As the Black election judge in a majority white Texas County, Anita Phillips is used to tense situations at her polling place, an early voting site on the former campus of a historically Black college.
The GOP will never be happy until only registered Republicans are allowed to vote. Of course there will still be challenges to voters since those sneaky Democrats might register Republican just to vote, so they will be forced to check your voting record and if it does not show a record of 90% Republican votes they will have their watchers get to you before you vote.
The greatest strength of the GOP is that once it decides on a course of action, virtually all GOP pols go âall inâ on it with no hesitation. The GOP has decided to go full racist and authoritarian, and its primary tool of choice is voter suppression. Where are the critical comments from the so-called âmoderatesâ like Susan Collins, Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski as the anti-democratic laws and policies are proposed? Even the GOP pols that we TPM readers sometimes regard as relatively decent and rational seem to be fine with the attempts to solidify GOP control at all costs.
This sort of thing could lead to camera escalation: use of cameras to record people who are using cameras while intimidating others. And then people will use cameras to record the people using cameras to record people who are using cameras while intimidating others. This could get confusing.
Sure, give ignorant hysterics, three-quarters of them carrying pistols, free rein to roam around in polling places where theyâll understand next to nothing of whatâs going on. What could go wrong?
This may seem like a tangent but itâs not: This is why Obama took up fighting gerrymandering as a post-presidency project. If we canât reform elections from literally the ground up, nothing else good is likely to happen.
There needs to be a basic Federal set of laws that outlines acceptable and, as important, unacceptable behavior by municipalities, states and national political parties during local, state and national elections. Voting is a fundamental basic right of all citizens in this country and we must ensure that all citizens have the clear unimpeded right to vote and are allowed to voice their opinion on issues through the selection of political representation. This issue is not one that falls under âstates rightsâ, but is one of such importance that the Federal level needs to ensure and enforce this right. No coercion (real or perceived), no intimidation, no unacceptable challenges through the creation of unacceptable barriers or actions should be tolerated. We need safe, secure, and accurate voting for all, and too many states allow games to be played. Enough.
No failing political party should be allowed to construct boundaries or rules to artificially maintain control of power by means of voting rules and changes to current rules that preclude the voice of US citizens from being heard. If they canât win an election (at any level) without corrupt actions against our collective fundamental right to cast votes, then perhaps they need to rethink their positions on issues. They wonât, as this is all they have. The Republican leadership knows demographics are working against them, but they have morphed into a hideous cult decades ago and have neither the wisdom, insight, or courage to re-evaluate and return to honest policies. Their lies have caught up to them, and we as a Nation must now pay the price for their corrupt actions as they no longer control their base, but simply go along with the threats and violence from unleashed fringe groups.
Put a few observers of color in majority-white precincts and watch how fast the police get called.
And with modern camera equipment this is almost certainly going to disclose how individuals vote unless polling places are totally reconfigured (again).
Can a poll watcher carry or conceal carry inside a polling place in Texas?
Reading the list of things that the Texas Republicans want to change I have to come to the conclusion: Fuck Chief Justice John Roberts. This is all on striking down the most of the VRA. This is why there was preclearance.
On the other hand: Fuck Texas Republicans in the Texas legislature. This better get the For the People Act passed in the Senate double quick, ya hear me Senator Manchin and Sinema.
Itâs been maddening to see the MSM both sides this issue, actually taking at face value the gop bs about voters losing confidence in elections.
If I see one more story say âRepublican legislators believe . . . â rather than âRepublican legislators say . . . â, I may lose it. (Guaranteed to lose it.)
I guess itâs too much to ask that reporters notice that the gop has taken itself out of the conversation on every real issue facing Americans. They have nothing to offer but racism and grievance.
Next up: Democrats Are Shutting Republicans Out of the Policy Making Process
Iâm a former poll worker in Texas and this law is infuriating. The notion that some White, Republican asshole, because make no mistake, thatâs the demographic for this law, will be allowed to roam freely in the polling location is crazy. My usual polling location is 95% Black. All of the polling locations with watchers will be predominantly serving people of color. So the net results will be one or two White people hovering over people of color with the aim to prevent them to vote. Perhaps an easier solution for the Texas legislature is to simply print signs for election sites that say: Whites Only.
Just shameful. Though at this point, Republicans just donât give a shit about shamel.
At a House committee hearing last week, the question came up about what election judges can do if a poll watcher is engaged in disruptive conduct â including in criminal behavior like assault or disturbing the peace â that isnât technically election fraud.
The billâs sponsor, Rep. Briscoe Cain (R), struggled with the hypothetical, and suggested that election officials would have to rely on police officers to step in to handle those situations.
Cain said that if poll watchers were engaged in criminal conduct not included in the election code, then that would be a âlegitimate reasonâ for them to be removed. But, he said, âit is just difficult to entrust an election judge, who is a volunteer, with enforcement of the penal code,â though he eventually conceded that election judges should be able to remove poll watchers committing crimes like assault.
(Neither Cainâs office, nor the office of the Senate bill sponsor, Republican Sen. Bryan Hughes, made the lawmakers available to talk to TPM about the measures.)
Not to be too pollyannish about this (or too Inside Texas Politics, for that matter), but Texas Monthly recently had a story about this, with the focus on Cainâs ineptitude as a legislator and, if this stuff is indeed a priority for the Texas GOP, why the Speaker of the House put Cain in charge of the hearings that led to the house bill. Some speculate that the Speaker would rather all this just go away and placed Cain in charge of it to sabotage it from within.
Whatâs getting proposed here is bad stuff, no question. But itâs so bad that, especially given whatâs happened with Georgiaâs voter-suppression legislation, a lot (maybe a whole lot) of this stuff will go away when these bills come up for debate.
Camera toting poll watchers was a classic and I think it was outlawed by the Voting Rights Act. Remember that law that was repealed by John Roberts because we no longer have racism.