The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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malchior
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by malchior »

Here we go again with incredibly radical action from a state Supreme Court. This time in North Carolina.

So what's the big deal here? The NC Supreme Court struck down North Carolinas voting map as an unconstitutional gerrymander. The case was appealed up to the Supreme Court with a lot of discussion about how disastrous a ruling here might be. The make up of the NC Supreme Court changed last month with Republicans taking the majority on the court. The plaintiffs who were trying to preserve the gerrymander filed for a rehearing. Nothing has changed except the composition of the court. Today the court granted a rehearing. So what's the balance here? The downside is this is radical and democracy destroying. The upshot is that maybe SCOTUS will delay a ruling and dismiss the case as moot when these partisan hacks overturn themselves. That'll at least reduce the risk that they instead deliver a radical ruling that applies more broadly.

Also of note is yesterday the same group signaled they were going to roll back the right to vote for a group of re-enfranchised felons. Several local court watchers said it felt like they had an agenda that didn't necessarily square with mainstream legal analysis. Sad.

Election Law Blog
On a 5-2 vote along party lines, the North Carolina Supreme Court has granted rehearing to reconsider its decision striking the state’s congressional districts as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders under the state constitution. It is also considering the state districts as well as a separate voter id case; these were each decided just before the partisan majority on the Supreme Court changed. Justice Earl in her dissents calls out the court for granting the unusual rehearing and rejecting Common Cause’s motion to dismiss; the says that this is going to further politicize the judiciary and undermine the legitimacy of the courts.

The court put the congressional districting briefing on a very quick time frame, and it raises the question whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v. Harper could become moot, after a lot of briefing and argument has already been considered by the Supreme Court on the independent state legislature theory.
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YellowKing
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by YellowKing »

I can't stress enough how corrupt and evil the Republican party is in North Carolina. It's like they watch other GOP-controlled state legislatures and say "Hold my beer."
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by Smoove_B »

This is an overreaction, right? This can't possible be real.


Holy shit. The Texas Senate just passed a bill to give Greg Abbott’s handpicked Sec. of State the power to overturn elections in the 3rd biggest county in the U.S.

Republicans weaponizing 2020 election lies to rig elections. This is a HUGE story.
Maybe next year, maybe no go
malchior
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by malchior »

I am jack's utter lack of surprise. The time frame and circumstances are totally unreasonable. Notice it doesn't say anything about actual impact. It's a relatively transparent gaming of the system since the logistical problems being addressed don't even make sense. Let's say you predict you might run low and order some additional ballots. They aren't actually out of ballots but if they take more than an hour...the secretary can use that as a trigger to overturn the election? That doesn't even make sense. I also suspect...the secretary of state is responsible for ballots in the first place so this is even hinkier potentially. Also, when can he determine this? I suspect it'll only be when the GOP doesn't like the outcome.

Edit: Ugh. This is misinformation. This isn't the text that was passed. Here is the text as passed. This makes a ton more sense. Yet still leaves some space for shenanigans but at least there is some measurable impact.

Code: Select all

Sec. 249.001.  STANDARD FOR NEW ELECTION. Notwithstanding
 	any other law, in a county with a population of 2.7 million or more,
 	the secretary of state shall order a new election if the secretary
 	has good cause to believe that at least two percent of the total
 	number of polling places in the county:
 	             (1)  ran out of usable ballots during voting hours; and
 	             (2)  did not receive supplemental ballots under Section
 	51.008 for one or more hours after making a request for supplemental
 	ballots to the authority responsible for distributing election
 	supplies.
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LordMortis
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by LordMortis »

Don't worry, I'm sure Paxton will step in an protect the integrity of all elections just like he did in...

Texas politics really are among the worst. I wonder how/if they'll ever come back from the beyond.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by LawBeefaroni »

malchior wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 8:10 pm Here we go again with incredibly radical action from a state Supreme Court. This time in North Carolina.

So what's the big deal here? The NC Supreme Court struck down North Carolinas voting map as an unconstitutional gerrymander. The case was appealed up to the Supreme Court with a lot of discussion about how disastrous a ruling here might be. The make up of the NC Supreme Court changed last month with Republicans taking the majority on the court. The plaintiffs who were trying to preserve the gerrymander filed for a rehearing. Nothing has changed except the composition of the court. Today the court granted a rehearing. So what's the balance here? The downside is this is radical and democracy destroying. The upshot is that maybe SCOTUS will delay a ruling and dismiss the case as moot when these partisan hacks overturn themselves. That'll at least reduce the risk that they instead deliver a radical ruling that applies more broadly.

