Republicans Aim to Seize More Power Over How Elections Are Run

[Rogue Valley]

Republicans Aim to Seize More Power Over How Elections Are Run

3/24/21
In the turbulent aftermath of the 2020 presidential contest, election officials in Georgia, from the secretary of state’s office down to county boards, found themselves in a wholly unexpected position: They had to act as one of the last lines of defense against an onslaught of efforts by a sitting president and his influential allies to overturn the will of the voters. Now state Republicans are trying to strip these officials of their power. Buried in an avalanche of voting restrictions currently moving through the Georgia Statehouse are measures that would give G.O.P. lawmakers wide-ranging influence over the mechanics of voting and fundamentally alter the state’s governance of elections. The bill, which could clear the House as soon as Thursday and is likely to be passed by the Senate next week, would allow state lawmakers to seize control of county election boards and erode the power of the secretary of state’s office. “It’s looking at total control of the election process by elected officials, which is not what it should be,” said Helen Butler, a Democratic county board of elections member. “It’s all about turnout and trying to retain power.” It’s not just Georgia. In Arizona, Republicans are pushing for control over the rules of the state’s elections.

In Iowa, the G.O.P. has installed harsh new criminal penalties for county election officials who enact emergency voting rules. In Tennessee, a Republican legislator is trying to remove a sitting judge who ruled against the party in an election case. The maneuvers risk adding an overtly partisan skew to how electoral decisions are made each year, threatening the fairness that is the bedrock of American democracy. The push is intertwined with Republicans’ extraordinary national drive to make it harder for millions of Americans to vote, with legislative and legal attacks on early voting, absentee balloting and automatic voter registration laws. “Republicans are brazenly trying to seize local and state election authority in an unprecedented power grab,” said Stacey Abrams, the Democratic voting rights advocate who served as the minority leader in the Georgia State House. She said it was “intended to alter election outcomes and remove state and county election officials who refuse to put party above the people.” She added, “Had their grand plan been law in 2020, the numerous attempts by state legislatures to overturn the will of the voters would have succeeded.”

As Republicans realize that they probably cannot win elections under the voting rules that have been in place for decades, GOP legislatures are changing the rules to artificially tilt the election process in their favor.

 

[Mycroft]

Republicans Aim to Seize More Power Over How Elections Are Run

As Republicans realize that they probably cannot win elections under the voting rules that have been in place for decades, GOP legislatures are changing the rules to artificially tilt the election process in their favor.

Here we are in Bizarro World again...

State legislatures have, by the Constitution, the power to determine how their elections are run, yet this dumbass article wants you to think that those legislators are trying to "seize" power that they already have.

And you believe that stupid article, don't you?

 

[Cardinal]

Here we are in Bizarro World again...

State legislatures have, by the Constitution, the power to determine how their elections are run, yet this dumbass article wants you to think that those legislators are trying to "seize" power that they already have.

And you believe that stupid article, don't you?

This is, of course, exactly the impetus for eliminating the filibuster and passing HR1. Republicans have been so loud, stupid and noisy in their efforts to overturn democracy itself that they've given Democrats every bit the momentum they need to keep the issue alive and center-stage.

If Republicans had been content to keep the voter suppression measures they had before the 2020 election, and if they hadn't spent three months trying to overturn it in the courts, and if they hadn't given tacit support to an insurrection, then the fact of the matter is that eliminating the filibuster would have been politically impossible. But now? That is almost certainly happening, and much sooner than later.

 

[Mycroft]

This is, of course, exactly the impetus for eliminating the filibuster and passing HR1. Republicans have been so loud, stupid and noisy in their efforts to overturn democracy itself that they've given Democrats every bit the momentum they need to keep the issue alive and center-stage.

If Republicans had been content to keep the voter suppression measures they had before the 2020 election, and if they hadn't spent three months trying to overturn it in the courts, and if they hadn't given tacit support to an insurrection, then the fact of the matter is that eliminating the filibuster would have been politically impossible. But now? That is almost certainly happening, and much sooner than later.

As a Democrat, you have two options:

1. Win the state legislature.
2. Change the Constitution.

And other effort will fail.

 

[Cardinal]

As a Democrat, you have two options:

1. Win the state legislature.
2. Change the Constitution.

And other effort will fail.

Uh huh.

 

[BlueTex]

As a Democrat, you have two options:

1. Win the state legislature.
2. Change the Constitution.

And other effort will fail.

You seem to have skipped over this part of the constitution...


The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

Article I Section 4 | Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

constitution.congress.gov

.

 

[dixon01767]

Missoula, Montana went to all mail out and mail in balloting in the 2020 election which is being advocated for. Theyve been permitted to do a pretty restricted and limited audit of the ballots from 2020.


Its conclusions were troubling: 4,592 out of the 72,491 mail-in ballots lacked envelopes— 6.33% of all votes. Without an officially printed envelope with registration information, a voter's signature, and a postmark indicating whether it was cast on time, election officials cannot verify that a ballot is legitimate. It is against the law to count such votes.

What’s more, according to auditors, county employees claimed that during the post-election audit, some of the envelopes may have been double-counted, possibly indicating an even higher number of missing envelopes.

Auditors also tested a smaller, random sub-sample of 15,455 mail-in envelopes for other defects. Of these, 55 lacked postmark dates, and 53 never had their signatures checked — for a total of 0.7% of all ballots in the sample. No envelope had more than one irregularity.

Extrapolating from the sub-sample, that would make more than 5,000 of Missoula County’s votes — roughly 7% — with unexplained irregularities.

Still another issue arose during the audit that aroused auditors’ suspicions: Dozens of ballot envelopes bore strikingly similar, distinctive handwriting styles in the signatures, suggesting that one or several persons may have filled out and submitted multiple ballots, an act of fraud.

One auditor asserted that of 28 envelopes reviewed from the same address, a nursing home, all 28 signatures looked “exactly the same” stylistically.

Another auditor reported that among the envelopes she reviewed, two very unique signatures appeared dozens of times, describing one such signature as starting out flat, moving to a peak, and tapering out, and another as consisting of numerous circles — a “bubble signature.”

Auditors were unable to conduct a more comprehensive count because, they say, Missoula County elections officials refused to permit them to take pictures of the signatures, and envelopes were not shared across the different tabulation tables at the audit, so reviewers could not cross-compare ballot samples.
A River of Doubt Runs Through Mail Voting in Montana | RealClearInvestigations

Id say a river of deceit