With early voting starting Monday, a range of efforts to restrict voting in the Peach State could cause big problems at the polls. Reports that Georgia is keeping 53,000 voter registrations on hold because of minor discrepancies have received widespread attention since Monday. But in fact, the state has recently adopted a range of controversial voting practices. The combined effect … Read More
The GOP Post-Kavanaugh Strategy
Kavanaugh’s elevation to the Supreme Court is a triumph of the minority. Trump was elected by a minority. A minority of Americans wanted Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. And yet, there he sits. For decades. Greg Sargeant has some great thoughts: On Tuesday, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh will hear his first Supreme Court case, a day after President Trump swore in his … Read More
Your Facebook Data, Cambridge Analytica, and Russia: Was There Collusion?
During an interview on TODAY this morning, Christopher Wylie, a former employee of U.K.-based data analytics company Cambridge Analytica, revealed the company worked with two key Trump campaign aides prior to President Donald Trump’s candidacy. “Cambridge Analytica was meeting with Corey Lewandowski in 2015 before Trump had even announced and offering the services that I’m talking about right now,” Wiley said, referring to Trump’s … Read More
Oh I Do NOT Like How This Sounds
Reuters Exclusive: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of a federal agency who has helped U.S. states protect election systems from possible cyber attacks by Russia or others is being removed from his post by Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and the White House. Matthew Masterson, currently chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and a former Ohio state … Read More
PA State Legislature Gets Ballsy
Think Progress: In an audacious move by a political leader who could potentially be held in contempt of court, Pennsylvania Senate President pro tempore Joseph Scarnati (R) informed the state supreme court on Wednesday that he will openly defy one of the court’s recent orders in a gerrymandering case. On January 22, the state supreme court struck down the state’s gerrymandered congressional maps — … Read More
Three-Judge Panel Strikes Down NC Districts As Political Gerrymandering
This is a huge decision not only locally, but nationally. A federal court yesterday ruled that Republicans in North Carolina unconstitutionally gerrymandered congressional districts in 2016 to ensure Republican “domination of the state’s congressional delegation.” The three-judge panel struck down the map and ordered the state’s General Assembly to come up with a substitute by Jan. 24. The decision was … Read More
Bogus Voting Commission Meets For Second Time
A few days before President Donald Trump’s “election integrity” commission meets in New Hampshire on Tuesday, its vice chair, Kris Kobach, published a column in Breitbart claiming “proof” that voter fraud in the state had tipped the election against Donald Trump and Republican Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte. Kobach cited numbers released by the state’s Republican House speaker showing that 6,540 people voted in New Hampshire on Election … Read More
Interesting Poll Numbers From North Carolina — Trump Underwater
From PPP: PPP’s new North Carolina poll finds strong, bipartisan opposition to cuts the General Assembly has made to the budget of the North Carolina Department of Justice. Only 18% of voters support the 10 million dollars in cuts that have been made, to 60% who say they are opposed to them. This opposition is shared by independents (9/68), Democrats … Read More
NC Legislature Still At It
Despite protests, widespread criticism and a threat by the governor-elect to challenge in court any moves that he believes would unconstitutionally limit his power, the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature is pushing through reforms that would severely limit the incoming Democratic governor’s power. It’s insane. One such measure, which passed the House, was that the GOP and the Democratic Party would alternate the … Read More
Trump’s Lies About Voter Fraud Will Make Voting Harder
From The Nation, we get another aspect of how things are getting worse already: Less than a month after Donald Trump unexpectedly carried Michigan by 10,000 votes, Republicans in the state legislature are already pushing to make it harder to vote. The presidential recount hasn’t even finished yet and Michigan Republicans are trying to pass a strict voter-ID law through … Read More
North Carolina On Center Stage Of Voter Suppression Issues
BACKSTORY: About a month ago, on July 29, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down North Carolina’s anti-voter law. The appeals court noted that the 2013 law suppressed African-American voter turnout “with almost surgical precision” and invalidated most of it. The court’s scathing opinion said that “because of race, the legislature enacted one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern … Read More
Breaking: Big Victory For Voter Rights — No Voter ID In Upcoming NC Elections
NC voter ID law will NOT be enforced in fall election after the U.S. Supreme Court denies stay request (in a 4-4 split — obviously, had Scalia lived, it would have been a loss for voting rights advocates, but he didn’t so……) The stay was a request by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and state officials to delay a permanent injunction blocking provisions in … Read More
Voter ID Upheld In NC
The New York Times reports: “North Carolina’s voter identification law requires people to display one of six credentials, such as a driver’s license or passport, before casting a ballot. Those who cannot may complete a “reasonable impediment declaration” and cast a provisional ballot. “Although critics of the law said that the voter identification standard was a cloaked effort to disenfranchise … Read More
How Does A “Error” Like This Happen?
Answer… it doesn’t. I’m talking about the Spanish-language voter guides from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office include two errors about registering to vote in the state, while the English guides do not include the same errors. The Spanish-language guides said that voters could register up to 15 days before the election, while the English version included the correct … Read More
SCOTUS Strikes Down Texas Voting Suppression Attempt
They saw what you did there, Texas. Since the 1960s — the case of Wesberry v. Sanders – to be specific — we have had a “one person, one vote” which says that state legislative districts must be drawn so they are equal in population. But the Republican asshole legislature in Texas (of course) wanted legislative lines to be drawn based on eligible … Read More