You Don't Have to Steal Elections If You Steal the Right to Vote

Republicans bend and break the law to violate or restrict voting rights

Aug. 27: Texas purges 1.1 million … Nebraska’s GOP coup … Black farmers get payout … Gabbard endorses Trump …

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Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), speaking in New York City on Sept. 27, 2023. (Screengrab / Fox video.)

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) announced yesterday that the state has removed 1.1 million people and former people from its voting rolls. (h/t)

The list allegedly includes:

• 6,000+ people with felony convictions

• 6,500+ non-citizens

• 19,000+ people who canceled their registration

• 65,000+ people who failed to respond to a notice of examination

• 134,000+ people who changed address

• 457,000+ people who used to be people but are now dead

• 463,000+ people who might still be entitled to vote.

That last category, the 463,000+ — almost half the list — is what Texas calls the suspense list, meaning the genius sleuths of the Abbott administration are in suspense about where you live because they can’t find your address. Which doesn’t mean you’re not still entitled to vote!

The same is true for virtually everyone on Abbott’s list of removed voters. Just like voters sometimes screw up and vote when they can’t or where they’re not supposed to, states screw up and remove people.

But the biggest issue isn’t whether all those numbers are right (they’re not). Yesterday’s process was part of an overarching, decades-long project to erect an elaborate bureaucratic process — bedecked in legal razor wire — around voting.

Not to “protect” the vote from the non-existent threat of wholesale fraudulent voting but to make it harder for legitimate voters to prove they’re legitimate. Which at least historically hits Democrats disproportionately.

And those alleged 6,500+ non-citizens? Abbott said 1,930 of those have records of voting, so they’re being referred to the state attorney general’s office for investigation. But here’s the thing, Texas has tried this Texan bullshit before, and fucked it up — first targeting people who had become citizens and then getting targeted by lawsuits.

How does Abbott know those 1,930 voted despite being non-citizens? Because they sent requests for documentation to those people and didn’t get a response in 30 days. That’s. It.

Those people might have been naturalized as U.S. citizens, and as U.S. citizens exercised their Jesus-bestowed right to ignore any and all mail from their government. Including Abbott’s “papers, please” requests. So now they’re under investigation by Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX).

Who, as your diligent TFN told you yesterday, is raiding the homes of elderly people trying to help each other vote. 

Abbott’s previous, fucked-up voter purge got blocked in court. And the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is going to challenge this one, too. For one thing, Abbott won’t release its data, so there’s no way to double-check his claims and determine just how badly his cronies put their Texan thumbs on the scale.

And, the ACLU points out, Abbott offers not even one single allegation of individual criminality. Just a ton of bureaucratic paperwork dominated by people who didn’t fill out forms.

“Any attempts to point to this data as evidence of criminal wrongdoing is part of a pattern of voter intimidation and suppression by the state of Texas and certain elected officials,” said ACLU of Texas attorney Ashley Harris.

So why do it in a state that Donald Trump is overwhelmingly favored to win? Well, for one thing, Trump’s not the only Republican on the ballot who needs Abbott’s protection from voters.

The most recent poll of the Senate race — from before last week’s Democratic National Convention — between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) is Allred’s best showing so far.

That poll, from earlier this month, gives Cruz just a two-point edge, 47% to Allred’s 45%. And that’s the only poll since Pres. Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

How much of a difference could Abbott’s vote-stealing make? The state has just over 17.5 million registered voters. Abbott just removed six percent of them.

Of course, this is part of a much vaster effort. As the Houston Chronicle reports, Paxton’s investigation inquiry probe bullshit voter-suppression tactics appear based at least in part on a “report” of voter fraud that aired on Fox and erred in reality — because a Republican county chairman quickly shot it down almost as soon as it crossed the border into Texas.

NEBRASKA Because the right to vote won’t steal itself, sometimes Republicans have to be pro-active. Even when, unlike Abbott, they have to commit a coup to do it.

Last month, a new Nebraska law was due¹ to take effect that would eliminate a two-year waiting period for felons to get their voting rights back upon completion of their sentence.

The law was passed by a Republican legislature and allowed to become law by Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE), who didn’t sign it but also didn’t veto it.

But less than two days before about 7,000 people were poised to get their right to vote back, Attorney General Mike Hilgers (R-NE) declared the new law unconstitutional. Now, here’s the thing about that…

Attorneys general can’t do that.

Hilgers’ legal argument rests on his claim that only the pardons board has the legal authority to blah blah blah bullshit bullshit bullshit.

While Hilgers was at it, wearing his precious ring of power, he also unilaterally/illegally overturned² the 2005 law that restored voting rights to felons with that two-year waiting period. In other words, tens of thousands of people who did their time decades ago and have been voting legally for years were stripped of their right to vote by … a guy.

The Nebraska Supreme Court is due to hear arguments tomorrow on the case, brought by voting-rights activists the real heroes.

But the outcome is already partially determined. Because even obviously bogus power grabs — doomed in court — succeed in muddying the waters, making Americans nervous and unsure about voting, reducing their turnout.

