Balloon Juice | Right to Vote Archives

Stopping the GOP Cheat to Win Strategy

by Betty Cracker| May 26, 202010:37 am| 77 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Right to Vote, Voter Suppression, Voting Rights

I oscillate regularly between optimism and pessimism about the upcoming election. If you’re on Team Don’t Drink Bleach, then Trump must go, of course, but the composition of Congress is everything too. Whether we get an opportunity to take a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to the orange shit-stain in the White House, pass legislation that will address galloping inequities in everything from justice, wealth, health, etc. — it all depends on a free and fair election.

Republicans showed in Wisconsin just how far they’re willing to go to deny people the franchise. Thanks to that state’s excellent party organization, Democrats beat back the GOP effort to rig a state supreme court election. Are parties in the other states prepared? Probably not, but now is the time to get ready.

We got some good news over the weekend in Florida:

TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge ruled Sunday that it is unconstitutional to prevent felons in Florida from voting because they can’t afford to pay back court fees, fines and restitution to victims, striking down parts of a law passed by Republican lawmakers and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year.
Calling the law a “pay-to-vote system,” U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s 125-page ruling declares that court fees are a tax, and it creates a new process for determining whether felons are eligible to vote.

Poll tax, zapped. But the governor is a Trump toady, and he will surely appeal the decision, which may make it to the SCOTUS before the election. I don’t doubt for a second that the partisan Republican majority on the SCOTUS will reinstate the FL poll tax if they think it will help the party keep the Federalist Society conveyor belt running to deposit hard-right cranks onto the bench.

Trump has been bellowing about voter fraud on Twitter for ~~weeks~~ years and is at it again today, equating the same mail-in ballots he and the Third Lady use to ALL CAPS VOTER FRAUD. As we know, voter fraud isn’t really a thing in U.S. elections. In-person voter fraud is vanishingly rare, and the few cases of consequential fraud detected are almost always perpetrated by Republican operatives committing election fraud (like the NC 9th case) or the recent Florida kook whose party registration scheme imploded due to stupidity.

But reality is no obstacle to determined liars and cheats. So, we need to make this the question in each and every state: Why are Republicans trying to stop you from voting?

One persistent problem we have with our electorate is that too many regard the franchise as an act of performance art rather than a civic duty. Among that group, many are non-voters overcome with ennui because “both sides.” Well, here’s a clear contrast that will become clearer every day between now and the election: Republicans want to make it hard for you to vote. If voting becomes an act of defiance as it did in Wisconsin, maybe Republicans’ cheating to win strategy will blow up in their ugly faces again.

For this election cycle, I’m focusing 100% of my volunteer efforts on supporting voting rights nationwide and encouraging swing state Democrats to vote by mail. In the six swing states that will likely determine the election (AZ, FL, NC, MI, PA, WI), voters can already apply for a mail-in ballot, no excuse needed.

As we know to our sorrow and ruination, Republicans have an enduring structural advantage in the Electoral College. But we’ve already won the war on mail-in ballots in these crucial states, and since we can anticipate the levels of fuckery the GOP will throw at us and cannot know what wrinkles the pandemic will introduce in November, we need to press that advantage starting right now.

I’ve said this before and will probably continue to be a broken record on this for the next several months. I apologize in advance for that. But it’s super-important! There are many wonderful organizations out there already engaged in this fight. I’m a fan of VoteRiders and Postcards to Voters, but please feel free to share links to other outfits that are working on these issues in comments.

Open thread!

Stopping the GOP Cheat to Win StrategyPost + Comments (77)

Friday Morning Open Thread: Happy News

by Anne Laurie| May 22, 20207:30 am| 285 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, Excellent Links, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It

Michelle Obama is stepping into the 2020 election with a program to boost voter turnout https://t.co/W4ZkDaX1LG
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 22, 2020

