Supreme Court upholds Ohio method of removing names from voter rolls

[ducks]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/11/politics/supreme-court-husted-ohio/index.html

[boutons_deux]

"Today's decision is a victory for election integrity, :lol ...Husted said in a statement.

the LAST THING Repugs want in elections is "integrity"

OH secy of state Ken Blackwell stole OH from Kerry 2004, re-electing dubya.

the computer tech who worked for KB died in a plane "accident".

AmeriKKKa is fucked and unfuckable.

Expect ALL red/slave states to push even harder to disenfranchise voters.

Of course, it was the oligarchy's "politicians in robes" SCOTUS 5 who screwed Americans out of their votes.

[Blake]

Sounds good to me. What's the downside to Ohios law?

[Winehole23]

Republicans making it harder for US citizens to vote.

It's a well-established pattern.

[boutons_deux]

Sounds good to me. What's the downside to Ohios law?

citizens go to vote finally on something that got them out to vote, and they can't vote, have to go through all kinds of bullshit to get their voting rights back, overcome suspicions that they are frauds.

and in red/slave states, the friction to get your vote back will be much greater than the ease at which you lost your vote

[Chucho]

So...if you can't be bothered to update your address and the Government tries to confirm/get you to update your address, that's voter suppression? Because someone can't be troubled to do something they should do when they move?

[spurraider21]

so after 2 years on inactivity they can send you a notice, after which you have 4 years to otherwise respond/update registration... a 6 year window is pretty wide.

whether one thinks this law is "good" or "bad" is a different question, but i dont really see a constitutional issue with it. my main concern is there should be some safeguards to make sure they send more than one notice, or ensure that they have the correct address. would suck for somebody not to receive it due to having moved or not received the mail, and not realizing they had this notice issued.

[Chucho]

citizens go to vote finally on something that got them out to vote, and they can't vote, have to through all kinds of bullshit to get their voting rights back.

and in red/slave states, the friction to get your vote back will be much greater than the ease at which you lost your vote

Re-registering to vote isn't rocket science, you twit.

[Pavlov]

It's not as terrible as just purging voter rolls arbitrarily in a swing state like Florida.

[boutons_deux]

so after 2 years on inactivity they can send you a notice, after which you have 4 years to otherwise respond/update registration... a 6 year window is pretty wide.

whether one thinks this law is "good" or "bad" is a different question, but i dont really see a constitutional issue with it. my main concern is there should be some safeguards to make sure they send more than one notice, or ensure that they have the correct address. would suck for somebody not to receive it due to having moved or not received the mail, and not realizing they had this notice issued.

I think it was Kock Sucker Kansas Kris Kobach who created a national db, so the voter Spur Raider in TX, and one in another state, would mean Spur Raider couldn't vote

[Blake]

so after 2 years on inactivity they can send you a notice, after which you have 4 years to otherwise respond/update registration... a 6 year window is pretty wide.

whether one thinks this law is "good" or "bad" is a different question, but i dont really see a constitutional issue with it. my main concern is there should be some safeguards to make sure they send more than one notice, or ensure that they have the correct address. would suck for somebody not to receive it due to having moved or not received the mail, and not realizing they had this notice issued.

Good point

[boutons_deux]

The only reason slave/red TX and other slave/red states got this shit going is not "good faith", it's never "good faith" with Repugs.

They KNOW this will enable them to disenfranchise voters, and the fewer voters there are, the better are Repugs' chances of winning.

This is a huge win for oligarchy whore Repugs. And of course it applies to all levels of elections.

So anybody who says "I don't see the problem" has his head up his naive asshole.

[ducks]

The only reason slave/red TX and other slave/red states got this shit going is not "good faith", it's never "good faith" with Repugs.

They KNOW this will enable them to disenfranchise voters, and the fewer voters there are, the better are Repugs' chances of winning.

This is a huge win for oligarchy whore Repugs. And of course it applies to all levels of elections.

So anybody who says "I don't see the problem" has his head up his naive asshole.
yes because boutons is the best judge on everything and never is wrong

[Blake]

yes because boutons is the best judge on everything and never is wrong

I bet you don't make it through today without being wrong on something

[ducks]

I bet you don't make it through today without being wrong on something
so far I have fixed 3 computers right everytime so far

ofcourse I will not be because I will type something and not spell something right

[boutons_deux]

Next up this week:

SCOTUS5 approves PARTISAN gerrymandering as legal

It's a complicated subject, but "partisan" gerrymandering is also almost always means RACIAL gerrymandering which is illegal.

