Ya see ...(the bold)this is where you and I fundamentally disagree. I dont believe that what is all in the Voting Rights Act is "common sense".
I dont agree with or dont understand the opposition too:
- requiring a ID to vote.
- disagree with unrequested mail in ballots. If you want to vote by mail, ok, request a ballot to be sent to your address
- ballot harvesting. Ballot harvesting should only be applicable and available to individuals who are in a health care facility, in at-home medical care, or military
- same day voter registration. A individual has 2 to 4 years to register to vote. If a individual cant find the time to register within that time frame .... I dont know if they are responsible enough to vote. I said what I said. If your 18th birthday falls on election day, I dont see any reason why you cant register to vote before your birthday so that you can enact your right on election day.
- ballot boxes .... I just dont see the need
^these equate to "non-starters" for most Republicans, soooooooooo find a resolution? Work across the aisle? Find a solution that both sides hate (ideally that both sides love) and draft THAT legislation. The answer here is not "Well, Im not getting my way, so Im going to change the rules, take my basketball and go home". Its the job of our Reps and Sens to disagree, argue, debate, and come to a resolution.
I mean, I would be for a standardized ballot across all States, with the ability to electronically vote. Seems like that would be simple enough to secure, regulate, and monitor. One vote per social security number .... seems like a no brainer. Why we have paper ballots, for the majority of Americans, in 2022 ... seems really silly too me.
and ya .... McConnell jammed through SCOTUS and Fed appointees but .... keep in mind the only reason he was able to do that was because Harry Reid went nuclear and made a carve out. McConnell warned him NOT to do what he did.
Getting rid of the filibuster is just ... bad .... what if in the future ... a political party that has simple majorities wants to abolish the 13th Amendment??? what then? Without the filibuster they could do it and it would be legal. Do we really ...REALLY ... want to go down that path?
Here is what I think we both can agree on ..... this utter tribalism that we are currently experiencing needs to stop. Both Repubs and a Dems are guilty of it .... the way to get rid of it is NOT to inject more partisan tribalism
I'm with you on finding common ground and putting tribalism aside, but to do that we have to agree on what the facts are first and it doesn't help when one side continually make statements that aren't true. Examples from your post above:
-
Unrequested ballots are
NOT part of the FVA
- It
DOES require an ID to vote. We can quibble over whether utility bills and bank statements should qualify as IDs, but nonetheless, there is a requirement there.
- Harry Reid did
NOT create a carve out for Supreme Court justices - he only orchestrated that change for judicial nominees and presidential appointments, excluding the Supreme Court. This was done because Republicans tried to filibuster so many of Obama's appointments. When Republicans re-gained power, McConnell expanded the rule to include Supreme Court justices.
For the record, I like you as a poster because half of your posts piss me off and the other half I agree with, so even though you're somewhat partisan, you're reasonable, smart and fair most of the time. You really should post more here.
So I'm all onboard with cutting back on the rancor and finding places where we agree, but let's stop pretending that all these new Republican policies aren't intended to make it harder to vote. You may not see the need for ballot boxes, for example, but that's because you don't need it yourself. You're ignoring how critical that is for some who may live many miles from a drop-off box and may lack transportation, can't get off work to stand in line etc...Why would you want to make it harder for those people to vote? Remember, there was
NO widespread fraud so you're attempting to control a thing that wasn't a problem to begin with. Republicans can't win the popular vote anymore so their only hope is to make it harder for "others" to vote, particularly in swing states.
On the other hand, we continually hear about real fraud attempts from the right that your side ignores, i.e.
-
forged election certificates in seven states
- "just call the election corrupt and I'll take it from there"
- "I just want to find 11,780 votes"
- fraudits
- Red states appointing partisan boards that have the authority to diminish the authority of secretaries of state over their own elections
- Running Big Lie candidates for every office in an attempt to subvert election machinery and exploit various constitutional loopholes.
- Pressuring and criminalizing – the work of election officials.
And let's not forget that 147 Republicans voted to overturn the election results and 71% of Republicans polled STILL believe the lie that the election was stolen!
This is why the FVA is
so important. It isn't after a theoretical boogeyman - it's attempting to address the blatant rot and corruption we are witnessing before our very own eyes
So yes, let's find common ground but how about we start by addressing the REAL problems and not the IMAGINARY ones.