Ohio purged 26,000 voters days before abortion referendum deadline

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    But it’s unusual to remove voter registrations this close to an election given the risk of disenfranchising people who intend to vote but simply missed the memo that they had been flagged for removal. In fact, if this was a national election rather than a state-level contest, what LaRose’s office has done would have been illegal. The National Voter Registration Act prohibits elections offices from systematically removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.

    Looks Ohio will have to pass ANOTHER state Constitutional amendment forcing politicians to follow a reasonable requirement of 90 days.

    • Salamendacious@lemmy.worldOP
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      Hopefully someday it will be a federal law. I think disenfranchised voters ought to be able to sue the governors and\or attorneys general who removed them from the rolls.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        Section 1983 of the federal code already exists. We just need the entire law to be followed, so that the clearly illegal decision made by the 1982 SCOTUS (unknowingly, they actually called out the fact that the clause was removed without knowing, since the didn’t check the Congressional Record, because why would they?) at the end of Harlow V Fitzgerald can be reversed.

        In 1871 the reconstruction Congress passed section 1983 of the federal code. In 1874 a single unnamed person was tasked with the procedure of hand copying the Congressional Record into the Federal Register. They removed a 16 word clause illegally. That clause specifically said “lol get fucked, no immunity from prosecution for government officials can exist, especially ones that were passed at the state level.” (Of course it says this in Legalese so the words aren’t as inflammatory) We need to force the lower courts to shove as many QI cases, with this information, at the current SCOTUS as possible to get Harlow V Fitzgerald overturned.

        https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/15/us/politics/qualified-immunity-supreme-court.html

        • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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          Considering that civil asset forfeiture is blatantly contrary to the explicit word and spirit of the Fourth Amendment, and it’s been enabled by the current courts, I don’t have much faith in QI being struck down but, that would be wonderful.

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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        I think the federal government should throw those officials in jail without the voters having to file a lawsuit. They’re flagrantly violating the literal most important rule in any democratic society.

  • CareHare@sh.itjust.works
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    I don’t get this. How is this democratic? I think it’s already ridiculous you have to go through all that trouble just to be able to vote on a random work day, and now they remove people who are already eligible to vote? The fuck.

    In my country (Europe) when you reach 18 years of age you receive a letter that you’re obligated to vote whenever the next election rolls around. Elections are always on Sundays and it’s very easy to give permission to someone else to vote for you in case you have to work. Voting also never takes more than half an hour.

    How do you pretend to be a democratic republic and make it so discouraging to vote?

    • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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      I don’t get this. How is this democratic?

      It isn’t. The Republicans have seen that the more people that vote, the more elections they lose. A healthy political party would use this fact to reexamine their views and the policies they support/oppose. (For example, reduce the anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and focus on budgetary conservatism.

      The Republican party isn’t a healthy political party, though. So instead of changing to reflect what the voters want, they are trying to change the voters. Since they can’t force voters to support what they (the Republicans) want, the Republicans are trying to change WHO is a voter.

      If you support what they want, then congratulations. You’re a legitimate voter. If you oppose them, then you’ll be stripped from the voting rolls and will have roadblocks erected to prevent you from getting your voting rights back.

    • Vyvanse@lemm.ee
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      I don’t understand it either. What’s the purpose of making voting so difficult? Is it to keep the less fortunate and less abled from being able to have a voice in elections?

      I’m in the US but my state does mail-in voting by default, so you get plenty of time to research and make your vote choices from the comfort of your own home. We also have automatic voter registration through our department of motor vehicles. I think either a system like your country has or my state has should be the standard across the US, but unfortunately it’s not.

      • ComradeWeebelo@lemm.ee
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        Voter disenfranchisement is a powerful weapon of the Republican party. It’s one of the key reasons why much of the south is the way it is despite attempts otherwise to address it.

      • TallonMetroid@lemmy.world
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        The mistake you’re making here is assuming that the Christofascists are acting in good faith. They’re not, and never have been. The entire point is to keep the “wrong” sort (read: anyone who isn’t one of them) from standing in the way of imposing their tyranny on everyone else.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      There is a legitimate need to purge voter rolls. But it’s supposed to be done after elections, when people have time to respond and keep their registration if there was a mistake.

      In the US voting is tied to states because of the electoral college. So if you move to another state you are supposed to register there and drop off the rolls in the state you came from.

      Done correctly purges are of people who haven’t voted in that state in the previous presidential election and any election since. This means you have to go years without voting to get purged.

      Purging voter rolls right before a contentious ballots of course is not good. And leaves no confidence it was done in good faith

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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        leaves no confidence it was done in good faith

        Fun fact: if you write “good faith” on a piece of paper and bring it to a meeting of Republicans it will burst into flames.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          I went to one meeting of Republicans. They accused the nearby mountain town of stealing their water by having trees. Of note, that mountain town is surrounded by a national forest. I don’t ever need to subject myself to that again.

          • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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            Here’s all you need to understand and Republican arguments:

            “In group: Good. Out group: Bad”

            Anything else is just a justification for that conclusion.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      I don’t get this. How is this democratic?

      Oh that’s simple. It’s not, nor is it supposed to be. Hope that clears things up.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      You assume that the USA is a democracy. They is your mistake right there. The us is a failed democracy at best, never really was one at worst. It’s all pretence and showmanship but in the end everything is rigged and corrupt as fuck

      • Dark ArcA
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        It’s all pretence and showmanship but in the end everything is rigged and corrupt as fuck

        Right because Trump winning is what the “rigged and corrupt” “deep state” wanted to happen. /s

        Things aren’t ideal but they’re far from rigged. There’s corruption but anywhere people and power are involved you’ll find someone trying to carve out more than their fair share.

              • Dark ArcA
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                And…?

                If you’re trying to make a point that the electoral college is messed up, yes. If you’re trying to make the point that that’s an example of things being “rigged” and “corrupt”, I think you’re way off base for what actual rigging and corruption looks like.

                Also, he did win the first election, which is what I’m talking about. If things were truly rigged and corrupt, Trump would’ve never been president. I shouldn’t have to qualify that with “in 2016”, but if it helps that’s what I meant.

    • StalinistTransition@lemm.ee
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      How do you pretend to be a democratic republic and make it so discouraging to vote?

      america does it all the time lol

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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      Ohio is a state, one of 50. Each is different with voting. Example: In Colorado one can just mail in their ballot or drop it off at ballot collection boxes scattered across the state that are under video surveillance, or vote traditionally on voting day if one wants.

      Treat states like an EU country, basically. Also, Ohio sucks, in general.

  • TheJims@lemmy.world
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    Tell me you hate American Democracy without telling me you hate American Democracy

  • PreviouslyAmused@lemmy.ml
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    If you know you’re going to lose, because you have nothing but hate as your platform; then cheating is literally the only option left

      • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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        A healthy political party would look at their declining votes and then figure out what policy changes would get more votes. (For example, maybe drop the whole anti-LGBTQ thing and go all in on “The government shouldn’t tell us how to live our lives.”)

        The GOP isn’t a healthy political party, though. Instead of changing to suit the voters, they want to change who votes to better align with their policies.

        I used to hope that the GOP would toss out the crazies and save themselves from oblivion. Now, I think they’re too far gone. They need to go and the Democrats need to split into Centrists and Progressives.

  • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
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    In May, Republicans in the state legislature introduced a bill that threatened to make it much harder to pass a constitutional amendment by requiring more than 60% of the vote to pass an initiative, rather than a simple majority – an effort explicitly designed to undercut the abortion referendum.

    LaRose, who is also running for a US Senate seat and is looking to endear himself with conservative voters, was a prominent supporter of that failed campaign.

    “This is 100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution,” LaRose said in June. “The left wants to jam it in there this coming November.”

    In a special election on 8 August, Ohio voters rejected the proposal by 57% to 43%, a lopsided result in the Republican-leaning state.

    No way a Republican is projecting. NO way. None. /s

  • FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world
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    Funny how the party that talks about voting fraud all the time is doing everything it can to undermine voting rights.

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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    smells like Murica

    this has been a problem and not just because of Republicans and not just isolated to Ohio It is a nationwide both controlling parties’ problem I myself have been made ineligible to vote due to laws made by our Demopublican politicians

    how else would they control the narrative?

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        I’m guessing he’s a felon or something. Not that felons should be disenfranchised either, of course, but phrasing it as “made ineligible to vote” sounds like that kind of euphemism to me.

      • sqw@lemmy.sdf.org
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        some dem states participate in ERIC which systematically does purge ostensibly-illegitimate voting records. the most republican states which became members, probably because they love purge, have since withdrawn because they didnt like the other ERIC function of notifying legitimate voters of their rights, which increased turnout.

        • Salamendacious@lemmy.worldOP
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          There’s nothing inherently wrong with regular voter purges, removing deceased voters for example, and even the most well intentioned system will have the occasional error. But there are attorneys general, I’ve only seen reports with Republican ones, who use voter purges explicitly to influence the results.

      • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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        They do it all the time.

        Voter list maintenance is a standard, legally required part of the election process, and many if not most of these registrations are for people who have moved away, died or long since stopped voting.

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      I have never once heard of the democrats purging voter rolls of legitimate registered voters. If that has happened before, I would love to see some evidence of it bcz that’s not cool regardless of who is doing it.