In 2013, when the Supreme Court struck down the pre-clearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act by a 5-4 vote along ideological lines, Chief Justice Roberts, who wrote the opinion, said the VRA could prevent racially discriminatory voting laws through the act’s Section 2, which laws that pla[...]
Posts Tagged ‘elections’
February 26th, 2021 - 1:38 pm § in Politics
What’s at stake if Democrats don’t kill the filibuster
For years now, Republicans have practiced scorched-earth politics. In 2009, when America faced its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, their goal was not to help newly-elected President Obama save the economy, but make his presidency a failure. Since then, their legislative policy has [...]
Whither the filibuster?
“No decision facing Democrats over the next two years will shape the long-term political competition between the parties more than whether they end the Senate filibuster to pass their agenda to reform elections and expand access to the vote,” the Atlantic says, because the Democratic Par[...]
Now watch Republicans seek more restrictions on voting
Smarting from Trump’s loss, and feeling their culture is under siege, Republicans will act in states they still control to make it harder to vote. Tightening ID laws, restricting mail voting, and banning drop boxes will be major goals. This isn’t speculative; they’re already laying[...]
Where the push for electoral college reform stands now
The electoral vote system has long been criticized, and polls show a majority of Americans support reforming the system to ensure the popular vote winner wins the presidency. That consistently happened from 1888 through 1996, then in 2000 and again in 2016, the popular vote losers squeaked into off[...]
March 4th, 2020 - 8:20 am § in Politics
“SLEEPY JOE” ROARS ON SUPER TUESDAY
Joe Biden, derisively called “Sleepy Joe” by Trump, and written off as politically dead by pundits just a few days ago, leaped ahead of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic nomination race on Super Tuesday by sweeping the South and winning the home states of two other erstwhile candidates (K[...]
November 6th, 2019 - 12:34 pm § in Politics
Kentucky GOP legislators threaten to overturn election!
ILLEGITIMATE. That’s a word you may hear describing Kentucky’s Republican governor, Matt Bevin, if the state’s GOP-controlled legislature follows through on a threat by Republican Senate President Robert Stivers to keep him in office by invoking a state constitutional provision [...]
Republicans don’t believe in democracy or respect elections.
It’s bad enough that Republicans enjoy unequal voting power in the Electoral College and U.S. Senate,* and obtain further electoral advantages from gerrymandering and vote suppression. But for them, that’s not enough. If the voters comprising the Not-Republicans majority can get over the[...]
November 30th, 2018 - 7:20 pm § in Politics
GOP House win in North Carolina comes under scrutiny
State election board investigating theft of absentee ballots; new election possible The outcome of a House election nominally won by the GOP in North Carolina was thrown into doubt Friday when the state election board declined to certify a winner, and instead opened an investigation into whether an[...]
How Americans settle close and disputed elections (in fact, not fantasy)
Ultimately, our government’s legitimacy derives from the consent of the governed, and we agree to abide by election results by mutual consent. While our system of government is not strictly based on majority rule, all of our elections are governed the principle of majority rule — i.e., h[...]