Today, I’m doing something a little different on the blog. There were a handful of stories that I want to comment on, and I couldn’t pick just one. So here’s a short paragraph about each.
Montana’s new law targets young voters
Earlier this week, Montana’s governor signed two news election bills into law. The first gets rid of the ability of Montana voters to register on election day. They are the first state to get rid of this provision. The second amends their voter ID law to now require TWO forms of ID, and you can no longer use student ID. This law comes after the 2020 where 40% more voters aged 18-29 voted than in the previous presidential election. Hmm. Montana Democrats have sued, alleging the new law violates the state’s constitution.
Arizona GOP voting bill fails
Arizona, along with Georgia and Texas, is working to pass the most voting restrictions since the 2020 elections. However, one of their bills just failed in the state senate after a lone Republican voted with the Democrats. The bill was aimed at kicking off voters from the permanent early voting list if they failed to vote in consecutive elections. The Republican senator is temporarily voting against all election bills until a dubious, Republican-funded “audit” of the 2020 election results can be completed. This delay gives Democrats time to lobby big businesses and others in the state to pressure the governor to veto these bills when they inevitably pass later in the session.
So about those fundraising numbers
Earlier this week, I noted that while many Democrats were raising a boatload of money, so were truly undeserving Republicans, including Senator Josh Hawley and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Well. About that. ProPublica did a deep dive and just reported that Hawley and Greene both used a email marketing vendor that charges up to 80 cents for every dollar raised. This is the same thing Ben Carson did as a presidential candidate — it looked great for a while, but those donations did NOT translate into hardcore supporters or votes.
DC Statehood moves forward
Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the bill to make DC the 51st state. (For a quick primer on why that’s important, read THIS.) The vote was 216-208, with no Republicans crossing the aisle. The idea of DC statehood is growing in popularity. CBS noted that a recent survey showed that 54% of likely voters think DC should be admitted as a state.
Anti-Asian hate crime bill passes
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act, which denounces “discrimination against Asian communities in the United States, and creat[es] a new position at the Justice Department to expedite reviews of potential Covid-19-related hate crimes.” (source) The final vote was 94-1. Only Josh Hawley voted against the bill.
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Categories: Uncategorized
Tokyo, quite simply, the voter laws being passed are an updated way for the Republican party to cheat to win by suppressing votes. This has been occurring with the voter id laws that have been ruled unconstitutional in the last decade. The demographics don’t work in the GOP’s favor, so they feel the need to suppress votes. Before Republicans accuse me of saying this because I am Democrat, I am an independent voter, who has been a member of both parties. Keith
You see the situation with clear eyes, Keith. Based on the comments I’ve been getting on my TikTok videos about voting rights, it appears that a large swath of GOP voters believe the lies about widespread voter fraud, and are completely unaware of how much of the population don’t have IDs or have trouble securing them. It’s really dangerous.
Thanks. I would like an explanation from these folks on how the former president and his sycophants have won only one small court case on election fraud and lost over 60. That is a terrible investment of time and money with nothing to show for it. As for the Voter ID laws, these are cookie cutter laws developed by ALEC where states filled in the blanks and passed them. NC had a horrible one, but it has been ruled unconstitutional. The majority of Republicans do not know they have been sold a bill of goods by its leaders and opinion hosts. They need to check other sources. Dems are not perfect, but at least they are pushing policies whether folks agree with them or not. Keith