ftfy 
Know a bully: They will disrespect your DIGNITY if you so much as look askance at their AUTHORITY.
6 Likes
6 Likes
They want a huge coordinated list of people who are registered Democratic along with their names and addresses to provide a treasure trove of people who are likely to vote against them. They can then use any number of voter suppression techniques to specifically affect those voters. Sure, this is public information, but in the past it wasn’t all put into computer databases for easy selection of voters to intimidate. We’ve also had politicians who’ve used voter suppression in the past, but never on the enormous scale we see today. We’ve also had bad and corrupt politicians, but never on the scale of Trump and the republicans in Washington. The combination is incredibly frightening.
And the more they get away with it, the more they will escalate. How about thugs being paid to go to the homes of people who “vote the wrong way?” and threaten them with physical violence if they leave the house on voting day? This is why voting by mail ahead of election day is a good idea, and why Republicans have eliminated it where they can.
I hope that answers your question.
ETA: missing word, removed “of the former two”
12 Likes
And to think how far we’ve fallen from the days of “vote or die”.
5 Likes
When I graduated from eighth grade, I looked forward to leaving the behavior of juvenile twits behind me and moving on to better things.
But the juvenile twits themselves stayed twits, grew up, and have dragged us all back into the eighth grade they never left.
10 Likes
7 Likes
So much for “Live Free or Die”.
4 Likes
I can’t find anywhere in the letter where this information is requested. It doesn’t request any information on how votes were cast. States don’t even keep track of individual voter choices. The voter id is separated from the choice at the time of tallying. Maybe I’m missing it. Please tell me where in the letter it is.
if you vote is part of how you vote. That’s not been public info. I see what you’re saying too, but look for the agreement before you focus solely on the part that wasn’t clear. You two have more in common than different here.
3 Likes
In the example you give Maryland hasn’t refused to cooperate. It has stated that no such information is available under state law. The letter from the Commission specifically requested information “publicly available under the laws of your state”. Let’s apply the same logic to a personal transaction. Suppose John said to Jack “Hey, buddy, can I have a cigarette?” and Jack replied honestly, “No, I haven’t any cigarettes.”. Jack could neither comply nor refuse the request because he had no cigarettes. His lack of cigarettes made the object of the request null. Complying or refusing requires that one make a choice.
It has all been put into computer databases for many decades. The Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee both maintain such databases. Every major party Presidential campaign committee has had such databases since 1970 or so. There are even commercial companies which maintain such databases. Here is one http://www.gravismarketing.com/services/voter-lists-voter-data-consumer-list/ . There is nothing new here. The compilation of this data by the Committee doesn’t provide any new resources for those who wish to illegally intimidate people into not voting.
1 Like
Actually it is and has been public info in some states. The Committee requested only information which was already public. If it isn’t public in a particular state then the Committee didn’t request it. Take a look at this website http://voterlist.electproject.org/ . It lists what information is available from each state and who is allowed to request it.
Yes, I suspect that you are right. I do have more in common with the folks who are commenting here than is obvious. I guess it’s just my terse style of writing that keeps me from repeating things I agree with. The Committee did proceed with its work in a ham-handed manner. It should’ve publicly stated exactly how the data was to be used before requesting it. It should also include members of other political factions and researchers who are not politically inclined (if there are any). Unfortunately, our President doesn’t realize how important public perceptions are in government.
1 Like
it’s not exactly fair of me to criticize, but a little “yes, and” with the “no, but” really encourages the back and forth. The forth to the back, if you will. My peace is now said. You add a lot to conversation, so keep doing your thing, no worries.
(see how that little forth to the back, helped?) (I’ll shut up now)
1 Like
I have my doubts about your good faith, but I’m engaging against my better instincts because of the importance of the issue.
“In addition, in order for the Commission to fully analyze vulnerabilities and issues related to voter registration and voting, I am requesting that you provide to the Commission the publicly available voter roll data for Connecticut, including, if publicly available under the laws of your state, the full first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in your state), last four digits of social security number if available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.”
This is, plain and simple, the aggregation of a database to facilitate GOP gerrymandering and voter suppression including, as @One_Brown_Mouse already noted, the intimidation implicit in knowing your information will be collected by the political officers of a central government entirely under the control of a single party (instead of the 42 year old non-partisan Federal Election Commission agency). Trump’s signing of Executive Order 13799 was probably fueled by his own inability to believe he isn’t loved by almost all “real American” (AKA straight, white Americans). He ain’t exactly a chess master. But smarter GOP politicians in his orbit (Kris Kobach and his ilk) know full well they’re consolidating and industrializing gerrymandering, and hope to do it fast enough to stop them from losing control in next year’s mid-term elections or in 2020.
The Founding Fathers couldn’t have foreseen the internet, but they explicitly reserved powers not explicitly given to the Federal government for the States. The GOP’s end-run around that check and balance to centralize their rigging of elections is no accident. They’re committed to building a perpetual one-party state, and that means deploying every means of stopping registered Democrats and independents from voting or having their vote count. The Alt-Right is a ruthless machine that’s already eaten the Republican Party and is aiming for our democracy with remorseless single-mindedness.
ETA: If I’m wrong and @One_Brown_Mouse is correct that you were debating in good faith, then I apologize for initially losing my temper at you.
10 Likes
I think it’s important to note that it isn’t just gerrymandering and suppression these days. There’s a fair bit of disenfranchisement and intimidation in the mix as well.
Racially targeted felon disenfranchisement, racially targeted voter roll purges, direct electoral intimidation by both Trumpeter goons and police.
8 Likes
Absolutely. The GOP wants a database from which to centrally organize their electioneering. If Democrats put half as much energy and enthusiasm into winning elections as the Republicans do into rigging them, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
6 Likes
You are one of the folks commenting here; this is us:
5 Likes
Wait, what? We’re all redshirts? Fuck, we’re gonna die.
11 Likes
Enthusiastic elections on the left require genuine representation of the interests of the working class. Can’t let that happen; get the peasants riled up and they might start talking revolution.
4 Likes
Doxing people is now presidential behavior.
3 Likes
