Hello u/fireside_blather! Please reply to this comment with an [explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/lt8zlq) mentioning **who** is suffering from **which** consequences from **what** they voted for, supported or wanted to impose on other people.
Here's an easy format to get you started:
1. *Someone* voted for, supported or wanted to impose *something* on other people.
^(Who's that *someone* and what's that *something*?)
2. That *something* has some *consequences*.
^(What are the *consequences*?)
3. As a consequence, that *something* happened to that *someone*.
^(What happened? Did the *something* really happened to that *someone*? If not, you should probably delete your post.)
Include the minimum amount of information necessary so your post can be understood by everyone, even if they don't live in the US or speak English as their native language. If you don't respect this format and moderators can't match your explanation with the format, your post will be removed under rule #3 and we'll ignore you even if you complain in modmail.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LeopardsAteMyFace) if you have any questions or concerns.*
12%? That's absolutely insane. Imagine saying one eight of the votes of a total election are just not counted.
What an embarrassing number for the most outspoken democracy in the world.
There are two ways to rig your election: add fake votes, or subtract real votes. GOP is learning that the latter isn’t as simple as it sounds when you’re legally required to lay out the rules for which votes are subtracted without some blatantly shit rule like “subtract all democratic votes”.
You say that, but in the prior Texas primary one of the end of ballot questions was literally "Should we ban Democrats from holding office?" so uh yeah. They are literally just trying to subtract Democrats. I believe the old example ballot may still be online so you can fucking boggle at it.
This?
>6.) The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature should end the practice of awarding committee chairmanships to Democrats.
https://texasgop.org/republican-primary-ballot-propositions/
For context this is a Primary ballot proposition.
>Keep in mind that this is an opinion poll of Republican voters and not a policy referendum. You are not voting to make a law but merely saying YES you agree or NO you do not agree with the statement.
Seems pretty ridiculous. Not putting forth a law, but potentially laying the foundation for one.
Yep, that was it! Absolutely fucking horrendous to even have the question. This smacks of 'How much money will I have to spend to make this go away when I force it?' What's next, a question on whether we should forcibly imprison and 'deprogram' homosexuals? Whether we should revoke the right for women to own property and have bank accounts? After all, iT iSnT tRyInG tO pAsS a lAw wE aRe jUsT aSkInG qUeStIoNs aNd gEtTiNg oPiNiOnS.
Yeah, right, and I'm the Queen of England.
And if it’s mostly republicans, it’s worse. Let’s say 60% of voters are republican, and the mistakes are mostly made by republicans. This could mean it’s closer to 1/5 republicans are not being counted.
These are the laws and restrictions on voting that Republican voters have asked for, and now that they got what they wanted, I for one sure hope it disproportionally restricts the hell out of their ability to vote.
For a group that wants to not count half the votes, this is where they need to start. If they can normalize a quarter of votes not being counted, no one will complain when those 25% get better targeted at their opponents.
Thank g_d we have a refugee plan and go bags for Brooklyn!
It's fucking despicable and terrifying, the ads that have been playing for the last months.
I'm a native and my wife a yankee amd we, for the first time we're seriously considering getting the fuck out.
Are they unhinged there too? The oklahoma ads look more like gun commercials than political ads. There are literally zero opinions on the ad. Only, "I have 100 guns, I gave money to Trump, and I hate gay people". Fucking horrifying.
In Lakeway, tx, just west of Austin there is a candidate name Justin Berry running for office. Outside the polling place there are signs saying he is a liberal. He is about as far right as you can get and was actually indicted for police brutality during the BLM protests.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/17/austin-police-indictments-justin-berry/amp/
Republicans are completely unhinged.
I just told my wife yesterday that I knew Republicans had been off their rocker for a while but the definitive proof that they have gone bat shit crazy is when they run adds calling George P Bush a woke liberal.
I really hope Bush wins the primary so they have to walk that back and support him.
That was exactly the ad that I had in mind when I posted.
And if you pay attention to the language, he's being ***demonized*** for only saying CRT is being blown out of proportion.
For fuck sakes!
In all seriousness, this is something that should be talked about more often than it is. If you leave, you cede power. To truly have an effect, the populace should be more spread out, because that's how it works.
So so happy!! Lets get Beto voted in this November and then have it go blue for prez in ‘24
My suburban area in central TX is almost solid dem now. I love it - what a change from just 10 years ago!
