If Texas ever decides to get smart, the United States would be a much better place. But given the killing of innocent Texans in the name of justice and efforts to prevent more of it citizens from voting, it looks like we’ve still got a long way to go. It will take more than Texas and the retirement of Ted Cruz and Rick Perry, I know. and their ilk in a whole bunch of backwards states that seek to disenfranchise the unlikely-to-vote-Republican.
How much of the modern Republican Party is based on solving problems that don’t exist and ignoring problems that do? Voter fraud based on the use of false ID’s is virtually, if not completely, non-existent. Global warming denial, the creation of corporate propaganda, is the 21st century equivalent of Holocaust denial, yet it persists. Think Progress reports that elected officials in Texas are finding themselves on the brink of disenfranchisement due to the new Texas Voter ID law just as global warming is leading to repeated and prolonged droughts across the state.
As early voting begins in Texas, the state’s new, strict voter ID law has thus far flagged a judge, gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, and another state senator as potentially illegitimate voters. Attorney General Greg Abbott (R), voter ID’s most strident defender, was also flagged as a suspicious voter under his own law’s strict criteria.
Abbott was flagged because his license lists his name as “Gregory Wayne Abbott” while his voter registration record simply calls him “Greg Abbott.”
Longtime voters, particularly married women who have taken a spouse’s name, are being stopped at the polls because their names on their drivers’ licenses differ from their voter registration forms. Thanks to an amendment added by Wendy Davis, voters who clearly have “substantially similar” names can still cast a regular ballot by signing an affidavit affirming their identity. If the law had gone through unmodified as Abbott originally supported, he would have disenfranchised himself.
Though Davis’ amendment will allow many legitimate voters to vote, the process to determine “substantial similarity” and organize affidavit-signing will inevitably clog up Texas electoral processes with unnecessary confusion. Come November 5, Texas’ polling places may resemble Florida’s in 2012, where Republicans’ election law changes created marathon lines and pollworker confusion.
In addition to Texas, six of the largest battleground states (FL, OH, NC, WI, PA, MI) are now under total Republican control. These states have 108 electoral votes. To put that in perspective, Obama won the 2012 election by 62 electoral votes. These states will determine the winner of the 2016 presidential election. These states have been enacting changes in voting laws, such as photo ID, less early voting, less Sunday voting, no same-day voter registration, voter purges, obstacles to registration drives, limits on student voting, limits on female voting, etc.
The electoral map does not look friendly for Democrats in 2016.
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That result is 62 over what he needed, which is different from winning by 62. He won by 126.
I take your general point though, we won’t see that margin again.
I had the electoral votes right. There are a total of 538 electoral votes. It takes 270 to win. In 2012, Obama won with 332 electoral votes, which is 62 more than the minimum necessary to win.
however, to these actions. The GOP, now the party of old white people, has been strengthening the coming majority of non-whites. Until the GOP splits or ceases to care about its wingnuts, the business community will increasingly support Democrats. Every election is a choice. If Ted Cruz or Rick Perry is the GOP nominee, my money is on another President Clinton in 2016. Here’s Ruy Texeira:
We still have a long way to go, but I’m not pessimistic about 2016.
Remember the election of 2008? It was a great election. Obama won. We had both the Senate and the House. And, people were saying that Bush and the economy had destroyed the GOP brand. But, they came back pretty strong in 2010.
I think that there are plenty of reasons to be worried about 2016. By then, the shutdown will be a distant memory. I wonder if it will have any impact a year from now.
…my money is on the Dem candidate for WI, PA, and MI with OH and FL strong maybes.
is that it makes crystal clear to anyone with a modicum of sense how deeply misguided the Supreme Court’s decision on the Voting Rights Act was, and how important it is that some sort of meaningful substitute, either legislative or judicial, be put in place.
is why I oppose the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Texas isn’t in danger of throwing it’s EVs toward a Democratic POTUS, or SOTUS candidate anytime soon. That limits the effect of their voter-tampering to the House and state politics. Sure, I don’t like that either, but at least we know before the election exactly what impact that will have on Texas’ electoral votes — none, because even without that nonsense Texas is a few election cycles before being competitive for a Democratic POTUS candidate.
“Denial” misses the intentionality of this garbage.
These are more than denial, they are outright lies and disinformation. This is a mob that uses a bought-and-paid for media to spread intentionally misleading misinformation. Climate change exemplifies this, as do the lies about the economy and the many lies about health care.
The long-running GOP war on women and minorities continues unabated.
So let me understand this, the Texas voter ID requirement ran into some glitches, so according you, it must be halted, stopped, dismantled. However, Obamacare has stumbled out of the gate, likely thrown more women off their existing health insurance policies than its signed up, yet, everyone here seems to want to fix it rather than delay it. So I ask those who support Mark, why not fix the voter ID system, so we have “fair” election results. Don’t we all want fair elections?
I’m sure Texas ain’t perfect, but I must say, we here in Massachusetts could learn a thing or two from Texans. I for one, wish we had a death penalty for Jared Remy and his ilk. I admire Texas for creating something like 40% of all new jobs in the U.S. for the past 10 years. I love the Texas guns laws, just compare the death by murder rate in Houston to Baltimore, NYC, or Chicago, where they have “cracked down” on guns.
Texas has attracted businesses like Facebook, Apple, and Toyota to move there. Forbes Magazine lists 7 of the top 10 cities to do business in are in Texas. While Massachusetts ranks highest in the country in debt per capita, Texas is near the lowest.
Gov. Perry does have a different philosophy, he believes you measure compassion in the number of jobs government can create, not the number of people on government assistance.
like this one generally do not deserve a response beyond silent amusement.
Sorry to be a bit non-pertinent, but I think while we discuss voting rights – this could be a good time to reflect on where we are in Massachusetts. NC’s recently enacted law, for instance, was designed to curtail some of their more positive past reforms like early voting and same day registration. Other than the voter ID provision, NC’s new law is still better than what we currently have in Massachusetts.
The state of election laws and administration in MA deserves an entire post – which I think we will get to pretty soon here at PM, but suffice to say, we shouldn’t lob just criticism and other states, while overlooking the fact that here in MA we have some of the most outdated election laws in the country.
*at* not and in line 6. Hey editors, thanks for the preview function, now I just have to remember to use it!
are not a problem in a state that is trying to minimize voting. All the confusion at the polls will discourage legitimate voters from waiting to cast their votes, a side benefit in many eyes.
I note that this clear de facto disenfranchisement comes to us courtesy of the Massachusetts DEMOCRATIC Party, not the crazy guys on the other side.
Too many of our “Democrats” declare themselves such for sheer expediency. The resistance to updating our election laws comes from the same right-wing wellspring that drives the GOP in too many parts of the country.
It also demonstrates that the GOP has no lock on denial. One look at the refusal of our “Democratic” legislature to act responsibly on taxes — even as our infrastructure rusts, rots, and crumbles around us — confirms that delusional passion informed by sheer ignorance is rampant in the culture around us (and fed daily by entities like Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Howie Karr). Nationally, the GOP and Tea Party feeds on and panders to this cultural disease.
Locally, far too many in our “Democratic” legislature are all to happy to do the same — the current speaker being comfortably positioned at the top of that list.