Voting is in a sordid state of affairs in America. As a local example, North Carolina Republican Governor Pat McRory was ousted by ~10,000 votes in the 2016 elections. Despite his loss, McCrory...
Voting is in a sordid state of affairs in America. As a local example, North Carolina Republican Governor Pat McRory was ousted by ~10,000 votes in the 2016 elections. Despite his loss, McCrory refused to concede for weeks, claiming that wide-spread voting fraud had tainted the election results.
In reality, of the millions of votes cast, fewer than 50 votes were determined to be illegitimate.
And of course, this example is mild: the democratic process prevailed and ultimately McCrory did concede. But the insidiousness remains, embedding itself in talking points among conservatives (let's not forget Trump's claim that he actually won the popular vote; you just need to subtract the millions of people who voted illegally). The examples in the OP are so much more heartbreaking: tens of thousands of (black) voters disenfranchised in St Louis, while incorrectly marked absentee ballots in Florida are accepted because the county is Republican-leaning.
The Republican approach to voter fraud is to lie, yes, but that's only a minutia of their grander political strategy to disenfranchise voters in order to consolidate power. Zealous Republican gerrymandering means that Republicans politicians artificially inflate their numbers in legislatures while simultaneously making themselves less accountable for policy decisions due to the additional burden required in order to vote them out.
Let me end my rant with one last example from my home state, North Carolina. Recently, a federal court ruled that the federal midterm electoral maps were unconstitutional for being politically gerrymandered. Further, since midterm elections are so close, the courts have decided not to allow the maps to be redrawn before midterm elections. But two years before that decision, the electoral maps were determined unconstitutional for being racially gerrymandered. And two years before that, the electoral maps were also determined unconstitutional for being racially gerrymandered. That's six years and three election cycles of unconstitutional electoral maps. Despite the NCGOP acting in a manner antithetical to democracy, and despite those illegal maps undoubtedly affecting millions of citizens, no individuals have been reprimanded for their unconstitutional maps.
And despite that, if I (a citizen) were to vote twice, I could be sent to prison.
Voting is in a sordid state of affairs in America. As a local example, North Carolina Republican Governor Pat McRory was ousted by ~10,000 votes in the 2016 elections. Despite his loss, McCrory refused to concede for weeks, claiming that wide-spread voting fraud had tainted the election results.
In reality, of the millions of votes cast, fewer than 50 votes were determined to be illegitimate.
And of course, this example is mild: the democratic process prevailed and ultimately McCrory did concede. But the insidiousness remains, embedding itself in talking points among conservatives (let's not forget Trump's claim that he actually won the popular vote; you just need to subtract the millions of people who voted illegally). The examples in the OP are so much more heartbreaking: tens of thousands of (black) voters disenfranchised in St Louis, while incorrectly marked absentee ballots in Florida are accepted because the county is Republican-leaning.
The Republican approach to voter fraud is to lie, yes, but that's only a minutia of their grander political strategy to disenfranchise voters in order to consolidate power. Zealous Republican gerrymandering means that Republicans politicians artificially inflate their numbers in legislatures while simultaneously making themselves less accountable for policy decisions due to the additional burden required in order to vote them out.
Let me end my rant with one last example from my home state, North Carolina. Recently, a federal court ruled that the federal midterm electoral maps were unconstitutional for being politically gerrymandered. Further, since midterm elections are so close, the courts have decided not to allow the maps to be redrawn before midterm elections. But two years before that decision, the electoral maps were determined unconstitutional for being racially gerrymandered. And two years before that, the electoral maps were also determined unconstitutional for being racially gerrymandered. That's six years and three election cycles of unconstitutional electoral maps. Despite the NCGOP acting in a manner antithetical to democracy, and despite those illegal maps undoubtedly affecting millions of citizens, no individuals have been reprimanded for their unconstitutional maps.
And despite that, if I (a citizen) were to vote twice, I could be sent to prison.
Outline.com link
Reading this is just infuriating, however at least it's a major paper calling it like it is, and finally using the word: "Lie."