Georgia passed new Jim Crow voting laws today. Republicans will regret this very soon I think.

Georgia Governor Signs Election Overhaul, Including Changes To Absentee Voting

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday signed a massive overhaul of election laws, shortly after the Republican-controlled state legislature approved it. The bill enacts new limitations on mail-in voting, expands most voters' access to in-person early voting and caps a months-long battle over voting in a battleground state.

"With Senate bill 202, Georgia will take another step toward ensuring our elections are secure, accessible and fair," Kemp told reporters Thursday evening.

Kemp's remarks during the signing appeared to have been cut short as Democratic state Rep. Park Cannon was escorted out of the building by Georgia State Patrol. Cannon was seen on video knocking on the governor's door as he spoke.

The Georgia State Constitution states that lawmakers "shall be free from arrest during sessions of the General Assembly" except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. It is not clear if Cannon is being charged with anything at this time.

The 96-page bill makes dramatic alterations to Georgia's absentee voting rules, adding new identification requirements, moving back the request deadline and other changes after a record 1.3 million absentee ballots overwhelmed local elections officials and raised Republican skepticism of a voting method they created.

Previous plans to require an excuse to vote by mail, as well as restrict weekend voting hours primarily used in larger Democratic-leaning counties, were scrapped amid mounting opposition from voting rights groups, Democrats and county elections supervisors.

On a 100-75 party-line vote, the state House approved SB 202 early Thursday, and the Senate voted later Thursday to agree with the House changes 34-20 on a party-line vote as well.

"Included in SB 202 are topics that are important to all Georgians," Ethics Committee Chair and state Sen. Max Burns said when presenting the bill, ticking through provisions like a new fraud hotline for the attorney general's office to a new expansion of early voting.

Earlier law required three weeks of in-person early voting Monday through Friday, plus one Saturday, during "normal business hours. The new bill adds an extra Saturday, makes both Sundays optional for counties, and standardizes hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or as long as 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

SB 202 also criminalizes passing out food or drinks to voters waiting in line, except for a self-serve water station.

Many of the measures in SB 202 will streamline the election administration process at the local level, such as allowing officials to process absentee ballots sooner, require them to count ballots nonstop once the polls close and allow flexibility with voting equipment for smaller, lower-turnout races. Poll workers could serve in neighboring counties, after the pandemic saw a shortage of trained workers.

Precincts with more than 2,000 voters that have lines longer than an hour at three different points throughout the day have to add more machines, add more staff or split up the poll. The absentee ballot request window is narrower, starting for most Georgians 11 weeks before the election and ending 11 days before.

Third-party absentee ballot applications must be more clearly labeled, and state and local governments are not be allowed to send unsolicited applications.

The bill will also shorten Georgia's nine-week runoff period to four weeks by sending military and overseas voters instant-runoff ranked choice absentee ballots and only requiring in-person early voting starting the Monday eight days before election day.

Democrats opposed several pieces of the bill, including language that removes the secretary of state as chair of the State Election Board, allowing the SEB and lawmakers a process to temporarily take over elections offices and limiting the number, location and access to secure absentee drop boxes.

Drop boxes were enacted as an emergency rule of the SEB because of the coronavirus pandemic, so this codifies their existence, requires all counties to have at least one, and would only allow voters to use the drop boxes during early voting hours and inside early voting locations.

"How does this bill help to build voter trust and confidence?" state Rep. Debbie Buckner said. "The bill adds up to more burdens and cost and returns to old practices that were abandoned years ago for security, convenience and safety."

Voters who show up to the wrong precinct will not have provisional ballots counted, unless it's after 5 p.m. and they signed a statement they could not make it to the correct poll.

A performance review of local elections officials could be initiated by the county commission or a certain threshold of General Assembly members. The SEB could also create an independent performance review board, and no more than four elections superintendents could be suspended at any given time.

Democratic Rep. Kim Alexander said county elections officials shared concern about the timing and the cost of the legislation, including a requirement for more expensive security paper for ballots.

"We have heard testimony from county election officials ... that more time is needed to fully understand the fiscal and logistical impacts the provisions in these bills would have," she said. "Given the substantial changes we'd be making with this legislation, why not take more time to get county input on the proposed legislation and take this up next session?"

In the Senate, Democrats objected to the bill being brought up without a fiscal analysis of the cost to the state and counties, but Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan ruled that the bill did not meet requirements that needed that sort of analysis.

Elsewhere in the bill, the secretary of state will be required to conduct a pilot of posting scanned ballot images from elections, and those images would be public records. Ballots used in the election will have to be on special security paper, which will cost more to use.

Overall, the bill will touch nearly every facet of elections, like a section that aims to provide more information about vote totals as results come in.

As soon as possible, but no later than 10 p.m. on election night, counties must publish the total number of votes cast by each method, and all absentee ballots have to be counted by 5 p.m. the day after the election, otherwise a county supervisor could face the state's new performance review process.

The 20-candidate special election to fill the remainder of Sen. Johnny Isakson's term and accompanying runoff between then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler and current Sen. Raphael Warnock is no more: special elections have special primaries.

Fulton County is no longer be able to use its two mobile voting buses for early voting, as the bill limits mobile polls to emergencies.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/25/981357583...to-absentee-vot

Maybe you could state what you have a specific issue with.

Lawsuit will be filed. This will end up in courts and highly likely is overturned. Majority of Georgians didn't even want this passed. Obvious power grab. I think it backfires.

That was fast. Full 35 page complaint in the link.

Looks fine to me.

"The 96-page bill makes dramatic alterations to Georgia's absentee voting rules, adding new identification requirements, moving back the request deadline and other changes after a record 1.3 million absentee ballots overwhelmed local elections officials and raised Republican skepticism of a voting method they created."

Totally designed to surpress votes.. NOBODY has shown any proof that there was substantial voter fraud anywhere in the country... Yet, because Republicans lost "Bigly", their answer isn't to address the needs of the voting public, but instead to change the voting rules.

If that isn't enough "wrong" with this, then I can't even begin to explain your thinking

If there's something egregious regarding the ID requirements, then ok. I'm skeptical about how simply mandating that votes be counted on time will address the issue at all.

This sounds, to me, like they want to address the complete cluster (voting during pandemic) that happened. I'm sure they snuck in stuff that wasn't directly tied to this (voter ID). I've never been one to raise an eyebrow over requiring someone to present legit ID in order to vote, though.

I think the worst part about it is now it takes certifying the election results away from local officials. That's a complete overhaul of the norm.

Georgia bill could shift power over elections to GOP appointees

https://www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-bil...FKGA7Z2GZIEQEE/

There are obvious other issues with the bill such as restricting early voting which I can see no actual reason for. But this would put elections in the hands of political appointees rather than the standard local election boards.

I think that's a huge issue.

What is so wrong with;

Here is what day the election takes place?
Here are the times the voting booth is open?

Please register and show your ID and then take a ballot.

It is not hard that is actually pretty simple. In the real world games are played on certain days at certain times. If a team wants to win that game they need to show up on that day at that time. It is not difficult.

Absolutly, if they see a problem with the ID's sure, I have no problem with that.

It's how they intend to implement these changes..

Example, I have a very aware 87 year old Mother In Law.. Mentally, She's running strong. Physically, not so much.

Standing in line for Hours to vote on election day isn't in the cards for her..

So, it's not just that they are messing with the Black vote, But they are also messing with the elderly, the infirm the physically compromised American citizens.

Again,like you, it takes time to count the votes.. If it takes an hour, so be it. If it takes several days, so be it. The most important thing is to COUNT THE VOTES.. ALL THE VOTES..

Those that think there is nothing wrong with this, probably are republican and know that the only they can win is to stop certain people from voting.

You might wish to check waiting times for one thing. Some areas have so many places to vote the waiting time is 30 minutes or less. Some areas have so few voting places it takes sometimes six or more hours waiting in line to vote. Now if you wish to make it a fair playing field for everyone, that sounds fine. I wait less than thirty minutes every time I've voted. But then I don't live in "certain areas".

The real question becomes why would you want to create a situation where certain segments of our society have to stand in line for six or more hours to vote? Why do you think certain people should be required to pack a lunch and make voting a marathon event? And why do you think they should pass a law saying I can't even give someone waiting in line who is thirsty a bottle of water?

Voting should be a situation where everyone that votes has equal access and waiting times. Passing laws that intentionally make it harder for Americans to vote is, well, unAmerican.

If you actually read the article the new law says that if the line is longer than an hour wait they have to add more voting machines or polling places.

I'm all good with that as standing in line is a huge deterrent for me.

But you can keep making up lies if you wish.

That sounds great and all, but let's really look at that. First the line has to get to the point people are already waiting for over an hour. At that point, how long will it take them to order the voting machines, for them to arrive and be set up for use? An hour, several hours? By the time they actually accomplish that, how long will the wait time be by then? Why not just have the voting machines set up in advance if they are available?

They already know the locations people are waiting in line for hours. They already know where those locations are. So why not set up more voter locations and machines rather than wait for a problem you know is coming?

It's like saying, "We already know where the problem is but we're going to wait until it happens to try to address it." That doesn't make any sense.

How do you know they aren't setting up more voting locations? If they aren't then how do you know they aren't figuring it out during early voting?

Because we're talking about a GOP run state.

It would be common sense to understand that if those things were being done they would have told us a bout it. Those things were nowhere in the bill.

If you find any evidence they are doing any of those things I would certainly appreciate you letting us know. Since you live in Georgia you would probably see reporting about before any of the rest of us would.

As of now I think with all of the negative press about it, if they were actually taking measures to address such things they would be shouting it from the rooftop.

Jim Crow voting laws..

next, voters in 'certain districts' will be required to accurately guess the number of jelly beans in a jar before being handed a ballot...

I agree with most of your post.

The part I highlighted, though......I can understand that. Before you go off on me, let me explain: 1, they can't the person take their own bottle of water? But more importantly - where does it stop? A bottle of water? Or maybe a free meal? Or, maybe a threat? Or maybe some cash in hand?

Yes, it would be ideal to have more voting machines in areas they are needed, no doubt. Why that isn't the answer, I have no clue. THAT should be the answer, really.

To the gov't.: Oh, it would cost too much money? Shoot, the gov't. wastes more money now than any one can imagine.


We certainly should know the areas where the waiting is unacceptably long, and plan for that ahead of time. Show up, show an i.d., vote.

Because certain groups need special considerations. That's the bottom line.

j/c...

After reading the entire 35 page lawsuit filed it's seems highly likely this law will be overturned in the courts. The GA GOP isn't even really trying to hide the fact of what this law is intended to do when evidence of voter fraud was not found in the most recent cycle per their own audits, recounts and statements. Making is illegal to hand out food and water to voters waiting in line? Lol.

Hard to argue against the The Statement of Facts and Law in the complaint

Some items filed/noted in the complaint:

A recent study found that the average wait time in Georgia after polls were scheduled to close was six minutes in neighborhoods that were at least 90% white, and 51 minutes in places that were at least 90% nonwhite.

In response, the paramount concern among leaders of the Republican Party was to prevent these results from repeating in future elections. As Alice O’Lenick, Chairwoman of the Gwinnett County Board of Registrations and Elections, explained to fellow Republicans, 2020 was a “terrible elections cycle” for the Republican Party. She said, “I’m like a dog with a bone. I will not let them end this session without changing some of these laws. They don’t have to change all of them, but they’ve got to change the major parts so that we at least have a shot at winning.”

Meanwhile, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger explained in a letter to Congress that he had independently authenticated the legitimacy of Georgia’s 2020 election. He reported:

My office has taken multiple steps to confirm that the result is accurate, including conducting a hand audit that confirmed the results of the Presidential contest, a recount requested by President Trump that also confirmed the result; an audit of voting machines that confirmed the software on the machine was accurate and not tampered with, and an audit of absentee ballot signatures in Cobb County that confirmed that process was done correctly. Law enforcement officers with my office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have been diligently investigating all claims of fraud or irregularities and continue to investigate. Their work has shown me that there is nowhere close to sufficient evidence to put in doubt the result of the presidential contest in Georgia. ... While there is no such thing as a perfect election, our law enforcement officers are not seeing anything out of the ordinary scope of regular post-election issues that will be addressed by the State Election Board after the investigations are complete. There will end up being a small amount of illegal votes (there always is in any election because federal and state law err on the side of letting people vote and punishing them after the fact), but nowhere near the amount that would put the result of the presidential election in question.

In a moment of candor, even Speaker Ralston recognized that the premise of the special committee—that the integrity of the 2020 election had somehow been compromised—was fiction. He said: “Let’s look at the facts here. The facts are we’ve had [two] recounts. We’ve had an audit and we’ve had more than six—I’ve lost count. I know there’s at least six lawsuits that have been filed, all of which have been dismissed. Which kind of begs the question if there were, in fact, significant wrongdoing would it not have been disclosed?”

......

Taken together, these unjustified measures will individually and cumulatively operate to impose unconstitutional burdens on the right to vote, to deny or abridge the voting rights of Black Georgians, and to deny Black voters in Georgia an equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process and elect candidates of their choice in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

9.This Court has original jurisdiction over the subject matter of this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343, because the matters in controversy arise under the Constitution and laws of the United States.

10. This Court has personal jurisdiction over the Defendants, who are sued in their official capacities only.

11. Venue is proper in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2) and under Local Civ. R. 3.1 because, inter alia, several defendants reside in this district and this division and a substantial part of the events that gave rise to Plaintiffs’ claims occurred in this judicial district. Plaintiffs The New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter Fund, and Rise, Inc. all operate within this district and division.

12. This Court has the authority to enter a declaratory judgment pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202.

....


25. In the June 2020 primary election, nearly 1.1 million absentee ballots were returned for counting.

26. In the November 2020 general election, more than 1.3 million absentee ballots were returned and accepted. Nearly 30% of Black voters cast their ballot by mail in 2020, compared to only 24% of white voters.

27. To ensure their absentee ballots were received by election officials, and to avoid mail-delivery errors or delays, voters relied heavily on drop boxes—secure receptacles on government property under 24/7 video surveillance where absentee ballots could be submitted.

28. In Fulton County, for example, which is majority nonwhite, more than half of the 146,000 absentee ballots cast in the November election were submitted in a drop box.

29. To accommodate historically high voter turnout, Fulton County also offered mobile voting units. These specially outfitted buses held eight to ten voting stations and were deployed across the county to make the voting process easy and efficient.

30. In addition to absentee voting, approximately 2.7 million Georgians voted early in person in the 2020 general election; more than 2 million voters cast early in-person ballots in the U.S. Senate runoff elections.

31. The high turnout of in-person voters resulted in long lines at many polling places—especially at polling places located in Black neighborhoods. While majority-Black neighborhoods comprise only one-third of Georgia’s polling places, they account for two-thirds of the polling places that had to stay open late for the June primary to accommodate long lines. A recent study found that the average wait time in Georgia after polls were scheduled to close was six minutes in neighborhoods that were at least 90% white, and 51 minutes in places that were at least 90% nonwhite.

32. To ease the burden of these wait times, organizers delivered free food and water to polling places with long lines, and counties offered extended early voting hours, outdoor drop boxes, and mobile voting units to give voters additional opportunities to cast a ballot.

Among its provisions, the Voter Suppression Bill:

- Imposes unnecessary and burdensome new identification requirements for absentee voting;

- Unduly restricts the use of absentee drop boxes;

- Bans mobile polling places;

- Prohibits the state from distributing unsolicited absentee ballot applications;

- Prohibits third-parties—including voter engagement organizations—from collecting absentee ballot applications;

- Burdens voters with the risk of disenfranchisement due to meritless challenges that require an immediate defense of their qualifications;

- Invalidates ballots cast by lawful voters before 5:00 p.m. in a precinct other than the one to which they were assigned, regardless of the reason or their ability to travel to another location (or wait until after
5:00 p.m.) to cast their ballot;

https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/georgia-voter-suppression-bill/

I am all for looking for ways to streamline the actual voting process and reduce wait times.

Show your ID to the individual who is checking you on the voter record, get your ballot and be in and out. It doesn't take all that much time if you have all your information ready.

Having a right doesn't come without the expected responsibility.

I agree, all neighborhoods should have adequate polling places based on the population in that area. That area in turn should be able to provide adequate numbers of poll workers to staff the site, and the citizens in that area should be responsible enough to be prepared to vote.