Also of note is yesterday the same group signaled they were going to roll back the right to vote for a group of re-enfranchised felons. Several local court watchers said it felt like they had an agenda that didn't necessarily square with mainstream legal analysis. Sad.

Election Law Blog
On a 5-2 vote along party lines, the North Carolina Supreme Court has granted rehearing to reconsider its decision striking the state’s congressional districts as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders under the state constitution. It is also considering the state districts as well as a separate voter id case; these were each decided just before the partisan majority on the Supreme Court changed. Justice Earl in her dissents calls out the court for granting the unusual rehearing and rejecting Common Cause’s motion to dismiss; the says that this is going to further politicize the judiciary and undermine the legitimacy of the courts.

The court put the congressional districting briefing on a very quick time frame, and it raises the question whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v. Harper could become moot, after a lot of briefing and argument has already been considered by the Supreme Court on the independent state legislature theory.
Fin.

Apr 28, 2023 Updated May 1, 2023

RALEIGH (AP) — In massive victories for Republicans, the newly GOP-controlled North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday threw out a previous ruling against gerrymandered voting maps and upheld a photo voter identification law that colleagues had struck down as racially biased.

The partisan gerrymandering ruling should make it significantly easier for the Republican-dominated legislature to help the GOP gain seats in the narrowly divided U.S. House when state lawmakers redraw congressional boundaries for the 2024 elections. Under the current map, Democrats won seven of the state’s 14 congressional seats last November.
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Alefroth
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by Alefroth »

Smoove_B wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 7:48 pm This is an overreaction, right? This can't possible be real.


Holy shit. The Texas Senate just passed a bill to give Greg Abbott’s handpicked Sec. of State the power to overturn elections in the 3rd biggest county in the U.S.

Republicans weaponizing 2020 election lies to rig elections. This is a HUGE story.
Umm... why only the blue counties?
malchior
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by malchior »

Alefroth wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 9:10 pmUmm... why only the blue counties?
Blue county! As you can note in the actual text as passed I posted it only applies in a county with more than 2.7 M people. There is only 1 such county in Texas. Harris County. Dallas County came in at 2.68M in the last census. It's clearly targeted.
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Alefroth
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by Alefroth »

malchior wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 9:42 pm
Alefroth wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 9:10 pmUmm... why only the blue counties?
Blue county! As you can note in the actual text as passed I posted it only applies in a county with more than 2.7 M people. There is only 1 such county in Texas. Harris County. Dallas County came in at 2.68M in the last census. It's clearly targeted.
Yeah, I missed that. That is pretty damn blatant.
malchior
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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100,000 voters registrations challenged in Georgia. This is the extremist right-wing agenda in a nutshell. Set up systems like this (or the book bans in the bible belt) designed to give excess power to extremists. They've already succeeded at wiping thousands of voters off the voter rolls. It's a long read but a worthwhile read if you want to see a deep dive on another experiment to destroy democracy in the United States by the radical Republican party.
On March 15, 2022, an email appeared in the inbox of the election director of Forsyth County, Georgia, with the subject line “Challenge of Elector’s Eligibility.” A spreadsheet attached to the email identified 13 people allegedly registered to vote at P.O. boxes in Forsyth County, a wealthy Republican suburb north of Atlanta. Georgians are supposed to register at residential addresses, except in special circumstances. “Please consider this my request that a hearing be held to determine these voters’ eligibility to vote,” wrote the challenger, Frank Schneider.

Schneider is a former chief financial officer at multiple companies, including Jockey International, the underwear maker. His Instagram page includes pictures of him golfing at exclusive resorts and a dog peeing on a mailbox with the caption “Woody suspects mail-in voter fraud” and the hashtag “#maga.” On Truth Social, the social media platform backed by former president Donald Trump, Schneider’s posts have questioned the 2020 election results in Forsyth County and spread content related to QAnon, the conspiracy theory that holds that the Democratic elite are cannibalistic pedophiles. In January 2023, he posted an open letter to his U.S. representative-elect encouraging “hearings to hold perpetrators accountable where evidence exists that election fraud took place in the 2020 and 2022 elections.”

