Sep.04

electoral-vote.com

Dem 48

Ties 1

GOP 51

Texas Hates Democracy

In a just world, someone would arrest, convict, and imprison Gov. Greg Abbott and AG Ken Paxton (both R-TX) and then would throw away the key. They are the most anti-democratic, corrupt, power-abusing, self-interested one-two punch in state politics right now. In fact, they might be the worst one-two punch in state politics in the last half-century (go back further than that, and you run into the segregationists, who were also really bad).

Every reader of this site knows that Texas has allegedly been on the cusp of turning purple for at least a decade, if not more. It hasn't actually happened, but that doesn't mean that the thought doesn't keep Texas Republicans up at night. And they go into full freak-out mode when they see a poll like this one from Public Policy Polling, which has Donald Trump leading Kamala Harris by just three points, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) leading Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) by just two. It's almost certainly an outlier, but it's also a reminder that Texas' status as a one-party state could be in jeopardy.

One solution to this problem would be to pursue ideas and programs that will curry public support. You know, that thing called "politics"? The preferred approach of Abbott and Paxton, however, is to abuse their positions of power to disenfranchise Democratic voters. To that end, the Texas state government, with Paxton taking the lead, has booted 1 million people off the voter rolls since the last presidential election. Roughly half of those individuals have died or left Texas. The other half, however, simply failed to respond to inquiries from the state demanding that they confirm their voting status. "Coincidentally," the folks removed from the rolls are disproportionately people of color and/or disabled, which means they are also disproportionately Democrats.

And it gets even sleazier. Abbott and Paxton are all-in on the fantasy that vast numbers of undocumented immigrants are casting votes in Texas elections. In order to fight this "problem," Paxton recently executed search warrants on a bunch of homes in Texas. No undocumented voters, and no evidence of votes by undocumented Texans, were found. By pure chance, however, the homes all belonged to Democratic activists, particularly members of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

This week, Paxton is still busy. Harris and Bexar counties (home to Houston and San Antonio, respectively) were busy at work on plans to allow people to register to vote via mail. On Monday, the AG sent letters to officials in both counties telling them they better not try it, and that he would sue them if they did. Paxton claims that the program would "confuse" noncitizens and "induce" them to register fraudulently. Those just so happen to be among the most heavily Latino counties in the state. Paxton probably didn't even know that, though, right?

At the start of this item, we proposed that Abbott and Paxton are as bad as the segregationists of the 1950s and 1960s. Now that we think about it, is there even a distinction? Whether it's Ken Paxton or George Wallace, they're doing everything they can to keep Black and brown people from voting.

And while Texas is probably the worst, it's far from the only example, depressing as it is. Republicans in a number of states aren't betting the farm on having vote counters bringing home the bacon for them. They are also interested in determining who may vote. This is doubly true when the vote-counter-in-chief is a Democrat (as in Arizona, Michigan, and North Carolina) or a straight-shooting Republican (as in Georgia). Here are a few more states where members of the red team are actively trying to interfere with voting:

• Arizona: A couple of weeks ago, the Supreme Court gave Arizona Republicans a partial win on a new voter-ID law. The good news for Republicans was that some new registrants would have to prove their citizenship before registering to vote using the state's registration form. The bad news was that people already registered would not have to bring proof of citizenship to the polls when they vote in November. On the whole, the Republicans' win here is small because even if someone shows up to register and is sent away for lack of proof of citizenship, they can come back again with such proof (typically a U.S. passport, birth certificate, or Certificate of Naturalization).
  
  
• Georgia: Back in May, four of the five members of the Georgia State Election Board voted down a new proposal to allow county boards to investigate or delay certifying election results. The rule would violate both state and federal law. Local boards are not allowed to investigate alleged irregularities without a court order to do so. They are supposed to add up the numbers and just report them.
  
