Jennifer Ruben: It was a blunder, a gratuitous act that revealed not only their animus toward democracy but their lack of simple human decency. The Georgia bill threw in a provision to ban anyone from giving water or snacks to people standing in line to vote. It was a political error born of Republicans’ own arrogance and inhumanity. And it may cost them greatly in the battle over voting rights. President Biden declared, “It’s sick. It’s sick. You don’t need anything else to know that this is nothing but punitive designed to keep people from voting. You can’t provide water for people about to vote? Give me a break.”
The water provision is mean-spirited and blatantly punitive, instantly recognizable as a Jim Crow tactic designed to make people miserable.In the effort to show the law has nothing to do with voting security, Exhibit A may be the water provision.
The amendment approved by the Intelligence Committee was an adopted version of Warner's FIRE Act, which he introduced last year. It would require all presidential campaign officials report to the FBI any contacts with foreign nationals trying either to make campaign donations or coordinate with a campaign. When Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, blocked the bill in June 2019, calling it a "blatant political stunt." President Donald Trump applauded her efforts on Twitter.
Republican Judges Given Pass to Steal the Election in Wisconsin: Just prior to rejecting campaign reporting of foreign offers to help with elections, this mind-numbing decision hit the fan.
In a sweeping decision that took more than three years to come out. The decision was issued by three judges appointed by Republican presidents — Easterbrook, Michael Kanne and Diane Sykes on Monday that reinstated limits on early voting and a requirement that voters be Wisconsin residents for at least a month before an election.
Still not convinced? Check out this down the rabbit hole thinking that, beyond a doubt, shaped their magical court decision around their desired and desperate outcome:
Pay very close attention to the jaw dropping first insane sentence. You can't make this stuff up JSOnline:
“This record does not support a conclusion that the legislators who voted for the contested statutes cared about race; they cared about voters’ political preferences.” Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote for the unanimous court (that) "If one party can make changes that it believes help its candidates, the other can restore the original rules or revise the new ones.
Also, imagine thinking that just one place for early voting in a small town is just like having one place to vote in a major city. That's not crazy, right? It's not a substantive problem? It's all magically the same...:
"We do not see a substantive problem with days-and-hours limitations," Easterbrook wrote. "They leave all voters with equal opportunities to participate."
By coincidence, Republicans have been saying the same thing for the last 3 years after they passed this lunacy. Isn't that odd?:
Andrew Hitt, chairman of the state Republican Party, praised the ruling. "Today's ruling ensures that Wisconsinites have equal access to the polls regardless of where they live."
Upfront with Adrienne Pedersen nailed it again, when tough questioning and follow-ups finally gave Wisconsinites a very clear picture of just how bad Republicans Sen. Scott Fitzgerald and Rep. Robin Vos politicized the elections commission.
The state went from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board to an elections commission guided, and poisoned, by right wing politics. Upfront featured...
Wisconsin Elections Commissioners Ann Jacobs and Bob Spindell debate a case that could force thousands off state voter rolls.
Point 1: Republican appointees are usually partisan right wing know-it-alls and bullies, like business man and long time commissioner Bob Spindell, who believes his opinion is fact.
Point 2: Democrats are always required to have legal experts, scientists and other nonpartisan researchers who can't mindlessly make things up to prove their case. Case in point; Democratic commissioner Ann Jacobs is an attorney, who has to back up every one of her statements with the law.
In the first clip, Ann Jacobs blows up the whole notion that the upcoming elections is in some way threatened by unpurged voter rolls. (Note, the video of this important debate was already disappearing from Upfront's web page, so I hope preserving it here will inform conservative voters how loose and manipulative many of their Republicans representatives are). :
Attorney Ann Jacobs: "What he is saying is somebody is going to go commit a felony in their own name by voting at an address. That does not get extra votes. That doesn't change the outcome of the presidential election. We are talking about registered voters who legitimately registered to vote, who will stay on the roles, and if they have moved, they will be able to change it. If they have not, they will be able to walk in and vote."
(From the transcript)
And the business man Bob Spindell's Republican response...you'll love his blunt admission:
MR. SPINDELL: I would like to answer a question ... There is also no evidence that there is no fraud going on. I think having 200,000 extra people on the rolls, which is a Democratic ploy almost everywhere-the Dems like lots of people on the rolls, the Republicans like to have th these cleaned up.
Here's part 2, that was already removed from Upfront, so I had to record the DVRed segment with my phone. Jacobs reveals how Judge Paul Malloy went well beyond his decision to purge voter rolls, by targeting specific election commissioners for voting the wrong way...at least according to him, setting up a dangerous and unconstitutional precedent:
Judge Malloy’s order, which includes a $250-per-day fine for the three commissioners who voted against the purge...