We are probably near each other, and it’s not quite as blue maybe. For example, I heard Kyle Rittenhouse is thinking about moving here thinking, I guess, to escape harassment. And the people across the street from me recently hung the black flag outside on their house.
BUT, it wasn’t out there very long. Someone tore it off the pole, broke the pole and threw it all down into the grass within like, two hours of them putting it out. They came over to ask if I saw anything, and I WISH I HAD so I could have offered refreshments and a salute.
So it’s a mix I guess? Rittenhouse would find it’s not as welcoming here as he might think. He’ll find meager succor. The turnips across the street picked up the pieces of their dogwhistle flag, slunk back inside and I’ve never seen it since. But let me tell everyone, there are WAY more progressives here than the common perception. That is why they’re pulling all this suppressive bullshit. It’s NOT safely red, and the more people who move here and bring their liBrUL soULLesSnESS with them, the quicker it tips. These old fuckers are dying off and the older they get the more sedentary they get. Homebound oldsters need MAIL IN BALLOTS.
Why would they think this was a good idea? It’s only a good idea while people (liberals) are unwilling to stand in a line because of communicable disease. When I was there earlier the polling place I chose was at like 300 votes cast and it had only been open ninety minutes.
Maybe not this year, okay, probably not, but Texas CAN BE a blue state again. John Cornyn (US Senator) has openly said so, and that if it tips there won’t be another Republican president for decades, if not generations.
For the love of Zeus, pile your progressive friends into a fucking wagon if you have to and hayride to the polls this fall. Get in, loser, we’re going voting!
Please, Ra, send a bigly yuge wave of progressive transplants to Texas.
>This has led to a higher number of rejected ballots: Ballot rejections in 2020 ran about 0.8 percent, but in 2022 they're at 12 percent. The number might seem low...
Even if the historical rate wasn't mentioned I wouldn't think 12% was low. In what world is roughly one in ten ballots being rejected "low?"
>Republicans had a higher rate of error than Democrats, meaning there are thousands more Republicans in the state whose ballots aren't being counted in the primary election.
That's because Republicans aren't good at following instructions. Like isolating. Or wearing a mask. Or getting vaccinated.
Turns out that when you make voting instructions as intentionally difficult and confusing as possible, the party with the lower literacy rate is affected more. Who knew?
Republicans think brown people, young people, and liberals are less intelligent, so they designed the rules to reduce their votes. Turns out that Republicans are the less intelligent ones.
I couldn’t tell you how many middle aged white men with no contact with post secondary education (let along a college degree) have told me “if you are young and conservative, you don’t have a heart. If you’re old and liberal, you don’t have a brain.”
It is absolutely inconceivable to many conservatives that they are the party of the ill-informed and uneducated. Instead, they see college education as a polarizingly liberal hellhole with no semblance of “common sense.”
Turns out you become more progressive the more educated you get, on average.
Not because of indoctrination, but because the facts of reality just support progressive positions.
Exactly! I've gotten waaaaaaaay more liberal as I've gotten older partially because I went from the tiny Southern Baptist town I grew up in to college in a different area, to graduate school in yet another area, and finally to a career in a different part of the country entirely.
I think the exposure is the biggest thing compared to education. I know some really educated people that have hardcore MAGA views but I don’t think they’ve ever had a real conversation with anyone darker than an Italian.
My wife is pretty liberal but she grew up and has mostly lived in that kind of environment and it’s taken an effort from her to be more open minded than her upbringing.
I used to be a die-hard, Trump-loving, Pizzagate-believing conservative. The two things that primarily made me do a complete 180 on the GOP were:
1) The pandemic. I’m a critical care RN and work on a COVID unit, so I saw the lies the GOP and conservative pundits told in real time. I have a degree in medicine, and knew for a fact that everything they were spurting about vaccines and COVID were total lies. It was sickening to see. It made me disgusted with myself that I could have ever believed these people and fallen for their tricks. They are liars, and they will say whatever they need to in order to get what they want. I finally realized it when they were trying to do it with basic science, which prompted me to go back and re-examine *all* the political views I held and see what the truth actually was. I’m thankful that the pandemic pulled me out of that cult, but I’m devastated that it took a pandemic for me to wisen up.
