Is it OK to require an ID for voting?

Read this thread and find out.

Conclusion:

Still, read the thread so you'll understand the arguments.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The fight over voter ID law in Missouri

A Missouri judge on Tuesday blocked key portions of the state’s voter photo identification law, meaning some voters could find it easier to cast ballots in a November election headlined by a hotly contested U.S. Senate race.

The ruling bars election officials from enforcing a requirement that a voter lacking a valid photo ID sign a sworn statement while presenting some other form of identification in order to cast a regular ballot. It also prevents the state from advertising that a photo ID is required to vote.

The permanent injunction by Senior Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan takes effect immediately. But Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said he plans to ask that the ruling be put on hold while he appeals to a higher court.

[...]

Attorneys for Priorities USA, a Washington-based liberal advocacy group that sued on behalf of some Missouri voters, argued that more than 300,000 voters may lack valid photo identifications. As of last week, the state had issued free photo identification cards to 1,456 voters who requested them.

  TPM

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Avenatti will run

He says he'll run for president if the Democrats don't put up anybody who can beat Trump.  I'm pretty sure that means he'll run.







Not yet, Mike.  Not yet.



I don't think it's got much to do with his handlers.  I think he's just naturally afraid of Avenatti and Stormy Daniels.

“You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture,” Trump said at Tuesday night’s Tampa, Fla., rally to drum up support for GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis’ gubernatorial bid.

He was – in the moment – throwing his support behind tougher ID requirements for voters.

“Only American citizens should vote in American elections. The time has come for voter ID like everything else,” Trump said.

  Time

Clean up on aisle three.

Sarah Sanders will be explaining this shortly.

Here's the bad news:  No matter if a Democrat becomes president in 2020, we will still be in a country where a huge portion of people like what Donald Trump is and what he's doing.  And we'll still have the Republican Party.  We're not coming back from this.  This is who we are.

UPDATE:



Oh, great.  For the 2020 election, we'll have a dirty boxing match.  Can't wait. 

UPDATE:  And, here's your cleanup:



Sure, Sarah.  Sure.  Because you wouldn't just say you need ID to buy alcohol. 

Could this be why Trump's "election integrity" commission decided to destroy all its data before shutting down?

President Donald Trump’s election fraud commission asked every state and the District for detailed voter registration data, but in Texas’s case it took an additional step: it asked to see Texas records that identify all voters with Hispanic surnames, newly released documents show. In buying nearly 50 million records from the state with the nation’s second largest Hispanic population, a researcher for the White House panel checked a box on two Texas public voter data request forms explicitly asking for the “Hispanic surname flag notation,” to be included in information sent to the commission, according to copies of the signed and notarized state forms.

[...]

Commission member Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap (D), who has sued the panel to disclose records that he says were not provided to him, said the selection of Hispanic names appeared improper and could explain why the panel has sought to act in secret.

[...]

“It’s all speculation because they haven’t disclosed anything, but if they are breaking things down along racial and ethnic lines,’ Dunlap said, it indicates why they are guarding this information like hungry dogs cornered in a trap.”

[...]

White House and Texas officials said the Texas voter data was never delivered because a lawsuit brought by Texas voting rights advocates after the request last year temporarily stopped any data handoff.

The commission was disbanded Jan. 3 after Trump cited a host of ongoing state and federal lawsuits and resistance from state officials over the sweeping pursuit of information about more than 150 million voters across the country. The commission said it would destroy all voter data it had gathered, without detailing any data purchases.

[...]

The commission vice chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach (R) who launched the drive to collect data from every state, said “at no time did the commission request any state to flag surnames by ethnicity or race. It’s a complete surprise to me.”

[...]

Such “information does not, did not advance the commission’s inquiry in any way, and this is the first I’ve heard the Texas files included that,” Kobach said Friday.

  WaPo

Riiiiiiight.

Who knew they were buying records in the first place?

The documents appear to show for the first time that the Trump commission paid for the processing and release of records from 10 states in September. Earlier, voting rights groups had identified 20 states that turned over information voluntarily.

I hope those ten states are suing to get their money back.

The commission faces lawsuits by at least 10 voting and public accountability groups, seeking information on what other data the panel may have assembled, if any analysis was done and whether information has been shared outside the White House.

[...]

“There was never a request made to flag people based on their ethnicity,” the White House official said Friday. “That was never asked for, nor is that what this [Texas] response is saying, though I can see why some could read it that way,” the official said.

Can you now?

Records of the Texas data purchase were disclosed after Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Nov. 13 requested information about interactions between the U.S. General Services Administration and the commission.

Good for Claire. She's been working hard lately. She tried to get military pay exempted from the government shutdown, but was shot down by that mean old fossil McConnell. But she did let us down by voting to extend the NSA surveilance recently, so I can't give her a clean bill of health.

UPDATE:

She also just voted to let the Democrats be played for fools by the Republicans again on the government shutdown, where they should have been holding out for a DACA deal.

UPDATE:

Oh, lord.

On Monday, the Washington Post reported that the panel had purchased Texas election records that flagged all registered voters with Hispanic last names. Kris Kobach, who led the commission, claims he was unaware of that acquisition, which was made by a researcher who was recently arrested on child pornography charges.

