Tag: Voter Suppression

Voting Reform?

My state as well as many others are in this frenzy to keep voter fraud to a minimum….voters are having to jump through hoops to vote…..basically some of the measures are nothing more than a poll tax and a way to keep the vote to mostly white people….exclusion is the main objective.

Donny and his Magic Sharpie has just signed another EO on voting…..

President Trump is trying to put a tighter federal grip on how Americans vote by mail—and the fight is likely headed straight to court. On Tuesday, he signed an executive order aimed at limiting who can receive mail-in ballots, arguing it will curb what he called “legendary” cheating in absentee voting ahead of November’s midterms, when control of Congress is at stake, Politico reports.

  • “The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary. It’s horrible, what’s gone on,” Trump said during the signing ceremony in the Oval Office. The AP notes, however, that a 2025 Brookings Institution report found that voting fraud occurred in only around four cases per 10 million mail ballots— 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast.
  • The order directs the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to compile a federal list of approved absentee voters. The Postal Service would be instructed to send mail-in ballots only to people on that list. It also directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate and prosecute “election officials, individuals, and other entities that violate the law by issuing or distributing Federal ballots to ineligible voters,” CNBC reports. The order threatens to cut federal funds from states that refuse to comply.
  • The move is expected to face legal challenges that could drag on past the midterms. Marc Elias, a leading Democratic voting-rights attorney, said he plans to sue, calling the order unconstitutional. “If Trump signs an unconstitutional Executive Order to take over voting, we will sue. I don’t bluff and I usually win,” Elias wrote on X. Officials in Oregon and Arizona also pledged to sue, accusing Trump of trying to violate their states’ right to run elections, the AP reports. “We don’t need decrees from Washington, DC,” said Tobias Read, the Democratic secretary of state in Oregon, which has voted entirely by mail since 1998. “My message to the President: We’ll see you in court.”

Wait!  Did not Donny just vote by mail-in?

“The Constitution is very clear—the president has no power over elections in the states.”

But to be fair just how prevalent is voter fraud?

It is NOT a problem.

With the Senate taking up the GOP voter suppression bill that is Donald Trump’s top legislative priority, we thought it would be good to take a closer look at the reason why Republicans claim that this legislation is needed: the supposed scourge of noncitizens voting.

People familiar with the debate know that it isn’t much of a problem at all. That’s because it is illegal for non-Americans to vote in federal elections, and since the upside of doing so, i.e., casting one additional ballot among tens of millions of others, stands in no relation to the downside, i.e., imprisonment and deportation, hardly anybody does it.

How rare is it that somebody commits this most pointless of crimes?

We are so glad you asked! Let’s take a look.

Including the 2000 presidential election, which is a great reference point not only because it’s a quarter century in the past but also because it was decided by 537 votes* and therefore any small factor could have made a huge difference, Americans have cast about 1.5 billion ballots in federal elections.

According to the conservative Heritage Foundation, aka “the Project 2025 guys,” aka “a bunch of guys who support voter suppression and are therefore really intent on finding evidence that noncitizens voting is a widespread problem,” exactly 100 aliens have been caught committing voter fraud.

In other words, according to these numbers, one noncitizen is caught trying to vote illegally for every 15,000,000 votes cast.

Or, to put it differently, if you wanted to randomly pick out a non-American at a polling place, you’d have a 1 in 15 million chance to be successful.

Those aren’t great odds.

What Are the Odds of a Noncitizen Voting? We’re Glad You Asked

If you believe the wizards of propaganda we have a problem…..but it you look at the big picture then there is NO problem.

The problem we do have is that pundits are gaming the numbers to enact all sorts of silly and wasteful measures to limit who gets to have a vote in our elections.

In essence this is theft of an election….there is your fraud.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is This Voter Suppression?

We hear about all the attempts being made around the country to try and find ways to keep voters from voting….all under the guise of preventing voter fraud, which by the way is NOT a major problem but is being used to rev up the idiots.

Seems a mayor in Wisconsin has a way to try and control who gets to vote.

The mayor of a central Wisconsin city who ran for office on his opposition to absentee ballot drop boxes said Wednesday he did nothing wrong when he put on work gloves, donned a hard, hat and used a dolly, to cart away a drop box outside City Hall. Wausau Mayor Doug Diny posed for a picture Sunday to memorialize his removal of the city’s lone drop box, which had been put outside City Hall around the same time late last week that absentee ballots were sent to voters, the AP reports. The city’s election clerk, Kaitlyn Bernarde, said she has reported the issue to the Marathon County district attorney as well as the state elections commission.

