Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

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There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

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In after Baud. Damn.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

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Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

You are here: Home / Politics / The House Prepares to Move Forward With Remote Voting

The House Prepares to Move Forward With Remote Voting

by | 117 Comments

This post is in: ,

It doesn’t look like anyone is working on a post, so I will share this.  It’s the first I’ve heard of this new proposal, and it looks like it’s moving along the pipeline.

Interesting article at Lawfare:

The House Prepares to Move Forward With Remote Voting

Here’s an excerpt, but read the whole thing:

On May 13, House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern unveiled H. Res. 965, his latest proposal for implementing some form of remote voting in the House of Representatives in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The committee marked upthe resolution today, May 14, and the House of Representatives as a whole is expected to vote on the measure tomorrow alongside the most recent proposal for coronavirus relief. If the resolution succeeds—and partisan politics don’t get in the way—the House will finally be able to operate while respecting the social distancing measures that are almost universally recommended by public health professionals.

McGovern’s latest proposal is similar to the proposed rules change he released late in April, which was briefly scheduled for a vote before Republicans convinced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to postpone. She and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy instead agreed to set up an informal task force to try to reach bipartisan agreement on a way forward. That effort, however, appears to have failed. House Democratic leaders now seem determined to move forward with the new McGovern proposal, with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer himself taking the floor to defend the proposal during the recent markup. The leaders of the Republican minority, meanwhile, are calling upon their members to oppose the resolution, on the grounds that “Democrats are jamming through a rules change that would upend 200 years of precedent and have serious constitutional and institutional repercussions.”

So how would this plan work? Like its predecessor, H. Res. 965 is still centered on the idea of proxy voting, a practice in which one member of Congress casts a vote on behalf of another. Yet it incorporates changes that address various concerns with and criticisms of that approach—including some we previously put forward.

It ends with this:

The May 15 vote may well finally allow the House to move forward with a form of remote voting. But it is unlikely to be the end of the surrounding controversy. Some House Republicans may yet decide to protest the perceived partisanship of remote voting procedures by refusing to participate or attempting to obstruct proceedings. And private plaintiffs are almost certain to challenge the constitutionality of the new procedures in federal court.

Yet it’s not clear the House leadership had much of a choice. Presented with the options of either forcing its members to put the public’s health at risk or accepting a disabled House so long as the pandemic endures, the House majority appears set to opt for a third way. This brings with it both legal and political risks, a fact that recent debates have made clear. Yet the House appears to have finally decided that those risks are worth it.

Open thread.

Update:  rikyrah found this video of Devin Nunes.  Wow.  He doesn’t even make it clear that he’s specifically talking about a CA election.

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  1. 1.

    Citizen Alan

    In my dream universe, once remote voting becomes accepted, people finally realize that there’s no reason to limit the number of representatives to how many people will fit into the House Chamber. Then, we can finally update the House Apportionment Act to allow for, say, one Rep per 100,000 people.

  3. 3.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    are jamming through a rules change that would upend 200 years of precedent and have serious constitutional and institutional repercussions.

    Republicans have a lot of experience with jamming things through. Honestly, what’s the fucking harm in remote voting? What possible “constitutional or institutional consequences” could there be that wouldn’t be outweighed by protecting the health of Representatives?

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    I thought this was notable, also:

    …the procedures it provides can be implemented by the majority alone, albeit with the cooperation of the sergeant-at-arms and the attending physician. The majority is only required to consult with the minority, not seek its approval. This might seem unduly partisan, especially for the current moment of national crisis. Yet it’s not unprecedented, as existing House rulesallow the use of the same basic approval structure to trigger special quorum rules in “catastrophic circumstances”—such as during times of war or terrorist attack. Moreover, it’s increasingly doubtful whether the minority leadership would approve a shift to remote voting in even the most dire of circumstances. This intransigence in turn appears to have finally convinced House Democrats to move forward with making new rules for such contingencies on their own, despite the possible political cost.

  5. 5.

    HumboldtBlue

    The GOPshits are clamoring for people to get back to work and here they are presented with a viable and feasible manner to do so and they scream it’s unfair!

