I'm honestly not even sure why they got a bug up their ass about this. Do they think they'll have an easier time winning a normal election over a special one?
About the only thing I can think of is that their big doners don't want to pay for two elections, back-to-back.
It's because they know they'll lose, so they'd prefer empty seats to dems
Aren't those seats super red, though?
No redder than Alabama, I suspect.
Probably much less. And when you are dealing with state government seats they can get swung pretty hard if there is a big turn out push. That said it looks pretty bad to their own voters when republican party won't let republican districts get representatives.
I'm honestly not even sure why they got a bug up their ass about this. Do they think they'll have an easier time winning a normal election over a special one?
About the only thing I can think of is that their big doners don't want to pay for two elections, back-to-back.
It's because they know they'll lose, so they'd prefer empty seats to dems
Aren't those seats super red, though?
No redder than Alabama, I suspect.
Probably much less. And when you are dealing with state government seats they can get swung pretty hard if there is a big turn out push. That said it looks pretty bad to their own voters when republican party won't let republican districts get representatives.
I cant find the link anymore, but the Wisconsin districts in question have been polled and they are both just about split 50/50 on the need for the special elections. It's quite sad, to be honest.
MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says the state Legislature will not proceed with a bill designed to cancel two special elections for vacant seats.
The Republican Fitzgerald told WTMJ-AM on Thursday that lawmakers are "boxed in" by court rulings ordering Gov. Scott Walker to call the special elections.
Walker minutes earlier called the elections in the vacant state Senate and Assembly seats for June 12. Walker had tried to delay having to call the elections until after the Legislature could meet next week to change the law.
Honest question here. I haven't been following too closely, so I really don't know: Is the legislature out of session until the next election? If so, what's the point of holding it? Besides it being the law, of course.
Honest question here. I haven't been following too closely, so I really don't know: Is the legislature out of session until the next election? If so, what's the point of holding it? Besides it being the law, of course.
Walker can call special sessiona. Like he just did to try and change the law saying he had to call an election.
I cant find the link anymore, but the Wisconsin districts in question have been polled and they are both just about split 50/50 on the need for the special elections. It's quite sad, to be honest.
It's depressing, but not that surprising these days, given how many things have become a case of "if They are in favor of it, We must oppose it."
A little frightening that that's been extended to the point where supporters of a political party are comfortable being opposed to holding an election to fill a vacant spot at all, mind..
at this point, there honestly isn't much point to having them. but it's only a problem because you didn't do it in the first place.
It's also about setting/confirming precedent which is more important in this case than anything else. This helps confirm that yes, the Governor must follow the law. Which some people apparently need to be reminded of.
I cant find the link anymore, but the Wisconsin districts in question have been polled and they are both just about split 50/50 on the need for the special elections. It's quite sad, to be honest.
It's depressing, but not that surprising these days, given how many things have become a case of "if They are in favor of it, We must oppose it."
A little frightening that that's been extended to the point where supporters of a political party are comfortable being opposed to holding an election to fill a vacant spot at all, mind..
They're only comfortable with it because they think they might lose.
If the odds were better or the GOP hadn't lost in PA they would've held the election within days.
AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
The legislature was going to convene an emergency session to preclude these elections, so its worth having people in those seats in case another “emergency” (or hell, even an actual emergency) pops up.
I cant find the link anymore, but the Wisconsin districts in question have been polled and they are both just about split 50/50 on the need for the special elections. It's quite sad, to be honest.
It's depressing, but not that surprising these days, given how many things have become a case of "if They are in favor of it, We must oppose it."
A little frightening that that's been extended to the point where supporters of a political party are comfortable being opposed to holding an election to fill a vacant spot at all, mind..
Republicans do not view Democrats as legitimate holders of political power. This shit is not really surprising. The only thing holding them back is some vestigial sense of shame and fear of bad press.
So, Rick Scott asked for a stay over the lawsuit appeal about re-enfranchisement of felons, where it came out that the system was basically feudal and capricious in design. The judge was having none of it:
Rather than comply with the requirements of the United States Constitution, Defendants continue to insist they can do whatever they want with hundreds of thousands of Floridians’ voting rights and absolutely zero standards. They ask this Court to stay its prior orders. ECF No. 163.
No.