“

This is no different than the maintenance guy moving it out there,” Diny said Wednesday. “I’m a member of staff. There’s nothing nefarious going on here. I’m hoping for a good result.”

  • The move, which sparked a protest in the city Tuesday night and anger among drop box advocates, is the latest example in swing state Wisconsin of the fight over whether communities will allow absentee ballot drop boxes.
  • After former Donald Trump lost the state in 2020, he and some Republicans alleged that drop boxes facilitated cheating, even though they offered no evidence. Democrats, election officials, and other Republicans argued the boxes are secure. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, then controlled by conservatives, banned the use of drop boxes in 2022. But in July, the now-liberal controlled court reversed that decision and said drop boxes could be used. However, the court left it up to each community to decide whether to install them.
  • More than 60 towns, villages, and cities in nine of the state’s 72 counties have opted out of using absentee ballot drop boxes for the presidential election in November, according to a tally by the group All Voting is Local. Drop boxes are being embraced in heavily Democratic cities including Milwaukee and Madison.
  • Diny ran as a conservative and was backed by the Republican Party in the nonpartisan mayor’s race. He is in his first year as Wausau mayor after being elected in April. Diny said that he and the city clerk never discussed the drop box before it was placed outside City Hall late last week. Diny said he decided Sunday to act when he realized the drop box was “not secure.”
  • Bernarde said Wednesday that the city planned to “secure the drop box to the ground” and unlock it, but it was removed before that could be done. The box was locked and contained no ballots, she said. It is a felony in Wisconsin to impede or prevent “the free exercise of the franchise at an election.”
  • Wausau resident Pamela Bannister, speaking at a city council meeting Tuesday night, called for Diny to apologize and return the drop box. “This is the kind of action that’s designed to stir the pot,” Bannister said. “It does not tamp down the rhetoric that we’re all facing in this election cycle. It accomplishes nothing positive and amounts to, in my estimation, voting interference and intimidation.”

So I ask again is this an attempt at voter suppression?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

We Need Stricter Voting Laws

 

It is that time again….time to elect an president and it is that time again when the voter is attempted to be pushed aside in the name of preventing voter fraud.

Then there is Texas (it’s always Texas)…..

It seems that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will do anything to prevent Texas from flipping for Kamala Harris—including preventing eligible citizens from registering to vote.*

Paxton threatened legal action against Bexar and Harris counties if they proceed with sending out mail-in voter registration forms, which the counties have proposed doing via third-party vendors. Paxton argues that it could encourage noncitizens to register to vote.

Paxton’s office announced Wednesday that he’d filed a lawsuit against Bexar County Commissioner Court after it approved a proposal that funds the production and mailing of voter registration forms “to unregistered voters in location(s) based on targeting agreed to by the county,” according to KENS-5. Paxton claimed the program was unlawful because it “could induce ineligible people—such as felons and noncitizens—to commit a crime by attempting to register to vote.”

https://newrepublic.com/post/185585/ken-paxton-threatens-sue-democrats-voter-registration

We cannot have those damn Democrats voting now can we?

A look into voting….I will keep this short and very simple….

Rampant voter fraud is a LIE perpetrated by Republicans….so do we need stricter voting laws?  (BTW most convicted fraudsters have been on the GOP side)

Nope. Not even close. Once again, this falls into the Lloyd Christmas category. Successful prosecutions of voter fraud cases barely amount to one one-hundredth of one percent of total votes cast in a single general election. In Ohio, for example, Secretary of State Jon Husted ballyhooed his war against fraud by nabbing a whopping 20 potential cases. 20 out of nearly six million votes cast in that state in 2012. The Bush Justice Department found that there were as few as 80 successful prosecutions of voter fraud cases out of hundreds of millions of votes cast since 2000. For this ratio of possible-fraud-to-votes-cast we’re told we need laws that make it more difficult to vote. By the way, some Republicans came right out and said it: this is all about electing Republicans.

That’s it. It’s of course foolish to think the Republicans will drop these lies and myths any time soon. But as long as various Republicans continue to repeat these transparently obvious falsehoods, they should expect that the rest of us will continue to think they’re either idiots or that they’re deliberately trying to deceive their own people — or maybe a little of both.

(huffpost.com)

Voting should be easier and hardly a herculean task…..all this crap is just to make it easy for the GOP to have their way with the system.