The March 2022 voter challenges were the first of many from Schneider: As the year progressed, he submitted seven more batches of challenges, each one larger than the one previous, growing from 507 voters in April to nearly 15,800 in October, for a total of over 31,500 challenges.

Vetting Georgia’s voter rolls was once largely the domain of nonpartisan elections officials. But after the 2020 election, a change in the law enabled Schneider and other activists to take on a greater role. Senate Bill 202, which the state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed in 2021, transformed election laws in response to “many electors concerned about allegations of rampant voter fraud,” as the bill stated. Many states allow challenges, but officials in Georgia and experts say that in the past challengers have typically had relevant personal knowledge, such as someone submitting a challenge to remove a dead relative from the rolls. Georgia, however, is unusual in explicitly allowing citizens unlimited challenges against anyone in their county.

...

Media outlets have reported on the high number of challenges and numerous cases of voters feeling harassed, impeded or intimidated by being placed into “challenged” status. But the outsized role of the small group of people making the challenges was less clear. ProPublica was able to determine that a vast majority of the challenges since SB 202 became law — about 89,000 of 100,000 — were submitted by just six right-wing activists, including Schneider. Another 12 people accounted for most of the rest. (ProPublica obtained data for all challenges logged in 30 of the state’s 159 counties, including the 20 most populous.) Of those challenges, roughly 11,100 were successful — at least 2,350 voters were removed from the rolls and at least 8,700 were placed in a “challenged” or equivalent status, which can force people to vote with a provisional ballot that election officials later adjudicate.

...

Even some voters who managed to remain on the rolls were still forced by challenges to fight to remain registered. In Fulton County, which encompasses most of Atlanta, an immunosuppressed cancer patient had to drive nearly two hours round-trip to a crowded hearing to defend his right to vote. At the same proceeding, a Black woman likened her challenge to voter intimidation.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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The Hill
Alabama Republicans tasked by the U.S. Supreme Court with redrawing the state’s congressional map are so far rejecting the court’s order to create a second majority-Black district in the state.

While Alabama’s population is 27 percent Black, just one of the state’s seven districts is majority-Black.

In a 5-4 decision in June, the Supreme Court affirmed a three-judge panel’s ruling that Alabama’s current map likely violates the Voting Rights Act by taking away from the voice of Black voters.

The group of voters who sued and won before the Supreme Court proposed a second district where Black residents are 50.5 percent of the population, according to The Associated Press.

Facing down a Friday deadline, Republican state lawmakers proposed a congressional map Monday that would increase the percentage of Black voters in the 2nd Congressional District from around 30 percent to nearly 42.5 percent, still below the court’s prescribed level. The proposal was approved by the Permanent Legislative Committee in a party-line 14-6 vote and was introduced to other lawmakers Monday afternoon in a special session.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle (R), co-chairman of Alabama’s redistricting committee, defended the proposal, arguing the increase gives Black voters a greater chance to elect their favored candidates.
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Scraper
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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malchior wrote: Wed Jul 19, 2023 8:18 am The Hill
Alabama Republicans tasked by the U.S. Supreme Court with redrawing the state’s congressional map are so far rejecting the court’s order to create a second majority-Black district in the state.

While Alabama’s population is 27 percent Black, just one of the state’s seven districts is majority-Black.

In a 5-4 decision in June, the Supreme Court affirmed a three-judge panel’s ruling that Alabama’s current map likely violates the Voting Rights Act by taking away from the voice of Black voters.

The group of voters who sued and won before the Supreme Court proposed a second district where Black residents are 50.5 percent of the population, according to The Associated Press.

Facing down a Friday deadline, Republican state lawmakers proposed a congressional map Monday that would increase the percentage of Black voters in the 2nd Congressional District from around 30 percent to nearly 42.5 percent, still below the court’s prescribed level. The proposal was approved by the Permanent Legislative Committee in a party-line 14-6 vote and was introduced to other lawmakers Monday afternoon in a special session.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle (R), co-chairman of Alabama’s redistricting committee, defended the proposal, arguing the increase gives Black voters a greater chance to elect their favored candidates.
After all why not, the Ohio Legislature ignored the Ohio Supreme Court's orders to redraw lines 5 times and nothing happened to them. So why should Alabama follow court orders, when absolutely nothing will happen to them if they don't?
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by Smoove_B »

At least we can imagine then what will happen then when other states refuse to follow rulings from the Supreme Court - like maybe on reproductive rights.

