Voter Suppression/Election Integrity

[Howl]

I've been thinking about starting this thread for awhile, to aggregate all examples of the following at the local, state, and Federal levels heading toward the 2020 elections: 

• voter suppression
• indifference to protecting election integrity
• indifference to election cyber security
• blatant gerrymandering 
• continued Russian interference/hacking
• indifference to continued Russian interference/hacking

Y'all may have been following Texas' latest foray into voter suppression when Gov. Greg Abbott's nominee for Texas Secretary of State attempted to prove his fitness for office ahead of his confirmation vote this past week by releasing a wildly inaccurate list of 95,000 names of people who may have voted illegally since 1995.  Most of these were the names of naturalized citizens who were perfectly legal voters.  If one were a naturalized citizen whose name was on the list, you had a brief 30-day window to prove you are a legal US citizen, to maintain voter eligibility. 

Blatant, right?  I can promise you that this scared the crap out of so many Hispanic Texans, as it was intended to do.  You may also recall a 2018 incident from the Rio Grande Valley where a midwife admitted to forging a birth certificate for a baby actually born on the Mexican side of the border.  A decision was made to revoke the citizenship of other babies born in the US to long-time residents who were delivered by this midwife.  Again, that sends a clear and terrifying message to Hispanics, as it was intended to do. 

Then this popped up on Twitter this morning.  In response to Betsy Woodruff's tweet below, a Tweeter quoted Sarah Kendzior: “These are the actions of a party that expects to never need to win a fair election again” 

This is the Department of Homeland F**king Security.  

 

[gustava]

We no longer have a functioning government.

[Howl]

Gah! Mods, can you move this thread to the Politics section?  I incorrectly posted it in Snark forum!  Now I know why it didn't show up there! 

[Elegant Mess]

OMG, the gerrymandering! I live in an apartment complex with 16 buildings.  I will soon be moving to another building in my complex.  My polling location is going to change as a result!

I mentioned to the new property manager the other day that not all buildings in the complex vote at the same location.  He was stunned to learn this.

[Katzchen24]

6 hours ago, Elegant Mess said:

OMG, the gerrymandering! I live in an apartment complex with 16 buildings.  I will soon be moving to another building in my complex.  My polling location is going to change as a result!

 

I'm asking from a place of ignorance here. Does this mean that if you live in a particular area, you *must* vote at a particular location? What happens if you're unavoidably somewhere else? I regularly postal vote so that I don't have to deal with assholes trying to shove "how-to-vote" pamphlets down my throat. Voting outside my electorate is also no problems.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

12 hours ago, Howl said:

Gah! Mods, can you move this thread to the Politics section?  I incorrectly posted it in Snark forum!  Now I know why it didn't show up there! 

For future reference, please flag the post or tag some mods otherwise it may take some time before we notice. Thank you! ?

[Elegant Mess]

4 hours ago, Katzchen24 said:

I'm asking from a place of ignorance here. Does this mean that if you live in a particular area, you *must* vote at a particular location? What happens if you're unavoidably somewhere else?

You can request an absentee ballot for voting by mail in advance, but there are rules that vary by state regarding who is eligible to do so - some states are more restrictive than others.  Otherwise, at least where I live, if you physically go to the polls on an Election Day, you must report to your assigned polling station.

[Howl]

Each state has it's own set of arcane rules.  In my state (Texas), one can vote at any polling place during early voting.  On voting day, I'd have to go to my "assigned" polling place.

So far, I've early voted in the foyer of a Chinese supermarket, two churches, the foyer of a disability advocacy center, and on the campus of a state university. 

7 hours ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

For future reference, please flag the post or tag some mods otherwise it may take some time before we notice. Thank you! ?

I looked all over fj for a list of mods, and couldn't find one. 

Edited February 17, 2019 by Howl

[laPapessaGiovanna]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

I looked all over fj for a list of mods, and couldn't find one. 

Imho in such occasions the best thing is to flag the post so the first mod around will see it. Anyway, if you click on the drop down menu you'll find this

Click on guidelines

Then click on staff

And you'll go here

[Howl]

Thanks, @laPapessaGiovanna! Will do. 

Found this posted at EmptyWheel.com

DAN COATS STILL REFUSING TO PROVIDE THE EVIDENCE THAT RUSSIA DIDN’T AFFECT THE ELECTION

(Dan Coats is the Director of National Intelligence, a lifelong Republican and a former US senator from Indiana.) 

Anyway, DoJ claimed two 45-day windows to get their report on possible election interference together and reviewed and missed their own deadline by one day. 

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is getting pissed that ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) is not giving them the classified report; they need it for their work. 

EmptyWheel says: 

Quote

DOJ missed its 45 day plus 45 day deadline of reporting whether any election tampering had had an effect. But just by one day. The day after their deadline, the Big Dick Toilet Salesman Matt Whitaker and serial liar Kirstjen Nielsen gave Trump a report claiming that any tampering had not had any impact on the election.

But then, ooopsie, the very next day U.S. cyber force credited with helping stop Russia from undermining midterms, meaning that CyberComm was able to thwart Russians from active interference. 