Jacobs offered this shocking possibility...
"Let's talk about the idea that a circuit court judge has held commissioners of a state body individually, not the commission, in contempt because they voted the wrong way. And what it would essentially do is allow any circuit court judge across the state to force votes that he or she individually want and do so by threatening penalties against individual commissioners. And I think that's a shocking usurpation of the commissions, commissioners, all sorts of government entities."
More Evidence of Voter Fraud Nonsense: Spindell also added this:
"There is evidence there is fraud. A detective of the Milwaukee Police Department Mike Sandvick did a written study on that years ago."
(In 2008) Det. Mike Sandvick was primarily responsible for a police report that recommended voters show photo identification to prevent vote fraud. The 67-page report was released in February 2008, when Flynn was still new on the job. It was labeled as an official police report but was unsigned. Flynn said nobody on his command staff authorized its release or endorsed its policy recommendations. Republicans quickly seized on the report to press their case for requiring photo identification.
After the 2004 election, initial media accounts featured front-page allegations of widespread fraud in Wisconsin.[40] On February 26, 2008, the Milwaukee Police Department released a report on that election, with what appears to be a painstaking investigation of the facts, and policy recommendations offered with less care and disavowed by the Milwaukee Police Chief.[41] The department's careful factual investigation primarily revealed administrative mistakes and, occasionally, negligence.[42] It showed that much of what had originally been identified as potential fraud was in fact due to clerical error.[43] It also uncovered several votes by potentially ineligible individuals, including some who were allegedly nonresidents, and some who had allegedly been rendered ineligible due to convictions.[44]The report revealed only one potential vote that might have involved in-person impersonation fraud, with no documentation verifying that the vote in question was actually cast.[45]
I couldn't help but notice an incredible similarity between these two stories.
First, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as many as 234,000 voters could be purged next month in Wisconsin if GOP lawsuit mill Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty get their way:
A conservative group (WILL) is seeking to quickly remove thousands of people from the voting rolls who election officials believe have moved. If the voters do not act, their voter registrations will be suspended after April 2021. Three Wisconsin residents represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a complaint with Wis. Election Commission Wednesday demanding that the commission suspend the registrations of voters who do not respond to the letters by next month. The question over how to treat as many as 234,000 voters comes as Wisconsin emerges as one of the most heavily contested states in next year's presidential election.
Second, from the NYT, a similar number of voters, 235,000, being purged in Ohio...:
The state of Ohio had released names of 235,000 voters it planned to purge from voter rolls in September. Ms. Miller, director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, believed thousands of voters were about to be wrongly removed. She went online and discovered that her name had also been flagged as an inactive voter.“I voted three times last year,” said Ms. Miller. “I don’t think we have any idea how many other individuals this has happened to.” The groups said they found the list was riddled with errors. The result:Around 40,000 people, nearly one in five names on the list, shouldn’t have been on it, the state determined. And voting rights groups found — around 20,000 people — who had been marked to be purged because of inactivity in future election cycles, but were actually active voters in previous Ohio elections. These voters were in Franklin County, a Democratic stronghold in the state.
Ohio's sec. of state Frank LaRose doesn't see a problem with inactive voters...
Mr. LaRose. the state’s top election official, has found himself at odds with Republican colleagues in acknowledging there is no evidence that voter fraud has ever been widespread.
GOP Voter Suppression efforts strike Fear into Voters Confidence in Elections: Here's what Republicans hope will happen:
The experience (Ohio purge attempt) has left some voters like Jennifer Kulina-Lanese, a former veterinary professional, shaken. She got a call from the League of Women Voters shortly after it received the list, informing her that the county where she had voted just last year had started the process for her to be purged. “I still don’t know why, and that’s what’s scary,” said Ms. Kulina-Lanese, who is 45. “The idea that Franklin County was starting a process to remove me was terrifying. I would have shown up to vote, and I don’t know if I would have been denied.”
As usual, there's just to much to cover and so little time. As a result, here are a few short hits and relevant video clips that should not be missed.
Adam Schiff Shoots Back and Embarrasses Giggling Juvenile Republicans...a moment that summed up what I thought we were all supposed to investigating:
McConnell vs Reagan: Just about everyone has seen this making the Twitter rounds. Finally the truth is revealed and the talking point blown up?:
How Republicans really feel about Voters...This moment should never be forgotten:
McConnell says bill that would make Election Day a federal holiday is a ‘power grab’ by Democrats
McConnell is refusing to even allow a vote on the House bill in the Senate and has denounced it as “half-baked socialism.”
