LaxPower Back-Up Stick

Voter Fraud Alarmist Group Blames Election Officials For Its Own Misleading Report

"A group headed by an ex-Trump voter fraud commissioner that was sued over misleading reports it produced claiming to show mass non-citizen voter registration is taking its legal defense to a whole new level.

In new court filings, the group is blaming state election officials for any inaccuracies in the reports, and is seeking to drag them into the litigation and saddle them with any liability for the group’s reports.


The Public Interest Legal Foundation, whose president, J. Christian Adams, is also a defendant in the lawsuit, asked a court to make the Virginia Department of Elections a third-party defendant in the lawsuit."

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White House, Some Republicans Block Legislation To Prevent Election Hacking

States rights concerns seem to be the biggest blocker...

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Election Officials Are Alarmed as Trump Administration Subpoenas Voter Data From 44 North Carolina Counties

"Riggs said the indictments and corresponding subpoenas will be exploited by North Carolina Republicans, who have aggressively passed laws tightening access to the ballot. In November, voters in North Carolina will decide whether to approve a constitutional amendment requiring a photo ID to vote. A similar law was blocked by a federal court in 2016 for targeting African American voters “with almost surgical precision.” Many of the 44 counties targeted by the Justice Department have large African American populations.

“This will lead to voter suppression and intimidation,” said Riggs. “It’s sad it’s being launched in eastern North Carolina, which is heavily black, heavily rural, and heavily poor. Some of the most vulnerable voters are now at ground zero of this effort.”

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Democrats Need Voters’ Help To Fix Gerrymandering. Will They Get It?

"A constellation of liberal groups is trying to make voting rights issues like gerrymandering and automatic voter registration the ones that get voters to the polls."

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A House Still Divided

Interesting historical look at how the Party of Lincoln (yes, the republican party) has wrestled with racism and voting rights.

"And yet it is the least recognizable of racism’s assaults that are most portentous—and their beginnings predate the Trump presidency. Those people of color not imprisoned or deported are robbed of their political power by other means. In 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts justified a rollback of federal voting regulations by writing, in Shelby County v. Holder, that “our country has changed” since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. But by Election Day 2016, 14 states had instituted new voting restrictions. Our country has changed—but only in the way votes are suppressed. In the old days, before the Voting Rights Act, states and counties suppressed voting by men and eventually women of color through property requirements, literacy tests, and poll taxes—while tacitly condoning employer intimidation and Ku Klux Klan violence. Now states and counties suppress votes through early-voting restrictions, limits on absentee and mail-in ballots, poll closures, felon disenfranchisement, and laws requiring voters to have a photo ID."

[snip]

"And yet it is the least recognizable of racism’s assaults that are most portentous—and their beginnings predate the Trump presidency. Those people of color not imprisoned or deported are robbed of their political power by other means. In 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts justified a rollback of federal voting regulations by writing, in Shelby County v. Holder, that “our country has changed” since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. But by Election Day 2016, 14 states had instituted new voting restrictions. Our country has changed—but only in the way votes are suppressed. In the old days, before the Voting Rights Act, states and counties suppressed voting by men and eventually women of color through property requirements, literacy tests, and poll taxes—while tacitly condoning employer intimidation and Ku Klux Klan violence. Now states and counties suppress votes through early-voting restrictions, limits on absentee and mail-in ballots, poll closures, felon disenfranchisement, and laws requiring voters to have a photo ID."

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The Future Of 1.4 Million Floridians With Felony Convictions Is On The Ballot In November

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Looks like you have no friends. Maybe try Facebook or something.

While most people retain the right to vote, a Democratic party majority is of no value in elections if voting districts are gerrymandered. This is a problem the Dems refuse to address and, more importantly, to correct. What follows are two links with info on the subject:


1) GOP-appointed Michigan justice says she was intimidated, shunned for anti-gerrymandering decision


https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/ar ... g-decision


One of the Republican-appointed Michigan Supreme Court justices who voted in favor allowing the anti-gerrymandering Proposal 2 on the Nov. 6 ballot says she was bullied by "outside interests" before her decision and shunned by the GOP afterward. The court was split on a 4-3 vote.

Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Clement made the revelations to The Detroit News in an article published Monday, saying there has "absolutely been an effort at bullying and intimidation" to influence her decision.


2) Voting Rights Roundup: Four states vote on redistricting reforms in November. Here's how they work


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9 ... -they-work


Redistricting reform will be on the ballot in four states this November, following the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision not to hear a GOP-backed appeal seeking to block a state legislative redistricting reform from going before voters.