EmptyWheel's point is that ODNI is deliberately withholding the report: 

Quote

They’re clearly hiding something. The question is whether it’s that Trump didn’t try to prevent tampering, or that some of the efforts — included the known effort to hack Claire McCaskill — actually did have an effect.

Scroll down for the Comments section. It's worth a read. 

[fraurosena]

Real voter fraud. By a Republican. Of course.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 so he lied under oath?

[47of74]

I honestly think voter suppression and electoral fraud should be placed into the constitution as the very worst crimes one can commit in this country, even worse than treason.  And mandate punishment by death for both.  I'm generally against the death penalty but I think the only way to protect the integrity of elections is to make it clear that our government will impose the ultimate penalty on those caught suppressing voters or tampering with elections.  They may not seem like it but they are violent crimes that can do so much damage to not only our own country but the entire planet if some crazy fuck gets in due to either.

[Howl]

@47of74, I agree.

Gerrymandering and voter suppression are rampant in Texas, but these are the people paying the price, while politicians ignore the former. 

Crystal Mason, a Texas woman on community supervision after being released from prison sincerely thought that she was eligible to vote.  She wasn't.  She's back in prison for five years for "voter fraud."  An election worker gave her a provisional ballot because she didn't show up on the rolls. 
"Small print at the top asks the voter to certify that if she is a felon, she has fully completed her sentence, including supervision or parole of any kind."  Unfortunately for Mason, she didn't read this nor did the election worker clarify.  Mason is black. Definitely a message to African Americans who may have some type of record in their past that it's NOT SAFE TO VOTE. 

This woman's legal quandary is insane. Good explanation here: She was convicted of illegal voting, but that’s not why she might be going to prison

A green-card holder (Mexican national) thought that a green card gave her the same rights to vote as a citizen.  She's in the slammer for  *8 damn years*.   I would guess that she'll be deported when she gets out of prison. 

Both instances of extreme prison sentences can be attributed to Ken Paxton (R-Teabagger), our state Attorney General.  I guess I didn't mention that in 2015 a state grand jury indicted Paxton on three criminal charges: two counts of securities fraud (a first-degree felony) and one count of failing to register with state securities regulators (a third-degree felony). None of these charges have been tried in court.  However,  Paxton's wife Angela, a freshman Texas state Senator, just introduced Texas Senate Bill 860, "an audacious measure that would empower her husband's agency to exempt some entrepreneurs from the same regulations that her husband violated."  Peak Texas politics. 

Anyway, where was I: 

And the Russians are busy because of course they are, targeting entities involved in elections and election monitoring in Europe and the US

Russian Attacks Hit US-European Think Tank Emails, Says Microsoft

<snips>

Spoiler

 

Microsoft has detected a new hacking campaign aimed at European think tanks doing work on election integrity in Europe...

...Hackers from the Russian group Strontium — also known as Fancy Bear and APT28, and affiliated with the Russian military intelligence service, or GRU — sent phishing emails to employees working on election monitoring and tracking political disinformation campaigns at the German Marshall Fund, the Aspen Institute, and the German Council on Foreign Relations...

...Microsoft’s report follows the Democratic National Committee, or DNC, stating in January that it had again been targeted by Cozy Bear, another group associated with the Russian FSB intelligence service that helped Fancy Bear attack the DNC in 2016...

 

Fancy Bear was also caught last summer implementing phishing attacks on the Hudson Institute and another entity that conducts election monitoring. 

Edited February 21, 2019 by Howl

[fraurosena]

 

[Howl]

I followed  three new people on Twitter today, each a treasure chest of information: 

• Jennifer Cohn  @jennycohn1  Election integrity advocate & writer; attorney; contributor for @WhoWhatWhy, @NYRDaily, @TYTInvestigates.
• Chris Vickery   @VickerySec ‏ Data breach hunter. Director of Cyber Risk Research at UpGuard
• Carole Cadwalladr    @carolecadwalla ‏ Late adopter. Late giver-upper. Guardian & Observer writer.

And....wait for it.....an Evangelical link, The Council for National Policy,  BECAUSE OF COURSE THERE IS ONE. 

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by Howl

[fraurosena]

Thanks for hint on whom to follow, @Howl. I was already following @Cadwalladr, but have added the other two. Very interesting threads. Let's hope the msm pick this up as well, to amplify the cry for answers from Ted Cruz.

[Howl]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Let's hope the msm pick this up as well, to amplify the cry for answers from Ted Cruz.

Yes, a thousand times yes.  Everytime someone turns over a rock, there are Russians....and Republicans. 

[AmazonGrace]

Turns out being a cheater fuckstick isn't healthy for you

 

 

 

[onekidanddone]

13 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Turns out being a cheater fuckstick isn't healthy for you

 

 

 

Surgery? What surgery? Is it to remove the giant sick from up his ass or to implant a soul? Can't see the soul surgery working as his body is sure to reject it from the get to.

[AmazonGrace]

The picture is so white I am assuming he has a dark soul.

[onekidanddone]

10 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

The picture is so white I am assuming he has a dark soul.

If he has one at all

[fraurosena]

41 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

The picture is so white I am assuming he has a dark soul.

Is he trying to look like Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard?