over the past decade 95 percent of the state’s growth came from communities of color, but the GOP’s proposed congressional map increases the number of white Republican districts and decreases the number of majority-Latino and majority-Black districts. It packs minority voters into as few urban areas as possible in cities like Austin, Dallas, and Houston to limit their representation, while spreading out the rest among deeply red exurban and rural areas to nullify their influence. Despite gaining nearly 2 million Hispanic residents and more than 500,000 Black residents since 2010, Republicans didn’t draw a single new majority-Latino or majority-Black congressional district. Instead, the two new House seats the state gained due to population growth were given to majority-white areas in Austin and Houston.
Republican House candidates won 53 percent of the statewide vote in 2020 but would hold a projected 65 percent of seats under the new lines, which were approved by the state Senate redistricting committee on Monday. The number of safe GOP seats would double, from 11 to 22, while the number of competitive districts would fall from 12 to just one. Nine Texas House Republicans, including Van Duyne, currently hold seats in districts won by Biden or where Trump won by five points or less, but they’re all drawn into districts that Trump would have carried by double digits. This will push state and national politics even further to the right, as Republicans worry more about primary challengers than Democratic opponents.
“Texas is one of the most diverse states in the country but you wouldn’t know it by looking at this map,” said Li. “It totally tries to kick the can down the road on the growth in the state’s minority population.”
Texas’ 24th Congressional district in current form vs proposed GOP plan. The GOP map removed diverse Democratic areas and adds in whiter Republican ones. Mother Jones illustration; District Viewer; Congress.gov
The 2020 race in the 24th was a battle between two candidates representing very different visions of the state: its diverse, Democratic, progressive future against its white, Republican, reactionary present and past. While Valenzuela rallied voters of color and appealed to disaffected Republicans, Van Duyne was best known as a former mayor of Irving who rose to prominence in tea party circles after falsely accusing local Muslim imams of trying to implement Shariah and urging the Texas legislature to pass an “anti-Shariah” bill. She befriended Michael Flynn in 2016 and joined the Trump administration as an official with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Valenzuela lost by just 4,500 votes, a heartbreaking defeat for Democrats, but said “we got closer than we had been in a long time.”
Van Duyne called her victory “Nancy Pelosi’s most bitter loss” and styled herself as part of a “conservative squad” to take on progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Once in Congress, she voted against certifying the election results in Pennsylvania, was fined for twice violating the House’s mask mandate, and during a recent debate over abortion held a baby doll in the shape of a fetus while speaking on the House floor. The Atlantic called her “the new face of Trumpism in Texas.” www.texastribune.org/2020/12/17/beth-van-duyne-texas-congress/ www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/04/beth-van-duyne-texas-congress-trump/618558/
“They weren’t just trying to extract people of color who are trending Democratic in order to protect Beth Van Duyne or other Republicans. They were trying to completely and totally neutralize their voting power. This is something that is happening across the state.”
Van Duyne’s extreme voting record should have made her vulnerable in a fast-changing swing district, but Republicans protected her by increasing the percentage of white voters in the district by 15 points, from 59 percent to 74 percent. The district has gone from favoring Biden by 5 points to favoring Trump by 12 points. The partisan lean of the district has shifted to the right by nearly 20 points, more than any district in the state. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/11/texas-electorate-changing-suburbs-biden-flip-state?CMP=share_btn_tw www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/9/28/2054764/-Morning-Digest-Texas-GOP-proposes-House-gerrymander-to-shield-itself-against-a-fast-changing-state fivethirtyeight.com/features/texass-new-congressional-map-could-give-a-huge-boost-to-gop-incumbents/
Valenzuela’s home was drawn out of the district, which she suspects was intentional, as was the home of Democratic state Rep. Michelle Beckley, who announced a challenge to Van Duyne in July. Van Duyne’s home was narrowly kept in the district, but predominantly Latino communities in Irving that she used to represent were excised to make the seat more Republican. fivethirtyeight.com/features/texass-new-congressional-map-could-give-a-huge-boost-to-gop-incumbents/ thetexan.news/state-rep-michelle-beckley-launches-campaign-for-congress-against-rep-beth-van-duyne/
“If I were to run in the current iteration of TX-24, I’d be surprised if I made it to the high 40s,” Valenzuela said. “The way that 24 looks now, I don’t think I’d want to put my family through it.”
