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Post by the Scribe on Oct 17, 2021 20:16:32 GMT
NextShark Republicans redraw Texas congressional districts to cut voting power of growing Asian, Latino populationwww.yahoo.com/news/republicans-redraw-texas-congressional-districts-225724876.html
Khier Casino Fri, October 15, 2021, 3:57 PM
After census figures revealed growth in population among communities of color in Texas, Republican lawmakers are working to graft Hispanic and Asian communities into districts in which white residents make up the majority of eligible voters.
Redrawing political boundaries: Texas Republicans are redrawing the state’s congressional districts in proposed maps for the Dallas-Fort Worth region, which has been cleared by the Senate and are waiting on a vote in the House, according to an analysis from The Texas Tribune. www.texastribune.org/2021/10/15/texas-redistricting-dallas-fort-worth/
The proposed changes to the 33rd and 6th congressional districts reduce the influence Hispanic voters have over who their representatives will be in Congress.
Neighborhoods densely populated by Asian Texans, which have been among the fastest-growing racial/ethnic groups in recent years, are also being transformed by map-drawers.
They had a significant contribution to the population gains in Collin County, which is currently within the 3rd Congressional District and represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Van Taylor.
Taylor’s predecessor won after the suburban district voted heavily for the GOP in 2012 and 2014. But the margin of victory narrowed in recent years as Taylor won reelection by only 55% of the vote, while Trump won by just one percentage point.
Republicans are now pushing for a complete redistricting of neighborhoods densely populated by potential Asian voters.
Divide and conquer: The proposed 4th Congressional District would split dense Asian neighborhoods of Collin County into a district where white voters would control elections.
Under the Republicans’ proposed map, a majority of Asian residents would live in the new 4th Congressional district, where the Asian population saw growth from about 15,000 to nearly 103,000.
Like Hispanic voters, the influence of Asian voters will decrease by half in a district where white residents will make up 73.9% of eligible voters.
Asian eligible voters in the current 3rd Congressional District jumped to 10.8%, while the new maps would slash that in half to 5.6%.
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Post by the Scribe on Nov 14, 2021 7:34:17 GMT
Montana Republicans Wage War On Student Voting Ahead Of 2022 Electionswww.yahoo.com/news/montana-republicans-wage-war-student-230736371.html Jon Tester Paul Blumenthal Fri, November 12, 2021, 4:07 PM In this article:
Jon Tester United States Senator from Montana
Montana Republicans achieved unified control of the state government in 2020 by winning the governor’s race for the first time in 16 years. This allowed them to follow through on a longtime goal: making it harder for students and young people to vote.
This year, four bills were passed by the state legislature and signed by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) that make it harder for students to register to vote, cast their ballots and register other students to vote. The bills ended Election Day voter registration, removed student ID as an acceptable form of voter ID, placed additional age and residency requirements on voters and banned voter registration efforts by political committees in certain university buildings.
The restrictive voting legislation in Montana comes on the heels of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden by lying about election fraud. Inspired by these lies, Republicans in several states have enacted new restrictions on voting, specifically targeted at communities they believe are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates. In some states these restrictions have targeted Black and Latino voters. In Montana, the communities targeted included students and Native Americans.
Montana Republicans are targeting students, young voters and Native Americans because these communities have helped Democrats narrowly win statewide elections over the past 15 years despite the state’s strong partisan lean in favor of Republicans at the national level. Sen. Jon Tester, now Montana’s only statewide elected Democrat, won his three elections by between 3,000 and 18,000 votes. Former Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, won his two campaigns by 8,000 votes in 2012 and 19,000 in 2016. Tester is up for reelection in 2024.
State Republicans claim their new election restrictions are meant to enhance “election integrity.” But just like Trump’s election fraud lies, the new laws respond to no record of fraud or malfeasance in state elections. When a Montana state court ruled against Trump’s effort to block Montana counties from implementing mail voting in 2020, it noted that there is “no record of election fraud in Montana’s recent history.”
Montana youth groups are assailing the new laws as “a cocktail of voter suppression measures that land heavily on the young,” according to a lawsuit filed in October by Forward Montana Foundation, Montana Youth Action and MontPIRG, a voter registration nonprofit. forwardmontanafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2021/09/2021-09-09-Complaint-SOS-voting-FILED.pdf
“When you look at each of these individually, alone, they look like they could be targeting students,” said Scout McMahon, a 17-year-old high school senior in Kalispell, Montana, and initiatives chair for Montana Youth Action. “But when you put them all together ― you have the age discrimination, the residency discrimination, changing specifically student ID while also introducing another form and eliminating Election Day registration. It’s a pretty express attack against student voters and youth voters as a whole.”
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) signed four restrictive bills that are expected to make it harder for young people and students in that state to vote. (Photo: Tommy Martino via Associated Press)
The most obvious change affecting students and young voters in general is the one that affects the whole population: the end of Election Day voter registration, also known as same-day voter registration.
While the elimination of Election Day voter registration falls on everyone equally, it will likely hurt young voters more. Political science studies show that people aged 18 to 24 move residences more often and interact with government agencies less than older voters. These factors add complexity to the process for people without prior voting experience, increasing the likelihood that they will choose not to register to vote and, therefore, not vote at all. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1540-5907.00038
“People we have talked to while knocking doors didn’t know that they could go register,” Alexa Runnion, board chair of MontPIRG, said.
Between 1% and 2.3% of all votes cast in Montana elections came from voters who’d registered on Election Day. Many of these were students and other young voters helped by the get-out-the-vote efforts by youth groups and other political committees. www.ktvh.com/news/montana-politics/republicans-advance-bill-to-end-election-day-voter-registration
A 2019 study found that the implementation of Election Day voter registration by states increased the rate of youth voting by between 3.5 and 10.1 percentage points. www.scribd.com/document/415201156/Rock-the-Registration-Same-Day-Registration-Increases-Turnout-of-Young-Voters
“This is a really big blow to Montana,” Kiersten Iwai, executive director of Forward Montana, said.
Montana introduced Election Day registration in 2006, and Republicans have been trying to get rid of it ever since. In 2011 and 2013, the Republican-led state legislature passed bills to repeal it, but both times Democratic governors vetoed them. In 2014, the legislature voted to put repeal on the ballot as an initiative. Voters broadly rejected it, with 57% of votes against.
Despite the popular support of Montana voters, Republicans took the opportunity to repeal same-day registration after winning the governor’s office in 2020. When the legislature debated the bill, Republicans raised complaints about student voters being bused to polling places where they could register to vote on Election Day.
“And those nonprofit groups ― and they were not on our side of the aisle ― what they were doing?” state Rep. Jedediah Hinkle, a Republican, said. “When they were 30 feet from the building, they were working all of those people with literature, pizza, heat lamps, and everything else.” missoulacurrent.com/government/2021/02/voter-registration/
Republicans also removed student identification cards from the list of acceptable forms of photo identification for voting. At the same time, Republicans added concealed-carry weapons permits to the list of acceptable voter ID.
Students without another form of acceptable voter ID that shows their current address are now required to provide an additional piece of identification listing their name and an address, like a utility bill, pay stub or bank statement. Students and other young voters move frequently, and may be living in dorms or with roommates who have bills in their name.
“Even as a young professional when I was out of college, I wasn’t on a utility bill,” Iwai said. “I wasn’t on a lease. I didn’t have an official document that showed where I live. It’s all these different layers that make it so confusing.”
For Republicans, this just means that students shouldn’t vote in Montana elections.
“If you’re a college student in Montana and you don’t have a registration, a bank statement or a W-2, it makes me kind of wonder why you’re voting in this election anyway,” Montana House Speaker Wylie Galt, a Republican, said during the February floor debate on the bill.
