In response to virus social distancing worries ?
More and more states are allowing their citizens to vote by mail…
Donald Trump and Republicans have been working on voter suppression for decades afraid that more Democrats will vote if they aren’t blocked access at voting sites by ID, limited voting sites, limited voting machines and other ways to discourage people from voting…
A wave vote in the 2018 midterms probably has them even more scared….
A majority of Americans favor changing election laws to allow everyone to vote by mail, new polling shows, but Republicans are far less likely than Democrats to agree, highlighting a deep partisan divide on the issue ahead of November’s election.
According to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 58% of Americans favor permanently changing election laws to allow everyone to vote by mail. But just 31% of Republicans agree, compared to 82% of Democrats. And 61% of those who say they get their news from Fox News oppose vote-by-mail.
This divide comes as President Donald Trump has emerged as the driving force behind anti-vote-by-mail sentiments. And it highlights the degree to which the President’s recent strident opposition to vote by mail — despite himself voting by absentee ballot in Florida — has been amplified by conservative media and his campaign.
The partisan framing for vote by mail is a sharp departure from the history of this issue, which experts say have long been bipartisan and more driven by geography than party affiliation.
“Some, especially those in the beltway, may be viewing this through a partisan lens,” said Myrna Perez, director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program. “Outside of the beltway there are a lot of acknowledgment that states already have mail balloting systems and that’s one of the ways we are going to keep Americans safe.”
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly railed against a push to expand vote-by-mail options for voters in this presidential election year….
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In Florida, for example, Republican officials have long pushed voters to mail in ballots and have counted on the strategy to get an edge over Democrats in the state.
“We have won elections using mailed-in votes, period,” David Johnson a former executive director of the Republican Party of Florida and a GOP consultant told Politico…
There is no known cure for Republicans obsessive focus on “voter fraud” of which their almost irrational opposition to mail in voting is just one symptom.
Generally they also oppose such other methods to increase voting turnout as early voting, longer hours for in person voting and more convenient polling locations.
They rarely produce any real proof of all this alleged voter fraud .Trump even established some kind of commission on the matter that eventually dissolved when they couldn’t come up with anything of substance.
As a result of this sort of “fake issue?”The only reasonable conclusion one can reach is that these are purposeful moves by the Republican Party to suppress the number of people who vote,assumingly because they believe that the higher the turnout the worst it is for their electoral prospects.
Remember this when they start with their “freedom” talk.
“As of Thursday morning, about 1.3 million registered Democrats had requested and been approved for mail ballots for the June 2 primary election, compared with about 524,000 Republicans. Republicans made just 29% of the requests, even though they represent 38% of registered voters in the state and 45% of those registered with either major party,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Said GOP county chairwoman Lee Snover: “We’re kind of listening to Trump on this. He’s spoken about it. He’s tweeted about it. He doesn’t want us to do it.”
Politicalwire…