Corporate and Wealthy Tax Cuts paid for by Cutting Special Olympics: Sure Trump is taking it all back now, but that doesn't erase what he and Betsy DeVos tried to do with no acceptable explanation. Wisconsin's own Rep. Mark Pocan pulled this curtain back...:
Meuller Report...scratch that, Barr Report was celebrated by Trump worshippers with this surreal piece of eye candy. You'll wretch, you'll cry:
The Trump Enemies List: You knew there was one, right, there had to be, and Trump alone couldn't keep track of the growing list of perceived enemies:
Sanders posted a March Madness-eque bracket attacking members of the press and Trump critics.
Character Assassination 101: Attack Early and a lot: AOC is already perceived by Trump supporters as dumb, just the opposite of reality...but who's surprised by that? The result? They won't even begin to listen to a word she says. Keep 'em stupid should be the GOP chant:
If I didn't think there were more important economic and health care issues to deal with, I would be out there making access to voting much harder for rural conservatives. Wasn't it Trump Party conservatives hero Brett Kavanaugh who said, "what goes around comes around"?
Wouldn't it be fun to consolidate rural places to vote, institute shorter hours...you know, save money and lower taxes, right?
I heard a report state how Republicans in states purging voter rolls and limiting polling places believe voting is a privilege and not a right. Really? It seems those rights are spelled out a number of times in the Constitution:
Voting rights cannot be denied or abridged based on the following: "Race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (15th Amendment, 1870) … 1913: Direct election of Senators, established by the Seventeenth Amendment gave voters rather than state legislatures the right to elect senators. 1920: Women are guaranteed the right to vote by the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Amendment XV - Rights Not to Be Denied on Account of Race (1870) ...Amendment XVII - Election of Senators (1913) ...Amendment XIX - Women's Right to Vote (1920) ...Amendment XXIII - Presidential Vote in D.C. (1961) ...Amendment XXIV - Poll Tax (1964) ...Amendment XXVI - Right to Vote at Age 18 (1971) ...
Authoritarian Leaders like Trump call all the shots: Privilege. Every Trumpian drooler is proof:
Conservative Republicans stand out for their opposition to allowing people to register vote at the polls on Election Day and automatically registering all citizens to vote. Fewer than half of conservative Republicans support these steps (35% for Election Day registration, 45% for automatic registration) ... Conservative Republicans are also the only partisan-ideological group in which a majority (60%) favors removing people from registration lists if they have not voted recently or confirmed their registration.
Here's one example we saw in Wisconsin, when Republican Rep. Duey Stroebel proposed this whacko idea:
The measure proposed by Rep. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, would prohibit clerks from opening early, late or on weekends to accommodate voters wishing to cast their ballots before Election Day … the bill aims to give residents of smaller communities the same access to absentee voting as those in larger communities that can afford to hold extended balloting ... people in rural areas don't have the opportunity to vote on weekends or evenings.
Not True. Rural Communities Opposed idea: Exposing Stroebel's completely fabricated scheme were rural town clerks:
The proposal could be even more vexing for clerks in small towns, who often work part-time and at the convenience of local residents, said Richard Stadelman, executive director of the Wisconsin Towns Association … it's not unusual for small-town clerks to open their offices on nights and weekends to accommodate in-person absentee voting. He said his group opposes the bill as written.
Don’t laugh...but Stroebel then reversed his own attempt bringing equality to the system:
Stroebel plans to amend the bill to add flexibility for small communities.
Purging Voters Big Success Too: Defying human nature, the conservative activist Supreme Court allowed postcard address confirmations to stand. So people don't throw stuff like that away or say it's nobodies business where they live?
The Supreme Court on Monday upheld Ohio’s aggressive efforts to purge its voting rolls, siding with Republicans in the latest partisan battle over how far states can go in imposing restrictions on voting. The court ruled that states may kick people off the rolls if they skip a few elections and fail to respond to a notice from election officials. The vote was 5 to 4, with the more conservative justices in the majority. Justice Breyer wrote, In 2012 Ohio sent out 1.5 million notices, to roughly 20 percent of the state’s registered voters. But only 4 percent of Americans move outside their county each year, he wrote.
“Ohio only received back about 60,000 return cards (or 4 percent) which said, in effect: ‘You are right, Ohio. I have, in fact, moved. In addition, Ohio received back about 235,000 return cards which said, in effect, ‘You are wrong, Ohio, I have not moved.’”