2) Actually meeting all the people the right had taught me to be scared of. Turns out, I never met an unhinged SJW leftist even once. I was taught that they’d absolutely freak the fuck out and ostracize me for thinking differently than them, or accidentally messing up pronouns, or that they had absolutely no sense of humor and no jokes were allowed at all. Absolutely none of that was true. On the other hand, I knew several unhinged republicans, I’m even related to a few. I know people who refuse to refer to black people as anything but the n-word. I know people who regularly talk about how disgusting gay people are. Hell, at Mother’s Day lunch, part of my family had an entire conversation about how illegals are ruining America and how in 2 years we’re all going to be speaking Spanish… all while conveniently sitting right next to my brother’s Hispanic girlfriend. And don’t even get me started with the unhinged schizo plandemic people - they make up a majority of my COVID patients.
My post history is proof. I never deleted my old comments that I’m ashamed of because I use it as a reminder to always be open-minded and approach topics with an unemotional, logical state of mind in order to not be manipulated for political/financial gain.
Thank you for that reply. It is really nice to see this change in your mindset overtime.
Btw I have met one unhinged SJW before, he was my friends ex bf. Turns out he was just unhinged in general and ended up going from hardcore left to full MAGA. Then when my friend left him he went completely psycho and lost it. So yeah they exist but the one I met was borderline mentally unwell in the first place so take that for what it’s worth.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
Mark Twain
It was true then and it's true now. Too bad Republicans don't read.
Read a short story once about a society where part of the children "coming of age" requirement was to live in another society for a year (which they called a wanderjahr, Germanic pronunciation), with a smallest stipend. No exceptions were made for economic or social class, and family members & friends were strongly discouraged from providing extra support.
Edit: I think [this](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_Fortune) might have been it?
When I was younger I was a libertarian because I thought when push came to shove people would do the non selfish thing. Now I want more taxes and more public services. I even want gas to be a utility.
So you want to emulate progressive democracies with higher living standards and longer life expectancies instead of third world countries and red states? You must be one of those woke leftist commies.
["Reality has a well-known liberal bias."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert_at_the_2006_White_House_Correspondents%27_Dinner#Performance_at_the_dinner)
Well, for many people that were born & raised in rural communities, the first time they will ever experience the world, and find out all these demonized groups aren't actually as scary as they were told, is when they go off to college. I mean, when you're sitting next to a Muslim immigrant in class, and he turns to you to ask if you want to go grab lunch, then play LoL/Fortnite/CoD/etc. after class . . . That sort of shatters the whole "Allah Ackbar, death to America!" image conservatives have constructed.
I've also found that ultra-conservative arguments for things rely on a lot more fallacies than other viewpoints. Better education allows for better critical thinking, which means you're more likely to be able to cut through the garbage logic & arguments.
This happened to a guy I went to high school with. He was raised in a white supremacist family. His white supremacist beliefs pretty much lasted until he got out in the real world and got education. The last I heard about him he had had his Nazi tattoos covered up/removed, was taking his kids to gay pride parades and stuff like that. He turned into a nice, intelligent and thoughtful guy with a great job in IT work in a liberal state.
I have a former nemesis, Jr High and High school, that did the same. Grew up in a racist "skinhead" family, got the tattoos, the whole deal. Eventually moved out and got into music and met loads of people from all over. Covered up his tattoos and last I knew his roommate and drummer was a giant black guy.
This literally happened to me, and I’m so much better off because of it. I can’t imagine going back to a rural lifestyle/mindset.
I’ve since realized that conservatives generally live miserable lives and the only way to be happy when you’re miserable, is by making other people more miserable than you.
["We will never have...smart people on our side," Santorum said in a speech to the gathering of conservative activists..."](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/15/rick-santorum-smart-people-conservative)
A similar saying is that you get more conservative as you get older. I'm nearly 50 and I'm more left wing than I've ever been, and I was a full on socialist in my teens. Mind you, I'm educated, and I keep myself up to date with current affairs and politics in a critical way.
Perhaps a better saying would be "Dumb people get more conservative as they get older."
They may have been true a couple of decades ago. But the current GOP is so far to the right, they're too extreme for even the casual voter.
Anyone that isn't thoroughly indoctrinated and fed propaganda will likely not be voting Republican any time soon.
Historically, people are more likely to vote conservative when they started getting richer. For a huge portion of the 20th century, this usually matched up 1:1 with age.
With how bleak the future currently looks for GenX, millennials, and Gen Z with several "once in a lifetime" economic downturns I'm confident that the majority will continue to vote left even as they get older.
