#voter suppression

[devoursjohnlock]

Con O’Neill, MCM Comic Con panel with Nathan Foad and Kristian Nairn, London May 27, 2023

Q: As someone who was a teenager for Section 28 Part 1, I just want to [...] say a massive thank you for speaking up about Section 28 Part 2. What's it been like at the moment, working on a show that has got such cool and interesting things to say about gender broadly and masculinity more specifically?

#Our Flag Means Death #trans rights #LGBTQIA+ rights #MCM2023 #MCM Comic Con 2023 #Con O'Neill #Nathan Foad #Kristian Nairn #UKpoli #voter suppression #vote

[odinsblog]

Patrick Braxton became the first Black mayor of Newbern, Alabama, when he was elected in 2020, but since then he has fought with the previous administration to actually serve in office. (Aallyah Wright/Capital B)

NEWBERN, Ala. — There’s a power struggle in Newbern, Alabama, and the rural town’s first Black mayor is at war with the previous administration who he says locked him out of Town Hall.

After years of racist harassment and intimidation, Patrick Braxton is fed up, and in a federal civil rights lawsuit he is accusing town officials of conspiring to deny his civil rights and his position because of his race.

“When I first became mayor, [a white woman told me] the town was not ready for a Black mayor,” Braxton recalls.

The town is 85% Black, and 29% of Black people here live below the poverty line.

“What did she mean by the town wasn’t ready for a Black mayor? They, meaning white people?” Capital B asked.

“Yes. No change,” Braxton says.

Decades removed from a seemingly Jim Crow South, white people continue to thwart Black political progress by refusing to allow them to govern themselves or participate in the country’s democracy, several residents told Capital B. While litigation may take months or years to resolve, Braxton and community members are working to organize voter education, registration, and transportation ahead of the 2024 general election.

But the tension has been brewing for years.

Two years ago, Braxton says he was the only volunteer firefighter in his department to respond to a tree fire near a Black person’s home in the town of 275 people. As Braxton, 57, actively worked to put out the fire, he says, one of his white colleagues tried to take the keys to his fire truck to keep him from using it.

In another incident, Braxton, who was off duty at the time, overheard an emergency dispatch call for a Black woman experiencing a heart attack. He drove to the fire station to retrieve the automated external defibrillator, or AED machine, but the locks were changed, so he couldn’t get into the facility. He raced back to his house, grabbed his personal machine, and drove over to the house, but he didn’t make it in time to save her. Braxton wasn’t able to gain access to the building or equipment until the Hale County Emergency Management Agency director intervened, the lawsuit said.

“I have been on several house fires by myself,” Braxton says. “They hear the radio and wouldn’t come. I know they hear it because I called dispatch, and dispatch set the tone call three or four times for Newbern because we got a certain tone.”

This has become the new norm for Braxton ever since he became the first Black mayor of his hometown in 2020. For the past three years, he’s been fighting to serve and hold on to the title of mayor, first reported by Lee Hedgepeth, a freelance journalist based in Alabama.

Incorporated in 1854, Newbern, Alabama, today has a population of 275 people — 85% of whom are Black. (Aallyah Wright/Capital B)

Not only has he been locked out of the town hall and fought fires alone, but he’s been followed by a drone and unable to retrieve the town’s mail and financial accounts, he says. Rather than concede, Haywood “Woody” Stokes III, the former white mayor, along with his council members, reappointed themselves to their positions after ordering a special election that no one knew about.

Braxton is suing them, the People’s Bank of Greensboro, and the postmaster at the U.S. Post Office.

For at least 60 years, there’s never been an election in the town. Instead, the mantle has been treated as a “hand me down” by the small percentage of white residents, according to several residents Capital B interviewed. After being the only one to submit qualifying paperwork and statement of economic interests, Braxton became the mayor.

(continue reading)

#politics #white supremacy #patrick braxton #woody stokes #republicans #alabama #sundown towns #racism #voter suppression

[liberalsarecool]

Voter fraud and election fraud are unilaterally Republican mission statements.

They admit it.

#texas #election fraud #voter suppression

[reasonsforhope]

"In a 4-3 decision released on Friday afternoon December 22, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that Wisconsin’s voting maps as currently drawn violate the state constitution and must be redrawn in time for the 2024 election.

Under the Wisconsin Constitution, state legislative districts must consist of “contiguous territory.” [Meaning: continuous] Yet, the majority opinion states, “the number of state legislative districts containing territory completely disconnected from the rest of the district is striking.”

“At least fifty of ninety-nine assembly districts and at least twenty of thirty-three senate districts include separate, detached territory,” states the majority opinion, written by Justice Jill Karofsky.

Contiguous districts are a safeguard against gerrymandering and help keep together groups of voters who live in the same areas and have the same interests, explains the decision, which includes maps highlighting the islands of noncontiguous voting areas in the state’s current districts.

The voters who brought the lawsuit, Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, argued that the current districts violate the constitution and asked the court to  order the adoption of remedial maps. They also asked the court to declare the November 2022 state senate elections unlawful, and to order special elections for state senate seats that would otherwise not be on the ballot until November 2026.