… On Thursday, Michelle Obama took her first concrete step toward being a factor in the 2020 election. Her nonpartisan voting initiative, When We All Vote, which she founded months before the 2018 midterms, announced a coalition of 31 mayors across the country who will be brainstorming and sharing lessons and practices about how to increase voter registration and civic engagement.
“This current crisis is a clear reminder of how critical it is to have competent leadership at all levels of government,” she said in a recent Zoom call with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, announcing the launch of the program, called Civic Cities. “Voting is bigger than any one party, any one issue, any one candidate, any one election,” she added. “The point is that no matter what party, what ideology, we want everyone to participate. We need your voices in this with us.”
While thanking the mayors for all the work they’ve done in the crisis, and asking them to tell their frontline workers “how grateful we are, me and Barack,” she emphasized that they were entering a new battle.
“This pandemic will likely have a significant impact on the November election and on how voters across the country cast their ballots,” said Obama, who did not turn on her video on the Zoom call, but used a photo of herself in a purple suit as her avatar. “Already in state and local elections, we’ve seen voters forced to choose between protecting their health and making their voices heard. And that’s absolutely not acceptable.” The big thing to keep an eye on, she said, was ensuring that the health and economic crisis of the pandemic “doesn’t turn into a crisis of democracy, too.”…
Obama’s partners in the program are mostly Democrats, including Los Angeles’s Eric Garcetti, Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot, Atlanta’s Keisha Lance Bottoms, and D.C.’s Muriel E. Bowser, but there are also three Republicans and two independents in the mix.
On the Zoom call, mayors tossed around ideas like placing dropboxes for mail-in ballots all over their cities so fewer people had to wait in line at polling places. Or making voter registration automatic, with an option to opt out, when getting the new enhanced drivers licenses, which Tacoma, WA, mayor Victoria Woodards said she’d already enstated.
Obama promised them, “we are committing to supporting your efforts in the years to come.” But she also stressed that they had a lot to do, and fast: “We’ve got to get to work because we don’t have much time.”…
Bowser has had a working relationship with the Obamas since they were in office, and it’s one that’s continued as they became the rare first couple to stay in Washington after their time at the White House was done. Bowser is working on encouraging voters to request mail-in ballots but said that she got her closest look at Michelle Obama’s influence recently when the former first lady volunteered to help get out the word about safety from the coronavirus by recording a robocall with testing information for D.C. residents.
“Immediately after that call, we had three times the number of calls into our call center for testing. So people really felt it,” Bowser said…

Not so uplifting, but quite encouraging for those of us who cherish our grudges:

Opinion: Republicans are realizing the crisis is pulling them toward disaster https://t.co/PcWMrNKQY8
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 22, 2020

“The worst is behind us,” declared Herbert Hoover in 1930. Two years later, Franklin Roosevelt won the presidency by an 18-point margin, capturing 42 states.
Now, nearly 90 years later, at least some Republicans are starting to worry that President Trump could meet a fate similar to Hoover’s, and drag them down with him…

Friday Morning Open Thread: Happy NewsPost + Comments (285)

Election Year Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Knows Her Worth

by Anne Laurie| May 21, 20206:40 pm| 115 Comments

This post is in: A Woman's Place Is In The House, Election Year, Excellent Links, Post-racial America, Voting Rights

90,000 Americans are dead.
1,400,000 confirmed U.S. cases.
36,000,000+ unemployment claims filed.
Trump had plenty of warning, but he failed to act to slow the spread of the pandemic.@StaceyAbrams takes us back in time to explain Trump’s failed coronavirus response: pic.twitter.com/wbOODu1vB9
— CAP Action (@CAPAction) May 18, 2020

The Washington Post did an anodyne and extremely predictable beat-sweetener on “The Power of Stacey Abrams” last week, and it completely unhinged that portion of the Very Serious Commentariat which would predictably come unhinged at the very possibility that a voting-rights activist might be getting serious attention. Give Jen Rubin her due, she can hear the dog whistles:

There is now a whole genre of right-wing punditry declaring, in hysterical and angry tones, that Stacey Abrams would be the worst pick in the history of vice-presidential picks. No, really. The people who defend their vote for President Trump, who support the most unqualified Cabinet in history and who think political experience is overrated now see a catastrophe if the former minority leader of the Georgia state House, the founder of Fair Fight and Fair Count and a rising star in the Democratic Party is picked as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee…
Why all the venom? Let’s begin with the assumption that it is perfectly reasonable to argue she is not the best VP choice or that her lack of national experience would weaken the ticket. But the anger, the determination to ignore her accomplishments (she did found a voting rights group, deliver a response to the State of the Union and hold the minority leader position in her state for more than half a decade), the resentment over her insistence on calling out voter suppression as the reason for her loss and feigned offense at her ambition (horrors!) smack of racism. I suggest the tone of these voices — How dare she?! — would be far different if, say, Pete Buttigieg or Beto O’Rourke were promoting themselves for the job.
Abrams has committed the cardinal sin for an African American woman in the eyes of the right: She will not accept the legitimacy of elections won through voter suppression, and she will not be appropriately docile and humble. Unfortunately, I fear that this is just the beginning of the thinly disguised racism that we will see should former vice president Joe Biden select an African American as his running mate…

Abrams’ political style is “Person Who Is Never Afraid to Demand What Her Constituents Need”, which puts her squarely in the camp of such political stars as Shirley Chisholm (“If they won’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair”), Bella Abzug, and Ann Richards, among others. The current Democratic quest for Biden’s VP gives her a space to advocate for her goals, and she’s out there doing the work.

