There’s another elected / appointed official you should add to your citizen-activist contact list: your state’s secretary of state. Your communication with that person is every bit as important as your contact with senators and reps about healthcare because there is a massive voter suppression plot afoot.
If this diabolical plan succeeds, Republicans will attempt to make permanent their ability to rule as a rump party that cannot garner a majority of votes in a fair election. And it all began when Trump absurdly insisted that he would have won the popular vote if “illegals” hadn’t participated.
Of course, that’s bullshit; in-person voter fraud is vanishingly rare. But the GOP weasels who prop up the brittle narcissist in the White House saw his self-aggrandizing ravings as an opportunity to perpetrate their own massive voter fraud and save face for Trump. To accomplish this, they formed the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, even though including the words “presidential” and “integrity” in the same title now causes facial tics in half the population.
This fraudulent fraud squad is chaired by beady-eyed Bible humper Mike Pence and co-chaired by Kris “Papers, Please” Kobach, secretary of state in Kansas who has wasted untold amounts of taxpayer dollars pursuing the fake problem of voter fraud in his own state. Given free rein there, Kobach turned up just nine incidents of fraud, seven of which were perpetrated by Republicans.
A related aside: for a chaotic organization that seemingly lurches from crisis to crisis, the Trump administration has been awfully consistent about putting the very worst, least qualified people in charge. Just as Betsy DeVos got a chance to take education policies that failed spectacularly at the state level nationwide, Kobach, failed voter fraud detective, gets his turn on the national stage.
Anyhoo, Kobach wants every state to give his sham commission the “full names of all registered voters along with their addresses, dates of birth, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, voting history and other personal information” going back to 2006. Officials in three states have already refused. Via The Hill:
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said in a statement that he has “no intention” of fulfilling the request, defending the fairness of his state’s elections. He also blasted the commission in his statement, saying it was based on the “false notion” of widespread voter fraud in the November presidential election.
“At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump’s alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression,” McAuliffe stated.
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) also responded to the request, saying “I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally” in the last election.
“California’s participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by the President, Vice President, and [Kansas Secretary of State Kris] Kobach,” Padilla stated.
Kobach is the vice chairman of the voter fraud panel who asked each state for its voter rolls.
Later in the evening, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) said she too wouldn’t offer up the information requested by the panel.
“The president created his election commission based on the false notion that “voter fraud” is a widespread issue – it is not,” Grimes said in a statement Thursday.
“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,” her statement continued. “Kentucky will not aid a commission that is at best a waste of taxpayer money and at worst an attempt to legitimize voter suppression efforts across the country.”
Good for them. Since my state is run by Republican crook Rick Scott, who appointed a no-doubt crooked secretary of state, I expect Florida will participate in this fraud. But I’m going to register my objections nonetheless, on the grounds that Republicans cannot be trusted with sensitive voter data.
Maybe the useless-as-teats-on-a-boar libertarians can be arsed to join the fight, since it concerns privacy? Haha, no they won’t, because most of them are actually Republican assholes.
So, to sum up, the Trump administration will continue to ignore the actual threat to our elections, foreign interference and dubious voting machines, and pretend to address a nonexistent threat for the purposes of disenfranchising voters and adding a post-hoc justification to Trump’s paranoid ravings. We should try to stop them.
Baud
Remember when we all had to be concerned about our metadata. But now, not a peep from that crowd.
JPL
I’m sure that Brian Kemp will happily pass on the information.
Amanda in the South Bay
My state (Oregon) elected a fucking Republican (yes, in Oregon!) last November as SoS. I’m still extremely pissed.
rikyrah
I going to email mine today. We need to sound the alert.
Patricia Kayden
And now federal agencies aren’t even reporting hate crimes as they are legally required to do. This is scary. This regime is okay with hate crimes against the right targets and voter suppression as evidenced by Kobach’s fake voter fraud commission.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: I emailed both Maryland Senators (Cardin and Van Hollen) about this since I’m wondering why Democrats in Congress are so silent about what is obviously a blatant attempt at federal voter suppression. I’d like to know what Democrats are doing to push back at the federal level against Kobach’s anti-voter crusade.
germy
I expect to be hassled the next time I vote 2018, 2020.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Throwing this onto a thread so that it can get front page coverage eventually – some good soul has been prowling the political ad vaults of local TV stations and found this:
Mitch McConnell on healthcare in 1990
May need some dissemination.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
Not shocked in the least ?
aimai
This fucking country. This fucking guy. And all his fucking friends and allies. That’s all I can say. I am just enraged about how quickly our world unravelled–don’t go over to Pete Souza unless you are ready to have a good cry.
