Republicans push another vote suppression bill

Let us review some of the changes

First- all of you bitching about “what is wrong with showing ID” need to shut up- ID is already required. An individual who does not provide identification for election purposes is issued a provisional ballot.

1. Instead of merely asking for ID, now election workers would have to ASK for the voter to verbally state full name and current residence address and still then have to write it down.

2. the law always asked for signature comparison which is stupid anyway. signatures change over time and poll workers are not handwriting experts. Besides they just presented ID.!

3. “an applicant for an absent voter ballot must either provide his or her driver license number or official state personal identification card number on the application, provide the last 4 digits of his or her Social Security number on the application, or present an original or a copy of identification for election purposes to the clerk of the city or township in which the elector is registered”

this is stupid. nobody is going to MAIL their ID in and not everyone has a copy machine at home. and now adding this information risks ID theft. they were on the voter list already per legal means- this is just busy work

4. Republians are now also banning tabulation of provisional ballots if the items above are missing- meaning someone’s legal vote wont be counted!

5. The secretary of state, the clerk of a county, city, or township, and all individuals employed by this state or a political subdivision of this state are prohibited from sending an absent voter ballot application to an elector for an election unless that elector has first requested an absent voter ballot application for that election. The secretary of state, the clerk of a county, city, or township, and all individuals employed by this state or a political subdivision of this state are prohibited from sending or providing an absent voter ballot to an elector for an election unless that elector has first submitted an absent voter ballot application for that absent voter ballot under this section.

WHY? to stifle the vote- VOTE SUPPRESSION.

6. ANOTHER STUPID PROVISION: “If an applicant transmits his or her completed absent voter ballot application electronically, a copy of his or her identification for election purposes may also be transmitted electronically WTH we are supposed to now SCAN our ID in? we are already ON the SoS website for cryin out loud. and again not everyone has a copy machine at home or can finagle scanning and jump drives jeezuz

7. The Republicans missed this. they changed “Uniformed services” to spell out all the branches but forgot the Space Force- guess they do not get to vote?

8. despite literally NO vote fraud this bill completely eliminates a voters ability to sign an affadavit in lieu the ID requirements which then means they get NO ballot and are disenfranchised

9. “ All absent voter ballots must be delivered to the city or township clerk, or to an absent voter ballot drop box, by 8:00 p.m. on election day. An absent voter ballot delivered after 8:00 p.m. on election day must not be counted. “ COMPLETE BULLSHIT- even your utility accepts postmark date as proof you paid a bill on time. A voter has NO ability to ensure the ballot isn’t held up in the mail which is what trump TRIED to do this last election messing with the post office

10 provisional ballots won’t be counter to let the voter makes a second trip down to their local clerk to prove. previously all the clerk had to do is verify that the voter was registered. now Republicans are just putting added work on to the voter themselves

11. do you want SoS to keep a qualified voter file as well as an inactive voter file-they’re trying to separate active from registered.

and the inactive file is stupid because the law says as soon as you vote you come off that list anyways

12 and there’s a section that said only money appropriated by the legislature can be used for election issues. -this section is clearly at the Secretary of State for sending out absentee ballot application proactively basically saying if the legislature didn’t actually give her the money to do what she can’t do it

Originally published at http://dennisbmurphy.blogspot.com.