This is kinda wild though. Not really sure what this means. I also didn't realize what was going on with Ohio, but you're right. If nothing happened, why should Alabama do anything?
Maybe next year, maybe no go
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Scraper
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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Smoove_B wrote: Wed Jul 19, 2023 9:06 am At least we can imagine then what will happen then when other states refuse to follow rulings from the Supreme Court - like maybe on reproductive rights.

This is kinda wild though. Not really sure what this means. I also didn't realize what was going on with Ohio, but you're right. If nothing happened, why should Alabama do anything?
Ohio is even dirtier than just ignoring the Supreme Court. In 2022 Ohio's SC had 4 Republicans and 3 Democrats. In early 2022 on a 4-3 vote the Supreme Court threw out the Legislature's new district lines because they were clearly Gerrymander to favor Republicans. The vote was 3 Democrats and 1 Republican in the majority. Said Republican was in her last term which ended in 2022. The Republicans then made several half hearted attempts to redraw the lines, these attempts were made behind closed doors and none of them came close to what the SC ordered them to do. I should add that one of the Justices who dissented in the case was Pat DeWine, son of Ohio Governor Mike Dewine, who was one of the named Defendant's in the case (even though Pat had a clear conflict he refused to recuse himself from the case).

Anyway as the Republicans kept running out the clock and not following the SC's orders, the State Legislature (A GOP Super Majority) changed the voting laws in the state so that Supreme Court Justice candidate's party affiliation appeared on the ballot next to their name. Prior to 2022 judicial races were supposed to be non-partisan and party designation did not appear on the ballot. Fast forward to November when there is a race to replace the one Republican who ruled that the districts were Gerrymandered and you can see what happens. The new Republican wins, who campaigned against the Gerrymandering decision. Now the State Legislature has run out the clock and they can ignore the SC ruling in its entirety because literally no one will do anything about it.

The end result is a big middle finger to democracy.
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malchior
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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David Pepper (author of Laboratories of Autocracy) covers this in depth out in social media. He has been a loud, clear voice about out in the open attacks on democracy that get little but passing attention.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by Smoove_B »

Scraper wrote: Wed Jul 19, 2023 9:29 am The end result is a big middle finger to democracy.
I remembered the first part (I remember reading about it in the news), but didn't realize the second part. That really is terrible.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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Black man 'declines' to be beaten to death by police.

Police violence down 100%.

Not enough people are declining things.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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That would mean that too many people are declining to decline. You've created a paradox.
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Smoove_B
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by Smoove_B »

Scraper wrote: Wed Jul 19, 2023 8:41 am After all why not, the Ohio Legislature ignored the Ohio Supreme Court's orders to redraw lines 5 times and nothing happened to them. So why should Alabama follow court orders, when absolutely nothing will happen to them if they don't?
Here's how you know it's bad. Not only did the Alabama legislature refuse to follow the Supreme Court's order, but last night the Governor of Alabama signed off on it:

Alabama GOP Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday approved a new congressional map with just one majority-Black district, despite a court order calling for the redrawn lines to create two majority-Black districts or “something quite close to it.”

The state’s Republican-controlled legislature gave final passage to the remedial map earlier Friday, just hours before the court-imposed deadline. The map must now be approved by a federal court, which has set a hearing for mid-August.

“The Legislature knows our state, our people and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups, and I am pleased that they answered the call, remained focused and produced new districts ahead of the court deadline,” Ivey said in a statement after she signed off on the map.
I guess their plan was to see what the federal court does?
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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Blackhawk wrote: Sat Jul 22, 2023 11:23 am That would mean that too many people are declining to decline. You've created a paradox.
It's not my paradox. I declined it early on.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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Smoove_B wrote: Sat Jul 22, 2023 12:04 pm I guess their plan was to see what the federal court does?
See what you get when liberals and progressives undermine the American confidence in SCOTUS?

Careful what you wish for, etc.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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Alabama's congressional map is struck down again for diluting Black voters' power
"We are not aware of any other case in which a state legislature — faced with a federal court order declaring that its electoral plan unlawfully dilutes minority votes and requiring a plan that provides an additional opportunity district — responded with a plan that the state concedes does not provide that district," said U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco and U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer. "The law requires the creation of an additional district that affords Black Alabamians, like everyone else, a fair and reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. The 2023 Plan plainly fails to do so."