For years the Dem party refuses to correct this problem so that despite their majority numbers, they continue to needlessly lose elections every year. This is a matter of choice for them. It remains to be seen whether they will ever change their passive ways and to fight forcefully to end this gross injustice.

You make it sound like the Rs are the only ones carving up states to their political advantage. Google “congressional district map” for any D controlled state and you’ll see a fair share of swirls, pig tails, and hourglass shapes in those states, too. You won’t though because it doesn’t fit your narrative. MA and CA look like children’s finger paintings.

They Are All The Same, and have been since the early 1800s when Elbridge Gerry rigged a MA redistricting.

Not so for California (where I've lived for 35 years), whose districts were drawn by an independent commission with equal R and D representation. It's the only good thing that has ever emerged from the California proposition system, but it's a very good thing.

CU77 wrote:Not so for California (where I've lived for 35 years), whose districts were drawn by an independent commission with equal R and D representation. It's the only good thing that has ever emerged from the California proposition system, but it's a very good thing.

Thanks for the insight, CU. Perhaps you can explain to me why the commission carved up certain districts as they did.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Califor ... _districts
It looks to me like there have to be ulterior motives for certain district boundaries. The obvious ones to me are 21, 23, 29, 30, 31, 33, and 51. Those are some pretty strange looking congressional districts.

Do you want my guess as to why the “independent” commission drew such crazy boundaries? Because at the end of the day they’re all politicians. All an independent commission does is assure the status quo - the members got together and said let’s carve this up so as to best assure you keep yours and we’ll keep ours.

They Are All The Same.

It's pretty telling when one side tries to win by restricting voting rights of those who are legal voters versus another side who tries to win by getting more legal voters to vote.

You should be able to win on your own merits, not by disenfranchising voters or making voting harder on legal voters.

Brooklyn wrote:While most people retain the right to vote, a Democratic party majority is of no value in elections if voting districts are gerrymandered. This is a problem the Dems refuse to address and, more importantly, to correct.

...because they benefit from it?

holmes435 wrote:It's pretty telling when one side tries to win by restricting voting rights of those who are legal voters versus another side who tries to win by getting more legal voters to vote.

You should be able to win on your own merits, not by disenfranchising voters or making voting harder on legal voters.

Like dead military veterans?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/vi ... bcbe6e4d5b
Virginia Politics
He fought in World War II. He died in 2014. And he just registered to vote in Va.

All of the forms had been submitted by a private group that was working to register voters on the campus of James Madison University, according to the Harrisonburg registrar’s office. The group was not identified.

Looks like they were caught. Good, hope they continue to keep an eye on all registrations!

That's 19 bad registrations (that may have voted Republican) - hopefully they are prosecuted if they broke the law. There are certainly outliers around on both sides, but Trump's own voting commission did not find any widespread fraud.

Then there's suppression and gerrymandering affecting tens of thousands of votes vs. those 19, which would have a very hard time voting even if they got through.

Why not give more people jobs observing, securing and verifying our voter registrations, voting places and votes if you're that worried? Seems like a no-brainer.

Voter rights and the "crisis" of disenfranchised voters is, imho, a red herring.

What percentage of eligible voters actually turn up on election day?

..... not real impressive....

I just ain't buying the voter repression story as being anything remotely meaningful. The voters are repressing themselves......

HooDat wrote:Voter rights and the "crisis" of disenfranchised voters is, imho, a red herring.

What percentage of eligible voters actually turn up on election day?

..... not real impressive....

I just ain't buying the voter repression story as being anything remotely meaningful. The voters are repressing themselves......

Voting can be a huge pain if you're not retired or moderately well off.

It's super easy to eliminate "repression" accusations by expanding early and absentee voting. Unfortunately Republicans are restricting those options as well.

which would imply that voters are primarily comprised of the relatively well off and the unemployed.

when you think about it, that kinda makes sense. Those seem to be the two groups to whom the politicians pander the most.....

holmes435 wrote:

HooDat wrote:Voter rights and the "crisis" of disenfranchised voters is, imho, a red herring.

What percentage of eligible voters actually turn up on election day?

..... not real impressive....

I just ain't buying the voter repression story as being anything remotely meaningful. The voters are repressing themselves......

Voting can be a huge pain if you're not retired or moderately well off.

It's super easy to eliminate "repression" accusations by expanding early and absentee voting. Unfortunately Republicans are restricting those options as well.

Man, it's so hard to make to those polls, only open from 7am till 9pm. One day every other year. So hard to plan ahead.

And 30 states let you leave work and vote. Many pay you while you do it too!
Check your state here:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.busine ... te-2016-11