    On another tack, Biden’s VP choice is still something to talk about.

    LaTosha Brown is co-founder of Black Voters Matter; Tiffany D. Cross is a political analyst and author of the forthcoming book, “Say It Louder! Black Voters, White Narratives, & Saving Our Democracy”; Brittany Packnett Cunningham is an activist, educator and writer; Alicia Garza is principal of Black Futures Lab and host of the “Lady Don’t Take No” podcast; Sunny Hostin is a lawyer, author and co-host of “The View”; Angela Rye, host of “On One with Angela Rye,” is a commentator and political strategist; Amanda Seales is a comedian, author and creator of “Smart Funny & Black.”

  6. 6.

    joel hanes

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Honestly, what’s the fucking harm in remote voting? What possible “constitutional or institutional consequences” could there be

    Democrats, currently in the majority, might have increased opportunity to govern.   That, to Republicans, is the harm.

    Taking any Republican talking point as if it is uttered in good faith is a mistake.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @HumboldtBlue: a lot of buzz about Stacey Abrams appearing on the O’Donnell program with Biden tonight. I just want to lay down my marker that they’ll be announcing he as Chair or Head or Whatever of GOTV for the campaign. Hopefully one of his good staffers has come up with a more eye-catching title.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Republicans have a vested interest in keeping the one arm of government that the Democrats control from operating. Under normal circumstances, the minority in the House can’t do much to stymie the minority, so they’re hoping that by shouting loudly they can get what their voting bloc can’t.

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    The Constitution assigns the power and authority to set its rules to each chamber.

    Period.

  10. 10.

    joel hanes

    @WaterGirl:

    The majority is only required to consult with the minority

    I’m so old that I remember that during the W misadministration, House Republican committee chairs sometimes changed the place or time of committee meetings without telling the Democratic committee members.

    I’m so old that I remember that during the push to pass Medicare Part D, the Republican leadership flouted House rules by keeping the vote open for literally hours while they whipped and re-whipped their caucus, and that an open bribe was offered on the House floor as part of that whip effort.

    Fuck their feelings.

  12. 12.

    dmsilev

    Also,

    Separately, during a covered period, House committees and subcommittees would also be authorized to pursue a broad range of their functions remotely—including participating in proceedings, holding hearings and business meetings (which would have to be made open to the public), authoring reports, issuing subpoenas, and voting. The only exception would be for closed and executive sessions, which would still only be able to be held in person.

    Republicans have zero interest in making oversight hearings easier to conduct.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    @dmsilev:

    Republicans have zero interest in making oversight hearings easier to conduct.

    Republicans have zero interest in anything that might possibly be good for Democrats, or even democracy.

  18. 18.

    Observer

    I see Georgia and Florida are continuing to lie about their numbers. Anyone else notice this?

  19. 19.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I still think it will be Harris. I keep running into the type who claim “Biden needs a VP who can win people over” which was far more annoying in 2016 with Hillary than now because Bernie is done and the animosity just isn’t of the same fever pitch.

    My response is that if you still need to be won over I’m not wasting resources on you, I want people to get out and vote and that’s where Harris makes her first impression. There’s no time or space for “winning over” the choice could not be more stark.

  20. 20.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @dmsilev:

    @joel hanes:

    Yeah, I get that. It’s a bad habit because I expect people to generally act in good faith. It just seemed bizarre to me to object to remote voting.

    Personally, I think pretending that these arguments are in good faith (at least at first) puts the spotlight on the Republicans. After all, what reasonable person would object to remote voting during a pandemic? And when they can’t give a good answer, you expose them for what they are, and hound them endlessly over it. Like reminding a Trump supporter that Trump recommended injecting disinfectant as a cure for COVID-19

  23. 23.

    rikyrah

    SWEDEN ??: not to beat a dead horse, but there are many who keep shouting Sweden. I got into an on air debate about it recently. So here is the daily cases and total deaths per capita. Once again, Sweden plow-thru approach is not a success among its Scandinavian sister countries. pic.twitter.com/GYFFNHCO68— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 15, 2020

  26. 26.

