Posted with a singular comment

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Link to tweet

There is nothing more important than the sanctity of the ballot box.

[Joinfortmill]

2. 👍

[Lonestarblue]

3. Voting is important, but so is who counts the votes.

I cannot speak for other states, but Texas Republicans have attacked voting in many ways. The two new representative allotted from the 2020 census came about because of growth in the Hispanic population. Republicans gerrymandered the two new districts so that only white candidates could win while also wiping out the sole black-majority district in the state.

Republicans targeted vote by mail by redesigning both the application to get a mail ballot and the ballot itself to make it more confusing for voters to complete them accurately. While this can also affect Republicans who vote by mail, the majority of them will live in smaller towns where the elections clerk can call them to come in to fix their ballot. That cannot happen in large Democratic cities with millions of voters. In Houston alone, over 15,000 Democratic ballots were discarded for minor clerical errors resulting from the new forms and process. Such a number of rejected ballots would make a big difference in whether Beto wins.

Over the years, Republicans have also closed close to 800 voting precincts in Hispanic and other minority districts. While early voting helps mitigate these closures somewhat, Covid added another problem that restricts voting. In the past, you could vote early at a nearby grocery store, making it easy to stop and vote on the way to work or after work. Now we vote in fewer places, like community centers, that make not be anywhere near Hispanic and minority areas. Fewer voting places also mean longer lines, something challenging for hourly workers.

So in effect Texas Republicans have made it easy for white people so can take time off to vote because they have more precincts per capita while making it more difficult for vote by mail and for minorities and poor people to vote while also giving themselves some easy ways to throw out mail votes they don’t like.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. Saying ballots are sanctified presupposes they're pure and treated as such.

[stopdiggin]

7. all true. and, still ...

there is something fundamentally different between all of the jiggery, chicanery, finger on the scales, that you describe - and then just flatly denying the results of the vote. That is a different level of sedition. And that is what Cheney and fellow travelers pointing toward - (and, IMO, the OP misses a bit). Election deniers are saying that the vote doesn't COUNT.
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[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. It's bad enough we have a Senate and Electoral College which reduces the power of the majority.

Now we have clowns that want to manipulate elections themselves. In a perfect world we would keep the Senate to protect the power of small states and junk the Electoral College which is a fundamentally anti-democtatic institution.

[mjvpi]

13. Bingo. The state laws that give the legislature the power to ignore contested counties and votes......

……in total are scary. Eastman took a part of the constitution that was designed to resolve a free and fare election that had gone amuck and exploited it. Now state legislatures are passing bills were they can create the amuck part. They lose track of the whole magic of democracy. At election time everybody in elected office agrees to give up their control and power if they can’t convince "we the People” that they should keep it.

Democracy should surf the arc of moral history as it bends towards Justice. Nod to Dr King

[questionseverything]

21. You are correct

If the same repubs that cheat as you describe why should we trust them to count correctly?

[yellowdogintexas]

22. There are actually 5 Black Congressional Representatives from Texas not one

Marc Veasey, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Collin Allred, Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee.

The redistricting set up a territory battle between Reps Green and Lee by pulling a chunk of hers into his, and including her address in that move. Both of them are running for re-election in their existing districts. Green will win, and it is possible that Ms Lee can hold her seat (the women will come out for her). I truly believe the Lege thought Green and Jackson would pit off against one another in the primaries, but that did not happen.

The three remaining seats are in North Texas and should remain African American; one of these reps is essentially unopposed.

I keep hearing this a lot - that we only have one black district. and I don't understand how it got started; Four of these seats have been held by Black Representatives for a LONG time. The fifth one was a flip in 2018.

Regarding the closing of precincts on election day, it is an awful thing to do. However remember that in 54 of our counties, a voter can cast their ballot at any voting location in the county on election day. Tarrant for example has 300 precincts, Harris has 800 and so on. I have 10 within a 10 - 15 minute drive and I can use any of them on Election Day so if 3 of them were closed I would still have plenty of options.. 800 precincts really seems like a lot statewide. but we probably have close to 3000 in our large counties alone. I know of a few that closed because the building no longer exists, and in other locations the building owners opted out of hosting elections.

The mess with the signatures and id info on the vote by mail actually harms all voters equally. It is definitely the biggest problem with our voting currently.