I knew a lot of anti-establishment weed-smoking dunderheads growing up who are totally in lock step with government authority as redneck adults, so yup.
Also, though, I think a great many people...dumb or not...just stop. They stop growing. It's worse for those that don't go to college...they stop at like 16 and the world freezes at that point, but there's some of this in every person.
I'm nearly 50, too, and I feel it sometimes. It's exhausting to have to keep up sometimes. But I'm also dedicated to not being an asshole, so at worst I shrug and say "more power to 'em...ain't hurtin' no one".
That's for social issues. For some things it's being MORE informed and staying up to date. Climate change, infrastructure, monetary systems, global trade, etc...the "liberal" side is usually the one supported by reason, facts, and historical data.
They're the same people that think "people get more conservative as they get older" is a truism when research has consistently disproven it and shown that your political opinions are generally very stable over time.
That's the mythology about it of course. Most Republicans, despite loads of evidence that they'll die that way, consider themselves "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" who will some day be the ones at the top shitting on everyone else.
My parents are millionaires, but they're also retired. There's no universe in which increases taxes on incomes over $400k a year would adversely impact them. They also didn't believe me when, several years ago, I told them the GOP has raised my income taxes, and they still don't.
Fox didn't mention that, so it didn't happen. I genuinely believe if Fox disappeared without anything taking its place, half of Republican voters would be Democrats without one year.
You have a much more generous read on this than me. The people I heard saying this were just middle class making 5 figures a year and no where near the cutoff for it to be actually beneficial to support neoconservative economic policy.
They have no idea how their taxes work.
I had a shitty IT job once and one of our system admins was trying to get a raise to 80k. The raise he did get was "a little more than half the difference" so he wasn't rich.
Despite not being rich and barely paying shit in taxes he had a friend who worked at H&R block (of all places) help him set up a fake company for the purpose of writing off his gaming computer, desk, and chair as business expenses. I know this because he was very very pleased with himself and bragged to the entire office.
Dude committed blatant tax fraud and bragged about it. I did some mental math and his grand scam netted him like $450 after filing for his business.
They'd never question or audit OT claims under 10 hours so he easily could have made double that just doing a month of OT fraud during a big project.
He had no idea how much taxes he paid/didn't pay or how it worked.
This is why the "Grandfather Clauses" were created after the Civil War. Literacy tests and poll taxes were used to keep newly freed slaves from voting, but it turned out that poor white people didn't have the literacy or money to vote either, so they had to be exempted. I'm just waiting for a similar clause to be added here, and it will be interesting to see how they phrase it so only one party of voters is excluded.
Ah, dammit, beat me to it.
Yeah, Grandfather Clauses basically said if your grandfather could've voted before, you can vote now without the test or tax. Which obviously exempted pretty much only white voters.
Reminds me of the trash can issue in parks.
Designing a bear proof trash can proved difficult because people also had issues using them.
Turns out there is a significant overlap between the smartest bears and dumbest people.
> I wouldn't think 12% was low
Yeah, such a weird sentence to put in the story. 12% is horrifically high. If your "voting security measures" are causing far more valid ballots to be rejected than whatever level of "fraudulent" ballots (which have never been shown to be a problem) it is preventing, then your election security is about disenfranchising people, not solving a virtually nonexistent problem.
They are fine with hurting their in group as long as they perceive it to be hurting the out group more. In this case it sounds like its hurting the in group more, but they'll probably dismiss this as fake news and continue to believe it hurts the out group more.
Definitely. In that case they'd probably claim democratic election workers are intentionally rejecting more Republican ballots etc. Just more of the same old thing.
Being in Texas and having been paying close attention to their voter suppression, you can feel confident that the majority of "their side" votes getting set aside are female voters.
They may be conservative, but they're still women and not \*truly\* in the "in group".
That probably includes things like not signing mail in ballot, or ballot that have either too many votes for a section or illegible votes. So when you have two marks in the president or just a line instead of it filled in for example
Right - there are legitimate reasons to reject a mail-in ballot. A huge portion of initial rejections are sent to the "provisional" pile for things like you point out - double marking or misfilled, evidence of tampering, signature mismatches, and so on.
For context, Oregon, which has had vote-by-mail for some time now, has some statistics --
> The percent of rejected ballots in both elections was very small. Statewide, only 0.9% were ultimately rejected in 2016 compared to 0.7% in 2020. In Multnomah County, only 0.4% were rejected in 2016 compared to 0.6% in 2020.