Some samples: From the AP, Q&A: Stacey Abrams is ready to serve but not on top court

… AP: The pandemic has elevated calls for mail voting. Can states make the changes necessary for that by November?
ABRAMS: No-excuse absentee balloting has to become the law of the land. It’s so critical that the next (pandemic response bill from Congress) include the $4 billion or $3.6 billion to help every state scale (up their absentee mail balloting.) The reality is we cannot afford not to do this. We have no excuse not to comply and not to meet our responsibilities for democracy, and it’s absolutely possible if we scale it up.
AP: The president said recently that people “cheat” by mail voting. How do you compete with that given his platform?
ABRAMS: I would ask journalists to tell the truth, which is that voter fraud is almost nonexistent. Donald Trump voted by mail. It is actually the safest and most accessible way of voting. In 2017, Donald Trump convened a voter fraud task force. It was so impossible to prove rampant voter fraud that they disbanded the committee before they had to issue a report…
AP: Can you talk about black identity politics and what might seem to be a more accepting environment for “blackness” in politics today?
ABRAMS: Writ large, identity politics simply means I can see you, and I understand that there are barriers to your ability to access what is considered a general good.
I enter this space as a black woman with natural hair, who does not look like everyone else. That doesn’t diminish my capacity to be effective, but it heightens my responsibility to be vocal.
Going back to COVID-19, black people are dying at a higher rate here in Georgia: 32% of the population, 54% of the deaths. That’s directly tied to identity, and if we do not acknowledge it, we are never going to find the solutions to address it. And so I think identity politics is a necessary part of our politics, but it’s also not new.
This nation began with identity politics. White men who owned land were allowed to vote and no one else was. That is the most strident degree of identity politics I think you can imagine, and what makes America such an important country is that we evolve, we continue to expand who is a part of our narrative and who has access to leadership (and) access to opportunity.
AP: The bottom line for November – do you believe that 50 states will be able to put together a fair election, an accurate count of the public will?
ABRAMS: Yes, we can have a free and fair election if, one, we have federal investment in those state elections now. Because this is a matter not simply of will, but of capacity. What I want everyone to pay attention to is that as Democrats work to expand access to the right to vote for all Americans, Republicans are doing their level best to limit that access. Why would we want to limit access to our democracy? That should be a question every person asks.

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From the NYTimes, Stacey Abrams Wants More Than the Vice Presidency:

… Traditionally, Democrats have sought a vice-presidential pick that appeals to swing voters, those suburban whites whose operative variable is not whether they show up to the polls, but whether they go blue or red upon arrival. Such a priority this year would elevate the appeal of a running mate like Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
But there is another, oft-overlooked slice of the electorate that Ms. Abrams argues is equally crucial to the party’s success, voters who grapple with a different binary: voting Democratic, or not voting at all.
“The focus on persuasion has often been trying to persuade someone to shift from their conservative ideology to a more moderate or liberal ideology,” Ms. Abrams said in an interview. “But for voters of color, it isn’t about shifting ideology — it’s persuading them that voting actually will have an effect.”
These other swing voters, oscillating between voting Democratic or not at all, are the Americans — largely racial minorities and young people — whom Ms. Abrams has devoted her career to reaching. As she explains it, there are overt voter suppression tactics, and then there is this more insidious thread, often unwittingly perpetuated by her own party, that tells this segment of swing voters that they are less worthy of courting…
Since 2018, Fair Fight, along with its nonprofit arm, Fair Fight Action, has raised millions of dollars and funded teams at state Democratic parties across the country. In 2019, for example, Fair Fight helped Kentucky Democrats file a lawsuit that restored to the rolls some 175,000 voters who had been purged by the Republican governor. And amid the pandemic, the organization has shifted its focus to the expansion of voting by mail.
Ms. Abrams stressed that these efforts can matter little if citizens do not buy into the act of voting itself — in other words, if the barrier to participation is not so much a law or policy but a belief that the system has never valued one’s voice to begin with…

And a coda, from Georgia native Ed Kilgore, at NYMag — If 2020 Doesn’t Make Stacey Abrams Veep, It Could Propel Her to the Governorship of Her State:

… Kemp, whose coronavirus policies have been nearly as ignorantly erratic as the president’s, is presently in the midst of an extremely perilous gamble wherein he is risking a fresh wave of coronavirus infections and deaths due to premature reopening of Georgia businesses that managed to earn a rebuke from Trump. A recent Cygnal survey of Georgians commissioned by a Republican rival showed Kemp with an approval/disapproval rating of 43/52; 54 percent of respondents gave a thumbs-down to his handling of the pandemic. Kemp’s appointee as U.S. senator, Kelly Loeffler, appointed in no small part to fund Republican-coordinated campaigns this year and in 2022 (when Loeffler, in the unlikely case she wins the November special election, would be up for a full term), has been a human dumpster fire politically, generating constant negative media coverage (fanned by Republican as well as Democratic opponents) for apparent conflicts of interest involving her and her husband’s vast wealth and stock holdings.
It’s a long way until 2022, but you have to say Brian Kemp, who ran an abrasive, borderline-racist campaign in 2018 as a “politically incorrect conservative” who enjoyed offending people, doesn’t have the sort of personality that would lift him to a second term absent a strong performance as governor. And his dubious handling of COVID-19 has given Abrams all sorts of opportunities to gain local and national attention, completely aside from her veep aspirations. She’s taken advantage of it, too…
The political landscape in 2022 will certainly depend on what happens this November; if Abrams’s party loses, with or without her on the ticket, she’ll have the consolation of the midterm advantage the “out party” normally enjoys. She’ll also have had some more time to joust with Kemp and other Georgia Republicans over voter-registration rolls and other familiar issues, and figure out how to improve on her excellent 2018 turnout operation.
Any way you look at it, the immediate future looks challenging for Georgia, and promising for the politician who may become the first woman and African-American to serve as its governor — unless she happens to be otherwise occupied in Washington.

