List of the ways that GOP lawmakers and election officials have needlessly made it harder to vote

[Nevilledog]

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Rick Hasen
@rickhasen
Going to start a list of the ways that Republican lawmakers and election officials have needlessly made it harder to vote during COVID. Feel free to add on here.
1. Ohio SOS Frank LaRose opposing drop boxes while claiming his hands were tied.
2. TX Gov. Abbott reversing on boxes.
5:14 PM · Nov 1, 2020

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Going to start a list of the ways that Republican lawmakers and election officials have needlessly made it harder to vote during COVID. Feel free to add on here.

1. Ohio SOS Frank LaRose opposing drop boxes while claiming his hands were tied.
2. TX Gov. Abbott reversing on boxes.

3. Pa. legislators and North Carolina legislators going all the way to the Supreme Court to try to stop extension of receipt of mail-in ballots mailed by election day.

4. Alabama SOS Merrill fighting against allowing counties to offer curbside voting for immunocompromised voters

5. South Carolina not challenging judicial elimination of witness signature during primaries, but challenging (all the way to the Supreme Court) same rule applied in general election; and doing so after instructions told voters no signature needed

6. Wisconsin Republican legislators refusing to postpone April primary election in the height of the pandemic, going all the way to state AND U.S. Supreme Court, and fighting extension of ballot receipt deadline in general election all the way to SCOTUS.

7. RNC and allies seeking to stop sending ballots to all active registered voters in CA, NJ, NV, and some Montana counties.

8. Leonard Leo-backed "Honest Elections Project" fighting against counting of ballots arriving after election day in MN, and getting 8th Circuit to consider

9. Republican legislator and candidate filing last minute case in federal and state court seeking to disenfranchise 120,000 voters using drive-thru voting in Harris County, TX that is allowed by state law.

10. Republican legislators in PA and WI (and to some extent MI) refusing to allow pre-canvassing of mail in ballots (as allowed in places like FL and UT) in the hopes it would give Trump an ephemeral chance to be in the lead.

11. The Oklahoma legislature's reenactment of a notarization requirement for absentee balloting after the state Supreme Court threw it out in light of COVID.

12. Georgia SOS and election officials going to the 11th circuit to reverse a district court order that would have required paper backup of voter registration information for use in polling places in case electronic system goes down AGAIN.

(I'm doing these off the top of my head so no doubt I'm missing many.)

13. Five Republican-dominated states, including TX and Indiana, that refused, even after being sued, to allowing people to vote by mail if they lack immunity to COVID. Texas litigating in US and state Supreme Court to say lack of immunity is not a "disability" or discrimination.

14. Florida officials also fighting the expansion of drop boxes even in the midst of a pandemic and in the middle of a USPS crisis in mail delivery that doubtlessly will disenfranchise thousands of voters who mailed their ballots at least a week before election day.

15. Lawsuits in PA, MN, TX and likely elsewhere seeking to block ballots using a doctrine never accepted by a Supreme Court majority about a kind of unlimited power of state legislatures to set voting rules to exclusion of state courts and state and local election administrators.

16. Lawsuits across the country, one even going all the way to Supreme Court, seeking to block charitable contributions from Zuckerberg foundation to defray cost of running election during pandemic; after Congress allocated only 1/10 of needed funds when Senate Rs blocked.

"The Trump campaign and Republican entities engaged in more than 40 voting and ballot court cases around the country this year. In exactly none — zero — are they trying to make it easier for citizens to vote."--GOP election attorney Ben Ginsberg washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
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[unblock]

1. Florida requiring ex-felons to pay fines in order to vote

[alwaysinasnit]

2. I thought I saw somewhere that Florida can't (or won't) provide accurate records of debt owed by

these people, so how are they supposed to pay it off????

[unblock]

3. but i'll bet they think they know enough to take away their vote.

guilty until proven innocent, or something like that....

[alwaysinasnit]

4. +1000