Republicans Don't Want Minorities to Vote. Here's the Proof.

[Panich52]

Esquire
BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
NOV 5, 2016

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania—For almost eight years, various Republican governors and their pet Republican majorities in their respective state legislatures have had great good fun constructing legal barriers to keep the people they don't want to be voting from voting. From the fanciful faux-motive of non-existent "voter fraud," to the old Republican standby of face-to-face voter intimidation, these folks have spent a great deal of time congratulating themselves on their cleverness and their political je ne sais quoi. It was only a matter of time before this galloping sham found itself in front of an unsympathetic judge or three. Now, it's happened on the weekend before the most critical presidential election since 1932 and the judges are playing Edward Scissorhands with all those clever little death warrants for the franchise. Let's take them one by one.

In Arizona, a federal appeals court blocked a state law forbidding what is called "ballot harvesting," the practice of collecting completed ballots en masse by going door-to-door. As Mother Jones reports, the argument over the law was conducted within the customary parameters with Republicans pretending that the measure had anything to do with protecting the integrity of the ballot, the Democrats calling bullshit and, increasingly, a judge getting fed up with the sheer magnitude of the bad faith involved in the whole thing, as the Arizona Capitol Report describes in detail.

But Chief Justice Sidney Thomas, writing for himself and five others on the 11-member panel, said he and his colleagues believe it is appropriate to prevent the law from taking effect for this election.Thomas pointed out that "ballot harvesting" was never considered illegal until this year. He said that weighed heavily on the decision of the majority to conclude there would be no real harm to the state in perhaps only delaying its implementation while its legality is decided by the courts. "The injunction does not affect the state's election process or machinery," he wrote. "It simply would enjoin enforcement of a legislative act that would criminalize the collection, by persons other than the voters, of legitimately cast ballots."

The state's lawyers conducted a limo race to Kinko's—or something—and threw their case into the lap of Supreme Court Justice Anthony (Weathervane) Kennedy, begging him to stay the appeals court's order so that the law could be implemented in the current election. Kennedy joined the majority in the Court's unfortunate 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, the ruling that defanged the Voting Rights Act, so maybe Arizona has a shot. *

In Ohio, a federal judge dropped the hammer on the efforts of the Trump campaign and its auxiliaries—including the Oath Keepers—to muscle people at the polls themselves. (snip)

More
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a50378/voter-suppression-2016/?src=socialflowTW


*Saw headline that SCOTUS upheld ban on collecting early ballots in AZ

[AmericanActivist]

1. Of course they don't want them voting

That is their only chance to succeed and it is an age old strategy of theirs.

[pat_k]

2. Koch brothers are "targeting of secretaries of state"

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/us/politics/secretaries-of-state-elections-ballot-initiatives.html

From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Big-money corporate lobbying has reached into one of the most obscure corners of state government: the offices of secretaries of state, the people charged with running elections impartially.

The targeting of secretaries of state with campaign donations, corporate-funded weekend outings and secret meetings with industry lobbyists reflects an intense focus on often overlooked ballot questions, which the secretaries frequently help write

.....

The claim is that they are trying to put "their people" in because SOS's write ballot incentives. I have NO DOUBT that the agenda is MUCH broader, and includes electing SOS's that will assist voter suppression efforts.

[Panich52]

4. They want more like FL had in 2000 (tweeted link)

[fun n serious]

6. Here in Blue Oregon

Dennis Richardson viciously attacked Brad Avakian in massive ads now it looks like blue OR may elect a tea bagger GOP

[pat_k]

7. Incredible

And incredibly disturbing.

This "new" SOS "strategy" is insidious. Here's a blurb from the Republican Secretaries of State Committee (RSSC) website:

The Republican Secretaries of State Committee (RSSC) is committed to electing Republican secretaries of state across the country and preserving the integrity of elections.

"Preserving the integrity." Yeah. Sure.

It's a little overwhelming. We seem to keep losing ground in at the state level.

31 Repub Govs, and our chances of an overall gain in Governors appear pretty slim. (If going simply by the numbers, 12 Governorships are at stake this election: 4 Repub, 8 Dem)

And I think it's something like half the state legislatures are Republican.

And redistricting is just 4 years away.

[fun n serious]

8. Yes. I am deeply disturbed.

They used Rove style tactics and this hardcore teabagger somehow was able to get endorsements from all our news papers. They lean left!

[Gothmog]

3. The GOP is the party of voter suppression