The court’s ruling agrees with the petitioners that “Wisconsin’s state legislative districts must be composed of physically adjoining territory,” and enjoins the Wisconsin Elections Commission from using the current legislative maps in future elections. But it declined to invalidate the results of the 2022 state senate elections.

Acknowledging that it is the legislature’s role to draw voting maps, the majority opinion urges the legislature to draw new maps that comport with the constitution. However, it also states, since the legislature might not draw such maps or the governor might veto them, the court will plan to adopt remedial maps that can be used in time for the 2024 elections and unless and until new, constitutional maps are enacted through the legislative process...

Wisconsin’s voting maps are widely considered among the most politically gerrymandered in the country. This was reflected in 2018 when Democrats swept every statewide election and earned 53 percent of assembly votes cast statewide but only 36 percent of Assembly seats went to Democrats. Voters in Wisconsin are evenly split along partisan lines, and statewide races are often decided by slim margins. Currently, however, Republicans hold a 22-11 supermajority in the state senate and a 64-35 near-supermajority in the state assembly."

-via The Progressive Magazine

Note: Article is a bit wordy but this is a Big Deal. We're going to get fair election maps in an important swing state. The maps thrown out by this decision were deliberately designed to give Republicans a massive advantage in the election.

This WILL make a huge difference in who's elected in 2024.

#wisconsin #united states #us politics #gerrymandering #elections #election 2024 #fair elections #voting rights #voting #voter suppression #good news #hope

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

#republican assholes #voter suppression #Ann Richards proud Democrat

[contemplatingoutlander]

"One of the most important realities of American life is this: No nation can fully undo the effects of 345 years of state-sanctioned bigotry — from slavery to Jim Crow — in 59 years. The time period between the arrival of the first slaves on colonial shores in 1619 and the abolition of legalized discrimination with the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 is simply too long, the discrimination too ingrained and the distortion of society too great to wave the wand of legal and cultural reform and quickly realize the dream of American equality."

--David French, Opinion Columnist for the The New York Times

#voting rights act #racism #voter suppression #us politics #david french #the new york times #quote

[socialjusticeinamerica]

RepubliKKKlans want 100 year old white people who are scared of minorities and immigrants to vote and nobody else.

#traitor trump #republican assholes #Republican voter suppression #voter suppression #taylor swift #gavin newsom

[kendrene]

Friendly reminder that they are trying to make abortion illegal because they want you to get pregnant at 16. They want you to be a parent at 16. They want more children to be born of underprivileged, marginalized groups. Children who will grow up to receive poor education, who will then not be able to go to college and crawl over the poverty line. They want kids who’ll grow up and end in prison (free labor) or take the worst paid jobs (anything no matter the condition is better than starving right?) in order to just put something on the table. People that can be kept ignorant, that will resent whatever those in power will tell them to resent, be it the immigrant, the disabled, the queer etc. 

They will not only make it harder if not impossible to have an abortion. They will also ban schools from teaching sex ed (not that they are doing a good job right now) unless it is sex ed based on abstinence. 

And if you think this is only America, think again. There are places here in Italy where you can’t get an abortion because doctors can “object” and refuse to carry out abortions in public hospitals. There’s a region in Italy where there is no OB in the public system who will perform an abortion. You have to go to a different region or pay privately.

Think about Poland.

A right isn’t something you automatically get to keep forever just because of a court ruling or a law. Laws can be changed, precedents overturned. We have all grown complacent, we all stopped fighting. We all in some small part opposed some right be extended to a different subcategory of people because we thought, due perhaps to inherent bias, that it eroded ours.

We are complicit every time we do not exercise our right to vote because “all the candidates suck”. It’s an excuse, and boy are we so full of excuses. 

What happened in Poland, what’s possibly going to happen in the USA, what’s been subtly, insidiously happening in Italy for decades can happen in your country too.

Don’t grow complacent.

#and I'm only thinking about abortiion laws right now #but it could be gay rights #or anything #voter suppression #just make yourself heard before it's too late

[timkontheunsure]

UK general election postal voters read this!

Edit: this was apparently part the election act 2022 law, that changed how long you can stay signed up for general elections postal votes.

The max now is only 3 years. If you've been on that long you Will have to reconfirm with the update from.

If you receive a update form please read it carefully, and if it says you need to send it back do so to stay on the list.

(People who have received these have been given less than 2 weeks to do so).

Sorry about the confusion, but this worried me and lot of my friends.

Left it below so people can see what this was about.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey heads up the UK post vote detail info update forms NEED to be sent back this time even if there's no changes!

If you don't you'll be removed from the post vote list!

This is awful as it's the accessibility option for most people & needs no photo ID.

This is a link to what types of ID are accepted if you don't manage to send it back in time.

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/voter-id/accepted-forms-photo-id

#uk politics #disabled community #voter suppression #voter id

[cazort]

I have seen a post circulating that talks about US politics and basically insinuates that in the upcoming presidential election, Biden is "99% Hitler" and Trump is "100% Hitler" and it makes me so frustrated that people can't see this as the disinformation and anti-vote propaganda that it is.

