#Election Boards

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Khaya Himmelman at TPM:

Ahead of the upcoming election, Donald Trump’s allies are advancing a more organized, more calculated version of their misinformation strategy from 2020.  Like in 2020, these allies are attempting to delegitimize the election before it’s even happened. But unlike last time, their strategy is emerging early, a contrast from the throw-everything-at-the-wall approach in 2020 that rolled attacks on mail-in voting together with conspiracy theories about Italian satellites flipping votes and a Venezuelan strongman’s actions beyond the grave.  They’ve settled on a line of attack — non-citizens are voting for Democrats en masse — and, though these claims are false and easily debunked, there is striking unity across Republican politics: Friendly secretaries of state and governors have blasted out press releases touting their efforts to root out non-citizens who have ended up on voter rolls in violation of the law. Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress have attempted to attach a proof-of-citizenship-to-vote bill to government funding efforts. 

And the ecosystem of Republican-aligned think tanks has increasingly gotten in on the action. For example, the Heritage Foundation, released a video earlier this summer that quickly went viral, touting supposedly “staggering” evidence that would prove that close to 50,000 non-citizens are registered to vote in Georgia. The video is the work of a new initiative at the Foundation, called the Oversight Project, which, the New York Times reports, plans to release other, similar videos created using the tactics popularized by the now-defunct Project Veritas.

And although the video, as the Times reported, is full of false claims and has been easily debunked, it’s representative of a trend ahead of November: an organized effort, this time stemming from deep within the Republican Party’s infrastructure, to release false and misleading claims about the election of the sort Trump seized on in 2020 to declare his loss illegitimate.  “There are people that want to succeed where they failed last time,” David Levine, an election integrity consultant and former elections administrator, told TPM. “And I think one of the things about 2020 was that the effort to cast doubt on the election and to subvert it was in some respects ham-handed, disorganized and last minute.”

Since 2020, a significant number of election deniers have made their way into positions of power. Almost a third of sitting members of Congress have engaged in some form of election denialism, according to a tally from the democracy-focused advocacy group States United. Many of the congressional Republicans who opposed Trump’s 2020 efforts have been driven from Congress. In battleground states, election deniers have in some cases secured positions overseeing how elections are run. In Georgia, for example, the majority of the State Election Board are Trump-supporting election deniers. It all gives Trump more levers to pull as he and his allies push conspiracy theories that non-citizens are voting en masse for Democrats.

In reality, non-citizen voting is exceedingly rare, and is almost always accidental. It is illegal in federal elections, and the penalties are steep. Mike Hassinger, spokesperson for the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office told TPM in an interview that the Heritage claims were a “fabrication” and a “lie.” “Anybody who works in elections knows that you verify the identity, you verify the citizenship,” Hassinger said. “In Georgia, it’s a felony to register if you’re a non-citizen, it’s a felony to vote if you’re falsely registered as a non-citizen. This seems to be one of the many conspiratorial narratives that excite the small-dollar donor base, and that seems to be what Heritage is doing.”

[...] True the Vote, the right-wing group that pushed notorious conspiracy theories about ballot stuffing during the 2020 election, has similarly been consistently amplifying videos on X of what it claims is non-citizen voting. As recently as Monday, True the Vote shared a viral video on X about non-citizens voting, saying in a quote tweet that “states hope that their admissions of finding and removing ‘x hundreds’ of noncitizens will be enough to convince you there is no problem.”  “This is a con,” the caption continues. “Do not fall for it. NO STATE IN THE UNION HAS ACCESS TO THE DATA THEY NEED TO RECONCILE VOTER ROLLS FOR CITIZENSHIP.” True The Vote was early to the baseless claims of non-citizen voting: it provided much of the debunked video footage of alleged “ballot harvesters” that formed the basis of the film “2,000 mules,” released in the aftermath of the 2020 election. The group also released a 44-page “advocate handbook” warning about the threat of non-citizen voting. 

Talking Points Memo (TPM) has an insightful article on how nearly everyone in the GOP is on the same page to help delegitimize the acceptance of the 2024 election results if Kamala Harris wins.

[gwydionmisha]

I don't understand why a rule pushed through at the last minute by a partisan board can over rule state election law.

[fly-chicken]

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[equusspirit]

Excuse Me, But Who Made You God?

[batboyblog]

There are over 17,000 school board seats up for election this November

Over the last few years Republicans have used local school boards to ban books, stop the teaching of sex ed, the teaching of black history, and to ban any mention of LGBT people in schools. It is amazingly easy to reach out to local school board candidates and ask them, directly, about their views on subjects, I've done it and always gotten an answer. So find out who's running in your community and what they believe, pay attention, don't just fill out the top of your ballot and call it good, vote all the way down, and if you can't find out, ask directly.