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Crabtree said forcing Ford County Clerk Debbie Cox to open an additional polling location in Dodge City so close to the Nov. 6 election would not be in the public’s interest. But Crabtree said he is troubled by Cox’s reaction to an American Civil Liberties Union letter, which Cox forwarded last week to a state official with the comment “LOL.” Cox moved the city’s only polling place from a central location in town, the Civic Center, to the Expo Center half a mile outside the city limits this fall. The new location is not accessible via sidewalk and there is no regular public transportation there, though the city has said it will provide rides to voters.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the chief elections official in the state, is a pioneer of present-day voter suppression. Mr. Kemp has a record of making it harder for people to register to vote, and more difficult for those voters to remain on the rolls. Since 2012, his office has canceled more than 1.4 million voter registrations. In July 2017, over half a million people — 8 percent of the state’s registered voters — were purged in a single day. As of earlier this month, over 50,000 people’s registrations, filed before the deadline to vote in the coming midterm election, were listed as on hold. Seventy percent had been filed by black applicants. Since 2012, his office has canceled more than 1.4 million voter registrations. In July 2017, over half a million people — 8 percent of the state’s registered voters — were purged in a single day. As of earlier this month, over 50,000 people’s registrations, filed before the deadline to vote in the coming midterm election, were listed as on hold. Seventy percent had been filed by black applicants. Olivia Pearson, a grandmother and lifelong resident of Coffee County, Ga., found herself on trial this year oncharges of felony voter fraud. It began six years ago, on the first day of early voting in Georgia, when a black woman named Diewanna Robinson went to cast her ballot. She asked Ms. Pearson, more than 30 years her senior, for help. Ms. Robinson would later testify that Ms. Pearson informed her where the card went in the machine and told her to “just go through and make my own selections on who I wanted to vote for.” Ms. Pearson walked away before Ms. Robinson started voting. Almost four years later, Ms. Pearson received a letter from District Attorney George Barnhill’s office, informing her that she was facing felony charges for improperly assisting Ms. Robinson. because Ms. Robinson was not illiterate or disabled, she had not been entitled to even minimal verbal assistance. Over the next two years, Ms. Pearson navigated two trials, two defense counsels, three dropped charges and one hung jury. Finally, in late February, after a 20-minute jury deliberation, she was acquitted of all charges. Six years after her brief interaction with Ms. Robinson, she was finally free.
This is what a conservative activist Supreme Court can do in just a few years. Money is speech, corporations have religious rights, gun deregulation, and this...
Then the US Supreme Court recklessly and mistakenly did this...
In 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court recently approved Ohio's method for purging voters from the rolls. The Obama Justice Department had supported the challengers in the early stages of the court fight, but the Trump administration switched sides and supported the state.
Today? Who could have guessed...oh, not the US Supreme Court who's actions seem strangely removed from reality:
The nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice found that the mostly Southern jurisdictions that had once been required to get changes to voting policies pre-approved by the Justice Department had higher rates of purging than jurisdictions that were not previously subject to pre-clearance. A key section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was designed to protect minority voters from state disenfranchisement, was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013, allowing states to begin making changes affecting voting without first getting federal approval.
The latest ruling was that last nail in the voting rights coffin:
In 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court recently approved Ohio's method for purging voters from the rolls. The Obama Justice Department had supported the challengers in the early stages of the court fight, but the Trump administration switched sides and supported the state.
The proof is out there for anyone to see just who Republicans are targeting:
Dissenting Justices pointed out the obvious:
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in one of the Supreme Court’s dissenting opinions, agreed. “As one example, amici point to an investigation that revealed that in Hamilton County, ‘African-American-majority neighborhoods in downtown Cincinnati had 10% of their voters removed due to inactivity’ since 2012, as ‘compared to only 4% of voters in a suburban, majority-white neighborhood,’” Sotomayor wrote, citing a brief from the NAACP.
Justice Stephen Breyer, in a dissent joined by the other liberal justices, said, “Using a registrant’s failure to vote is not a reasonable method for identifying voters whose registrations are likely invalid.” Since people tend not to send confirmation notices back to the government, it is not a reliable way to determine whether someone has moved away, Breyer added. Writing for the dissenters, Justice Stephen Breyer said that the majority had misinterpreted the law. He noted that federal statute does not allow someone to be purged from the rolls "by reason of the person's failure to vote. In my view," added Breyer, "Ohio's program does just that."
Breyer claimed the postcard resulting from not voting violated the intent of the original law since it did not say anything about additional follow-up.
