Washington has 100% mail voting, which is not only convenient for voters, but saves taxpayers the huge expense of polling places. There’s no evidence mail voting is less secure or leads to more voting fraud (see, e.g., story here). But if you move to Texas, only voters “65 or older, vot[...]
Posts Tagged ‘elections’
There’s hope for our democracy
The basis of our political system is that we get to choose our leaders. To preserve that right, we must prevent an undemocratic minority faction — which is what today’s GOP is — from getting in a position to overrule the voters. Our existing laws are imperfectly designed for that a[...]
February 4th, 2022 - 7:49 pm § in Law and Courts, Politics
Extreme gerrymandering still being reined in by some state courts
After the Supreme Court barred federal courts from reviewing redistricting cases (details here), it was easy to assume there’s no longer any judicial check on gerrymandering, which just keeps getting worse as Republicans try to consolidate minority-party rule over broad swaths of the American [...]
February 1st, 2022 - 9:55 pm § in Law and Courts, Politics
2 GOP candidates tell poll watchers to bring guns and unplug voting machines
Two GOP candidates in Michigan state races told a crowd of supporters to unplug voting machines if they suspect fraud, and bring guns to polling places to make sure Republicans are allowed to observe ballot counting. They are Ryan Kelley, running for governor, and Mike Detmer, running for state sena[...]
Democrats should take this offer
Some Republican senators appear to be offering to support legislation which would clarify that vice presidents have no power to reject states’ electoral votes, and provide federal protections for election workers. This isn’t as expansive as the Democratic voting rights bill that Republic[...]
January 28th, 2022 - 3:54 pm § in Politics
Need more evidence Republicans will revoke your right to vote?
Well, here it is. In Arizona, a GOP legislator has introduced a bill that would “get rid of almost all absentee and early voting in the state and mandate all votes be HAND-counted within 24 hours of polling sites being closed.” (Read story here.) In other words, votes that election worke[...]
January 22nd, 2022 - 2:16 pm § in Politics
Elections and responsibilities of citizenship
When I was in the Army, we were told “freedom is not free.” What they meant was we had a citizen responsibility to defend our nation, but in my view it’s equally applicable to our roles in America’s civilian society. We have a good thing going for ourselves, in this country, [...]
January 21st, 2022 - 8:24 pm § in Law and Courts, Politics
Threatening election workers should be a federal crime
Republicans won’t allow that, of course, because their supporters are doing the threatening. Democracy requires the consent of the governed, and you don’t get that without fair elections, which you get by means of impartial professional election administration. We had that in 2020, but w[...]
How Republicans plan to seize power
“Republicans” used to describe adherents of one of America’s two major political parties; but more recently, the term has come to denote a broad cultural movement with specific aims, characteristics, and implications — with quite a few tribal traits. For that reason, some peo[...]
Voting rights take center stage
President Biden is making a renewed push to get voting rights through Congress to protect the right of Americans to choose their leaders. But GOP obduracy and the Senate filibuster stand in the way. Biden finally endorsed changing the rule in a much-anticipated Georgia speech on Tuesday, January 11,[...]