    Another Scott

    Since we’re presently in a national emergency in all 50 states, and since the proposed rules are only applicable in emergencies, it’s hard to see what the GOP is caterwauling about.

    From WG’s link at RollCall:

    The revised proposal would provide for special procedures during certain “covered periods[,]” as designated by the speaker in consultation with the minority leader (or their designees). The speaker would be able to make such a designation only after being notified by the sergeant-at-arms, in consultation with the attending physician, that “a public health emergency due to a novel coronavirus is in effect[.]” Any designated “covered period” would last only for 45 days, though the speaker would be free to extend it in intervals of up to an additional 45 days through these same basic procedures. If the sergeant-at-arms and attending physician were ever to notify the speaker that the public health emergency is no longer in effect, the speaker would be obligated to terminate the covered period.

    Git ‘er dun.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  27. 27.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I’m going to take a wild guess that Bradley is a white woman. These fucks always love to use the historical suffering of non-WASPs for their own purposes; it cheapens the real tragedy of Japanese internment and the Holocaust.

    And how much you want to bet that Justice Rebecca Bradley will never publicly respond to Takei?

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Speaking of sea lions, I want to thank everyone who explained the term to me the other day, with links to cartoon pictures and everything. It never even occurred to me to check Wikipedia or The Googles — I had wrongly assumed it was a BJ-specific term.

  30. 30.

    Another Scott

    @Observer: The BBC is reporting that cases in the UK seem to be dropping because people are afraid of going to the hospitals for fear of catching COVID-19 there.

    Who knows how common things like that are here, especially when too many don’t have decent healthcare coverage, too many have lost their jobs and their coverage, etc., etc.

    Testing is going up, but we still need more.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Must have looked it up a half dozen times. Seem constitutionally incapable of retaining that blip of information (same holds true for scads of other internet shorthand terms). At this point I just gloss over it whenever the term shows up.

  37. 37.

    Redshift

    To give you an idea of the attitude among Republicans, here is Steve Scalise (as featured on Maddow last night), on the subject of a committee hearing that most or all of the Republicans attended in person and the Democrats conducted remotely:

    The subcommittee has only twelve member, there are literally dozens of rooms all around this Capitol that are open right now that can hold the briefing safely, and with 12 members, we can achieve model social distancing. And in fact, let me show you what is going on here, we are in a committee room, or a briefing room here in the capital, and as you can see, the room is set up with proper social distancing, where you can safely have all 12 members of the economy, as well as the opportunity for the public and the press to be here, in person.

    And so, I wish we would show that we can do what we’re asking the rest of the country to do.

    I suppose it’s possible that’s a “good-faith” argument, if the congressman will admit to being a blithering idiot, and that he’s being willfully ignorant and pretending one small element of safety procedures is all that public health experts are recommending.

    In the real world, having several dozen people (“the public and the press, in person”), many of them in high-risk categories, in a confined space in an old building for several hours is the exact opposite of what any expert advice says we should be asking anyone to do.

  40. 40.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @rikyrah:

    Wow, Nunes is fucking stupid for admitting that out loud. Hopefully, the CA AG will get involved now

  42. 42.

    Redshift

    @Another Scott: Ms. Redshift had to go to the dentist for an urgent problem today, and her dentist said they’re seeing people, including kids, in much worse shape than they ever see normally because they’re afraid to come in and wait until it’s unbearable.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rikyrah: A robust ballot-harvesting operation? Because it’s the only way to win? Even though it’s illegal in 49 states?

    Devin needs to spend more time with his cow. ?

  46. 46.

    Anya

    I am usually not onboard with the “democrats are weak” teeth gnashing nonsense because if I wanted to be part of a party full of nihilists assholes I would join the Republican Party. However,  issues around voting is when I want to scream at Democrats to fight harder. They need to mention at every opportunity republicans dedication to deny people to vote and how GOP cannot win without cheating. Call them out.

  48. 48.