Was Trump trying to justify a nationwide requirement for photo ID? Was that the point of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Election Integrity? Of course it was, and Kansas' Secretary of State and Vice-chairman Kris Kobach the best man to make it happen. Real "states rights" and "small government-like," right?
But when Trump dissolved the committee, he and Kobach spewed completely different answers. Why did they lie, and what are they trying to hide?
It's NOT about Photo ID? Well, that's what Kris Kobach told NPR's Robert Siegel:
SIEGEL: Do you think that's entirely about stubbornness on the Democratic - on the left side of this? There are people who think that the right to vote is so vitally important that requiring somebody to have a state, you know, photo ID or something is compromising one of the most basic democratic right. They have a different point of view. You couldn't reach some kind of compromise with them about these things? KOBACH: Well, the commission wasn't even opining on the subject of photo ID.So that wasn't even on the - that wasn't even a topic of discussion at any of the meetings. SIEGEL: I think your critics felt it was all leading in that direction, and that you've characterized... KOBACH: Well... SIEGEL: ...What should be the outcome (unintelligible). KOBACH: The critics were making a bizarre and frankly idiotic argument. They were claiming that by looking at the issue of voter fraud, that was going to cause state legislatures to pass laws that would, in their view, make voting more difficult. And in their view, that would include photo ID. Well, that's ridiculous.
Trump says it was about Photo ID!!! Now here's what Trump officially said twice, in two consecutive tweets, contradicting Kobach:
Again, the simple truth behind Republican efforts to put as many hurdles in front of voters as they possibly can, like union membership, food stamps and unemployment, is to suppress voter participation: Here's a quick summary:
Let's face it, there's so much Republican sh** that hitting the fan that it's almost impossible to cover it all. Much of it has to do with administrative regulations created and enforced by big bad government agencies. Republicans hate regulations so much they decided to replace almost all of them with their own set of convoluted, Rube Goldberg-like bureaucracies. Here are the headlines and links of stories that will affect and complicate our lives for decades to come under the guise of "small government."
While everyone is still wondering how Republicans could ever seriously fix their health care bills that drop 22 to 23 million Americans with a few more insane amendments, voting rights is about to take a huge hit:
The Republican presidential tactic of crippling agencies you
don't like by putting either the incompetent or the actively hostile in charge
of them (continues) ... Kris Kobach, the
godfather of the national movement to suppress the votes of people the GOP
would prefer not to exercise the franchise (was) named as vice-chairman of his Presidential Advisory
Commission on Election Integrity, a snipe hunt the only apparent purpose of
which is maintaining the fiction that masses of people, many of them brown, are
gaming our elections.
Here's the most damning news that might just alert us to specific Republican governors who take the bait:
Kobach wrote a letter to his fellow secretaries of state
that left many jaws on the floor. From The Kansas City Star: In a Wednesday letter, Kobach asked the Connecticut secretary
of state's office to provide the commission with all publicly available voter
roll data, including the full names of all registered voters along with their
addresses, dates of birth, the last four digits of their Social Security
numbers, voting history and other personal information ... he sent similar letters to election officials in every state. Quite simply, any secretary of state who complies with this
request is either too stupid to hold the job, or is in sympathy with Kobach's
goal of whitewashing the electorate. Alex Padilla, the Secretary of State for California, said, "California's participation would only serve to
legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by
the President, the Vice President, and Mr. Kobach. The President's Commission
is a waste of taxpayer money and a distraction from the real threats to the
integrity of our elections today: aging voting systems and documented Russian
interference in our elections." Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill was a bit more
discreet: "The courts have repudiated his methods on multiple
occasions but often after the damage has been done to voters. Given Secretary Kobach's history we find it very difficult to have
confidence in the work of this commission."
BREAKING: Scott Walker gives up voter information to Trump's big government demands. Hey, we just had a recount too. All is well?
Wisconsin elections officials said Friday that they'll sell some voter information to a presidential commission investigating election fraud. Administrator Mike Haas issued a statement Friday saying data is available for purchase and the commission must release it to buyers, adding that the commission routinely sells the information to political parties, candidates and researchers. The commission would charge the presidential panel $12,500 for the data.
Having done a lot of research on "the right to vote," I found that despite the guarantee in the 14th, 15th and 19th Amendments...with help from the Voting Rights Act (now destroyed by activist conservative Justices), voting seems to be the least defended squishy right ever. In fact, I could make the argument that women and African Americans were definitely given the right to vote, but anyone else including white guys...nope.