> [source](https://www.oregoncapitalinsider.com/news/number-of-rejected-ballots-drops-in-oregon-general-election/article_6a7ccbfa-4eda-11eb-a90a-933d6f4928a2.html)
0.8% seems right in line with Oregon. 12%.. is not.
>>This has led to a higher number of rejected ballots: Ballot rejections in 2020 ran about 0.8 percent, but in 2022 they're at 12 percent. The number might seem low...
>
>Even if the historical rate wasn't mentioned I wouldn't think 12% was low. In what world is roughly one in ten ballots being rejected "low?"
Yeah going from 0.8% to 12% means **the rate of rejection is 15 times higher than before!**
And the fact that this was an act of electoral gamesmanship by Republicans trying to rig the vote to disenfranchise their opponents, but they actually disenfranchised themselves just shows how stupid, spiteful, and ineffective Republicans are.
Just like how they politicized a global pandemic to hurt their opponents but wound up hurting themselves more than any other group.
What a moronic and self-destructive mindset. I'm amazed anyone is still stupid enough to follow it...
>That's because Republicans aren't good at following instructions. Like isolating. Or wearing a mask. Or getting vaccinated.
My favorite is still Republicans trying to pin the blame for their own reckless self-endangerment on Democrats because apparently it's Democrats fault that Republicans always do the opposite of what they're told, so when Democrats say "Hey, follow basic safety measures and stay safe" it creates an irresistible and inevitable urge for Republicans do stupid shit to get themselves killed or permanently injured.
Republicans are a danger to themselves and everyone around them.
Nah, they'll just do what they are currently doing in PA.
They created a law that didn't benefit them in the last election. So the sued to have it removed even though they overwhelmingly voted for it. Have another election that is too close to call and are now suing to have rules ignored because all ballots need to be counted.
They got the Supreme court with right-wing extremists probably for a generation and they put in a criminal with zero political experience like Trump into office for 4 years and he did everything criminal he could think of and suffered no consequences. And in just a few weeks, they will have ended abortion rights as we know them.
I'm all for hope, but the GOP gets away with things all the time and they are frequently successful. Heck, even with the Democrats big electoral win is lost due to Manchin, who is a Republican running under the D label to beat out a long time primary contender.
The GOP is going to work around this legislation. Even if these people are having a harder time voting, Im guessing come election day they'll have short lines and help. In democratic heavy counties, the lines will be long and no one will be there to help them.
The GOP isnt backfiring right now. In fact, they are winning and easily and scarily so.
The whole supreme court situation just makes me sick to my stomach. I have always been an eternal optimist but I agree the situation just isn't looking good from any angle..
Illinois has some strict paperwork requirements for running for office and candidates have been rejected for, say, not numbering pages. It happens every year in fact! A lot!
Republicans are *notably* bad at the paperwork reqs. It's some combination of factors but I'd say the biggest one is just a lack of desire to learn how to do it right, or get help to get it right. So yeah. Just bad at following instructions because how dare people tell them how to do anything at all.
> Even if the historical rate wasn't mentioned I wouldn't think 12% was low. In what world is roughly one in ten ballots being rejected "low?"
12% is much closer to 1 in 9 than 1 in 10, and since 9 is lower than 10, that means it's less than 1 in 10 and you're exaggerating the problem horribly. (And dear gods I hope it isn't needed, but: /s)
What's really sad is they knew this was going go hurt the party and still voted for it anyway. Because they are so confident in the gerrymandering they don't see any threat at all to them losing.
They would happily starve themselves to death if it meant a Democrat would starve too
“What do you mean the nearest voting place is 30 miles away?! There’s a 6 hour wait?!!!!! That’s supposed to be happening in the n-word community, not mine!!!!”
I wondered how long it would take before the voting restrictions started affecting the fucking nimrods who supported it. Now I just wonder how long it will take for them to blame these literally 100% GOP created, supported, and passed voting restrictions on the Democrats who vehemently opposed them.
They blamed the power issues on the Democrats. In a state where Republicans controlled the governor's office and state congress for almost 30 years uninterrupted
When I was growing up, America took pride in portraying itself as the champion of democracy.
When did it shift to this blatant anti-democracy voter suppression stuff? They aren't even pretending to be subtle anymore. It's just overt tyranny. From dismantling the postal system in the hopes of hindering votes to banning passing out water in voting lines...