In my state you need ID to register then when you go to vote you present registration card and photo ID twice….this has worked well for decades and yet they, the GOP, expect massive voter fraud.  It is pure manure!

When it comes to voter info do not listen or read crap on-line….go to the registrars office and get your info first hand….that is if you are not too damn lazy.

Now get out and VOTE!

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–04Jun24

Do you have a fundamental right to vote?

Bet your answer is yes we do have the right…..with the possible exception to the state of Kansas.

The Kansas Supreme Court has made a ruling that has many up in arms….

The Kansas Supreme Court offered a mixed bag in a ruling Friday that combined several challenges to a 2021 election law, siding with state officials on one provision, reviving challenges to others and offering the possibility that at least one will be halted before this year’s general election.

But it was the ballot signature verification measure’s majority opinion — which stated there is no right to vote enshrined in the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights — that drew fiery dissent from three of the court’s seven justices.

The measure requires election officials to match the signatures on advance mail ballots to a person’s voter registration record. The state Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s dismissal of that lawsuit, but the majority rejected arguments from voting rights groups that the measure violates state constitutional voting rights.

In fact, Justice Caleb Stegall, writing for the majority, said that the dissenting justices wrongly accused the majority of ignoring past precedent, holding that the court has not identified a “fundamental right to vote” within the state constitution.

“It simply is not there,” Stegall wrote.

Justice Eric Rosen, one of the three who dissented, shot back: “It staggers my imagination to conclude Kansas citizens have no fundamental right to vote under their state constitution.”

“I cannot and will not condone this betrayal of our constitutional duty to safeguard the foundational rights of Kansans,” Rosen added.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/kansas-constitution-include-vote-state-supreme-court-majority-110730583

If this ruling stands how long will it be before other red states try this end run on the people of their state?

If you are 18 and a citizen it does matter which of the 50 little republics you live you have a duty to vote and if anyone stands in your way then it is time to push back on this betrayal of the people.

Is this what you want for this country?

I Read, I Write, you Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Weakened Voters Rights Act (Again)?

As long as we are on the upcoming election there has been a court ruling that could be disastrous for the voters of this country.

A divided federal appeals court on Monday ruled that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the federal Voting Rights Act, a decision that voting rights advocates say could further erode protections under the landmark 1965 law. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis found that only the US attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires political maps to include districts where minority populations’ preferred candidates can win elections, the AP reports. The majority said other federal laws, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, make it clear when private groups can sue but said similar wording is not found in the voting law.

“When those details are missing, it is not our place to fill in the gaps, except when ‘text and structure’ require it,” US Circuit Judge David Stras wrote for the majority in an opinion joined by Judge Raymond Gruender. Stras was nominated by former President Donald Trump and Gruender by former President George W. Bush. The decision affirmed a lower judge’s decision to dismiss a case brought by the Arkansas State Conference NAACP and the Arkansas Public Policy Panel after giving US Attorney General Merrick Garland five days to join the lawsuit. Chief Judge Lavenski Smith noted in a dissenting opinion that federal courts across the country and the US Supreme Court have considered numerous cases brought by private plaintiffs under Section 2.

Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, called the ruling a “travesty for democracy.” She had argued the appeal on behalf of the two Arkansas groups. “By failing to reverse the district court’s radical decision, the Eighth Circuit has put the Voting Rights Act in jeopardy, tossing aside critical protections that voters fought and died for,” Lakin said in a statement. It was not immediately clear whether the groups would appeal. Barry Jefferson, political action chair of the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP, called the ruling “a devastating blow to the civil rights of every American, and the integrity of our nation’s electoral system.” Monday’s ruling applies only to federal courts covered by the 8th Circuit, per the AP.

Chip-chip-chipping away at the right of a person to vote.

This is coming to a polling station near you.

Be afraid….very afraid….

Pay attention or lose everything you hold dear (and that is NOT an exaggeration!)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

GOP “Big Lie Bill”

Voters Beware!

Anyone that follows politics will see that the GOP is hard pressing for more and more anti-voter bills wherever they are in the positions of power….and the US House is no exception.

Enter the “Big Lie Bill” the GOP will be proposing…..

Voting rights advocates across the United States on Monday responded with alarm to Republicans introducing what its backers called “the most conservative election integrity bill to be seriously considered” in the U.S. House of Representatives in decades.

Dubbed the “Big Lie Bill” by critics, the American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act is spearheaded by Committee on House Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) and includes nearly 50 standalone bills from the chamber’s GOP members.

