SCOTUS Rebuffs Dems’ Request To Expand TX Absentee Voting Ahead Of July Primary | Talking Points Memo

The Supreme Court on Friday said it would not reverse an appeals court order that will keep vote-by-mail limited in Texas in the pandemic.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1317484
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Texas Republicans just want to kill them all.

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Look, while I would have liked the result to be the other way, I think that it was a mistake to go for this at the Supreme Court. We got away with an advantage in the WI ruling (requiring counting if received for up to a week) and pushing the issue directly was not going to work.

Given the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling, Roberts (the only one who matters on these issues) was not going to be a 5th vote for a stay/win, and this was NOT the record to take this issue up (it only takes 4 votes for cert, requiring the Court to address the merits).

Sotomayer was sending the signal to build a better record next time.

The reality is that Texas may be unsolvable as to absentee ballots in 2020. Too much corrupt Republican control. Luckily other swing states have either non-corrupt Secretary of States (e.g. GA, AZ) or well established procedures for mail in voting and/or enough Democrats to prevent ratfuckery (WI, PA, FL, NC, Iowa). Texas is sort of the outlier as a place where issues will arise.

OTOH, the state should be investigated by the next administration and sued under the voting rights act.

And one final note, I really don’t think this is going to help Trump and Cornyn. People are justifiably affraid to vote, and substantial percentages of Republicans don’t agree that people should vote in person in a pandemic. And the race is currently this:

Piss off a few points of the texas republican electorate and Trump and Cornyn go down…

P.S. I recalled seeing the Question on vote by mail being asked, and found it: June 3, 2020 Q-poll

31% of republicans and 53% of people over 65 think people should be allowed to vote by mail. I think this is a silly hill to die on, likely to piss off a lot of voters who don’t like the republicans putting them at risk.

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Everything’s deader in Texas.

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What’s that saying about “justice delayed…”?

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On some level, however, post middle age to elderly whites, an at risk group, the GOP’s most reliable voting bloc may be as suppressed or even more so than any other group. This may cut both ways, If we’re lucky.

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Why do they always do the opposite of what good governance would suggest? They finally admitted that their state is a viral petrie dish and tell everybody to go stand in line to vote in the same breath.

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The good news is that Texas is spiking so badly that additional cases from the primary will barely be noticed.

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OT but shocking. NYT is reporting that Putin offered Taliban-related rebels money bounties to target coalition troops including Americans. Trump was briefed on this months ago but has done nothing.

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The Texas Supreme Court already gave any voter with an underlying condition free rein to request an absentee ballot under the Elections Code’s “disability” qualification. It also made clear that the determination is to be made by the voter, not elections officials or anyone else. So, honestly assess your susceptibility to COVID and fill out your absentee ballot request.

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No.

NYT:

“While officials were said to be confident about the intelligence that Russian operatives offered and paid bounties to Afghan militants for killing Americans, they have greater uncertainty about how high in the Russian government the covert operation was authorized and what its aim may be.”

 

Apparently, or, as the NYT put it:

“[Trump] has been deliberating for months about what to do about [this] stunning intelligence assessment.”

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That was in a separate lawsuit that did not involve the 26th Amendment issue.

The facts are not disputed. Application of the 26th Amendment is purely a question of law. No development of any record is required. She’s just signaling the 5th Circuit that it’s an important issue and they’d better get around to ruling on it. Not that those assholes care about her opinion, of course.

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In my view also, in this case.

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SCOTUS is keenly aware that if everyone voted Democracy could break out and run rampant everywhere.

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Dude, you’re disagreeing because you have a problem with wanting to seem superior to people in general and me in particular. It is a matter of near-certainty pretty close to which compass point the sun will rise at tomorrow that things of this kind don’t happen under Russian auspices without Putin’s approval. Let’s be real here. And it’s equally certain that Trump is in thrall to Putin. Argue that point if you want to as well, but people will just roll their eyes. All this does is make you look obsessive.

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Consider not being so silly.

You said the NYT reported something. I corrected that.

You also said the NYT reported something else. I agreed.

As always, sleep well.

If you are white, that is fine. If you are Black or Latinex, you can expect at the very least an inquiry from the local constabulary and potentially years in jail if they deem your “disability” false.

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More of your typical pettifogging sophistry. And what’s up with liking a comment where I’m blasting you? Does that seem not-silly to you?

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Anyone over 65 can vote by mail in Texas, so most of that cohort is unaffected by this case.
Maybe I don’t understand what you meant.

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You took it off but it was there. A mistake perhaps.