The signature/id information is on the outside (mailing) envelope; the actual ballot is in a separate envelope. That inside envelope is NOT opened, so the ballot board has no clue who the voter has chosen. We don't register by party so when that signature is checked we do not know if the voter is a Democrat or a Republican. If a ballot is rejected, it is returned to the voter with a clean ballot and an explanation. It is quite possible that more Republican ballots were rejected than Democratic . According to our Ballot Board Chair (a Democrat), all the elections offices are thoroughly disgusted with the signature fiasco; apparently there were other issues which created problems as well.

I encourage everyone who votes by mail to mail in that ballot the day you receive it; we get them about 10 days before early voting starts so we kind of have a jump on things.

ALso, IF you forget to send your ballot back, or you have a do-over, just take it to a voting location and surrender it. You will be able to vote on the equipment per usual. If you don't have it with you, you can still vote but it is a bit more tedious.

[paleotn]

5. Good point. We'll deal with policy disputes after the Republic is saved.

[peppertree]

6. Liz will have a hard time a finding a fellow Republican that DOESN'T fall in that little group

That said, good on her.

She's putting herself on the line - literally.

[COL Mustard]

9. She'll be fine after Congress

She won't end up (or be welcome at) the typical K Street lobby shops the GOP prefer, but she'll make her own gig. Same w/Adam Kinzinger. Both loyal patriots who will in the end be just fine.

[peppertree]

11. I hope so

What with the constant barrage of (misspelled) death threats, it can't be easy for her or hers right now.

Same goes for Kinzinger of course.

[COL Mustard]

15. I think she lives in McLean, VA

It’s a pretty nice area to be in. Not sure what Kinzinger will do.

[COL Mustard]

8. It's simple, really.

And I hope the people in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and the other states are listening.

[Icanthinkformyself]

12. When we do get back

to discussing policy differences with conservatives it will be a refreshing change of perspective as Democrats espouse progressive tax policy vs trickle down (what you feel is the rich pissing on the ones who create the wealth, working people), expanding rights vs taking them away, sensible gun safety regulations vs insanity at the end of a gun barrel. I want the conservatives put on the spot about why their idiotology (sic) is the basis for fascism, why they view themselves as superior to others.

[BradBo]

14. Can you fing believe.....

…..it took a President that’s directly responsible for over 100,000 American deaths because he denied the seriousness of Covid that she supported to maybe just maybe vote Democrat.
Let alone her war criminal father that literally grifted hundreds of millions of dollars with his war criminal Halliburton company on hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis citizens deaths. Lying about the war the whole time.
What a huge load of crap she is.

[Martin68]

16. Do you mean a "singular (remarkable) comment or a "single" (one) comment?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. The former, sir.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

18. Election deniers should be expelled from office and banned ...

Election deniers assisted and incited the insurrection, making them participants.

https://www.citizensforethics.org/news/press-releases/judge-removes-couy-griffin-from-office-for-engaging-in-the-january-6-insurrection/

Court judgment:
https://www.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/D101CV202200473-griffin.pdf

See page 37 of the pdf, (34 of the judgment) titled C. Mr. Griffin "Engaged in" the Insurrection for what engaged means according to case law.

[calimary]

24. Sounds totally reasonable to me.

Into the insurrection equals OUT as a candidate for office.

[OldkySoul]

19. Well that was quick (sarcasm)

all he had to do was encourage white supremacists, hire his own notoriously stupid family to run the white house, fuck a porn star while his wife was in labor, then pay her hush money, brag about sexually assaulting women, sexually assault a bunch of women, kiss putin's ass on the world's stage, sell out his own national security apparatus, got a bunch of kurds killed, forgot the words to the pledge of allegiance/national anthem/every prayer attempt, hint at lust towards his own daughter a few dozen times, fail every promise of his campaign (except for a few unverifiable/cosmetic ones like getting people to say "merry christmas" again), steal from vets charities, steal from his constituents, steal (and sold?) classified documents, and basically continuously shit the bed since 2016...

...i mean, isn't he just laying on the covers making snow crap angels at this point?

She supported him much too long imho. She ain't no hero folks.

[WarGamer]

20. I would ask Heath is he REALLY believes that Liz believes in "Constitution First"

I think she believes in "Neoconservatism First"

That also is the only reason for her Trump hatred.

[orangecrush]

23. KICK

[spanone]

25. K&R