Gin & Tonic
Gizmodo is reporting that they requested the data be sent to them by e-mail. Unsecured.
Terry McAuliffe, for one, has said he has no intention of complying.
Gin & Tonic
@Gin & Tonic: Maybe I should read the post before commenting.
Obdurodon
> Haha, no they won’t, because most of them are actually Republican
Yep. “Left libertarian” is a thing conceptually, but not in any practical sense. When push comes to shove, it seems like libertarians will always cast their votes for the party that promises greater *economic* freedom – even though it never delivers, and is totally explicit about sacrificing every other kind of freedom in the process.
Elizabelle
Terry McAuliffe has been a GREAT governor. This Virginian is very proud of him.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of frauds, Kellyanne Conway is on Fox & Friends meeping about how disrespectful it is for people to comment on Trump’s “physicality” and “mental state” and bemoaning the lack of policy discussion. It’s a wonder her pants don’t spontaneously combust.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: Not a constituent, but he has totally exceeded my expectations! The only thing I knew about him before he ran was that he was obnoxiously anti-Obama back in aught-eight.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
I could help her with that.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: What Conway says isn’t a lie. In fact I agree with her about insults versus policy. But it is something darker than a lie. It’s akin to “the devil quotes scripture.”
Rosalita
Connecticut not playing ball either:
HARTFORD: Connecticut Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said, “In the spirit of transparency
we intend to share publicly-available information with the Kobach Commission while ensuring
that the privacy of voters is honored by withholding protected data. In the same spirit of
transparency, we will request that the Commission share any memos, meeting minutes or
additional information as state officials have not been told precisely what the Commission is
looking for. This lack of openness is all the more concerning, considering that the Vice Chair of
the Commission, Kris Kobach, has a lengthy record of illegally disenfranchising eligible voters in
Kansas. (See, for example, Fish v. Kobach, No. 16-3147, 10th Cir. 2016). The courts have
repudiated his methods on multiple occasions but often after the damage has been done to voters.
Given Secretary Kobach’s history we find it very difficult to have confident in the work of this Commission.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t think it will work. I don’t think people want a President they pity. Hate, love, they’re okay with. Not pity.
Trump as victim is hilarious. I thought he “punches back ten times harder”? That’s a lie too, of course. He’s feeling sorry for himself.
Kay
@Rosalita:
You may be able to reach them on the grounds of they shouldn’t have to provide the data to the commission- the state doesn’t have to collect it. They say they want publicly-available information. They can go get it like anyone else.
Immanentize
Are States even statutorily allowed to release that type of voter information? I suspect it differs from State to State. ….
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s a huge project and no one knows who they are and what the project is. It’s crazy to send them anything. It’s irresponsible.
Immanentize
@Kay: certainly, last four digits of the social security number is not publicly available.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
Gasoline and a match?
Kay
Rick Hassen:
Kay
@Immanentize:
No, they are not, and states can be held accountable if the information is put at risk. About ten years ago a state employee in Ohio took a work laptop home – it had names and SoSec numbers. The laptop was stolen out of his car and the state had to notify every person who could be affected and offer them free “identity theft” coverage.
I would never turn it over if I were them. It’s their ass if it’s misused. Nothing will happen to “the commission”.
Immanentize
@Kay: Hans von Spakovsky almost destroyed the DOJ voting division under Bush II. He is a very bad man.
OzarkHillbilly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: She is so inflammatory, I don’t think the gasoline would be necessary. Maybe not even a match, just a good gust of air might do the trick.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: It’s bullshit on stilts because Trump knows fuck-all about policy and is utterly incapable of discussing it in a non-superficial way. He’s already functioning at his highest intellectual capacity when he gets in Twitter slap-fights with TV show hosts.
Aleta
This photo seems appropriate:
https://mobile.twitter.com/qikipedia/status/880359384114745344
d58826
Totally OT but after a long week of Der Fuhrer maybe need a bit of trivia
And Betty is probabnly a bit of an expert on thesubject
Why are there different colored eggs? It all comes down to feather color. White-feathered chickens lay white eggs, and red- or brown-feathered chickens lay brown eggs.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/tipsandtricks/whats-the-difference-between-brown-and-white-eggs/ar-BBDrMSa?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=iehp
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I swear I had not seen that when I titled this post! :) Thanks for the link — interesting blog!
