While
I could put this in my Good Wife blog in one of its political posts as it
covers what only the Republican Party is doing, I figured that I might as well
cover it in this blog instead as it relates to elections and how they are
changing the law. At least they are doing this before the next round of
elections happen. But this is still a problem.
Now
I should point out that this can be something focused on by both parties. But
one party seeks to create voting suppression to get what they want while the
other is more concerned about how to value election integrity.
There
is this group of 12 governors of the United States that I’m calling the
election integrity governors. They are J B Pritzker of Illinois, Jay Inslee of
Washington state, Kate Brown of Oregon, Gavin Newsom of California, Phil Murphy
of New Jersey, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Tim Walz
of Minnesota, Ralph Northam of Virginia, John Carney of Delaware, Steve Sisolak
of Nevada, and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, all of whom are Democrats.
They issued a statement on threats to voting and one can only hope that they
are not overruled by Republicans in their state.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/30/1982273/-NEW-12-Governors-issue-a-statement-on-threats-to-voting?utm_campaign=trending
As
short ago as 2019, the Democrats sought to enter a bill into law that would
reform some of how elections are run. I’d have to imagine that it would wind up
before the Supreme Court. But I am unsure of if the Supreme Court can rule on a
law passed that affects it. One would think that they can handle any case that
they agree to hear. There could be a lot of good that could wind up from this
bill if it passes the senate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_People_Act
Of
course, there are horrible laws that Republicans are trying to pass or
succeeding in passing that seek to curb voting. It is now a crime in Georgia to
hand people water or food as they wait in line to vote for an election. This
isn’t Georgia’s first brush with controversial laws and I highly doubt that it
would be the last. We see it time and time again. And this controversy often
relates in negative repercussions for the state. Despite this, they still keep
passing laws like this since they learn nothing. And they have the audacity to
complain about this. You can’t keep passing controversial laws or doing
otherwise controversial things while saying that backlash to said things aren’t
an issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_Integrity_Act_of_2021
It
is likely that the law in question would wind up before the Supreme Court. Even
with a 6-3 majority of conservatives on the Supreme Court, I’d think that at
least part of the law would have to be struck down by the court. I just wish
that I could be more hopeful that just 2 of them could side with the 3 liberals
to strike down all of the law in question.
Now
Republicans are trying to suppress the vote in various states. There are bills
in the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut,
Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota,
Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North
Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Some of these
states are better off than others due to Democrats as either governor or in the
state legislatures in such a way that makes efforts by Republicans largely
moot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_efforts_to_make_voting_laws_more_restrictive_following_the_2020_presidential_election
Of
course, what Republicans fail to realize is just how effective getting out the
vote works. I mean, they don’t seem to realize that the high voter turnout in
2020 helped them in some places where it is normally just thought to help
Democrats. Republicans defied the odds and gained seats in the House in part
due to high turnout. Typically after the Democrats suffer a defeat, they seek
to reevaluate themselves to see what went wrong, seek to find voters where
there were none, reach out to the other party’s side to find common ground, and
just in general want to better themselves. Finding new voters is always part of
the plan. Republicans don’t seem to care if they wind up purging their own
voters. They should care. They must not have realized how the Wisconsin
primaries in 2020 went against their wishes because of their rules. This could
only seek to damage themselves.
That’s
all for this post. I know that I’m not giving myself enough time to write posts
and I’m doing a lot of more important things in life outside of these blogs. I
may start talking about the 2022 elections for some races, but won’t talk about
the gubernatorial ones or attorney general ones until after the 2021 elections.
I’ll get some to the 2021 elections soon, I hope, while also scaling back these
posts back to just once a month starting next month. I’ll explain more why
then. I have some big posts to write for this blog so look forward to them
soon, I hope. I will be sure to explain when the change will appear for the
first time.