To me, that is a part of civic duty.

I do believe that polling precincts should be open from sun up to sun down from Saturday-Tuesday. You should have the ability to register same day, maybe even pair that with the opportunity to get a photo ID created which should be provided free of charge if the State requires one.

I'd also favor making Election Day a National holiday with everyone but hospitals/first responders/LE/pharmacies open. EVERYONE is home with the no excuse to vote.

The big thing for me isn't that there is the potential for fraud at a national level as that would take a MASSIVE undertaking to pull off, it's the local races that would see the most shenanigans if there was any as that is where most votes count the most.

Other than that, I have no illusions that either party will attempt to game the system to their advantage. I would love to see that process taken completely out as much as possible of their grubby hands.

Me too. That’s why I support mail in voting. I’ve not stood in a line to vote since moving to Oregon in 2001.

I DID NOT LIE... I would suggest you reread my comments again,,, Show me the lie.... If you can't, I'll be waiting for an apology

Not changing the laws that were already on the books where no voter fraud was found are "special considerations"? Not having to wait in line for hours just like you don't have to is "special considerations"? Your BS falls flat here.

Remember that the next time someone brings that up in a gun debate.



Southern U.S. states have closed 1,200 polling places in recent years: rights group

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-e...p-idUSKCN1VV09J

Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have To Wait In Line For Hours? Too Few Polling Places

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/17/924527679...-few-polling-pl

‘It’s Very Much a Racial Issue’: Why Georgia Has Slashed Hundreds of Polling Places in the Last 4 Years

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgzqn7/i...he-last-4-years

What was it you were saying about "special considerations" again?

I know I said all communities should have adequate polling sites.
Did you not see that?

As for closing polling sites, if it is simply a means to prevent people from voting, I am against that.

I don't think you know what polling sites have been closed. I know I don't. I would seem some number of those needed to be closed. I am not going to try to predict how many that might be, but I would feel pretty good in saying the number is more than one.

Some polling places get very little use compared to the number of people living in the area. Yet those places have to be staffed by election commission volunteers. Yes, in some cases it makes sense to combine poll sites. Yes that is going to make it more inconvenient for some voters.

I have no problem with that if there are controls. Maybe treat it like absentee voters who have to request a mail-in ballot. I am not a big fan of simply mailing out ballots to some last known address.

I don't think it unreasonable to make sure the ballots going out are received by actual living people, or the intended person at the address.

I actually provided you links to where polling places were closed and how long wait times are in those same areas. How those polling places being closed added to this situation. If you want to know, the answer is there.

If you wish to just throw darts in the air and claim you don't know, that's fine. But what that means is that you have chosen not to know. That's up to you.

I rarely read links. Save your time with me.

So you refuse to educate yourself to the facts. Got it.

I think the Democrats are playing this wrong. They complain how these actions disenfranchise minority voters. I think a more appropriate way is to say that it disinfranchises all voters. Democrats, Independents and Republicans. I think they would get further with their point of discussion if it were framed as a matter of fairness and equality for everyone, not just minorities or other effected groups that would be impacted disproportionately.

Calling it Jim Crow is a bit of a stretch.

No, not quite. Usually links in this forum are skewed to the viewpoint of the poster. Which is OK to some degree, but in this case I don't need to read which polling places in Georgia were closed. To be honest, I don't really care which were closed.

I pick and choose which links I might check depending on how much I care.

That's exactly right. He'll use vague references to try and justify what's going on like this admitting he has no idea what is actually going on....



Then when trying to give him resources to what is going on he refuses to look at it to find out. I think he understands that by finding out it may alter what he "feels" is going on.

Some people don't wish to see that there is an obvious pattern to make it harder for a certain portion of our society to vote. There was even a post that in their own words told you they wanted to make it harder for people to vote so they had a better chance to win elections.

But none of that actually matters to some people. Even when they say the things they are supposed to keep hidden out loud. Vague concepts and "we don't know" is much more comforting to them.

Yes we know, but most of us keep trying... That way you won't make off the wall comments that simply are not accurate.

Keep trying if you wish. I have read plenty of links and posted some in this forum. It always ends the same, so why bother? I no longer have any interest in your links just like you and yours have no interest in links from me and mine..

It appears as if actual quotes from people don't matter to you either.

I don't care in what context it's framed, it should never be illegal to offer another human being a drink of water.

I can only imagine what Jesus would have to say about this.

Mouths full of scripture hearts full of hate

“ To give a drink to the thirsty is the second corporal work of mercy. It was named by Jesus when he spoke to his disciples about the judgment of the nations (Mt 25:31-46) and he mentioned it four times. This physical need goes hand-in-hand with feeding the hungry.”

https://thecatholicspirit.com/special-sections/year-of-mercy/give-drink-to-the-thirsty/

We know what he said.
There are actual talks on these things in the Bible. Calling them by name. No innuendo. No modern interpretations. You know, unlike abortion, or homosexuality. But we know which battles the thumpers love to fight.

That sums it up exactly.

The reason for that law is that campaign workers were giving food and water to try to influence votes.

IMO all polling places should offer water and not random strangers.

That is total nonsense.

The only reason why there is a need to distribute water is because Georgia does not locate enough poll locations in the area. It is just wrong to make people wait hours on end to cast a vote, while in other areas, people who would tend to vote for the other party, simply walk up and vote.

Luckily for the most part the voters effected wear it as a badge of honor, but it should not be that way.

Its math, and the game is rigged by the political party that wants to maintain its position.

Truth be told, I can never remember waiting in line to cast my vote, and with the exception of last year always voted in person.

J/C

So sad that Georgia, along with many individuals on this very board, are okay with restricting the democratic process from certain American citizens.

And for all the “tHeRe WaS fRaUd” nonsense, to take your vile Qultist garbage to Gab. Every. Single. Election. Fraud. Theory. is rooted in QAnon garbage. Every. Single. One.

And for those who keep advocating and say they don’t know what Q is but support this measure from GA, your internalized racism is showing it’s arse.

Feel free to disprove any of my points wrong. I’ll be waiting.

Nobody cares if your feelings are hurt. Or that you believe in 12 year old boys' conspiracy theories. We are just streamlining the voting process.

I see we have another person who cant read. It literally says if the line is more than an hour then they have to add more voting machines or polling places.

But...........water.




On the surface, this 'water' thing sounds ludicrous.

On the other hand, where do you stop the handouts at the voting stations? Water is fine, but food isn't? Food is fine, but cash isn't? Cash is fine, but propaganda isn't?

Had this discussion recently. Why can't someone take their own bottle of water when they go to vote.

And absolutely, in those areas where people have to wait in line for an extended time, there NEEDS to be more voting machines, without a doubt! I mean, it's not like the long line voting areas are unknown until election day.

Then why were the lines hours long?

Too many people not using early voting or absentee ballot. So they are now forcing the counties to increase voting machines and polling places.

I live in GA. It took me 15 minutes to vote, but I used early voting.

Because it just got passed on Thursday? Maybe that's why? Has Georgia had any elections Thursday, Friday, Sat. or Sunday of this week?

RIF

this makes too much sense....

I waited about 40 min to vote in Texas... had my own water bottle that I drank while standing outside and threw away as I entered the building... still waited another 10 min or so once I was inside...

I like the voter ID part... I get why you don't want poll workers or others handing things out trying to influence peoples' votes... but also don't think anyone should have to wait in line over an hour... also, I think we should be able to use common sense and if it's hot and there's a long line there should be water available and the elderly should be allowed to skip the line...

What?

Hey we know that if you let someone marry someone of the same sex the next thing you know they’ll be marring their llama. Then next someone will marry their car... or your town, and you’ll have to move. Slippery slope dude. Slippery slope.

Pizz poor management by the county board of elections.

I wasn't aware of that. Are you sure?

You used to be a sensible poster.




Take your own damn water when you go to vote. To MY understanding, this whole pathetic thread about "water" is just asinine.

Take your own damn water. Problem solved.

As the law is written, get more machines in places where it is KNOWN there have been long waits previously. Problem solved.

But, griping is one thing people like to do, isn't it?

They have to whine and cry and throw their toys. Because it was passed by a GOP government.

GOPers are offended that their racist asses got called out for passing these new Jim Crow laws and are playing victim now... BooHoo! See a racist punch a racist! Same with the fascists. But hey they want to play games, we can play games.

And I call BS on all you guys trying to make out that these were not purely race motivated laws and passed by butthurt GOPers who got their asses handed to them in a red state. When POC and total voter numbers are down is when republicans win! It's easy to see. So the cry baby party wants to change the rules. We are still going to beat them. There are a lot of angry voters in GA today, you can take that to the bank. And I hope Stacey Abrams get them ALL out to the polls.

Biden needs to push killing the filibuster and get liberal voter rights and election laws passed NOW. Override the 220+ bills in GOPer state legislatures that are trying to undermine democracy. This will not stand, watch and see.

It will stand because you post hyperbole and not facts.

Don't listen to me, listen to your President:

Biden calls Georgia law 'Jim Crow in the 21st Century' and says Justice Department is 'taking a look'

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/26/politics/joe-biden-georgia-voting-rights-bill/index.html

He called it Jim Crow, UnAmerican, and sick! But I can see how you CAN'T see it, being a GOPer in GA and all...

Biden is a puppet. Of course he will say what the liberal marionette handlers tell him to say.

He is the same dude who had a totally staged press conference. Because he can't function without being told what to say.

He has no credibility. Neither does your party. Neither do you.

You are the party of hate who disagrees with anything anyone does, if they are not liberal.

Stacey Abrams-Founded Group Sues Georgia Over ‘Voter Suppression Bill’

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasrei...ppression-bill/

I'm STILL on the right side of history. The insurrectionists, traitors, racists, and completely inept leadership seems heavily concentrated in YOUR party. Your fantasies are not going to change that and we don't care about GOPer feelings.

You're not on the right side of anything.

You're on the side of hate, cancel culture, political correctness, paranoia, hysteria, and ignorance.

She is a has been who is trying really hard to remain relevant.
Nobody in Georgia cares about her.

Don't stand in front of a mirror with all that finger pointing, you might put an eye out. You are all of that stuff except correctness. l8r, I don't have time for your BS tonight.

1 I applaud the MLB considering pulling the MLB all star game out of Georgia, sports have a huge impact on society.

2 I condemn voting barriers. To deny a vote in Georgia.

63% of eligible Americans voted in our last election. I consider this an act of war against democracy.

Republicans should be no less, than absolutely ashamed of themselves.

[quote=OldColdDawgI don't have time for your BS tonight. [/quote]

Odd you say that. For the last almost 5 years I've felt that way. Rucker came out with a song that fits..........well, you and some others, to a t.



I would've posted the actual video, but it's tough to make out the words.


There's a reason so many people have quit posting on here.

I'm still waiting an explanation from liberals as to how this is suppressing any voting. It's like you ignore this:



None of you can back up your accusations with any facts.

If you have more than 2 brain cells, you will notice that they are expanding the voting window.

No one wants to read what is actually IN the bill, they just want to go ballistic about the "water" thing and assume it's a crime against voting.

That's the damn problem anymore.............not what's IN the bill, just the NAME of the bill, or, more correctly, what the media SAYS about the bill.

In my county the polling places are all at the courthouse, schools, and churches. They all have water fountains.

I guess the libtards are mad because the state won't let them try to influence votes any longer.

I don't know about all of that.

Take your own damn water. And, as the bill says, get more voting machines so people DON'T stand in line for hours. Problem solved. And, apparently that's in the bill.

Imagine that? But, let's all focus on water.

I agree with that. Here for early voting we had maybe a 1.5 hour wait to vote. Looking at the line of people, there were maybe 5-6 people of color in line v 2-3 hundred white people. People weren't actually walking the lines to offer water, but coolers being stocked were placed every 50-100 yards being stocked with bottled water. There were port-a-letts available. People would hold your place if you needed to leave to use them.

I would expect the same if the line was 5-6 white people in line and 300 black people in line.

What I don't know was if this was provided by the county election commission or by some volunteer group, such as one of the political parties, and party volunteers, or some other group.

If by the county board, it should be everywhere. If by a local volunteer group, it is what it is.

The Jesus I know would never accept this.. NEVER

j/c...

Second lawsuit has now been filed against SB 202.

Yes there is. Many have quit trying to defend the indefensible. Many know that the cult of Trump has taken over the Republican party and it is no longer the party that represents them or their values.

Like understanding that many polling places have been systematically shut down in places where minorities vote making it harder for the poor to get there and making for long lines and waiting times.

In this very thread there were quotes by Republicans saying their goal was to lessen votes. People understand that the false conspiracy of wide spread voter fraud is a lie and that these laws are based on such conspiracy theories.

They know it's moronic to try and equate giving someone water to a bribe for your vote. Yes, they've quit saying ludicrous things to excuse bad behavior.

That's not what it says. It says AFTER people have to wait more than an hour in line they will add them.

So where are those machines? Do they have to call somewhere and have them delivered? How long will that take? How long will it take to set them up and get them functional? If they are already at the location and they already know it's a location where people have been waiting hours in the past, why not set them up in advance to prevent an already known problem?

Yeah, you see they already know where people will have to wait for hours. They have already shut down locations in many of those areas to help create these long wait times. And now they are trying to sell you a bill of goods saying, "We'll just wait until the problem happens that we already know will happen and then it will take hours to address it." And still some of you make excuses for that.

Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have To Wait In Line For Hours? Too Few Polling Places

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/17/924527679...-few-polling-pl

Now suddenly people such as yourself try and convince people that purposefully helped create the problem are actually going to try and fix it?

Mmmmm hmmmm.

In a nut shell. It is one giant movement to try to make it harder for one segment of society to vote than another. Denying that is to be deliberately not wanting to find truth.

As someone said - access, ease and time it take to vote should be equal for ALL. Period.

In the works are over 220 new legislative initiatives to make it more difficult for select groups of the electorate to vote. All in red states.

In 2011, the state of Alabama signed into law the need for state-recognized voter ID, such as a driver's license. No problem. Then 4 years ago, I discussed at length the closing of DMV centers in Alabama. 31 of their 75 sites. All along a 125-mile wide swath right through the center of the state. Montgomery, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Jacksonville.... also known as the 'Black Belt.' They claimed budgetary restraints- so why not close them in a more equitable distribution pattern? Why close centers in the most heavily-populated locales, while leaving every single rural site open for business? Logic would dictate (all things being equal) the closure of more sparsely-used offices to consolidate resources where they would serve the most citizens. But all things are not equal.

One more point, as it pertains to GA: if a board of elections can mobilize to supply voting resources an hour after there is a need, they can mobilize to supply voting resources an hour before there is a need. More polling places: shorter lines, less need for water.

There has been a pattern of this stuff for decades, but it really started to escalate in 2013 when SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act. Bills in southern states were already on desks awaiting this ruling, and were filed within 48 hours after it was handed down. This pattern is blatant, audacious, cynical and deplorable by any reasonable person's standards.

I won't be weighing in on this subject any more. Every weak excuse, obfuscation and rationalization cheapens the conversation. POC's are being systematically discriminated against, and I'll not engage with folks who (either cluelessly or actively) seek to serve as the oppressor's mouthpieces.

I have stated 3 times, in this thread, this, or some derivative of it: "And absolutely, in those areas where people have to wait in line for an extended time, there NEEDS to be more voting machines, without a doubt! I mean, it's not like the long line voting areas are unknown until election day."

Yes, you have.

But I was addressing the board, not you. Please feel free to discuss this with others on the board. I'm out.

Clem, I ONLY replied to you because you said basically what I had said - in the point of yours I quoted.

I was ALSO addressing the board. And I few particular people that couldn't,didn't, or won't acknowledge that.

I don't think that is the main reason why many people leave.

Access should be fairly equal. As for ease and time, that depends on if people in that area volunteer to work the voting places that day and and how prepared the voters are.

The same could be said for the lines at the grocery store, but you know as well as I do there are going to be pitiful managers who don't know how to schedule, or cashiers who aren't very good, or some customer digging around in her purse for the lost coupons then counting out 40 pennies.

Iowa has signed into law a voter suppression bill. A lawsuit has signed been filed.



Here are more that are passing through congress in other states (lawsuits will undoubtedly follow if signed into law)...