[koriwhat]

"Today's decision is a victory for election integrity, :lol ...Husted said in a statement.

the LAST THING Repugs want in elections is "integrity"

OH secy of state Ken Blackwell stole OH from Kerry 2004, re-electing dubya.

the computer tech who worked for KB died in a plane "accident".

AmeriKKKa is fucked and unfuckable.

Expect ALL red/slave states to push even harder to disenfranchise voters.

Of course, it was the oligarchy's "politicians in robes" SCOTUS 5 who screwed Americans out of their votes.





Hyperbolic psycho!

[Winehole23]

Next up this week:

SCOTUS5 approves PARTISAN gerrymandering as legal

It's a complicated subject, but "partisan" gerrymandering is also almost always means RACIAL gerrymandering which is illegal.which case?

[Winehole23]

removing valid voters from the rolls: a GOP specialty.

[boutons_deux]

which case?

Discussion, links :

Why Did The Supreme Court Hear A Second Gerrymandering Case?

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-did-the-supreme-court-hear-a-second-gerrymandering-case/

[boutons_deux]

There is no constitutional right to vote. There should be.


You have no constitutional right to vote.

constitutional provisions and subsequent legislation appear

as if they were built on a right that lies at the foundation of our constitutional order. But that is not the case.

The foundation simply isn't there.

While the right to vote is presumed in a variety of ways, and, if it exists, may not be infringed for a variety of reasons, the right itself is never specified as such.

The provisions of the NVRA were specifically the subject of the most recent Supreme Court decision on voter rights (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-980_f2q3.pdf), Husted v. Randolph Institute, which

critics of the decision (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/supreme-court-greenlights-ohio-voter-purges-in-husted-v-randolph.html) claim has effectively gutted the law.

But the decision itself and the law it either gutted or simply enforced as written cannot be properly understood without recognizing the wide-ranging consequences of that curious constitutional omission.

At issue in the case was an Ohio law aiming to remove ineligible voters from the rolls by the following procedure:

If a registered voter did not vote in a federal election in two years, the state would send a postcard to the person in question at their registered home address asking them to affirm their continued residence.

If the person in question did not return the card, or otherwise establish the validity of their registration by, for example, updating their information electronically, nor vote in the subsequent four years,

the state would presume they had moved and they would be removed from the voter rolls.

The NVRA explicitly allows for the removal of non-residents from voter rolls, and for sending registered voters a card that they have to send back in order to maintain their presence on the rolls. The Ohio law was assiduous in modeling itself on the requirements of the NVRA in that regard.

But the NVRA also specifies that voters cannot be removed from the rolls for not voting.

The question in the case was whether failure to vote in a single federal election was reasonable grounds for triggering the presumption of non-residence, and hence for sending the postcard, or whether such a provision amounted to, in effect, removing voters from the rolls merely for not having voted, something explicitly prohibited by the act.

Perhaps it is not reasonable to assume that people will respond to a postcard asking them to affirm their residence — but Congress, when it passed the NVRA, clearly thought otherwise.

Perhaps it is not reasonable to assume that someone who hasn't voted might have moved — but the Ohio legislature thought otherwise. If the Court is not to substitute its judgments for those of the nation's lawmaking bodies, then surely it must allow the law to stand.

But such a conclusion only makes sense if it is a matter of constitutional indifference whether state legislatures enact laws whose predictable (and arguably intended) effect is to reduce the number of legitimately registered voters.

And that's where the Constitution's silence on whether citizens actually have a right to vote comes into play.

If the right to vote was like the right to freely speak, or to peaceably assemble, or to exercise religion or to bear arms,

then there would be a robust constitutional tradition debating whether this or that law constituted an undue burden on an enumerated right, independent of whether it traduced some other enabling statute.

And even the most disfavored classes of persons would retain those rights.

http://theweek.com/articles/778335/there-no-constitutional-right-vote-there-should

So the OH Repugs, racist as are all Repugs, and the oligarchy whores SCOTUS5, are continuing to destroy the progress made in the 1960s, by playing "gotcha" with postcards to disenfranchise people for not voting, esp people who are disaffected from civic/political life due to discrimination, like blacks and browns.