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: Despite him being a corporatist, neo-liberal, right? /s
Another Scott
@d58826: Didn’t click the linky, but that can’t be universal. Robins don’t have powder-blue feathers, Cardinals don’t have red eggs.
Cheers,
Scott.
Shalimar
We need a constitutional amendment on voting, with free national voter ID and consistent standards for all aspects of the process, especially a paper trail for auditing results. There is no other way to undo all of this state by state damage. No, it wouldn’t be popular right now. But pushing for it as the response every time Republicans scream “vote fraud” would get it passed eventually. As it is, they keep making things worse and we aren’t doing anything effective to fix it despite all the frequent justified anger.
Betty Cracker
@d58826: I have black and red (well, orange, really) chickens, and they all lay brown eggs, but the shade of brown varies widely. I suspect people got the idea that brown eggs taste better because virtually all commercially sold eggs used to be white, and folks associated brown eggs with farm freshness! One huge difference between our hens’ eggs and the store-bought variety is the yolk color. Store-bought egg yolks are much paler, and our home-produced eggs definitely taste better.
OzarkHillbilly
@d58826:
Not true. Minorcas (mine were all black but there are buff colored too) lay white eggs. All these chickens lay white eggs.
ETA my barred rocks have black and white mottled feathers and lay brown eggs.
d58826
As part of any legislation sent t o Congress the ‘Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity’ the commission will be renamed ‘The Full Employment Act for Nigerian Official with excess Gold and 400 lb Teenagers living at Home’.
Not sure I saw it in your list of horribles about this request, but in the article I saw yesterday is they plan to make all of this information PUBLIC. Why not just turn our credit card/checking account numbers over to Pence as well. Save the Hackers and con artists a few key strokes.
AMinNC
And here in NC, our insanely reactionary (that is to say GOP-dominated) General Assembly has just this week moved forward on baseless impeachment proceedings against our Democratic Sec. of State, Elaine Marshall. Who, of course, has done a great job under numerous governors of both parties. I was wondering why they were going after her (other than simply stripping the executive branch of as many Democrats and as much power as they can in order to rule absolutely from the legislature). Now it makes sense. Republican office holders are an active threat to our American way of governance – This is one of the messages every Democrat should be pounding every time they open their mouths. “Republicans know their policies are hated by a majority of citizens, and for good reason – their policies are horrible for everyone but a handful of rich people and greedy multinational corporations. So they have to both lie to us about what their policies are AND cheat by undermining our American system of voting and governing. Not for the benefit of a majority of us, remember, but to shovel more wealth up to the people who fund their campaigns. It’s un-American, it’s dangerous to our freedoms, and they should be punished for it.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: I finally gave up trying to tell people “You can’t taste color.” They just insist that the brown eggs taste better, never mind that what gives an egg taste is what the hens eat not what color comes out of their butts.
d58826
Well to all comments on the eggs. The article only meant chickens not birds in the wild. And my expertise on cooking eggs is limited to sunny side up (which I can manage) or over easy (not so much). Any way a less stressful topic to discuss than Der Fuhrer’s latest tantrum.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: And we are disagreeing how?
d58826
@Aleta: Der Fuhrer has finally leaned how to post a selfie on Twitter?
OzarkHillbilly
@d58826:
The article is just flat out garbage. Whoever wrote it and the editor who approved it should be fired.
tobie
In Maryland elections are handled by an independent commission, not the Secretary of State. This hasn’t stopped Trump from appointing the Deputy Secretary of State Luis Burundi to the commission. Man, it sucks to have a Republican governor and his Republican appointees in an otherwise blue state.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: I’m not sure we are disagreeing. I’m just defending Conway’s unbroken streak of lying all the time, about everything.
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s interesting, makes me think of placebo effect. (Which does work for me.). About food on a plate, the Japanese have a saying “The first bite is with the eyes.”
Of course everyone knows green eggs taste weird.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: My daughter once expressed amazement that anyone ever thought of eating eggs. “Hey, something just came out of that chicken’s butt — let’s eat it!”
nominus
I can’t really figure out what this is supposed to accomplish – yes, I know their end goal is deciding who can be trusted enough to prop up the ruling party, but they have to know that after all the ranting and raving they’ve done about “illegal voting”, those blue states are going to tell them to go fuck a chainsaw. So they’ll get data from red states and they’ll get more red, the blue states will go more blue, and this will get thrown to the Supreme Court on a variety of different arguments. The opposition will no doubt frame it as the Federal government interfering in state matters, and not even Roberts and Thomas will be able to paper over it.
schrodingers_cat
While we were discussing the blonde blimp insulting the blonde bimbette, the House passed two draconian immigration bills, with cheerleading from one of T’s central casting generals, Kelly.