For the 2024 elections, the judges have assigned court-appointed experts to draw three potential maps that each include two districts where Black voters have a realistic opportunity of electing their preferred candidate. Those redistricting proposals are due to the court by Sept. 25.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
malchior
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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This was expected. Now we will just have to see what they do now. Will they go back and re-draw it again properly (2 majority black districts), draw it again wrong, or just ignore the ruling altogether.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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Florida judge strikes down DeSantis-drawn congressional map as unconstitutional
A state judge on Saturday rejected congressional district boundaries affecting communities across North Florida, saying they unconstitutionally restrict Black voting power and that Florida’s Legislature must redraw them.
...
Marsh barred state officials from holding elections that use the current boundaries developed to replace the former Congressional District 5, whose seat was held by former U.S. Rep. Al Lawson.

Weighing a lawsuit brought by groups including Black Voters Matter and the League of Women Voters of Florida, the judge said state lawmakers must develop a “remedial map” to comply with the state's constitution, and he retained control over the case to judge whether the new boundaries pass legal muster.

Secretary of State Cord Byrd promised to appeal the ruling, saying he would seek review by the Florida Supreme Court, the Florida Politics news website reported.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by LordMortis »

I so hope gerrymandering eventually bites them in the ass, hard. Where you get unexpected change in voting and districts that secured as GOP swing to democrat because the state legislatures bothered to hide democrats in a traditionally GOP area. I'm hoping that happened on the west side of my state and that once elected, some of these legislators get entrenched.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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FWIW I don't want *any* politicians entrenched. I don't mind if experienced, responsive leaders stay forever but general lack of accountability is a direct contributor to how corrupt our society is becoming.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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Looks like the GOP finally found a SCOTUS approved work around to implement racial gerrymanders. They need to pretend to be sorting by political affiliation! Just trust them! Expect this to spread to other states.

Politico
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday appeared likely to uphold a Republican-drawn congressional district in South Carolina that a lower court found was racially gerrymandered.

The case — Alexander v. South Carolina Conference of the NAACP — tests the legal limits of partisan gerrymandering when it intersects with race. The NAACP is accusing Republican lawmakers of drawing the state’s 1st District, represented by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, by shuffling Black voters in and out of the district to make it reliably Republican.

But the GOP insists it ignored race and only considered partisanship when it drew a district that was more favorable to Republican candidates.

The court’s conservative majority seemed likely to side with the South Carolina GOP lawmakers. During an oral argument that stretched for more than two hours, several conservative justices voiced doubts that the evidence presented at the lower court proved that race was a predominant factor when mapmakers drew the lines.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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malchior wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2023 2:45 pm Looks like the GOP finally found a SCOTUS approved work around to implement racial gerrymanders. They need to pretend to be sorting by political affiliation! Just trust them! Expect this to spread to other states.

Politico
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday appeared likely to uphold a Republican-drawn congressional district in South Carolina that a lower court found was racially gerrymandered.

The case — Alexander v. South Carolina Conference of the NAACP — tests the legal limits of partisan gerrymandering when it intersects with race. The NAACP is accusing Republican lawmakers of drawing the state’s 1st District, represented by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, by shuffling Black voters in and out of the district to make it reliably Republican.

But the GOP insists it ignored race and only considered partisanship when it drew a district that was more favorable to Republican candidates.

The court’s conservative majority seemed likely to side with the South Carolina GOP lawmakers. During an oral argument that stretched for more than two hours, several conservative justices voiced doubts that the evidence presented at the lower court proved that race was a predominant factor when mapmakers drew the lines.
Yeah that seems like the obvious way to go. And it's kind of true - mainly these days the GOP cares first and foremost about political gerrymanders, and race is a tool to get to that end.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by YellowKing »

Voter suppression in NC continues unabated. The NC GOP overrode Governor Cooper's veto yesterday and passed another round of voter suppression laws thanks in part to traitorous ***clown*** ***witch*** Tricia Cotham who would be better off serving NC ***somewhere else***.

Updated my comments to the Kidz Bop version because I'm trying to be less profane and not issue as many violent thoughts of death towards politicians. The anger is real though.
Last edited by YellowKing on Wed Oct 11, 2023 3:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

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Are we absolutely sure Thomas isn't Clayton Bigsby?
Covfefe!
malchior
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by malchior »

Trump appointed judge in 8th circuit writes opinion that all future Section 2 Voting Rights Act lawsuits can only be filed by the DOJ. Private citizens in the 8th district for now don't have a forum for concerns such as potentially illegal voting maps. It appears they did the usual radical right-wing thing and tortured the dictionary and common sense until it gave them the answer they wanted.

