Tag: GOP has to stop people voting to win elections

Opinion: Republicans are dismantling the right to vote. But they’ve enshrined the right to infect.

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In the United States in the year 2021, you, as an American citizen, do not necessarily have the right to vote.

You do not necessarily have the right to teach or to learn about matters of race, gender or anything else state lawmakers consider “divisive concepts.”

But you do have one absolute, sacrosanct, inviolate, God-given, self-evident and inalienable right: the right to refuse a coronavirus vaccine — and to infect as many people as you can.

With the blessing of the Roberts court, legislatures in Republican-run states are rushing to impose new voting restrictions, particularly on non-White voters. A tally by the Brennan Center finds that, as of June 21, 17 states had enacted 28 new laws restricting the ability to vote since the start of this year. Continue reading.

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.

GOP senator: 690,000 DC residents can just move if they want representation

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‘No one’s compelled to actually be here,’ said Sen. James Lankford.

During a Senate hearing Tuesday on statehood for Washington, D.C., Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) argued against representation for the city’s over 690,000 residents, asserting that they can just move to neighboring states if they want voting representation in Congress.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, of which Lankford is a member, held a hearing titled “Examining D.C. Statehood” to discuss H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which passed the House in April and has the support of President Joe Biden.

“Obviously the founders designed a capital region to never be a state,” Lankford said while questioning witness Derek T. Muller, a law professor at the University of Iowa. “I mean, that was the design in the Constitution to say, this is uniquely so that the federal government does not exist under the authority of any state 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.

Republicans Move to Limit a Grass-Roots Tradition of Direct Democracy

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Through ballot initiatives, voters in red states have defied legislators’ wishes and produced liberal outcomes in recent years. Republicans want to make the practice harder, or even eliminate it.

In 2008, deep-blue California banned same-sex marriage. In 2018, steadfastly conservative Arkansas and Missouri increased their minimum wage. And last year, Republican-controlled Arizona and Montana legalized recreational marijuana.

These moves were all the product of ballot initiatives, a century-old fixture of American democracy that allows voters to bypass their legislatures to enact new laws, often with results that defy the desires of the state’s elected representatives. While they have been a tool of both parties in the past, Democrats have been particularly successful in recent years at using ballot initiatives to advance their agenda in conservative states where they have few other avenues.

But this year, Republican-led legislatures in Florida, Idaho, South Dakota and other states have passed laws limiting the use of the practice, one piece of a broader G.O.P. attempt to lock in political control for years to come, along with new laws to restrict voting access and the partisan redrawing of congressional districts that will take place in the coming months. Continue reading.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s big test: Shepherding election reform

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The Minnesota Democrat faces the mammoth task of leading the push for the sweeping legislation in the Senate. 

WASHINGTON – The massive election reform measure that Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is trying to shepherd through a crucial test in the Senate has all the makings of a moonshot: hard to achieve and fraught with complications.

For “anyone who is serious about trying to get something done to make it easier for people to vote … we’re ready to go,” Minnesota’s senior senator said in an interview.

Dubbed the For the People Act, the bill affects topics from voter registration to absentee ballots to campaign finance to ethics laws. Republicans charge that it’s an unconstitutional attempt by the federal government to wrest control of elections from states. Continue reading.

Oklahoma Governor Signs Law Granting Immunity for Drivers Who Kill Protesters

Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a new law that would grant protections for drivers who hit and kill protesters while attempting to drive away from a protest and implements harsher penalties on people who block roads or highways during a protest. Democrats and activists decried the law as stifling protest and citizens’ First Amendment rights.

HB 1674, which Republican legislators passed earlier this week, grants civil and criminal immunity for drivers who “unintentionally” harm or kill protesters while “fleeing from a riot,” as long as there is a “reasonable belief that fleeing was necessary.”

“This legislation is not about safety,” said Nicole McAfee, director of policy and advocacy at the Oklahoma American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in a statement. “It is about centering the convenience of people who already have the power and protections of the law. It is about responding to calls for transparency by protesters and the media with the criminalization of those transparency efforts.” Continue reading.

Chaos erupts at GOP meeting as Trump-loving attorney Lin Wood gets confronted for spreading election conspiracies

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Some Republicans are rejecting election conspiracy theories pushed by pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood, who’s trying to unseat the South Carolina state GOP chairman.

Dozens of guests packed into a ballroom — mask-free and crammed together in spite of the pandemic — on Sunday to hear Wood, who recently moved to the state and bought $16 million in property in Beaufort County, explain why they should choose him to replace state GOP chair Drew McKissick next month, reported The Post and Courier.

“I did not come to divide you,” Wood said. “I came to unite you and and grow your party.” Continue reading.