Election Year Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Knows Her WorthPost + Comments (115)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Joe Will Be Joe, And That’s Fine

by Anne Laurie| May 19, 20207:28 am| 175 Comments

This post is in: Biden For President, Excellent Links, Open Threads, Right to Vote

You gotta watch 98 (!!) year old Carl Reiner and friends call Congress to ensure older Americans can vote by mail this Fall. "Although we're dying to vote, we'd much rather just vote and not die.??" @robreiner pic.twitter.com/a9MAvWm7Y9
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) May 15, 2020

People should live in the present and not be obsessing about when the next president will be sworn in.
Which is 35 weeks, 2 days, 8 hours, 6 minutes, and 27 seconds from now.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) May 17, 2020

High quality state polling (15k interviews & 20+ polls) since April 1 suggests Biden leads by 7-8 pts nationally, is ahead in states totaling a majority of electoral votes, & said lead is wide enough to withstand a 2016 like error were election held today. https://t.co/ZAaPTZqFoE
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) May 17, 2020

Biden White House would yank Keystone XL permit
…would effectively kill the controversial project https://t.co/fOGkJp1Zfh via @politico
— Ariana Pekary (@arianapekary) May 18, 2020

Ducklo is Biden’s National Press Secretary, so…

"Twitter has only two gears: cynicism and outrage…The media spaces occupied by journalists and pundits often feel immune to what Bengtson called Biden’s 'superpower'—relating to people, being warm, and caring about people."
Must read from @PeterHamby https://t.co/qANmztY7QD
— TJ Ducklo (@TDucklo) May 18, 2020

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Joe Will Be Joe, And That’s FinePost + Comments (175)

Stopping the Suppression

by Betty Cracker| May 18, 20205:02 pm| 92 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Right to Vote, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Voter Suppression

Here’s Paul Waldman at The Post, riffing off The Times’ coverage today about a Republican program to field 50,000 (possibly armed) thugs to “monitor polling places” in November:

Voter suppression is at the very heart of Republican electoral strategy, and, as the New York Times reports Monday, they plan to go all-out in November:
The Republican program, which has gained steam in recent weeks, envisions recruiting up to 50,000 volunteers in 15 key states to monitor polling places and challenge ballots and voters deemed suspicious. That is part of a $20 million plan that also allots millions to challenge lawsuits by Democrats and voting-rights advocates seeking to loosen state restrictions on balloting. The party and its allies also intend to use advertising, the internet and President Trump’s command of the airwaves to cast Democrats as agents of election theft.
The efforts are bolstered by a 2018 federal court ruling that for the first time in nearly four decades allows the national Republican Party to mount campaigns against purported voter fraud without court approval. The court ban on Republican Party voter-fraud operations was imposed in 1982, and then modified in 1986 and again in 1990, each time after courts found instances of Republicans intimidating or working to exclude minority voters in the name of preventing fraud. The party was found to have violated it yet again in 2004.
“Voters deemed suspicious” by the GOP is a category that includes black people, Latinos, students, black people, and also black people.

I’m guessing Fox News won’t run clips of thousands of Trump Brown Shirts on endless loop like they did when a pair of “New Black Panthers” were hanging around a polling place in 2012. I should note the assumption that the Brown Shirts will be armed is mine, but I think it’s a reasonable one since these puling infants are now carrying anti-tank weapons onto government property to protest the closure of barber shops and nail salons for public safety reasons.

Waldman points out that the last big effort at GOP voter suppression failed spectacularly by creating backlash in Wisconsin:

The lesson is that in that kind of a context — with a dramatic, high-profile fight over Republican voter suppression efforts — the Republican effort produced a backlash. As Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler said afterward, “Voter suppression might not be as clever as Republicans think it is. It can backfire by pissing voters off.”
The more attention is given to GOP voter suppression efforts, the more voter suppression itself becomes a campaign issue, one that can boost turnout among Democrats. However you might feel about Joe Biden, it becomes more important to exercise your right to vote if you think someone is trying to take it away.

That last point is true, and I’ve been waiting for the backlash to happen at scale for a decade and a half as Republican voter suppression methods grew more brazen. Maybe the Trump Brown Shirts will finally be the tipping point.

In the meantime, we’ve won the war on vote-by-mail in the swing states (AZ, FL, NC, WI, MI and PA) already, unless Trump manages to pull the plug on the USPS by November. That seems unlikely but not impossible in this Bizarro World we’re living in.

Open thread.