Pamela Pettes regained her voting rights in 2011. Pettes told Bolts Magazine:

“People are scared they’re going to get charged with something if they try to vote and can’t vote, so a lot of people will just wash their hands of it—are already washing their hands of it … They don’t want to go and vote unless they have a clear idea of what’s going on. They don’t have that.”

Which is why vote-suppressing Republicans don’t have to win these legal battles to win the voting war.

NORTH CAROLINA The elections board of North Carolina yesterday pushed back against Republican efforts to fuck with voters there.

The Republican National Committee and the state Republican committee sued the board, asking a court to force changes in the registration process. That’s because the state didn’t require 225,000 registering voters to supply driver’s license or Social Security info.

Which the state board says those voters will have to do when it’s time to actually vote.

But that’s not good enough for the Republicans, because you know what sticklers they are for the law. So, on Friday, they sued, asking the court to remove ineligible voters from the rolls and for the state to implement new registration processes…in the two weeks before the state starts sending out absentee ballots next Friday.

Elections board spokesperson Patrick Gannon said, “Despite being aware of their alleged claims months ago, the plaintiffs have waited until two weeks before the start of voting to seek a court-ordered program to remove thousands of existing registered voters.”

And, Gannon added, federal law prohibits election changes with fewer than 90 days until Election Day.

Gannon explained that some voter-roll discrepancies arise for innocuous reasons such as changing from maiden to married names. Meaning that Republicans might succeed in purging married women…and giving an edge at the polls to childless cat ladies.

Here’s Where to Check Your Voter Registration Status

Here. Or here.

Biden Gave $2.2 Billion to Non-White Farmers

Pres. Joe Biden announced the distribution of $2.2 billion to more than 23,000 Black and other non-white farmers. Payouts ranged from $10,000 to $500,000.

The reason for the payouts was that the U.S. Department of Agriculture for decades discriminated in favor of white farmers when it came to making loans.

Those lost — or more expensive — loans came at a cost. Some farmers lost their land. Others couldn’t afford to expand. Over the decades, the economic consequences of those missed opportunities rippled out. All told, it’s estimated that the cost to Black farmers during the 20th century amounted to $326 billion. That’s “billion” with a k k k.

Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), former Pres. Donald Trump’s running mate, called it “disgraceful” that the Black farmers got only about one half of one percent of their losses anything.

“The Harris Administration,” Vance said, “handed out farm benefits to people based on skin color.” Like a rich venture capitalist funded by other, richer white people, Vance added, “I think that's disgraceful. I don't think we should say, ‘you get farm benefits if you're a Black farmer, you don't get farm benefits if you're a white farmer.’"

In 2022, 36% of Black famers who applied for a USDA loan got one. Seventy-two percent of white farmers got one.

Black farmers owned 16 million acres of land in 1910, Salon notes. Today they make up just one percent of American farmers and own fewer than three million acres of land.

Trump’s Legion of Misfit Oys

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) yesterday added her name alongside Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s, in endorsing former Pres. Donald Trump for represident.

The Gabbard endorsement means that Trump will now likely get the backing of millions of voters who either supported Vice President Kamala Harris or were undecided and just lacked that one, missing piece of vital information: Knowing what Tulsi Gabbard thought they should do.

Gabbard gave reasons from her brain for the endorsement and also said some things with her mouth.

In 2020, Gabbard ran against Harris and Joe Biden, ultimately endorsing Biden. She then became an independent in 2022 and then started complaining about woke stuff and became a contributor to Fox, effectively rendering yesterday’s endorsement worthless.

That said, with both Gabbard and Kennedy on board, Trump is well on his way to completing his entire endorsement roster of political punchlines. Meanwhile, most of his actual cabinet members refuse to endorse him.

Four Quickies

• New York City has finally done the sane thing and implemented free mass transit. The New York Times reports that 48%, almost half, of the city’s bus passengers are getting their rides for free. How? By not paying! And drivers aren’t pressing the issue because fuck that shit. Some politicians see the obvious benefits of making it free, while others argue stupidly that the city needs the fare revenue and I say stupidly because they could get all that revenue and more by taking the bus to Wall Street and taxing some fuckers.

• One of Venezuela’s five election officials has gone public with evidence that President Nicolás Maduro stole last month’s election. For one thing, volunteer monitors for the opposition were banished from polling sites. Illegally. Opposition leaders, meanwhile, have gone into hiding and the international community has called on Maduro to release voting records, which he can’t do because that would reveal he cheated.

• More than 200 former Republican presidential staffers yesterday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Their open letter was first published by USA Today, which all of them still read. Hailing from the administrations of Presidents George W. and H.W. Bush, and the campaigns of wannabe presidents Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Mitt Romney (R-UT), the Republican staffers warned that Donald Trump will be a disaster as president, much as they warned the same about Trump in 2020 and previously warned about Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, and Barack Obama.

• Lowe’s is swapping out its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies in favor of Homogeneity, Inequity, and Exclusion policies, the Washington Post reports. The company has a long history of backing right-wing causes. In this case, the home-building chain is falling like freestanding drywall to right-wing pressure. 

TCB

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Go get ‘em, kids.

1. Foreshadowing!

2. Again, can’t do that.