Voters wait in line outside the Gallatin County Courthouse in Bozeman, Montana, home of Montana State University, Nov. 3, 2020. (Photo: Tommy Martino via Associated Press)
On top of the elimination of Election Day registration and the elimination of student ID as an accepted form of voter ID, Republicans implemented new age and residency requirements targeting young voters by threatening legal sanctions against election workers.
This new law targets voters who turn 18 years old within 30 days before an election, forbidding election workers from providing any such voter with an absentee ballot prior to their birthday. These Montanans will be eligible to vote by Election Day, but are being denied access to the ballot of their choice due to their age.
The youth groups challenging this law argue that it violates the Montana Constitution, which guarantees that “the rights of persons under 18 years of age shall include, but not be limited to, all fundamental rights of this Article unless specifically precluded by laws which enhance the protections of such persons.”
Besides the new age requirement to obtain an absentee ballot, this law adds a residency requirement banning election workers from giving a ballot to a voter who cannot prove they have lived at their current address for at least 30 days.
“Barriers like this pretty actively discourage a student vote and for young people in general,” McMahon said.
Montana Republicans also targeted the ability of political committees to register students to vote on campus by banning such activities in dorms, dining halls and other campus buildings. For example, a student interning or volunteering with the state Democratic or Republican party can no longer door-knock in campus dorms or set up voter registration booths in certain campus buildings. A judge halted this law with a preliminary injunction as it faces a challenge in court.
All of these laws now face multiple lawsuits from youth activist and voter registration groups, as well as political committees, including the Montana Democratic Party and Tester’s Senate campaign committee, and other individuals and groups affiliated with Montana state universities.
Absent judicial rulings overturning them, the congressional passage of voting rights reforms in the Freedom to Vote Act, co-authored by Tester, would override some of Montana’s new laws, including the ban on Election Day voter registration and the new restrictions on student voter ID. The bill is currently blocked by a GOP filibuster in the Senate. Tester is one of three members of the Democratic caucus talking to colleagues about changing the filibuster rules to pass the bill.
www.huffpost.com/entry/john-lewis-voting-rights-act-republicans-filibuster_n_6182b9ebe4b0c8666bd6f4a3
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. www.huffpost.com/entry/montana-student-vote-suppression_n_618ec178e4b0c621c5cce680
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Post by the Scribe on Nov 14, 2021 7:45:00 GMT
What Happens When Local Officials Can't Run Elections Because Of New GOP Lawswww.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-limit-election-officials_n_617c1429e4b079111a648dcb
Threats and suppression of local election officials are the flip side of voter suppression, and they're discouraging people from even wanting the job. By Paul Blumenthal 10/29/2021 02:09pm EDT
State and local officials took swift action in 2020 to ensure voters could access the polls with mail ballots and alternative voting options in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result was a safe, secure, fraud-free election with the highest voter turnout in 100 years. www.cisa.gov/news/2020/11/12/joint-statement-elections-infrastructure-government-coordinating-council-election
But instead of lauding election officials for their work under difficult circumstances, state Republican politicians across the country chose to scapegoat them and pass laws limiting their ability to respond to changing circumstances while threatening them with significant criminal sanctions to keep them in line. In some cases, Republicans stripped their state election officials of their powers entirely. www.huffpost.com/news/topic/republican-party
These new laws were all inspired by former President Donald Trump’s lie that the successful changes implemented by state and local election officials led to widespread election fraud in 2020. Republicans at all levels of government have refused to challenge the former president after his lies led to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Instead, they’ve taken up his fight. www.huffpost.com/news/topic/donald-trump
“There is absolutely no question that this is a reaction to the 2020 election and the Big Lie that somehow the election wasn’t legitimate,” said Lawrence Norden, an elections lawyer with the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit that backs voting rights. “There’s no question about that.”
The limitations on election officials, the new rules making it harder to vote, and the introduction of vague criminal penalties scaring people away from working the polls or running for a local election administration office are all a part of Trump’s ongoing campaign to delegitimize elections across the country.
“It’s driving thousands into retirement,” said Adrian Fontes, the former top elections official for Maricopa County, Arizona, and a Democrat now running for Arizona secretary of state. “It’s a less safe environment because of the mounting threats. It’s had a significantly negative effect. And it’s because Donald Trump doesn’t believe in democracy and neither do his supporters.”
Making It Harder To Make It Easier To Vote
Republicans targeted election officials' discretion to allow absentee voting, including the use of ballot drop-boxes, after the 2020 election. JOHN LOCHER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The restrictions on election officials fall into a handful of categories, according to Norden. First, there are the “restrictions on doing things that were done in 2020 to make it easier,” he says.
Republicans in Georgia, Iowa, Kansas and Texas banned or limited local officials from sending mail-in ballot applications to voters who don’t request them. Officials in Florida can no longer send mail-in ballots to voters who didn’t specifically request them. In Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Indiana, local election officials are now limited in their ability to place and run mail-in ballot drop boxes. Iowa, Montana and Texas all placed limits on the hours and locations of polling sites. And Georgia banned mobile voting sites, while Texas forbids drive-thru voting locations.
“In each case, it’s in reaction to how the particular thing impacted the 2020 election,” Norden said.
Texas’ bans on mailing absentee ballot applications, drive-thru voting and 24-hour voting sites came after Harris County, a large metropolitan area that is home to Houston and has trended heavily to Democrats in recent elections, deployed all three policies during the 2020 election to try and protect voters from the pandemic while maintaining their access to the polls.
In 2020, Georgia’s state board of elections voted to allow counties to deploy drop boxes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sent out mail-in ballot applications to all voters for the June 9 primary (although not the general election). The four big counties in the metro Atlanta area ― Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett ― set up 111 drop boxes to collect mail ballots for the general election. But now, the GOP-run state legislature has limited them to just 23 drop boxes.
“A lot of these restrictions can be argued against with common sense,” Fontes said. “What happens if a legislature prevents a local election official from moving an early voting location? What happens if a church serving as a polling site burns down? Local election officials have to be able to run the election.”
“I don’t think there is any question that this is meant to chill the ability of election officials to do outreach to their voters and to ensure their voters can cast ballots.” - Lawrence Norden, elections lawyer with the Brennan Center for Justice
These new limits on local election officials could be rolled back if Congress passes the Freedom to Vote Act, a package of voting rights, redistricting and campaign finance reforms. By setting a national standard for voter access, the bill would not only prevent states from blocking local election officials who seek to ease voter access, but would actually require officials to increase access.
However, the law is currently stalled because all 50 Republican senators voted to filibuster it. There are also lawsuits filed in state and federal courts challenging all of these laws. www.huffpost.com/entry/freedom-to-vote-act-filibuster_n_616f14a9e4b005b245c32b5f
Stripping Officials Of Power
The second way that GOP-run states have limited election officials is to strip them of their power to run elections or threaten them with criminal sanctions.
In Arizona, Republicans stripped the authority to oversee elections from Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, and gave it to Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, for the 2022 election. In Georgia, the legislature booted Raffensperger from a seat on the state board of elections for the 2022 elections after he refused Trump’s entreaties to “find” enough votes to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/us/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia.html
Notably, the Arizona and Georgia Republican legislatures only stripped their secretaries of state of their election oversight roles through 2022, when both offices are up for election. In each case, there are Republicans running for the office who openly embrace Trump’s election fraud lies and could regain election oversight authority in time for a third Trump presidential run, if they win.
