DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Voting rights

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.