ETA: http://thehill.com/latino/340079-homeland-security-secretary-touts-immigration-bills
Mike E
@AMinNC: Amen. Our NC legislature is attempting a rolling coup here, and it would serve our democracy well if the (actually decent) local press calls them out for what they are… illegitimate.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Obdurodon:
Fixed.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@OzarkHillbilly:
There was a piece several years back in the WaPo citing a then-recent study that determined there was no taste difference between brown/white eggs.
We serve eggs from our own chickens at our B&B. Guests love it. We give em a feed that has something in it to make the yolks brighter. People love it.
I’ve had people say that if you cook with eggs, there is a difference but that could be the same thing as the taste issue.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Someone has to notice and celebrate that streak. Respect the streak!
In the meantime, I just got off the phone with the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Office (elections division) and after the woman laughingly listened to my rant about Kobach and von Spakovsky, I was told that Massachusetts will be releasing NO voter data to the Commission. If they want information, she told me, they can go to all 351 cities and townships of the Commonwealth and seek public information there. They also found it extremely inappropriate to ask for the last four of the social. The woman was also very impressed that I knew who von Spakovsky was…. God Bless the Commonwealth!
Tokyokie
@germy: I’m white, live in a majority minority precinct, and I am never hassled. Nevertheless, I never go to vote without bringing my voter registration card, my driver’s license, and my passport, just so that I can cover every contingency should somebody give me a hard time.
Anyway, it’s way past time for calling this what it is: APARTHEID. Restricting the franchise to the ruling class is at the heart of apartheid, and that is exactly what the GOP is pursuing. It was once the party of Lincoln, but it is now the party of P.W. Botha. And I intend to call all of my public office holders and tell them as much. The Republicans are aligning themselves with the absolute worst scum the Western world produced in the second half of the 20th century.
They need to be called apartheid Republicans on every occasion. They can deny being KKK Republicans, even if their aims are largely congruent with those of the KKK, because they don’t participate in cross-burnings and lynchings. But voter suppression IS apartheid. And they need to carry the stigma of those awful Afrikaans-speakers from the other U.S.A.
Juice Box
My state, California, said “Nope, no voter rolls for you, Mr. Kobach.”
I can’t taste a difference between beown and white eggs, but brown eggs are far prettier.
Bg
Betty, who are you contacting in Florida about this? Governor Voldemort? The secretary of state? That’s Ken Detzner. The Obama Justice Dept. had to stop him from conducting a voter purge all on his own. and he was the defendant in that big redistricting case that the League of Women Voters took to the Florida Supreme Court where the Republicans destroyed all the emails about their redistricting plans. I’m going to write to him anyway, but do you have any ideas about what we could do that might actually get results?
PaulWartenberg
If Rick “No Ethics” Scott gives up my private information to Kobach, I swear I will get a lawyer and stop them.
schrodingers_cat
@Immanentize: But according T and his voters it’s not “real America”, although the Revolution started here.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: “It was a brave man, who first ate an oyster.”
NorthLeft12
@Obdurodon: I am afraid that you are confusing “economic freedom” with “tax cuts”, because that is all those so-called libertarians care about.
Sorry, I should correct myself. The so-called libertarians also care about being able to say whatever they want about whoever they want, without any criticism or public shaming. The poor dears.
Immanentize
@PaulWartenberg: Now is the moment to get the lawyer to stop them from sending it to the commission….
Immanentize
@schrodingers_cat: And Palin didn’t know the difference between Concord, New Hampshire and Concord, MA.
NorthLeft12
@Tokyokie:
THIS^^^! It is a little more than ironic that the Republicans seem to be okay with foreign originated ideas when they are bad, oppressive, mean, and anti-democratic, but get bent out of shape over anything proven to help ordinary people. They have been like this for all of my lifetime.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: Presumably the guy/gal who first ate an oyster (and an egg) saw some other animal eat one first. We’re keen observers and notice things. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
(I’m not the walrus! Goo Goo Ga Joo)
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: No matter how often I see a dog eating cat shit I am not tempted to join in.
Kay
Because you’re horrible judges of character. The worst. Three year old children knew enough to lean away from him, but you dopes got fooled.
It isn’t education or income. It’s that they are poor judges of character. Education and income won’t fix it.
