Very much so. “Allow for maintenance of voter rolls using information derived from state and federal documents” sounds like it could be setting up harmful voter registration purges, but what if that’s backed up by strict verification requirements before anyone so identified can get purged?
10 Likes
Except that, by eliminating these provisions, Manchin would leave it up to the States to determine what works for both areas.
Which puts us right back in the mess of a fishing license being accepted by a State but a student ID card denied…
Or vacation being ok for absentee, but if you’re anywhere in the State during the 24 hour period of election day for any length of time (yes, 24, not limited to voting hours), no absentee for you. This used to be the case in my State. Of course the usual suspects like retirees and the po-po/public safety had their own carveouts.
5 Likes
Satan. AKA Tom ‘Bugman’ DeLay.
4 Likes
That explains it. That and my dyslexic leanings.
2 Likes
That’s the evil one I meant. The gates of hell are in Sugarland, Texas and they belched up that motherfucker.
9 Likes
One other thing about what we face:
Infrastructure will do wonders for our racial climate.
People from this country are busy bees, when at meaningful tasks.
Meaningful for the greater good
Meaningful for their welfare
Meaningful for their self esteem
My Dad was a product of the New Deal Social Contract and it gave him meaning, along with contact among people of varied backgrounds.
12 Likes
Turd? I think that’s Mitch McC floating in there. (There is a turd in my bowl.)
1 Like
He’s not eliminating the provisions. He’s reworking them. That’s where the devil’s in the details. Because the legislation can be written to define what would be considered eligible circumstances for absentee voting and what defines an acceptable form of ID. There’s no reason the final legislation can’t strictly define those things.
14 Likes
The GQP and Moscow Mitch are so proud of him.
1 Like
With the way he’s written (very crude and basic-- not even any draft statute language) it, if this is his supporting list, by definition (and how the newspapers are reading it), he’s opposed to the other things. Will note that there is something about voter IDs including alternatives, that’ll be then a devil’s in the details, but don’t see similar support for no-excuse absentee voting.
2 Likes
That’s great, Joe. And just as soon as you give us the names of your 10 Republican co-sponsors we’ll have something to talk about. Until then it’s nothing but a fart in the wind.
2 Likes
I think it was snark!
That is intentional.
1 Like
Yes, I think you are. But I can get hopeful too, even though I know that half full glass is likely half full of poison. I am way too old for hopeful, but can’t seem to shake it.
1 Like
What I never have understood is why Manchin thinks he is the only Senator who knows what is right, just and moral. He hangs out with too many Rethugs if he really thinks that nobody else in his own party is honest and truthful. Just because the Rethugs are scum, it is not the rest of the Senate. Maybe if he listened more and hogged the spotlight less, he would find out that there are some true patriots in the Dem Party.
4 Likes
Preclearance has never, ever dealt with gerrymandering.
3 Likes
He will be committed to maintaining the ideals and traditions of the Senate, by compromising even harder on Democratic priorities.
2 Likes
Cloture is the vote to end debate and vote on the merits of the bill. Since the GQP routinely filibusters every single bill put up for a vote on the floor of the Senate, 60 votes are needed to invoke cloture and end the debate phase and move on to the pass-the-bill phase.
Cloture itself cannot be filibustered, because cloture is what is needed to end a filibuster.
2 Likes
That’s what I was looking at too. It’s too crude to infer that he intends to leave that to the states, but it really wouldn’t make any sense to do so because they’d just do what they previously did. It only makes sense that the bill would include definitions as to forms of ID and eligible circumstances for absentee voting. Otherwise, he could’ve just stripped those things from the bill entirely. I think it would be pretty damn smart politically to require Voter ID yet greatly expand acceptable forms. That leaves Republicans arguing that it includes Voter ID but not the riiiight kind of Voter ID. Then let them explain why that’s bad.
7 Likes
Perhaps but TPM had made an error and corrected it. It was on Twitter as well.
Correction : A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Manchin as a Republican.
Hmm…
1 Like