This Court did not and does not draft a single rule of executive clemency. This Court did not and does not re-enfranchise a single former felon. This Court simply applied precedent and ordered Defendants to promulgate rules that comply with the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. See generally ECF No. 160. Bitter pills are clearly too hard to swallow.
This Court does not play games. This Court is not going to sit on Defendants’ motion and run out the clock. If the Eleventh Circuit finds that a clemency scheme granting unfettered discretion to elected officials—with personal stakes in shaping the electorate—over Plaintiffs’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights passes constitutional muster, this Court must accept that holding. Until that day, if it ever comes, this Court DENIES Defendants’ request for a stay.
I would like to think Bondi and Scott would have this effect on any judge, given that they are taking the position of "You're not a Supreme Court Justice, who are you to tell us how the law or the constitution works?"
Then they went to the media to complain that this order has delayed their completely arbitrary ruling on upwards of 60 cases.
'Outrageous! These activist judges must be stopped.'
Note: the board meets 4 times a year and has a 10,000 case backlog.
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, led an effort Wednesday to gut a bill that would have created an independent commission of citizens to draw electoral maps instead of leaving the process to legislators.
Metcalfe, chairman of the House State Government Committee, called a surprise morning meeting and introduced an amendment to the proposal that completely changed what the legislation would do.
Instead of creating an 11-person commission of voters from the two main parties plus the lesser-known parties, as House Bill 722 had proposed, Metcalfe's amendment creates a six-member panel of legislators.
Four of them would most likely come from the majority party. Five votes would be required to approve new maps.
“We battled to get voter ID on the ballot for the November ’16 election,” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, who defended the law in court, told conservative radio host Vicki McKenna on April 12. “How many of your listeners really honestly are sure that Sen. [Ron] Johnson was going to win reelection or President Trump was going to win Wisconsin if we didn’t have voter ID to keep Wisconsin’s elections clean and honest and have integrity?”
The law, which went into effect in 2016, required specific forms of government-issued photo identification to vote. In a cover story last year, Mother Jones reported that the law kept tens of thousands of eligible voters from the polls and likely tipped the state to Trump. A federal court found in 2014 that 9 percent of registered voters in Wisconsin did not possess the identification necessary to vote. In a University of Wisconsin study published in September 2017, 1 in 10 registered voters in Milwaukee County and Madison’s Dane County who did not cast a ballot in 2016 cited the voter ID law as a reason why. That meant that up to 23,000 voters in the two heavily Democratic counties—and as many as 45,000 voters statewide—didn’t vote because of the voter ID law. Trump won the state by 22,000 votes.
African Americans, who favored Hillary Clinton over Trump by an 88-to-8 margin, were three times as likely as whites to say they were deterred from voting by the law.
Indeed, turnout fell most sharply in black neighborhoods of Milwaukee that heavily supported Clinton. Nearly 41,000 fewer people in the city—where Clinton received 77 percent of the vote to Trump’s 18—voted in 2016 than in 2012.
Nice that they admit they can't win fairly, though.
Breaking news: A federal judge found Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) in contempt of court, saying he failed to fully follow a 2016court order to make sure voters were fully registered. He is ordered to pay attorney's fees to the ACLU.
Sam Levine is a political reporter for the Huffington Post.
Well,that is a pointed "fuck you" from the judge, especially with the award of attorney's fees.
Edit: The judge was especially pissed at Kobach trying to speedbump his staff:
Breaking news: A federal judge found Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) in contempt of court, saying he failed to fully follow a 2016court order to make sure voters were fully registered. He is ordered to pay attorney's fees to the ACLU.
Sam Levine is a political reporter for the Huffington Post.
Well,that is a pointed "fuck you" from the judge, especially with the award of attorney's fees.
Edit: The judge was especially pissed at Kobach trying to speedbump his staff:
But we can't re-run the 2016 election, so he still achieved his goal and I'm sure doesn't mind the cost taxpayers will have to shoulder. Which is why the VRA's prophylactic measures need to be restored and expanded.
Breaking news: A federal judge found Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) in contempt of court, saying he failed to fully follow a 2016court order to make sure voters were fully registered. He is ordered to pay attorney's fees to the ACLU.
Sam Levine is a political reporter for the Huffington Post.
Well,that is a pointed "fuck you" from the judge, especially with the award of attorney's fees.