O. Felix Culpa
This is why we must elect Democrats at every level. We successfully campaigned for a Dem, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, as NM Secretary of State in 2016. Her predecessor, Dianna Duran (R-Corrupt*), resigned after pleading guilty to 6 of 65 fraud and embezzlement charges. I’ll call Maggie’s office today as soon as it opens.
*Redundant, I know.
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: Incidentally, the growers around here have taken to brand-naming their oysters. One of the local brands is Walrus & Carpenter.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: The guy in the WH now is the exact same guy everybody in NYC knew 30 years ago.
Kay
Well, the good news is voter protection was ramping up every year since 2004 and (in my opinion) it became a “mainstream” issue with Democrats around 2012 so this will only fuel that.
It’ll be very motivating :)
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
How the birtherism wasn’t a deal breaker is beyond me. Did they know he was a birther? Yes. They don’t need to know anything else.
There wasn’t a more cynical, racist, vicious tactic than birtherism, and Trump grabbed it with both hands. That SAYS something about him. It means something. This is what he IS.
Aleta
I worry that the empowerment of standing with your neighbors to vote may be turned into more of a TSA-like experience for the purpose of intimidation.
‘We’re keeping track of you on our list’ and ‘federal offense’ works for suppression. Enough to make some nervous people stay away, even though they know they can vote–not worth the anxiety. If my name isn’t on the list, or something is different, will they look at me like I might be a criminal — kind of thing. If I’ve already had a bad experience with the courts or prosecution. all the more so.
Ian G.
@Obdurodon:
I don’t know if that’s actually true. I picture a left-libertarian as someone more concerned about things like police brutality than taxes. If that’s the case, Radley Balko qualifies. Just read his WaPo columns or his Twitter feed. It’s 90% police abuse, very little about taxes or regulations.
But he’s one voice in the wilderness. I agree that most libertarians are mostly obsessed with taxes and regulations.
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
Joe and Mika promoted a birther into the White House and they knew he was a birther.
That’s it for their judgment. That’s all you need. They are incapable of judging character.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic:
I guess it is time to feed:
NorthLeft12
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: You said it better than I did. The doofuses that call themselves libertarians have no idea what that actually encompasses. They are basically Republicans with the tiniest bit of sense of shame.
Aleta
@Kay: The birther accusations are a textbook example of media normalization and then damage. The Rs are terribly skilled at using the number of minutes of coverage to affect our perception and trust of whether something is true. The amount of coverage seems to matter more than the facts.
Sab
So what do we do or say when contacting our SoS? Mine is reprehensible, and totally on-board with voter suppression. Don’t want to contact him without good talking points.
Kay
@Aleta:
I’ve been a poll worker and it is intimidating to low income people, for a couple of reasons. Their encounters with “officials” are always negative so they bring that. They feel “lesser” anyway so they’re vulnerable to arbitrary and asshole-ish “no’s” and poor treatment. I saw the same thing working at the post office. They were intimidated by lowly postal clerks :)
It made me mad as a pollworker. If I saw them take a provisional ballot and then sort of give up (it’s four forms with black box warnings about felonies) I would try to bring them back in but you don’t really have time. They are afraid they will be embarrassed- won’t do it right- and the place is full of people who seem to know what they’re doing and are voting regular ballots. They’re already in the “suspect” group who get provisional ballots.
Immanentize
@Sab:
You might want to check quickly the statutes in your state about revealing identifying information of citizens. There is also federal law on this. Maybe they can be encouraged to check what their legal duties and responsibilities are before fulfilling this request? Also, I liked the Mass. response which was, seek that information at the local level. IIRC in a state like Texas, that would be the constitutionally appropriate answer.
Aleta
@Tokyokie:
damn, you’re right.
Sab
@Immanentize: Thanks!
Aleta
@Kay: And for those with difficulty reading. The more signs up and printed warnings, the more intimidating.
Immanentize
@Sab: What state are you in?
germy
El Caganer
@Bg: I’m going to be contacting my US congressdude and my state rep and senator, as well as Scott and the SoS. All of these are Republicans, but the locals should be somewhat sensitive to the release of SS numbers, since so many of us in the Sarasota/Bradenton area are seniors who rely on SS and would not take kindly to having those numbers tossed out to whoever wants a peek. Will it do any good? Probably not, but as (I think it was) Wayne Gretzky said, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
rikyrah
Just finished contacting both Senators and my Congressman.
Will type a letter and drop it into the mail to the Secretary of State.