[potofsoup]

Guess who's excited to get their ballot in the mail tomorrow? Me! So I slapped together a quick comic, as well as a map based off of this and this. A list of when same day registration is available is at the bottom of this article.

But also: wow, early voting stuff is so confusing! For example, I get my ballot in the mail tomorrow, and I can immediately mail it back. But if I want to drop it off in person, I need to either go to a special ballot drop box by city hall, or wait for early in-person voting sites to open, which isn't until Oct 22nd for my state.

Or like, early voting in Louisiana is apparently from Oct 16 to Oct 29th? And then there's a week of no voting, and then polls open again on Nov 5th? Or like how the only day you can register and then immediately vote is Oct 26th?

Anyway, best way to figure out the info for your area is to check your state and county's election website. I've found usvotefoundation.org to have clear fact sheets for each state (including ID requirements, polling location finders, as well as direct links to state election websites): https://www.usvotefoundation.org/state-voter-information . You can also jump to each state's election websites via usa.gov, or by searching directly, though some websites are more confusing than others.

Happy voting!

Oh, and here's the voter registration deadlines map from last time, in case you haven't registered and want to register. Oct 7th is the last day for a bunch of states!

[transformativeworks]

The OTW is pleased to announce candidates for the 2025 Election. Read more at: https://otw-news.org/5n75a8m6

[ceilidhtransing]

If you hear Republicans speak to other Republicans, you'll hear a lot of them say that they really don't like Trump for whatever reason (many of them aren't fans of the felony convictions, his personal manner, his business dealings, his family life, or whatever else) but that they'll still be voting for him because he'll get them closer to what they ultimately want. They're pragmatic; they don't demand purity in their candidate. They recognise him as their strategic choice so they'll set aside the issues they have with him and vote as a bloc. That's what makes them effective at getting their way. That's how they win elections.

And boy I wish we had more of that attitude on the left. Imagine what we could get done.

[political-us]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sam Levine at The Guardian:

North Carolina Republicans are on the verge of pushing through a bill that would give them more power over elections in the state. The changes were tucked into a bill dealing with Hurricane Helene relief aid at the last minute and passed by the state house of representatives on Tuesday, hours after it was made public. The bill would strip the governor of the power to appoint members of the state board of elections, charged with overseeing voting in the state, and instead give that power to the state auditor. A Republican won control of the state auditor race this fall for the first time in more than a decade.

It also would give voters less time to request a mail-in ballot and to cure any issues with them once they are cast. North Carolinians currently have more than a week to fix any issues – like providing voter ID or proof of residence. The bill would shorten that period to two and a half days. “The bill is moving now because the people in control of the legislature don’t like the results of the recent election in North Carolina,” said Liz Barber, policy director of the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s just a shameful power grab.” The measure is expected to clear the GOP-controlled senate on Wednesday, and would then go to the governor, Roy Cooper, a Democrat who is expected to veto the measure. Republicans currently have a supermajority to override a gubernatorial veto, though it is unclear whether they will be able to in this case.

[...] Republicans are advancing the bill after losing the gubernatorial election and being poised to lose a supermajority in the state legislature. The move also comes amid a recount in an extremely close state supreme court race; Democrat Allison Riggs narrowly leads Republican Jefferson Griffin by just more than 600 votes. Riggs had trailed by 10,000 votes on election night but overtook Griffin as counties tallied provisional ballots and mail-in ballots that arrived on election day.

[...] The latest bill would also give Republicans more control over local election boards in the state’s 100 counties. Currently, the state board appoints four members of each local board and the governor picks the chair. The new law would have the auditor-picked state board select local members and then have the auditor pick the local chairs. The bill would also curb some of the powers of the incoming attorney general, Jeff Jackson, also a Democrat. It prohibits the attorney general from taking any position “that is contrary to or inconsistent with the position of the General Assembly” and prohibits him from participating in any litigation outside the state that could invalidate any North Carolina statute. In 2016, when Cooper was elected governor, Republicans also used a lame-duck special session to curb his powers.

Republicans doing what they do best: rig and change the election rules.

[gwydionmisha]

This is the end of free and fair elections and intended to end democracy.

[saywhat-politics]

Republican Jefferson Griffin conceded after a monthslong legal battle. But Democrats suffered a defeat that may be more consequential: losing control of the state board that sets voting rules and adjudicates election disputes.

Last week, North Carolina Democrats scored a victory when Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin, who’d lost a tight race for the state’s Supreme Court, finally conceded defeat after a six-month legal battle to throw out ballots that he contended were illegitimate.