  Three months later, a similar rule came up and this time it passed 3-2, largely due to pressure from Donald Trump and other election deniers and thanks to the replacement of one member by a very Trumpy new member who has no experience at all in election administration but a lot of very strong opinions about who should win. Experts said that the new rule violates state and federal law even more than the original one. A court challenge is underway.
  
  
• Michigan: The RNC and the Michigan Republican Party have sued the state on the grounds that there aren't enough Republican election workers in Detroit, the state's largest city. The suit asks the judge to order equal numbers of Democratic and Republican workers up and down the line in Detroit. Since there are about eight times as many Democrats as Republicans in Detroit, finding enough Republicans who are willing to be election workers isn't that easy, which is why there is an imbalance. The suit does not ask for parity in heavily Republican rural counties in other parts of the state, for some reason.
  
  
• Nebraska: In July, a new state law took effect that would re-enfranchise about 7,000 people with felony convictions. The state had no plans to tell anyone about the new law, which means many felons undoubtedly would not know if it were up to state officials. So, a private group raised money for an ad campaign in Omaha and Lincoln to inform former felons of their new rights. The ads never ran, because Nebraska AG Mike Hilgers (R) and SoS Bob Evnen (R) halted implementation of the new law and shut down registrations of former felons, in plain violation of the new law. Hilgers' approach was to simply declare the new law to be unconstitutional. He also declared unconstitutional a 2005 law that ended lifetime disenfranchisement of anyone convicted of any felony. That law allowed former felons to vote starting 2 years after they had completed their sentences. Who needs a state legislature or judges when the AG can do all the heavy lifting with a simple announcement? The 2005 law affected 59,000 Nebraskans. Oh, and the incarceration rate of Black Nebraskans is 10 times that of white Nebraskans. Weird, no?
  
  
• North Carolina: The Tar Heel State will begin sending out absentee ballots within the week. People who voted absentee in 2020 may be surprised about two new procedures, though. First, the voter now has to include a photocopy of a valid photo ID. Second, the voter must fill out the ballot in the presence of two witnesses or a notary public. Although the instructions list these requirements, many long-time voters probably aren't going to read them and will cast ballots that will be thrown out unless the county has some procedure for allowing voters to cure sick ballots. The Republican-controlled legislature that passed the new laws is assuming that more absentee voters are Democrats than Republicans, so they hope this works for them.
  
  
• Pennsylvania: In April, election workers in Republican-controlled Washington County, PA, refused to tell voters that their absentee ballots had been rejected (typically because the voter forgot to put a date on the envelope, which is irrelevant when the ballot arrives before or on Election Day). State law requires such notification to give the voter a chance to cure the ballot. Last Friday, Judge Brandon Neuman (D) ruled that county officials must obey state law. The chairman of Washington County's Board of Commissioners said that state law does not allow counties to begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day, so there is no time to notify voters about errors. However the ACLU, which represented the plaintiffs, said that nothing in state law prevents election workers from looking at incoming sealed envelopes to see if there is a date there, and if not, to inform the voter, which is what state law requires. Most counties in Pennsylvania do exactly that.

The above items show some of the more recent efforts to combat voting. This year, about half the states have changed voting laws, generally to make it more difficult. If you want an in-depth report on them, click here.

The Republican hypocrisy on voting integrity is staggering. There is a consortium of states called the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) that tries to catch double voting by allowing states to see if any registered voter is also registered in a different state. This typically happens when someone moves to a new state and does not deregister in the old state before registering in the new one. Being registered in two or more states is not a crime, only voting twice is. In the past, most states were members of ERIC. Now, many Republican-controlled states have withdrawn from an organization whose goal is to enhance election integrity, because ERIC also provides citizens with information on how to register. And Republicans whine about double voting at the same time they are sabotaging a large national group whose main goal is combating double voting.

In addition to all the new laws, a private group, True the Vote, has an app that teaches private citizens how to challenge other people's right to vote. So far, half a million people have been challenged. We try to keep the editorializing to a minimum, in general, but when it comes to voting rights, all bets are off. And all of this is absolutely shameful. (V & Z)