Tag: GOP voter suppression

Klobuchar Lays Out New Goals for Often Low-Key Rules Committee

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The panel typically focuses on the Senate’s inner workings, but its chairwoman, Amy Klobuchar, is seeking to transform it into a major force on voting rights.

WASHINGTON — The usually obscure Senate Rules Committee is the most insider of insider panels, typically responsible for doling out precious Capitol office space, keeping the Senate running and handling fights over arcane floor procedures.

But circumstances and the ambitions of the committee’s current chairwoman, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, have thrust the panel into the middle of things. In just six months, she has spearheaded a push for a sweeping voting rights bill sought by Democrats while her committee has investigated failings in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. The panel was also in charge of staging President Biden’s inauguration, only two weeks after the deadly riot.

“For so long people have been focused, understandably, on the inner workings of the Senate with the Rules Committee,” said Ms. Klobuchar, who answered with an emphatic “yes” when asked if she was trying to turn the panel into a force. “But the point is we have a bigger jurisdiction, and that’s our democracy.” Continue reading.

Capitol Police arrest Rep. Joyce Beatty at protest

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Congressional Black Caucus chair was part of a group advocating voting rights

Capitol Police arrested Congressional Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, for participating in a voting rights demonstration in the Hart Senate Office Building on Thursday.

Beatty and eight other voting rights activists were arrested for crowding, obstructing or incommoding, the legal term used by the department when protesters are arrested on Capitol Hill. 

They were protesting to call for action in the Senate on the For the People Act, a wide-ranging elections overhaul bill that would, among other actions, expand voting rights significantly. Republicans in the chamber blocked the measure in June, utilizing the filibuster and its 60-vote threshold to prevent the Senate from moving forward on it. Continue reading.

Opinion: Republicans are dismantling the right to vote. But they’ve enshrined the right to infect.

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In the United States in the year 2021, you, as an American citizen, do not necessarily have the right to vote.

You do not necessarily have the right to teach or to learn about matters of race, gender or anything else state lawmakers consider “divisive concepts.”

But you do have one absolute, sacrosanct, inviolate, God-given, self-evident and inalienable right: the right to refuse a coronavirus vaccine — and to infect as many people as you can.

With the blessing of the Roberts court, legislatures in Republican-run states are rushing to impose new voting restrictions, particularly on non-White voters. A tally by the Brennan Center finds that, as of June 21, 17 states had enacted 28 new laws restricting the ability to vote since the start of this year. Continue reading.

Top credit rating agency warns Trump’s ‘failure to concede’ and GOP voter suppression could tank US AAA status

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One of the “Big Three” credit reporting agencies that rate government bonds and securities on Tuesday issued a warning that the U.S. could lose its coveted AAA status over issues currently hanging over American democracy.

In a “rating action commentary” published just minutes after markets closed Fitch Ratings said it “has affirmed the United States’ Long-Term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘AAA,'” but warned: “The Rating Outlook is Negative.”

Why? Continue reading.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s big test: Shepherding election reform

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The Minnesota Democrat faces the mammoth task of leading the push for the sweeping legislation in the Senate. 

WASHINGTON – The massive election reform measure that Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is trying to shepherd through a crucial test in the Senate has all the makings of a moonshot: hard to achieve and fraught with complications.

For “anyone who is serious about trying to get something done to make it easier for people to vote … we’re ready to go,” Minnesota’s senior senator said in an interview.

Dubbed the For the People Act, the bill affects topics from voter registration to absentee ballots to campaign finance to ethics laws. Republicans charge that it’s an unconstitutional attempt by the federal government to wrest control of elections from states. Continue reading.

Arizona Republicans push back against Justice Department concerns, setting up possible clash over Maricopa County recount

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Arizona officials involved with a Republican-commissioned recount of the November presidential election in the state’s largest county on Thursday brushed off concerns raised by the Justice Department this week, raising the possibility of a clash between state and federal authorities over the audit.

Pamela S. Karlan, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, wrote a letter to the president of the Arizona state Senate on Wednesday suggesting that the recount of nearly 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County by a private contractor may not comply with federal law, which requires that ballots be securely maintained for 22 months following a federal election.

“We have a concern that Maricopa County election records, which are required by federal law to be retained and preserved, are no longer under the ultimate control of elections officials, are not being adequately safeguarded by contractors, and are at risk of damage or loss,” she wrote. Continue reading.

Florida’s new voting law immediately hit with lawsuits

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Voting rights groups on Thursday filed a pair of lawsuits targeting a restrictive GOP-crafted voting bill, just moments after it was signed into law by Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

The complaints, both filed in federal court in Tallahassee, claim the law, SB 90, illegally restricts access to the ballot box, with one of the suits alleging the measure will result in illegal discrimination against voters of color.

“SB 90 is a bill that purports to solve problems that do not exist,” reads one of the suits. “[It] caters to a dangerous lie about the 2020 election that threatens our most basic democratic values, and, in the end, makes it harder to vote without adequate justification for doing so.” Continue reading.

New poll confirms the GOP’s fears on voting rights

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Zero GOP lawmakers have backed the For the People Act, congressional Democrats’ comprehensive plan to strengthen U.S. democracy by making it easier to vote, curbing partisan gerrymandering, and limiting the influence of money in politics.

Republican voters, however, support many of the proposals in the 800-page bill, according to a new poll released Monday.

The survey (pdf) of 1,138 likely voters across the country—conducted from April 16 to April 19 by Data for Progress on behalf of Vox—found that, when presented without partisan cues, the voting rights and election reform bill is popular with voters across party lines. Overall, 69% of the electorate supports the For the People Act, including 52% of Republicans, 70% of Independents, and 85% of Democrats. Continue reading.

Here are 4 reasons why GOP voter suppression bills ‘may backfire’ and hurt Republicans more than Democrats: conservative

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If Republicans have a majority in a state legislature in the U.S. — or even if they don’t — chances are they are proposing some type of voter suppression bill in 2021. The obvious goal is to make it more difficult for Democrats to vote in the 2022 and 2024 elections. But journalist David Frum, a Never Trump conservative, considers this terrible policy on the part of Republicans —and in an article published by The Atlantic, Frum lays out “four specific ways that their voter suppression measures may backfire” and hurt Republicans more than Democrats.

Reason #1, according to Frum: “Voter suppression can countermobilize its targets.”

Frum explains, “Requiring extra paperwork, imposing burdensome identification requirements and facilitating lengthy queues on Voting Day are effective ways of dissuading people who are only weakly committed to the political process; they are less effective against people strongly committed to the process. But in the 2010s, Republicans repeatedly used voter suppression to elect politicians — including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and President Donald Trump — who proceeded to convert their opponents’ weakly committed supporters into strongly committed voters.” Continue reading.

Oklahoma Governor Signs Law Granting Immunity for Drivers Who Kill Protesters

Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a new law that would grant protections for drivers who hit and kill protesters while attempting to drive away from a protest and implements harsher penalties on people who block roads or highways during a protest. Democrats and activists decried the law as stifling protest and citizens’ First Amendment rights.

HB 1674, which Republican legislators passed earlier this week, grants civil and criminal immunity for drivers who “unintentionally” harm or kill protesters while “fleeing from a riot,” as long as there is a “reasonable belief that fleeing was necessary.”

“This legislation is not about safety,” said Nicole McAfee, director of policy and advocacy at the Oklahoma American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in a statement. “It is about centering the convenience of people who already have the power and protections of the law. It is about responding to calls for transparency by protesters and the media with the criminalization of those transparency efforts.” Continue reading.