Edit: The judge was especially pissed at Kobach trying to speedbump his staff:
But we can't re-run the 2016 election, so he still achieved his goal and I'm sure doesn't mind the cost taxpayers will have to shoulder. Which is why the VRA's prophylactic measures need to be restored and expanded.
But are the taxpayers paying it, or is the contempt order and award of attorney's fees against Kobach in particular, and out of his own pocket?
In a post-trial filing in a lawsuit against Kobach’s office, one of his proposed legal conclusions for the judge to consider is that the plaintiffs in the case lack standing. This is followed by a question mark and note in all capital letters that this is “PROBABLY NOT WORTH ARGUING.”
People who are found to have deliberately manipulated the system to suppress voting by citizens should be tried as traitors. I would have absolutely no problem with the death penalty being used for them and them alone.
People who are found to have deliberately manipulated the system to suppress voting by citizens should be tried as traitors. I would have absolutely no problem with the death penalty being used for them and them alone.
Don't need the death penalty.
Just do the obvious thing, and apply the same penalty for intentionally denying someone who legitimately has the right to vote, as the penalty for intentionally voting illegitmately a second time.
Tens/hundreds/thousands of thousands of charges of illegitimate vote tampering, and the penalty kind of takes care of itself.
People who are found to have deliberately manipulated the system to suppress voting by citizens should be tried as traitors. I would have absolutely no problem with the death penalty being used for them and them alone.
Don't need the death penalty.
Just do the obvious thing, and apply the same penalty for intentionally denying someone who legitimately has the right to vote, as the penalty for intentionally voting illegitmately a second time.
Tens/hundreds/thousands of thousands of charges of illegitimate vote tampering, and the penalty kind of takes care of itself.
I would very much like that since he's still running for governor. And the state congress is in the middle of working on restrictions on who can run for the office. They have egg on their face due to a rather large loophole allowing for some high school kids to run this year. I can easily imagine them adding no previous convictions to the list of disqualifications.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
In a bit of good news, Maryland and New Jersey just adopted automatic voter registration, states #12 and #13 to do so. New Jersey's new law is notable because isn't just a motor voter law, but also allows voter registration at other state facilities, such as welfare offices and parole boards.
Automatic registration is picking up fast. Remember that Oregon started it in 2015.
In a bit of good news, Maryland and New Jersey just adopted automatic voter registration, states #12 and #13 to do so. New Jersey's new law is notable because isn't just a motor voter law, but also allows voter registration at other state facilities, such as welfare offices and parole boards.
Automatic registration is picking up fast. Remember that Oregon started it in 2015.
Good. Now they just need to work on felon disenfranchisement.
In a post-trial filing in a lawsuit against Kobach’s office, one of his proposed legal conclusions for the judge to consider is that the plaintiffs in the case lack standing. This is followed by a question mark and note in all capital letters that this is “PROBABLY NOT WORTH ARGUING.”
The next bullet point is blank.
This would be sad if it were anybody else.
He's representing himself.
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
In a bit of good news, Maryland and New Jersey just adopted automatic voter registration, states #12 and #13 to do so. New Jersey's new law is notable because isn't just a motor voter law, but also allows voter registration at other state facilities, such as welfare offices and parole boards.
Automatic registration is picking up fast. Remember that Oregon started it in 2015.
Good. Now they just need to work on felon disenfranchisement.
Honest question here. I haven't been following too closely, so I really don't know: Is the legislature out of session until the next election? If so, what's the point of holding it? Besides it being the law, of course.
Walker can call special sessiona. Like he just did to try and change the law saying he had to call an election.
And the fact of him trying to call a special session illustrates why he is required to hold the election. Had he not tried that his case would have made a bit more sense.
In a bit of good news, Maryland and New Jersey just adopted automatic voter registration, states #12 and #13 to do so. New Jersey's new law is notable because isn't just a motor voter law, but also allows voter registration at other state facilities, such as welfare offices and parole boards.
Automatic registration is picking up fast. Remember that Oregon started it in 2015.
Good. Now they just need to work on felon disenfranchisement.
Also universal mail in ballots.
They both have no fault absentee vote by mail available. I'd prefer more States go the all mail voting approach too, but I'm still going to give them credit for practically being there. Especially when so many solid blue Northeast States are terrible at absentee voting.