Republicans in Kansas and Kentucky also placed new limits on their Democratic governors’ ability to issue election-related emergency orders connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Georgia, Republicans made it easier to purge local officials and replace them on a partisan basis. There is already a preliminary effort to purge election officials in Fulton County, the state’s most populous county and home to Atlanta, and replace them with people more amenable to the Republican-run legislature. www.huffpost.com/entry/georgia-voting-rights-democracy-jim-crow_n_6143cc4be4b08f5f38aeb8fb
Republicans in Texas banned drive-thru voting in 2021 after Harris County officials used it to help people vote safely in 2020. DAVID J. PHILLIP/ASSOCIATED PRESS
In Iowa, Republicans didn’t directly strip local election officials of their ability to run elections but chose instead to hang the threat of criminal sanction and fines up to $10,000 over their heads. County auditors, who run local elections and have had some discretion in implementing election rules in the past, must now solely follow guidance from the Iowa secretary of state or face potential criminal penalties.
“I don’t think there is any question that this is meant to chill the ability of election officials to do outreach to their voters and to ensure their voters can cast ballots,” Norden said. “And to just scapegoat them for election results that some voters might not like and make them villains.”
For Roxanna Moritz, the former Scott County auditor and an Iowa Democrat, the new law threatening fines and criminal charges for technical infractions was the last straw. Already burned out from the COVID-19 pandemic, the lies about election fraud that began long before Trump lost the 2020 election and the constant threats from Trump supporters targeting her and her office, Moritz decided to retire despite winning reelection for a fourth time in November.
Moritz is currently under investigation for approving $3 extra pay per hour for election workers without getting approval from Scott County’s board of supervisors during the crush of the pandemic in 2020. While working 75-80 hour weeks, she said, she forgot to inform the board of a pay raise for the smaller pool of workers who still signed up to work during the pandemic. Under the new law, it’s possible Moriz could face significant sanction for boosting workers’ pay without notice to the board, although the law does state that misconduct must be “willful.”
“It was really hard to leave the way that I left,” Moritz said. “I had just got reelected and I feel like I let my constituency down by doing what I did. But I was not prepared, if I made an honest mistake, being taken to the woodshed and possibly being fined $10,000 and charged with a felony.”
More election officials may look for the door, Moritz believes, as Republicans continue to scapegoat them and as the harassment they face keeps mounting.
“As soon as anyone gets charged, it will be the end of anyone wanting to step forward just in case they make a mistake,” Mortiz said.
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Post by the Scribe on Nov 21, 2021 21:55:22 GMT
Wisconsin Republicans Push to Take Over the State's Electionswww.yahoo.com/news/wisconsin-republicans-push-over-states-153808091.html Reid J. Epstein Sun, November 21, 2021, 8:38 AM
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) talks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington on July 14, 2021. (Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times) Republicans in Wisconsin are engaged in an all-out assault on the state’s election system, building off their attempts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential race by pressing to give themselves full control over voting in the state.
The Republican effort — broader and more forceful than that in any other state where allies of former President Donald Trump are trying to overhaul elections — takes direct aim at the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission, an agency Republicans created half a decade ago that has been under attack since the chaotic aftermath of last year’s election.
The onslaught picked up late last month after a long-awaited report on the 2020 results that was ordered by Republican state legislators found no evidence of fraud but made dozens of suggestions for the election commission and the GOP-led Legislature, fueling Republican demands for more control of elections.
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Then the Trump-aligned sheriff of Racine County, the state’s fifth most populous county, recommended felony charges against five of the six members of the election commission for guidance they had given to municipal clerks early in the pandemic. The Republican majority leader of the state Senate later seemed to give a green light to that proposal, saying that “prosecutors around the state” should determine whether to bring charges.
And last week, Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican, said that GOP state lawmakers should unilaterally assert control of federal elections, claiming that they had the authority to do so even if Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, stood in their way — an extraordinary legal argument debunked by a 1932 Supreme Court decision and a 1964 ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court. His suggestion was nonetheless echoed by Michael Gableman, a conservative former state Supreme Court justice who is conducting the Legislature’s election inquiry.
Republican control of Wisconsin elections is necessary, Johnson said in an interview Wednesday, because he believes Democrats cheat.
“Do I expect Democrats to follow the rules?” said the senator, who over the past year has promoted fringe theories on topics like the Capitol riot and COVID vaccines. “Unfortunately, I probably don’t expect them to follow the rules. And other people don’t either, and that’s the problem.”
The uproar over election administration in Wisconsin — where the past two presidential contests have been decided by fewer than 23,000 votes each — is heightened by the state’s deep divisions and its pivotal place in American politics.
Some top Republican officials in Wisconsin privately acknowledge that their colleagues are playing to the party’s base by calling for state election officials to be charged with felonies or for their authority to be usurped by lawmakers.
Adding to the uncertainty, Johnson’s proposal has not yet been written into legislation in Madison. Evers has vowed to stop it.
“The outrageous statements and ideas Wisconsin Republicans have embraced aren’t about making our elections stronger, they’re about making it more difficult for people to participate in the democratic process,” Evers said Thursday. The GOP’s election proposals, he added, “are nothing more than a partisan power grab.”
Yet there is no guarantee that the Republican push will fall short legally or politically. The party’s lawmakers in other states have made similar moves to gain more control over election apparatus. And since the GOP won control of the Wisconsin Legislature in 2010, the state has served as an incubator for conservative ideas exported to other places.
“In Wisconsin we’re heading toward a showdown over the meaning of the clause that says state legislatures should set the time, manner and place of elections,” said Kevin J. Kennedy, who spent 34 years as Wisconsin’s chief election officer before Republicans eliminated his agency and replaced it with the elections commission in 2016. “If not in Wisconsin, in some other state they’re going to push this and try to get a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on this.”
Next year, Wisconsin will host critical elections for Johnson’s Senate seat and for statewide offices, including the governor. Rebecca Kleefisch, the leading Republican in the race to challenge Evers, is running on a platform of eliminating the state election commission. (On Monday, she filed a lawsuit against the agency asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to declare that the commission’s guidance violates state law.)
The Republican anger at the Wisconsin Elections Commission, a body of three Democrats and three Republicans that GOP lawmakers created in part to eliminate the investigatory powers of its predecessor agency, comes nearly 20 months after commissioners issued guidance to local election clerks on how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Republicans have seized in particular on a March 2020 commission vote lifting a rule that required special voting deputies — trained and dispatched by municipal clerks’ offices — to visit nursing homes twice before issuing absentee ballots to residents. The special voting deputies, like most other visitors, were barred from entering nursing homes early in the pandemic, and the commission reasoned that there was not enough time before the April primary election to require them to be turned away before mailing absentee ballots.
The vote was relatively uncontroversial at the time: No lawsuits from Republicans or anyone else challenged the guidance. The procedure remained in place for the general election in November.
But after Joe Biden won Wisconsin by 20,682 votes out of 3.3 million cast, Republicans began making evidence-free claims of fraudulent votes cast from nursing homes across the state. Sheriff Christopher Schmaling of Racine County said the five state election commissioners who had voted to allow clerks to mail absentee ballots to nursing homes without the visit by special voting deputies — as is prescribed by state law — should face felony charges for election fraud and misconduct in office.
Robin Vos, the Republican speaker of the state Assembly, who represents Racine County, quickly concurred, saying that the five commissioners — including his own appointee to the panel — should “probably” face felony charges.
The commissioners have insisted they broke no laws.
Ann Jacobs, a Democrat who is the commission’s chair, said she had no regrets about making voting easier during the pandemic and added that “even my Republican colleagues” were afraid about the future of fair elections in the state.
“We did everything we could during the pandemic to help people vote,” she said.
Johnson — a two-term senator who said he would announce a decision on whether to seek reelection “in the next few weeks” — is lobbying Republican state legislators, with whom he met last week at the state Capitol, to take over federal elections.
“The state Legislature has to reassert its constitutional role, assert its constitutional responsibility, to set the times, place and manner of the election, not continue to outsource it through the Wisconsin Elections Commission,” Johnson said. “The Constitution never mentions a governor.”
Johnson acknowledged that his proposal could leave the state with dueling sets of election regulations, one from the Wisconsin Elections Commission and another from the Legislature.
