Discussion: With Major Elections Bill, House Dems Get Ball Rolling On Fixing Voting Rights Act

That could happen IF the legislation is brought to the floor for a vote. McConnell is saying he’ll never allow such legislation to come to a vote.

@plmesq

You can bet it happened in the past as well. This was not a one off.

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Well we know of at least one other case – the one in California. But my point is that saying no mail voting because someone might illegally hijack it is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

The reason this one was caught is because the statistics didn’t add up. That shows there are ways to monitor for interference.

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The guy doing it was not sophisticated. A state actor coukd shave a few votes per precinct and probably escape detection,

I’d go for a national voting holiday . Maybe move Presidents’ Day and repurpose.

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Mail voting massively increases turnout. Give people a day off and they’ll just take the day off. As far as shaving a few votes per district, that’s exactly what voter suppression does. Taking away mail voting just increases the ease of suppressing the vote…in fact making it harder to vote by mail is one of the GOP’s favorite ways of suppressing votes.

And no one gets away with anything forever.

btw, I do agree election day should be a national holiday. I strongly disagree with using that as an excuse to take away voting by mail.

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McConnell is good at sensing changes in the wind. He’s like a cockroach in that he’s first and foremost a survivor. He’ll know when the music changes he’ll have to sing a new tune.

For today? You’re spot on correct. Let’s see if the prevailing winds change directions.

In the meantime, buckle up, heavy sea states loom ahead.

Did I tell y’all about being surfaced OOD bringing the sub home to Groton one winter evening in state 5 - 6 conditions? Green water over the top of the sail. Yah, good times.

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Just accuse the Senate of Obstruction of Justice on some of these Bills, as that is what it is.

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…and then doing something even more dastardly. No way do I ever see McConnell allowing a dem-sponsored change to voting laws to come to a vote. Not ever.

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This will excite POC voters and please Democrats who are tired with the rigged media, the rigged courts, and the rigged elections which have allowed the GOP to respond to Obama’s election with an undermining of POC voting rights. It has been a decade long attack on the rights of citizenship of POC and the right of Democrats and Democratic leaning voters to participate in our Democracy on equal terms. Legislation like this will guarantee a max POC turnout and Dems putting up over 70 million voters (I’m targeting 75 million) in 2020.

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A uniform shaving of all voting groups is far different than corrupting the vote in a particular direction.

Voting by itself does not indicate the intensity of a preference. Intensity is reflected in differential turn out.

The best thing that could ever be delivered is crushing McConnell. Whether that happens with a dem majority in the Senate or with higher than the current 50% turnout in Kentucky, McConnell MUST BE DESTROYED.

Blocking the vote on this legislation and perhaps a few others could be used against him. But Dems need to up their game on stuff like this. The GOP has us beat nine ways to Sunday on stuff like this.

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Meh. I think you’re reaching here. A representative sample is still representative. And your own assumption is that only a small (therefore undetectable) amount would/could be shaved. Why even risk that? Makes no sense.

The Senate is not the Democrats concern. Yesterday was day one of Democratic House and this legislation is the first to define them. There were folks that wanted to throw Impeachment at Trump and bitch divisively about Pay-go but Pelosi’s no fool and she’s not going to play into the medias hands or be defined that way. The single biggest problem the Democrats have faced in the last 30 years is the image of them cast by the GOP and advanced by the MSM. Hopefully they are going to deal with that. This was a good start.

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No it won’t. Not even close. I agree it might (emphasis on might) help. But “guarantee a max POC turnout”? No way.

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How do you KNOW that?

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Me? Easy. POC are, ahem, people. They’re not a button you can push or a switch you can just flick on and off. They’ll know damn well this never had a chance of passing and is purely symbolic virtue signalling. It’s still the right thing to do and should be done, but please don’t demean POC by assuming they have no ability to think and reason.

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For POC voters, this is the party fighting for them. That won’t be forgotten. It connects a lot better than single payer or free college.

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I agree with that sentiment. I’ll give the devil his due though. He is one crafty SOB in playing the long game. This is what a former top aide to McConnell said about him:

“Not only is he smarter than everybody else, his will is stronger than iron and he possesses a superhuman ability to focus,” said John Ashbrook, a former top aide to McConnell.

But is he the “evil genius” that Democratic operatives have described over the years? Ashbrook laughed off the idea.

Manley said there’s at least one difference between McConnell and the enduring 15th century stereotype of a political villain.

“I think Machiavelli had at least a little bit of heart,” he said. “I don’t think McConnell does.”

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Oh please. There’s a good chance most folk will never even know about it. And please also read my reply just above to @richardinjax. POC are not a switch for you to flick on and off. They’re perfectly able to see for themselves this never had a chance in the Senate and it’s just as easily viewed as a cynical attempt at targeting them as if they were too dumb to realize this. You’re doing it yourself…assuming POC are less than fully capable of reasoning skeptically.

The bill to stop the govt. shutdown was going to sail through both houses without the stupid wall until the Lump changed his mind.
Why is it up to the Dems to negotiate opening the govt. Why can’t lame McConnell and other party members persuade the Lump that keeping the govt. shut down is in no ones best interest. I think this should totally be on the Rethugs.

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