Stopping the SuppressionPost + Comments (92)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: (Worthy) War on Many Fronts

by Anne Laurie| April 14, 20206:00 am| 134 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Open Threads, Readership Capture, Right to Vote

“Please Don’t Stand So Close To Me” w/ @OfficialSting, @theroots, and instruments from home. pic.twitter.com/UYkUrRLdRA
— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) April 10, 2020

For the first time in history our team has lost every game. We are winning, and will win, the war on victory! https://t.co/ZkuVfuzj7l
— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) April 12, 2020

24% of Americans said they don’t expect to feel comfortable going back to a shopping mall for at least six months
https://t.co/bcpvheFsfh
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) April 13, 2020

The key is going to be Democrats making a massive effort to get people to request ballots early so the system doesn’t get overwhelmed, as it did in Wisconsin. https://t.co/9Pqd3B5ksO
— Brian Rosenwald (@brianros1) April 13, 2020

Michelle Obama says in statement that expanding access to vote-by-mail, online voter registration, and early voting are long overdue “critical steps for this moment.” https://t.co/Q45upvdqLN
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 14, 2020

A voter initiative led by Michelle Obama announced support Monday for making it easier for people to register to vote and cast ballots during the coronavirus pandemic.
When We All Vote, a nonpartisan voting initiative, says Americans should have greater access to voting by mail, early in-person voting and online voter registration…
When We All Vote’s announcement also comes amid vociferous opposition by President Donald Trump to mail-in voting.
The former first lady, a co-chair of the organization, said expanding access to vote-by-mail, online voter registration and early voting are long overdue “critical steps for this moment.”
“Americans should never have to choose between making their voices heard and keeping themselves and their families safe,” she said in a statement. “There is nothing partisan about striving to live up to the promise of our country: making the democracy we all cherish more accessible, and protecting our neighbors, friends and loved ones as they participate in this cornerstone of American life.” …
The organization will encourage Americans to lobby for access to these options before Election Day, Nov. 3.
Currently, five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah — conduct all elections entirely by mail, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. At least 21 other states have laws that allow certain smaller elections, such as school board contests, to be conducted by mail.
Forty states, including the five with all-mail elections, and the District of Columbia offer in-person early voting, according to the state legislatures’ association. Delaware has enacted early voting, but it will not be in place until 2022. Nine states do not offer in-person voting before Election Day…

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: (Worthy) War on Many FrontsPost + Comments (134)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy Vaisakhi!

by Anne Laurie| April 13, 20207:29 am| 130 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Religion, Voting Rights

On this auspicious occasion, we wish a #HappyVaisakhi to sangat across the world.
This year, we'll miss our Nagar Kirtans and Vaisakhi programmes – but we each have to do our bit to protect the sangat we love, by staying home.#VaisakhiAtHome #Vaisakhi2020 #Vaisakhi pic.twitter.com/7b9mTyG4v1
— Sikh Tories (@SikhTories) April 13, 2020

It’s the traditional Sikh New Year, another Spring festival / solar new year I didn’t know until now. (And it’s the traditional Punjabi season for bhangra, if anyone’s looking for a way to recharge their lockdown exercise routine.)

Love this video! It’s currently doing the rounds on Whatsapp #Vaisakhi #Sikh #LookASingh pic.twitter.com/Zn6y9dTxR1
— Look! A Singh! (@LookASingh) April 13, 2020

Other uplifting news:

Ok so a reporter called my collaborators and boss and made a story and I’m crying, cause loveeeee…
The woman leading COVID-19 vaccine trials is ‘not your average pocket-protector scientist’ https://t.co/plLyZYyUcg via @nbcnews
— KizzyPhD (@KizzyPhD) April 12, 2020

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam makes Election Day a holiday and expands early voting https://t.co/zreCzHgRCa pic.twitter.com/Q9YUDAMnRv
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 12, 2020

BREAKING: Democratic presidential candidate and former South Bend, Indiana mayor @PeteButtigieg is joining our new virtual series, #FrontRowSeat! Join our host committee and grab your seats today: https://t.co/gUsAAzKilC pic.twitter.com/gvMPwPGl6S
— Run for Something (@runforsomething) April 11, 2020

Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy Vaisakhi!Post + Comments (130)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Not Because These Things Are Easy…

by Anne Laurie| April 7, 20207:00 am| 133 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Right to Vote, Trumpery

The next several weeks may be some of the hardest we’ve faced as a country.
From those on the front lines to those saving lives by staying at home, let’s remember to be kind to each other, be patient, and remember the power of our collective humanity, even when we’re apart.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 30, 2020

BREAKING: Trump has worn out Ron Fournier’s trademark bothsiderism!

