Republican members of the Texas state legislature introduced a slate of bills Thursday designed to subvert election processes and curb voting rights in the state. One of them would even allow the Texas Secretary of State to overturn election results in the state’s largest Democratic-leaning county, with very little rationale for doing so.
Why did we dismiss MTG’s Divorce proposal so quickly?
It seems to me a lot of red states are dead set on a 2nd ‘End to Reconstruction.’
“Anything from a machine malfunction, which can necessarily be the fault of the county or of an election administrator getting stuck in traffic…”
As Texas gets closer and closer to flipping from red state to purple state, you can expect to see more and more of these types of shenanigans. Those persons elected by the prior electorate will do whatever it takes to cling to power.
I am reminded of a recent Texas secretary of state who by fiat struck from the voter rolls anyone who in the past 30 years had obtained a Texas drivers license without then being a US citizen (obtaining a license this way is perfectly legal). This, of course, disenfranchised tens of thousands of hispanics who had become naturalized US citizens over the prior 30 years.
So, now they don’t even try to hide their animus towards democracy - it’s all out in the open. I really hope this, and other gambits like it, quickly become big examples of overreach rather than an indication of the GOP’s actual power to control the results of elections. This is getting far too close to Stalin’s “It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.”
Ummmm, is there not an “equal protection” problem here, that the state is selectively “managing” only one county???
OT:
Mrs. AD edited some “I voted!” stickers to say “I Vacuumed!”. She wears them after she does housework.
“Brainwashed [and traitorous] Californians”? I resemble that remark!
The would be a problem if there wasn’t the whole “IOKIYAR” precedent over basically everything
I edited mine to say “I Vetoed”. Lots of stupid and/or corrupt ballot propositions.
They are rather brazen in their hatred of democracy. Should they succeed in wresting political control of the country from the actual citizens they’ll probably make Stalin an “Honored Hero of the Cult” along with Hitler, Jeff Davis, Nero and Caligula.
However, they will not succeed.
SB 1993 would grant Secretary of State Jane Nelson (R) the authority to order a new election in Harris County “if the secretary has good cause to believe that at least two percent of the total number of polling places in the county did not receive supplemental ballots,” according to the bill text. Secretary Nelson would have the same authority granted to a district court.
Not only should it be easy to avoid falling afoul of this (just prepare a shitload of supplemental ballots at the get-go), it doesn’t mandate simply tossing out Harris Cty votes. It allows for the SoS to call a new election.
Headline claim “Bill To Allow Sec Of State To Overturn Election Results In State’s Largest Blue County” isn’t supported by the article’s text
Ohio GQP gov’t officials now coordinating with Ohio State University executives and using their control over the university, etc., to suppress student votes via fearmongering they will lose their educations:
They’re not even pretending.
Pretense is no longer required.
Don’t forget to add TFG.
When a couple of Florida legislators introduced a bill to ban the Democratic Party from elective office, it was puerile performance. How long before a red state legislature finds the right weasel words to couch this anti-democratic push in the most transparent veil of legitimacy?
I’m not saying it would survive a court challenge, mind you, but someone, somewhere is going to take a very serious stab at this. Oh, wait! Maybe someone can point that while the Constitution had a grandfather clause, it didn’t have a great-great-great-grandfather clause!
That would be the GQP’s idea of clever, non?
The Texas GOP is certainly doing their level best to fulfill their job as one of the Meth Labs of Democracy…
You can overturn an election if you alter the new election’s turnout by choosing a most inconvenient new election date. Then you also reduce or eliminate early voting/remote voting options.
Ohio has been a company town type of state for a very long time. I know lots of fine people from Ohio. None want to move back.