Your response would seem reasonable - but it avoids the issues of managers who shut down the grocery stores in areas of the state that have more customers who want to vote for the "other" side. The GOP is actively trying to make it harder for sections of the population to vote.

Lets see where they were shut down or reduced in size, and how inconvenient it is for people to go a few extra miles to vote.

If you have a car, going a few extra miles isn't a big deal. If people don't vote, pretty much wherever the polls are located are likely to be inconvenient. You can't have them on every corner, and I know you don't expect that.

I do agree that if said polls being shut require someone to travel 30 miles or something like that, then that is a problem.

I don't want to bicker on the actual distances. In every place I have lived polls were set up in some school or church, or some combination of both depending on the size of the district.

Were I live it is in a church maybe 5 miles from where I live. That is for election day voting. Some people in my voting precinct might live 10-12 miles away.

Early voting is further apart. There were maybe 3-4 locations set for early voting. For that we had to drive about 15 to get to the nearest.

What about where you live? I will say that if a person lives in a large, sparsely populated place the voting places could be further.

J/C

In my view, I don't want to get into the weeds too far on this issue.

When we focus on Georgia, we focus on a Republican controlled state where the Republican candidates narrowly lost the last election cycle. Now, the Republican controlled government is trying to change the voting laws and procedures. I think that right there tells me what I need to know.

Still waiting for any liberal on this forum to post something factual about how this bill suppresses voting.

I'm guessing there are billions of people outside the borders of the US. Along with many people inside the borders of the US, and even some infiltrated into the political process,
which seek to complicate the process, TO CHEAT!

And the last thing they would want, is
safe, accurate, fair elections.

Well I don't know about Billions - but outside our borders we do know Putin was working hard for his boy Trump and infiltrated our system to cheat and undermine the process. Apparently you are cool with that, which is factual. Meanwhile we've confirmed and verified that fraudulent voting in the election was not significant, yet you prefer to believe fairy tales and children's stories about mass voter fraud.

The timing of the herd thinning seems to suggest otherwise.

j/c...

Just proves, Republicans will go to any length to rig all and future elections to their favor. Despicable of the GQP. Party over country.

j/c

Georgia House threatens Delta tax break after CEO slammed new voting restrictions

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/01/politics/georgia-voting-law-house-delta-tax-breaks/index.html?

Georgia is stupid. They should have ignored Delta. Not fight like little kids.

All talk. Delta has much more influence over them than the reverse. What will they do when Delta threatens to relocate HQ to the former MSP Northwest hub? Cave. That's what.

That's the thing about crony capitalism. It can come back to bite you.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if we find that later, Delta and Coke move HQ's out of Georgia.

You are correct, Georgia was stupid, they never ever should have passed a bill that would allow them to set aside election results if they don't like them.....

I doubt they move. Especially Delta. No way they replace a hub like Atlanta.

I don't think they move either, but it's more because I think the legislators' threats against them are false.

Atlanta is their HQ and something like that wouldn't change overnight, of course, but airlines can change their hubs fairly quickly. Cincinnati was the second largest Delta hub before the Northwest merger. A few years afterward, it became a shell of its former self.

j/c...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes...otated.amp.html

The south is rearing it's ugly head, once again. I honestly thought we grew as a nation.

A little more than a shot across the bow, of democracy.

Look in the mirror democrats?

This lie is the exact opposite, it's really what the democrats are doing.

Did this guy just accuse the republicans of doing exactly what the democrats are guilty of.
Shame.

I am not going to go point by point, but I don't disagree with many of the NYT sticking points.

To me, anything that has to do with proper ID isn't unreasonable.

Having rights also carries responsibility. In my world, if you can't provide proper ID, you shouldn't be able to do much.

If you are against having proper ID to vote, you should be against having to have proper ID to purchase a gun.

Really, how hard is it for people to have proof of identity?

I know the answer, and so do you.

Moving now after such a disaster year financial year,, No,, probably not.. But like I said, sometime in the future, Maybe.

Since you brought up guns. You mean responsibility unless it's a gun. A gun you should just be able to buy and conceal with zero training or classes to know the proper way to handler it. No responsibility needed, right?

Post civil war, If the north steps on the throat of the south. There is no segregation, no more N bombs, not so much incarceration disparity.

Ironic how the south preaches Jesus, when he would be appalled at your behavior.

? I assume this is for somebody else.

It's amazing how little you know.

Uht oh... I feel a Q theory coming on. The south never lost that war! All those things are Dems fault. Everything bad comes from the north! smfh

What amazes me is how many things people deny.

Adding snippets from other responses to my quotes now? And not saying anything to defend your stance... in today's lesson we will learn how to avoid the embarrassing truth and make it seem like you are not who you are...

I may have added the response inside another quote my error. Sorry.

My response agrees, the South lost the war. All the other things He, not you said are BS if you think bigotry would somehow be gone if the north had stomped on the throat..

Things haven't exactly been rosey for black people in any area of the county, either during slavery or after.

Understand?

If not for the South racism would not be gone from the country, no. But the South has restricted the rate of change within the country to a better place.

North is just as guilty. It’s been more hidden through institutionalized than outright as the south.

#textileindustry

After I hit submit, I realized I missed some glaring ones.

Red-lining (which I think you may have wrote about at one point?), how freeways and interstates are made (Toledo is unfortunately a poster child of this as is Los Angeles), and how school districts are formed.

Oh, and the Village of Ottawa Hills...

I see all the usual suspects who don't live in the South are making the ignorant posts about the South. Please do crawl back under your SJW rocks.

The actual fact is the South racial integration is a 1000 times better than the North.

When I grew up in Cleveland it was racial as hell. No black people dared step a foot into my whitey white snobby Cleveland suburb.

In the South, everybody mixes together and gets along. There is not any place in this country who could top the South's racial integration.

You want to say the new laws are somehow racially oppressive, but you refuse to say how. I have asked multiple times. So prove it. It's probably best to look at the fact checkers first before posting your parroted misguided views.

Perhaps people will look to engage you in dialogue when you drop the same tired lines about the south and stop airing your grievances about liberals and SJWs.

Till then, I won’t waste my time.

One that sticks out to me was the late 70's riots in the NE over school bussing. The people in Boston were going crazy.

Oh Sweet Tea, you wouldn't know the real south if it kicked you in the grits. You may live there, but you are and always will be a yank to the people raised there and they will never share their real secrets with you.

That said, I would agree with you that the south is "more integrated" in many ways, but that doesn't change the Jim Crow laws designed to keep POC from voting in huge 'election swinging' numbers. And the explanations are all through this thread, you just didn't read them or grasp the meaning or something... And I've thrown all my SJW rocks at bigots so there are none left to 'crawl under'...

There is some embarrassment going on, but it's not on him. Someone tried to basically argue that all racism in this country comes from the South, and had the North 'stepped on their throat' (?) then we wouldn't have the racism issue we have today. This is as ridiculous as it is incorrect.

You live in Atlanta, which is nothing at all like the rest of rural GA ... and is not representative of the "South" at all. I live in the "south" also. And have travelled all over and spoken to people from all walks of life. If you want to argue that Bama and Mississippi are bastions of racial equity compared to anywhere in the "North" you'd be lying to yourself as well as every member on this board. Comparing Atlanta to one slice of Cleveland ... not exactly an all encompassing perspective. Not only that - but the conversation very much focused on past not present.

I see a lot of feelings and not any facts from the lefties.

Also, lmao

You really need to get the people you stan for, Eve.

Here is Crenshaw being a racist bigot.

Please research those you stan for. Perhaps then people here will take you seriously, but I surmise you’ll keep up with spouting off of the aggrieved things SJWs and liberals bother you about. How dare you have to read facts and sourced information rather then get triggered by emotions you feel!

Yeah, the whole bussing thing was idiotic. Bunch of not in my backyard idiots showing their racist behinds.

Bussing should be a thing today. Schools are more segregated now than before Brown v. Board.

It doesnt make him wrong.

You voted for Hilary. She labeled black people as super predators. Perhaps you should research the people you stan for.

I didn’t vote in 2016.

So...youre responsible for Trump. Live with that.

lol

I mean he’ll be spending the rest of his life in Rikers once the SDNY gets finished with him.

Unlike a large portion of those who are similar to you, I’ve moved on from the fascist.

I'd be willing to bet more people here take Eve seriously than they do you.

Dude,you go around mocking people for their links and you post that nonsense? Be better.

Apparently I live rent free in a ton of heads considering the likes that posts get when people take the “LeT’s Go TrY aNd OwN rOcKeT!1!1!1!1!1”!” method rather than like...you know, trying to refute the claims I back up with pure factual information.

Take a stab, JFan. Please share where I’m wrong and Eve is right with her views on racism and what’s happening in Georgia.

Not sure what’s wrong about what I posted?

There’s verifiable proof that Crenshaw is a xenophobic hack.

We're not the same people who "feel" the elections were stolen without any facts. We're also not the ones who "feel" blaming the other side of cancel culture while calling for things like boycotts on the NFL, MLB, the NBA, Nike and the list goes on doesn't sound stupid.

Are those the kind of "feelings" you're talking about?

I highly doubt that one. Eve never actually posts anything of substance or even attempts to provide any links. All she does it throw around GOP hack lines and plays the "own the libs" card.

I sometimes don't agree with some of the things Rocket posts but at least he uses sources to try and bolster his claims. That's at least an earnest effort. More than I can say for Eve.

.. The other day, someone took a ball and threw it and the dog brought it back, they were playing fetch.

( Sits back and waits for Pit to try and explain to us all what was really going on.)

I think our experiences are different.

The problem with sources is either you agree with them or you don't.
As an example, I don't consider the NYT a reliable source when it comes to political reporting. It's a left leaning, communist infiltrated newspaper as far as I am concerned.

Now, that is my opinion. Your opinion may be opposite of mine. Sources I agree with might be viewed as garbage by you and others.

That is why I say I don't pay much attention to links in this forum. I don't need to open and read links by certain posters. I already know what they are going to say.

Peen is surrounded by commies everywhere! smh

If anyone is a leftist, if anyone is a democratic party voter. If anyone is someone who Hates Trump or Republican ideas.

I invite you, to learn some history of the nation of Liberia in west Africa.

What you will see, what you will learn is the ideas you support, implemented there, are just as bad as what you would hope to do here in America.

And yet there is no end to the number of lives the left wishes to ruin.

All Americans should do a crash course on the history of Liberia, which is an America created, funded, built, small country full of the ideas which we seek to limit.
When we seek to limit the control the democrats are trying to take of your life.

There's a difference between living rent free in somebody's head and serving up softballs to be blasted out of the park. Come on, man. When you're arrogant enough to tell someone that they're not respected in this carnival of a forum, what do you expect?

Crenshaw is what he is. That doesn't mean he's wrong about his comparison of the requirements to vote and to fly.

What's wrong about what you posted is you didn't address what was said, rather who said it. That's a tactic that's generally employed when one can't argue the point at hand (attack the messenger vs the message).

Yeah, it would have been better to say something more on point. My retorts:

A) Do they ban airlines from handing out food and beverage to people in inordinately long lines waiting to get on the plane?

or

B) is the right to fly considered to be as fundamental as the right to vote?

Whenever I argue with people and they get personal, I just assume it’s over.

OMG, dude, did a communist try to take your lunch money or something???

(It’s a joke)

Georgia is doing everything all wrong. They don't seem to realize that improving the ease and access to voting only decreases our sense of equal protection.

You cannot make it equally easy for everyone. There will always be people lucky enough to live close to the polling place and other who have to live several miles away.

The solution is actually to make voting more inconvenient for everyone so that our relative differences in location, wealth, and other things no longer seem so significant. So here is a proposed solution.

First, get rid of any mail in voting. It's too convenient. Voting must take place between 1 AM and 5 AM. Bottles of water must be provided at the polling place and every voter must consume 1 liter of water. Then, every voter must walk on a treadmill for 3 miles. Every voter is required to wait a minimum of 3 hours, regardless of line size. Use of restrooms will not be permitted.

So much bickering when it all could be resolved so easily. Oregon has it right. No lines. Equal access. All you need is a mailing address and a pen.
Enjoy your waterless lines I guess.

No. I wasn't the kid taking the money, but nobody ever tried to take mine.

Why pick a backwater country filled with corruption?

Why not pick any one of the European countries with policies left of where the Democrats are? You know, those countries that are higher on the lists of Education, Healthcare, Quality of Life, Happiness ???? All those countries are much better examples.

Get out of here with your fake, contrived comparisons.

Here's the problem. Most all national news sources use quotes from actual people. They use national numbers from actual U.S. statistics. There are sources that I often times don't agree with which way they lean politically but I still look at what they have to say. The reason I do that is to look at who they quote and what was said. I filter out the rhetoric and look at the facts presented.

I'm not going to use the rights version of cancel culture. "I don't agree with their politics so I'll just label them as fake, as communists or unreliable. Which allows me to stick my fingers in my ears and only listen to the things I agree with and what I want to hear."

And nobody set up the school lunch program to where you had to stand in line for six hours to get your lunch either.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject.

The Georgia bill is a "sour grapes" response by the GOP to address issues that never happened. The sum total of the changes are to limit voting, and that is not a good thing. You are either for voting, and if you appear to be against it, the crap is going to hit the fan if you are in a Southern state because of past practices. As the GOP Secretary of State noted, there was no evidence of mass voter fraud in the election. So the GOP passed a bill looking for a problem that did not exist. I view the change in who can disqualify votes by the legislature particularly problematic, and it will probably be fought in the court.

Please refrain from any comparison to flying or driving or any other privileges where ID is required. If you need a comparison, the only applicable comparison is gun laws. Voting laws and gun laws have to reflect the underlying right. We know where Georgia is on gun laws, (see Atlanta shooting) and if you need a mind bending experience try to rationalize the left/right divide between how those are handled.

Leveraging business to become involved in voting issues is something that I would prefer not to see. It is a result of the post-Citizens United political world where the Supreme Court has provided corporations the right of free speech. If they want free speech that is fine, but it is highly inconsistent that corporations are under a different tax umbrella as the individual. Corporation are people, except they are not.

There is a lot of inconsistency in the political world of today that needs cleaned up. That is unlikely to happen with the partisan divide.

I think you hit the nail squarely and unequivocally on the head. Most especially about the 'addressing a problem that never happened'.

I guess what it may also do - for any complete Muppets that still think the election was stolen - it may create the illusion that something happened and that the GOP are addressing that issue.

It’s funny how the republicans have been whining about cancel culture, and yet here they are, now trying to cancel MLB.

And let's not forget the NFL, the NBA, Nike, Harley Davidson and the list goes on and on.

Speech is only free when you agree with them.

j/c

After new Georgia voting law, McConnell warns CEOs: ‘Stay out of politics’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says it’s a “big lie” to call the new voting law in Georgia racist and he warned big business to “stay out of politics” after major corporations and Major League Baseball distanced themselves from the state amid vast public pressure.

McConnell particularly slammed President Joe Biden’s criticism that the Georgia bill was restrictive and a return to Jim Crow-era restrictions in the Southern states aimed limiting ballot access for Black Americans.

“It’s simply not true,” McConnell told reporters Monday.

The choice by the GOP leader to dive into voting politics lends heft to efforts nationwide to install strict new voting laws after Donald Trump’s false claims of fraud that cost him the election to Biden. The new laws are aimed at scaling back early vote and other options that became wildly popular during the pandemic.

Even more, McConnell’s warning to big business not to get involved shows the scramble Republicans face as progressive groups are shining a spotlight on corporate America to live up to its brands and values as Congress takes on voting rights, gun violence and other issues.

The Republican leader has been among the most outspoken champions of the role of big money in elections, promoting the free-flow of undisclosed dollars to campaigns as a form of Constitution-protected free speech.

But companies temporarily halted giving to many Republicans after the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol siege, when the former president urged like supporters to fight for him and hundreds stormed the Capitol.

Speaking in Kentucky, McConnell said Monday it’s simply “not accurate” to say the Georgia law is making it more difficult to vote.

McConnell also criticized Biden for criticizing the law, saying the president’s claims had been fact-checked as false.

“The President has claimed repeatedly that state-level debates over voting procedures are worse than Jim Crow or ‘Jim Crow on steroids.’ Nobody actually believes this,” McConnell said in a lengthy statement earlier Monday.

