The effort to loosen Texas’ absentee voting restrictions during the pandemic suffered a blow Wednesday. A ruling by the Texas Supreme Court formally reversed orders by lower courts declaring coronavirus a valid excuse to vote absentee.
Did they vote on this remotely, because of, you know, Covid-19?
At the rate Trumpism is going, the Trumpists may lose TX anyway.
Yea, this is a strange one. From what I read:
But it further says that election officials won’t check the validity of excuses and it will be up to each voter, acting in good faith, to determine whether they have the ability safely vote by mail. This “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is a recipe for disaster in a state in which Attorney General Ken Paxton has already [threatened with criminal prosecution] those who advise voters who lack immunity and fear the disease to vote by mail. And it cries for federal court relief.
(https://www.vox.com/2020/4/17/21223994/texas-disenfranchise-millions-ken-paxton-physical-condition-democratic-party-debeauvoir)
WTF???
If Wisconsin is any indication, pissed-off Dem voters will show up in droves to kick the GOPers sorry asses out of office.
Indeed they did.
Another reason to vote blue and get these creature lawmakers out! Pass election laws that make sense for all, not just the goobers currently in charge.
You know, I appreciate that this is BS and should be overturned.
That said, I’ve been voting absentee for decades, because “my job takes me away from the state on short notice” and I’ve never been turned down or questioned on the details. From a pragmatic perspective what’s to stop people from just saying they’re going to be out of town on election day?
More GOP-sponsored voter suppression. Historians will be aghast. 9th-grade Civics students are dumbfounded. Republicans don’t care. Winning is everything.
IANAL but strikes me as unconstitutional per the equal protection clause of the 14th, among other reasons, and using the same legal reasoning that’s upheld worker, consumer and public protection laws, e.g. food safety, clean air and water, worker safety, etc. To uphold this ruling is to invalidate all these laws, some of which have been on the books for nearly 120 years. Which I realize conservatives are dying to do. But that’s a fight we should be willing to wage. Plus the far right’s grip on the courts is temporary. If Ginsberg & Breyer can hang on till next year, it’s just a matter of time.
You can’t force someone to risk their life while exercising their right to vote. Plus, the right to life is federal, while the right to vote is state-based, and federal rights trump state rights.
I can’t wait until this backfires spectacularly on Republicans, with their older voters afraid to go to the polls and young Democrats coming out in hordes.
Their older voters will vote by mail.
Who’s gonna prosecute me? Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot? Indicted fraudster Ken Paxton sure as hell can’t.
The sky is not falling, people. I’ve read the opinions, and anyone with a legitimate concern about their susceptibility to COVID-19 can safely request a mail-in ballot.
Well, just color me shocked and surprised by this ruling.
Republicans: Your democracy or your life.
Because you can’t have both.
what passes for equal ‘justice’ in republikkkan circles is nothing more than the ‘legal’ enforcement of fascist doctrine. fascist doctrine being whatever it takes to keep fascists in power. we can expect no justice from republikkkan kkkangaroo kkkourts.
I would change this to…
“Republicans: fuck your democracy”
Won’t help the repubs. In the general election both parties will be standing in line together, infecting one another. Fun times.
Maybe. Depends on how afraid they are of being prosecuted. Paxton is going to have county officials…at least in red counties where he can find co-conspirators…flagging ballots for the AG’s office to review after the election in hopes of unearthing hundreds or even thousands of people they can bring charges against. They may even try to have the legislature mandate it by passing a law that sets criteria for flagging some loose definition of what they deem to be “potentially fraudulent ballots”…i.e., so it pretty much captures any ballots from Dem areas that were cast absentee/by mail or at least gives red county officials an excuse for applying that as their “secret” standard for flagging. It will serve the multiple purposes of frightening and suppressing voting in the future, establishing a narrative of attempted Democrat vote rigging and organizing voter fraud during the election and furthering their false narrative about mail-in voting being a breeding ground for voter fraud in general.
