Republicans Attack Voting Rights: Hate Easy, Fair, Safe, Secure Voting for GOP Wins

 

Voter Fraud: Truth & Facts vs. GOP Lies

Simple Message for Out-of-Control GOP 

(Guess who’s watching)

The Republicans are back with a vengeance: They are still highly angered at losing many seats in 2020 and their message seems to say – just like Trump: “We lost but not fairly. So, let’s change the rules to favor us in all future elections so that we never lose again, never, ever.”

This story from CNN  is petty startling, but for Republicans, well, just SOP, routine, typical, it’s in their DNA – their sore loser spoiled little brat sting – this story from Arizona with this headline:

“Arizona Republicans propose giving lawmakers – not election officials – final review of election results”

Arizona lawmakers are debating a new set of voting bills – including one that would allow lawmakers to review election results “if needed and grant the legislature the power to pick the state's presidential electors (not the voters)” and just as Republican lawmakers around the country work to change election laws in the wake of the 2020 election (and their massive loses), so here we go again: They can’t win, so they change the rules, cheat if necessary, and make it harder, not easier to vote fair, safe, and secure – which BTW is the backbone our nation and democratic system, but for losers, hell, just change the rules and get what they want NOT what the people need and deserve.

This story is alarming and as noted, it is spreading in red states and many swing and battleground states, too, and all run by Republican legislatures.

Key parts to this story:

This effort by GOP legislators to drastically change voting laws comes after last year's elections saw record numbers of early and mail-in voters, many of them Democrats, and after rules were relaxed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The GOP high number loses and mail-in ballots, etc., have triggered baseless claims of fraud mostl by Trump, early on and still so today. All his lies directly led to the deadly January 6 insurrection at the Capitol designed to stop the final EC vote certification process.

Under these new proposed amendments to the Arizona constitution for example, and introduced by a single Republican senator, the legislature would meet in a special session the Monday after Election Day to “review or investigate, if needed the results of the election,” a provision some Republicans have said is needed after the November 2020 election.

That state senator is Sen. David Gowan (R), the bill's sponsor. He has the gall to say: “This legislation is not meant to override the vote of the people; only to provide a process for auditing the election.”

Democrats and voting rights advocates have pushed back saying that it could disenfranchise voters by potentially placing election results into the hands of state lawmakers as many advocacy groups say: “This initiative is so offensive, such an affront to our democracy” as did the director or LUCHA Arizona (a social and economic justice organization).

Arizona became one of a handful of states that had its election results scrutinized following the November election, when Biden became only the second Democrat in more than seven decades to win the state.

The Trump campaign had filed a lawsuit in the state seeking a review of all ballots cast on Election Day, alleging some voters were confused on Election Day and feared that their ballots were not counted. The campaign later dropped the suit. 

Also under this proposed amendment, the legislature would have the authority to pick the state's presidential electors.

Directly related is this story is this key part from NPR. It contains a link to a recent analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU (renowned experts on voting) and their findings.

In a backlash to historic voter turnout in the 2020 general election, and grounded in a rash of baseless and racist allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities, legislators have introduced three times the number of bills to restrict voting access as compared to this time last year. 

Twenty-eight states have introduced, pre-filed, or carried over 106 restrictive bills this year (as compared to 35 such bills in 15 on February 3, 2020).

Other state lawmakers are seizing on an energized electorate and persistent interest in democracy reform (which is likewise reflected in Congress). To date, 35 states have introduced, pre-filed, or carried over 406 bills to expand voting access (dwarfing the 188 expansive bills that were filed in 22 states as of February 3, 2020). Notably 93 such bills were introduced in NY and NJ.

Many of the GOP bills would limit voting by mail, add new voter ID requirements, make it more difficult to register voters, and give states greater leeway to purge voter files if voters don't consistently cast ballots in every election.

My 2 cents: Hopefully this will not pass and the voters will resist fully – time will tell in that regard. 

Still the worry is similar actions by wild-crazy Trump Republicans still in power in those red and swing and battleground states angry about losing.

This is a major court case looking for sponsors to  take it to the USSC and that should be and must be from “we the people” and not temporary radicals serving in office at the people’s pleasure sworn to do their work.

This act in AZ now is not for the people, not one bit. It’s simply a sore loser ploy to get revenge anyway possible.

I say it must not stand. Thanks for stopping by.