The Declaration for American Democracy (DFAD), a coalition of over 260 groups, said in a statement it was “deeply concerned” about the bill, warning that “the benign-sounding name of this legislation cloaks an extremist, anti-voter effort to increase the role of megadonors in our elections and encourage deliberate barriers to make it harder for eligible voters to cast their ballot.”

“This bill would amplify the influence of corporations and billionaires by raising contribution limits and reducing reporting and transparency requirements, opening the floodgates to even more secret money in our elections,” DFAD said. “Increasing the role of big money donors in our politics prevents Congress from taking action on the issues that matter most to Americans, such as healthcare, reproductive rights, gun safety, and the environment.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/house-republicans-voting-bill

From gerrymandering to out right voter suppression the GOP will do what they must to make sure that their candidates have an unfair advantage….make it harder to exercise your right to vote instead of making the process easy and open to all eligible registered voters.

You might want to pay attention….you do realize that the 2024 election is a mere 16 months away.

Now is the time to start comparing candidates, the ones that have announced that is, so that you can make a good decision on your vote and possibly save this country from itself.

Voters Beware!

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–07Feb22

THe GOP has been brutally honest….well some GOPers…..that all their attempts to limit Dem voters is their strategy…..gerrymandering, voters suppression, etc etc are all attempts to remove any GOP opponents from ever winning another election.

Arizona (go figure) is just the most recent attempts……

Arizona Republicans have spent the past couple weeks since the legislative session began introducing a red wave of voter suppression measures. House Bill 2596, which dropped Friday, would eliminate all early voting, emergency voting centers, and no-excuse mail-in voting. The latter has existed in Arizona since 1991, so longer than the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The House bill would also ban the use of electronic voting machines and require that all ballots are counted by human hands. You might think that would take forever, but they’ll have 24 hours to do it!

Republicans had traditionally held the advantage in ballots cast prior to Election Day. That changed in 2020, so obviously early voting is corrupt and must end. GOP Rep. Shawna Bolick proposed the measure that would only permit emergency voting in “times of war, civil unrest or a natural disaster.” These are obviously the only real emergencies that would prevent someone from voting on Election Day. In real America, emergency voting centers are only for upcoming hurricanes and nuclear wars.

Some of the Republicans who sponsored this bill also reportedly supported and even cheered the Arizona fraudit. A total of seven bills passed out of committee along party lines. State Sen. Wendy Rogers (a QAnon bigot) filed a bill that would prohibit drop boxes with only the most narrow exception for voters with disabilities. Arizonians shouldn’t have to disclose their disability status, and the lack of early voting might make the lines on Election Day a burden even for those who don’t fit Rogers’ likely narrow definition of “disabled.”

https://www.wonkette.com/arizona-gop-officially-done-with-people-voting-against-republicans

This is what we get when the game HALO is more important than voting….the loss of voting rights can be laid only at the feet of the voter.

What will it take to get the lazy toads from behind their game control and vote to preserve our society?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

But They Signed The Letter

One of the big news stories of this year is the GOP’s attempts at voter suppression…..if you are unaware then where the Hell have you been?

Corporations have been feeding the GOP for decades and Toyota trying to repair its reputation has stated that they will NO longer give to those people in Congress that push the Big Lie and voter suppression….a good start but I do not trust them to keep that pledge when profit is their main concern.

Now 150+ companies have signed a letter in support of the Voting Rights Act……

– More than 150 companies including Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) and PepsiCo (PEP.O) urged U.S. lawmakers to introduce and pass a voting reform act in a letter signed on Wednesday, as other efforts have stalled in Congress.

The companies called on lawmakers to reintroduce the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, an amendment to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 named after late U.S. Representative John Lewis, who died nearly a year ago. The act would help prevent voting discrimination and set up an improved system for states to report changes in election law.

“We have a duty to work until every American can participate in our democracy, but that won’t happen until every eligible voter in this country has fair, equitable and safe access to voting,” said Chip Bergh, CEO of Levi Strauss & Co (LEVI.N), a signatory to the letter, in a prepared statement.

The companies are part of a group of corporate executives called Business for Voting Rights.

“The business community is proud of our role in encouraging our employees, customers, and communities to exercise their right to vote and have a say in our government,” the companies wrote in the letter.

U.S. companies have spoken up in support of voting rights reforms and against restrictions on voting that have passed in Republican-controlled states including Georgia. Some companies have come under fire from elected officials for their positions.