“I suppose some counties will handle it one way and other counties will handle it another,” he said.
Even if Republican lawmakers adopted Johnson’s proposal, it would apply only to federal elections, not those for state office.
Vos told reporters in Madison he had not studied whether Wisconsin legislators could take control of federal elections without the governor’s input. Devin LeMahieu, a Republican who is the state Senate majority leader, has expressed doubts about Johnson’s legal theory.
The state’s grassroots conservatives remain angry about Biden’s victory and the failure of Republicans to undertake an Arizona-style review of ballots cast in Wisconsin last year. At least 10 Republican state lawmakers have called for the resignation of Meagan Wolfe, the commission’s nonpartisan administrator, or of the election commissioners, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
If Wolfe were to resign, her replacement would require a majority vote of the evenly split commission. If it could not reach agreement in 45 days, the state Senate, controlled by Republicans, would choose.
“The current director of WEC needs to step down,” state Sen. Duey Stroebel, a Republican who sits on his chamber’s elections committee, said in an interview. “Maybe we give it another try with the WEC, but this administrator has proved to be incompetent and not always willing to follow the law.”
Wolfe said on Thursday that Republicans’ goal was “to pressure nonpartisan election administrators like me into resigning or vacating the election space so we can be replaced by political actors who can be convinced to carry out a partisan mission.”
At the same time, some Wisconsin Republicans continue to challenge the 2020 outcome.
On Wednesday, Timothy S. Ramthun, a Republican member of the state Assembly, formally proposed decertifying Wisconsin’s election results, reclaiming the state’s “10 fraudulent electoral ballots” cast for Biden and conducting “a full forensic physical and cyber audit” of the election.
Anticipating Ramthun’s proposal, the Legislature’s lawyers issued a report on Nov. 1 stating that there was “no mechanism” under the law to reverse a certified election.
“I invite you to see it from the eyes of the people,” Ramthun wrote to fellow legislators, urging them to correct “the most egregious injustice we have seen in our time.”
The next day, Trump publicly congratulated Ramthun.
Wisconsin Democrats, exasperated and locked out of power in the Legislature, have been left to issue increasingly dire warnings.
“If this was some kind of Hollywood farce or a madcap political comedy, you would say that’s not credible even for a fake show,” said Kelda Roys, a Democratic state senator. “There’s real consequences to this. It’s designed to take away the guardrails to our democracy that keep us fair and free.”
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Post by the Scribe on Nov 26, 2021 0:30:39 GMT
Despite voter-approved anti-gerrymandering reforms, Ohio GOP still draws lopsided mapwww.npr.org/2021/11/24/1058973471/despite-voter-approved-anti-gerrymandering-reforms-ohio-gop-still-draws-lopsided November 24, 20213:41 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered ANDY CHOW (STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU)
FROM THE STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
3-Minute Listen ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2021/11/20211125_atc_despite_voter-approved_anti-gerrymandering_reforms_ohio_gop_still_draws_lopsided_map.mp3?orgId=406262826&topicId=1003&d=232&p=2&story=1058973471&dl=1&sc=siteplayer&size=3722807&dl=1&aw_0_1st.playerid=siteplayer
Republican state Sen. Rob McColley presents a new congressional district map, drawn by the Senate Republican Caucus. Andy Chow/Ohio Public Radio
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has signed into law a congressional map that creates 15 new districts in the state, but anti-gerrymandering advocates are slamming the map saying it was drawn to keep a Republican stronghold in Ohio.
The plan has 12 seats that either heavily favor or lean in favor of Republicans. That's 80% of the districts in a state that voted for former President Donald Trump with 53% of the vote in 2020.
Voter rights groups say Republican lawmakers went out of their way to carve the map in a way that gives them an advantage.
"It is full of weird shapes and squiggly lines," says Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. "Maps don't look like this unless you're trying to secure a partisan outcome rather than fairly representing voters."
Republicans defended the districts saying that they keep most of Ohio's largest cities whole and split fewer counties than the districts drawn 10 years ago.
There are six districts where the margin between Republican voters and Democratic voters is less than 10%. But of those six districts, five still lean in favor of the GOP.
"I don't think we should go into any map-making process and say, 'Okay, we have to have seven that are guaranteed to be one party and eight guaranteed to be the other party,' " says Republican State Sen. Rob McColley. "I don't think that's what the voters wanted."
2018 Ohio redistricting reforms
State lawmakers created the map under a new process approved by Ohio voters in 2018. The change was part of a movement to reform redistricting and prevent gerrymandering. A provision in the state constitutional amendment says leaders could not draw a map that "unduly favors or disfavors a political party or its incumbents."
Democratic State Rep. Stephanie Howse from Cleveland chided Republicans in a heated floor debate, saying this map ignores the will of the voters.
"That is not what people voted for in May of 2018. They deserve better. We need to do better. And we need to absolutely vote this mess down," Howse said.
In the same debate, Republican state Rep. Bill Seitz from Cincinnati said Ohio has been trending red and that elections depend on any given candidate.
" 'Fair', ladies and gentlemen, is in the eyes of the beholder," Seitz said. "We have followed the Constitution. We have done our duty. We have listened to the people. Listening to them does not mean agreeing with them."
The result of the new map could have national implications. It takes a state that previously had 12 Republican and four Democratic delegates and potentially tips the scales of power in the U.S. House of Representatives by eliminating two safe Democratic seats and creating a possible 13th district that's winnable for the GOP.
Ohio has become the latest state to finalize a new map. Democrats in states such as Illinois and Maryland have been criticized for proposing maps that favor their party. But the new maps around the country have, so far, resulted in more safe districts for Republicans.
Since the Ohio map did not get bipartisan support from Democrats, it will only be in place for four years, instead of the regular 10-year span, another provision of the 2018 redistricting reforms.
And advocates say they're not going down without a fight.
"This map is unconstitutional because it slices and dices communities purely to unduly favor one political party," says Miller.
The National Redistricting Action Fund, an affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, filed a challenge in the Ohio Supreme Court saying the new map violates the state Constitution.
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 14, 2021 1:06:36 GMT
BOMBSHELL: Secret Republican election plot FINALLY revealed | No Lie podcast 74,420 viewsDec 13, 2021
Brian Tyler Cohen 1.27M subscribers
No Lie podcast episode 83: A PowerPoint document that circulated among Trump administration officials outlining their plan to overthrow American democracy has been handed over to the January 6 Committee, followed by a muted response from the media and Democrats.
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 29, 2021 1:14:48 GMT
HuffPost Rand Paul Inadvertently Tells The Truth About Republican Voter Fraud Claims www.yahoo.com/news/rand-paul-inadvertently-tells-truth-230702159.html
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has routinely spread lies about the 2020 election. (Photo: Pool via Getty Images)
Travis Waldron Tue, December 28, 2021, 4:07 PM·4 min read In this article: Rand Paul United States Senator from Kentucky
Donald Trump 45th President of the United States
Joe Biden 46th and current president of the United States
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of the Republican Party’s staunchest devotees to the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from former President Donald Trump, continued to spread such claims this week — and in the process delivered one of the more honest statements about voter fraud and stolen elections any Republican lawmaker has made this year. www.huffpost.com/entry/rand-paul-wont-say-election-wasnt-stolen_n_600d94c7c5b6fe97669d5c27 abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-rand-paul-continues-making-false-claims-2020/story?id=75446712 www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/16/sen-rand-paul-falsely-claims-presidential-election-stolen/3923681001/
“How to steal an election,” Paul tweeted Monday night, before quoting a blog post from The American Conservative. “‘Seeding an area heavy with potential Democratic votes with as many absentee ballots as possible, targeting and convincing potential voters to complete them in a legally valid way, and then harvesting and counting the results.’”