    Patricia Kayden

    Sigh

    Watch closely. If the FBI investigates Richard Burr for illegal sale of stock and doesn’t investigate Kelly Loeffler for the same, the purpose will be to replace Burr as chair of the Senate intelligence committee and to punish him for not protecting Trump.— Jeff Strabone (@jeffstrabone) May 14, 2020

  49. 49.

    Anya

    @WaterGirl: according to Twitter “ballot harvesting” is legal in California. I didn’t even know what that means until 30 minutes ago when I saw this on my TL.

  53. 53.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The scum of the GOP rejected removing an incompetent, criminal idiot from the Presidency.  They can all find a fire to die in, both houses, but Nunes in particular needs to be put into a canoe and lost off the Azores .

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    "There’s no such thing as OBAMAGATE. But that doesn’t mean people won’t find themselves under indictment, facing years in prison, as part of a desperate bid to help Trump win re-election."@brianbeutler on the concrete meaning of this authoritarian push:t.co/cs1Ah78F26— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 14, 2020

  55. 55.

    Anya

    @Another Scott: but if someone gets really sick, they’ll go to the hospital. I am guessing this applies only to people with mild symptoms, who can still infect others.

  60. 60.

    rikyrah

    Memo to the media:Please stop claiming that the Mike Flynn unmasking "boosts" Trump's attacks or "gives him an election issue."It does not do anything of the sort. Merely by saying that, you're misleading readers and rewarding bad faith.New piece:t.co/EEeRBDRVsO— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 14, 2020

  62. 62.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @rikyrah: I’ve been thinking for months that the goal of that side job Barr got going with the former CT US Attorney is to harass people with charges that will may or may not make it to trial, with legal fees and all attendant expenses and disruption: John Brennan, McCabe, maybe Comey, Bruce and Nellie Ohr, maybe Sally Yates, James Clapper….
    Ben Rhodes and Susan Rice were right-wing obsessions before trump was a candidate.

  63. 63.

    dmsilev

    OT. The LA Times has been soliciting Coronavirus confessions, quarantine behavior that you’re not necessarily proud of. My favorite:

    I’ve stopped telling time with clocks and calendars. It’s now bars of soap and bottles of whisky since lockdown. Interestingly, they align pretty closely, and it’s currently “a quarter to four” in our household.

    and, of course, a teaser for the next episode:

    In the next installment on Monday, readers confess to all kinds of sexual shenanigans, getting their forbidden grooming done on the sly and engaging in a little bit of retail therapy.

    Hopefully not all at once, but who are we to judge?

  65. 65.

    John Revolta

    @WaterGirl:

    Hey WG, since about last Saturday every time I click on a link to a Twitter video clip it just goes blank. If I click on the Twitter link it takes me there and I can see it but it won’t play here no more….?

    ETA: Firefox 76 on a oldish Mac running El Capitan

  66. 66.

    WaterGirl

    @John Revolta: Yeah, people have been talking about that happening with particular browser versions, and speculation is that something was broken in a browser release.

    Because of that, I haven’t followed up.  Hopefully there will be a fix soon.  If it turns out not to be that, someone will need to let me know.

  67. 67.

    Patricia Kayden

    Yep

    He can try & stop mail-in voting. He can try & kill USPS.He can organize Obama show trials. He can lie about testing.He can minimize the death count.He can rely on his buddies in Moscow.But I'd walk barefoot over broken glass w/o a mask to vote him out. I hope you agree.— Steven Beschloss (@StevenBeschloss) May 15, 2020

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    O’Donnell show with Biden and (in the second half) Stacey Abrams starting now.

    If I’m the Biden campaign, I’d’ve asked for Nicolle Wallace and Joy Reid. O’Donnell is a star-fucker, but he’s often too cute by half.

  76. 76.

    NotMax

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist

    O’Donnell’s show airs in prime time. Those others do not.

    Q.E.D.

    (Also, last time I bothered looking, the show with the highest ratings on the network other than Maddow’s.)

