Tag: Republican voter suppression

Robocall targets battleground states with falsehoods about mail-in voting

NOTE: While these calls haven’t happened in Minnesota yet, we wanted to alert people to the possibility of this type of dirty trick prior to early voting for the general election.

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Officials launched an investigation Thursday into what they said was an erroneous, racist robocall aimed at discouraging voters in battleground states from casting their ballots by mail.

The recorded message features a woman who says she works for “Project 1599,” founded by the right-wing operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, and falsely warns that personal information of those who vote by mail will be shared with police tracking down warrants and credit card companies collecting outstanding debt, according to recordings of the call reviewed by The Washington Post. Wohl and Burkman denied their involvement in the call, blaming “leftist pranksters.”

“Don’t be finessed into giving your private information to the man,” the recording says. “Stay safe and beware of vote-by-mail.” Continue reading.

Political scientist explains why ‘Republicans are playing with fire’ by undercutting the right to vote

AlterNet logoAs the Republican Party moves more and more to the far right, it keeps trying to make it harder for non-whites to vote. Political science professor Thomas E. Patterson, who teaches at Harvard University in Massachusetts, discusses the GOP’s voter suppression efforts in an article for the Boston Globe — warning Republicans that their efforts to discourage non-white voting will backfire in the end.

“The idea of disenfranchising minority voters was hatched by the Republican-controlled legislatures of Indiana and Georgia,” Patterson explains. “Enacted in 2006, Indiana’s law required residents to have a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport, in order to register to vote. Republican legislators knew who they were targeting. Minority group members, young adults and people of low income — all of whom tend to vote Democratic — are less likely than other Americans to have a passport or driver’s license.”

Patterson adds, “Since then, roughly 30 Republican-controlled states have enacted voter ID laws.” And he points out that when Democrats enjoy decisive victories, Republicans find ways to keep them from governing. Continue reading.

The Rising Trump Lawyer Battling to Reshape the Electorate

New York Times logoAs victory laps go, it was remarkably low-key.

In the summer of 2013, a young lawyer named William Consovoy appeared on a Brookings Institution panel to discuss his leading role in a recently decided voting-rights case. Just days earlier, the Supreme Court had ruled that certain states, particularly in the South, would no longer need Justice Department approval before redrawing districts, moving polling places or making other electoral changes.

“From my perspective,” Mr. Consovoy said, “this is what I would call a modest decision by the court.” Continue reading.

Georgia election disaster condemned as result of deliberate GOP voter suppression: ‘This is by design’

AlterNet logoPhotos of would-be Georgia voters standing—and, in some cases, sitting—in long lines after 11 pm to cast their ballots in the state’s primary on Tuesday encapsulated what rights groups and lawmakers decried as a disastrous day for democracy and an entirely predictable result of years of deliberate voter suppression efforts by Republican lawmakers and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The myriad issues that plagued Georgia’s primary Tuesday—malfunctioning new voting machines, an insufficient number of paper ballots, too-few poll workers, polling places opening late—are hardly unheard of in the state, given that similar problems threw the 2018 midterm contests into chaos, sparking calls for better preparation and stronger protections against disenfranchisement.

The coronavirus pandemic added another layer of hurdles, and provided Republicans with additional opportunities to limit ballot access. Continue reading.

Federal judge guts Florida law requiring felons to pay fines before they can vote

Washington Post logoA federal judge has gutted a Florida state law requiring felons to pay all court fines and fees before they can register to vote, clearing the way for thousands of Floridians to register in time for the November presidential election.

Republican lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) pushed the measure after Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 to expand voting rights to felons who have completed “all terms of their sentence including probation and parole.”

The law’s backers said it was necessary to clarify the amendment, while critics said Republicans were trying to limit the effects of what would have been the largest expansion of the state’s electorate since poll taxes and literacy tests were outlawed during the civil rights era. Continue reading.

Way too many Americans say suppression tactics stopped them from voting

Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun, AP Images

This is a scandal for anyone who cares about free and fair elections in America.

Democrats dominated the midterm elections this year and took back the most House seats they have since Watergate.

But the news was also full of reports about Americans facing long lines and broken voting machines — or even being unable to cast a ballot at all because of Republican-passed laws that make it harder to vote, especially in minority communities.

And a new post-election poll includes a shocking indication of just how bad this problem was: At least 10 percent of people who didn’t vote say that either voter suppression tactics or voter ID laws got in the way when they tried to vote.

View the November 16 article by Emily Crockett on the ShareBlue.com website here.

Republicans fan unfounded worries about voter fraud in Florida and other close contests

Florida is holding recounts in the state’s tight races for Florida’s governor, U.S. senator and agriculture commissioner, as President Trump attacked the move. (Reuters)

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — Republicans are sowing skepticism about the electoral process in states with votes that are too close to call, echoing President Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and suggesting that election officials should jettison the common practice of completing vote counts after Election Day.

Nowhere is the effort more aggressive than in Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott is tapping the powers of his administration to defend his slender lead in the U.S. Senate race and accusing Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of “trying to steal an election.” Without evidence, Trump on Twitter claimed ballots were “massively infected” in Florida and said the recount should halt — though it is mandated by state law and overseas military ballots aren’t due until Friday.

What appears to be a coordinated Republican strategy to undercut post-election vote counting is also evident in New Mexico, where Rep. Yvette Herrell (R) is refusing to concede her race to Democrat Xochitl Torres Small after absentee ballots changed her status from winner to loser, and in Arizona, where the National Republican Senatorial Committee contended a county election official had been “using his position to cook the books” for Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.

View the complete November 12 article by Beth Reinhard, Sean Sullivan and Amy Gardner on The Washington Post website here.