The dissent is pretty straightforward. They point out that every District and the Supreme Court has heard hundreds of private Section 2 lawsuits for decades. I'd laugh if this wasn't so damn serious. The majority actually talks about this fact in their ruling going as far as to acknowledge it's been happening for 50 years. However, they argue that was premised in 'flimsy thinking'.

The opinion is shades of Dobbs. Essentially mirroring the tone at the beginning where Alito essentially argued from the top that all the dummies before him just didn't understand the constitution. More so, this court premised their read on a nugget Gorsuch threw out in a previous case where he remarked that he believed private action was an 'open question'. We'll see if SCOTUS takes it up but Roberts has seldom been a friend to the VRA himself so all bets are off. Another bad day for our democracy.

Edit: I was made aware of a fun fact. Even the fairly radical 5th circuit ruled the OPPOSITE way last week on a similar appeal. So that probably ups the chance that SCOTUS will settle it.
In a catastrophic 2-1 ruling, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that private litigants can no longer bring lawsuits under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). In practice, this means that in the 8th Circuit, only the U.S. attorney general, and not private groups, can bring claims under a key provision of the VRA that prohibits discrimination in redistricting and voting.

In legal terms, the ability of private groups and individuals to bring lawsuits is referred to as a private right of action.

The decision to dismiss this case, written by a judge appointed by former president Donald Trump, undoubtedly harms Black voters in Arkansas who are fighting for a fairer state House map. Unfortunately, the harm does not stop with this case. This decision will adversely impact voters of color who rely on Section 2 to fight discrimination in redistricting.

Section 2 of the VRA prohibits any voting law, practice or map that results in the “denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.” As one of the few remaining and crucial tools to fight unfair maps, this provision provides a mechanism for voters and pro-voting groups to challenge laws and maps that were enacted with a discriminatory purpose or have a discriminatory impact.

Now, under today’s ruling only the U.S. attorney general, who brings relatively few election-related cases each year, would be able to bring Section 2 claims in the seven states in the 8th Circuit: Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by Blackhawk »

"It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. "
(˙pǝsɹǝʌǝɹ uǝǝq sɐɥ ʎʇıʌɐɹƃ ʃɐuosɹǝd ʎW)
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by Carpet_pissr »

malchior wrote: Mon Nov 20, 2023 3:52 pm Trump appointed judge in 8th circuit writes opinion that all future Section 2 Voting Rights Act lawsuits can only be filed by the DOJ. Private citizens in the 8th district for now don't have a forum for concerns such as potentially illegal voting maps. It appears they did the usual radical right-wing thing and tortured the dictionary and common sense until it gave them the answer they wanted.

The dissent is pretty straightforward. They point out that every District and the Supreme Court has heard hundreds of private Section 2 lawsuits for decades. I'd laugh if this wasn't so damn serious. The majority actually talks about this fact in their ruling going as far as to acknowledge it's been happening for 50 years. However, they argue that was premised in 'flimsy thinking'.

The opinion is shades of Dobbs. Essentially mirroring the tone at the beginning where Alito essentially argued from the top that all the dummies before him just didn't understand the constitution. More so, this court premised their read on a nugget Gorsuch threw out in a previous case where he remarked that he believed private action was an 'open question'. We'll see if SCOTUS takes it up but Roberts has seldom been a friend to the VRA himself so all bets are off. Another bad day for our democracy.
That's it, we're done. Fooked, as it were.
malchior
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by malchior »

Ohio continuing to pave the way for dismantling free elections. Also with a heaping side of corruption as the judges themselves benefit from the outcome and DeWine's son is on the bench.

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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by malchior »

More detail on above here

Essentially Ohio's Republicans drew up highly gerrymandered maps, they were struck down multiple times by the courts, but they just kept using illegal gerrymandered maps after the courts struck them down, the illegal maps led to representatives being elected that then endorsed the maps, the balance of the court shifted due to the illegal maps, and then the judges then blessed the effort. Fucking disgraceful.
In a drastic change from previous rulings, a partisan majority on the Ohio Supreme Court chose to leave Statehouse redistricting maps in place for 2024 and beyond, denying a challenge to the constitutionality of the newest maps.

