“The things they had in there were crazy. They had levels of voting, that if you ever agreed to it you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again.” -- the president commenting in March on democratic efforts to expand voting by mail to deal with Covid-19
The New York Times writes:
“ATLANTA — Georgia’s statewide primary elections on Tuesday were overwhelmed by a full-scale meltdown of new voting systems put in place after widespread claims of voter suppression during the state’s 2018 governor’s election.
Scores of new state-ordered voting machines were reported to be missing or malfunctioning, and hourslong lines materialized at polling places across Georgia.
Some people gave up and left before casting a ballot, and concerns spread that the problems would disenfranchise untold voters, particularly African-Americans. Predominantly black areas experienced some of the worst problems.
Security experts had warned that there was not nearly enough time to switch systems before the 2020 elections — especially amid the coronavirus pandemic, which ravaged the state and scared away hundreds of poll workers.”
Republicans in power can assert until they are blue in the face that they are serious about preventing voter fraud and protecting elections and the right to vote. All of that is a lie. They are hell-bent on committing as much voter suppression as they can get away with.
An anecdote from Indiana
My sister-in-law lives in Indiana. She timely asked for a ballot to vote by mail. She has health problems that makes her want to stay out of public as much as she can to try to avoid Covid-19. The state did not send her ballot in time for her to vote. So, she spent time in a line with people mostly wearing masks. On the line, people without masks were handing out voter materials urging people to vote for GOP candidates.
In Indiana, electioneering at polling places is illegal.[1] The GOP doesn't care about that, or it gets as close to the line of legality as its minions are willing to get, 50 feet away from the door in this case.
Again, there is no evidence the GOP is working to protect voters and their right to access voting options. The evidence points in the opposite direction.
One can only wonder if voters who take the pamphlets into the voting area are breaking the law is the pamphlets are clear about supporting the GOP and others can read that.
An opinion from Iowa
“Republican state lawmakers are on a mission: Make it as difficult as possible for Iowans to vote.
Their latest effort to fulfill this mission came in the form of a last-minute 30-page amendment to a previously simple, noncontroversial bill. Sen. Roby Smith, R-Davenport, said the new legislation, passed along party lines after a contentious late-night debate, is intended to support “safe, secure and reliable elections.”
It is not. Iowa already has safe, secure and reliable elections.
The goal is voter suppression.
The bill, among other things, prohibits the secretary of state from mailing absentee ballot requests to Iowans without a written voter request.
In other words, it would prevent the current secretary, Republican Paul Pate, from doing exactly what he recently did. To promote voting by mail during the coronavirus pandemic, he sent mail-in ballot request forms for the June 2 primary to all registered voters in the state.”
Fortunately in the case of Iowa, GOP voter suppression efforts may be backfiring. The writer goes on to point out that mostly the same group that passed an unnecessary Voter ID law based on a false claim of voter fraud. That GOP effort “resulted in confusion, court challenges and hurdles to voting.”
It is reasonable to expect GOP state legislatures from doing everything they can to suppress votes in advance of the November 2020 election.
Nationwide
NBC news reports that the GOP and the president's campaign is planning to recruiting about 50,000 poll watcher volunteers. The GOP wants to police who votes and how. The effort includes a $20 million fund for legal battles and the GOP's first national poll-patrol operation in nearly 40 years. NBC writes:
“While poll watching is an ordinary part of elections — both parties do it — voting rights advocates worry that such a moneyed, large-scale offensive by the Republicans will intimidate and target minority voters who tend to vote Democratic and chill turnout in a pivotal contest already upended by the coronavirus pandemic.
Some states allow poll monitors to challenge a voter's eligibility, requiring that person's ballot undergo additional vetting to be counted. In Michigan, for example, a challenged voter will be removed from line and questioned about their citizenship, age, residency and date of voter registration if, according to election rules, a vote challenger has "good reason" to believe they are not eligible. They are required to take an oath attesting that their answers are true and are given a special ballot.
The Trump campaign says the aim is to prevent voter fraud before it happens, despite researchers, academics and the president's own voter fraud commission all failing to find evidence that widespread fraud exists in years of searching.
But a coordinated poll-watch effort, advocates warned, is particularly dangerous because of the GOP's history of using monitors to intimidate minority voters.”
It looks like we are headed into some serious voter suppression in the coming months.
Footnote:
1. Indiana public media comments: “At all polling locations in Indiana, it is illegal to engage in "electioneering," which simply means expressing support or opposition to any candidate or political party or public question. This includes something as simple as wearing a t-shirt or button with a candidate logo. It also applies to what might be considered "voter intimidation," such as harassing voters headed into a polling place. The rules apply to the polling place directly and to the "chute," which is 50 feet from any entrance to a polling place.”
The GOP goal for 2020 elections
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