Tag: GOP voter suppression

‘Jim Crow 2.0’: Georgia Dem lays out the hardships the state’s ‘cruel’ and draconian new voter suppression law will cause

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In Georgia, State Rep. Donna McLeod was among the Democrats who fought hard against the voter suppression bill that Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law on Thursday, March 25 — and the next morning, McLeod did not mince words when she slammed the law as “White supremacy” and “Jim Crow 2.0” during an appearance on CNN’s “New Day.”

McLeod, who was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 2016, told CNN hosts Alisyn Camerota and John Berman, “I live in Gwinnett County. We have endured lines every single election. This is just going to create more lines because you’re not giving people more options to vote. And with longer lines, that means you’re going to have people that will probably not want to vote anymore.”

Georgia’s new law goes out of its way to make voting more difficult in the Peach State, from limiting early voting to making absentee voting more complicated to reducing the number of ballot drop boxes. And the law is so draconian that it even makes it a crime to give food or water to someone who is waiting in line to vote. Continue reading.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar faces down GOP barrage on voting rights act

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Republicans decry “false narrative” in push to guarantee ballot access. 

WASHINGTON – The debate over a massive federal voting rights act erupted in tense exchanges Wednesday as Sen. Amy Klobuchar faced withering GOP criticism that the changes would cause chaos and undermine states’ rights.

The Minnesota Democrat, a lead sponsor of the For the People Act, said at a hearing of the Rules Committee she chairs that the measure is essential as GOP legislators in states across the country have drafted more than 250 measures to restrict voting access. She pointed to the chaos of hourslong waits at polling places, new limitations on early voting and new restrictions on who can cast mail-in ballots.

“The bill simply tries to make it easier to vote,” Klobuchar said. “The For the People Act is the best chance to stop the rollback of voting rights.” Continue reading.

Senate panel dukes it out over voting rights

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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.

Schumer sharply criticizes GOP on voting rights: ‘Shame, shame, shame’

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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday sharply criticized new bills being offered by Republicans in dozens of states that would place limits on the ability to vote.

Schumer, testifying before the Senate Rules Committee on a sweeping elections reform bill, accused Republicans of trying to “disenfranchise” voters after losing the 2020 election.

“Shame on them. … This is infuriating. I would like to ask my Republican colleagues: Why are you so afraid of democracy,” Schumer said. Continue reading.

Opinion: Republicans’ rhetoric on H.R. 1 is apocalyptic. Are they that afraid of democracy?

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TO HEAR Republicans tell it, a bill that the House passed late Wednesday night would spell the end of the republic. It is “unconstitutional, reckless, and anti-democratic,” former vice president Mike Pence proclaimed. The bill is “the most divisive, unconstitutional and destructive piece of legislation of my time in Congress,” Rep. Garland “Andy” Barr (R-Ky.) railed. “It would effectively make it legal to cheat.”

The bill that has these politicians frothing is H.R. 1, a long piece of legislation with a noble purpose: making it easier for Americans to vote and encouraging the government to be more responsive to the people. Republicans’ apocalyptic rhetoric is so wildly disproportionate to the contents of the bill, one must wonder what they are really worried about.

Conservatives complain that the bill would mandate early voting, no-excuse absentee voting, provisional ballots for people who accidentally vote out-of-precinct, same-day voter registration and automatic voter registration. So? There is nothing scary or even unusual about these reforms, which many states have embraced without seeing the pervasive fraud Republicans predict and claim falsely has occurred. Continue reading.

Republicans plan voting overhauls after Biden’s win

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Republican state legislators are advancing a rush of new bills aimed at limiting voting access, and especially access to voting by mail, in the wake of President Biden’s victory last year in the highest-turnout election in American history.

The proposals come after months of pressure from former President Trump, who with the help of Republican allies spread false claims and conspiracy theories related to the election, including that widespread voter fraud cost him a victory.

In many states, Republicans have used those claims to cite unspecified concerns about the integrity of their own elections, despite elections officials who show proof that counts were fair and accurate. Continue reading.

Judge dismisses GOP lawsuit against Georgia absentee voting rules

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A federal judge on Thursday rejected a Republican lawsuit seeking to change Georgia’s absentee voting procedures ahead of two Senate runoff elections next month, according to media reports.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall dismissed the lawsuit from the 12th Congressional District Republican Committee during a hearing on Thursday.

Hall, a George W. Bush appointee, said the plaintiffs’ allegations that the absentee ballot process increases the likelihood of voter fraud was not substantial enough to warrant changing the rules amid a runoff election. Continue reading.

Ken Paxton Fought Trump’s Legal Wars From Texas. Now He’s in Trouble.

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The Texas attorney general, who fought against the Affordable Care Act and mail-in voting, has been accused of wrongdoing by his own aides amid calls for his resignation.

AUSTIN, Texas — After his home and offices were raided by federal agents last year, a wealthy real estate investor in Austin got some help from a friend — who happened to be one of the most powerful officials in Texas.

The investor, Nate Paul, was convinced that the F.B.I. and other agencies had acted unlawfully. Normally, such accusations by the targets of federal investigations would be met with skepticism, but Mr. Paul contacted Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, a longtime friend whose re-election in 2018 he had supported with a $25,000 donation.

Mr. Paxton not only arranged a meeting with the local district attorney’s office, he also appointed a special prosecutor to look into Mr. Paul’s allegations about law enforcement. Continue reading.

Texas Supreme Court Rejects GOP Scheme To Toss 127,000 Ballots

A legal cloud hanging over nearly 127,000 votes already cast in Harris County was at least temporarily lifted Sunday when the Texas Supreme Court rejected a request by several conservative Republican activists and candidates to preemptively throw out early balloting from drive-thru polling sites in the state’s most populous, and largely Democratic, county.

The all-Republican court denied the request without an order or opinion, as justices did last month in a similar lawsuit brought by some of the same plaintiffs.

The Republican plaintiffs, however, are pursuing a similar lawsuit in federal court, hoping to get the votes thrown out by arguing that drive-thru voting violates the U.S. constitution. A hearing in that case is set for Monday morning in a Houston-based federal district court, one day before Election Day. A rejection of the votes would constitute a monumental disenfranchisement of voters — drive-thru ballots account for about 10% of all in-person ballots cast during early voting in Harris County.

After testing the approach during the July primary runoff with little controversy, Harris County, home to Houston, set up 10 drive-thru centers for the fall election to make early voting easier for people concerned about entering polling places during the pandemic. Voters pull up in their cars and, after their registrations and identifications have been confirmed by poll workers, are handed an electronic tablet through their car windows to cast ballots. Continue reading.

Corey Lewandowski denies GOP is engaging in voter suppression

The former Trump campaign manager says Republicans are merely focused on the integrity of the process.

Donald Trump’s first-ever campaign manager denied the president’s reelection campaign is engaging in voter suppression as it enters election week trailing in polls. 

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Corey Lewandowski brushed aside such accusations that have stemmed from Trump and the Republican Party looking to limit the collection and processing of a flood of mail-in ballots, as well as videotaping voters at a ballot drop box in Philadelphia, asserting that Republicans are looking to find voter fraud.

“Look, this is about the integrity of the process,” Lewandowski said, arguing that he didn’t believe anyone in the country should have a problem with the campaign suing to obtain the signatures of voters in Democratic-leaning Clark County, Nev. Continue reading.