As a former White House reporter, I don’t say this lightly: Media should ignore the Trump follies, abandon the WH briefing room, and interview governors, doctors, nurses, victims and anybody else approaching the truth.
Stop being props.
Just stop.
— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) April 7, 2020

Meanwhile, the Democratic Shadow Cabinet is looking better & better…

Schumer says he's tapping Bharat Ramamurti, a former aide to Elizabeth Warren, as his pick to the five-member congressional oversight commission of the $2 trillion coronavirus package
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) April 6, 2020

Read this important thread from former @CFPB Director @RichCordray. He’s right: the consumer agency has an important role to play during this economic crisis to protect working families, but @CFPBDirector Kraninger must stop letting the banking industry drive the agency's agenda. https://t.co/3FFVm1CLEt
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 6, 2020

The Oval Office occupation, not so much:

The nomination of Brian Miller, the special IG for pandemic recovery, has officially been submitted to the Senate.
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) April 6, 2020

Story from Sat with @CarolLeonnig on Trump's pick, Brian Miller: https://t.co/UZHYXjgA5o
— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) April 6, 2020

Also very important:

Election season is underway and this pandemic is already posing unprecedented challenges to in-person voting. Congress must provide states with the resources to conduct vote-by-mail, as well as safe in-person voting.
I'm working on a bill to ensure just that.
— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) April 6, 2020

Thank you, Senator Harris!
To focus your effort, please 'meet' online with Senators Wyden @RonWyden and Klobuchar @amyklobuchar to review @voteathome's roadmap for securing the 2020 election, with links to resources available to assist with the process.https://t.co/oDusVcBvWz
— Michael Epling ?? (@MAEpling) April 6, 2020

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: <em>Not Because These Things Are Easy…</em>Post + Comments (133)

Wisconsin Needs Our Help

by Adam L Silverman| April 7, 202012:25 am| 81 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, America, Civil Rights, Covid-19 & National Security, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Domestic Politics, Election Year, Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Political Action, Politics, Right to Vote, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Voter Suppression, Voting Rights

(Iron Brigade Forward – 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Led By General John Reynolds – Battle Of Gettysburg painting by Mark Maritato)

Earlier today the US Supreme Court, which has cancelled oral arguments for the first time since the 1918 FT Riley flu pandemic and can’t figure out how to use Zoom, Google hangouts, or the secure system that the Intel Community is using to telework, ruled 5-4 that Wisconsin would not be allowed to extend the deadline for absentee/vote by mail votes to be returned. The 5 Republican appointed justices overruled two lower Federal court rulings. In conjunction with the partisan 4-2 ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court that Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers does not have the power to unilaterally move tomorrow’s presidential primary, as well as state judicial, other state and local elections, this means that Wisconsin’s elections will go on as schedule tomorrow. No matter how deadly that may be. And no matter how many voters might be disenfranchised because they are either too scared to go out and risk infection to vote or because election officials have had to close the vast majority of Wisconsin’s polling places.

Wiscon needs our help. Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party has been doing yeoman’s work for months to prevent the created by an egregious partisan gerrymander Republican majority state legislature and state Supreme Court from screwing around with the elections for Republican partisan purposes. Both the presidential primary and state and local elections tomorrow and the general election in November. Wikler has put out an appeal for help. And you don’t have to live in Wisconsin to heed his call.

If you are ready to commit yourself to the fight for local offices—especially state legislative races and judgeships—here are three things you can do right now:
Give, if you can: https://t.co/GjN0ea1bEN
Make calls: https://t.co/E4Tyl4sbEl
Text voters: https://t.co/h9n09eXent
— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) April 7, 2020

So if you have some time tomorrow and are willing to make some calls or texts, go to the links below and help out. The earlier the better would probably be most helpful.

This shouldn’t be partisan, but the Wisconsin Republican majority state legislature, the Republican state supreme court justices, and the Republican appointees on the US Supreme Court have decided that they, to quote President Lincoln from his Cooper Union speech, are only interest in ruling or ruining.

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.

To make phone calls, use this link.

To send texts, use this link.

What Wikler wants everyone to do who can make calls and/or texts is to tell Wisconsin voters:

If you have an absentee ballot in Wisconsin, you have to either put it in the mail so that it’s postmarked tomorrow, Tuesday 4/7, or drop it off in person by 8pm at your clerk’s office. It must arrive by Monday, 4/13.

Open thread!

Wisconsin Needs Our HelpPost + Comments (81)

Voting Rights Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Is Looking Better Than Ever

by Anne Laurie| April 2, 20205:55 pm| 152 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Excellent Links, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Right to Vote, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It

Imagine a loved one dying because your governor was too lazy to read the news any time in the last month https://t.co/NF9XhZ4RPD
— Matt O'Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) April 2, 2020

Ain’t it just amazing what a rich white man is allowed to ‘not know’?

(And, of course, he threw a woman — Georgia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Toomey — under the bus, while attempting to excuse himself.)

If Kemp really didn’t know, he’s too dumb to be allowed to walk the streets unsupervised. If — and this is my bet — he just figured it didn’t matter, because COVID-19 wouldn’t come for him or his, he’s certainly a monster and probably a criminal.

neither option is especially reassuring. the fact his staff was attempting to discredit an epidemiologist this week using links to the Federalist as evidence suggests they’re living in an alternate reality.
— Andisheh Nouraee (@andishehnouraee) April 2, 2020

Just imagine what might’ve been if Kemp hadn’t been allowed to ‘supervise’ his own election (and dump some 700,000 voters that mostly would’ve voted not-Republican). Could this voter suppression have been deliberate? Well, what are Kemp’s cronies saying right now?…

So in their own logic bubble they are that they just openly admit the only way they hold power is through voter suppression now. https://t.co/cdCOa0UTea
— Schooley (@Rschooley) April 2, 2020

I predict that Stacey Abrams is gonna have a bright political future. Just listen to this interview:

FULL INTERVIEW: @staceyabrams joins @ABCNewsLive to discuss Census Day amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/LFwtqQy216
"What we have to remember is that the census is a count not only of who we are, but where we are and what we need." pic.twitter.com/wrOI3V5Qk8
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) April 2, 2020

Voting Rights Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Is Looking Better Than EverPost + Comments (152)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Chaos Under Heaven

by Anne Laurie| March 12, 20205:47 am| 126 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Free Markets Solve Everything, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)
.