The same level of gerrymandering is a defining feature of the maps drawn for the state legislature, where Republicans are desperately trying to insulate themselves from accountability after passing a flurry of extreme laws this year, such as a six-week abortion ban, permission for residents to carry guns without a permit, and a sweeping voter suppression law. www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/08/texas-republicans-pass-voting-restrictions-to-solidify-anti-democratic-hold-on-power/
“Republicans are in a position to let lines and laws overwhelm demographics and ultimately the will of Texans,” Valenzuela said.
Under the GOP’s proposed map for the state Senate, 20 of 31 districts would have white majorities, even though white people make up just under 40 percent of the state’s population. The number of pro-Trump districts increases from 16 to 19.
The proposed state House map, like the congressional map, would also create more white districts and fewer districts where Black and Hispanic people make up a majority of eligible voters. The number of majority white districts would rise from 83 to 89 out of 150, while the number of Latino districts shrinks from 33 to 30, and the number of Black districts falls from seven to four. The map creates 10 more pro-Trump districts, giving the GOP close to 60 percent of seats after Democrats came close to retaking the chamber in recent elections. www.texastribune.org/2021/09/30/texas-house-redistricting-map/
Overall, white voters would control a majority in 60 percent of districts for the US House and state legislature—far above their numbers in the state. www.texastribune.org/2021/10/04/texas-redistricting-racial-representation/
The same strategy could soon be replicated in other Southern battleground states. Republicans need just five seats to take back the House and could accomplish this through gerrymandering in Texas, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina. www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/07/gop-could-retake-the-house-in-2022-just-by-gerrymandering-four-southern-states/
Similar to Texas, all of Georgia’s growth in the last decade came from communities of color. The state gained 1 million residents—including 350,000 Black residents, 270,000 Latino residents, and 160,000 Asian American residents, while the white population shrank—but redistricting maps released for Congress on September 27 by Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and the chair of the state Senate redistricting committee targets Black political representation.
The draft map takes aim at Rep. Lucy McBath, a Black Democrat who represents Newt Gingrich’s former congressional district. McBath, who became a crusader against gun violence after her teenage son Jordan Davis was murdered by a white man in 2012, would see her suburban Atlanta district go from one that Biden carried by 11 points to one Trump won by six. The most diverse and Democratic parts of DeKalb County, which Biden won with 83 percent of the vote, would be removed, and Forsyth County, a hotbed of white Republicanism one hour north of Atlanta where Trump won 66 percent of the vote, would be added in. www.ajc.com/politics/first-proposed-georgia-congressional-map-could-help-gop-pick-up-a-seat/RBNIYMD25VFSFHSJ23YGQP2PZM/ www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/ucy-mcbath-karen-handel-house-georgia-six-results/
Forsyth County has a particularly ugly racial history—in 1912, following the lynching of a Black man, white residents forced all 1,000 Black residents to leave the county. When thousands of civil rights activists led a march in 1987 to expose what had happened, white residents, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, shouted, “Nigger, go home!” at them and held signs that said “Keep Forsyth white.” www.nytimes.com/1987/01/25/us/thousands-in-civil-rights-march-jeered-by-crowd-in-georgia-town.html
The proposed congressional map also targets Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop in southwest and middle Georgia. The Black voting age population in his district would drop from 50 percent to 47 percent, which could be enough to defeat him, given how few rural white residents vote for Democrats anymore.
The map released by Duncan, a prominent critic of Trump, could be replaced by a more extreme pro-Republican gerrymander when the Georgia legislature convenes in early November to take up redistricting. It’s telling that the “moderate” plan drawn by an anti-Trump Republican still potentially eliminates two seats held by Black Democrats.
The squabbling on Capitol Hill over the Democrats’ infrastructure and spending plans has overshadowed how the Freedom to Vote Act introduced by Senate Democrats last month would ban the kind of racial and partisan gerrymandering pushed by Republicans in states like Texas and Georgia.
“If the Freedom to Vote Act was there, this map would be instantly blocked,” Li said of the Texas congressional plan.