The attached piece, which purportedly described Democrats’ and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to “steal” Wisconsin for President Joe Biden last year, failed to provide any proof of nefarious behavior: Instead, it documented efforts to “encourage and Increase Absentee Voting” and “dramatically expand strategic voter education & outreach efforts, particularly to historically disenfranchised residents.” www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-wisconsin-purchase/
As Paul’s tweet helpfully noted, all of these efforts were perfectly legitimate: The phrase “legally valid” is prominently featured in the sentence he chose to excerpt. Routine audits of Wisconsin’s elections, meanwhile, produced no evidence of fraud or irregularities in last year’s contest.
But proof of fraud is not the point of this claim or any other Paul, Trump and various Republicans have made over the last year — or, really, over the last decade. As Paul’s tweet stated more clearly than Republicans typically do, their claims about voter fraud, stolen elections and “election integrity” are merely euphemisms for the GOP’s actual belief that “people voting for Democrats” is enough to render an election entirely illegitimate. A Democratic victory is, by definition, the result of theft.
Video: Rand Paul's history of voting against disaster relief Scroll back up to restore default view.
This is the core belief of the modern Republican Party, which reacted to the 2020 election by spreading lies about election fraud, attempting to overturn Trump’s loss, and fomenting a riotous insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, all because Trump lost what numerous Republican, Democratic and independent election observers have repeatedly called the safest, most secure and most audited election in American history. When that didn’t achieve their desired result, they institutionalized the aims of the insurrection, passing more than 30 new laws to restrict voting rights and asserting new levels of partisan control over local and state election systems ahead of the next presidential contest. www.huffpost.com/entry/georgia-voting-rights-democracy-jim-crow_n_6143cc4be4b08f5f38aeb8fb
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has routinely spread lies about the 2020 election. (Photo: Pool via Getty Images)
These efforts have all primarily targeted voters that tend to favor Democrats ― Black people, Latinos, Native Americans, college students, people with disabilities, and anyone who lives in cities or other localities that typically vote blue. And they are all obviously rooted in Republican anger that too many voters voted for Democrats, not that anyone might’ve cast ballots illegally. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/voting-restrictions-republicans-states/?itid=lk_inline_manual_3&itid=lk_inline_manual_4 www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-democrats-senate-voting-rights_n_610302d9e4b0d3b5897bd060 www.huffpost.com/entry/native-american-voting-rights_n_6116d0f7e4b07c140314ed7a www.huffpost.com/entry/new-hampshire-republicans-college-student-voting-rights_n_60468289c5b69197db28eba2 www.huffpost.com/entry/people-with-disabilities-voting-rights_n_609ec89ce4b0909248038a69
In Georgia, Republicans added stricter voter ID requirements to absentee ballots, tightening access to a vote-by-mail program the GOP created more than a decade ago in a way they never felt was necessary until Biden became the first Democrat to win the state since 1980. In Arizona, the GOP-controlled legislature made similar changes to absentee ballot laws they originally enacted, after Biden notched Democrats’ first presidential victory there in more than two decades. In Texas — where it’s already harder to vote than in most other states — they barred drive-through voting and imposed other new voting restrictions in an effort to ward off potential Democratic victories in the near future. www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/gop-targets-wisconsin-elections-system-nonpartisan-director-n1285148 www.huffpost.com/entry/arizona-law-mail-voter-purge-republican_n_609b1940e4b014bd0ca4bdf4 www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-governor-abbott-signs-voting-law_n_612ea5c5e4b05f53eda0b3ed
Republicans and their conservative allies have also targeted election officials and offices in key states, purging or stripping power from those who made it too easy to vote or refused to go along with Trump’s election gambit, part of a broader effort to bend the 2024 election to their liking ― or try to overturn the result if they need to. In Wisconsin, the subject of Paul’s tweet, Republicans have sought to undermine the electoral system they just reformed less than a decade ago and are attempting to forcibly replace the state’s top elections official. www.reuters.com/world/us/georgia-republicans-purge-black-democrats-county-election-boards-2021-12-09/ www.huffpost.com/entry/brad-raffensperger-trump-2022_n_61816acfe4b059d0bfc386cd?utm_campaign=share_twitter&ncid=engmodushpmg00000004 www.huffpost.com/entry/secretary-of-state-2022-elections-georgia-arizona_n_61ba0e34e4b0d4c6de95f648?qy www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/gop-targets-wisconsin-elections-system-nonpartisan-director-n1285148
None of this will prevent the sort of nefarious behavior their countless utterances of “voter fraud” are meant to evoke, both because that sort of behavior is exceptionally rare in American politics and because actual voter fraud has never been the target of their ire. But neither will insisting to Republicans, or to conservative voters who believe their claims, that voter fraud doesn’t actually occur succeed in thwarting the GOP’s attempts to suppress votes and subvert American democracy. www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-voters-trump-lies-arizona-audit_n_60cb52a8e4b05fb3576151d1
It’s painfully obvious what Republicans are trying to do, and why. Paul was simply, if perhaps inadvertently, candid about it: To the modern GOP and an increasingly large share of its conservative base, there’s no such thing as a “legally valid” vote for a Democrat, and no such thing as a legitimate election if a Democrat wins it. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/11/01/democrats-arent-convincing-non-democrats-that-republicans-are-threatening-democracy/
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.www.huffpost.com/entry/rand-paul-election-voter-fraud_n_61cb82c2e4b0bb04a634360b
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 31, 2021 13:26:17 GMT
Republicans are today's Dixiecratsthehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/576266-republicans-are-todays-dixiecrats?rl=1 BY JOHN KENNETH WHITE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 10/12/21 08:00 AM EDT 1,095THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
Republicans are today's Dixiecrats © Greg Nash
Of the many crises that face the country, perhaps the most important is the coordinated Republican attack on voting rights. Since the beginning of the year, new laws have been enacted in 19 states that could disenfranchise minority voters by making it harder to vote. Once-rock-solid red states won by President Biden are leading the way. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2021 thehill.com/people/joe-biden
In Arizona, a new statute threatens election officials with felony prosecution if ballots are mailed to voters who did not request them, while in Georgia it is a misdemeanor to distribute food and water to those waiting in line. The Georgia law also prohibits unsolicited mailing of absentee ballot applications and requires voters to submit identification to have their requests approved. Both states give the legislature the power to certify results, removing the secretary of state from carrying out this traditional formality. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/voting-rights-national-divide/2021/09/05/24165092-0b4e-11ec-9781-07796ffb56fe_story.html www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/us/politics/georgia-voting-law-annotated.html www.washingtonpost.com/politics/voting-rights-national-divide/2021/09/05/24165092-0b4e-11ec-9781-07796ffb56fe_story.html
In Arizona, Democrat Katie Hobbs certified Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, while in Georgia Republican Brad Raffensperger formalized Biden’s win despite Donald Trump’s plea to “find 11,780 votes,” one more than Biden’s winning margin. thehill.com/people/donald-trump www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-55524676
In 15 other states, 35 bills have passed at least one chamber, making it easier for Republicans to interfere. For example, in Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas, Republicans want “audits” of the 2020 ballots. Pennsylvania Senate Republicans are demanding 2020 voters’ driver license information, partial Social Security numbers, changes in voter registration and information about whether ballots were cast by mail or in person. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, calls the ploy “a sham.” www.cnn.com/2021/09/29/politics/election-subversion-new-laws/index.html www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/pennsylvania-republicans-issue-broad-subpoenas-voter-info-probe-last-fall-n1279275 thehill.com/people/tom-wolf www.cnn.com/2021/09/29/politics/election-subversion-new-laws/index.html
The Freedom to Vote Act guarantees a national “right to vote” in federal elections. It expands voter registration; sets a minimum number of days and hours for early voting; reduces in-person wait times to no more than 30 minutes; permits postage-free absentee ballots that do not require either witnesses or notarization and will be counted seven days after the election if postmarked by Election Day. www.democracydocket.com/news/my-thoughts-on-manchins-compromise-bill/ thehill.com/people/joe-manchin
Voters whose signatures are rejected must be notified and allowed to correct the issue. Poll-watchers are restricted in their proximity to those casting ballots, and polling places will be required on college campuses. The bill would curtail partisan gerrymandering and ban any prohibitions on the distribution of food and water to those waiting to vote.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key player in the voting rights drama, had this legislation written to his specifications, and all 50 Senate Democrats have voiced their support. Manchin has embarked on a quixotic quest to find 10 Republicans to back it.