What if Obama did this? Always the best test against hypocritical Republican policy:
As Vanita Gupta points out in that same K.C. Star report,
if someone in the Obama administration had made this request, at the very
least, there would be a full week of howler monkeys screaming about federalism
from every perch in every conservative think-tank in the jungle. At the most,
there would be hearing after hearing about the Obama administration's plan to
seed thousands of the president's fellow Kenyans in every crucial precinct in
Ohio and Florida. What's more important, though, is that the national campaign
to roll back voting rights now has reached the highest levels of government,
with the blessing of the president* and the president*-in-waiting. This is the
final step backwards across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Let's connect the dots: Today the Supreme Court decided overwhelmingly that Republican gerrymandering/voter suppression laws in North Carolina were unconstitutional. It was so bad Justice Thomas agreed:
The Supreme Court let stand a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruling that North Carolina’s sweeping voting restrictions targeted African-American voters “with almost surgical precision.” It’s now overwhelmingly clear that Republicans in North Carolina illegally made it harder for African Americans to vote and diminished the power of their votes. Today’s decision could have far-reaching ramifications for striking down gerrymandering nationwide. In a 5-3 opinion today, Justice Kagan (surprisingly joined by Justice Thomas) ruled that North Carolina artificially increased the number of black voters in the state’s 1st and 12th congressional districts.
Didn't get the News? Of course, that didn't stop Scott Walker's grossly unqualified AG lapdog Brad Schimel from ignoring the courts decision today as if it never happened, and made this mind numbing request on the same day:
Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel filed a brief today asking the Supreme Court to stay an order to redraw Wisconsin's legislative district boundaries ... saying it's likely the court will preserve the current districts and redrawing them would waste resources.
Really? After the majority decision today?
voters filed a federal lawsuit in 2015 arguing the Republican-drawn boundaries unconstitutionally discriminate against Democrats. A three-judge panel agreed.
Wisconsin Voter Suppression a Killer: The Brookings Institute posted a story with a graphic a few days ago, that will blow your mind.
Newly released Census Bureau data confirm that both minority and black voter turnout took a decided downturn in last November’s elections ... Minority and black turnout was not only lower in the national statistics but also in key swing states.
Check out a few of the changes in the other swing states...not good right?
Now let's check out Wisconsin's loss in black voter turnout. Anyone see a problem here?
In Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and especially Wisconsin, a 2012 black turnout advantage either reversed or was eliminated in 2016 due to declines in black turnout and, in most cases, a rise in the turnout of white Americans. In Michigan and Florida, the 2012 white turnout advantage increased. In Florida, Hispanic as well as black turnout declined markedly as white turnout rose.
This is beyond the Obama effect that didn't seem to produce this wild swing in the other states. What was that you were saying Brad Schimel?
Under presidential strongman Trump, and his outright move to an authoritarian state, it's always a bad sign to see a national policy to suppress voters in our elections.
Trump's Voter Fraud Commission:
The Vice Chair of Donald Trump’s new “election integrity” commission has been successfully sued four times for voter suppression, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Mr Trump signed an executive order establishing the commission to review alleged voter fraud and voter suppression in the American election system. Kris Kobach led restrictive voting initiatives that targeted minorities and perpetuated voter suppression. Vice President Mike Pence and Mr Kobach will serve as Chair and Vice Chair of the commission that will "review policies and practices that enhance or undermine the American people's confidence in the integrity of federal elections and provide the president with a report that identifies system vulnerabilities that lead to improper registrations and voting." After the 2016 election, Trump claimed widespread voter fraud explained why Hillary Clinton emerged with nearly 3 million more popular votes. However, the ACLU filed a freedom of information request to challenge the basis for the White House’s voter fraud claims. ACLU’s Voting Rights Project director said: “President Trump is attempting to spread his own fake news about election integrity. Such claims have been widely debunked, but he is still trying to push his false reality on the American public. It is telling that the president’s choice to co-lead the commission is none other than Kris Kobach, one of the worst offenders of voter suppression in the nation today. If the Trump administration really cares about election integrity, it will divulge its supposed evidence before embarking on this commission boondoggle.”
Seriously, Karen Handel put her suppression efforts to paper...Warning, now more people can vote?
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and four other voting rights organization who argued the 90-day cut off for registration before the run-off violated the National Voter Registration Act. That law states that all eligible citizens should be allowed to vote if they register at least 30 days before an election. Handel, who previously ran Georgia’s elections, is herself a pioneering vote suppressor. Shortly before the 2008 election, she spearheaded an illegal purge of Georgia’s rolls and flagged thousands of voter registrations as potential non-citizens. Many of the voters affected were actually eligible American citizens.
