Scott Walker Gets Mercilessly Mocked By Twitter Users Over Venn Diagram Fail
Twitter users poked fun at outgoing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) on Friday after he used a questionable Venn diagram to explain the controversial signing of the GOP’s power grab in the state into law....
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Investigator details alleged North Carolina election fraud scheme
The evidentiary hearing into possible election fraud in the 2018 general election in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District officially got underway Monday, and the lead investigator with the State Board of Election claims the evidence they plan to present will show a "coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme," took place in the 2018 general election.
"We believe that the evidence...will show that a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the 2018 general election in Bladen and Robeson counties," North Carolina Board of Elections executive director Kim Strach said in her opening statement....
NC judge throws out voter ID and income tax constitutional amendments
A judge has just thrown out two amendments to the North Carolina Constitution that voters approved in November.
One of the amendments was to implement a voter ID requirement, and the other was a cap on the state income tax rate.
The North Carolina General Assembly is so gerrymandered that its members don’t truly represent the people of the state and thus should never have proposed constitutional amendments in the first place, Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins wrote in his ruling that was issued late Friday afternoon.
“An illegally constituted General Assembly does not represent the people of North Carolina and is therefore not empowered to pass legislation that would amend the state’s constitution,” he wrote....
Whether or not his ruling stands, what a killer point! Protect our right to vote! Ask your member of Congress to vote yes on H.R.1, the For The People ActVrede too wrote: ↑Tue Feb 12, 2019 2:33 pmIf you were running for federal office in 2020 -
1. What issue would be most important to you?
2. What issue do you think would give you the best odds of winning?
'Beating Trump/Repubs' doesn't count since we can't know who will be running and it's boring.
Mine:
1. A restoring democracy package - ending Citizens United, corporate personhood, partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression.
2. Healthcare/Medicare for all.
Petition to Congress:
"Pass the Corporate Political Disclosure Act and fight back against the tide of corporate money hijacking our election system."
Tell Your Legislators To Support National Popular Vote
Under the current system of electing the President, candidates have won the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide in 4 of the nation’s 57 presidential elections.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states.
... Under the National Popular Vote bill, the national popular vote winner will receive all the electoral votes from the enacting states. The bill will take effect when enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes -- enough to elect a President (270 of 538). When the Electoral College meets in mid-December, the national popular vote winner will become President because the enacting states will provide him or her with at least 270 electoral votes. Thus, the candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC will become President.
A national popular vote for President is an achievable political goal that can be in place in time for the 2020 election. The bill has already been enacted into law in 12 states possessing 172 electoral votes. It will take effect when enacted by additional states having 98 electoral votes. The bill has previously passed one chamber in 11 additional states with 89 electoral votes and has been approved by unanimous bipartisan committee votes in two states with an additional 26 electoral votes. A total of 3,265 state legislators among all 50 states have endorsed it.
For additional information, see our book Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote (downloadable for free at www.NationalPopularVote.com)....
Stand up for Native American voting rights
Petition to state and local election officials:
"There’s simply no more essential duty of a democratic government than to provide open and fair elections accessible to ALL eligible voters, including Native Americans. We believe establishing satellite locations for in-person voter registration and in-person early voting locations must happen for Native American votes to be cast and counted."
BECOME A GRASSROOTS CO-SIGNER OF THE HONEST ADS ACT
Target: All Members of Congress
The Honest Ads Act, recently introduced by 29 Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate, is the best first step to stopping hidden, foreign disinformation campaigns in our elections.
This bill, introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Mark Warner (D-VA), as well as 26 Democrats and Republicans in the House, would safeguard U.S. politics from foreign interference, subject online political ads to rules modeled on those in place for TV/radio, and allow voters to know who is trying to influence them....
Decided on a technical issue and does not apply to other gerrymandering cases, but stillSupreme Court Hands Democrats A Win On Racial Gerrymandering In Virginia
Legislative districts in Virginia that the Supreme Court previously said were racially gerrymandered have to remain in their redrawn form, the court said Monday, giving Democrats in the state a victory.
The majority decision was written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who noted that because the entirety of state government wasn't suing to keep the fight going — the case was brought by the state's GOP-controlled House — then it is throwing the case out....
The case was 5-4, but not along the usual conservative-liberal lines. Instead, the majority in this case was Ginsburg with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, as well as conservatives Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch....
. Virginia will now vote in a less Repug racially gerrymandered way.
Supreme Court OKs Excessive Partisan Gerrymandering
... In a 5-4 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that partisan gerrymandering was a political question beyond the reach of the federal court. There are no fair and manageable standards for judges to evaluate whether a gerrymander is constitutional, Roberts wrote in his majority opinion.
“There are no legal standards discernible in the Constitution for making such judgments, let alone limited and precise standards that are clear, manageable, and politically neutral,” Roberts wrote. “Any judicial decision on what is ‘fair’ in this context would be an ‘unmoored determination’ of the sort characteristic of a political question beyond the competence of the federal courts.”