“Nobody really thinks this current dispute comes anywhere near the horrific racist brutality of segregation.”

The new law shortens the time frame between primary and general elections, which also narrows the options for early voting. To counter the popular “souls to the polls” events at Black churches on Sundays, the law now requires two Saturdays for voting. It makes it a misdemeanor to hand out food, drink or other benefits to voters waiting in long lines at polling stations.

McConnell more pointedly warned the big business that have been responding to public pressure on their corporate actions not to give in to the advocacy campaigns.

“It’s jaw-dropping to see powerful American institutions not just permit themselves to be bullied, but join in the bullying themselves,” he said.

Last week, Delta, Coca-Cola and other companies spoke critically of the new law in Georgia and baseball announced it was moving the all-star game from the state.

McConnell warned companies not to get involved in voting issues or other upcoming debates on environmental policy or gun violence heading to Congress.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/a...t-of-politics/?

Threats to businesses for expressing their political opinions? Hmmmm....

These types of culture wars can be mildly entertaining to watch play out. Nobody ever really cancels anything.

Who could forget when French fries (Freedom Fries!), Target, Gillette, NASCAR, Beyonce, etc., all got cancelled?!?

For all the current talk about cancelling Coca Cola, the Republican leader couldn't even do it, though he tried to hide the highly recognizable label from camera view.

Because Liberia was founded by the United States, it's a little tiny United States set up back in the late 1800's, it's like a 3D printer version, or a kinkos' copy of another United States, and one can see the problems, the duplicated problems, if you look at their history, the class warfare, discrimination, voting fraud and taking advantage of the less connected, through economics. Funny how much of a mirror it is.

As a huge Jim Henson, and Muppets fan, I take offense that you used that term to describe the mental weaklings still in the clutches of trump’s thrall.

Take it back this instant.




...no, for real. Take it back.

No - not really. Not at all. But then reality isn't something you like to spend much time with.

Well, he does have a lot of leverage. I mean, he’s been doing their bidding unapologetically for decades, so they’ve gotten used to it. Now he could pull the plug since he’s in his last term, likely.

Keep the money coming in though!

LMAO, he's literally telling them to shut up and just send money. What an asshat.

What's really wrong in GA election laws? Maybe not a whole lot if you actually take the time to read this article and not consistently listen to what your handlers are telling you....

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/polit...mpaign=msn_feed

You can shine up any turd. Taken by itself, maybe each of these things can be forced to make some sense, but all lumped together and presented as a response to a problem that doesn't exist (pervasive and even systemic voter fraud), the intention of this bill becomes clear.

Unless a person is for allowing voting without ID's and thigs like that, I see no problem.

The biggest complain i have heard is people going crazy that water can't be passed out.

Ok, that seems petty to me as well, but that is hardly restrictive of one's ability to vote.

Georgia has implemented some rules and guidelines. Once you know the rules and guidelines, follow them and you get to vote.

Pretty simple.

Some people just don't want rules and some people want special considerations over other voters.

I don't see the big deal.

Sounds like communism to me!

Quit rubbing my head damnit.

The water thing is a symptom, not the actual issue at hand. If people are getting dehydrated while waiting to vote, the problem is NOT that you don't have enough water present for people to drink.

Side note/context: I'm all for requiring voters to ID themselves with a govt issued ID. The list of things you CAN'T do without a drivers license/state ID is waaay too long to keep voting off it (the list).

But I just don't know how one wraps their head around some of these "fixes". Not allowing districts to up their voting capacity until they're already bogged down is dumb. Not allowing mobile voting thingies and drop boxes? Even if there are issues with these things (our election process isn't perfect/always room for improvement), this bunch of changes addresses a problem that not only didn't happen, but has been proven over and over in courts across the US to not have happened.

"There is no fraud" might not be true after some of these bills go through.

Since Republican voting officials announced they found no fraud and certified the 2020 election, why is there any need to change things? So they are trying to prevent voter fraud that never happened? Why would you suddenly reduce the amount of drop boxes to make them further apart?

Who are the only people that impacts? Let me tell you. Poor people with no transportation. Why would you make it a crime to hand out food or water? Let me tell you. Because it's mainly all minority neighborhoods were people must wait in line for several hours.

Why would you take the certification of election results out of the hands of local election officials and put it in the hands of "the same people who falsely claimed fraud and wanted to overturn the results of the 2020 election"?

If you can't comprehend who these new restrictions target, you are purposefully trying not to understand.

The water/food provision has been a big media talking point (would not be surprised if it was included in the bill to distract from the meat and potatoes of SB202), but there are much larger concerns in SB202. Starting with the ability that the GOP dominated legislature can replace the secretary of state (essentially they could have used this provision to 'find Trump his 11,000 votes) and the ability to challenge any ballots and put an undue burden on the voter to prove otherwise.

Here's an article explaining in greater detail:

Fact check: What the new Georgia elections law actually does

The law does, however, contain some provisions that can reasonably be described as pro-voting, and critics have not always described all of the text accurately.
Thursday, April 1st 2021, 8:27 AM EDT
By CNN Newswire

The new Georgia elections law signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp last week has prompted lawsuits from civil rights groups, a sharp denunciation from President Joe Biden, and calls for businesses to take action against the state.

Republican proponents of the law say the critics who accuse them of "voter suppression" are mischaracterizing both their intentions and key provisions of the law. They claim the law not only makes Georgia's elections more secure but that it expands access to voting.

That's highly misleading at best. As critics have correctly said, the law imposes significant new obstacles to voting. It also gives the Republican-controlled state government new power to assert control over the conduct of elections in Democratic counties.

The law does, however, contain some provisions that can be reasonably be described as pro-voting, and critics have not always described all of the text accurately.

Here is an explanation of some -- though far from all -- changes made by the 98-page law. Our research was assisted by the work of Georgia Public Broadcasting political reporter Stephen Fowler, who published a thorough explainer on Saturday.

Increased state power over counties

The new law removes the Georgia secretary of state as the chair of the state elections board. (Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have attacked the current Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, for refusing to accommodate Trump's baseless claims about the 2020 election.) Instead, the law lets the state legislature -- which has been under unified Republican control since 2005 -- appoint a "nonpartisan" chair of the board.

And under the new law, if a majority of the five-member board decides that a county's elections officials have been doing their job poorly, the board can suspend those officials and replace them with one person the board has hand-picked to serve as a temporary superintendent, with the same powers the officials had.

The new law allows the state board to sideline elections officials in up to four counties at a time. A majority of the board would have to decide that the officials demonstrated "nonfeasance, malfeasance, or gross negligence" in at least two elections over a two-year period, or that the county officials committed at least three violations of election law or board regulations in the last two general election cycles and had not "sufficiently remedied" these violations.

This provision is a concern to officials and activists in large Democratic-run counties like Atlanta's Fulton County, whose elections administration has been attacked by former Trump and other Republicans.

Guaranteed -- but also limited -- drop boxes

The new law requires each Georgia county to have a minimum of one drop box for absentee ballots. In 2020, when drop boxes were used for the first time in Georgia, the boxes were authorized by special pandemic-related rules rather than by long-term legislation.

However, the new law also limits how many drop boxes each county can have, how many hours and days the boxes can be open, and where they can be located.

The law says that each county can't have more than one drop box per early voting site or per 100,000 active registered voters, whichever number is smaller. This provision will dramatically reduce the number of drop boxes available in some large counties. Fulton County, for example, says it would go from 38 drop boxes in the November election to eight in the future.

In addition, the law says that drop boxes need to be located at elections offices or inside early voting locations. And it says the boxes can only be available during the hours that early voting is available. (If the governor declares an emergency, the boxes can be located outdoors.) In 2020, drop boxes could be located outside, available 24 hours a day, and open until the evening of Election Day.

Another early voting day in primaries and general elections

There was extensive media coverage of initial Republican proposals to eliminate or sharply reduce early voting on Sundays, when some Black churchgoers participate in "souls to the polls" voting drives. However, these proposals did not make it into the final bill Kemp signed -- which actually ends up expanding early voting in many counties for primaries and general elections. Runoffs are a different story, which we'll get to in a moment.

Under the weekend provisions of the previous law, counties had to open for early voting on only one Saturday during primaries and general elections, from 9 am to 4 pm; Sundays were not mentioned. Under the new law, two Saturdays of early voting are mandatory -- from 9 am to 5 pm at minimum and from 7 am to 7 pm if counties desire -- and two Sundays are explicitly made optional.

The old law said early voting had to take place during "normal business hours" on weekdays, leaving counties to decide what counts as "normal." The new law sets a specific time period, requiring early voting to be offered from 9 am to 5 pm. However, it also says that counties can open early voting as early as 7 am and end as late as 7 pm if they want to. In the 2020 general election, Fulton County, DeKalb County, Clayton County, and various other Democratic strongholds held their early voting hours between 7 am and after 7 pm, so they would not be forced into reductions.

Shortened runoffs

The law significantly shrinks both the overall length of runoff campaigns and the early voting period for runoffs. (Some context: Democrats won both of the US Senate runoffs held in January 2021, which gave them control of the chamber.)

The new law sets the runoff election day four weeks after the general election, down from the previous nine weeks. The new law also eliminates two of the three weeks of early voting that used to be required in runoffs.

The new law says early voting has to occur at least from Monday to Friday in the week before the runoff election day. It also says the runoff early voting period has to start "as soon as possible," so it's possible that some counties will offer more than the single Monday-to-Friday period. But other counties might well not do so.

Big changes to absentee voting

The law makes a number of changes to absentee voting. Notably, it shortens the duration of the absentee voting period and changes the identification requirements for absentee voters.

Under the new law, absentee ballots are allowed to be sent out to voters 29 days before an election, down from the previous 49 days before an election. Voters are allowed to request an absentee ballot a maximum of 78 days before the election, down from 180 days. And the applications have to be received by elections officials no later than 11 days before the election, a reduction from the previous effective deadline of four days before the election.

State and local governments are now prohibited from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot applications. (Because of the pandemic, Raffensperger had applications sent out to all active registered voters for the June 2020 primary.) And third-party groups can face financial penalties if they mail applications to people who have already applied for a ballot.

The law also does away with the signature-matching system Georgia used to use to check the identities of absentee voters. Instead, voters will have to provide their Georgia driver's license number, the number on their state identification card, or the last four digits of their Social Security number. If they don't have any of that, they can provide one of several alternative forms of identification, such as a copy of a utility bill, bank statement or government check. Advocates of the change say that this identification system is more precise than subjective attempts to try to match handwriting, while critics note that the new requirements are disproportionately likely to burden Black voters.

A food and drink restriction
Another section of the law, which has generated criticism from Biden and others, limits how voters can be provided food and drink in the vicinity of a voting location.

The law makes it a misdemeanor for "any person" to give or offer "any money or gifts," including "food and drink," to any voter within a polling place, within 150 feet of the building housing a polling place, or "within 25 feet of any voter standing in line to vote at any polling place."

This provision is located in the same paragraph as a provision banning campaign activity in these locations, but the provision doesn't prohibit only people who are campaigning from giving out food and drink. It says "any person," not just campaigners.

There is, however, one exception: poll officers are allowed to make available "self-service water from an unattended receptacle to an elector waiting in line to vote." And it's perhaps worth noting that there is not a prohibition on voters in line buying food and drink for themselves; the provision is about other people providing "money or gifts" including food and drink.

Other provisions

Again, we can't list every single provision of the dozens contained in the bill. But here are some others.

The law allows the attorney general to create a "hotline" for voters to report alleged voter intimidation and illegal election activities.

The law does not let counties use mobile voting facilities -- like the two voting buses Fulton County used in 2020 -- unless the governor declares an emergency, and only then to supplement the capacity of a particular polling place where the emergency occurred.

The law guarantees that any one Georgia voter can challenge an unlimited number of other individuals' qualifications to vote.

The law says that anyone who shows up to vote in the right county but in the wrong precinct will not have their provisional ballot counted unless it is cast after 5 pm and the voter swears a statement that they cannot make it to the right precinct on time.

The law will require a ranked-choice ballot to be sent to military and overseas voters in primaries and general elections, along with a standard ballot. The ranked-choice ballot will be counted in the event of a runoff.

The law mandates that if precincts of a certain substantial size had lines of more than one hour in the previous general election, or did not complete voting by an hour after the official poll-closing time in that previous general election, county officials have to reduce the size of the precinct or get more poll workers, voting equipment or both for the next election.

https://www.wrcbtv.com/story/43587651/fact-check-what-the-new-georgia-elections-law-actually-does


The GOP is not even really trying to hide their intent...

In response, the paramount concern among leaders of the Republican Party was to prevent these results from repeating in future elections. As Alice O’Lenick, Chairwoman of the Gwinnett County Board of Registrations and Elections, explained to fellow Republicans, 2020 was a “terrible elections cycle” for the Republican Party. She said, “I’m like a dog with a bone. I will not let them end this session without changing some of these laws. They don’t have to change all of them, but they’ve got to change the major parts so that we at least have a shot at winning.”

This explains it all.

Very Trumpian. To hell with policy and politics that benefit the people and create good government and appeal to voters ... let's just fix the laws to make it harder for the folks that vote for the other party to cast a ballot.

j/c



Translation. "Shut the hell up, keep your opinions to yourself but keep sending us money. I'm warning you."

I don't see anything there that would prevent a person from voting if they follow some pretty simple rules.

Yet the reasoning for the new voter laws were spelled out completely. So if you have no transportation making drop boxes further apart doesn't make it harder for you to vote?

Did you miss this part?



So having 30 less places to drop off your ballot in a county of over one million people doesn't show you they're making it harder for people to vote?

When they actually TELL you WHY they're passing such new laws and you still try to rationalize it, there's not much else anyone can do to show you their obvious, stated intentions.

They are adding more drop boxes...prior GA law did not allow drop boxes...the 2020 pandemic allowance expired...that means there would be zero no had the GOP not added them in....fact...

So your claim is that they are not restricting drop boxes to a much lower amount than the 2020 election? And what about the fact they plainly stated why they were promoting these new laws?



It never ceases to amaze me how when somebody tells you in their own words why they are doing something, people still try to deny that's what they're doing.

So what you are saying is people can still vote. It just won't be as convenient.

That isn't restricting a persons right to vote. If they want to vote, they can vote.

See. You routinely try to justify and enable the willful and deliberate targeting OF ONE SEGMENT OF SOCIETY and making it harder for them to vote. I think you'd be much happier in a Communist State than the USA - Just so long as you were part of the Ruling Class. Pffft.

Yes, it is restricting the vote. It is literally the dictionary's definition.

re-strict

verb
put a limit on; keep under control.
"some roads may have to be closed at peak times to restrict the number of visitors" link

Making it less convenient (your words, not mine) is exactly the point that your debate opponents have been trying desperately to make.

You are quickly running out of moves in this little chess match of words. Eventually, you're simply going to have to knock over your king and admit:

1. you don't see this as a problem because it isn't a problem for you
2. you don't see this as a problem because making voting more difficult is something you're actually a fan of.

In a healthy, functioning democracy more votes/access to voting for its citizens is a hallmark. Any measure to the contrary is an affront to that basic principle. It is the very essence of "un-American activity."

It’s definitely 2.

Dude’s on record for essentially advocating a poll tax of “only those who pay taxes should vote “ with his “skin in the game” comments.

McConnell backs away from warning businesses to stay out of politics

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday backed off his stern warning that companies such as Major League Baseball, Delta and Coca-Cola should stay out of high-profile political fights after they criticized Georgia’s new election law.

“I didn’t say that very artfully yesterday. They’re certainly entitled to be involved in politics. They are. My principal complaint is they didn’t read the darn bill,” McConnell said Wednesday at a press conference in Paducah, Kentucky.

The GOP leader softened his tough talk from earlier in the week, when he warned that companies would face "serious consequences" if they become "a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country."

He warned that "businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box."

“I found it completely discouraging to find a bunch of corporate CEOs getting in the middle of politics,” McConnell said Monday at a press conference in his home state. “My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics. Don’t pick sides in these big fights.”

He doubled down on his warning to corporate America on Tuesday when he said “it’s quite stupid” for major companies “to jump in the middle of a highly controversial issue.”

He warned that companies risked losing business, pointing out that “Republicans drink Coca-Cola too, and we fly, and we like baseball.”