Judge Frank Easterbrook of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said those challenging Wisconsin’s voting laws were contending that Democrats can expand voting rules to help their party at the polls but Republicans can’t tighten them to their advantage.“That can’t be right,” he said during arguments in a pair of Wisconsin cases
Ah, there is a difference? One party is encouraging more voters to go to the polls, regardless of party, the other wants to..."tighten" the voter rules? And "that can't be right?"
Talk about legislating from the bench. But if you thought that was bad, check out this outrageous mind bender:
A Statement
by then-state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) that Republicans needed
to pass the voter ID law because of how it would affect Milwaukee
neighborhoods and college campuses…. Bruce Spiva, an attorney for the groups challenging the
voting laws, called her statement "extraordinary" and an explicit
sign Republicans meant to make it difficult to vote for minorities and other
Democratic-leaning voters. The appeals judges were skeptical. “You say explicit
statements, but they’re not as explicit as you describe them,” Judges Michael
Kanne said.
You've got to be trying real hard to make these absurd arguments. Imagine what the judges said that didn't make this article.
Wisconsin is again getting bad national press over our voter suppression laws:
This election cycle, 14 states have new voter ID laws, with eight of them limiting what kind of identification voters can use. Some people say the photo ID laws make it easier to vote and harder to cheat in voting booths, but are the new provisions targeting certain groups unfairly? NBC investigative correspondent Ronan Farrow reports for TODAY.
Note: The really loud hum starting off the clip (for 23 seconds-sorry) was a technical problem at MSNBC's site.
Rep. Robin Vos admits to Voter Suppression Tactic: In a surreal political move, Rep. Robin Vos came out swinging against the highest early voter turnout ever, as if that was a bad thing.
Wisconsin hit record early voting Friday in the wake of a federal court order allowing expanded absentee balloting, and the GOP leader of the state Assembly called for restricting the practice to make early voting more uniform across rural and urban areas.Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said:
"We're probably going to have to look at it again to make sure that everybody in the state has the same chance to vote. It shouldn't be up to an unelected judge to have the final say."
Judge Peterson did away with early voter restrictions because they didn't make sense.
Peterson also found requiring early voting to occur at only one location was unconstitutional because it put a greater burden on voters in Milwaukee and other large cities, where many minorities live. It is much easier for a small town to accommodate voters with a single location than Milwaukee and other urban centers, he wrote.
Even after all the safe guards were put in place with photo ID's, Scott Walker's infallible way to protect the integrity and confidence in our elections, we're finding out now that Trump still thinks the elections are "rigged." Here come the poll watchers.
Republicans aren't done yet with "reform" and scaring the pants of their paranoid low information voters.They still have to maintain the fear of election fraud to motivate them to show up at the polls.
That where Wisconsin's rabid conservative solicitor general comes in, (a former president of the student chapter of the Federalist Society!):
Wisconsin's solicitor general Misha Tseytlin said Thursday the state's
voter ID law is "quite permissive" and should serve as a model for
the rest of the country.
"Wisconsin's voter ID law is often characterized in,
what I would say, the partisan press, as one of the more stringent voter ID
laws. I think that’s certainly not true now. Wisconsin might be the most permissive state in the union in
terms of how someone can get photo ID to satisfy the photo ID law."
Voter fraud is an "overblown" myth, but that never stopped Republicans from going overboard with ways to suppress our right to vote.
In a jaw dropping turning of the tables, Solicitor General Tseytlin focused on the media's "overblown" coverage of problems experienced by those trying to get a photo ID:
Tseytlin argued Thursday the problems documented in the
media and in court are overblown and amount to a fraction of a percentage of
the people who have gone through the process.
That runs counter to Scott Walker's own logic, where even one disenfranchised voter is one too many. And who cares about a "small fraction" of voters?
Now Questioning Voter ID may hurt voter Confidence...Again? I nearly spit out my coffee when I read this reason to keep these bad unconstitutional voter suppression efforts in place:
Tseytlin agreed there is
"very little" voter fraud, but said voters may lose confidence in
elections if they see voter ID laws being questioned and struck down.
As they keep reminding us; it's never good to question our political one party authority.
An article at Talking Points Memo brought up an interesting
question about voter confidence in elections due to Voter ID; despite requiring
photo ID’s, Republicans still cast doubt on elections by saying they’re rigged.
So despite the rhetoric about voter confidence, why are Republicans claiming rigged elections, basically destroying that confidence?
