Leaving this here (I think we have some other voting machine items in this thread). Note that in this case, “file-sharing” means that FTP was open, in some cases with no password required.
It’s a pretty sad commentary on the state of knowledge about the voting process that Facebook and Twitter are the sources people go to. But I give them credit for at least trying to make the info correct.
I’d give them more credit if they banned people who spread that sort of thing. I mean who cares if the person thinks it is funny or is making an innocent mistake, none of which I believe. Ban them for the duration of the election, at least.
In the short run, you might well be correct. If the Right makes it much harder for their opponents to vote, then responses like this will probably just mitigate the effect to some extent, and the Right will still benefit from their abusive practices, albeit somewhat less.
But in the longer run, this works. One of our main problems is to convince people they ought to vote. And nothing motivates people more than realizing that major powers do not want them to vote. Given conservative gains in the courts, this is of overwhelming importance. We have done reasonably well, to this point, staving off the worst of the voter suppression stuff, but right wing partisan judges are being appointed to overcome that. We need a strategy beyond court orders, and I think that is going to have to be intense publicity about efforts to stifle voting and efforts to help people overcome that.
Ad that will air during the Super Bowl in all Georgia markets.
Thought about older census threads and the gerrymandering thread, but I have no idea what the net effect of this will be:
Per the click through, it’s not just CA at risk, it’s nationwide.
My gut tells me that red states and counties won’t be nearly as hard hit by these cuts.
If you do the click through, it kind of seems like the cuts are balanced:
Philly, Atlanta and Denver cover most of the red states, it appears:
If the demographics are moving towards progressive positions, than even “balanced” removal of census takers may prevent conservatives from losing their advantages.
Another sign that we don’t have too much more time before our frogs are boiled. 2020 will be so important.
Yup, and both the media and Republican operatives will do everything they can to inflame differences between the Democratic wings. Whether the presidential nominee is “too progressive” or “too conservative/moderate/corporate” it will be strongly suggested that Dem voters really ought to stay home to express their dissatisfaction.
Those who fall for such crap will be helping to boil those frogs.
Going after voter suppression at the State level?
I was thinking the other day that some Democrat needs to propose a national database of all citizens. Everyone in it is by definition registered to vote (unless the opposite is so indicated) and states are required to use it for all Federal elections. Use the database to issue national voter identification cards. Current databases (social security, naturalization, passport, all state driver’s licenses, etc) can be used to populate the database and adding yourself to it is a one-time trivial exercise. New citizens are registered at birth, or at the time they become naturalized for immigrants. Maintaining the database (e.g. address changes) can be done online. Merge the whole thing with social security, etc. Use it for passport applications, so getting a passport is trivial — all of the data is right there.
Republicans get what they want, a comprehensive voter ID system that insures only citizens can vote. Democrats get what they want, effectively universal voter registration.
The problem is Republicans are not getting what they want, which is minorities not getting registered and not voting. They would certainly find some way to oppose this, probably citing that the Federal government has no right to interfere at the state level in voter registration, etc.
Yes, you’re right. I was thinking of it as a way to expose their hypocrisy— they don’t want the solution, they just want to suppress voting — but of course they can’t be shamed by their hypocrisy so it’s probably pointless.
Plus the Bible-Thumpers will start screaming “666” at you.
Yep. The Rs oppose even holding hearings for a SCOTUS vacancy during Obama’s last year but McConnell has already said if the same situation comes up during Trump’s last year they would hold hearings. They can be quite naked about their hypocrisy.
imho, this points at an important facet of our current partisan fight that my fellow liberals generally fail to wrap their minds around.
Political struggle is not a game scored according to correctness, not moral correctness nor factual correctness. Saying that the other side is hypocritical is roughly the same as saying the other football team used a misdirection play… Yes, true, but so what? What are we going to do about it?
In the end, it always comes down to winning elections, and not just the marquee ones. You get your way by having your people in local, state, and federal offices and courthouses, and that involves great energy when it comes to procedures and tactics – which are generally amoral in the same sense that a football team’s game plan is amoral.
When we fight the Republicans, we are fighting a perennial force that always exists in a representational government system, the group that represents the elites in their effort to avoid the majority using government to distribute the benefits of society equally. And given their numerical disadvantage, tactics is always their lifeblood. If they fail to massively turn have-not groups against each other, they fail utterly.
And if they succeed in turning have-not groups against each other, we fail. Which is why I go nuts over so many of my fellow liberals’ predilection for going out of their way to emphasize the moral failures of certain groups of have-nots. Because it is really tough to win local and state elections when you are telling a huge chunk of their electorate that they are morally and intellectually inferior.
Great post, FF.