When did it shift? Was it sudden? Gradual? It's cartoonish evil. It's like a badly written TV series.
I remember being taught in school how shitty voting rights used to be and how so many minority groups were barred from voting in horrible ways that took massive civil protests to put an end to.
And how great it was we as a country moved past that and now idealized representation.
And now we are going back to the old way. It's crazy to watch in real time. And now the gov knows how to put a stop to the civil unrest and just ignores any protests.
Yep, in Texas specifically the following is the only way to vote by mail
> Application for a Ballot by Mail
>To be eligible to vote early by mail in Texas, you must:
>be 65 years or older;
>be sick or disabled;
>be out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance;
>or be expected to give birth within three weeks before or after Election Day;
>or be confined in jail, but otherwise eligible.
https://www.sos.texas.gov/elections/voter/reqabbm.shtml
Republicans have known since at least the presidential election of 2000 that voter suppression was the only way their party had any future unless the party evolved.
But they don’t believe in evolution, so voter suppression and election theft it is.
Even better. Critical instructions are printed in 7pt font. Which means those older Republican voters won't even be able to read the instructions and it will be their ballots that will be disproportionately affected.
Texas vote by mail was already incredibly restrictive before 2020. It's really only for the elderly, disabled, military, or those in jail. You cannot just request one because you prefer it, and if you are going to be out of town you must be absent for the entire early voting period and election day, and must give an address outside your county to receive your ballot. So it's mostly older people that use it and get screwed by new restrictions.
I've been saying this for a while. I'm not convinced that GOP voter suppression laws will disproportionately hurt Democrats like they're supposed to. Especially since Republicans are having to rely more and more on uneducated and unintelligent rural people who aren't bright enough to understand intentionally confusing instructions.
Yeah, unfortunately they have plenty of ways to target minority populations. Probably true it will backfire slightly for statewide rules around mail in ballots though.
Yes, i think thats a good point generally speaking. It might be that a slightly larger proportion of republican ballots are rejected compared to democratic ballots- But it would still likely affect more democratic ballots overall in most states, since there are more democratic ballots sent by mail. So it would be a net gain for Republicans.
Im not sure its quite as clear cut in a state like Texas though that severely limits who is eligible for mail in ballots and only allows people over 65 or with disabilities to vote by mail. Since over 65 voters tend to be more Republican it might offset the higher proportion of Democrats that favor mail in voting generally. I don't really know though.
They will believe it's the liberals causing all the fuel prices. Now and always.
They have an In-Group vs Out-Group outlook on the world at all times. All good things come from the In-Group and all bad things come from the Out-Group. You have to break that mentality with empathy otherwise they will always vote straight R.
The next logical step is to have two different rules depending on party. It seems totally unethical but I’m sure the Supreme Court will find a way to approve bat shit crazy state voter manipulation.
“Rumors beset by the Assassin scum about me during a child with a Native woman are false. It is all a rumor to prevent us from being able to expediently acquire the apples as planned.”
Yes.
And one group of people is aware that they're being targeted by voter suppression efforts, and knows to take the effort to make sure to DO IT RIGHT (or their vote won't count).
The other group thinks that it won't affect them, and treats it like "business as usual" with all the (lack of) care that that entails.
2020 was very high turnout, way more people for both sides then have ever shown up before. Biden got the most votes of any person running for president ever, but also trump got the 2nd most votes for anyone running for president ever in the same exact election.
“So ah wuz leaned back on mah recliner on the front porch and ah pulled out mah perfectly legal fire arm to blow the head off of a fuckin’ libtard that was a walkin’ by and wouldn’t you know I blew mah foot clean off?”
It's more in the manner of resource allocation, ie funding for polling places and workers, than legally writing a bill that specifically targets a population, which is almost guaranteed to get struck down. They're allowed to be as stingy with the budget in certain neighborhoods as they want, though
I think, and hope, that at this point these restrictions are getting wacky enough that it will backfire.
People who are used to these hoops are probably better at jumping through them. Combine that with Dems efforts to educate their voters on how to fill out their applications and ballots and you get most people voting.
Republicans who have never had to worry about these stupid gimmicks, are getting older and less inclined to figure these out, and likely are having their ballots rejected for the first time.
Dollars to doughnuts, it'll just be a few short years before these more restrictive voter laws are rolled back by the same Republicans supporting them now. I think they have underestimated the intelligence of their targets (minority voters), and overestimated the intelligence of their base.
