They have at times targeted #Democratic areas, relying on new data programs & novel #legal theories to justify their push.
In one #Michigan town, >100 #voters were removed after an activist lobbied ofcls, citing an obscure state law from the 1950s. In the #Detroit suburb of #Waterford, a clerk removed 1,000 people from the rolls in response to a similar request.
The #Michigan activists are part of an expansive web of grass-roots groups that formed after #Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat in 2020. The groups have made mass #VoterChallenges a top priority this #election year, spurred on by a fmr Trump #lawyer, #CletaMitchell, & True the Vote, a #vote-monitoring group w/a long history of spreading #misinformation.
Their mission, they say, is to maintain accurate voting records & remove #voters who have moved to another jurisdiction. #Democrats, they claim, use these “excess registrations” to stuff ballot boxes & steal elections.
The theory has no grounding in #fact. Investigations into voter #fraud have found that it is exceedingly rare & that when it occurs, it is typically isolated or even accidental.
#Election ofcls say that there is no reason to think that the systems in place for keeping voter lists up-to-date are failing.
The bigger risk, they note, is disenfranchising #voters.
…the challenges have consequences. In some states, a challenge alone is enough to limit a voter’s access to a mail ballot, or to require additional documentation at the polls. Privately, activists say they consider that a victory.
Activists can then use the data to assemble lists of #voters to challenge. The program also tracks the outcome of the challenge & whether a voter later tries to #vote, info that could be shared w/ #election officials or #law enforcement….
In January, Michigan’s secretary of state demanded that Markee reinstate all the #voters who had not confirmed that they had moved. In a recent interview, Markee said she was still in discussions about the matter.
“They found this loophole in the state of #Michigan,” she said. “We have to follow the #law.” [The MI statute the activists cited gives “guidelines”]
"🚨 Republicans go public with NIGHTMARE attack", nationwide
"Democracy Watch episode 85: Marc Elias discusses a raft of Republican states lining up behind Brad Raffensperger's plan to gut the Voting Rights Act."
In today's newsletter from Workers Circle, Jewish Culture for a Just World:
"...In 2021, Texas lawmakers passed a wide-ranging voter suppression law, Senate Bill 1. The law made voting even more challenging in a state where it was already difficult — particularly for Black and Latino voters and for people with disabilities, limited English proficiency, or limited literacy.
S.B. 1 imposes new requirements and penalties for vote assisters, deterring volunteers from aiding voters at the polls. It also makes it a crime to compensate or receive compensation for helping people vote by mail, which prohibits, for example, civic organizations from supporting community members who have trouble filling out the forms. Under one provision of the law, a vote assister must sign an oath affirming that the voter qualifies to receive help “under the penalty of perjury” — a requirement that Cole called “offensive.”
In case you were in any doubt about who is disproportionately affected by Republican-driven laws that voters have i.d. in order to vote, wonder no more:
"Black Americans and Hispanic Americans are disproportionately less likely to have a current driver’s license."
@johnettesnuggs Right. And Trump officially & publicly revealed their dirty, well-known secret conspiracy — "Republicans" cannot win, if they don't manipulate/rig elections in their favor.
"...
“The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” said Mr Trump during an interview on Fox & Friends.
..."
@marcelias You cannot achieve long-term "bipartisan" agreements with an entity committed to eradicate pluralism & democracy from a country's & nation's vocabulary — and parliaments.
In Alexander vs South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, SCOTUS will decide whether moving Black citizens around like chess pieces in mapping congressional districts was based on political affiliation or race. How can Blacks chosen political affiliation which they consider representative of their interests/rights be seen as separate from the state's history of disenfranchisement? #SCOTUS#Gerrymandering#Disenfranchisement
@marcelias A racist anti-voter entity like today's "GOP" is an inadmissible anti-democratic, anti-constitutional criminal organization, the right place of which is definitely not on the ballots.
> Local Labs – which calls its work both political research and journalism – is demanding voters’ details across the country to back claims of election fraud
@BigAngBlack The enemies of American democracy have organized to disrupt & obstruct every chance of free & fair elections.
Terrorism is intolerable & unnegotiable.
“The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible, so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy, or despotism in some form, is all that is left.”
— Abraham Lincoln —
@marcelias Apparently there is no act of human kindness & compassion today's "Republicans" wouldn't punish to fraudulently suppress voters, who could make the "GOP" look as electorally small & irrelevant as they really are.
Codified electoral fraud is still, what it is: Fraud, violating the Constitution & human rights, Mr Raffensperger!
Amazing that the Texas House had the courage to call out the obvious impeachable offenses of Paxton; amazing, too, that it wasn't a foregone conclusion until the votes happened that Texas Senate Republicans were dedicated to the grift that is modern Republican politics—it seemed like they were taking it as seriously as their House colleagues. But, nope. They protect their own; they prefer crime. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/09/16/us/ken-paxton-impeachment-texas
"...
“Trump won by 620,000 votes in Texas. Harris County mail-in ballots that they wanted to send out were 2.5 million. Those were all illegal and we were able to stop every one of them,” Paxton said on the podcast.
“Had we not done that … we would’ve been one of those battleground states that they were counting votes in Harris County for three days and Donald Trump would’ve lost the election,” Paxton continued.
..."
@marcelias If "Republicans" are scared of an independent, citizen-led redistricting commission, they're simply confessing to be the designated losers in every free & fair election.
And that they're just rigging elections to pretend not to be the losing minority — which they are.
Their continued, almost "traditional" electoral fraud by means of voter suppression, disenfranchisement & gerrymandering, all their racist conspiracy against voters' rights must have legal consequences. It's unacceptable.
Can there be "bipartisanship" with a party of serial, continued electoral fraud? Not at all!
@marcelias 👏👏👏 Congratulations once again! The insurrectionary Confedereds evidently can't let go of running against the walls of the Reconstruction Amendments, their codified derivates & Marc Elias Group.
Wonderful!
@marcelias No lawsuit potentially disenfranchising up to 20 million voters can honestly be called "lawful".
While such monstrously fraudulent initiatives would fit any jail-worthy career fraudster & mobster perfectly.
@LouisIngenthron Only an electorate, vast parts of which are not disenfranchised or artificially split up in different districts so they're no longer a homogeneous/ coherent community but weakened, can be able to exert its responsibility to consequently vote out abusers of official power.
One example I prefer to quote is that of Texas's 1st congressional district, which was turned more urban & "Republican" after 2003 redistricting & as a result went to Louie Gohmert, the first "Republican" to represent the district since Reconstruction (~1877).
That's how redistricting abusively & undemocratically works to create fake majorities & illegitimate representatives, who responsible voters would surely like to vote out, but are prevented from by fraudulent redestricting.