In a 4-3 ruling released Monday evening, right-wing justices on the court pointed to the bipartisan support of the district maps adopted in September as one reason to dismiss challenges filed by the ACLU and anti-gerrymandering groups.

“The bipartisan adoption of the September 2023 plan is a changed circumstance that makes it appropriate to relinquish our continuing jurisdiction over these cases,” Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion, along with fellow justices Patrick Fischer, Patrick DeWine and Joseph Deters.

That bipartisan support “means that it is effective for the 2024-through-2030 election cycles,” the majority wrote.

All five of the previous Statehouse maps were rejected by the former bipartisan court majority when Republican Maureen O’Connor was chief justice, based on arguments by anti-gerrymandering groups that the maps were unduly partisan, favoring Republicans in a way that map challengers said did not match the election trends of the last 10 years.

Those same arguments were made when the groups sued to reverse the most recent map.

The lopsided partisan lean joined with a lack of bipartisan support for any of the maps, showing a divided and broken process throughout the last two years, according to the League of Women Voters, the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, and other groups who filed lawsuits against the maps.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by Pyperkub »

Arizona Republicans may have stepped in it so deep SCOTUS won't bail them out:
The Supreme Court on Monday afternoon denied a request from the leaders of the Arizona legislature to put on hold an order that would require them to be deposed about the legislature’s enactment of voting laws that make it more difficult to register to vote. In a brief unsigned order without any noted dissents, the justices turned down an emergency filing from Ben Toma, the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, and Warren Petersen, the president of the Arizona Senate.
The reason they are open to discovery and deposition- they signed on to the lawsuit:
Toma and Petersen joined the case to defend the laws after the state’s attorney general, Democrat Kris Mayes, declined to do so in full. The challengers then sought discovery from them, including to depose them about the legislature’s intent in passing the laws. Toma and Petersen argued that an order requiring them to appear for a deposition would violate the legislative privilege – that is, the idea that legislators are shielded from both criminal and civil liability, as well as being compelled to answer questions or produce documents, regarding anything that is an integral part of the legislative process.

The district rejected that argument, ruling that Toma and Petersen had waived their privilege when they opted to join the case, and both the district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held that the depositions could go forward.
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!

Also: There are three ways to not tell the truth: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by waitingtoconnect »

malchior wrote: Tue Nov 28, 2023 10:32 am More detail on above here

Essentially Ohio's Republicans drew up highly gerrymandered maps, they were struck down multiple times by the courts, but they just kept using illegal gerrymandered maps after the courts struck them down, the illegal maps led to representatives being elected that then endorsed the maps, the balance of the court shifted due to the illegal maps, and then the judges then blessed the effort. Fucking disgraceful.
In a drastic change from previous rulings, a partisan majority on the Ohio Supreme Court chose to leave Statehouse redistricting maps in place for 2024 and beyond, denying a challenge to the constitutionality of the newest maps.

In a 4-3 ruling released Monday evening, right-wing justices on the court pointed to the bipartisan support of the district maps adopted in September as one reason to dismiss challenges filed by the ACLU and anti-gerrymandering groups.

“The bipartisan adoption of the September 2023 plan is a changed circumstance that makes it appropriate to relinquish our continuing jurisdiction over these cases,” Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion, along with fellow justices Patrick Fischer, Patrick DeWine and Joseph Deters.

That bipartisan support “means that it is effective for the 2024-through-2030 election cycles,” the majority wrote.

All five of the previous Statehouse maps were rejected by the former bipartisan court majority when Republican Maureen O’Connor was chief justice, based on arguments by anti-gerrymandering groups that the maps were unduly partisan, favoring Republicans in a way that map challengers said did not match the election trends of the last 10 years.

Those same arguments were made when the groups sued to reverse the most recent map.

The lopsided partisan lean joined with a lack of bipartisan support for any of the maps, showing a divided and broken process throughout the last two years, according to the League of Women Voters, the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, and other groups who filed lawsuits against the maps.
I can’t see how democrats would support these maps? It defies belief. But the two committee members from the democrats redrawing the maps did just that.

Maybe we need proportional representation - so the % you get is the % of seats you get. That would solve the redistricting.
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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by malchior »

The Supreme Court has essentially nodded to a road map to entrench white nationalism in the south.

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Re: The Voting Rights Fight - Futility on the March!

Post by Carpet_pissr »

It’s a region-specific ruling?!
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