But that same morning, the party suffered a setback that may be more consequential: losing control of the state board that sets voting rules and adjudicates election disputes.

The board oversees virtually every aspect of state elections, large and small, from setting rules dictating what makes ballots valid or invalid to monitoring compliance with campaign finance laws. In the Supreme Court race, it consistently worked to block Griffin’s challenges.

[contemplatingoutlander]

That the Editorial Board of the premier U.S. newspaper of record is finally warning about Donald Trump is significant. As such, this is a gift 🎁 link so that those who want to read the entire editorial can do so, even if they don't subscribe to The New York Times. Below are some excerpts:

As president, [Trump] wielded power carelessly and often cruelly and put his ego and his personal needs above the interests of his country. Now, as he campaigns again, his worst impulses remain as strong as ever — encouraging violence and lawlessness, exploiting fear and hate for political gain, undermining the rule of law and the Constitution, applauding dictators — and are escalating as he tries to regain power. He plots retribution, intent on eluding the institutional, legal and bureaucratic restraints that put limits on him in his first term. Our purpose at the start of the new year, therefore, is to sound a warning. Mr. Trump does not offer voters anything resembling a normal option of Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, big government or small. He confronts America with a far more fateful choice: between the continuance of the United States as a nation dedicated to “the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” and a man who has proudly shown open disdain for the law and the protections and ideals of the Constitution. [...] It is instructive in the aftermath of that administration to listen to the judgments of some of these officials on the president they served. John Kelly, a chief of staff to Mr. Trump, called him the “most flawed person I’ve ever met,” someone who could not understand why Americans admired those who sacrificed their lives in combat. Bill Barr, who served as attorney general, and Mark Esper, a former defense secretary, both said Mr. Trump repeatedly put his own interests over those of the country. Even the most loyal and conservative of them all, Vice President Mike Pence, who made the stand that helped provoke Mr. Trump and his followers to insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, saw through the man: “On that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution,” he said.

[See more under the cut.]

There will not be people like these in the White House should Mr. Trump be re-elected. The former president has no interest in being restrained, and he has surrounded himself with people who want to institutionalize the MAGA doctrine. According to reporting by the Times reporters Maggie Haberman, Charlie Savage and Jonathan Swan, Mr. Trump and his ideological allies have been planning for a second Trump term for many months already. Under the name Project 2025, one coalition of right-wing organizations has produced a thick handbook and recruited thousands of potential appointees in preparation for an all-out assault on the structures of American government and the democratic institutions that acted as checks on Mr. Trump’s power. [...] Mr. Trump has made clear his conviction that only “losers” accept legal, institutional or even constitutional constraints. He has promised vengeance against his political opponents, whom he has called “vermin” and threatened with execution. This is particularly disturbing at a time of heightened concern about political violence, with threats increasing against elected officials of both parties. He has repeatedly demonstrated a deep disdain for the First Amendment and the basic principles of democracy, chief among them the right to freely express peaceful dissent from those in power without fear of retaliation, and he has made no secret of his readiness to expand the powers of the presidency, including the deployment of the military and the Justice Department, to have his way. [...] Re-electing Mr. Trump would present serious dangers to our Republic and to the world. This is a time not to sit out but instead to re-engage. We appeal to Americans to set aside their political differences, grievances and party affiliations and to contemplate — as families, as parishes, as councils and clubs and as individuals — the real magnitude of the choice they will make in November.

I encourage people to use the above gift link and read the entire article.

[edited]

[mywitchcultblr]

A republican politician trying to get into AO3 board beware!! Don't let her get into the OTW board!

Yeah no thank you, conservatives have been stripping away women rights and LGBTQIA+ rights around the world and now this? Can't we have one nice thing in life? Also her takes with the racism is just 😑🤦‍♀️

This kind of a candidate will be like "well we are concerned about how media affect teens, oh noooo there's 'abusive' stories" next thing you know NSFW and queer fanfic/media will be banned

[transformativeworks]

2025 OTW Election Timeline & Membership Deadline

The timeline for the 2025 elections for the OTW Board of Directors has been posted! Learn more at: otw-news.org/mrz89hbj

[itgetsbetter]

Just a PSA: you do NOT need to be old enough to vote, eligible to vote, nor registered to vote to attend and speak up at your local School Board or City Council meetings!

The media usually focuses on the "big elections" but your school board and city council are often the ones making the big decisions that affect your daily life on a smaller, day to day basis (bathroom policies in schools, anyone?).

The good news is that anyone can speak up at these meetings - grab some friends and stand up for LGBTQ+ youth-supporting policies.

Courtesy of __lawyerbae on our TikTok.