Yet Democrats are running out of time to pass it or devise a strategy for overcoming a GOP filibuster—and could soon be powerless to stop the GOP’s takeover of the US House and state Capitols for the next decade.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Oct 6, 2021 23:45:15 GMT
POLITICS MAY 13, 2021 Leaked Video: Dark Money Group Brags About Writing GOP Voter Suppression Bills Across the Country www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/05/heritage-foundation-dark-money-voter-suppression-laws/
“We did it quickly and we did it quietly,” said the executive director of Heritage Action. ARI BERMAN NICK SURGEY
Advertise with Mother Jones
In a private meeting last month with big-money donors, the head of a top conservative group boasted that her outfit had crafted the new voter suppression law in Georgia and was doing the same with similar bills for Republican state legislators across the country. “In some cases, we actually draft them for them,” she said, “or we have a sentinel on our behalf give them the model legislation so it has that grassroots, from-the-bottom-up type of vibe.” www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/04/republicans-say-georgia-law-wasnt-design-to-suppress-voting-dont-believe-them/
The Georgia law had “eight key provisions that Heritage recommended,” Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action for America, a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation, told the foundation’s donors at an April 22 gathering in Tucson, in a recording obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with Mother Jones. Those included policies severely restricting mail ballot drop boxes, preventing election officials from sending absentee ballot request forms to voters, making it easier for partisan workers to monitor the polls, preventing the collection of mail ballots, and restricting the ability of counties to accept donations from nonprofit groups seeking to aid in election administration. documented.net/ www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/us/politics/georgia-voting-law-annotated.html
All of these recommendations came straight from Heritage’s list of “best practices” drafted in February. With Heritage’s help, Anderson said, Georgia became “the example for the rest of the country.” www.heritage.org/election-integrity-facts
The leaked video reveals the extent to which Heritage is leading a massive campaign to draft and pass model legislation restricting voting access, which has been swiftly adopted this year in the battleground states of Georgia, Florida, Arizona, and Iowa. It’s no coincidence that so many GOP-controlled states are rushing to pass similar pieces of legislation in such a short period of time.
Republican legislators claim they’re tightening up election procedures to address (unfounded) concerns about fraud in the 2020 election. But what’s really behind this effort is a group of conservative Washington insiders who have been pushing these same kinds of voting restrictions for decades, with the explicit aim of helping Republicans win elections. The difference now is that Trump’s baseless claims about 2020 have given them the ammunition to get the bills passed, and the conservative movement, led by Heritage, is making an unprecedented investment to get them over the finish line. www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/us/politics/republicans-trump-voting-rights.html
“We’re working with these state legislators to make sure they have all of the information they need to draft the bills,” Anderson told the Heritage Foundation donors. In addition to drafting the bills in some cases, “we’ve also hired state lobbyists to make sure that in these targeted states we’re meeting with the right people.”
To “create this echo chamber,” as Anderson put it, Heritage is spending $24 million over two years in eight battleground states—Arizona, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Texas, and Wisconsin—to pass and defend restrictive voting legislation. Every Tuesday, the group leads a call with right-wing advocacy groups like the Susan B. Anthony List, Tea Party Patriots, and FreedomWorks to coordinate these efforts at the highest levels of the conservative movement. “We literally give marching orders for the week ahead,” Anderson said. “All so we’re singing from the same song sheet of the goals for that week and where the state bills are across the country.” www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/us/politics/republican-voter-laws.html
Days before the Georgia legislature would pass its sweeping bill rolling back access to the ballot, Anderson said she met with Gov. Brian Kemp and urged him to quickly sign the bill when it reached his desk. “I had one message for him,” said Anderson, a former Trump administration official in the Office of Management and Budget. “Do not wait to sign that bill. If you wait even an hour, you will look weak. This bill needs to be signed immediately.” Kemp followed Anderson’s advice, signing the bill right after its passage. Heritage called it a “historic voting security bill.” www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/john-roberts-georgia-voting-rights/ saveourelections.com/newsroom/heritage-action-thanks-gov-brian-kemp-for-signing-election-integrity-bill
Anderson said she delivered “the same message” to Republican governors in Texas, Arizona, and Florida. Texas is the next big fight for Heritage. Anderson said Heritage Action wrote “19 provisions” in a Texas House bill that would make it a criminal offense for election officials to give a mail ballot request form to a voter who hadn’t explicitly asked for one and would subject poll workers to criminal penalties for removing partisan poll challengers who are accused of voter intimidation. It’s expected to pass in the coming days. www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/us/politics/texas-voting-rights-bill.html
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Oct 8, 2021 10:02:48 GMT
The Two Strategies The GOP Will Use To Steal 2024 Election 1,144 viewsOct 7, 2021
A new senate report reveals Trump's effort to overturn the election. We were way closer than you think to losing democracy.
|
|