  Slate

Somebody must have asked how this story could be worse.

According to Kobach, it was Ronald Williams II, a policy adviser on the commission, who bought the data. “Mr. Williams did not ask any member of the commission whether he should check that box or not,” Kobach asserted, “so it certainly wasn’t a committee decision.”

I'm guessing Kobach decided that Williams was already persona non grata, so why not lay the blame on him?

In October, Williams was arrested and charged with the possession and distribution of child pornography. (He has pleaded not guilty.) While the Post was not able to reach Williams for comment, the available evidence does bear out Kobach’s version of the events. Only Williams’ name appears on the invoice, and he indeed merely had to check a box to request the Hispanic voter data. The records also indicate Williams handled these kind of requests with virtually no oversight.

Yeah, OK. Why wouldn't Kobach give the commission's data to commission members? Why did Matthew Dunlap have to sue to get access to documents on a commission he was part of?

A judge ruled in Dunlap’s favor, but Kobach, through the Department of Justice, still refuses to turn over the requested records. “Perhaps the only surprising aspect of the Department of Justice response,” Dunlap said in response, “is their rich blend of arrogance and contempt for the rule of law.”

Unbelievable.

Voter Fraud

The fraud is not perpetrated by the voters. It's perpetrated by the vote suppressors.

Recall that the scandal involving the firing for political purposes of several U.S. Attorneys happened because those lawyers refused to chase phantom voter fraud at the behest of the Bush White House. As it turns out, some familiar characters never left the stage.

[...]

If you're itching to despair more deeply for the future of the country, check out Pema Levy's extensive reporting in Mother Jones on how former members of the vote-suppressing Bush 43 Justice Department have privatized the ethical swamp they all made out of it, and how they're now engaged as private citizens in money-whipping poor—and largely minority—counties into purging their voter rolls. The details are as sorry as you can expect them to be.

[...]

Basically, the scam works this way: This bunch sends a threatening letter to an impoverished local election commission. Do what we say, the letter says, or we'll find some plaintiffs and sue you down to your socks and underwear. Often, these election commissions don't have the dough to pay a single billable hour to a decent lawyer. So, rather than face the lawsuit, the commission agrees to sign a "consent degree" by which it agrees to do what the Washington freebooters want it to do.

It's a shakedown, pure and simple. And it works.

  Charles P Pierce

Read the whole article, which contains quotes from reports on this scam.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

How Embarrassing

 As of Thursday evening, 48 states have refused to turn over private voter data to Trump’s [election integrity] commission. “I’ve been studying America’s election administration since 2000, and I’ve rarely seen a firestorm like this,” wrote MIT political scientist Charles Stewart III.

 Twenty-one states are refusing to give Kobach any data and 27 states are handing over only limited public information on voters (a full list of the states appears below). [...]  Two states have not yet responded. [Hawaii and Nebraska]

[...]

 Also notable is the opposition from members of Trump’s own election commission, like Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson, who said, “Indiana law doesn’t permit the Secretary of State to provide the personal information requested by Secretary Kobach,” and Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, who told Kobach, “Upon review, the request is denied.” One member of the commission, Maryland Deputy Secretary of State Luis Borunda, has already resigned.

[...]

 The commission was set up for one purpose—to spread false information about voter fraud, like Trump’s gigantic lie that millions of people voted illegally, in order to build support for policies that make it more difficult to vote.

  The Nation

Doesn't appear to be working. However, I'm inclined to believe the Red States opposition is less that they're against voter suppression and more that they don't want the federal government in their voting business. But, I'll take it however I can get it.

Let the Competition Begin

Which state will give the best refusal to comply with Trump's "Election Integrity" Commission?

Mississippi's Secretary of State started it.
 


Kentucky entered the race.

Who's next?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"Election Integrity Commission" Gets "Hosed"

ht Bradd Jaffy

Nice one.

Election Integrity Czarina Won't Cooperate With Himself

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach will not hand over information to his own commission.

“In Kansas, the Social Security number is not publicly available. … Every state receives the same letter but we’re not asking for it if it’s not publicly available,” Kobach told the Kansas City Star Friday. It was a change in stance from Thursday, the paper reported, when Kobach said Kansas would provide all requested information to the commission.

Kobach added Friday, hedging somewhat: “If the commission decides that they would like to receive Social Security numbers to a secure site in order to remove false positives, then we would have to double check and make sure Kansas law permits.”

  TPM

Is this the most insane administration in the history of the US? I'd be willing to bet on it.

“If Social Security number is not publicly available, and it is not publicly available in most states, then we aren’t requesting it,” he said.

“So why’d you ask for it?” Velshi interjected.

“Well, because, if it is publicly available — if the public can get it — then the commission would like it, too,” Kobach said.

Then let the Commission get it the way anybody else has to.

Also, Commission Chair Mike Pence's state of Indiana essentially told them to fuck off, too.  As did twenty+ other states.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:
Great response from Mississippi's Secretary of State Delbert Hoseman:

Hosed.

UPDATE:  I don't see any fully complying.

