Re:U.S. companies lash out at Texas law changes, including a...
by MrStonedOne on Saturday September 04, 2021 @12:44PM
(#28416614)
>Goofs will be correctable until “the sixth day after election day.”
Too short of a timeline.
> Mail votes will be reported separately on election returns.
This is a poison pill you can't see.
Democrats have always been more likely to use mail in ballots because they are more likely to be in a position where going to poll isn't feasible.
So if the mail in votes lean one direction, and get reported separately (especially in a way that delays them) then republicans can attack the legitimacy of those votes.
Texas is gonna end up turning blue here soon and they want to make sure they can attack the legitimacy of that.
Re:U.S. companies lash out at Texas law changes, including a...
by jeffbee on Saturday September 04, 2021 @12:56PM
(#28416736)
C'mon, you are misrepresenting it. The new bill makes it unlawful to have weekend voting except for the last weekend before the election. It ends voting at 9pm, not 10pm. It forbids voting in tents. It relieves city officials from most oversight, empowering county officials instead. It forbids driving three or more people to a polling place, and does not exempt bus drivers even.
It's a ridiculous expansion of restrictions clearly targeting the way city dwellers vote, while trying to leave alone the way rural people vote.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-really-in-the-texas-votin... What’s Really in the Texas Voting Law Progressives are crying ‘voter suppression,’ but here are the facts. By The Editorial Board Wall Street Journal Sept. 1, 2021 6:38 pm ET
...
The Texas bill isn’t a blockade of the ballot box. The two most-cited provisions will ban 24-hour voting and drive-through voting, practices that weren’t even used until last year, when one county tried them in a pandemic. It isn’t crazy to think polling sites are likelier to attract trouble, or at least suspicion, at 3 a.m.
Early voting in Texas will be able to run from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., or Sundays from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. In some places, mandatory hours will go up. The bill says six Sunday hours will be required in counties with 55,000 people. The current rule is five hours in counties over 100,000. The new ban on drive-through voting has an exception for people with physical difficulties.
Texans using mail ballots will ID themselves by writing a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. That’s far less subjective than asking election workers to eyeball signatures. If the ID number is correct, the signature will be “presumed” valid. If the ID is wrong or there’s another problem, the bill provides a process to fix it. Goofs will be correctable until “the sixth day after election day.”
The bill is 75 pages, but here are some other bits that won’t make headlines but will help voter integrity: Every two years the state will audit four random counties. Ballot harvesting “in exchange for compensation” will be banned. Counties with more than 100,000 people will have to live stream video from their central counting location. Mail votes will be reported separately on election returns.
Election administrators will be barred from sending unsolicited absentee forms, though candidates and parties can do so. Courts will “instruct” newly convicted felons on their changed voting rights. Official correspondence with voting-system vendors will be deemed generally “not confidential.”
Democrats object that the bill empowers poll watchers. It also requires watchers to take a state “training program” and an oath that they won’t “disrupt the voting process.” The bill will make it a crime if an official “knowingly refuses to accept a watcher” or “knowingly prevents a watcher from observing an activity or procedure the person knows the watcher is entitled to observe.” The key word: “knowingly.”