Russ Feingold Planning a "Big Announcement" Tomorrow

[TJ in Oregon]

Gotta keep the aides getting paid somehow.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Hey Russ ... proportional representation?

[Blackacre]

At least maybe if he wont be Governor, he could be Secretary of State for the next Democratic President

[Hindsight was 2020]

At least maybe if he wont be Governor, he could be Secretary of State for the next Democratic President

Or maybe even VP?

[Rjjr77]

The left has really politicized election administration, and the right is starting to catch up, and its a bad idea. Creating a wedge issue that erodes confidence in the democratic process for nothing more than political gain is ridiculous.

And where do you see the right in this? They have been screaming fraud every chance they get when they know damn well there isn't anything worth mentioning going on. Emails from Wisconsin officials show them using bogus claims of fraud as a strategy to gin up support in close elections, and in North Carolina last year we saw the same thing. They have used their large amounts of power at the state level to ram through measures making voting harder in one way or another since 2011. Looking at their response to Obama in terms of election policy and messaging, you might think the mere act of a Democrat winning an election constituted proof of fraud in their minds.

I think the left has attacked or vetoed some policy changes over the years that were at least somewhat reasonable, such as vetoing a photo ID measure for getting absentee ballots, the one type where voter fraud is more common. I'd argue an ID is a good measure, but maybe strict photo ID isn't needed, but whatever. However, Republicans go just as far themselves. For instance, I'm not sure why OHGOP thinks it is prudent to just throw out absentee ballots with minor errors largely irrelevant to identifying the voter, or why Texas thought it wasn't ok for voters to bring a family member to help with translation of ballots. It's like these politicians go through their election laws every year - year and a half, and make any tiny little change they think will get them even 1 extra vote, no matter how scummy it is or annoying it is will make it for voters.

I wish voter suppression wasn't an issue now, but the level it has reached now was born out of resistance to GOP efforts to actually suppress Democrat voters.

OH GOP doesn't throw out ballots with "minor" errors, that's the left again, Ohio is actually a state that's done a great job of fitting the line. Ohio has different errors, fatal and non fatal, yes identifying which voter voted is important, if the birthday someone puts on a ballot is wrong you should count that ballot.

[Virginiá]

OH GOP doesn't throw out ballots with "minor" errors, that's the left again, Ohio is actually a state that's done a great job of fitting the line. Ohio has different errors, fatal and non fatal, yes identifying which voter voted is important, if the birthday someone puts on a ballot is wrong you should count that ballot.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-ohio-insight-idUSKBN12W3LQ

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Again, a solution in search of a problem. They claim to want to make it harder to cheat, yet their solution doesn't really do much to solve whatever cheating they think is possible or even going on. The answer to "why pass it then" is because they are constantly trying to find ways to squeeze more votes for Republicans (or less for Democrats) out of election law changes, even in cases where any pro-Republican benefits seem negligible at best.

In states where Republicans have already whitteled down extra voting services, you get to this point where there are no more low-hanging fruit like photo ID or repealing SDR/etc to pass. Instead, they start implementing all these tiny little changes meant to get them an extra vote here and there (or deny Democrats likewise), which shows how comfortable Republicans have gotten in abusing their power to tilt elections their way. They'd rather just toss votes out for minor errors than give Democrats a single extra vote.

[Rjjr77]

OH GOP doesn't throw out ballots with "minor" errors, that's the left again, Ohio is actually a state that's done a great job of fitting the line. Ohio has different errors, fatal and non fatal, yes identifying which voter voted is important, if the birthday someone puts on a ballot is wrong you should count that ballot.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-ohio-insight-idUSKBN12W3LQ

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Again, a solution in search of a problem. They claim to want to make it harder to cheat, yet their solution doesn't really do much to solve whatever cheating they think is possible or even going on. The answer to "why pass it then" is because they are constantly trying to find ways to squeeze more votes for Republicans (or less for Democrats) out of election law changes, even in cases where any pro-Republican benefits seem negligible at best.

In states where Republicans have already whitteled down extra voting services, you get to this point where there are no more low-hanging fruit like photo ID or repealing SDR/etc to pass. Instead, they start implementing all these tiny little changes meant to get them an extra vote here and there (or deny Democrats likewise), which shows how comfortable Republicans have gotten in abusing their power to tilt elections their way. They'd rather just toss votes out for minor errors than give Democrats a single extra vote.

