Congress is not wrong to fix state voting rights
Fox News opinions on the physical fortitude of Desaline Victor aside, we should be troubled by the multitude of polling problems reported in recent elections.
Politics Blog
The home for Michigan's best political commentary
Voting Rights
Protect yourself from voter intimidation
This is it. Election day. Early reports from the polls indicate it’s chaotic. There are numerous accounts of confusion and voter intimidation in states with newly enacted voter ID laws. Poll workers who haven’t been properly trained and don’t know the rules. Many reports of ID being requested only from voters of color. There’s at … Continue Reading →
National Voting Registration Day
A government of the people, by the people, for the people only works if the people participate in the process. This means every single eligible voter needs to cast a ballot in order to let our political class know we’re watching them. If you don’t vote, they take it as an implicit consent to do … Continue Reading →
Voter fraud virtually non-existent
When conservatives claim that voter fraud justifies the odious voter ID laws Republican-run state governments have enacted they invariably bring up ACORN or some other voter registration scandal. The key word is “registration.” This does exist, however, Voter ID at the polls doesn’t prevent it and more importantly the fraud is almost always caught before … Continue Reading →
GOP voter suppression in Ohio
Adding to my post on Romney’s false accusations against Obama and the Republicans ongoing campaign to prevent Democrats, and especially minorities who vote Democratic, from exercising their right to cast a ballot, here’s another tactic Republicans use to suppress Democratic voters: Now, in heavily Democratic cities like Cleveland, Columbus, Akron and Toledo, early voting hours … Continue Reading →
Praise for Governor Snyder
Sometimes Michigan’s “Nerd in Chief” surprises me in a good way. So to give credit where it’s due, bravo for Gov. Snyder’s veto of three voter suppression bills this week. (Details at the link.) These three bills represented the worst of far right extremist efforts to prevent those voters they consider to be “undesirables” from … Continue Reading →
Michigan voters silenced by trumped up technicality
There’s an expression for this among the young people on the social internets but I can’t use it here in a family newspaper, so I’m just going to say, are you kidding me? It only takes two Republicans to subvert the voting rights of almost a quarter of million voters in Michigan? And they can … Continue Reading →
PA 163: The spam act
Since we’re about to vote tomorrow, I need to speak up about a new law that will force me to declare a party affiliation before I vote in the primary. In fact, the law actually states I have to make this declaration in writing. Why do Democrats and Republicans get a data-mining project sponsored by … Continue Reading →
Remember the Maine
If you remember the days after Iowa, when Mitt Romney “won” the state, and all the media outlets took the Iowa state GOP’s word on the matter (rather counting votes), you might be a little wary of when the next state GOP announcement from Maine also declares Mitt Romney the winner. In fact, you might … Continue Reading →