He said criticism of the new Georgia election law is “irritating one hell of a lot of Republican fans.”

McConnell’s warning to companies to “stay out of politics” prompted a double take by members of the media who cover McConnell and proponents of campaign finance reform because the GOP leader has raised millions of dollars from corporate PACs and donors during his long career.

And he’s led the fight against restrictions on corporate political spending for years.

“It’s absurd. It’s Sen. McConnell believing he can say completely contradictory things and get away with it. He has spent years defending and seeking funds from corporate executives, from corporate PACs. He led the challenge to the ban on soft money, which included corporate money,” said Fred Wertheimer, the founder and president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit organization that seeks to limit the influence of money in politics.

Reporters pressed McConnell on Tuesday in Kentucky about how his warning to corporate CEOs to stay out of politics squared with asking corporate PACs for political contributions.

He clarified Tuesday that he did not have a problem with companies spending money on behalf of candidates and political parties, which immediately opened him to charges of hypocrisy.

"I'm not talking about political contributions," he said. "Most of them contribute to both sides. They have political action committees. That's fine. It's legal. It's appropriate. I support that."

McConnell said he was talking about companies such as Major League Baseball pulling business from Georgia to punish it for passing a new election law that Republicans claim isn’t more restrictive than laws in New York and Delaware, two Democratic-leaning states.

"I'm talking about taking a position on a highly incendiary issue like this and punishing a community or a state because you don't like a particular law that passed. I just think it's stupid," McConnell said Tuesday.

Democrats quickly pounced on the issue.

Democratic strategist Brad Bannon posted to Facebook a doctored photo of McConnell with his face plastered with corporate logos under the caption “The #MoscowMitch message to corporate America is to shut up but keep sending the checks.”

McConnell on Wednesday backed off his declaration that CEOs should stay out of politics to explain that his main beef with Delta, Coca-Cola and other companies is that they injected themselves into the debate over the Georgia law without having a sound enough understanding of the issue.

"My complaint about the CEOs is they ought to read the damn bill. They got intimidated into adopting an interpretation of that given by the Georgia Democrats in order to help get their way," he said Wednesday.

"And what did it cost them? Looks like it cost them the All-Star Game, and Major League Baseball made the same mistake. They didn’t read the bill," he added.

McConnell has repeatedly pointed to a recent analysis in The Washington Post that found that President Biden had “falsely” claimed the Georgia law ended voting hours early. The Post gave Biden “Four Pinocchios” because the new law only clarifies that counties must keep early voting locations open from at least 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and allows them to stay open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on early voting days.

A New York Times analysis, however, identified 16 provisions in the law that it said would limit ballot access, potentially confuse voters and give more power to Republican lawmakers.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5470...out-of-politics

Mitch's seat must have got a little warm after telling big corps to stay out of politics... He's a master of the backpedal.

You mean like Stacy Abrams?

I don't know, not a fan of Abrams so I don't really follow what she is doing. She gets credit for a lot of what is going on in GA, but I couldn't even tell you about that with any certainty. But I didn't see her tell major corps to stay out of politics and just send money, like Mitch did this week.

Oh, dude- have you binged the 'Embedded' miniseries on Mitch?

5-parter. Sets his bio from his first days in DC to now. Outlines his motivations, strategies- and chronicles each of his major moves in his rise to power. Talks at length about his overt, in-your-face courtship with Big Biz, and how hard he's worked to protect those who 'line them pockets.' It's a very satisfying deep-dive which shines a light that even Mitch doesn't dispute. 5 hours to encapsulate the career of one of the most influential politicians in the last 30 years. I highly recommend it.

It puts so much of this into perspective. And it sets the backdrop for the mind-cranking level of hypocrisy and word-twisting we're seeing now. Dude's doing a really great job of spinning together his Cirque Du Soleil audition video right now. "Embedded's" backdrop/context/perspective makes this newest chapter hilarious.

_________________________

This all could have been avoided, had not the Supreme Court issued its Citizens United decision , giving voice to corporations as People. Hailed as a win for the conservative lane of DC politics, it was the darling of mid-teens politics. But, as in all things... 'People' are unpredictable.

This time, the flip side of the coin that Money Mitch tossed into the air when he won his fight for corporations landed "tails up."

Wait until all that 'soft money' starts flowing into rivers that lead elsewhere, as well. He'll truly be beside himself when the monster he created decides that its fortunes are better served by supporting folks who ain't in Mitch's camp.

Politics: she's a fickle b#.
And she loves to play the field.

Time to regroup, McConnell. Let's see how facile those old bones are.
This could get interesting.

It's totally asinine, though. He said they shouldn't say anything and then said contributing $$$ to PACs are cool.

So they can finance a campaign, but just can't say it themselves, Mitch?

Exactly what I was talking about.
The "both sides of his mouth" aspect is just too rich this time.

"Shut up, but keep forking out the cash..."

Not the best sales pitch I've heard.
#dumaf

Like Chris Hayes on MSNBC Said: money is speech, but somehow speech ISNT speech, according to Mitch.

I'll admit that I am running out of words.

Typical for those who can’t put into words how they still believe in the big lie. Widespread voter fraud Pffft...the GQP

We don't have free and fair elections in this country with many thanks to the democratic party and the many lawsuits filed to screw up counting, legitimacy, and integrity in identifying votes to voters, in the years 2019 and 2020.

We have to stand Georgia Strong against the lying, manipulating, punishing actions of big corporations, and foreign and domestic intentions against the integrity of the United States Constituion,
which includes free and fair voting for all people,
and fair and verifiable counting of votes, and true results.

We don't have free and fair elections in this country as shown in the events on and following Nov. 3rd 2020, and I don't knov if I can believe they could return in my lifetime,
but that's what we must stand for. Stand for the return of responsible voting, like this Georgia law instills.
One Vote
One Voter
One Time
Verifiable.
Stand Georgia Strong, against the (#) and Tyranical enemies of the people.

God bless the USA.

Get Help.

I believe this is a reference to a fear that black or African American voters votes would be discriminated against and not counted. A fear which I believe is unfounded, (at least in the last 100 years).
Yet a fear that is no doubt parroted and trumpeted by the democratic party loyalist media and its irrational media, which receives it's media marching orders from foreign and domestically interests against the United States, which seek to spread confusion, lies and fear.



Wow, A mirror is waiting.
I can garner no much more better description of the aim of the democrats and the left, from my many observations; than that a goal of the democrat party is what you just wrote.
You seemed to have summed it up nicely.

I guess I need to come around to the fact you are simply trolling and everything you write is satire. No-one could really be that clueless.

There is proof that the Nov 3 Election was safe and devoid of "mass voter fraud" - it has been proven by GOP led states, and by Trump's own man/men. It's been proven across the states and courts of the Land. Period. Fact.

The recent systematic attempt by the GOP to make Voting harder for one segment of society is also a proven - trackable - event/fact based history. From removing Voting locations in TX, to a drive to change election laws like we currently see in GA.

Both things are fact, not Opinion based.

As for the Communist Comment. That's Peen's new buzz word to try to rile up the posters and tickle them in the ribs. I threw that back at him because on a couple issues recently he is certainly promoting a few contrary to free will and American values.

You take THROW 40 seriously?
Come on man.

Lately most of his posts seem like randomly generated sentences that seldom have relevance to each other, or a topic in general.

I've gotten headaches trying to read some of them, that I just skip his most of his posts if the first sentence makes me cross my eyes.

Didn't take him seriously but thought he might have been brain washed and believe what he posted. He's more likely a Russian Bot than serious poster at this point. Although a Bot would probably be programmed to make more sense ... so .... Hmmmmmm.

Will Joe Biden's Jim Crow lie Boomerang?
Michael Barone 22 hrs ago

The big lie works — until it doesn’t.


The lie in this case is President Biden’s charge that the changes in Georgia election law passed by the majority-Republican legislature and signed by Republican Governor Brian Kemp on April 1 are “Jim Crow on steroids.” This was doubling down on his March 25 press conference statement that the law “makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.”

This isn’t the first time Biden has charged Republicans with over-the-top manifestations of racism of the sort that haven't been common in decades or even centuries. During the 2012 campaign, he told a predominantly black audience that Mitt Romney “wants to put y’all back in chains.”

That, of course, was wrong, and so was Biden’s claim that the Georgia law closed off voting after 5:00pm. Even Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler awarded Biden the maximum four Pinocchios.

That didn’t stop Atlanta-based CEOs from gratuitously adding their ignorant voices to the chorus, including Delta Airlines’s Ed Bastian (total 2019 pay: $17 million) and Coca-Cola’s Britain-born James Quincey (total 2019 pay: $18 million).

Piling on was Major League Baseball CEO Rob Manfred (total 2019 pay: $11 million), prompted perhaps by Biden’s statement that he would “strongly encourage” moving this summer’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta, who did just that.

Never mind that the Georgia law authorizes 17 days of no-excuse-needed early voting -- exactly 17 more days than provided in Joe Biden’s Delaware or Major League Baseball’s home state of New York.

Never mind also that, as Georgia Public Radio’s Stephen Fowler pointed out, some provisions of the Georgia law increase voter ballot access. And ignore the mixed-verdict analysis of Slate’s Will Saletan, and the obvious reasons for some provisions he calls “bad stuff,” like later mailing of absentee ballots (previously starting in May) and shorter runoffs (the last ones pushed the campaign past the Christmas holidays).

Put aside the New York Times’s Upshot writer Nate Cohn, who concludes that the changes in the Georgia law are “unlikely to significantly alter turnout or Democratic chances” and adds they might increase turnout.

Pause instead and ponder just what you’re talking about when you’re talking about “Jim Crow.” Carl Cannon, a reporter’s reporter, provides a useful guide.

“’Jim Crow,’ originally a minstrel act before the Civil War, came to mean a series of laws and customs that took root in the Deep South during Reconstruction,” Cannon explains. “The civil rights movement was about dismantling them.” Jim Crow was enforced by state and local laws and by force — "at the point of a gun or the end of a rope by armed white mobs.” And by lynching after lynching, as Cannon describes in horrifying detail.

To say that anyone in public life wishes to bring back Jim Crow is a despicable lie. It’s a libel against the American people.

One of the great achievements of this country was dismantling and repudiation of the system of legally and violently enforced racial segregation and subjugation. It was the achievement first of black Americans, famous and obscure, who risked, and in some cases gave their lives to protest peacefully. This cause came to be embraced by a supermajority of Americans of all backgrounds and characteristics.

To declare that provisions like requiring voters to show picture identification and limiting no-excuse early voting to 17 days amount to a return to Jim Crow is disgraceful, whether you’re the president or you're $46 million worth of CEOs.

It’s also not clear it’s politically helpful. A Morning Consult poll shows 42% to 36% approval of the Georgia law. A CNN poll shows approval on Joe Biden’s “handling racial injustice” standing at just 47%, below his overall job rating.

Democrat Stacey Abrams started the attacks on Georgia election law as “voter suppression” by charging that she actually won the 2018 governor election (she lost by 54,723 votes). Hillary Clinton and other Democrats collaborated in her charade. Actually, 2018 turnout was up 54% from the previous governor election, and up 93% from 2002. Now, Abrams finds herself on the defensive over Atlanta losing the All-Star Game.

Much like Abrams, Donald Trump complained that outright fraud and election law changes to accommodate increased absentee deprived him of Georgia’s 16 electoral votes last November (he lost by 11,779 votes). The Jan. 6 rioters collaborated in this charade. Actually, 2020 Georgia turnout was up 21% from 2016 and 93% from 2000. Trump’s protests hurt his ratings and denied him deserved credit for Operation Warp Speed’s vaccines.

Now Biden is charging that Americans want to return to Jim Crow. He is giving ammunition to adversaries like the Chinese, who berated his secretary of state and national security adviser in Anchorage last month for America's race problems.

Only a lie can boomerang. The truth does not. Only lately has the truth been tried to be twisted into lies. And you certainly have been a promoter of that just as you are here.

You forgot the link.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/will-joe-bidens-jim-crow-lie-boomerang

Lacking substance at all levels. An opinion piece.

What's laughable - he quotes "42-36%" approval rating as being a good thing and showing support.... then uses a much HIGHER number of 47% to suggest a lack of support for Biden. I'd say that sums this guys "Opinion" up in a nut shell.

Haha, yep!

"Please continue donating money to politicians you believe stand up for your principles. Don't ever talk about what your principles are, though."

Personally I don't know why people are upset with this at all. It's not demanding to ask for an ID and make it mandatory to vote. People should have no issue identifying themselves. The only people who are scared to identify are those who are worried about something they're hiding.

I need to identify myself when I buy a firearm even though I disagree with it, seeing as its a constitutional right I believe I shouldn't have to give ID or go through a background check but yeah, here we are.

Daman, with all due respect, both political parties have no idea the needs of the voting public.

GM, Ford leaders join in voicing opposition to voting restrictions

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch...ng-restrictions

Conservatives are about to have a problem with all the companies they are boycotting. Seems like a very long list.

"Honey, for our trip, we have to make sure that we fly United, rent a Chrysler, and only go to restaurants that have Pepsi, before watching Badminton, while avoiding all reruns of The Fresh Prince."

It's not all that hard.

It was meant more to be funny.

I know. I laughed when I read it.

That's exactly what people say when they conform their life around the beliefs of a cult.

"It's not that hard."

How do you know?

He doesnt. Its hyperbole.

Makes sense. There seems to be a lot of cult followers around here.

All one has to do is watch a few documentaries regarding cults. Or they could just say they don't really care about things like that and ignore it.

I kinda have to wonder, how many folks on here understand that there has been no proven significant voter fraud detected... Yup, a few things here or there, but nothing that would have trump to come out on top....

Further, I wonder how many realize that the reason for all these new voter rights laws is because of perceived significant voter Fraud that simply doesn't exist

Trump and his minions say there was fraud, with no proof, those that can't figure it out on their own believe and follow...

It's a little scary if you ask me.

Poll finds 65% of Republicans say they don’t believe Biden’s election was legitimate

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/poll-f...ate-01612570478

Facts no longer matter. We now live in a world dictated by feelings. The fact the election wasn't stolen takes a back seat to the feeling it was. Murica!

Cancel Culture at it's absolute finest ! Don't like the result - lie, lie and lie some more. Obfuscate and spread misinformation. Have people continue plausible deniability.

That article was written in the first week of February. My memory could be wrong, but I'm not sure full-blown failure of the legal challenges to the election had materialized by then.

65% is a big number, and while some Republicans can't stop making fools of themselves I have a hard time believing the stupidity is that widespread.

This is from April 5th so it may have gone down some.

More Than Half Of Republicans Believe Voter Fraud Claims And Most Still Support Trump, Poll Finds

A majority of Republicans still believe the baseless claim that the presidential election was “stolen” from President Donald Trump and approximately half believe his spin on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found, showing Trump’s continued influence on the party and how the ex-president’s falsehoods about the election and its aftermath have taken hold among his supporters.

Half of Republicans believe the Jan. 6 siege was “largely a non-violent protest” or done by left-wing activists “trying to make Trump look bad,” the poll found.

Only three in 10 Republicans blame Trump for the attack.

Most respondents overall—59%—blame Trump for the attack, and 80% of Democrats and 60% of Independents do not believe the Jan. 6 events were nonviolent or staged by the left.

While 60% of Americans overall believe President Joe Biden fairly won the presidential election, 60% of Republicans instead believe Trump’s claims that Biden’s win was due to widespread voter fraud despite a lack of credible evidence.

Trump continues to have a strong hold on the GOP: 80% of Republicans have a positive view of the former president, and six in 10 believe he should run for president again in 2024.

The poll was conducted among 1,005 U.S. adults between March 30-31—days after Trump defended the Capitol rioters during a Fox News interview on March 25 and said they posed “zero threat” and “love our country.”

“Republicans have their own version of reality,” John Geer, a public opinion expert at Vanderbilt University, told Reuters. “It is a huge problem. Democracy requires accountability and accountability requires evidence.”

The Republican National Committee said in a comment to Reuters the party condemns the violence on Jan. 6 and referred to a January statement by chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “Those who partook in the assault on our nation’s Capitol and those who continue to threaten violence should be found, held accountable, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” McDaniel said.