But finding enough Republicans to overcome a Senate filibuster is an exercise in futility. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a frequent Manchin partner in bipartisanship, has voiced her opposition, saying the law has “fundamental problems of federalizing state elections.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has pronounced the bill all-but-dead: “We will not be supporting it.” Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) opposition is even more succinct: “Nope.” thehill.com/people/susan-collins www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/09/14/manchins-voting-rights-compromise-quickly-hits-brick-wall-with-gop/?sh=35392d0d55d0 thehill.com/people/mitch-mcconnell www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/09/14/manchins-voting-rights-compromise-quickly-hits-brick-wall-with-gop/?sh=35392d0d55d0 thehill.com/people/lindsey-graham www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/09/14/manchins-voting-rights-compromise-quickly-hits-brick-wall-with-gop/?sh=35392d0d55d0
Once more, obdurate GOP opposition will kill meaningful legislation backed by Manchin, who nevertheless stubbornly clings to his beloved filibuster.
Today’s Trump-led Republicans have abandoned the party’s historic roots. After the Civil War, Republicans supported federal guarantees to ensure the right of African Americans to cast their ballots. When federal troops left the defeated Confederacy in 1877, Democrats purged Blacks from the voting rolls and voted them out of Congress.
In 1888, Republicans accused President Grover Cleveland and his Democratic congressional majorities of owing “their existence to the suppression of the ballot by a criminal nullification of the Constitution and laws of the United States.” Benjamin Harrison, who beat Cleveland that year, asked in his inaugural address: “How shall those who practice election frauds recover that respect for the sanctity of the ballot which is the first condition and obligation of good citizenship? The man who has come to regard the ballot box as a juggler’s hat has renounced his allegiance.” thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/Kirk%20H.%20Porter%20and%20Donald%20H.%20Johnson,%20National%20Party%20Platforms,%201840-1968%20(Urbana:%20University%20of%20Illinois%20Press,%201970),%20p.%2080. millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/march-4-1889-inaugural-address
Harrison told Congress that denial of the franchise “does not expend itself upon those whose votes are suppressed. Every constituency in the Union is wronged.” He later accused those opposed to federal election involvement of racism, saying those “animosities ought not to be confessed without shame and cannot be given any weight in the discussion without dishonor.” millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-3-1889-first-annual-message millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-1-1890-second-annual-message
Donald Trump’s 2020 loss magnified many Republicans’ fear of a future in which whites will soon be a racial minority. A recent poll found 84 percent of Trump voters worry that “discrimination against whites will increase significantly in the next few years.” Trump’s obsession with his 2020 defeat, and his refusal to accept it, has given way to a Republican crusade to “reform” election laws that may result in disenfranchising enough minority voters to ensure Republican victories. centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/project-home-fire-center-for-politics-research-reveals-outsized-role-immigration-plays-in-fueling-our-national-divide/
Omicron puts pinch on Biden vaccine mandate efforts thehill.com/policy/healthcare/587779-omicron-puts-pinch-on-biden-vaccine-mandate-efforts?utm_source=thehill&utm_medium=widgets&utm_campaign=most_popular_content Nearly three-quarters of GOP doubt legitimacy of Biden's win: poll thehill.com/homenews/campaign/587700-nearly-three-quarters-of-gop-doubt-legitimacy-of-bidens-win-poll?utm_source=thehill&utm_medium=widgets&utm_campaign=most_popular_content
In a July speech, President Biden called these changes a “21st century Jim Crow assault.” In the same address, Biden posed the same question to Republicans that famously dethroned anti-communist crusader Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) back in the 1950s: “Have you no shame?” www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/07/13/remarks-by-president-biden-on-protecting-the-sacred-constitutional-right-to-vote/
The answer is clear: no. Republicans have shamelessly concluded that winning doesn’t necessarily mean garnering the most votes. Instead, it’s about rigging the system. They are today’s new Dixiecrats. History’s discredited Dixiecrats would be proud.
John Kenneth White is a professor of politics at the Catholic University of America. His latest book is “What Happened to the Republican Party?”
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Post by the Scribe on Jan 1, 2022 0:46:18 GMT
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Post by the Scribe on Jan 6, 2022 21:07:04 GMT
Obama: 'Democracy is at a greater risk today' www.yahoo.com/news/obama-democracy-is-at-a-greater-risk-today-181810269.html Christopher Wilson and Dylan Stableford Thu, January 6, 2022, 11:18 AM MST In this article:
Some of the Democratic Party’s most prominent figures on Thursday used the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to warn that work is needed to protect American democracy.
Former President Barack Obama sits at a table, flanked by other participants, during a meeting at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
Former President Barack Obama released a statement saying that “while the broken windows have been repaired and many of the rioters have been brought to justice, the truth is that our democracy is at a greater risk today than it was back then.”
“State legislatures across the country have not only made it harder to vote, but some have tried to assert power over core election processes including the ability to certify election results,” Obama wrote. “And those remaining Republican officials and thought leaders who have courageously stood their ground and rejected such anti-democratic efforts have been ostracized, primaried, and driven from the party.
“Historically, Americans have been defenders of democracy and freedom around the world — especially when it’s under attack,” he continued. “But we can’t serve the role when leading figures in one of our two major political parties are actively undermining democracy at home. We can’t set an example when our leaders are willing to fabricate lies and cast doubt on the results of free and fair elections.”
Former President Jimmy Carter, who held the office from 1977 to 1981, wrote an op-ed Wednesday for the New York Times in which he said he feared for American democracy. www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/opinion/jan-6-jimmy-carter.html
“Politicians in my home state of Georgia, as well as in others, such as Texas and Florida, have leveraged the distrust they have created to enact laws that empower partisan legislatures to intervene in election processes,” wrote Carter. “They seek to win by any means, and many Americans are being persuaded to think and act likewise, threatening to collapse the foundations of our security and democracy with breathtaking speed. I now fear that what we have fought so hard to achieve globally — the right to free, fair elections, unhindered by strongman politicians who seek nothing more than to grow their own power — has become dangerously fragile at home.”
Former President Jimmy Carter in 2015. (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)
Carter offered his suggestions for averting his fears, including agreement on fundamental constitutional principles, reforms that ensure the security and accessibility of elections, resisting polarization, ensuring there is no violence in politics and curbing the spread of misinformation.
“Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss,” Carter concluded. “Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late.”
Former Vice President Al Gore, who served in the role under Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, wrote on Twitter that “one year after the violent events of Jan. 6, our Nation remains bruised. But in the face of growing threats to our democracy, we’ve also seen the rise of a new determination to revitalize it. We must foster these efforts and move decisively forward.”
In a speech from the Capitol’s Statuary Hall Thursday morning, Biden also directly tore into Donald Trump, blaming the former president for fueling the insurrection with the lie that the election was stolen from him. www.yahoo.com/news/jan-6-anniversary-biden-blames-trump-for-insurrection-in-speech-at-capitol-152113083.html
“His bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution,” Biden said. “He can’t accept that he lost.”
A leading Republican also echoed those sentiments. Former presidential nominee Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah wrote: “We ignore the lessons of January 6 at our own peril. Democracy is fragile; it cannot survive without leaders of integrity and character who care more about the strength of our Republic than about winning the next election.”