Immanentize
@El Caganer: I’m a bit at loose ends today, so I am doing some quick research and thought for FLORIDA this was useful as it specifically excludes SS#, DL# and source of registration (which I guess means like, the Democratic Party or LULAC, etc.)?
Voter Information As A Public Record
Sab
@Immanentize: Ohio.
Hopefully Kay will advise me.
Does Husted really want to disenfranchise my white fifth generation-Ohio born adopted step-daughter of middle-eastern descent? Hard to say but I wouldn’t put it past him.
El Caganer
@Immanentize: Thank you!
rikyrah
Trump Picks Voter ID Advocate for Election Fraud Panel
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
MAY 11, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday named Kris W. Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state who has pressed for aggressive measures to crack down on undocumented immigrants, to a commission investigating vote fraud, following through on his unsubstantiated claim that millions of “illegals” voted for his Democratic rival and robbed him of victory in the national popular vote.
Mr. Kobach, who has championed the strictest voter identification laws in the country, will be the vice chairman of the commission, which will be led by Vice President Mike Pence and is expected to include about a dozen others, including state officials from both political parties, said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order on Thursday creating the commission, which Ms. Sanders said would have a broad mandate to review policies and practices that affect Americans’ confidence in the integrity of federal elections. Marc E. Lotter, Mr. Pence’s spokesman, said that voter suppression would be among the topics studied by the commission, which he said would take a wide-ranging look at problems at the state and national levels. But the order makes no mention of suppression or voting restrictions, specifying only “improper” or “fraudulent” registration and voting as issues to be explored.
Democrats and civil rights groups condemned the panel as a taxpayer-funded witch hunt, and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a legal request to the White House for records showing “concrete evidence” of fraudulent voting that would warrant the creation of such a commission.
.
“President Trump is attempting to spread his own fake news about election integrity,” said Dale Ho, the director of the A.C.L.U.’s Voting Rights Project. “If the Trump administration really cares about election integrity, it will divulge its supposed evidence before embarking
kindness
Once again I am proud to be a Californian. My elected Sect of State told Kobach to go Trump himself. I wouldn’t have been quite as polite which is I’m sure why they didn’t ask me to give the response.
Immanentize
@Sab: Wow, I just took a look at Ohio’s statute. Now I know what a statute which is trying to limit the franchise looks like.
This is worrisome in the general Ohio statute:
This might allow Oho to send information to the Federal Commission IF…
The whole key is what rules has the office created under chapter 119? And did they do it legally?
The website is a wreck, so I can’t find it quickly…
ETA — Yes, let Kay advise you!
Aleta
@Immanentize: Thanks for this. I’ve been wondering whether this use of ssn is allowed. I expect the gov of Maine will be eager to order compliance, but our sos has sometimes stood up to him. Really truly angry about this. They don’t worry about legality, or ‘collateral damage,’ just do what they want and see if someone tries to stop them.
Immanentize
@Sab:
Yes
SATSQ
rikyrah
Trump’s voting commission makes an alarming request for data
06/30/17 08:40 AM—UPDATED 06/30/17 08:57 AM
By Steve Benen
onald Trump likes to believe in a problem that doesn’t exist: the imagined scourge of voter fraud. After the election, the president repeatedly argued that “millions” of illegal votes were cast, in part because Trump was embarrassed his rival received millions more votes than he did, and in part to help lay the groundwork for a broader voter-suppression campaign.
To that end, the White House created a “commission” in May to investigate voter fraud – a problem that only exists in any meaningful sense in the imaginations of far-right policymakers and their allies – and Trump tapped Kansas’ Kris Kobach, a voter-suppression pioneer, to help lead the ridiculous exercise.
The initiative lacked any sense of subtlety: the point, as the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent explained at the time, was to use the commission as a tool to rig the electoral process and help Republicans win more races. Slate described Kobach’s role in the endeavor as “terrifying.”
That was not hyperbolic. The Washington Post reported yesterday on the dubious commission, determined to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, requesting data it isn’t entitled to.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: They thought they could ride the tiger, now the tiger wants to eat them and I am supposed to feel sorry for these enablers.
NCSteve
There are two bigger problems here, both related to the fact that their plan is to compile all of this data into a national list and put it out on the Internet.
The first problem is that the obvious intent is to empower the 101st Chairborne “Fightin’ Keyboarders” to harass voters–including using the “any crank can challenge a ballot” provisions in most of the voter suppression laws passed by Koch-owned state legislatures, because they have the same name as a voter in another state or precinct.