Former President Donald Trump and his supporters made unfounded claims that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Democrats are expected to reintroduce the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, Reuters has reported.

(reuters.com)

How lovely.

But signing a letter does nothing but waste time and paper…..if they truly are concerned then turn off the lobbyists and the money spigot…..without that act this letter is nothing more than a fart in the wind.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

On Cruz Control

When you are caught with your pants down then LIE!

And Ted Cruz has done just that.

The GOP has offered up 300+ bills that would suppress the minority vote and yet Cruz states that the Dems with the Voting Rights Act is trying to subvert the GOP from office….

You read that correctly…Cruz is saying that the Dems are trying to suppress the vote with the Act…..

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday accused Democrats of proposing voter laws that he considered “Jim Crow 2.0” during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

During the hearing, Cruz said the For the People Act, which in part aims to expand ballot access, would “prevent Democrats from being voted out of power.” 

“Today’s congressional Democrats do not believe in the right to vote,” Cruz said. “They do not believe in democracy and they are championing efforts to take away the right to vote from American citizens.”

The Texas senator said that Democrats were the original authors of the Jim Crow laws, which enforced racial segregation in the late 1800s. Cruz added that the only objective of new election laws is to keep Democrats in power for the next hundred years, calling it the “Corrupt Politicians Act.”

“So what’s Jim Crow 2.0? It’s the latest efforts of Democrats to write laws to prevent the voters from voting Democrats out of power,” Cruz asserted.

(thehill.com)

A typical GOP strategy….if you have nothing to offer then lie your ass off…..and Cruz is trying to subvert history to fit the LIE….another GOP tactic.

At this poi t LIES are all the GOP has for the next election…..LIES and more LIES!

Cruz fits nicely into my category of “From the ‘Can’t Fix Stupid’ Files”…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

SCOTUS–This Is What We Get

One of the more recent opinion offered by the Supreme Court was one that upheld the attempts to suppress the vote (at least in Arizona)……and as usual since I am an opinionated SOB I had something to say on this ruling……

https://lobotero.com/2021/07/02/screw-the-damn-voter/
 
Like I stated…this is what we get when we allow an agenda group like the Federalist Society pick our judges.
 
To explain the damage that this situation can implement….

In many ways, the recently completed Supreme Court term was our first comprehensive look at one of the most consequential legacies of the Trump presidency: his imprint on the court. 

Understanding the full impact of former President Donald Trump’s 6-3 conservative supermajority is challenging at this point, though. On the one hand, this term saw the highest share of unanimous rulings in the last three years. On the other hand, the court’s last two major rulings broke down along 6-3 ideological lines. But that seeming inconsistency may have more to do with divisions among the court’s conservatives over how fast to move — not in what direction. Make no mistake, the court is moving in a conservative direction, and the conservative justices are in the driver’s seat.

The Supreme Court’s Conservative Supermajority Is Just Beginning To Flex Its Muscles

The damage that these conservative ideologues can do is almost incalculable….

“The harmful rulings coming out of this court make it critical that Congress pass legislation to protect voting rights and shore up our democracy,” Jealous added. “We also have to build a strategy to reinforce the importance of fair courts and fair-minded judges, so we can counter the decadeslong efforts by the far right to pack our courts, including our Supreme Court, with ultraconservative judges.”

PFAW’s analysis came just a day after a pair of 6-3 SCOTUS rulings on Arizona’s voting restrictions and California’s dark money disclosure rules that led Senate Majority Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to dub Thursday “one of the darkest days in all of the Supreme Court’s history.”

https://www.rawstory.com/gop-supreme-court/

Since the Supreme Court is suppose to be the highest authority in the land for the interpretation of the Constitution and law….what could be next in the fight against this voter suppression attempts?

The decision, though, was a blow to those who believe voting access is more important than rooting out fraud — and that’s most Americans, the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found. Fifty-six percent said making sure that everyone who wants to vote can do so is a bigger concern than making sure that no one who is ineligible votes.

“It very much narrows the path of challenging these many, many voter obstacles that states are instituting across the country,” Debo Adegbile, an anti-discrimination attorney, told NPR’s Nina Totenberg.

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/03/1012777226/whats-next-for-voting-rights-after-the-supreme-courts-decision

I say screw SCOTUS!

The fight must go on and using whatever legal tactic one can imagine.

Every American old enough to vote should have easy access to the machinations of voting…..this country should be doing everything possible to see that we all have the right and the easy access to the polls.

Stand for liberty or sit down and STFU!

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”