And boy, do I hate it! https://t.co/mfZCxOuEit
— Console cowboy in cyber space (@Coolranch4lyfe) March 12, 2020

Mitch McConnell made a deal with the devil for judges and tax cuts. He assured the world that Trump would be fine, that a manifestly incompetent executive was manageable because he would be able to contain Trump’s worst failings. This is as much his legacy as it is Trump’s.
— Adam Jentleson ?? (@AJentleson) March 12, 2020

NEW: Elections officials scramble for options as coronavirus worries mount by @eliseviebeck https://t.co/hTAsOBUEOO
— Matea Gold (@mateagold) March 11, 2020

Every state that hasn't adopted universal voting by mail should do so immediately to ensure the coronavirus doesn't disrupt election operations. This map shows which states use VBM & which ones require an excuse to vote absentee https://t.co/ANgtjjczS8 https://t.co/jHQiXmYXe7 pic.twitter.com/F4FVTsHnZV
— Stephen Wolf (@PoliticsWolf) March 11, 2020

So happy we aren't about to have any socialism. https://t.co/UAKvvewSCX
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) March 11, 2020

I have no faith in this president, who has endangered so many of us, but boy do I believe in my fellow Americans. We will dig deep and take care of one another. We will answer the call.
— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) March 12, 2020

Foreign Policy editor in Beijing:

an idiot dynast sits on the throne. plague ravages the cities. a once-globalized world falters. the scribbling literati bemoan the status given to merchants
Canadians, judging by late Ming history, now is absolutely the time to send your mounted cavalry over the border
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) March 12, 2020

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Chaos Under HeavenPost + Comments (126)

Voter Purge: Check Your Registration

by TaMara (HFG)| March 10, 202012:47 pm| 29 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Voter Suppression

I made a video this morning about the importance of voting and then got turned away because I wasn’t in the system even though I’ve voted there for 11 years, including for myself four times! Go figure, but that’s okay. We’ll be back later today! #Vote #KCMO pic.twitter.com/3mYNrO6jmC
— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) March 10, 2020

Hmmm…I wonder why he was purged. Can’t quite put my finger on it.

This is a crisis in this country and we all need to work to solve it. Until legislation is passed to address this form of voter suppression, check your registration and help your family and neighbors check theirs.

Here is a one of the best resources I’ve found:

Love the personalized election guide from @vote411 and @lwv! #lwv #VOTE #2020election #ThursdayThoughts https://t.co/7j1sIJnnCE
— Holly Bodner (@bodner_h) February 13, 2020

Also, if you want to actively affect change All On The Line is the grassroots advocacy campaign supported by the National Redistricting Action Fund. More information here.

One person.
One vote.
Whether you care about providing access to affordable health care, reducing the gun violence that plagues our schools and communities, protecting voting rights, achieving equal pay, or solving the urgent threat of climate change, there is a fundamental structural barrier that prevents progress: rigged electoral maps drawn with surgical precision by politicians to preserve their party’s political power and silence the will of the people.

Open thread

Voter Purge: Check Your RegistrationPost + Comments (29)

Friday Morning Open Thread: SHINE

by Anne Laurie| February 28, 20206:09 am| 177 Comments

This post is in: Because of wow., Open Threads, Sports, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It

she said PERIODT. pic.twitter.com/aZhNgmMTbp
— anGie (@angiemugisha) February 27, 2020

Nia Dennis, on her 21st birthday.

Shirley Chisholm had the guts to oppose the Vietnam War. The guts to run for president in 1972. And she had the guts to speak truth—no matter how uncomfortable or unpopular. Our nation’s leaders could all use a little more of Shirley Chisholm’s grit and grace. #BlackHistoryMonth
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) February 27, 2020

Full turnout for blacks would result in +9 million net Democratic votes. Full turnout by whites would result in +5.4 million net Republican votes. https://t.co/2X5tpMCNXm
— Jen Parker (@JenParker393) February 27, 2020

