Ready for some good political news for a change? It appears that the news gods have decided to hand us a very special one today. Part of what made the past years so difficult was an irrational ex-president, a Republican Party gone quasi-Fascist, and the isolation in our quarantine caves. Well, look to Nevada to lift our spirits.
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolack just signed an expanded mail-in voting bill into law. And his state not alone. A number of other states have also expanded their voter access, too.
This is the way the new law works in Nevada. The state will automatically send every registered voter a mail-in ballot. Of course, if they prefer to vote in person, which is a nice tradition, and they want to save the state some expense, they can always opt out.
The way the law came into being was that the state decided this was a healthier way of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Donald Trump was against it, but Nevada won the court case giving it that right.
Governor Sisleck is “proud that Nevada continues to push forward,” according to The Forbes magazine:
‘At a time when state legislatures across the country are attempting to roll back access to the polls, I am so proud that Nevada continues to push forward with proven strategies that make voting more accessible and secure.’
Nevada was not the first state to expand its voter access laws. In addition, 14 states have signed into effect 28 laws expanding voters’ rights as of mid-May, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. There are currently 115 laws working their way through state legislatures. Conversely, 14 states have 22 laws restricting voter access with 61 more laws coming up through their Capitols.
In Illinois, its Congress passed a bill that created an efficient permanent vote-by-mail list. That way voters do not need to go through the superfluous time-eating process of yearly ballot applications. In addition, Illinois’ legislators put “temporary polling places in some county jails.”
The state implemented some security controls including “electronic devices to approve signatures on mail-in ballots.” This legislation passed in spite of multiple lawsuits prior to the 2020 presidential elections.
Late last month, Louisana, which has a Republican-controlled Congress, passed a bill to expand early voting by four days. It appears that Governor John Bel Edwards will sign the bill into law.
Vermont will follow Nevada with its bill to automatically mail registered voters ballots. The state’s Governor Phil Scott (R) is slated to sign it. Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Virginia have already implemented voter rights bills with the last state coming in at the top of all others for the most bills.
Many of the GOP-dominated states have installed bizarre voter restriction laws and audits even though Donald Trump’s voting integrity commission found zero cases of voter fraud, the Associated Press reported. In 2018, the ex-president’s voter fraud czar, commission chair, and former secretary of state for Kansas Kris Kobach (R-KS) left Washington DC.
When the commission was active, commissioner Christy McCormick wanted to hire a statistician:
‘When I was at DOJ (Department of Justice), we had numerous discussions that made me pretty confident that he is conservative (and Christian, too).’
Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap (D), who was supported by the nonprofit organization American Oversight, released the results of the Republican commissioners, who excluded Democrats. He sent then-Vice President and acting commissioner chair Mike Pence and Kobach a letter stating there were “pre-ordained conclusions.” Dunlap pointed to drafts of the commission’s final report indicating “evidence of voter fraud” was “glaringly empty:”
‘Indeed, a very few commissioners worked to buttress their pre-ordained conclusions shielded from dissent or dialogue from those commissioners not included in the discussions.’
Kobach responded:
‘For some people, no matter how many cases of voter fraud you show them, there will never be enough for them to admit that there’s a problem.’
In the end, Trump disbanded the commission.
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