The second problem is that they seem to be determined to help their Russian pals by removing the necessity to hack into protected databases in fifty different states.
germy
Wait, what? Voting history? Surely that means “when we voted” not “who we voted for” right?
right?
Sab
@Immanentize: So maybe a talking point is sending confidential voter data to obvious Russians will be looked at askance by this Ohio Voter? Sounds a bit milquetoast.
d58826
@OzarkHillbilly: or fried
Immanentize
@Aleta: MAINE —
This is useful —
What exactly are the rules already in effect that would allow the secretary of state to comply?
How are they protecting my private information like SS# and Driver’s Number and address, etc.?
That would be my questions when I call:
But see section 196 — It allows a lot of sharing of public information, but not all information (for example)
That is pretty broad, but it is about specific voter release (and requires specific things — law enforcement or a court order).
If I were in Maine, I would argue that they cannot release any of the information specific to individual voters unless these conditions are met…. And you want to see the rules that allow them to do so. The request will be enough to slow them down. I hope this helps
Unfortunately, I could only pull up this PDF of the Maine statute (working from home)
Immanentize
@germy: Yes, when you voted, not how you voted. They shouldn’t know that….
germy
Imagine if Obama had ordered this back in 2010?
The White House would have been burned to the ground.
d58826
@germy:
Probably the former but they would love to get the later. But they will work on the assumption that registered d’s tend to vote D amd R’s R.
Immanentize
@Sab: Ha. depends on who you get on the phone? meanwhile, I am starting to think the best way to slow this down is to ask for the specific statutory authority — and regulations and rules — that allows for this release. If they can’t tell you, it’s trouble for the line people who are just citizens doing a job not zealots who want to hurt voters (OK there is some cross over).
Immanentize
@germy: PS One voter suppression technique is to send voter verification forms to people who didn’t vote in the last election (usually the midterms — and then try to purge them. Of course, this hurts Dems more than Reps.
Immanentize
@germy: No, only Obama would have been….
ThresherK
@NorthLeft12: That “shame” is real, and it’s “If I call myself a Republican at this party I’m soooo never getting laid.”
Sab
@Immanentize: Maybe I’ll paraphrase your comment complete with the WOW. If a lawyer in Texas is shocked our law is seriously a mess. Husted has no shame but he can be embarrassed. Thanks.
I actually love lawyers because lawyering is hard, many of their clients are jerks, but their work is so important. Love you, Kay and immantentize and all the others donating their time to this blog. I used to be a lawyer but I wasn’t nearly tough enough to do it .long term for a living. God’s gift to democracy.
d58826
There has been a lot of electrons burned on BJ discussing Der Trumps intelligence. Now I don;t think he is smart in the Obama/Einstein sense, but you must have a few brain cells to rub together if you can convince big money men to put YOUR name on THEIR hotel. And then convince many millions more that the hotel room is somehow different than a Hilton. I suspect he has the street level smarts that is implied in the old ‘smart like a fox’ cliche. Which brings me to his tweets. Are they smart or just rage.
At one level I think most of them are just the rage of a spoiled 3 year old. But I think he has figured out that a well timed rage tweet like yesterday can serve more than the purpose.
While every one was obsessing on the Mika/Joe tweet what did not get discussed in any details:
1. more evidence of collusion and that Mike Flynn was at the heart of it,
2. the Trumpcare meltdown
3. re-instating the travel ban
4. the demand for voting rolls
5. apparently demands trade war over objections of practically entire cabinet (https://www.axios.com/exclusive-trump-plots-trade-wars-2450764900.html)
6. possible steped up military action in Syria
7. another flip in our China policy
a. a couple of weeks ago he tweeted his disappointment that China did not creak down
on N. Korea like he demanded
b. yesterday he announced an arms deal (admitted one of many over the years) with
Taiwan
c. severe sanctions on a Chinese bank
d. the policy changes may well be reasonable but it looks like its retaliation for not
getting his way.
e. more threats of war with N. Korea
8. changes to our Cuba policy that just happen to help his properties (that where there all
during the Cuba embargo years) over the competitors and
9. Trump.org renewing trademarks in Russia, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Now poke around and you find this stuff but it isn’t necessarily the lead on Huffington or in the A or B blocks of the political talk shows on MSNBC/CNN. All major stories and mostly not in favor of Trump
.