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
In a bit of good news, Maryland and New Jersey just adopted automatic voter registration, states #12 and #13 to do so. New Jersey's new law is notable because isn't just a motor voter law, but also allows voter registration at other state facilities, such as welfare offices and parole boards.
Automatic registration is picking up fast. Remember that Oregon started it in 2015.
Good. Now they just need to work on felon disenfranchisement.
Also universal mail in ballots.
They both have no fault absentee vote by mail available. I'd prefer more States go the all mail voting approach too, but I'm still going to give them credit for practically being there. Especially when so many solid blue Northeast States are terrible at absentee voting.
People are lazy and by and large can't be arsed to go vote. If voting comes to you though, that's one less excuse.
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Probably much less. And when you are dealing with state government seats they can get swung pretty hard if there is a big turn out push. That said it looks pretty bad to their own voters when republican party won't let republican districts get representatives.
I cant find the link anymore, but the Wisconsin districts in question have been polled and they are both just about split 50/50 on the need for the special elections. It's quite sad, to be honest.
However, heres some good news https://www.channel3000.com/news/politics/walker-will-schedule-special-elections-for-june-12-1/722541939
Walker can call special sessiona. Like he just did to try and change the law saying he had to call an election.
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It's depressing, but not that surprising these days, given how many things have become a case of "if They are in favor of it, We must oppose it."
A little frightening that that's been extended to the point where supporters of a political party are comfortable being opposed to holding an election to fill a vacant spot at all, mind..
Yeah realistically it's a formality but any government that thinks it can decide when people really need representation can eat a bag of dicks.
It's also about setting/confirming precedent which is more important in this case than anything else. This helps confirm that yes, the Governor must follow the law. Which some people apparently need to be reminded of.
They're only comfortable with it because they think they might lose.
If the odds were better or the GOP hadn't lost in PA they would've held the election within days.
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Republicans do not view Democrats as legitimate holders of political power. This shit is not really surprising. The only thing holding them back is some vestigial sense of shame and fear of bad press.
Depends on the judge.
That's how a judge says "go fuck yourself and the horse you rode in on."
No. Judge be pissed.
If I were to learn that the next paragraph started "Guards! Seize them! " I wouldn't have been entirely surprised.
I would like to think Bondi and Scott would have this effect on any judge, given that they are taking the position of "You're not a Supreme Court Justice, who are you to tell us how the law or the constitution works?"
Then they went to the media to complain that this order has delayed their completely arbitrary ruling on upwards of 60 cases.
'Outrageous! These activist judges must be stopped.'
Note: the board meets 4 times a year and has a 10,000 case backlog.
Baliff, technically
Nice that they admit they can't win fairly, though.
Sam Levine is a political reporter for the Huffington Post.
Well,that is a pointed "fuck you" from the judge, especially with the award of attorney's fees.
Edit: The judge was especially pissed at Kobach trying to speedbump his staff:
But we can't re-run the 2016 election, so he still achieved his goal and I'm sure doesn't mind the cost taxpayers will have to shoulder. Which is why the VRA's prophylactic measures need to be restored and expanded.
But are the taxpayers paying it, or is the contempt order and award of attorney's fees against Kobach in particular, and out of his own pocket?
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http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article209709579.html This would be sad if it were anybody else.
Just do the obvious thing, and apply the same penalty for intentionally denying someone who legitimately has the right to vote, as the penalty for intentionally voting illegitmately a second time.
Tens/hundreds/thousands of thousands of charges of illegitimate vote tampering, and the penalty kind of takes care of itself.
I would very much like that since he's still running for governor. And the state congress is in the middle of working on restrictions on who can run for the office. They have egg on their face due to a rather large loophole allowing for some high school kids to run this year. I can easily imagine them adding no previous convictions to the list of disqualifications.
Automatic registration is picking up fast. Remember that Oregon started it in 2015.
Good. Now they just need to work on felon disenfranchisement.
Every vote counts.
"Not if we can help it"
-The GOP
He's representing himself.
Also universal mail in ballots.
And the fact of him trying to call a special session illustrates why he is required to hold the election. Had he not tried that his case would have made a bit more sense.
They both have no fault absentee vote by mail available. I'd prefer more States go the all mail voting approach too, but I'm still going to give them credit for practically being there. Especially when so many solid blue Northeast States are terrible at absentee voting.
People are lazy and by and large can't be arsed to go vote. If voting comes to you though, that's one less excuse.