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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVoter-Suppression Plans Backfiring
By Ari Berman
TODAY 11:48 AM
On June 28, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the vice chair of Donald Trumps presidential commission on election integrity, sent a letter to all 50 states requesting sweeping voter data, including Social Security numbers, party affiliation, criminal backgrounds, and military history.
At first, only a few states, like California, Kentucky, and Virginia, said no, denouncing the commission as a waste of taxpayer money and a distraction from the real threats to the integrity of our elections today. But over the holiday weekend, opposition to Kobachs request dramatically increased from both red and blue states. As of Wednesday afternoon, 45 states have refused to turn over private voter data to Trumps commission. Ive been studying Americas election administration since 2000, and Ive rarely seen a firestorm like this, wrote MIT political scientist Charles Stewart III ...
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-trump-administrations-voter-suppression-plans-are-backfiring-badly/
virtualobserver
(8,760 posts)shines a little light on the subject.
Wounded Bear
(58,706 posts)and continues to happen, the only current remedies are lawsuits and the brute force strategy getting people out to register and vote. Lawsuits can be a crapshoot in red states and those who have to go out and re-register because their state kicked them off the roles might be a bit discouraged. Plus, of course, where is the protection that getting people registered actually gets them the right to vote come election day.
We really need a re-enactment of the VRZ, that has safeguards for voters, not just punishments for barely existant crimes and loopholes for the vote deniers to exploit.
virtualobserver
(8,760 posts)I think that we should run attack ads in the states where vote suppression is happening.
Make the Republicans pay a political price for what they are doing.
Wounded Bear
(58,706 posts)It definitely should be part of our message.
Unfortunately, it might have the typical "push back" effect in motivating Repub voters scared by the idea of "all those darkies voting illegally." Kind of how so many people voted because they were "afraid" of Hillary.
We definitely need to motivate voters to the polls in support of Dems.
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)and if there is one thing that State's (red and blue) don't like it's the feds trying to muscle in and take something over.
Gothmog
(145,554 posts)diva77
(7,656 posts)If the SOS's had integrity, they would
1) REFUSE to give data to CROSSCHECK:
see post by Amaryllis:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029281198
also:
2Tthey would reject electronic voting & tabulation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_by_country
Germany ended electronic voting in 2009, with the German Federal Constitutional Court finding that the inability to have meaningful public scrutiny meant that electronic voting was unconstitutional.