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Brent Stirton/Getty Images)
Their statements came as the country marked one year since a violent mob of supporters of then-President Trump stormed the Capitol building as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Five people died in connection to the Jan. 6 attack, including Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber, and a Capitol Police officer who died from a stroke one day after two rioters allegedly assaulted him. More than 140 other police officers were injured defending the Capitol; four have since taken their own lives.
According to the FBI, more than 725 people have been criminally charged in connection with the riot, which occurred after a rally during which Trump repeated false election fraud claims.
According to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll released this week www.yahoo.com/news/jan-6-anniversary-poll-share-of-trump-voters-who-believe-biden-won-fair-and-square-falls-to-9-percent-amid-declining-trust-in-us-democracy-100017416.html , three-quarters of Trump voters (75 percent) believe the false conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen” from him. (Just 9 percent of them think Biden “won fair and square” — down from 13 percent in January 2021.) But there is something that Biden voters and Trump voters agree on: According to the poll, 88 percent of the former and 89 percent of the latter say they are “worried about the future of U.S. democracy.” And a full 6 in 10 (60 percent) of the 1,537 U.S. adults Yahoo and YouGov polled believe an attack like the one that happened a year ago could happen again.
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Post by the Scribe on Jan 8, 2022 6:27:28 GMT
ELECTIONS People who believe Trump's election lies are running for offices that control voting www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1070700691/people-who-believe-trumps-election-lies-are-running-for-offices-that-control-vot January 5, 20224:53 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered MILES PARKS 4-Minute Listen ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2022/01/20220105_atc_some_trump-aligned_republicans_are_running_to_take_control_of_their_state_elections.mp3?orgId=1&topicId=139482413&d=243&p=2&story=1070700691&dl=1&sc=siteplayer&size=3893334&dl=1&aw_0_1st.playerid=siteplayer
Transcript
More than a dozen Trump-aligned Republicans, who doubt President Biden won in 2020, are running to control the election process in their states. It could have sweeping consequences.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Over the past two years, former President Trump's misinformation about voting has seeped into actual voting policy in the U.S. For instance, more than a dozen states enacted laws last year making it harder for people to vote. And now, a new NPR analysis shows more and more people who believe Trump's election lies are now running for offices that control the voting process.
Miles Parks covers voting for NPR and joins us now. Hi, Miles.
MILES PARKS, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: All right. OK. It's usually the secretary of state - right? - who oversees voting in each...
PARKS: Right.
CHANG: ...State. And I know that you've looked at secretary of state races all over the country. Tell us what you found.
PARKS: To be frank, I found a lot of election-deniers running for positions of power in voting. So this year, 27 states will hold elections for their state's secretary of state position. And in basically half of those races, there's at least one Republican running who either questions the legitimacy of Joe Biden's win in 2020 or outright says the election was stolen from Donald Trump.
And I should say that obviously is false. There's been no evidence to support that that's come out over the last 14 months. And courts and audits across the country have confirmed the election results.
But it's still happening because president - former-President Trump is encouraging it. He still talks about the importance of getting people in these local offices at his rallies, and he's endorsed three of these candidates so far in Michigan, Arizona and Georgia, all swing states he lost in the election by narrow margins.
CHANG: Right. All right. So these people have declared that they are running, but of course they will need to win a primary and a general election to actually hold office. Can you just explain, what effects could they have on voting in a state if they do win?
PARKS: It really varies by state, but in most places, they could decide things about funding, they could decide things about outreach to voters - you know, whether voters are going to get information about vote-by-mail ballots, for instance - all sorts of things. It's definitely not as simple to say, you know, if a partisan actor gets elected to one of these positions they can just stop the other party from voting, but they definitely have mechanisms to tilt the system. And in 2020, we saw a number of people in these positions act as a sort of backstop against Trump's misinformation and in some cases flat-out refuse to do what Trump was asking them to do.
I talked to Franita Tolson about that. She's an election law expert at the University of Southern California.
FRANITA TOLSON: One of the reasons why Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election failed is because there were state officials who refused to substantiate his claims of fraud. These folks really are gatekeepers.
PARKS: I asked her for a 1 to 10 level of concern on this trend and democracy as a whole, and she said 50.
CHANG: Fifty - wow. OK. Well, what specific races are you watching at the moment?
PARKS: The biggest one I'd say is Georgia, where the incumbent, Brad Raffensperger, who listeners might remember - he had that famous phone call a year ago where Trump asked him to basically find enough votes in Georgia to swing the state, and he refused. He's running against two different candidates who think the election results in Georgia should not have been certified. One of them, Representative Jody Hice, has already been endorsed by Trump, and he voted in Congress on January 6 not to certify the results.
CHANG: This feels kind of like a change - right? - voters paying more attention to these down-ballot statewide races. Is that your sense?
PARKS: Definitely. I mean, lots of voters even five years ago probably wouldn't have been able to name their secretary of state.
CHANG: (Laughter) Yeah.
PARKS: I talked about that, actually specifically, with a former election official from Idaho, David Levine, who's now a fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy.
DAVID LEVINE: For a long time in this country, when people have voted or looked on the ballot for who to support, they've assumed that anyone that they've considered on the ballot has supported democracy.
PARKS: Unfortunately, he said, we're at a point where voters can no longer make that assumption.
CHANG: That is NPR's Miles Parks. Thank you, Miles.
PARKS: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF GABRIELLE CHILLMARK'S "FOREST AIR")
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Post by the Scribe on Jan 8, 2022 6:33:31 GMT
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Post by the Scribe on Jan 9, 2022 8:56:56 GMT
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Post by the Scribe on Jan 9, 2022 9:14:13 GMT
The fight to vote US news Democracy under attack: how Republicans led the effort to make it harder to vote www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/27/democracy-under-attack-trump-republicans
Trump supporters on 6 January. Between January and October, 19 states enacted 33 laws to restrict voting access, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Baseless claims of fraud have pushed Republicans to enact restrictive voting laws – and they haven’t stopped there
The fight to vote is supported by guardian.org About this content Sam Levine in New York Mon 27 Dec 2021 03.00 EST
2021 was the year that America’s democracy came under attack from within.
Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the election results, an endeavor that culminated in the 6 January assault on the Capitol, ultimately failed. But the lies the former president spread about fraud and the integrity of the 2020 results have stuck around in a dangerous way. False claims about the election have moved to the center of the Republican party.
Republican lawmakers have seized on the fears created by those baseless claims and weaponized them into new laws that make it harder to vote. Between January and October, 19 states enacted 33 laws to restrict voting access, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2021
‘In 2020 Donald Trump put a huge strain on the fabric of this democracy, on the country. In 2024 the strain on the fabric could turn into a tear.’