Trump and his allies have been pushing voter fraud claims since the election and tried to overturn the election results in court, and his efforts ultimately culminated in the Capitol attack on the day Congress approved the election results. There is a lack of credible evidence to back up the voter fraud claims and multiple court rulings and election audits have disproved the allegations, and Trump was impeached but not convicted for his role in the attack. The poll’s support for Trump comes as the GOP has been reckoning with the controversial former president: a number of Republicans have come out against the president and voted for his impeachment or conviction, including Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), but have faced censures and other consequences from the party for doing so. The divide within the GOP has also sparked calls for factions to form their own third parties.

Republicans’ support for Trump’s voter fraud claims has actually gone down from when similar polls were conducted over the past few months. A February Quinnipiac University poll found 76% of Republicans believed the voter fraud claims, after a December poll from the same group found 77% support. A February poll from the R Street Institute showed 67% of Republicans believed the election was invalid.

Trump’s voter fraud claims and the support for them on the right has led to a new push by GOP state lawmakers to impose new voting restrictions nationwide—a Brennan Center for Justice analysis found 361 such bills have been introduced in 47 states as of March 24—though Democrats in Congress are pushing a new voting rights bill, H.R. 1, that would nullify many of the restrictions if it passes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurke...sh=48d03de51b3f

Yeesh...

Saw a funny meme on facebook the other day..

Basically, if you stop someone from voting, why should they pay taxes?

Taxation without representation kinda thing.... LOL

One, I don't think anybody is stopping anyone from voting. It may become a bit more difficult, like going to the polling place or dropping a mail-in vote in a controlled, designated spot.

You are also assuming that everyone who votes pays taxes other than consumption taxes.

j/c...

1. I'm actually not assuming anything,, Just mentioned a funny Meme..It's you that took it to another level

Anything that stops or hinders a legitimate attempt to vote should be unconstitutional.

We live in a time that people work,, They need time to vote.. We also have an ageing population that needs freedom to mail in Votes..

We we don't need is some lunatic fringe group like "Cyper Ninjas" who have a clear agenda to perpetuate the "Big Lie" about the election, being responsible for Auditing elections... Also we don't need them going door to door to verify results as is proposed in Arizona. A clear attempt to intimidate voters IMO.

We don't need all these voter laws changes when it's clear as a bell that there was NO MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD committed..

This is all an attempt by Republicans (really Trumpians) to appease Trump.

You can if you wish, bury your head in the sand, but it's happening..

Just like Gerrymandering...

j/c...

figures.

When I went to vote for Hillary, 2 big Russian dudes led me to my voting booth and made me vote for Trump.

Yes, suppressing and restricting the rights of people to vote will cause that to happen. Stay tuned. I'm sure there's more to come.

In any elections in any voting,
even if the entire vote is a one room affair, or a vote on the largest scale, the fitght for fake votes, fabrications, and tainted counting, is not a fight for voting rights, but a fight to cheat.

Sure is looking bad for team RED hat.

I don't think there is suppressing or restricting unless we are talking about allowing votes to be collected at the neighborhood grocery store.

States do regulate elections. Indeed it can go to far. As I said, in this case I don't think so.

Hey, we will find out. No sense arguing about it. The central government and state governments will sort it out.

When you got nothing just go with racism....it worked out for the little shepherd boy.

How else would you describe legislation designed specifically to make it harder for one segment of the population to vote? Wouldn't you agree access and ease of voting should be the same for everybody regardless of income, race and wealth?

I am really not trying to argue just to argue. I don't think it is directly aimed at any one segment and I don't know that it makes it any harder. The same rules apply to all.

I have lived in the same home for over 30 years and over that time the polling location has changed 3-4 times. Some were more convenient then others, but it didn't make it any harder to cast my vote. It just took a bit more effort. I would have rather it stayed at the church maybe 2 miles away, but now it is maybe 10 miles away.

I get the feeling this will be happening in every state that tries to hinder voting.

What is more racist? Expecting minorities to have an ID (free in most cases) like everyone else (the right) or saying minorities don't have the skill or knowledge to know how or where to get an ID (the left).

Peen, if you wanted to be serious about this, it's pretty simple. Forget about the sparsely populated geographies, focus only on towns and cities of similar population density etc

Do you think that currently the ability to vote, access, wait time, ease of everything associated with casting a vote ... Is equal for all? Probably not right.

Of the population that has the most restrictions on the ease of which they vote, do you believe, overall, that Black or White voters have less ease of voting?

Of the new legislation do you think the changes will impact one ethnic more than another in terms of reducing (further) the ease of which they can vote.

I mean you can pull a political BS answer and say "I don't know" or you can be honest.

It's not coincidence and it's been a a sustained campaign for years. If it's not random, if it impacts one section of society consistently .... How else do you explain.

As others have said. There is no mass voter fraud. People aren't hiding stuff. That's strawman Boogeyman BS.

I am being honest when I say I don't know how equal or unequal it might be. And how do you measure equal? Lot's of things not related to the polling place or location can impact line length.

I do know that the states have the power to conduct elections. Not the federal government.

Now it the feds can prove that some of the measures being taken by various states violate a persons civil rights, then so be it.

Based on what I have seen or read, I don't see such violation.

I don't want anybody denied if they are legal voters. I don't care if they are African, Chinese, or Irish.

I'm not as well versed on some of these states new voting laws as I should be. But I can give you one example in Texas. A law was passed to allow one drop off location in each county. Rural counties that vote heavily Republican in general have a much lower population. One is actually below 300.

The county where Houston is located has over 4 million people. Now the governor of Texas calls that fair because each county has one drop off location. But as we can see, when 4 million people have to share one drop off location it isn't even close to the same thing as 300 people sharing one drop off location.

Are there other ways to vote? Certainly. But all people should be given equal access to every method of voting. That's most certainly not what this is.

Do you want a copy of your ID floating around god knows where? I don't... there are plenty of ways to verify identity.


this is right out of the article you posted...

question: are conservatives and Trumpians going to boycott Ford and GM.....

Funny, that's how I feel about millions of votes floating around. No, not a conspiracy theorist, just saying that in 2021 there has got to be a better way.

I thought 2020 was a better way than we have ever had before. Voting was easier for everyone to accomplish and zero wide spread voter fraud occurred. I would call that a win, win.

What I am more concerned about is the ability of a legislature to meddle with the vote count and play games with it.

Set the rules for voting, fine, we can discuss the rules and requirements for early voting, absentee voting, vote by mail, etc. But once the votes are cast, you count them and that is it. Recount if you have to because it was close. But none of this legislative intervention stuff.

55% of Voters Support Election Audits

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Arizona’s ongoing audit of 2020 election results has been widely criticized, but a majority of voters nationwide approve of the election integrity effort.

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports finds that 55% of Likely U.S. Voters support forensic audits of election results to ensure there was no vote fraud. Twenty-nine percent (29%) oppose such audits and 17% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)



The new survey also found that 41% of voters still don’t believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fairly.

Arizona’s Republican-controlled state senate is winding down its audit of more than 2 million ballots cast in Maricopa County. Supporters of former President Donald Trump have raised doubt about the results in Maricopa County, which Biden won by about 45,000 votes, larger than his 11,000-vote statewide margin.

While a majority of voters support audits to ensure there was no vote fraud, many are concerned about casting doubt on the election process. Forty-eight percent (48%) think that expressing doubt about the outcome of elections undermines democracy in America. Thirty-four percent (34%) say expressing such doubts does not undermine democracy and 18% are not sure.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it’s in the news, it’s in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 900 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on June 20-21, 2021 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of Republican voters support forensic election audits like the one in Arizona, as do 38% of Democrats and 57% of voters not affiliated with either major party.

A majority of Republicans (70%) don’t believe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fairly, a belief shared by 10% of Democrats and 45% of unaffiliated voters.

In February, 34% of Likely Voters did not believe Biden won the election fairly. In an April survey, a majority of voters (51%) believed it was at least somewhat likely that cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 election

In the new survey, Democrats (56%) are more likely than Republicans (47%) or unaffiliated voters (38%) to believe that expressing doubt about the outcome of elections undermines democracy in America.

Men (53%) are more likely than women (43%), and whites (51%) are more likely than blacks (45%) or other minorities (41%), to believe that expressing doubt about the outcome of elections undermines democracy in America.

Younger voters are more supportive than their elders of auditing election results. Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters under 40 support audits of election results to ensure that there was no vote fraud, compared to 52% of voters ages 40-64 and 49% of those 65 and older.

Voters earning more than $200,000 a year or less than $30,000 are less supportive of election audits than middle-income voters.

President Biden’s strongest supporters are most likely to oppose election audits to ensure that there was no vote fraud. Among voters who Strongly Approve of Biden’s job performance as president, 57% oppose audits like the one in Arizona. By contrast, among voters who Strongly Disapprove of Biden’s performance, 81% support such election audits.

https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_...election_audits

Yep. Amazing how many morons there are out there who believe Trump's lies.

As a former Republican of 50 years, I can't believe what Republicans are doing- organized voter suppression. How do they expect to raise their numbers thru these actions.
I want every American to easily vote. If states make it hard for citizens to vote the FEDERAL government should step in, the Constitution trumps all.
I don't like illegal immigrants getting issued drivers licenses, what keeps them from using them to vote. I hate that many states have done this, I hope safeguards exist.

TOO MANY Republicans are into conspiracies. Trump is a prime mover, he's lied for decades...the birther BS, now massive fraud....all lies, he makes Bill Clinton look like a saint. I did not have sexual relations with that woman....right.

All politicians have an agenda- Trump's just a business man....right, he's had a taste of real power and his ego can't admit he's a loser....he lost and he's to corrupt and OLD to lead.....get some new blood. BE A NON AFFILIATED citizen, make both parties work for your vote.....GO Browns

I don't think they're trying to raise their numbers. I believe that they've thrown in the towel on traditional conservative values, and have conceded the policy wars to the Dems. Bereft of platform or ideals, their newest tack is to rile a base with culture-based bs, and try to suppress the votes of as many others as they can.

Now, this could all change if the GOP decides to clean house and return to respectability, but that will be a long and painful amputation. I'm not certain there are enough moderates with spines to pull that off. It will never happen as long as Mitch McConnell is still in the mix. He is essentially the architect of what the GOP has become, and will never cede control willingly.

.02

I willl say it. The demographics are not in the Republicans favor, and we are witnessing the slow March to retain some semblance of power.

The have a statistical advantage in the senate, and began with gerrymandering. Now it is voter registration and vote counting.

They have doubled down on being ruthless and we will have to see how that turns out as time will take its toll on their base. If they lose Texas, they might as well forget the White House.

Time will tell.

As a older dog I have learned it all goes in cycles. When you think you are on top, to the bottom you go.

Voters are fickle. They love you today, hate you next week.

Political parties too…. Remember when the Republicans thought they would be in control forever… I think Karl Rove made the statement.

A better way to do what,,,, Assure that Republicans win all elections?

I have yet to see one speck of evidence of mass voter fraud.. Yet all we see is conservatives buying into the big lie and attempting to change voting laws in their favor...

NOT ONE FREAKING THING that's been thrown out there by the likes of Trump, Rudy, or any of his other idiot followers have been found TRUE... NOTHING!

Trump lost the election, Republicans lost control of Congress, Rudy lost his ability to practice law.. At least in NY... Lin Wood is running for his life.

Sidney Powell, Rudy, Mike Lindell (mypillow guy) are all being sued for $1.3 billion each by Dominion.

Why is that happening?

Because they make completely stupid assertions that they have no proof of.. NOTHING... or they'd have showed it.

Italygate? are you freaking kidding me? Bamboo paper ballots, Are you freaking kidding me?

Listen, we all know that there is always a certain amount of fraud in elections.. Always has been,, probably always will be.

But so far, NOTHING that could cause MASS FRAUD...

I didn't (would never) go to the Trump Rally in Wellington last night.. But i understand from a few friends, he touched on it again... He's lying to you....LYING..

He's still trying to say he won...

If you believe a fool, you become what you believe.

Listen bro, read sloowwwly.

I said my comment had nothing to do with the conspiracy garbage. NOTHING.

When you and your buddies constantly change the meaning of posts it reeks of childish playground crap. You immediately jump to "why, so Republicans can win all elections??"

My point is that we're sending ballots in the mail. The same mail that can't seem to get my Christmas card to grandma, wedding card to family, etc, etc...

We can shoot down a mosquito from outer space, send messages around the globe faster than the speed of light and seem to think it's a good idea to let the pony express handle our elections. It's stupid. Get it?

Yet a short time before our elections took place the postal service seemed to work pretty well. Something changed all of that not long before the elections. In May of 2020 in fact. When you purposefully undermine the postal service to slow down service, remove counting machines that slow down delivery, it creates a situation to question everything. Some, including myself believe that was done on purpose.

The answer isn't to change the way the elections are ran. The answer is to restore the postal service to what it was before Louis DeJoy was named postmaster general.

I very seldom send things through the mail, but everything has arrived.

I think voting requires a physical document. The mail or special drop boxes are adequate alternative.

Louis DeJoy really hurt the post office. It will take years to rebuild the mess that Trump initiated. Just another part of the grand plan.

We are discussing politics. I mentioned that voters can be fickle. That it goes in cycles.

What did you think I was talking about?

Pffft. Is that it Pit?? The postal service was great and then Trump messed it all up. I hope you don't really believe everything you type.

The USPS has been an exercise in ineptness since at least the '80s.

Talk about gullible.

All I know if that I live in NC and my financial adviser is in Cleveland. I typically mail a check when I want to invest. For years it always took 2-3 days to get there. This October I mailed a check and it didn't arrive until late January!

A one off? Perhaps, but I suspect not.

Darn that's a pretty good point!

ALL citizens should have ID to vote and prove who they are. I could go one step further even, you need official proof of a social security number. I'd accept that with the ID as perfectly acceptable. That cleans up A LOT of fraudulent voting and this needs to be done across the country immediately as fast as possible. Every single voter should be okay with that, every single one of them. If not then I'd be skeptical of where their morals lie and whether they just want power and control over an honest voting system.

though it wasn't pretty, outcomes of 60-some lawsuits seem to indicate that it worked well enough during and after the election as well. COVID wasn't going to make this easy, and it wasn't pretty, but they got it done without the fraud that many now want to correct (even though it didn't happen).

People still mail checks!?!

I can't remember the last time I actually used a real check... I have them... but rarely if ever actually use them...

Haha, yea I'm old school. I still pay by check and mail in a bunch of my bills.

There are times that paper checks do come in handy. It's rare. Epic hunt to find the checkbook whenever it happens.

I've never used paypal. I have received money via zelle but have never sent money by zelle or venmo. I do pay my credit cards via their phone app.

Or get a COVID shot and get a free microchip like your dog. Lol. J/K.

All I am saying is that sometimes the party does not understand the voters.

See Hillary 2016. Rigged for her to be the first woman President, right after the first black or mixed race one.

We know where ours is, because it hasn't moved in 2 decades!

I used to write out a check in about 8-10 seconds. I had a very fast and disciplined hand.* I used to write checks all the freakking time in the 70's/80's/90's/Aughts...

We still use them on rare occasions, but I'm slow and clumsy and st00pit when I have to do it now.

I used to go immediately go to the checkbook ledger, and do the subtractive math before moving on to the next task in Life. It was automatic. I still require myself to do those daily equations- just to maintain my faculties- even while I'm using digital transactions.

Just because you say you aren't into conspiracies, doesn't make it so., you clearly think there is something wrong with our elections.. Like I said, they aren't perfect...

Hell even Bill Barr thinks Trumps election rants are BS

https://www.aol.com/barr-describes-break-trump-bulls-140833803.html

What's wrong with Mail..... Tell me again you don't believe in conspiracies.... You mean the mail system that the last admin tried to kill.. Cutting staff before an election, closing facilities, shutting down sorting machines..

You mean that mail service? You may want to look at the national stats on mail delivery by the USPS. It will change your mind.

Are you next going to tell me there is something wrong with drop boxes? Why do we need shorter hours?

What's stupid around here is when people forget what happened to try to kill this election and when it didn't work, we had an idiot president telling the big lie.

About the only thing I use checks for is to get the tracking number off the bottom to set up another auto pay.

It was more than telling a big lie, he was actively pursuing actions to circumvent the existing mail system to fulfill his prophecy.

The tear down of the postal system is evidence item #1

Exactly...