Ohio is a great example of the silliness of the left on this issue.
Ohio cut their early vote hours from a ridiculous 35 days to a slightly less but still ridiculous 28 days, and it's "voter suppression"

As for this article, things should be more uniform county by county, but requiring proper birth dates, social security numbers, correct addresses on ABSENTEE ballots are the only way to tell that they are proper votes.

Illegal voting is rampant, voter fraud is a tiny, inconsequential portion of this, I guarantee at least one regular poster on this board has illegally voted in an election. These screams of voter fraud and voter suppression just need to stop

[Virginiá]

Ohio cut their early vote hours from a ridiculous 35 days to a slightly less but still ridiculous 28 days, and it's "voter suppression"

The real issue around that was voters being able to register and vote the same day for a brief window, and that was exactly why it was taken away.

As for this article, things should be more uniform county by county, but requiring proper birth dates, social security numbers, correct addresses on ABSENTEE ballots are the only way to tell that they are proper votes.

Not really. Maybe Ohio does it in a way that relies on that, but there are plenty of ways to generate ballots for people, mail it to them, and not require them to fill out various fields of data, accurate to-the-t. This touches on one issue I have with elections in America - states have all these arbitrarily guidelines/deadlines/etc, and/or cling to outdated methods, which to some politicians are then used as excuses as to why restrictions are needed.

These screams of voter fraud and voter suppression just need to stop

Not really. I think you're just being more dismissive of the issue. It's fine; you have your views on it and others will have theirs. I admit at times I probably make too much of some voting issues, but not most.

The Republican Party's views on running elections skew far too much in favor of restricting access in the name of [whatever]. There is no creativity in the party for securely expanding access or improving the way things are done, and a big part of the reason is partisanship. However, I have not been driven so mad by this issue to think it's all about that. The GOP also seems to cling to a view that voting shouldn't be easy so as to restrict the electorate to people who are genuinely interested and informed.

I vehemently disagree with their logic on that, but whatever floats their boat.

[Rjjr77]

Ohio cut their early vote hours from a ridiculous 35 days to a slightly less but still ridiculous 28 days, and it's "voter suppression"

The real issue around that was voters being able to register and vote the same day for a brief window, and that was exactly why it was taken away.

As for this article, things should be more uniform county by county, but requiring proper birth dates, social security numbers, correct addresses on ABSENTEE ballots are the only way to tell that they are proper votes.

Not really. Maybe Ohio does it in a way that relies on that, but there are plenty of ways to generate ballots for people, mail it to them, and not require them to fill out various fields of data, accurate to-the-t. This touches on one issue I have with elections in America - states have all these arbitrarily guidelines/deadlines/etc, and/or cling to outdated methods, which to some politicians are then used as excuses as to why restrictions are needed.

These screams of voter fraud and voter suppression just need to stop

Not really. I think you're just being more dismissive of the issue. It's fine; you have your views on it and others will have theirs. I admit at times I probably make too much of some voting issues, but not most.

The Republican Party's views on running elections skew far too much in favor of restricting access in the name of [whatever]. There is no creativity in the party for securely expanding access or improving the way things are done, and a big part of the reason is partisanship. However, I have not been driven so mad by this issue to think it's all about that. The GOP also seems to cling to a view that voting shouldn't be easy so as to restrict the electorate to people who are genuinely interested and informed.

I vehemently disagree with their logic on that, but whatever floats their boat.

I will never believe in same day registration, it just creates a larger opportunity for illegal votes to be cast. There is no reason to assume someone who has lived in ohio for 47 minutes, registers and votes, is going to be a resident of ohio.

On your other point, how? What is to differentiate between John Smith and John Smith but for additional information?

Illegal voting is absolutely a real issue, one that is impossible to figure out how much of it actually is occurring. The cries of voter fraud are not the truth, because voter fraud is a minor part of a bigger problem. The bigger problems are people voting in jurisdictions they shouldnt. Improper voters and voter fraud are far tinier slices of the pie. Some reforms (hard ID) are idiotic (but i dont believe they are in anyway racist, and i think it is insulting when that is the defense) but some reforms are genuine (reasonable early vote length, reasonable expectation of completion of identification information, voter registration deadlines). I'm a proponent of the all vote by mail system utilized in several western states.