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Ohio purged 26,000 voters days before abortion referendum deadline (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Ohio purged 26,000 voters days before abortion referendum deadline

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[–] [email protected] 163 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But it’s unusual to remove voter registrations this close to an election given the risk of disenfranchising people who intend to vote but simply missed the memo that they had been flagged for removal. In fact, if this was a national election rather than a state-level contest, what LaRose’s office has done would have been illegal. The National Voter Registration Act prohibits elections offices from systematically removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.

Looks Ohio will have to pass ANOTHER state Constitutional amendment forcing politicians to follow a reasonable requirement of 90 days.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Hopefully someday it will be a federal law. I think disenfranchised voters ought to be able to sue the governors and\or attorneys general who removed them from the rolls.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Section 1983 of the federal code already exists. We just need the entire law to be followed, so that the clearly illegal decision made by the 1982 SCOTUS (unknowingly, they actually called out the fact that the clause was removed without knowing, since the didn't check the Congressional Record, because why would they?) at the end of Harlow V Fitzgerald can be reversed.

In 1871 the reconstruction Congress passed section 1983 of the federal code. In 1874 a single unnamed person was tasked with the procedure of hand copying the Congressional Record into the Federal Register. They removed a 16 word clause illegally. That clause specifically said "lol get fucked, no immunity from prosecution for government officials can exist, especially ones that were passed at the state level." (Of course it says this in Legalese so the words aren't as inflammatory) We need to force the lower courts to shove as many QI cases, with this information, at the current SCOTUS as possible to get Harlow V Fitzgerald overturned.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/15/us/politics/qualified-immunity-supreme-court.html

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I think the federal government should throw those officials in jail without the voters having to file a lawsuit. They're flagrantly violating the literal most important rule in any democratic society.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

The idea of wrecking them financially appeals to me

[–] CareHare 134 points 9 months ago (13 children)

I don't get this. How is this democratic? I think it's already ridiculous you have to go through all that trouble just to be able to vote on a random work day, and now they remove people who are already eligible to vote? The fuck.

In my country (Europe) when you reach 18 years of age you receive a letter that you're obligated to vote whenever the next election rolls around. Elections are always on Sundays and it's very easy to give permission to someone else to vote for you in case you have to work. Voting also never takes more than half an hour.

How do you pretend to be a democratic republic and make it so discouraging to vote?

[–] [email protected] 63 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I don't get this. How is this democratic?

It isn't. The Republicans have seen that the more people that vote, the more elections they lose. A healthy political party would use this fact to reexamine their views and the policies they support/oppose. (For example, reduce the anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and focus on budgetary conservatism.

The Republican party isn't a healthy political party, though. So instead of changing to reflect what the voters want, they are trying to change the voters. Since they can't force voters to support what they (the Republicans) want, the Republicans are trying to change WHO is a voter.

If you support what they want, then congratulations. You're a legitimate voter. If you oppose them, then you'll be stripped from the voting rolls and will have roadblocks erected to prevent you from getting your voting rights back.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I don’t understand it either. What’s the purpose of making voting so difficult? Is it to keep the less fortunate and less abled from being able to have a voice in elections?

I’m in the US but my state does mail-in voting by default, so you get plenty of time to research and make your vote choices from the comfort of your own home. We also have automatic voter registration through our department of motor vehicles. I think either a system like your country has or my state has should be the standard across the US, but unfortunately it’s not.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 9 months ago

Voter disenfranchisement is a powerful weapon of the Republican party. It's one of the key reasons why much of the south is the way it is despite attempts otherwise to address it.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago

The mistake you're making here is assuming that the Christofascists are acting in good faith. They're not, and never have been. The entire point is to keep the "wrong" sort (read: anyone who isn't one of them) from standing in the way of imposing their tyranny on everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There is a legitimate need to purge voter rolls. But it's supposed to be done after elections, when people have time to respond and keep their registration if there was a mistake.

In the US voting is tied to states because of the electoral college. So if you move to another state you are supposed to register there and drop off the rolls in the state you came from.

Done correctly purges are of people who haven't voted in that state in the previous presidential election and any election since. This means you have to go years without voting to get purged.

Purging voter rolls right before a contentious ballots of course is not good. And leaves no confidence it was done in good faith

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

leaves no confidence it was done in good faith

Fun fact: if you write "good faith" on a piece of paper and bring it to a meeting of Republicans it will burst into flames.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

I don't get this. How is this democratic?

Oh that's simple. It's not, nor is it supposed to be. Hope that clears things up.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (6 children)

You assume that the USA is a democracy. They is your mistake right there. The us is a failed democracy at best, never really was one at worst. It's all pretence and showmanship but in the end everything is rigged and corrupt as fuck

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

How do you pretend to be a democratic republic

This is the key word right here.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

How do you pretend to be a democratic republic and make it so discouraging to vote?

america does it all the time lol

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Tell me you hate American Democracy without telling me you hate American Democracy

[–] ImFresh3x 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Republican leaders know damned well their policies aren’t popular with those that will be around to vote in few more cycles. Changing policies is the very last thing they’ll consider. Getting rid of elections is the first and most tempting option of them.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

Not just in a few cycles, but right now. That’s why they keep spewing the bullshit about raising the age to vote. They are already concerned and it just continues to grow.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

They have already given themselves the legal power to declare themselves the winner in several states. They're just waiting for the right time to test their new tools

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago

"This is extremely dangerous to our 'democracy'"

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

$20 says that the majority of the voters purged were non-white and/or non-male Democrats.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago

I would not take that bet

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If you know you’re going to lose, because you have nothing but hate as your platform; then cheating is literally the only option left

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Or, you know, accepting the loss. But fascists don't consider that option.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

A healthy political party would look at their declining votes and then figure out what policy changes would get more votes. (For example, maybe drop the whole anti-LGBTQ thing and go all in on "The government shouldn't tell us how to live our lives.")

The GOP isn't a healthy political party, though. Instead of changing to suit the voters, they want to change who votes to better align with their policies.

I used to hope that the GOP would toss out the crazies and save themselves from oblivion. Now, I think they're too far gone. They need to go and the Democrats need to split into Centrists and Progressives.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 9 months ago

This is the fraud.

[–] PrincessLeiasCat 31 points 9 months ago

In May, Republicans in the state legislature introduced a bill that threatened to make it much harder to pass a constitutional amendment by requiring more than 60% of the vote to pass an initiative, rather than a simple majority – an effort explicitly designed to undercut the abortion referendum.

LaRose, who is also running for a US Senate seat and is looking to endear himself with conservative voters, was a prominent supporter of that failed campaign.

“This is 100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution,” LaRose said in June. “The left wants to jam it in there this coming November.”

In a special election on 8 August, Ohio voters rejected the proposal by 57% to 43%, a lopsided result in the Republican-leaning state.

No way a Republican is projecting. NO way. None. /s

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Funny how the party that talks about voting fraud all the time is doing everything it can to undermine voting rights.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Freud called it projection

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

They took a page from the Brian Kemp playbook.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

oh wow the liars lied its almost like yall are just finding out that AMERICA IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE

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