Voter Suppression Moving Into High Gear

 Four things happened yesterday that pose a grave danger to voting rights.

[...]

 All four of these actions would be disturbing on their own, but taken together they represent an unprecedented attack on voting rights by the Trump administration and Republican Congress.

[...]

 1. The House Appropriations Committee voted to defund the Election Assistance Commission, the only federal agency that helps states make sure their voting machines aren’t hacked.

[...]

 2. The Department of Justice sent a letter to all 50 states informing them that “we are reviewing voter registration list maintenance procedures in each state covered by the NVRA [National Voter Registration Act]” and asking how they plan to remove voters from the rolls. While this might sound banal, it’s a clear instruction to states from the federal government to start purging the voting rolls.

[...]

 3. The White House commission on election integrity, led by vice chair Kris Kobach, also sent a letter to 50 states asking them to provide sweeping voter data including “the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.”

[...]

4. The Trump administration named Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation as a member of the commission, who’s done more than anyone other than Kobach to spread the myth of voter fraud and enact suppressive policies.

[...]

Let’s be clear what’s happening: Republicans have no desire to prevent another hack from Moscow, but they are dead set on limiting voting rights at home.

  The Nation

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Kentucky, Virginia, I'm Pleasantly Surprised

Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state, on Thursday evening said she would not comply with a data request from President Donald Trump’s “election integrity” commission, making Kentucky the third state to reject the request.

[...]

“The president created his election commission based on the false notion that ‘voter fraud’ is a widespread issue — it is not. Indeed, despite bipartisan objections and a lack of authority, the President has repeatedly spread the lie that three to five million illegal votes were cast in the last election,” Grimes said in the statement. “Kentucky will not aid a commotion that is at best a waste of taxpayer money and at worst an attempt to legitimize voter suppression efforts across the country.”

  TPM

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) on Thursday said he has “no intention” of cooperating with President Donald Trump’s sketchy commission to investigate alleged voter fraud.

“I have no intention of honoring this request,” McAuliffe said in a release.

  TPM

California - I'm not surprised. Kudos, though.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla [...] on Thursday refused to send any information from the state’s voter rolls to the dubious “election integrity” commission convened by the Trump administration.

  TPM

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

I'm Guessing This Isn't a Coincidence

And This Is How We Do Things Down Here in Texas

Unfortunately [...] with the U.S. Supreme Court having gutted the Voting Rights Act earlier today, it looks as though Texas will now be able to get away with restricting everyone else's access to legally vote. The state Attorney General announced just after today's ruling that he would now be implementing the state's polling place Photo ID law "immediately", despite the fact that it was rejected last year by both the Dept. of Justice and by a federal court after being found in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The law was rejected after the state's own data revealed that registered Hispanic voters were as much as 120% more likely to be lacking state issued Photo ID as non-Hispanic voters.

But, apparently, it's only voters --- specifically, minority voters --- who must be prevented from committing "voter fraud" (though there is no evidence they are committing any at the polling place), even as Republican legislators are welcome to defraud the system to their heart's content in the Lone Star state.

[...]

After Democratic state Senator Wendy Davis' nearly 13 hour standing filibuster of SB5, a draconian abortion restriction bill supported by the state's Republican Gov. Rick Perry, Republicans decided to throw the rule of law out the window, and hold a roll call vote on the bill after midnight, when the special session was officially over, according to state law.

Nonetheless, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst fraudulently announced that the bill, which had supposedly passed at 12:01am, had actually passed at 11:59pm the night before, when the state Senate would still have been legally in session. Making matters even worse, the Republicans then went back and changed the official TX Senate web page to reflect their blatant fraud.

  BradBlog

UPDATE:

A bill that opponents claimed would virtually ban abortion in Texas failed to pass late Tuesday after lawmakers missed a deadline by just minutes.

  NBC

Stay on top of 'em folks.

Margaret's Voter Suppression

HELEN:

Margaret, tell Howard he is, in fact, correct. I have never met Mitt Romney. I have no idea what is in his heart. I am just a fat, old broad who speaks too much and probably should keep some of her opinions to herself. When Mitt says: I respect and will protect a woman’s right to choose… Roe v. Wade has gone too far… I am pro-choice… I am pro-life… I never really called myself pro-choice…When I am asked if I am pro-choice or pro-life, I say I refuse to accept either label…I assume he is a liar. But I actually don’t know for sure he is a liar. He could just be a dumb ass who is confused.

[...]

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ann Davies Romney:

“Mitt has always been a pro-life person, he governed, when he ran, uhmm, as pro-choice…”

That would be an exact quote. It gets a little complicated after that because Ann finds it hard to make that shit sound truthful, but basically she said that he was pro-life while he campaigned as pro-choice .

[...]

MARGARET:

I relayed the message to Howard and he says that Ann Romney and those women on The View are a perfect example of why women shouldn’t be in politics. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go remind Howard that he doesn’t drive anymore and therefore will have a problem getting to the polls in a couple of weeks.

  Margaret and Helen

Voter ID Laws

As described by Sarah Silverman.



If you're at work or have the kiddies nearby, you might want to keep the sound low.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.