Here come the bonkers state laws - pay attention

Want more knowledge and ways to help at the State level?

sisterdistrict.com/strategy/

mollycoddle posted this on the #walkaway thread.

These and MORE bonkers laws to keep PEOPLE away from the BALLOT are coming to a state near you.



PAY ATTENTION.

Call, write, email, protest, donate, volunteer - as best as you can.

After Record 2020 Turnout, State Republicans Weigh Making It Harder To Vote

"After an election that saw record voter turnout, with many of those voters casting their ballots early and by mail, some Republican state lawmakers are proposing a wave of new voting laws that would effectively make it more difficult to vote in future elections.

The proposals come in the aftermath of the unprecedented onslaught of disinformation about the conduct of the 2020 election by former President Donald Trump and some of his allies in the Republican Party.

"Some folks bring these proposals forward and say, 'Well, we just need to address confidence in our election systems,' when it's some of those very same people, or at least their allies and enablers, [who] have denigrated our election system by either telling lies or at least leveraging or relying on other people's lies to justify some of these policies," said Steve Simon, Minnesota's Democratic secretary of state, at a news conference organized last week by the Voter Protection Program.

A recent analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found that 106 bills have been filed by Republican lawmakers in 28 states that would restrict voting (the group also found 406 bills in 35 states that would expand voting access). Many of the bills would limit voting by mail, add new voter ID requirements, make it more difficult to register voters and give states greater leeway to purge voter files if voters don't consistently cast ballots in every election."

www.npr.org/2021/02/07/964598941/after-record-2020-turnout-state-republicans-weigh-making-it-harder-to-vote

same source: "In Pennsylvania, another state where Republicans spread baseless claims of fraud in an attempt to overturn Biden’s victory, legislative Republicans have introduced 14 bills to make it harder to vote, among the most in the country. Like in Georgia, they want to repeal no-excuse absentee voting, which all but two Republicans voted for in 2018. The main sponsor is GOP Senator Doug Mastriano, who attended the Capitol Hill rally on January 6 that incited the violent mob at the US Capitol. Republicans also want to reject mail-in ballots that don’t arrive by Election Day, throw out ballots for minor signature errors, and eliminate a list of voters who automatically receive mail-in ballots.

They are also fast-tracking a constitutional amendment that would gerrymander the state courts—so that judges are elected from districts drawn by the legislature instead of through statewide races, giving Republicans far more control over them—after the state supreme court overturned gerrymandered congressional maps drawn by the legislature and blocked Republican attempts to undermine ballot access before the November election. Democratic Governor Tom Wolf, who cannot run for reelection in 2022 because of term limits, can block restrictive voting laws but the attempt to gerrymander the courts will likely go before voters during May primary elections.

A third of restrictions on voting this year target mail-in voting, according to the Brennan Center, but many go well beyond that. Republicans in New Hampshire and Montana have introduced legislation to repeal Election Day registration, which increases voter turnout by as much as 10 percent. Republicans in Alaska, like in Georgia, want to eliminate automatic voter registration, which was approved by 65 percent of voters in 2016. Republicans in Wisconsin, Arizona, and Mississippi have introduced bills to allocate electoral votes based on congressional districts instead of the popular vote winner of the state, which would’ve reduced Biden’s Electoral College margin by 11 votes.

Democrats will be largely powerless to block many of these laws through the legislative process in states like Georgia, Arizona, and New Hampshire that Republicans control. But with Democrats in charge of Congress and the White House, the party can pass federal measures like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and sweeping pro-democracy reforms that could stop GOP voter suppression efforts."

If you care - VOTE IN LOCAL and STATE ELECTIONS!

And call Congress about enacting FEDERAL VOTING RIGHTS LEGISLATION.

Georgia needs to vote these neanderthals out.

Arizona Republican lawmakers join GOP efforts to target voting, with nearly two dozen restrictive voting measures

A handful of the bills -- including two that would impose new restrictions on Arizona's popular vote-by-mail system and one that would limit its narrow voting window -- have gained momentum and could pass.

They are part of a push by Republican-controlled legislatures in several states to advocate for strict new voting laws in response to Trump's false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. There are more than 250 bills in circulation nationwide, according to the most recent tally by the Brennan Center, an unprecedented nationwide effort to roll back voter access. The list of states includes Georgia and Texas, two other states with increasingly diverse electorates where Democrats have made recent gains, and Iowa, where Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a new law that makes it harder to vote early.

Nearly two dozen bills that would restrict voting were introduced in Arizona this year, and several have advanced in recent weeks.

The latest came Wednesday, when a state House committee approved a bill that would turn the state's permanent early voting list into one that drops those who skip consecutive election cycles. The list, created with bipartisan support in 2007, now features 3.2 million people who use it to receive their ballots by mail for each election and has helped spur a shift that resulted in about 80% of the state's votes being cast by mail.

And on Monday, the state Senate approved a bill that would require voters to submit identification paperwork with their mailed-in ballots. Instead of the state's current system of matching signatures on ballot envelopes with voters' signatures on file, those voting by mail would need to provide affidavits with their date of birth and driver's license, state ID or tribal ID card number -- or would need to include their voter registration number and a copy of a utility bill. The same forms of identification are already required for in-person votes in Arizona. That bill hasn't yet been scheduled for a House committee vote.

The Senate could also vote soon on a bill that would narrow Arizona's early voting window, starting it five days later and ending it early by requiring ballots to be postmarked by the Thursday before Election Day. Under current law, ballots just have to arrive at the post office on Election Day. "

www.cnn.com/2021/03/11/politics/arizona-republicans-voter-suppression-bills/index.html

When you can't win on issues, win on changing the rules of voting to make it harder for people to vote.