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Sarnak
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 224
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Quote:
Originally Posted by -TK-
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It's fun watching you idiots regurgitate everything you see on TV and the written news like you actually know something while leaving out the real pertinent details you're too lazy to look-up. The faith you put in the media on both sides is just saddening. Some information about the new voting laws which can all be verified.
The Water Thing: They set minimum distances from polling facilities for campaigning at 150 feet and 25 from an independent voting stand. Sounds reasonable. What the law changed was that you no longer can leave your campaign stand, walk up to people in line, then walk back to your candidate's booth to get around the no campaigning laws just because you don't have a pin or candidate's shirt on - everyone still sees you go back to your booth. The law also encourages polling centers to provide public access water on site, and YOU CAN STILL BRING YOUR OWN FOOD OR WATER OR PURCHASE FOOD OR WATER AROUND THE FACILITY. It just can't be handed out for free by campaigners trying to skirt the laws.
Voting Hours: This bill actually guaranteed increased voting hours. Previously, counties had to open for early voting during primaries and general elections from 9am to 4pm with Sundays not mentioned (Sunday voting was not a regular thing in the past throughout the state before COVID2020 according to what I've found and first hand accounts I've received). Under the new law (2) Saturdays of early voting are now MANDATORY -- from 9am to 5pm at minimum and from 7am to 7pm if the counties desire -- and two Sundays are made optional at the county's discretion.
The old law said early voting had to take place during 'normal business hours' on weekdays, leaving counties to decide what counts as 'normal'. The new law sets a specific time period, requiring early voting to be offered from 9am to 5pm. However, it also says counties can open early voting to be offered as early as 7am to 7pm if they desire. In the 2020 general election Fulton, Dekalb, Clayton and various other Democratic strongholds held their early voting hours between 7am and 7pm so they would NOT be forced into reductions.(thanks, CNN)
Voter ID: To vote or request an absentee ballot you must provide (1) source of identification. While state issued driver's license or ID number are the most common acceptable forms of ID, the new law allows that if you have neither you can instead provide a utility bill, bank statement, or government issued check receipt as a form of identification (there may be more that aren't listed). That's a pretty low bar of entry considering how many people in GA can now provide the government check receipt from their stimulus payments. People on government services can also use those receipts.
Absentee Ballots: Anyone can request an absentee ballot up to 78 days before an election day for any reason if you provide one of the many acceptable forms of ID. The county must mail those out at the latest 29 days before the election. Absentee ballots must now be received 11 days prior to the election (old law was 4 days) to ensure adequate time to verify and count. This was changed due to the expected increase in absentee ballots and so we don't run into counties counting ballots 7 days after the election as we saw during COVID2020. Take note that these ballots can be returned in multiple ways: drop if off at a early voting drop box/station, return via UPSP mail, via the state's online portal, of even via FAX!
Other notable election improvements from the law: The new law now REQUIRES a minimum of (1) absentee/early voting drop box IN ALL DISTRICTS where there were no laws requiring it before. This drop box must be located at election offices or early voting sites. I'm murky on the details beyond this initial MANDATORY drop box being located at a polling facility vs any additional drop box being located elsewhere. I have more research to do on the wording here.
Another notable improvement is that the law forces voting precincts that had lines of more than one hour in the previous general election, or did not complete voting by one hour after the poll-closing time in the previous election, that the county officials have to reduce the size of the precinct or get more poll workers, voting equipment of both before the next election. This was the most complained about topic that I could find while researching black voter sentiment from 2020 and prior elections in GA. Previously, no law had addressed these long lines and this is considered a big upgrade to minority voting, but is mentioned in almost none of the media research I did aside from one CNN article as a footnote. Another positive to this is it should reduce the 'need' for people to be handing out water in line.
Removing Election Officials: County election officials can be removed from their posts if over at least (2) elections over a (2) year period the officials have demonstrated repeated nonfeasance, malfeasance, or gross negligence regarding election law, or if county officials committed at least three violations of election law on board regulations in the last (2) general election cycles and had not sufficiently remedied these violations. This official(s) that are removed, will be replaced by a State Election Board appointed non-partisan individual. This is really the only thing in the bill people should be scoffing at. While the bar is set decently high to remove the officials, appointing an individual through a possibly partisan board doesn't sound right. While this does raise a few eyebrows we might never see it happen, and it would not have helped either Trump or Stacey Abrams with their disputed GA election results.
My thoughts:
Remember folks, politicians don't really care about your skin color unless they are using it for political advantage. I'm sure GA is full of racist fucks, but at the end of the day these politicians only care about staying in office at all costs like every other politician. I don't buy into the racist narrative about this law because if it's true these politicians are trying to keep people from the polls, they don't care what color you are outside of Red or Blue. I just don't see how this law is really keeping anyone from the polls, though. Being able to prove who you are in some form or another is just part of being a citizen of this country. To say that people shouldn't have to provide the bare minimum of identification or make a bare minimum effort to vote for our elected leaders makes no sense when you think about every other thing in the country you have to provide ID to do or access. They've also said for years that signature verification alone is slow and often-times unreliable. Signatures change over time and can vary wildly making them difficult to authenticate.
Feel free to crack open the bill or spend hours of your time trying to counter my findings. I am 100% open to it, but it better not be some vaguely worded MSNBC or CNN article just saying 'this bill adds obstacles to voting for minorities.' You parrots need to get back to the bird cage.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by -TK-
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Show me where it reduced hours in the cities if you've done all the reading. I've read a lot of this bill and it doesn't seem like you really have. I don't want to know what you heard on the radio. I've found nothing to support what you say. Show me, please. Cite what were the hours before and how did the law shorten them, otherwise you're doing exactly what I said not to and just regurgitating (AM radio) media talking points. I am open to new verifiable information. That was never even brought up by the black former GA residents I talked with either so I am curious. Also, keep in mind what I stated here from CNN directly, In the 2020 general election Fulton, Dekalb, Clayton and various other Democratic strongholds held their early voting hours between 7am and 7pm so they would NOT be forced into reductions.(thanks, CNN) Altanta is in these counties.
You only expanded a little on what I said about being able to replace election officials, but failed to acknowledge what has to happen BEFORE they can be replaced. It can't just be done on a whim like you insinuate in your post. I also said this is an eyebrow raising point and it deserves some scrutiny, but it's talked about like they can just wake up one day and say we don't like these results, you're out and our guy is in. It doesn't work like that. There should absolutely be a way to remove election officials that fail to perform over multiple elections, and I don't agree with the exact system lined out in this bill for appointing replacements.
Everyone is so focused on this drop box thing, too, and it's getting misconstrued. The expanded number of drop boxes were a COVID thing. How do less unattended randomly placed drop boxes hurt voting when you can mail, submit via fax, or submit your vote using the GA online portal? Postage is already paid on the envelopes, btw. When you require drop boxes be present when they weren't before, that is in fact an expansion. Trying to compare this law to what happened during COVID2020 is not apples to apples. You have to look at how things were before the wildly varying temporary election laws of 2020 were implemented.
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ICYMI. Horza trying to bury these points of discussion as fast as possible with his super insightful posting. |
04-05-2021, 04:15 PM
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