[Winehole23]

Discussion, links :

Why Did The Supreme Court Hear A Second Gerrymandering Case?

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-did-the-supreme-court-hear-a-second-gerrymandering-case/that discussion seems to suggest both gerrymanders will be found illegal, and that SCOTUS need both cases to provide political cover for ruling so.

But you could be right. Maybe SCOTUS will cut the other way.

We'll see pretty soon.

[boutons_deux]

Partisan Gerrymandering Is About to Get Much Worse

How the post-Kennedy Supreme Court could roll back progressive voting rights reforms.

His departure from the bench ensures that voter suppression—

and, specifically, partisan gerrymandering—

will get much, much worse.

In Kennedy’s absence, there is

virtually no chance that the court will put constitutional limits on political redistricting.

There is, however, a decent

probability that the court will strike down reforms to partisan gerrymandering,

sharply limiting citizens’ ability to curb legislative abuse of the redistricting process.

The upshot will be fewer competitive elections and greater entrenchment of one political party, usually the GOP (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/06/republicans-and-democrats-both-try-to-gerrymander-but-only-one-of-them-is-any-good-at-it/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.efbc955d0676), in most states.

Kennedy’s replacement may actually allow

the court to strike down state-level efforts to restrain congressional gerrymandering

by stripping legislators of their redistricting powers.

In 2015, the Supreme Court upheld (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/13-1314_3ea4.pdf) Arizona’s independent redistricting commission,

which voters approved through a ballot initiative. It did so by a 5–4 vote, with Kennedy joining the liberals to hold that the citizens of a state may exercise “the legislative power” by removing redistricting from legislators’ hands.


In response, Chief Justice John

Roberts wrote a seething dissent joined by the other conservatives. “The Court’s position,” he wrote, “has no basis in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution.”

Roberts insisted that the Arizona commission violated the Constitution’s Elections Clause,

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/partisan-gerrymandering-is-going-to-be-much-worse-after-anthony-kennedys-retirement.html

That's some nasty, authoritarian, anti-democratic shit.

Roberts says states can't run their own elections, can't have independent (re)districting commissions.

[Winehole23]

game on, voter suppression continues apace in several states:


We found that between 2014 and 2016, states removed almost 16 million voters from the rolls, and every state in the country can and should do more to protect voters from improper purges.

Almost 4 million more names were purged from the rolls between 2014 and 2016 than between 2006 and 2008.3 This growth in the number of removed voters represented an increase of 33 percent — far outstripping growth in both total registered voters (18 percent) and total popula- tion (6 percent).
https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/purges-growing-threat-right-vote

[pgardn]

Republicans making it harder for US citizens to vote.

It's a well-established pattern.

This was a predictable problem for the founders of this nation.
Restrict voting rights to those who “know best” leads to a single road where only those in power get a vote.
They saw this shit coming. Dumb Mexican (American) don’t get a vote. Voter fraud is a non issue statistically as given by the red team. But Russian interference... no worries...

[Winehole23]

in fairness, the first example cited in the intro of the Brennan Center report on purges is the 200,000 voters disappeared from Brooklyn voter rolls in the 2016 Dem primary...

[pgardn]

in fairness, the first example cited in the intro of the Brennan Center report on purges is the 200,000 voters disappeared from Brooklyn voter rolls in the 2016 Dem primary...

I disappeared from the roles in Texas when they “cleaned” up their lists. It took like 4 phone calls from our resident Republican volunteers to find me. I was cast off until I insisted on calls. Literally had to make a pest of myself.


200,000 is absurd high for just Brooklyn.

[Winehole23]

"Fake news" CNN trashing NY primaries:


Nationally, some 44% of millennial voters (http://www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/) are registering as independents rather than with a party, yet polls show this age group overwhelmingly self-identifies as Democratically-leaning. Among the millennial generation's independents, African Americans are the most likely to lean Democratic, followed by Latinos.

Why does the New York Democratic Party insist on locking them out of the primaries and creating a culture of non-participation?