“The whole aura of
illegitimacy he is casting on the election in general ... he is feeding an
already very hungry beast here with these kinds of accusations,” Nathaniel
Persily, a Stanford Law professor who served on the Presidential Commission on
Election Administration in 2012. “I’m telling you, November 8th, we’d better be
careful, because that election is going to be rigged,” Trump
said on Fox News this week. “And I hope the Republicans are watching
closely or it’s going to be taken away from us. “I’m just saying that I
wouldn’t be surprised if the election . . . there’s a lot of dirty pool played
at the election, meaning the election is rigged. I would not be surprised,”
Trump said.
Just as bad, recent Trump comments on the myth of voting multiple times
makes it obvious this guy never set foot in his own local
polling place.
“The voter ID, they’re fighting as hard as you can fight so that that they don’t have to show voter ID. So, what’s the purpose of that? How many times is a person going to vote during the day? If you don’t have voter ID. Multiple times. How about like 10 times. Why not? If you don’t have voter ID, you can just keep voting and voting and voting,” Trump said. Rick Hasen --- professor at UC-Irvine School of Law who also runs the Election Law Blog. -- told PBS Newshour Wednesday, “That sounds like someone who has never been to a polling place, because you just can’t go in and ask for a ballot, and they will just trust you. There is a voter roll. There is a list. Every state identifies you somehow. It might be that you give your signature. And if it’s that, then your signature is on the line. You’re already voted. You can’t vote 10 times.”
Ironically, Trump did go to a polling place, not once, but three times in the same day but was turned away. Ah, he does know he can only go to one designated place? From Access Hollywood:
Destroying the public trust in elections despite voter ID...:
Voter ID laws are necessary to maintain public trust that voter fraud is being prevented. This is one of the arguments the Supreme Court invoked in its 2008 decision upholding Indiana’s voter ID law, Crawford vs. Marion County. Yet, a study published in June by Persily -- along with Charles Stewart III and Stephen Ansolabehere -- undercut that justification. They found no evidence that voters in states with strict voter ID laws had greater levels of confidence in elections than those in states without them. But Persily worries even if voter ID laws aren’t increasing confidence elections, Trump’s comments are making Americans less trusting of democratic institutions. “You have this perverse cycle here, you are ... casting [the electoral system] in a bad light of disrepute, and in the process, by creating these anti-system views, you are now justifying more restrictive measures that might keep people from voting," Persily said.
The wise and wonderful governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, somehow misinterpreted the Constitution and pushed illegal attempts to suppress voting. What a thing to do in a representative democracy.
Even lapdog AG Brad Schimel, legal scholar and all around good Republican, thought he had this one in the bag. Again, just like last time, he was wrong. JS:
In a sweeping decision shaking up how the November
election will be conducted, a federal judge on Friday struck down aspects of
Wisconsin's voter ID law, limits on early voting and prohibitions on allowing
people to vote early at multiple sites. The judge also turned back other election laws Republicans
have put in place in recent years. The order resets the rules for voting less than four months
before the presidential election. A likely appeal could keep the laws in place.
A federal appeals court on Friday struck down a North Carolina voting law finding that Republican lawmakers intentionally discriminated against African-Americans when they passed it. (The) 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the measure's provisions "target African-Americans with almost surgical precision." The voting law imposed a voter ID requirement, cut early voting opportunities, eliminated same-day voter registration and banned out-of-precinct voting, among other provisions. Most damming, The appeals court — citing a lower court’s findings — noted that North Carolina legislators not only sought data breaking down voting practices by race, but then crated the law’s new provisions to single out practices disproportionately popular among African Americans, like early voting and provisional ballots.
In Wisconsin, specifically:
... addresses a broader set of election laws that have been modified in recent years, including ones limiting early voting and requiring voters to establish residency 28 days before voting. Both those measures are unconstitutional, U.S. District Judge James Peterson ruled in a 119-page ruling Friday Aides to Schimel defended the laws, arguing lawmakers have broad leeway to set voting rules as they see fit.
The ruling comes a week after another federal judge ruled
voters in November could
cast ballots without showing ID if they submitted statements at
polling places saying they could not easily get a state-issued ID card.
Attorney General Brad Schimel has already appealed that ruling.
As sensible as Judge Peterson's findings were, states rights Republican Jim Steinke would have none of it, noting his party can do anything it wants once given the power:
Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) dismissed the ruling, saying that Peterson overstepped his authority. "Another in a long line of judicial overreaches that usurp states' rights. One more example of why (the U.S. Supreme Court) is critical," Steineke tweeted.