I'm intensely frustrated with Biden for how he has acted too little, too late on the Palestine issue, and how the U.S. continues to send billions in arms to Israel. And yet I'm going to be voting for him, and the analogy above is hugely dishonest. There is a massive difference between Biden and Trump:

The Biden administration and Democrats have strongly and unambiguously protected abortion rights, whereas Donald Trump appointed three supreme court justices who overturned Roe vs. Wade, and Republicans have across-the-board passed draconian abortion restrictions far more conservative than even their base.

Biden and the Democrats are strongly pro-LGBTQ rights including trans rights, at a time when Republicans are threatening trans rights in every state they control, and when even mainstream, "center-left" publications like the NY Times have been publishing transphobic drivel.

The Biden administration continues to expand healthcare access and work to control costs whereas the Trump administration worked to undermine much of the coverage we had.

The Trump administration was hopelessly corrupt and dysfunctional, with turnover in most appointed positions, scandal after scandal. Trump committed crime after crime in plain view, and incited an insurrection when he lost the election and has continued to back conspiracy theories undermining the very foundation of our democracy. Biden has been a relatively straightforward, "what you see is what you get" politician over his whole career, with a sort of level of flaws and corruption that is more typical of politics.

Trump had unprecedented anti-immigrant stances and under him, life became much more difficult for immigrants to the US as well as for non-citizens living here legally. Biden's administration has tried and worked against tough resistance to reverse many of the worst immigration changes made under the Trump administration, including doing things like giving 320,000 Venezuelans temporary protected status as refugees, trying to halt the border wall construction, and increasing legal immigration across-the-board.

Biden's rhetoric has become more critical of Israel over time, Biden has called for regime change and the ousting of Netanyahu, and under Biden the US Ambassador finally stopped voting against a ceasefire resolution and only abstained. Whereas Trump and the Republican's rhetoric has retained entirely critical of Palestinians and not at all critical of Israel, and Republicans have consistently supported draconian restrictions such as bans on BDS and some even introducing legislation banning referring to the region as Palestine. And weeks back, when public sentiment was not as anti-Israel as it is now, several Democrats voted for scrutiny to the Israeli military aid, whereas only one Republican did.

I am highly critical of Biden and I too am appalled that he's still running and that we don't have a better candidate who even ran in the primary. But it's far from truthful to say there is only a 1% difference between Biden and Trump, and even more dishonest and inaccurate to call Biden "99% Hitler", that's crazy talk and it serves only one purpose: to demotivate people and suppress voting.

There is a huge difference between these candidates. They will affect my daily life and your daily life and they will affect the whole world and they will affect Palestine.

Do you want a better candidate? Do you want to vote for an idealistic third-party candidate as a protest vote?

Support ranked choice voting first. Then, if you are in a state like Maine or Alaska that allows ranked choice for the president, vote for your ideal candidates and place Biden however low you want and then omit Trump entirely.

But if you do not have ranked choice in your state, especially if you live in a swing state, vote for Biden. And make sure to also join a movement that advances ranked choice, ideally Total Vote Runoff (TVR) as that is the best system for ranked choice.

#biden #trump #disinformation #voter suppression #ranked choice voting

[porterdavis]

Yep. Voter suppression vs. assistance

#voter suppression #gqp

[odinsblog]

Just a reminder that Lindsey Graham still needs to be charged and held accountable for his role in the January 6th insurrection and trying to overturn the election.

👉🏿 https://www.vox.com/2020/11/18/21571684/lindsey-graham-brad-raffensperger-georgia-ballots

👉🏿 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-election-brad-raffensperger-lindsey-graham-throw-out-ballots/

#politics #republicans #lindsey graham #brad raffensperger #insurrection #j6 #georgia #j6 insurrection #january 6 #voter suppression #electioneering #voter disenfranchisement

[gwydionmisha]

#Texas #Voter Suppression Laws #Voter Suppression #News

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

#us politics #2022 #twitter #tweet #2022 midterms #2022 elections #rep. alexandria ocasio cortez #election day #mail in voting #mail in ballots #absentee ballots #voting rights #voter rights #voter suppression #vote #vote blue

[alwaysbewoke]

#voting rights #maga #voter discrimination #voter suppression #white racial hatred #voting #racial inequality #civil rights #political polarization #voter intimidation #voting access #electoral integrity #democratic participation #white supremacy #racism #social justice #equality #end hate #anti-racism #racial equality #stop racism #no to hate #dismantle racism

[nodynasty4us]

From the April 11, 2023 opinion piece:

This is no longer just a lobbying effort shored up with big, often untraceable money, coming from players outside the system. What’s no longer hidden is the involvement of lawmakers and their staffs, who say the quiet parts out loud. Their enthusiastic participation in these efforts shows that these groups are not offering false and exaggerated claims of voter fraud merely to raise funds or even to delegitimize Democratic electoral victories by convincing the Republican base that when Democrats win elections, it is inevitably by fraud. Instead, the conference is powerful evidence of coordination between the decades-old voter fraud–industrial complex and state and government officials who actually have the power to make rules over how elections are run. To put it in the simplest terms, the election suppression noises are truly coming from inside the house.

#voter suppression #republicans #alternative facts #featured