The answer is simple. These closed primaries allow party bosses to exert control over the elections.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/19/opinions/democrats-need-reform-new-york-primary-weaver/index.html

[Winehole23]

GOP edition: cleaning up voter rolls by removing living US citizens .


Georgia canceled the registration of more than a half-million voters over the weekend, part of an ongoing round of maintenance to clean up the state’s voting rolls (http://www.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/georgia-effort-clean-state-voter-rolls-underway/rpAkxxDXJ2LlaOXXJfioxH/).

Each of the 591,548 voters affected by the move had already been on the state’s “inactive” registration list. That means they had not voted, updated their voter registration information, filed a change of name or address, signed a petition or responded to attempts to confirm their last known address for at least the past three years.
https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/georgia-cancels-registration-more-than-591-500-voters/ozSuX227UpNe18YGQ0hYUJ/

[Winehole23]

In New Hampshire, if you're a college student who fails to register your car, or don't have a state driver's license, fuck you. You can't vote.


in a statement, the governor said the bill, which aims to make people like college students who vote here abide by other residency requirements, like getting a drivers license or registering their cars, means "Every person who votes in New Hampshire will be treated the same. This is the essence of an equal right to vote." http://nhpr.org/post/sununu-signs-voter-residency-bill-legal-challenge-expected#stream/0

[Pavlov]

In New Hampshire, if you're a college student who fails to register your car, or don't have a state driver's license, fuck you. You can't vote.

http://nhpr.org/post/sununu-signs-voter-residency-bill-legal-challenge-expected#stream/0wonder how that's not a poll tax.

[Winehole23]

Sununu argues it's equal treatment.

If NH requires this of everyone else, maybe he's got a legal leg to stand on.

Sounds like bs, but I don't know NH voter laws.

[Winehole23]

mass mailing based voter caging, another GOP specialty:


Voter caging is the practice of sending mass direct mailings to registered voters by non-forwardable mail, then compiling lists of voters, called “caging lists,” from the returned mail in order to formally challenge their right to vote on that basis alone. Armed with no other evidence than returned mail, partisan operatives abuse state laws to file targeted mass challenges to voters.http://www.projectvote.org/issues/list-maintenance/voter-caging/

[ducks]

In New Hampshire, if you're a college student who fails to register your car, or don't have a state driver's license, fuck you. You can't vote.

[/FONT][/COLOR]http://nhpr.org/post/sununu-signs-voter-residency-bill-legal-challenge-expected#stream/0
Who does not have a driver lic ? Oh yeah illegals do not
Bitch some more
Obey laws you get the privilege of voting

[Winehole23]

I thought being a US citizen or being a citizen of a state, county or city was sufficient. Silly me.

[Winehole23]

Actually, lots of legit voters don't have IDs.

Old people, sick people, poor people, disabled people, people in rural areas far from state offices that issue them.

You want to exclude all of them because they're hard up?

Fuck you, ducks.

[Winehole23]

designed to be thrown away:


I showed Ohio voting rights attorney Robert Fitrakis a postcard on which one’s voting rights hang, and he gave, word for word, the same response I got from another direct mail expert, Mark Swedlund (whose clientele include eBay and AT&T): “Looks like junk mail, you’d throw it in the garbage.”https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/ohios-dirty-postcard-trick-led-supreme-court-approve-jim-crow-voter-purge

[Winehole23]

check this:


the US Census Bureau’s massive study of mail return rates (https://census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2012/dec/2010_cpex_198.pdf). Dig this:


While 90 percent of those 65 years of age and older return the Census form, only 55.4 percent of those 18 to 24 reply.
Homeowners are 32 percent more likely than renters to return forms.
Only 65 percent of Latino voters mailed back an initial Census form, as did 70 percent of Black voters—versus over 80 percent of “non-Hispanic whites.”

And crucially, according to the Census study, 12 percent of mailings simply go astray—especially, says Wychocki, in poor, urban communities, where the tenants hop between apartments in the same neighborhood. And let’s not even discuss students and the homeless.

[Winehole23]

so, if you're a US citizen with no fixed address, you lose your right to vote?

fucking bullshit.

[Winehole23]

yeah, DMC, in b4 "there's no right to vote in the USA"

so much for democracy, the pols choose the voters, not the other way around.