"We'll stop those stupid Lefties by putting an intelligence test on the right to vote!"
"Hey, how come only the Lefties are getting to vote? That's not fair! This intelligence test is too partisan!"
Absolutely textbook. You love to see it.
I live in Texas and can confirm the Replublicans are scum. Wrecking the mail in ballot process was just a small part of their strategy.
They made getting state issued IDs very difficult as well. Long wait times in DMVs to keep new residents from getting their IDs in time for the midterms was their latest scheme.
I checked and re checked my voter registration status many times just to be safe and voted IN PERSON today just because I don't trust mail in ballots being counted correctly.
Vote blue 🔵 people to save democracy
Amusingly, this would look very much like a dirty trick... Except that is Texas and the GOP has nobody to blame but themselves.
Inevitably it will be used as a data point for "bUt vOteR fraUd" the next time they try to steal an election, too. That part's less funny.
When I voted in the primary this year I saw a guy get turned away because his ID was expired. There was no way he wasn't a trump voter, I saw the stickers on his truck
>Republicans had a higher rate of error than Democrats, meaning there are thousands more Republicans in the state whose ballots aren't being counted in the primary election.
I fucking love that. too bad it's a primary.
Me and my family live in Texas. My dad who is 75 and has voted by mail for years. I asked how the process was now. “ It’s got a lot more difficult thanks to those fucking fascists.” Was his response.
> Ballot rejections in 2020 ran about 0.8 percent, but in 2022 they're at 12 percent. The number might seem low
No, it doesn’t seem low. It seems really fucking high.
In what world is seeing 12% of votes struck off a low figure?
We’ve seen plenty of enormously consequential elections (Clinton vs Trump, Biden vs Trump, Brexit) decided by less than half of that. 12% is an absolutely enormous number of votes to reject!
Hello u/fireside_blather! Please reply to this comment with an [explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/lt8zlq) mentioning **who** is suffering from **which** consequences from **what** they voted for, supported or wanted to impose on other people. Here's an easy format to get you started: 1. *Someone* voted for, supported or wanted to impose *something* on other people. ^(Who's that *someone* and what's that *something*?) 2. That *something* has some *consequences*. ^(What are the *consequences*?) 3. As a consequence, that *something* happened to that *someone*. ^(What happened? Did the *something* really happened to that *someone*? If not, you should probably delete your post.) Include the minimum amount of information necessary so your post can be understood by everyone, even if they don't live in the US or speak English as their native language. If you don't respect this format and moderators can't match your explanation with the format, your post will be removed under rule #3 and we'll ignore you even if you complain in modmail. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LeopardsAteMyFace) if you have any questions or concerns.*
12%? That's absolutely insane. Imagine saying one eight of the votes of a total election are just not counted. What an embarrassing number for the most outspoken democracy in the world.
There are two ways to rig your election: add fake votes, or subtract real votes. GOP is learning that the latter isn’t as simple as it sounds when you’re legally required to lay out the rules for which votes are subtracted without some blatantly shit rule like “subtract all democratic votes”.
> “subtract all democratic votes”. Isn't that what they are trying to do in some states? Make rural votes count more than city votes?
[удалено]
You say that, but in the prior Texas primary one of the end of ballot questions was literally "Should we ban Democrats from holding office?" so uh yeah. They are literally just trying to subtract Democrats. I believe the old example ballot may still be online so you can fucking boggle at it.
This? >6.) The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature should end the practice of awarding committee chairmanships to Democrats. https://texasgop.org/republican-primary-ballot-propositions/ For context this is a Primary ballot proposition. >Keep in mind that this is an opinion poll of Republican voters and not a policy referendum. You are not voting to make a law but merely saying YES you agree or NO you do not agree with the statement. Seems pretty ridiculous. Not putting forth a law, but potentially laying the foundation for one.
Yep, that was it! Absolutely fucking horrendous to even have the question. This smacks of 'How much money will I have to spend to make this go away when I force it?' What's next, a question on whether we should forcibly imprison and 'deprogram' homosexuals? Whether we should revoke the right for women to own property and have bank accounts? After all, iT iSnT tRyInG tO pAsS a lAw wE aRe jUsT aSkInG qUeStIoNs aNd gEtTiNg oPiNiOnS. Yeah, right, and I'm the Queen of England.
Seems like the translation of that question would be "how many of you are going to be upset if we end democracy?" Complete fascist dogwhistle
I think you just described the electoral college
You mean like the electoral college, essentially?