The court’s decision ensures state lawmakers will have virtually unlimited license to choose the voters who elect them. By packing the opposing party’s voters into as few districts as possible or spreading them out among many districts, lawmakers can make it next to impossible for the other party to win a majority of legislative or congressional seats.
Gubernatorial and state legislative elections later this year and in 2020 will now determine which party controls redistricting for the following decade. Republicans currently have the power to draw far more congressional districts than Democrats do (179 to 76); if that continues after the 2020 elections, the Supreme Court’s decision will effectively entrench GOP rule.
The cases the Supreme Court ruled on involved congressional districts in North Carolina and Maryland, two great examples of the power of gerrymandering. In North Carolina, Republicans have controlled nearly all of the state’s 13 congressional seats since 2012, even though they’ve consistently won only about half of the statewide congressional vote....
Lawmakers in both cases had admitted they drew electoral boundaries with the specific intent of advantaging their own party.
In North Carolina, Republicans had to redraw the state’s congressional districts after a 2016 court ruling said their first attempt had unlawfully diluted the influence of black voters. When they set out to draw a new map later that year, Republicans required that it continue to give Republicans a 10-to-3 advantage and told the mapmaker they hired not to consider race....
Bastards.Supreme Court rejects limits to partisan gerrymandering
... The justices, in a 5-4 decision with the court's conservative in the majority and liberals in dissent ...
Justice Elena Kagan, one of the court's liberals, took the unusual step of reading her dissent from the bench.
"For the first time ever, this court refuses to remedy a constitutional violation because it thinks the task beyond judicial capabilities," Kagan said....
Action now defunct.Vrede too wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2019 10:16 pmProtect our right to vote! Ask your member of Congress to vote yes on H.R.1, the For The People ActVrede too wrote: ↑Tue Feb 12, 2019 2:33 pmIf you were running for federal office in 2020 -
1. What issue would be most important to you?
2. What issue do you think would give you the best odds of winning?
'Beating Trump/Repubs' doesn't count since we can't know who will be running and it's boring.
Mine:
1. A restoring democracy package - ending Citizens United, corporate personhood, partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression.
2. Healthcare/Medicare for all.
NOTHING wrong with any of that.Response from Senator Tillis
Thank you for taking the time to contact me about S. 949, the For the People Act of 2019. I appreciate hearing from you.
As you may know, on March 28, 2019, Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) introduced S. 949, which was referred to the Senate Committee on Finance. If enacted, this legislation would federalize the election process, impose certain mandates on states, and reverse the decentralization of the American election process. In addition, this bill would undermine the ability of states and their citizens to determine qualifications for voters, to ensure the accuracy of voter registration rolls, to secure the integrity of elections, to participate in the political process, and to determine the district boundary lines for electing their representatives. Lastly, this legislation would require disclosure of presidential tax returns, make Election Day a federal holiday, and make changes to our current campaign finance system.
A similar bill, H.R. 1, was introduced on January 3, 2019 by Representative John P. Sarbanes (D-MD) in the House of Representatives. This companion bill to S. 949 passed the House of Representatives on March 8, 2019, by a party-line vote of 234-193.
Of course:Repugs detest democracy.Vrede too wrote: ↑Mon Oct 01, 2018 12:17 pm... That they lost most Americans years ago on the issues and that the only things that have kept them in power are dark money, gerrymandering, massive voter suppression and even Russian assistance. Rather than respecting democracy and reforming, this (Kavanaugh) is their last gasp attempt to impose their hateful extremism for a long time into the future.
We've now got the exact opposite of that.I have serious concerns with this legislation because there is no question that Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution enumerates that the states – acting through their elected officials – possess the right to tailor their specific election laws to protect the integrity of the democratic process and maintain public confidence in our elections.
Why not, especially when federal seats are at stake? The only reason for state flexibility is to gain partisan advantage one way or the other. He stomps on state control on a host of other issues including guns, women's rights, sanctuaries, etc.The federal government should not mandate a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to provide states with the flexibility necessary to create and administer laws that fit their needs.
As a supporter of transparency and good government,
Good one!
Liar, he knows:I believe a robust debate is needed on these issues; however, that discussion must be a result of bipartisan negotiations. Please know that, if S. 949 comes before the full Senate, I will keep your views in mind....
Sincerely,
Thom Tillis (R-NC)
U.S. Senator
Hey Moscow Mitch -Twitter Users Slam 'Moscow Mitch' After McConnell Kills Election Security Bills
... On Thursday, McConnell blocked a House measure that would have authorized $775 million to strengthen state election systems in addition to requiring paper ballots. He also quashed another proposal to require candidates, their campaign officials and their families to alert federal authorities if they’re offered aid from foreign governments ― something President Donald Trump himself has not committed to doing.
The next morning, the hashtag #MoscowMitch began spreading on Twitter, appearing to have been sparked by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who slammed McConnell in a fiery rant on his “Morning Joe” broadcast.
“He is aiding and abetting [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s ongoing attempts to subvert American democracy, according to the Republican FBI, CIA, DNI, intel committee,” he said. “All Republicans are all saying Russia is subverting American democracy and Moscow Mitch won’t even let the Senate take a vote on it. That is un-American.” ...
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