  77. 77.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Anya: Was on a call a couple of hours ago with a friend who’s an ER doc in a metro area on the west coast. He says by the time people decide to come to a hospital they are already on death’s door. People who in the past were ill enough to have gone, don’t now. So by the time he sees them he basically has to intubate nearly every one.

  80. 80.

    Anya

    @WaterGirl: I am conflicted about this. Like any other approach it can be abused but it seems like the system is goo for people who have literacy issues or mobility issues. According to Wikipedia:

    Ballot harvesting, also called vote harvesting,[1] is the collecting and submitting of absentee or mail-invoter ballots by volunteers or workers.

    i think this was the reason that North Carolina district was victim to election fraud but it can work if it’s not abused but we know republicans are crooks so they’ll probably manipulate people or just stuff ballots. So yeah, I am conflicted.

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NotMax: I think they’d arrange a “primetime special” to get Biden on live for an hour, or two.

    Biden is answering like Biden. He’s not Obama, or either Clinton, but he’s flying over the low bar set by the ranting caricatures of the trump right and the twitter left.

    O’Donnell asks about Reade. Biden says women must be heard and respected, but accusations vetted. But this never, ever happened.
    And O’Donnell goes back to it

    ETA: O’Donnell asks about people who say they  believe Tara Reade, but they’re gonna vote for Biden anyway. “If they believe Tara Reade, they shouldn’t vote for me. I wouldn’t vote for somebody who did that”/ in spite of quotes, that’s a paraphrase, I can’t type fast enough to be exact

  84. 84.

    John Revolta

    I just saw a picture of McConnell with a mask on and I gotta say, it’s a yoooge improvement. I’m willing to chip in and buy one for every goddam Repub if they’re having trouble getting them.

  85. 85.

    HumboldtBlue

    @dmsilev:

    Fucking teachers, gotta love ’em.

    As an educational therapist, I’ve been teaching an alien to read on Zoom. My 8-year-old student prefers to be an alien or in space while we work, but why should I care? He’s writing great stories and learning to read!

  86. 86.

    Anya

    @Gin & Tonic: I know someone who’s refusing to go to the hospital. He’s really ill and has all the major symptoms. I spoke with him yesterday and strongly encouraged him to go to ER. He thinks he’s young and his body will fight it out. His stupid rationale is that he doesn’t want to take a hospital bed from “someone who’s vulnerable”. I was like, as soon as you got the symptoms you joined that category.

    also of people are making dumb decisions like that. He thinks he’s doing something in the public interest and doesn’t want to be selfish but he’s putting his life in danger. To his credit, he’s been in self isolation since he suspected he might’ve been exposed.

  88. 88.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: I was having the embedded-twitter-video-not-playing-in-WP-but-plays-fine-in-a-new-tab issue with Chrome.

    I just installed the latest Firefox – same thing.

    It does play as expected in Safari (v13.1).

    MacBook Pro with Catalina.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  91. 91.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Anya: It’s funny; I’ve found myself walking past things in stores and leaving them so that people who need them get them.  I did eventually buy baby wipes, but there were a bunch of them, I only took one package although the limit was two, and I still feel sort of guilty about it.

  92. 92.

    Sab

    @Anya: I said this up above. I know of a 27 year old who decided to ride out illness at home. He died leaving three kids under 9. Your friend needs to at least call medical people for advice.

  97. 97.

    cain

    @dmsilev:

    It’s amazing no matter what branch of govt the Democrats are a majority of – it always seems like the minority party is running rings around them because they do unprecedented things.

    But it really comes down to what Karl Rove said – “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

    That’s pretty much what they do. The Republicans are a virus, constantly changing and we are the vaccine, that has to change constantly because the Republican strain of crazy keeps changing.

  98. 98.

    cain

    @HumboldtBlue: I still think it will be Harris. I keep running into the type who claim “Biden needs a VP who can win people over” which was far more annoying in 2016 with Hillary than now because Bernie is done and the animosity just isn’t of the same fever pitch.