Some people lack a firm grasp of the obvious. Everyone knows mail delays went up dramatically after DeJoy took over. But how could they not understand that when you remove sorting machines and cut out the overtime it required to deliver the mail on time that the consequences of that would delay the mail?

=======================
FOOD FOR THOUGHT 2.5 years later.
=======================


MLB is coming back to Atlanta with the All-Star game after abandoning it in 2021.

"But Fate, none of the laws have changed, is MLB suddenly racist?" Well, that can be the only explanation, right. None of the "racist" election laws have changed.

Biden said "Jim Crow on steroids."

Stacey Abrams (who has a history of challenging her own election results) said the same. She's twice sued the state. Once to challenge her loss, once to say "well, this is racist". She's lost both cases and the tax payers have foot the bill for this chicanery. No big deal though, it was only $100 million, not like that could have bought any ballot boxes or free IDs. 🤣

The whole world screaming racist, mostly over some silly ancillary language in a package that mostly made sense. But mostly is never enough to overcome the screams from the aisles, is it? We have to pick any morsel of "marginalization" and use that brush to paint the entire painting, right?

I'm not interested in getting into an argument over how politicians on both sides try to rig elections, so don't bother. And even going back and reading through this thread, there's a lot of intellect and well thought out posts.

There is also a lot of absolute trash. People with no knowledge of anything "Georgia" trying to say how many drop boxes there should be. And if not -- racist! I shake my head and think, why not just let everyone drop their ballot in the mailbox, how absurd would that be? Oh, wait? That would marginalize people without mailboxes and suppress tha vote.


So, it can only be one or the other... Either the laws are NOT RACIST or MLB is SUDDENLY RACIST. What say you?


====
FACTS
====

Georgia's midterm turnout shattered all records. 2.5 million. Just shy of the 2020 presidential election.

Early voting saw record turnout right out of the gate... nearly doubling the number of ballots cast on the first day of Early Voting in 2018

Early voting for Georgia Senate runoff shattered records.

Black Voters comprised 35% of the day one early vote, the Black male vote over 20% higher.




Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff then:
"The leadership of Georgia’s Republican Party is out of control and Georgia is hemorrhaging business and jobs because of their disastrous new Jim Crow voting law. The Governor and the legislature are deliberately making it harder for Black voters to vote. They know it. Everybody knows it and this egregious and immoral assault on voting rights has also put our state’s economy at grave risk," he said at the time.

Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff's only response now:
"This is great news for the State of Georgia. We are prepared and excited to host the All-Star Game." 🤔

Uphold making it harder to vote. Murica!

You mean like, harder than going to the bathroom but not as hard as going to the grocery store??

Answer the question.

Is MLB racist now??

Exactly, …. they want to stop that.

Their stand on racism and racist laws has certainly softened. But I'm not a fan of baseball anyway.

They want to stop early voting? Please enlighten us on this new revelation.

Also, the vote was up that high after the new law was passed. Are you saying it's just not racist enough??

It's a funny thing about human nature. When you try to stop someone from doing something they want to do, it tends to make them even more determined to do it. Sometimes it even encourages people that didn't do it before to take a stand out of principal alone.. It appears the state of Georgia's strategy has backfired on them.

In your mind somehow you think that those laws caused people to go out and vote. I wonder why that is?

Votes were up across the board. Not just with blacks. I have an idea why.

Pit nailed it

You just said the laws caused them to.

Exactly. So I wonder why that is? Why did more restrictive laws make more people vote than before by a wide margin?

It was you who decided to post that after the laws were changed a lot more people voted. Are you saying you weren't trying to draw a causation there? So why do you think that is? Keep dancing around that.

I'm not dancing around anything.

I showed you facts, you don't like the facts, now you want to wax philosophic.

I LOVE the facts! The more roadblocks Republicans put in the way of people voting, the more determined people are to vote. Their strategy is backfiring on them just like their abortion bans are.

In many areas throughout the south they have closed polling locations in rural areas with a mainly minority populations making it harder for them to vote. Yet they still overcome those obstacles as well.

I love the facts because they don't mean what you think they mean.

No they don't. They added Saturday early voting to make it more convenient for people who work. How is that stopping anything?

They also expanded in-person early voting hours and mandated each county have drop boxes for absentee ballots. Not that #factsmatter

Fewer voters used drop boxes after Georgia voting law limited them

https://www.ajc.com/politics/fewer-...limited-them/WTCPBE7QH5HBBEJB37RSC3FQYY/

A new Georgia voting law reduced ballot drop box access in places that used them most

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/27/1112487312/georgia-voting-law-ballot-drop-box-access

A sweeping generalization doesn't mean much when people actually do look at facts.

I don't buy that people can't vote.

If they want to vote, they will find a way to vote.

Obviously you haven't paid attention to states like Florida, Texas, Georgia and some others that have done whatever they can to hinder voters they feel won't vote Republican. Take Ohio, the AG here decided to disqualify thousands of Voters. And lets not forget all the Gerrymandering going on.

It should be easy for legit voters to vote and for some folks, it's just not that simple.

Yes they do. They just haven’t successfully completed their grand scheme.

I don't buy that states should be passing laws that make it more and more difficult for people to vote. People can "find a way". But is that really the point here? The point here is that laws are being passed that make it harder to vote.

Only in Predominantly Democrat districts where gerrymandering didn’t work so well or the new district lines were rejected by the voters. Pfft Gopers …don’t like the voters outcome, make it harder for the opposition to vote. It has been part of their platform for years.

Nor should Atlanta replace all the phone booths with voting kiosks and drop boxes. Your comments about less drop boxes making it harder are ridiculous. Harder compared to what? Driving to Wal-Mart? GTHOH Besides with the record number of early, in-person voting, drop boxes will obviously be less used. Math any mosquito could understand.

If you're going to keep talking about "harder", please start by defining "hard". This is turning into a ridiculous pity-party for people that neither require or are asking for any pity.

So your claim was that those drop boxes were still there and now that it's been shown that not only have many been removed, but they've been removed in areas where people can't afford transportation live you pivot to another excuse. Same as it ever was.

Blah, blah, blah, blah... senseless sob-story. There are about 35 different ways to vote now. If someone didn't vote, they're either lazy or looking for excuses. If they can't afford transportation they can vote from home. Next they'll be unable to afford the free postage. "No fair, no fair!!!"

So they didn't make it harder to vote? They didn't reduce drop boxes? Some southern states didn't reduce polling places in minority areas? Texas didn't reduce drop boxes to one per county which means where liberal voters live in huge numbers like Houston only have on drop box?

The only one I see in denial and throwing a tantrum here is you. They're either making it harder for people, especially in minority neighborhoods to vote or they aren't. And obviously they are.

The subject should not be voting, because when you are talking about the voting, the subject ought to be
ending slavery today.

I think this is more the point. It isn't that they are making it more difficult for everyone to vote. THey are making it harder fora selective portion of the population to vote.

Yes Pit, they made it harder to vote.

Easier than picking buggers. But still harder than snoring.

It's harder to do one of the easiest things to do in the world to do. Something that humankind has spent an eternity willing to die for, but internet trolls set their hair on fire about if it doesn't come with a chauffeur and a tall glass of ice water.

Jump on your next crusade. You've already lost this one, but I don't feel like spending 145 posts and reading 32 "you see"'s to prove it. So we'll just say "you win" so you can grab your juice box and head back to MSDNC.

Chill Pit. For some GOPers, they could have went a lot further with their turn back to Jim Crow. Remember, we don’t all think the same or have the same values.

I remember a time when you voted on voting day. One could still absentee vote, but you voted on voting day. It's not harder to vote.

To a point daman made about purging voter rolls. States should if they have names that haven't voted in x number of years. That increases administrative burden to keep them there and leaves open the possibility of voter fraud.

Voters have weeks to cast their vote. Somewhere in that timeframe they can find a way to vote. One has to remember; polls are mostly staffed by volunteers. Only a small segment of the population actually volunteers to do anything. You can't have voting precincts every 5 miles. In some cases, some people are going to have to travel 15 miles or more to get to their designated polling place.

I think we all know how early voting and mail in voting works now. The point is Gopers want to change all that in certain districts that vote predominantly democrat and make it harder for them to cast their vote. But the fact is it also hurts themselves.

When states shut down poling places in minority districts, that's making it harder. Texas did that.

As for only voting on one day, you know, it's not been like that since I starting voting. The first time I voted was an Absentee ballot. I was going to be on my Honeymoon on the day of voting that year. So you are going back way too far. Todays world is such that people work more than they did years ago.. why the hell shouldn't we make it easier to vote.

As for Purging voter rolls, sure, If people hadn't voted for years, I got no problem purging them. But in Ohio, that's not what happened.

It's funny all the BS we hear from the right about rigged elections. Yet, Everyone in power (except politicians that lost) keep repeating that our elections are safer than they've ever been.

It's almost like the Right doesn't have anything to complain about so they have to make stuff up.

It's not harder for YOU to vote. It's not harder for ME to vote. I know you "remember a time" but that was long ago. Over past six years or so laws have been passed that make people "unlike you and me" have a harder time voting.

Here is an article from 2018 showing polling places being closed in minority neighborhoods.....

Closed voting sites hit minority counties harder for busy midterm elections

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...mpact-minority-voter-turnout/1774221002/

In 2020

Texas closes hundreds of polling sites, making it harder for minorities to vote

Guardian analysis finds that places where black and Latino population is growing by the largest numbers experienced the majority of closures and could benefit Republicans

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/02/texas-polling-sites-closures-voting

Texas counties can offer only one drop-off ballot location, federal appeals court rules, upholding Gov. Greg Abbott’s order

Civil rights groups and voting advocates had argued the restriction would disproportionately impact low-income voters, voters with disabilities, older voters and voters of color in Democratic counties.

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/13/texas-election-ballot-drop-off/

Let me explain what that does. In counties with as many as 2.4 million voters and all urban areas, somehow hundreds of thousands and even millions of people only have one drop box location while rural counties with very low populations also have one drop box. Now how can anyone justify that?

You wish to look at "long ago I remember". But what has happened is that right people died for was made much easier. And now that is being reversed. We have options a lot of people don't. We have transportation and the means to drive an extra few miles if need be. It's no big deal to us. A lot of people don't have that choice. And the people in power in these red states know who those people are.

People like FATE just blow it off by making fun of it. They make fun of it because it doesn't effect them. And they look like fools making fun of the people who stand up for the people it does effect. To each their own.

And all that mumbo-jumbo is for people that would rather exercise one of many choices and drive to a ballot drop off.

I suspect these are all people who can't afford stamps and whose cars run on fairy-dust, thus keeping within their tight budget allowance for voting and avoiding the outrageous 63¢ charge for a postage stamp. Meanwhile, early voting has been expanded and it is easier than ever to vote everywhere in America... For "you", "me", and "everyone".

Keep going, this is fun.

Lol which prove pits point. It’s fun making fun of issues that effect minorities and the poor.

Aw, it's so understanding of you to think that poor people keep living in the same place long term. You keep making up BS excuses why it's okay for red states to make voting harder. Thoughts and prayers.

Noooo, it's fun making fun of the people that scream bloody murder as if people are being asked to cross a desert (with no water, of course) to do something. When in reality, there are so many avenues to complete the task, that you have to try to be suppressed. You, me, everyone, regardless of wealth or social standing. The only valid excuse being making the case for somebody that can't afford a 63¢ stamp.

Maybe you and Pit can donate. I'll match your donations. Let's fix this injustice now!

You have to verify your address to buy stamps nowadays?

What in the world are you saying??

Please make sense of this latest angle, I want to feel the full fury of my privilege.

I had no idea English was so hard for you. Red states are making it harder to vote and much of it is targeted towards poor minority neighborhoods. Closing polling places. Limiting drop boxes. Yet all you have in response is "Yeah, but it's still not hard to vote!" For some it's not that easy. And in all of that, it still doesn't change the fact they ARE making it harder. Yet somehow you think making fun of that is making a point. And yes, poor people who can't pay their rent get forced to move a lot. So they won't be getting their mail in ballots sent to them since their address has changed. They will actually have to re-register to vote.

You know, it's odd how you stood up for you being able to make a better living for your family. I supported you on that. But when it comes to others having the same opportunities to vote they had just a few years ago you make up excuses why they shouldn't. I guess when it's not about you things are suddenly different.

Cool story.

It takes two minutes to get an absentee ballot online. And everyone in the country that wants one has a free gov't phone and free data. So I think we resolved this deep dilemma as well.

Disclaimer: There is some typing involved and a total of 8-12 "clicks" after reaching the site. You may want to get a tall, cold glass of water before attempting this...

FREE absentee ballot for any state in two minutes or less!





BTW, the strange infatuation with trying to make me out to be an evil person when you get tired of cold, hard facts makes you sound a bit desperate... just thought you'd want to know.

You can bet your ass if these restrictions affected white rural voter turn outs with outlandish lines, no refreshments in line, and 10% of random voters just found themselves removed from the voter rolls and forced to vote absentee SPECIAL ballot… then Fate and Peen would have issues with it. Because then it would effect their side of the aisle.

So you still refuse to admit that some red states have made it harder to vote since 2018 and especially in minority as well as high democrat voting areas. Par for the course. And that's a you problem. Cold hard facts are that they have. You acting like you can't comprehend that makes you look like something. If evil is your choice of wording then so be it.

So closing polling places doesn't make it harder to vote? Limiting it to one ballot drop off box for over 2.4 million people doesn't make voting harder? Of course those things do. And all you have in response is white noise.

We both know they fully understand that over the past few years laws have been passed that makes voting harder for the other side. But then that would force them to admit something they seemingly never do. That some Republicans are just wrong. You can see it everywhere on here. Do they come to any threads to say Jan.6th was wrong? that those who are being convicted deserve it? Any comments about how trump plans to pardon them? Anything about Santos? MTG? Nope. Musks antisemitic post on X? Nope.

But they'll go balls to the wall to make excuses why it's okay to make voting harder for the other side. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

Awe...

and now the quintessential virtue signaling and cry-baby Trump goalposts.

Seriously? Libtard snowflakes need refreshments now? What a bunch of pussies.

Yes, Doofus McGoofus, multiple hours long waits to vote in Red state major cities in 80+ degree temps tends to leave people thirsty, tired, and annoyed. And we all get that that is the GOPer goal, but you won’t admit it to save your lives. NOPE. but you’ll come in like a green bag on the curb and call em libtard snowflakes and pussies.

I watched 100s of old people in those lines, just exhausted, but going through that hell to vote out Trump. It was wrong, is wrong, and always will be wrong. Voting should be encouraged by everyone, not limited by the party that can’t govern.

Since some of them have to wait in line for hours it makes sense. Of course I'm sure where you vote that isn't an issue for you.

I understand that showing an obvious pattern isn't something you favor. You forgot that Santos, MTG and Jan. 6th were included as well. But that's easy for you to do since you have TDR.

1) Bring your own refreshments lazy asses.
2) The reason they said no handouts is because the people doing the handouts were campaigning while they were doing it. Which is illegal as you may not campaign within x number of a feet from a polling place.

Libtards are the biggest snowflakes ever. WAAAAHHHHH We're gonna melt in line. We need refreshments!!

This is a lie. Where I live the elderly and disabled go to the front of the line and don't wait.

Key phrase in the sentence is "where I live".

Yes, that's what someone like you call the elderly and disabled... "the biggest snowflakes ever. WAAAAHHHHH". This is who you are.

I didn't call them snowflakes. I called all the able bodied young libtards who need refreshments snowflakes. Talk about privliged. But thanks for making up lies.

Maybe you should read what you responded to again. here you go....


Yeah, they must be "the biggest snowflakes ever. WAAAAHHHHH" according to you. Backtracking now isn't going to work for you.

You lack basic reading comprehension skills.

It's not my fault you either didn't read or didn't comprehend what you responded to. I posted in quotes what you responded to. It's not hard to understand.

Where are these long lines everyone is talking about?

Google it and make me eat my words, I dare you. Hard to find anything past the 2020... and 90% of those stories were long lines in the first days of early voting.


CNN could only find pics of white voters waiting in lines though, maybe the photoshop department was closed that day...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/14/politics/voting-lines-election-coronavirus/index.html

Since then nearly every state has expanded early voting to accomodate all of these poor souls.