Miss Bianca
@Obdurodon: Well, I would consider myself a “leftie libertarian”, and I vote pretty much straight Democratic ticket except locally. (Even tho’ I am a member of the Democratic Party central committee here.) Our only voting choices locally are “bugfuck insane Republican” and “slightly less bugfuck to RINO”, but only Republicans have a prayer of getting elected here.
d58826
With one or two exceptions Del. County in suburban PA has voted rock rib GOP since 1860. There was a joke that the voter registration cards were Blue for the GOP, pink for the D’s and yellow for the independents.
Cheryl from Maryland
@tobie: Yea. I sent a somewhat cheeky facebook message to Brian Frosh’s office asking him to step up after CA’s statement, telling him the ball is in his court. His office took it well with their very rapid response. Quote: “Unfortunately the ball is not in my court as the Attorney General. Elections in Maryland are administered by the State Board of Elections, an independent state agency. Inquiries about voter registration, voting, ballot questions, and other election matters are handled by the State Board of Elections.” One can message the Board of Elections via Facebook, and I also plan to write them a letter. PS, Hogan has to go.
trnc
These may not be unrelated. Just a thought.
J R in WV
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Oh, my, that is so great a video to run together with CBO scores on his newest would-be law no health-care for everyone. Clip from old commercial, clip from CBO, clip from old commercial, then for the finale, a slide that says “How can we trust anything Mitch McConnell says about health-care after seeing and hearing this?”
I wish I had the video skills to do that. I did video a friend running his very old fashioned saw-mill some time back. That came out OK, a little shaky in the video because I was just holding a dlsr-style camera in my hands, but OK. Political commercial level stuff, not so much.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
Really not true, some chickens lay green eggs, but no chicken has green feathers.
My sister-in-law used to think all the black cows were the bulls… whut??? And I hear the some people think chocolate milk comes from brown cows – they should read the ingredients before they pour!!! I always want to know what’s in my food…I guess some folks will put anything in their mouths.
d58826
Well every one KNOWS that the cows only lay down in the fields when it is going to rain. That way they keep the udders dry! And if only some are laying down it means a partly cloudy day
J R in WV
@Gin & Tonic:
““It was a brave man, who first ate an oyster.””
Roy Blount, Jr:
“I like to eat an uncooked oyster.
Nothing slicker, nothing moister….”
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
He went on to say:
“but I prefer my oyster fried,
for them I’m sure my oyster died!”
I like ’em either way if they’re good ones.
marcopolo
Late post to this thread but I just called the MO Secretary of State’s office to voice my opposition to sharing voter file information with the feds and was told that according to state law our the voter file information is considered public information. So we will be sharing our normal voter file information with none of the additional tidbits like party affiliation (which MO doesn’t track outside of primary ballot requests) and SSNs. On some level this does make sense since if you are running for statewide office you can get the voter file information (I guess buy it?) for campaign purposes. I’ve never gone beyond our local county board of elections to purchase voter file information (for mayoral, school board, and state legislative races) but assume the state has some master file that contains the information for all the counties in the state.
Bendal
More than 20 states have refused to send Kobach their voter information NC’s Governor has ordered our state election commission to send them a link to the commission’s website, which provides a list of all state registered voters and their party affiliation and nothing else.
Thrasius
Betty,
I don’t live in Florida anymore, but I am acquainted with the elected, not appointed, Secretary of State, Adam Putnam. I’m not sure he will comply. He’s big on environmentalism and other progressive issues, relatively speaking for a Republican. He really is an honorable man, despite my disagreements with him. My understanding is that he couldn’t really stomach a lot of Republican positions when he was the #3 one in Congress. YMMV.
Thrasius
If anyone sees my previous comment about the Florida SoS, my facts are definitely wrong.
Tehanu
All of this, along with the Trumpcare scam, the destruction of the EPA, the attack on public schooling, the Talibangelical maneuvering — it all comes from the Four Pillars of Republicanism: greed (“I have MY money, so f**k off”), bigotry (“Make ‘the other’ go away”), paranoia (“Sensible gun laws are the first step to slavery!”), and ignorance (“Global warming is a hoax!”).
The fact that tens of millions of Americans continue to support the grotesque train wreck that is Dump and the GOP’s brain-dead approach to nearly everything demonstrates just how prevalent this is. Historically, America has done some terrible things, but until now I’ve never felt ashamed of my country because I really believed we were growing better — we were really beginning to see the truth about our terrible history and really working to bring our “better angels” forward, repenting our sins (if you’ll forgive the religious metaphors), and trying to live up to our own ideals. I can’t convince myself that’s true any more, at least, not right now.