Tag: GOP has to cheat to win

Supreme Court decision amps up voting rights battle in Congress

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A controversial 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court on Thursday upholding Republican-backed voting restrictions in Arizona has upped the ante for this year’s voting rights debate in Congress.

It also means that calls to reform the Senate’s rules will only continue to grow, despite recent declarations from Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) that they will not support eliminating or curtailing the filibuster.

Democratic strategists warn the high court’s decision in Brnovich v. DNC, which liberals believe has seriously undermined Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, opens the door for Republican-controlled state legislatures to get more aggressive in passing restrictions that they believe will have a disproportionate impact on minority voter turnout. Continue reading.

Opinion: The Real Fraud: Republicans’ Voter-Fraud Scare

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Setting the record straight is our duty to democracy itself.

This week, Senate Republicans in lockstep blocked key reforms of the For the People Actthat would address gerrymandering and big money in politics, plus enhance ethics for federal office holders. The Act would also strengthen voting rights—on which a big battle is now underway across the country.  

While Democrats in more than half the states have lowered barriers to voting, Republicans are pushing them higher, with campaigns for at least 389  restrictive voter laws in 48 states. Already, 17 states have enacted 28 such bills. But now, the Justice Department is suing Georgia over its new voting restrictions.

Republicans often justify their opposition to lowering voting barriers with the argument that it encourages voter fraud. Arizona’s Republican Representative John Kavanagh told CNN earlier this year that Democrats are “willing to risk fraud” because they “value as many people as possible voting.” Republicans, he underscored, “are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote—but everybody shouldn’t be voting.” Continue reading.

2 secretaries of state undercut Trump’s fraud claims in key, GOP-controlled states. Republicans have now voted to strip both of power.

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Georgia Republicans earlier this year passed new voting restrictions, leading corporations including Major League Baseball to protest. What followed was a big to-do about whether that was an overreaction. The bill didn’t exactly match up with Democrats’ claims of a modern-day “Jim Crow,” and many of the new provisions were within the mainstream of even blue states.

But the bill was also watered-down from much-bolder proposals that had previously passed, including one transparently targeted at limiting voter drives by Black churches. Mix in the effort’s proximity to Republicans losing the state for the first time in 28 years — and to similar efforts in other GOP-controlled states despite no proof of actual, significant voter fraud — and it wasn’t difficult to draw conclusions about why this was done.

And there was perhaps one part of the law that best drove home how much this was aimed at gaming the system. It removed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) from the state election board. This effectively allowed the GOP-controlled state legislature to appoint a majority of the board. Continue reading.

More Americans ‘socially liberal’ than conservative for first time – huge swing over past 20 years

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For the first time more Americans identify as “socially liberal” than conservative, revealing a huge double-digit swing over the past two decades.

Gallup reveals 34% of Americans now say they are socially liberal, 30% conservative, and 35% identify as moderate.

But as the pollster notes, starting in 2001 “social conservatives had a clear advantage over social liberals — by 12 points, on average.” That started to change in 2013, and now socially liberal has pulled ahead, representing a huge 16 point swing from 2001 to 2021. Continue reading.

Trump-loving official facing jail time after allegedly terrorizing a Michigan county election clerk

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A Michigan Republican school board member is accused of threatening a county clerk in another part of the state over an election dispute.

State police say they traced a menacing call last year to Houghton County clerk Jennifer Kelly back to 23-year-old Matthew Smith, a school board member and GOP activist from Genessee County, and he’s been charged with maliciously using a telephone, reported WJRT-TV.

“I had to seek counseling,” Kelly told the TV station. “I apparently now have some sort of PTSD. Little things will set me off at home.” Continue reading.

‘Blatant projection’: Mitch McConnell blasted for calling voting rights a ‘craven political calculation’

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday accused Democrats of “craven political calculation” because they are trying to pass S.1, a Senate bill that would fortify voting rights.

During a speech on the Senate floor, McConnell mischaracterized the intent of the legislation.

“It would let Democrats take a red pen to election law in each of the 50 states neutering popular components like voter ID while legalizing shady practices like ballot harvesting,” McConnell said. “It’s a recipe for undermining confidence in our elections, for remaking our entire system government to suit the preferences of one far end of the political spectrum.” Continue reading.

Obama: Voting rights bill must pass before next election

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Former President Obama said Monday that Congress needs to pass voting rights legislation before the 2022 midterm elections, or American democracy could be at risk.

“We can’t wait until the next election because if we have the same kinds of shenanigans that brought about Jan. 6, if we have that for a couple more election cycles, we’re going to have real problems in terms of our democracy long-term,” said Obama.

Speaking on a call with grassroots supporters alongside former Attorney General Eric Holder, Obama said debate over the voting rights bill, known as the For the People Act, was worth it for him to engage in political debate, even as a former president. Continue reading.

How Republican States Are Expanding Their Power Over Elections

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In Georgia, Republicans are removing Democrats of color from local boards. In Arkansas, they have stripped election control from county authorities. And they are expanding their election power in many other states.

LaGRANGE, Ga. — Lonnie Hollis has been a member of the Troup County election board in West Georgia since 2013. A Democrat and one of two Black women on the board, she has advocated Sunday voting, helped voters on Election Days and pushed for a new precinct location at a Black church in a nearby town.

But this year, Ms. Hollis will be removed from the board, the result of a local election law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican. Previously, election board members were selected by both political parties, county commissioners and the three biggest municipalities in Troup County. Now, the G.O.P.-controlled county commission has the sole authority to restructure the board and appoint all the new members.

“I speak out and I know the laws,” Ms. Hollis said in an interview. “The bottom line is they don’t like people that have some type of intelligence and know what they’re doing, because they know they can’t influence them.” Continue reading.

McConnell shoots down Manchin’s voting compromise

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Thursday that Republicans will oppose a compromise election reform proposal put forward by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

“I would make this observation about the revised version … all Republicans I think will oppose that as well if that were to be what surfaced on the floor,” McConnell told reporters, referring to Manchin’s proposal.

McConnell’s comments, which came during a press conference with GOP senators railing against the For the People Act, are the latest signal that the election bill will fail during a procedural vote next week due to a GOP filibuster. Continue reading.

Republican governors’ misleading spin on new voting restrictions

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Courts across the country rejected President Donald Trump’s claims of massive election fraud in 2020, but his falsehoods have taken on a life of their own, as new voting restrictions pile up in Republican-controlled states.

At least 14 states have enacted laws this year that tighten the rules around casting ballots. Hundreds of bills pending in statehouses would institute new voting restrictions, as this Washington Post tracker shows, and many of the Republican lawmakers sponsoring those proposals are echoing Trump’s false claims that loose election laws allowed the 2020 White House race to be tainted by fraud.

The Fact Checker dug into statements from three of the Republican governors who have signed voting restrictions into law this year: Ron DeSantis of Florida, Brian Kemp of Georgia and Doug Ducey of Arizona. Continue reading.