[Winehole23]

The judge ordered Kobach to take continuing legal education. Kobach will appeal:


Robinson's ruling amounted to a takedown of the law that Kobach had championed and lawmakers approved several years ago. She found that it "disproportionately impacts duly qualified registration applicants, while only nominally preventing noncitizen voter registration."http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/tns-Judge-Strikes-Down-Kansas-Voter-Law-Orders-Sec-of-State-Kobach-to-Take-Classes.html

[ElNono]

Actually, lots of legit voters don't have IDs.

Old people, sick people, poor people, disabled people, people in rural areas far from state offices that issue them.

You want to exclude all of them because they're hard up?

Fuck you, ducks.

ducks doesn't care as long as favors team red, tbh... it's never been about Americans, but some Americans

[Winehole23]

winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. fuck a bunch of loser citizens who don't have IDs

[RandomGuy]

mass mailing based voter caging, another GOP specialty:

http://www.projectvote.org/issues/list-maintenance/voter-caging/

Voter suppression, and cheating.

[boutons_deux]

Judge throws out Iowa Voter ID law and reinstates early voting, Democrats celebrate (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/25/1783526/-Judge-throws-out-Iowa-Voter-ID-law-and-reinstates-early-voting-Democrats-celebrate)

Polk County District Judge Karen Romano

ruled that

elements of the state’s new system requiring state-issued voter identification numbers on absentee ballots could harm the rights of voters to participate in elections, “in contravention” of Iowa’s
Constitution.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/25/1783526/-Judge-throws-out-Iowa-Voter-ID-law-and-reinstates-early-voting-Democrats-celebrate?detail=emaildkre

Romano is now in Kock Bros' cross-hairs. Kocks will spend millions to defeat her, and why not buy enough IA pols to change that bothersome IA Constitution, too?

[boutons_deux]

slave state news

Voting precincts closed across Georgia since election oversight lifted

voters trying to preserve their local precincts are losing the war as voting locations are vanishing across Georgia.

County election officials have closed 214 precincts across the state since 2012, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

That figure means nearly 8 percent of the state’s polling places, from fire stations to schools, have shut their doors over the past six years.

Voting rights activists see the poll closures as an attempt to suppress turnout by African-American voters,

The state doesn’t monitor the closure of polling places either. :lol

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office did not know how many precincts had been eliminated until told by the AJC. :lol

The counties hit hardest by precinct closures are often in rural, impoverished areas where decisions about voting locations are made without attracting much public attention.

One-third of Georgia’s counties — 53 of 159 — have fewer precincts today than they did in 2012, according to the AJC’s count.

Of the counties that have closed voting locations, 39 have poverty rates that are higher than the state average.

Thirty have significant African-American populations, making up at least 25 percent of residents.

https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voting-precincts-closed-across-georgia-since-election-oversight-lifted/bBkHxptlim0Gp9pKu7dfrN/

[Winehole23]

there were good reasons we had federal preclearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act..

the trend of voting laws enacted since Shelby -- restricting the franchise -- pretty much demonstrate why preclearance previously existed.

https://www.justice.gov/crt/jurisdictions-previously-covered-section-5

[Winehole23]

unelected judges clearing the barriers to restricting the franchise.

where are the conservatives complaining about unelected judges now?

[boutons_deux]

unelected judges clearing the barriers to restricting the franchise.

where are the conservatives complaining about unelected judges now?

the corruption, politicization of SCOTUS and the Federal judiciary is fundamental, even primary, to the strategy of the oligarchy's coup d'etat

Observers noted that so-called judge K in his first cases on SCOTUS was actually arguing cases FOR the oligarchy's lawyers

[Winehole23]

there were good reasons we had federal preclearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act..

the trend of voting laws enacted since Shelby -- restricting the franchise -- pretty much demonstrate why preclearance previously existed.

https://www.justice.gov/crt/jurisdictions-previously-covered-section-5Voters are being scrubbed from the rolls at a faster rate than they are entering them:



“Between 2014 and 2016, states removed almost 16 million voters from the rolls. That’s almost 4 million more than between 2006 and 2008. And it should be obvious that that is a rate that outstrips the growth rate of total registered voters and the growth rate of total population.”https://politicalwire.com/2019/05/15/almost-16-million-removed-from-voter-rolls/