"With polls open across the country, no widespread problems with ballots, long lines or voter intimidation were reported, though there were hiccups in some places, which is typical on any Election Day."

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politi...-but-u-s-votes-without-widespread-issues

Please post your stories of the long lines past the pandemic or quit using a b.s. narrative from once in a lifetime circumstances to lie about today or falsely predict the future.



As far as refreshments and the whole "denying humans the basic right of water". Here's what everyone is crying about:



Oh, the horror! Imagine walking 150 feet for a drink of water? Not in my America!


And here, let's repost this in case anyone missed it the first time...


ZE-RO PER-CENT... in the place everyone predicted this "racist nightmare" was about to take place.

Yes, I'm sure none of them had an issue with standing in line for hours to vote. "Voting, backpack with fluids and food now required."

Georgia election 'catastrophe' in largely minority areas sparks investigation

Long lines, lack of voting machines and shortages of primary ballots plagued voters.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/20...er-unacceptable-voting-problems-n1228541

Things must have looked much differently in 2022 than they did in 2020.

That's been the point from the start. Thanks for cosigning.

That is all well and good. If the polling places can't get enough people to volunteer, it's hard to keep the poll open there.

That's a bigger problem than you think that nobody talks about.

And I really can't say I disagree with you. So then the question becomes why close the polling locations where people lack adequate means to transportation and in areas where minorities vote rather than more affluent communities where those situations do not exist? Why polling places are being close does not address where they're being closed.

I'm glad conditions are getting better in "some places". That still doesn't change the fact you keep ignoring where they're getting worse.

I have had long waits...near 2 hours before. It just depends on how many show up near the same time and how many poll workers they have.

Did you excel at dodge ball?

My point is "worse", "harder" and all these terms are relative. Harder than what?

Living in poverty is hard by all standards, there is no magic cure. There is also no possible way to make everything perfect in any discussion surrounding any subject. With all the problems presented by poverty, difficulty in voting is akin to swatting away a fly from your picnic table in the grand scheme of things. It's been made out to be some wide-spread horror story that simply doesn't exist... during a time when major strides have been taken to making voting way, way easier and convenient than it's ever been before.

I guess I was under the impression we had regular voting, early voting, mail in voting. Am I wrong?

Harder than they were. And they still are in many places. When you make voting "way easier" and then reverse that trend, that's making it harder. Are you trying to say that closing polling places mainly in minority areas doesn't make voting harder for people that often times have little means to travel further? Or that passing a law that now only has one drop box in the entire county for 2.4 million people who mainly vote Democrat isn't a step backwards and makes it harder and take much longer to use a drop box?

There are certainly parts of this country that have made it more difficult. I'm not sure where you are getting that people are trying to "make that a horror story". It's great that major strides have been made in voting until you start limiting the strides that have been made and seemingly target where you institute those limitations. I applaud places that make it an even playing field for everyone. I applaud efforts any time a state rolls back things that were unfairly targeted before.

But I think it's a unfair when people stop to realize just how many people have fought and died for our rights which includes the right to vote and then try to trivialize that by saying, "With all the problems presented by poverty, difficulty in voting is akin to swatting away a fly from your picnic table in the grand scheme of things." I don't think that's the intent with which you may have meant it but that's the way it came off to me. I consider voting as a quintessential right of American citizens that may be even more important to the marginalized in our society than anyone else. At least just as important.

If you wish to gloss over an entire topic with one sentence I would say you are correct.

The left will use whatever type voting they can to win. It's like having a game that is played between 1 and 4 but if your behind when it ends let's extend the hours. Also, let's let those not registered votes, let's vote darn near year around. I mean anything but playing within a set of rules.

And now the brainwashed MAGA crowd chimes in. Murica! Freedumb!

Raffensperger says: Total of 4 dead people voted, not 5,000 as Trump claimed

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/brad-...hat-5-000-dead-people-voted-142540357807

Fact check: No evidence of fraud in Georgia election results

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...nt-found-30-000-fake-ballots/5253184001/

Not at all, most of the argument seems to be about the convenience of drop boxes. While I'll gladly admit that only one drop box in an area of millions of people seems ridiculous, I'll preface that by saying in my opinion the idea of drop boxes itself is ridiculous and opens the possibility for "cheating' in an exponential manner by comparison. I think we all want our elections to be just and true. That requires checks, balances and accountability.

And again, acting like you are offered no ability to vote because a drop box is far away is like complaining that the dairy section is in the back of Wal-Mart... it doesn't mean you are being deprived of the luxury of drinking milk. Anybody that doesn't want to drive to a drop box can purchase a postage stamp, it's literally cheaper than the gas you'll burn driving to a drop box that is a mere three miles away.

Widespread adoption of early voting has squashed all of these theories of injustice and suppression... some people are just riding off the fumes and trying to make it some great injustice that the facts say it is not.

Nobody has been denied the right to vote, but nice try.

https://www.nytimes.com/

Federal Court Moves to Drastically Weaken Voting Rights Act
Nick Corasaniti
Updated Mon, November 20, 2023 at 3:32 PM EST·5 min read
411


Voting rights leaders have viewed the current conservative makeup of the Supreme Court as hostile to the Voting Rights Act. (The New York Times) (NYT)
A federal appeals court on Monday moved to drastically weaken the Voting Rights Act, issuing a ruling that would effectively bar private citizens and civil rights groups from filing lawsuits under a central provision of the landmark civil rights law.

The ruling, made by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, found that only the federal government could bring a legal challenge under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a crucial part of the law that prohibits election or voting practices that discriminate against Americans based on race.

The opinion is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court. The court’s current conservative majority has issued several key decisions in recent years that have weakened the Voting Rights Act. But the justices have upheld the law in other instances, including in a June ruling that found Alabama had drawn a racially discriminatory congressional map.

Passed in 1965, the Voting Rights Act was one of the most significant achievements of the civil rights movement, undoing decades of discriminatory Jim Crow laws and protecting against egregious racial gerrymanders. But the law has been under legal assault almost since its inception, and court decisions through the years have hollowed out key provisions, including a requirement that states with a history of discrimination in voting obtain approval from the federal government before changing their voting laws.

Monday’s decision by the 8th Circuit found that the text of the Voting Rights Act did not explicitly contain language for “a private right of action,” or the right of private citizens to file lawsuits under the law. Therefore, the court found, the right to sue would effectively lie with the government alone.

Should the ruling stand, it would remove perhaps the most important facet of the Voting Rights Act; the majority of challenges to discriminatory laws and racial gerrymanders have come from private citizens and civil rights groups.

“It will be a devastating near-death blow to the Voting Rights Act if it remains the law,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “Radical theories that would previously have been laughed out of court have been taken increasingly seriously by an increasingly radical judiciary.”

But Weiser said she “would be surprised if this decision stands,” based on decades of legal precedent and recent rulings by the Supreme Court.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has been at the heart of many civil rights and voting rights decisions. The case in the Supreme Court’s ruling in June against Alabama’s map was brought by a number of civil rights organizations. In 2013, the section was also used to challenge a strict voter identification law passed in Texas.

Some conservative legal scholars heralded Monday’s decision, saying it would prevent the Voting Rights Act from being used for political ends.

“Today’s decision is a win for Arkansas and for the rule of law,” said Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, a conservative group. “The Voting Rights Act (VRA) remains intact as a tool to prevent actual discrimination and disenfranchisement. But the VRA is not, and was never intended to be, a partisan weapon against democratically enacted election integrity laws and redistricting practices.”

The current legal debate over who can bring Section 2 claims took a significant turn in February 2022, when Judge Lee Rudofsky, a district judge in eastern Arkansas appointed by then-President Donald Trump, found that “only the Attorney General of the United States may bring suit” to enforce Section 2.

The decision was appealed to the 8th Circuit, which Monday issued a 2-1 ruling largely agreeing with the previous decision and finding that the law did not explicitly provide for a “private right of action.”

“Did Congress give private plaintiffs the ability to sue under [Section] 2 of the Voting Rights Act?” wrote Judge David Stras, an appointee of Trump’s. “Text and structure reveal that the answer is no.”

Proponents of the law and its use by private citizens point to statements made by Congress in 1982, when the Voting Rights Act was amended. In a report that accompanied the changes to the law, the House and Senate Judiciary Committees said, “It is intended that citizens have a private cause of action to enforce their rights under Section 2.”

The 8th Circuit rejected that argument in its Monday ruling, stating that the committee's report “does not point to a single word or phrase in the Voting Rights Act in support of the conclusion that a private right of action has existed from the beginning.”

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has faced legal challenges before. In 2021, the Supreme Court found that Section 2 could be used to strike down voting restrictions only when they imposed substantial and disproportionate burdens on minority voters.

But the court left Section 2 intact, and it has remained a critical tool for civil rights groups, especially when challenging congressional and legislative district maps.

The battle over voting rights has entered a pitched new phase since the 2020 election. After Trump tried to overturn the outcome with a campaign casting doubt on the integrity of the country’s electoral infrastructure, Republican-led state legislatures across the country passed laws adding new restrictions to voting.

Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the Voting Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, who argued the appeal on behalf of the challengers, called Monday’s ruling a “travesty for democracy.”

“For generations, private individuals have brought cases under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to protect their right to vote,” she said in a statement. “By failing to reverse the district court’s radical decision, the 8th Circuit has put the Voting Rights Act in jeopardy, tossing aside critical protections that voters fought and died for.”


https://www.yahoo.com/news/federal-court-moves-drastically-weaken-183150352.html

Nobody has, that's true. And in your last response to the thread, it's not just about drop boxes. It's about where they have chosen to close polling locations as well. And nobody said anyone was "offered no ability to vote" because a drop box is far away. That's simply something you made up. All that has been said is that places have made it more difficult in some places to vote. They have limited the option and ease with which there was to vote prior to the changes they made in their laws. And for all of the rationalizations you have used, that is factually correct no matter how hard you dance around it.

Oh come on Jester. You know what they'll say..........

So, one can vote in person on election day. One can vote early. One can get a mail in ballot. What else needs to be done? Do we need pollsters to actually go to homes/apartments in person?

Dont you know? The snowflakes need to be served refreshments.

Mainly just the elderly and disabled who didn't expect it would take them 4 or 5 hours to vote. But I know we can't have that atrocity happening.

Why don't they vote early, or use mail in ballots?

What needs to be done is stop going backwards. Stop closing polling places in minority neighborhoods. Stop making it to where 2.4 million people only have one drop box location. I know you can see that. But rather than admit that you have to make silly analogies.

Why should they have to? Shouldn't they have easy access to a polling location like you do? Shouldn't they have easy to get to drop boxes that aren't shared by 2.4 million people like you do? Or are you suggesting some of their options be more difficult than yours?

The elderly and disabled go to the front of the line. The smart ones mail their ballot in.

So now voting in person isn't smart? Got it. lmao

So you think its smarter to wait in line for 4 hours? And the people who mail their ballot in are stupid?

No, he's trying to play paper-scissors-rock with five different discussion points.

I don't know. Since about 40% of Republicans vote in person on election day I suggest you ask them. It's their #1 choice in how they vote. It seem as you may be suggesting that the #1 choice in the way republicans choose to vote is stupid.

While you ignore four points focusing on only one. All having to do with voting rights.

Are you not bright enough to know that voting in person doest usually take 4 hours. Especially with early voting. In Pits world he is waiting 4 hours and passing out because no one gave him his snowflake jukce.

If it's that big of a hassle for them, get the mail in ballots. End of discussion. Easy. But you keep on railing about nothing.

But then you need stamps.

What the hell is wrong with you? Seriously, you try to make a point by making stuff up. Geez man, is that all you got.

Is that all I got??


Let me guess, you're still driving around looking for a drop box?




Good ole Damon, the gift that keeps on giving. 🤣

Here's what they find so important. They find it important that others don't have the same advantage in voting in the same way that they do. They excuse that by saying "but there are other ways to vote".

It's a right wing excuse why everyone shouldn't have the same same ability and opportunity to vote in every way like they do. They use it as an excuse as to why polling places in minority neighborhoods have been targeted for closures. Why 2.4 million people should have to share one drop box. They use it as an excuse as to why they should have an advantage to voting in person and in the use of drop boxes over over people not like themselves. A two tiered system that gives them an advantage. An excuse as to why every American shouldn't have an equal opportunity like they do. It's sickening.

Well we do have one side claiming the other side is cheating in elections while their fearless leader has been indicted for cheating in an election. Can’t make this s up.

And then we see people defending "voting wrongs" and it makes for the perfect storm.

I know right? And people still support her after doing it twice?! Stacey Abrams is a real piece of work.

The perfect excuse in your world as to why everyone shouldn't have equal opportunity to vote in every manner. But hey, you got yours in that new contract so to hell with everybody else.

(Step four is much more complicated, and you may have to walk, take your water!)

Awwe. I didn't even notice the bitter four-year-old dig on my personal life! Now you're taking it to the next level!

There's only one level here. You think your entitled with certain voting rights others should not be. That is exactly the 'I got mine to hell with everybody else' thought process.

And just remember, you're the factory worker who questioned my education level. So don't play the victim now.

I didn't, haven't and don't work in a factory. I retired at 52. I've owned businesses all my life after being a ward of the state of Ohio with two dead parents by the age of six. Don't act like you know something about others when you know nothing. My wife is finishing out her term for her full pension and to continue our Cadillac health care (that we now pay a tax penalty for, because "no fair!"). I "got mine" because I busted my ass for mine, don't get it twisted.
And nobody questioned your "education level".

Get your last word, homeboy. Not playing magic eight ball with moving goalposts all day. And if your coping mechanism for challenging arguments is to get personal, get your damned facts straight before you spew your trash.

Have a nice day.

CNN
—
A federal appeals court on Monday ruled against a key tool used to enforce the Voting Rights Act – likely setting up another Supreme Court showdown over one of the nation’s landmark civil rights laws.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/20/politics/appeals-court-voting-rights-act-ruling/index.html#:~:text=A%20federal%20appeals%20court%20on,nation%27s%20landmark%20civil%20rights%20laws.

In a ruling that springs from an Arkansas redistricting case, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that private entities cannot bring lawsuits under a provision of the law, known as Section 2. If it stands, the decision would dramatically weaken what remains of the Voting Rights Act, passed in 1965 to counter racial discrimination in elections.

In a 2-1 decision, the judges said the “text and structure” of the voting rights statute shows that Congress did not give private plaintiffs the authority to sue. The appellate panel affirmed a 2022 ruling by a Trump-appointed federal judge in Arkansas that held only the US Justice Department can bring Section 2 lawsuits.


So minority entities can’t take states to court for discrimination cases restricting voters rights. Only the sitting attorney general of the US can bring charges now. Mmmmmmm wonder how many times an attorney general has brought charges like this before? I’m thinking a handful. Pffft. The party of law and disorder.

I suppose that's why you were concerned about the auto workers strike. All you've done is make excuses as to why it should be easier for you to vote in person and have better access to drop off boxes than other voters. That isn't moving the goal post. That's you running out of excuses why you deserve certain voting right others don't, homeboy.

You have a nice day too.

Let's hope it gets overturned or soon we'll be hearing all the excuses why this is okay too.

I can hear it now. Frivolous law suits and such. As if our voting rights are frivolous.

Well I think I’m on board with GOPers on voting rights and restricting access… we should not allow anyone who voted Trump to ever vote again. I mean it’s obvious they are not good people if they support his fascist ideology. And since there was an insurrection of Trump supporting MAGAts, I think that should disqualify them ALL. Especially, Eve. She has ZERO business making adult decisions. She can’t even post on DT without losing her damn mind.

Eh. You want to punch, kill, lock up, or cancel anyone who disagrees with you. I wouldnt be surprised if the FBI researches you or we hear about you in the news for a domestic terror attack or mass shooting.

I wouldn’t be surprised either.

You're probably studying a map of the greater Atlanta area as we post.

Probably…

I don't trust republicans. After the last election in 2020, State officials said this was very secure election. Federal Officials said it was the most secure election in History.

What is it that needs addressed. Look, I'm all for finding ways to improve and secure things. But changing to change makes little sense.

For me if a republican says, we need to address something, I always look for motives. I can't help but believe there is some dirty dealing going on.

They have to cater to the "the election was stolen" crowd to get reelected after rebuffing trump the way they did.

Thus the reason I don't trust them