    It’s kind of funny but I have completely forgotten who was Hillary’s running mate was. :-)

  100. 100.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WaterGirl: seemed pretty good- I had to go into the next room to multitask, but they both seemed to handle questions well

    One softball from the callers: Will you pledge to never pardon Donald trump? He said all the right things about keeping politics out of the DoJ

  102. 102.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: He said all the right things about keeping politics out of the DoJ

    I know this isn’t necessarily popular here, but I think it is important.  And it is one part of returning to normalcy that I can get behind.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    Trump to
    @SalenaZito
    on how the coronavirus has change the 2020 campaign:
    “Now it’s a different kind of a campaign, but I think we’ll do equally as well. But it can never be as happy, because of the death.”

    It still surprises me how they can’t even impersonate normal people for brief periods. He just has to mimic what caring about someone else sounds like, and he can’t manage to string those phrases together. Bizarre.

  104. 104.

    Dan B

    @Sab: We have friends and relatives who were in the internment camps.  Many returned to find their “friendly neighbors” had stolen their homes, businesses, and farms.  Others came home to find their neighbors and friends had been caretakers and had saved them from loss.  The pain lasted after the camps and despite acknowledgement of the wrongs inflicted it still resonates painfully.

  105. 105.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Omnes Omnibus: I agree.

    @Kay: I’d say he’s broken, but that implies he was, at some point, a whole and functioning human being.

    (a reporter just said on MSNBC that during his official, non-campaign fact-finding trip to PA today, they played “Macho Man’ as trump walked into the factory)

  107. 107.

    Anya

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think Nicole Wallace likes him and she loathes Trump so she would’ve asked a lot of questions that sound like “here’s what the monster said/did. Tell us how awful he is and how awesome you’d be?”

    hate to say it but I think Katy Tur would’ve asked the best questions. But her show is not prime time like Larry O.

  108. 108.

    West of the Cascades

    Is “ballot harvesting” the practice of people being able to collect others’ ballots? That’s perfectly legal in Oregon – most large campaigns have people do it in the day-of-election canvassing to help people who forgot to mail in their votes (we’re all vote-by-mail). It has the same integrity as a mailed-in vote: the voter still has to sign and seal the envelope (with signatures checked at the county election offices – I’m not sure whether every signature is checked, or a random sample), so it’s no different than a postal carrier collecting it from the outgoing mail in a mailbox.

  109. 109.

    Bennett

    Why is this so difficult for the House to figure out?  The British Parliament, which is almost 50% lares than the House, got remote full sessions going a month ago.  And the Pm and opposition leaders do Question Time live from the chamber where the format automatically distances them, with members participating by Zoom.

  110. 110.

    brantl

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): If you have remote voting involved in the general election, and you still have the secret ballot to the degree that you can’t see all votes, visibly, and publicly? Then any ballot combination that was voted more than once in the election, that was voted N times, can be removed N-1 times, without any one being able to prove fraud.

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl:  Criminal sanctions maybe. About 5 years ago a young man was gathering  voter registrations in African American communities in Harrisonburg Va.and tossing them in dumpsters. He was caught and prosecuted; I forget if it was a misdemeanor or felony charge, but in the 2018 N.C. 8th(?) Congressional race completed absentee ballots were withheld by a Republican operative. He was charged with felonies.

  113. 113.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Geminid: the 2018 illegal ballot case was in the 9th congressional district. Dan McCready was  the Democratic nominee. Republican operative Leslie Dowling was indicted on state charges last year, and has not yet been tried.

  114. 114.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): 

    institutional consequences

    Oh, YOU and I don’t see it, but starting from yesterday, the ONLY thing Republicans involved with the House will be doing is attempting to figure out how the new rules can be gamed. Not to be better legislators, heaven forbid, but rather, to figure out how to steal more seats.

  115. 115.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @joel hanes: Sure would be nice if a younger member with a clear voice and firm demeanor were put forward to explain such things.

  117. 117.

    Dupe1970

    I know it cannot be done but I wish the rule had an addendum that stated any member not voting for this resolution cannot proxy vote for someone and cannot have their vote cast by proxy.

Comments are closed.