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Mitch McConnell Attacks The Volunteer Backbone Of Elections

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Mitch McConnell Attacks The Volunteer Backbone Of Elections

338

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

2/6/19
The country is in desperate need of more volunteer poll workers, who spend 14- to 15-hour days making sure people can exercise their right to vote. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is claiming Democrats’ effort to get more federal workers to help is actually a corrupt scheme to steal elections. The Democrats’ proposal is part of a major voting rights, campaign finance and ethics reform bill that McConnell has railed against for weeks. Along with making Election Day a federal holiday, the For The People Act would give federal workers up to six days off to train and work the polls for elections. “This is the Democrat plan to restore democracy?” McConnell asked. “A brand-new week of paid vacation for every federal employee who would like to hover around while you cast your ballot?” McConnell’s implication is clear: working the polls is an easy job that presents the opportunity for corrupt interference. In reality, poll workers are holding elections together. “Poll workers really ensure that our democracy can function appropriately,” said Aerion Abney, Pennsylvania state director for All Voting Is Local, a voting rights nonprofit. “And without poll workers, we can’t really hold elections,” he said.

That’s one of the reasons behind the poll workers provision in the legislation. Bipartisan federal election commissions and local election officials around the country have raised the alarm about persistent shortages of volunteers. These shortages lead to long lines and other problems for voters throughout the country. Nearly 65 percent of jurisdictions reported that it was either “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to attract volunteer poll workers, according to a 2016 report by the Election Assistance Commission. This problem was especially acute in the most populated jurisdictions, where 88 percent found it either very or somewhat difficult to recruit enough poll workers. The For The People Act provision would allow the federal Office of Personnel Management to write regulations “setting the terms and conditions” for federal workers taking paid leave to work the polls. The Hatch Act already bans federal workers from using their official position to influence elections. This provision is one of many that could reduce problems at polling places on Election Day, according to Abney, whose organization worked to fill a shortage of poll workers in Pennsylvania in 2018. In the meantime, elected officials like McConnell shouldn’t “discourage people from wanting to participate in the process,” Abney said. Instead, they should appreciate the volunteers that allow elections to happen. “We don’t give enough appreciation and value to poll workers and what they do to uphold our democracy,” he said.

In typical GOP fashion, McConnell will do everything possible to discourage and sabotage a faster and smoother voting process.
 
Didn't Trump put together a phony election/voter fraud task force together when he took office? You remember, the one headed by that absolute partisan voter suppression guy, who was running around trying to get other Republicans in various states to adopt his methods of voter suppression?

That investigation that was a sham, and of course that found no widespread evidence of it, and ended up disbanding to try and save what little face was left?
I think they cited pressure from all the corrupt democrats as to why they disbanded...

Yeah, Republicans know they are full of **** on this.
 
If it isn't already illegal for Federal employees to work the polls, it oughta be.
 
Didn't Trump put together a phony election/voter fraud task force together when he took office? You remember, the one headed by that absolute partisan voter suppression guy, who was running around trying to get other Republicans in various states to adopt his methods of voter suppression? That investigation that was a sham, and of course that found no widespread evidence of it, and ended up disbanding to try and save what little face was left?

Kris Kobach Is the G.O.P. at Its Worst

Kobach suffered a shellacking from Democrat Laura Kelly in the 2018 race for Kansas governor.
 
Republicans/Conservatives want Jim Crow equivalent laws for Democratic Party voters in general.

Republicans in several states have been enacting latter day Jim Crow laws already.

In UK "returning officials" staff the elections, i.e., civil servants. This is the idea Mitch McConnell fears.
 
These are the people who call the idea of making election day a federal holiday, so that more people can vote, is trying to steal elections. That alone tells you all you need to know.
 
And the recent election in BROWARD COUNTY makes his point , QUITE EFFECTIVELY.

A single cherry-picked data point makes a statistically relevant point? I'd like to start a fund to send Trump supporters back to school.

Meanwhile, Republicans *actually* engaged in brazen election fraud. The guy gets caught a year ago, but no one investigates/prosecutes...does it *again*, caught yet again...helped get a lot of Republicans elected through election fraud. Corrupt as ****.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...oing-this-eight-years/?utm_term=.8719d4af6ba9
 
Mitch McConnell Attacks The Volunteer Backbone Of Elections

338

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)



In typical GOP fashion, McConnell will do everything possible to discourage and sabotage a faster and smoother voting process.

Can we say "Harry Reid"? Harry blocked every Republican thing he could in his quest for resistance and obstructionism and now that Democrats control the House, his policies have come home to roost. The House will be a totally useless body that can only be heard through soundbites on the MSM.
 
Can we say "Harry Reid"? Harry blocked every Republican thing he could in his quest for resistance and obstructionism and now that Democrats control the House, his policies have come home to roost. The House will be a totally useless body that can only be heard through soundbites on the MSM.

Harry Reid is not the current Senate Majority Leader. Try again with a different whataboutism.
 
A single cherry-picked data point makes a statistically relevant point? I'd like to start a fund to send Trump supporters back to school.

Meanwhile, Republicans *actually* engaged in brazen election fraud. The guy gets caught a year ago, but no one investigates/prosecutes...does it *again*, caught yet again...helped get a lot of Republicans elected through election fraud. Corrupt as ****.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...oing-this-eight-years/?utm_term=.8719d4af6ba9

Well then why don’t you look at another data point. Like how Balderson won his primary.
 
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