Black neighborhoods in key swing states hold enormous power to reshape politics in November and beyond. But in order to maximize this potential, progressives need to imagine and invest on an unprecedented scale…
What is a “new black voter”? In the 2016 presidential election, an estimated 3.3 million black people in six key swing states were unregistered, or registered but had never voted, or didn’t vote in that year, despite previously doing so. In those six states (Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina and Georgia) the number of eligible but nonvoting black people was at least 2.8 times Hillary Clinton’s margin of loss. Five of these states also had Senate elections; Democrats lost all five.
In Pennsylvania, for example, Mrs. Clinton lost by about 44,000 votes, while Katie McGinty, the Democratic Senate candidate, lost by about 87,000 votes. But an estimated 350,000 eligible black people didn’t vote statewide. Combine this with the fact that half of Pennsylvania’s black population lives in Philadelphia, and it becomes clear where there is concentrated, untapped political power. This type of geographic concentration is not unique. Just 14 cities account for over half of the black population in these six crucial states. (There are also large concentrations of black nonvoters in Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando, Fla.; and in Fayetteville and Winston-Salem, N.C.)
And within these 14 cities, majority-black census blocks (areas usually much smaller than election precincts) account for a vastly disproportionate percentage of the black population. For example, majority-black census blocks account for 80 percent of Milwaukee county’s black population, which itself accounts for 70 percent of Wisconsin’s black population. The upshot is clear: Nonvoting black residents in key places have the potential to swing elections, from the presidency on down, in 2020 and beyond. Republicans have understood these dynamics for years; they long ago decided that they were better off trying to suppress black voters than to compete for their votes….
Research shows that the most effective voter-turnout technique is person-to-person contact from a trusted source like a family member, friend or neighbor; this is far more successful than impersonal paid communication like TV, digital or radio ads. But most nonvoters or infrequent voters don’t get this kind of outreach because campaigns and independent political groups generally ignore people with low “turnout scores.” And since these scores are developed based on voting history, nonvoters become less and less likely to be contacted. Even worse, people who have recently moved or are unregistered may not even show up in campaign databases. This problem is acute in areas with high transience, like urban, majority-black neighborhoods.
But the opportunity lies precisely with these people. To realize this potential, we must shed cynical assumptions about what is and isn’t possible…

Friday Morning Open Thread: SHINEPost + Comments (177)

Open Thread: Voter Information At Your Fingertips

by TaMara (HFG)| February 23, 202012:03 pm| 24 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Right to Vote, Voter Suppression

I had asked in the comments a few days ago if anyone had a site where you could check your voter registration without entering your email. I wanted to post on FB and I knew I had some folks who would be reluctant to give their email, knowing they’d be inundated with donation and other requests.

Turns out the League of Women Voters have just such a site.

Love the personalized election guide from @vote411 and @lwv! #lwv #VOTE #2020election #ThursdayThoughts https://t.co/7j1sIJnnCE
— Holly Bodner (@bodner_h) February 13, 2020

From Vote411.org you can register to vote, check your voter registration and see what’s on your ballot, with signing up for unwanted emails.

Share far and wide!

Here’s a big puppy trying and succeeding to fit into the smallest place possible (my spot, btw).

Open thread

Open Thread: Voter Information At Your FingertipsPost + Comments (24)

Cheap Snark Open Thread: Being Mean to MAGAt Morons

by Anne Laurie| February 12, 20201:18 am| 46 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Immigration, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Right to Vote, Your Place Is In The Resistance

I actually love the idea of a mandatory citizenship test for everyone. Birth rights are dumb. It’s not an achievement to be born and nobody should be rewarded for it.
I also find it hilarious that Republicans think this will play to THEIR advantage. https://t.co/PDhvKKPzKj
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 4, 2020

Citizenship tests, @benshapiro? Citizenship tests for everyone? Bring them the fuck on, Benny boy! The GOP will have zero seats in the Senate. None! Fucking Montana will be stone cold blue as the only people with voting rights will be university students.
Bring. Them. On!
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

I try not to encourage being mean to people (yeah, you should read me when the filters are *off*), but when people waltz into someone else’s online conversation attempting to ‘slay’ them, well — don’t start none, won’t *be* none, fellas. Since Ben Shapiro is well-compensated for being a professional Guy Who Never Learns, only fitting he lead this clown parade…

It’s like they live in their own reality. The US Constitution is completely invalid there, save for the 2nd Amendment, and facts are literally anything they like them to be.
It’s not even a cult. It’s an asylum. https://t.co/295bS4rSm1
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

The bio says “American through and through.”
I mean, not enough to read the Constitution, but definitely enough to show immigrants what’s what.
Sad, sad dumbasses. https://t.co/3T7PfwTSB2
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

English is hard, too. https://t.co/2g8wDXjIug
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

And now I have to explain to them that Mitt won’t need to face the voters until 2024… It’s almost like being born here doesn’t ACTUALLY make you a real American or something. https://t.co/X76T5oX45j
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

A supporter of Trump is telling me that my party is perfectly illustrated by bashing people who disagree with me on the internet.
Someone, please, check 5th Avenue for a body of a shooting victim named “Irony.” https://t.co/fiIA8qE7lG
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

When you are a Trump cultist, reading the US Constitution is extremely hard. Reading newspaper articles is no easier. Hell, even reading the entire headline of the very article you try to shame me with is too damn exhausting. pic.twitter.com/Q57VUbtpSK
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 6, 2020

Cheap Snark Open Thread: Being Mean to MAGAt MoronsPost + Comments (46)

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