A leaked presentation from the Harris County Republican Party shows an official citing widespread voter fraud in a call for 10,000 poll watchers in Texas. (Common Cause Texas)
Tag: GOP has to cheat to win
Texas faith leaders condemn new election bills as Jim Crow dressed up in a ‘tuxedo’
Faith leaders in Texas are accusing Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans of using ‘election integrity’ as an excuse to enact restrictive laws that target voters of color.
Faith leaders in Texas condemned a pair of controversial election bills Wednesday (April 7) working their way through the state Legislature, accusing lawmakers of trying to “dress up Jim and Jane Crow in a tuxedo.”
An array of clergy and other religious leaders assembled outside the Capitol in Austin to express opposition to the bills, known as SB 7 and HB 6. They invoked their respective faiths while criticizing provisions of the proposed legislation such as banning drive-thru voting, shortening early voting hours, sending mail voting applications only to voters who request them and requiring disabled voters to prove their disability with documentation from a physician or the federal government.
“We have those in leadership — in Texas government — (people) who have in their ideological DNA the same mindset of those slave masters who denied the humanity of Black people,” said the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas. “The same mindset of those individuals who upheld Jim and Jane Crow segregation.” Continue reading.
Senate panel dukes it out over voting rights
Lawmakers on the Senate Rules Committee clashed Wednesday over sweeping Democratic legislation on voting rights and campaign finance and redistricting reform.
“This bill is essential to protecting every American’s right to vote, getting dark money out of our elections, as well as some very important anti-corruption reforms,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the panel’s chairwoman, said in her opening statement on the For the People Act. “It is about strengthening our democracy by returning it to the hands of its rightful owners: the American people.”
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the ranking member on the panel, argued against the legislation, saying it would “force a single, partisan view of elections on more than 10,000 jurisdictions across the country.” Continue reading.
It’s Time For Corporate America To Step Up And Defend Democracy
As the Senate minority tries to kill H.R. 1, which would add many more Americans to the voting rolls, there is a simple and effective mechanism to build support for the bill to expand the franchise.
Corporate America needs to step up or face a serious reputational risk for not supporting the For The People Act.
That bill would ensure voting by mail, which, despite fact-free Trumpian claims of fraud, works as well or better than in-person voting, It would make sure people are not limited to Tuesdays to cast ballots, a practice enacted early in America’s history when men with property voted, but few working men cast ballots. Continue reading.
Republicans have a scheme for increasing their Electoral College advantage: report
Although some liberals and progressives have proposed abolishing the Electoral College and electing presidents via the popular vote — which is how other democratic republics do it — various Democratic strategists have argued that in the long run, Democrats will have an Electoral College advantage because of changing demographics. Republicans, meanwhile, are still fuming over the fact that President Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes in 2020 despite all of former President Donald Trump’s underhanded tricks. And according to an article by The Atlantic’s Russell Berman, some Republicans are pushing different ideas for making the Electoral College more difficult for Democrats.
“A few months after losing the White House,” Berman explains, “Republicans across the country have had a revelation: the Electoral College could use some improvements. The problem is that they have contradictory proposals for how to fix it — and contradictory arguments for why those proposals would help Americans pick their president. In Wisconsin, Michigan and New Hampshire, GOP lawmakers want to award Electoral College votes by congressional district, just like Nebraska and Maine currently do. But in Nebraska, Republicans want to do the opposite, and return to the same winner-takes-all method used by, well, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, and almost every other state.”
In Wisconsin, Berman notes, State Rep. Gary Tauchen, a Republican, has proposed splitting Wisconsin’s electoral votes by congressional district. Similarly, New Hampshire State Sen. Bill Gannon wants that type of split in his state. Continue reading.
‘I’m begging America to pay attention’: Elections lawyer sounds the alarm on GOP voter suppression
Elections lawyer Marc Elias is begging Americans to pay attention to the laws that state legislatures are passing that will make it more difficult for them to vote. He’s so desperate to get the U.S. people to help that he’s outright begging.
“It is just different this time,” he explained. “This is not to say that there are not other problems in the world. I recognize that there are other stories that have to be covered. But I am begging America, and the media to pay attention to this. Right now, we are facing an avalanche of voter suppression that we have not seen before. At least not since Jim Crow, in state after state.”
The two talked about Iowa’s new voter suppression law, which came after there were no reports of voter fraud in the state, and the officials didn’t have any problems carrying out the election. Continue reading.
California GOP considers adding more disputed ballot boxes
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s Republican Party no longer will label its ballot drop boxes as “official” to avoid confusion with those used by county registrars, but may expand their use even as state officials say they’re illegal, a party official said Tuesday.
California GOP spokesman Hector Barajas said the party started using the boxes in three of the most hotly contested congressional districts and now may use them more widely.
“It gives voters another opportunity to be able to turn in their ballots if they choose to do so,” he said. “This is just another option.” Continue reading.
The GOP is staging chaos on the way to a coup
Two news stories story that almost speak for themselves without the need for commentary.
First, the 4-3 conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has made a bizarre, nonsensical ruling that will throw Wisconsin’s entire election into disarray for no good reason.
Then the Wisconsin Supreme Court stepped in. On Thursday afternoon, by a 4–3 vote divided along partisan lines, the court issued a strange, cryptic order that could throw the election into chaos. The conservative majority directed the Wisconsin Elections Commission to turn over a massive amount of information it did not actually have. These justices then halted the mailing of more absentee ballots while they consider nullifying every ballot that has been printed or mailed and forcing the state to start over. Their stunning eleventh-hour intervention could force election officials into an impossible position: either comply with the court’s order or violate both state and federal law.
Court Blocks Trump’s Attempt To Change Who Counts For Allocating House Seats
A special three-judge court in New York on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to make an unprecedented change to who is included in the census numbers that determine each state’s share of seats in Congress.
The president, the court concluded, cannot leave unauthorized immigrants out of that specific count.
The decision comes after the July release of a memorandum by President Trump that directs Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the U.S. Census Bureau, to provide Trump with information needed to exclude immigrants who are living in the United States without authorization from the apportionment count. Continue reading.
Jim Jordan attacks Democrats for wanting to make sure every vote is counted
Jordan sought to defend Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s changes to the Postal Service, which could cause voters to be disenfranchised.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) attacked his House Democratic colleagues for wanting to make sure every vote in the 2020 election is counted.
Jordan made the attack during a congressional hearing on Monday with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, whose changes to the U.S. Postal Service operative procedure have caused so many delays that even the service is warning Americans their mail-in ballots may not be counted due to slowdowns.
“We know what this is about. We all know what this is about,” Jordan said, referring to the hearing the House Oversight Committee was holding to demand answers from DeJoy about why mail has been delayed since he took the helm of the agency. Continue reading.