SCOTUS gives Chump another (small) gut punch.

[Totally Tunsie]

Last week I posted about the GOP suing RI regarding dropping the requirement on absentee/mail-in ballots for voter signatures to be notarized or witnessed.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213882042

I am pleased to update that SCOTUS today upheld RI's right to drop this requirement in the interest of COVID prevention and protection. It's a small but vital win for RI, and sets the precedent for other states.

RI ballots are printed and Sec, of State Gorbea has ordered them to be mailed. She stated that 16,002 ballots start going out tomorrow.

YAY us!

[mr_lebowski]

1. How the hell is this even under's SCOTUS' purview?

I don't understand how they think they have the authority to opine on this subject.

Nonetheless I'm glad they gave the obviously correct decision.

[Totally Tunsie]

2. The Repugs escalated this to the SCOTUS.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/10/politics/rnc-rhode-island-supreme-court-voting/index.html

Republicans ask Supreme Court to intervene in Rhode Island case involving witness requirements for absentee ballots

(CNN)The Republican National Committee has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in a case about absentee ballots in Rhode Island, where a recent legal battle in federal court eliminated the state's requirement that two witnesses, or a notary public, must sign absentee ballots for them to count.

In a ruling last week, the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reinstate the witness requirement. The requirement was nixed as part of an agreement between the Democratic-run state government and a group of voters who brought a lawsuit, asking for the rule to be waived during the pandemic.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, a Democrat, praised the ruling last week, saying it was "a victory for voting rights." Election experts say that witness requirements would disenfranchise voters during the Covid-19 pandemic, where people are reluctant to even invite family into their homes.
The Republican Party argued in its filing to Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who will review the request, that the pandemic won't prevent voters from getting signatures from others.

[mr_lebowski]

3. friggin ridiculous on so many levels ...

Most states have no such requirement so clearly there's no Federal Req for this sort of thing. Ergo of COURSE the state government can legally get rid of (or waive in an emergency) the requirement. At most the state's Supreme Court should've decided this.

I also cannot believe how the SCOTUS jumps at the whims of whiny-ass Trump and RNC all the time these days.