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Florida's voter suppression law up now

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by tampagtr, Apr 22, 2021.

  1. VAg8r1

    VAg8r1 GC Hall of Fame

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    Ironically, the Republican Party may end up proverbially shooting itself in the foot with the recently enacted voter suppression legislation. The party has successfully mobilized its supporters to vote early by mail for well over a decade. The legislation could end up suppressing those votes along with the Democratic minority voters that its intended to target.

    Republican campaigns invested millions of dollars encouraging their supporters to cast ballots by mail. State legislators passed laws making it easier. Over the ensuing decades, GOP voters in Florida became so comfortable with casting ballots by mail that in 2020, nearly 35 percent of those who turned out did so, according to state data compiled by University of Florida political science professor Daniel A. Smith. Virtually every narrow Republican victor of the past generation — and there have been many, including two of the state’s current top officeholders, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott — owes their victory, at least in part, to mail voting.
    Florida Republicans rushed to curb mail voting after Trump’s attacks on the practice. Now some fear it could lower GOP turnout.
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
  2. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    David Frum with some thoughts on what it means that Fox accepted this “exclusive”. (Thread)

     
  3. philnotfil

    philnotfil GC Hall of Fame

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  4. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    Ari is correct, sadly.
     
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  5. philnotfil

    philnotfil GC Hall of Fame

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    A long read, but worth the time.
     
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  6. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    Even Fox is backing away from having an "exclusive" for a public event like a bill signing. Even they realize how wrong that is

     
  7. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    Gerald Magliocca has come up with what I think may be a highly novel way of attacking the multiple Republican bills trying to deny voting rights, though John Roberts may just rule otherwise. Article II of the 14th AM

    His blurb and link:

    The Unconstitutional 2021 Reapportionment

    Gerard N. Magliocca

    Today the Census Bureau released the long-awaited population data that will be used for the next reapportionment of House seats and electoral votes. As I explained in a 2018 law review article, the reapportionment will be unconstitutional because the statutory calculation method violates Section Two of the Fourteenth Amendment.

    Will any State Attorney General bring a claim under Section Two challenging the reapportionment? I don't know. But at least one should, especially if his or her state stands to lose House seats.


    Balkinization


    The language of the 14th, which the USSC has told us for 150 years should never be taken literally because real equality is just unacceptable:

    Section 2.
    Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
     
  8. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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  9. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    Mississippi really stepped it up
     
  10. philnotfil

    philnotfil GC Hall of Fame

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    Florida elections supervisors confused, frustrated by new voting law

    Looks more and more like this was passed as a part of DeSantis' presidential campaign than in an attempt to make Florida's election process work better.
     
  11. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    • Fistbump/Thanks! Fistbump/Thanks! x 1
  12. philnotfil

    philnotfil GC Hall of Fame

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    Florida judge blocks Republican-backed voting law as discriminatory

    A federal judge in Florida on Thursday invalidated several of the state's new Republican-backed voting restrictions, ruling that they violate minority voters' constitutional rights.

    U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee blocked the state from enforcing provisions aimed at reducing the use of drop boxes for ballots, making it more difficult for third-party organizations to collect voter registration forms, and banning groups from offering food, water and other aid to people waiting in line to vote.

    Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for reelection and is also considered a top Republican contender for the 2024 presidential election, signed the bill into law last year.

    The legislation is among several sweeping voting restrictions passed by Republican-controlled states following Republican former President Donald Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
     
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  13. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    Great stuff
     
  14. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    Bringing this back up because it was the closest thing I could find on a quick search. When Republicans refer to the fraud of the 2020 election, and especially the Supreme Court wanting to adopt the independent legislature doctrine, they are generally referring to things states did in 2020 during the pandemic to make it easier to vote, like sending mail in ballots, expanding early voting, etc. They claim that those measures were fraudulent. They were really just to make it easier to vote.

    So now our Governor has issued guidelines making it easier to vote for those impacted by Hurricane Ian, relaxing standards in exactly the same way that happened in many Democratic states that were called "fraudulent". Lest anyone misunderstand, I completely support what the Governor is doing here. Even though Southwest Florida traditionally goes Republican, he is actually doing the right thing. The same thing happened in the Panhandle last time, which also goes Republican, after Hurricane Michael, I believe, and I supported it then as well. Hopefully any Governor would do the same if it was Dade, Broward Palm Beach

    It is absolutely the correct thing to do.

    But these are pretty much the same type of measures that Republicans have been calling "fraudulent" without describing exactly what they were referring to, and which the Supreme Court is going to use as a pretext to allow state legislatures to throw elections

    DeSantis agreed to set aside state election laws so elections officials in Charlotte, Lee and Sarasota — all of which are Republican strongholds — can consolidate polling places, expand early voting locations and make it easier to send mail-in ballots to voters to an address that is not listed in voting records.

     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2022
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  15. duchen

    duchen VIP Member

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    Of course, the GOP would challenge this in court in Democratic areas.
     
  16. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

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    Yep. Then it would be "fraud".