‘Terrifying for American democracy’: is Trump planning for a 2024 coup? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/14/trump-president-2024-election-coup-republicans
But Republicans haven’t stopped there. There is now a concerted effort to take more partisan control of election administration. Trump is supporting election deniers in their efforts to take control of key offices that control the rules of elections and counting of ballots. That effort has elevated fears that Trump is laying the groundwork for another coup in 2024, when supporters in those roles could help overturn the election results. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/04/trump-republicans-2024-election www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/14/trump-president-2024-election-coup-republicans
All these actions are taking place against the backdrop of the once-per-decade redistricting process, which Republicans dominate in many states. Republicans are taking full advantage of that power, drawing districts that will entrench their control of state legislatures and win congressional seats for the next decade. www.nytimes.com/2021/11/25/us/politics/republican-redistricting-swing-states.html
Joe Biden has described this attack as “the most significant test of our democracy since the civil war”. But Democrats in the US Senate have been unable to pass two bills with significant voting rights protections. Whether Biden and Senate Democrats can find a way to get those bills through Congress looms as a major test of his presidency. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/17/joe-biden-democracy-voting-rights-senate-filibuster
Here are the ways that voting rights emerged as the most important story in American politics in 2021:
New voting restrictions
When state legislatures convened at the start of 2021, many moved quickly to enact new laws making it harder to cast a ballot. Many of these new measures targeted voting by mail, which a record number of Americans used in 2020. electionlab.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2021-03/HowWeVotedIn2020-March2021.pdf
One of the most high profile battles was in Georgia, a state Trump targeted with baseless claims of fraud after a surprising loss to Biden there. Republicans enacted a law that requires voters to provide additional identification information on both absentee ballot request forms and the ballot itself. They also restricted the availability of absentee ballot drop boxes, a popular method of returning ballots in 2020. The law also criminalized providing food and water to people standing in line within 150ft of a polling place. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/25/georgia-voting-restrictions-law-passed www.gpb.org/news/2021/03/27/what-does-georgias-new-voting-law-sb-202-do
In Florida, Republicans enacted a new law that also restricts the availability of ballot drop boxes, imposes new rules around third-party registration groups, and requires voters to more frequently request absentee ballots. www.sumterelections.org/Voters/Florida-Senate-Bill-90-Updates
The fight over new voting restrictions exploded in July, when Democrats in the Texas legislature fled the state for several weeks, denying Republicans the quorum they needed to pass new voting restrictions. Republicans eventually succeeded in passing a law that banned 24-hour voting, established regular citizenship checks for voter rolls, made it harder to assist voters, and empowered partisan poll watchers. www.texastribune.org/2021/08/30/texas-voting-restrictions-bill/
Undermining confidence in elections
A staggering number of Americans continue to deny the results of the 2020 election. A September CNN poll found 36% of Americans do not believe Biden was the legitimate winner of the election. www.cnn.com/2021/09/15/politics/cnn-poll-most-americans-democracy-under-attack/index.html www.cnn.com/2021/09/15/politics/cnn-poll-most-americans-democracy-under-attack/index.html
Trump has fed that disbelief by continuing to make claims of irregularities that have already been debunked. Republicans in several states continue to call for the “decertification” of elections, something that is legally impossible. www.cnn.com/2021/09/28/politics/arizona-audit-finchem-decertify-fact-check/index.html
Republicans in some places have gone even further, authorizing unusual post-election inquiries into election results.
The most high-profile of those reviews was in Arizona, where Republicans hired a firm with no election experience, called Cyber Ninjas, to examine all 2.1m votes cast in Maricopa county, the most populous in the state. That monthslong effort, which included a hand count of every single ballot, was widely criticized by election experts, who noted that the firm had shoddy methodology and its leader had embraced conspiracy theories about the election. Ultimately, the Cyber Ninjas effort affirmed Biden’s win in Maricopa county. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/14/arizona-election-audit-recount-ballots-maricopa-county www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/24/republican-audit-arizona-bigger-lead-biden
Republicans elsewhere have embraced similar reviews. In Wisconsin, Republicans in the legislature have hired a former Republican supreme court justice to examine the election, but that effort has been marked by sloppiness and accusations of partisan bias. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/14/wisconsin-election-review-gableman-errors/
“This is a grift, to be clear,” Matt Masterson, a former top official at the Department of Homeland Security, who works on election administration, said in December.
These efforts have been coupled with an even more alarming effort in Republican legislatures to empower lawmakers to alter election results. Lawmakers in seven states, including Michigan, Arizona, Missouri and Nevada, introduced 10 bills this year that would empower them to override or change election results, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Some of the bills would allow partisan lawmakers to outright reject election results, while others would allow for post-election meddling in the vote count. www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/2021_11_ElectionSabotage.pdf#page=2
Attacks on election officials
Over the last year, there’s been a surge in election administrators who have left their positions because of threats and harassment. Experts are deeply concerned about that exodus and say that it could make room for more inexperienced, partisan workers to take over the running of elections. Ben Ginsberg, a longtime Republican election lawyer, said earlier this month the effort was an attempt to take election administration “from the pros” and give it “to the pols”. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/01/us-election-workers-threats-violence
Trump has endorsed several candidates who have embraced the myth of a stolen election to be the secretary of state, the chief election official, in many states. So far, he’s made endorsements in GOP primaries in Michigan, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada – all swing states that could play a determinative role in 2024. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/04/trump-republicans-2024-election
Extreme partisan gerrymandering
At the start of each decade, state lawmakers across the US draw new congressional and state legislative districts. In 2020, Republicans dominated the down-ballot races that determine who gets to control the redistricting process. And this year, they’ve used their power remarkably powerfully. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/15/gerrymandering-republicans-map-charts-states
In Texas, where 95% of the state’s population growth was from non-white people, Republicans drew maps blunting the political power of minorities. They drew no new majority-minority districts, instead giving Republicans an advantage at winning the state’s two new congressional seats. Republicans have also moved to shore up their advantage in politically competitive states like North Carolina, Ohio and Georgia. Democrats are gerrymandering the states where they have power, like Illinois and Maryland, but control the redistricting process in far fewer places than Republicans do. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/28/texas-republicans-rigging-voting-fight-to-vote-newsletter
These rigged districts will insulate Republicans from threats to their political power for the next decade. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2021/nov/12/gerrymander-redistricting-map-republicans-democrats-visual
Federal voting rights legislation
One of the biggest frustrations of the first year of Biden’s presidency has been that Democrats have not been able to pass two crucial pieces of voting rights legislation through Congress. One bill would set a minimum of access across the country, guaranteeing things like 15 days of early voting, as well as prohibiting partisan gerrymandering. The second bill would re-establish a critical piece of the 1965 Voting Rights Act requiring states where there is repeated evidence of voting discrimination to get voting changes approved by the federal government before they go into effect. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/03/voting-rights-advocates-frustrated-meeting-white-house
There is growing frustration that Biden has not pushed hard enough to get rid of the filibuster, which Republicans have relied on to stall those bills. Democrats have pledged to find a way around the filibuster next year. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/30/what-is-filibuster-meaning-republicans-blocking-biden-agenda
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Post by the Scribe on Jan 15, 2022 8:31:48 GMT
Yahoo Entertainment Michigan AG believes Republicans who forged election documents will flip www.yahoo.com/entertainment/michigan-ag-believes-republicans-forged-084118474.html Fri, January 14, 2022, 1:41 AM
On The Rachel Maddow Show Thursday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel weighed in on the bombshell news that Republicans in several states that President Biden won forged election documents in an attempt to give the election to former President Trump. Individuals in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia posed as electors, and gave the victory in each state to Trump. Everyone involved could face multiple charges and significant jail time, which Nessel believes could persuade some of them to talk, and could expose orchestration from the highest levels of government. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show www.michigan.gov/ag/0,4534,7-359-82928-486357--,00.html www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tagged/joe-biden?fr=sycsrp_catchall www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/after-2020-trump-backers-forged-election-docs-even-more-states-n1287365 www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tagged/donald-trump/?fr=sycsrp_catchall
“Once those individuals see that they could possibly be facing prison time, I do think we’re gonna see some people flip,” Nessel said, “and we’ll get some further information as to who orchestrated this in the first place, who told these people to do this in exactly this fashion, and I think it may go all the way to the top.”
In every instance, the fraudulent documents followed almost the exact same template, leading Nessel to believe the individuals who signed those documents were just part of a bigger plan, which is why she referred the case to federal authorities.
“What we have decided to do with the investigation, in light of the fact that of course we have seen, as you (Maddow) have pointed out multiple times now,” Nessel said, “various different false slate of electors from [several] different states, in what seems to be a coordinated effort between the Republican Parties in various different states, we think this is a matter that is best investigated and potentially prosecuted by the feds.” www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tagged/rachel-maddow?fr=sycsrp_catchall
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