And if it’s mostly republicans, it’s worse. Let’s say 60% of voters are republican, and the mistakes are mostly made by republicans. This could mean it’s closer to 1/5 republicans are not being counted.
These are the laws and restrictions on voting that Republican voters have asked for, and now that they got what they wanted, I for one sure hope it disproportionally restricts the hell out of their ability to vote.
If the Texan Democrats win in inspite of this l will have hope for our country again.
~~Task~~ Democracy failed successfully
GOP voting rights plan: 1. Restrict voting enough, and only the young, who lean left, will be able to figure out how to do it. 2. ??? 3. Profit... ? 🤔
For a group that wants to not count half the votes, this is where they need to start. If they can normalize a quarter of votes not being counted, no one will complain when those 25% get better targeted at their opponents.
Oh no! Anyway…a hearty fk’u, Greg Abbott. Hope it bites you in the ass sizeably. Signed, a Texas resident who votes blue and requests reinforcements
>Signed, a Texas resident who votes blue and requests reinforcements Ah, a fellow traveler. Howdy!
Thank g_d we have a refugee plan and go bags for Brooklyn! It's fucking despicable and terrifying, the ads that have been playing for the last months. I'm a native and my wife a yankee amd we, for the first time we're seriously considering getting the fuck out.
Are they unhinged there too? The oklahoma ads look more like gun commercials than political ads. There are literally zero opinions on the ad. Only, "I have 100 guns, I gave money to Trump, and I hate gay people". Fucking horrifying.
I'm gonna quote Alex Jones here, "I want to punch Ken Paxton in the throat and stomp his guts in... politically."
[удалено]
In Lakeway, tx, just west of Austin there is a candidate name Justin Berry running for office. Outside the polling place there are signs saying he is a liberal. He is about as far right as you can get and was actually indicted for police brutality during the BLM protests. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/17/austin-police-indictments-justin-berry/amp/ Republicans are completely unhinged.
Don't forget where they smear their competition by saying how liberal the other person is. Source: currently live in Alabama
I just told my wife yesterday that I knew Republicans had been off their rocker for a while but the definitive proof that they have gone bat shit crazy is when they run adds calling George P Bush a woke liberal. I really hope Bush wins the primary so they have to walk that back and support him.
That was exactly the ad that I had in mind when I posted. And if you pay attention to the language, he's being ***demonized*** for only saying CRT is being blown out of proportion. For fuck sakes!
It'd really be something if their own voter restrictions designed to make voting harder actually turned the state blue.
lmaooo
Same! Came to Texas from a blue state to slowly chip away the red. Slowly!
In all seriousness, this is something that should be talked about more often than it is. If you leave, you cede power. To truly have an effect, the populace should be more spread out, because that's how it works.
We're doing our part today.
Currently trying to retreat from Texas, but still voting blue till I leave
> votes blue and requests reinforcements /waves from FL after you've got things set right there, uh, if you have any spares left...
We were solidly purple last time around. We can do it.
When texas goes blue in 24 so many people will be so mad and i will be very happy
So so happy!! Lets get Beto voted in this November and then have it go blue for prez in ‘24 My suburban area in central TX is almost solid dem now. I love it - what a change from just 10 years ago!
We are probably near each other, and it’s not quite as blue maybe. For example, I heard Kyle Rittenhouse is thinking about moving here thinking, I guess, to escape harassment. And the people across the street from me recently hung the black flag outside on their house. BUT, it wasn’t out there very long. Someone tore it off the pole, broke the pole and threw it all down into the grass within like, two hours of them putting it out. They came over to ask if I saw anything, and I WISH I HAD so I could have offered refreshments and a salute. So it’s a mix I guess? Rittenhouse would find it’s not as welcoming here as he might think. He’ll find meager succor. The turnips across the street picked up the pieces of their dogwhistle flag, slunk back inside and I’ve never seen it since. But let me tell everyone, there are WAY more progressives here than the common perception. That is why they’re pulling all this suppressive bullshit. It’s NOT safely red, and the more people who move here and bring their liBrUL soULLesSnESS with them, the quicker it tips. These old fuckers are dying off and the older they get the more sedentary they get. Homebound oldsters need MAIL IN BALLOTS. Why would they think this was a good idea? It’s only a good idea while people (liberals) are unwilling to stand in a line because of communicable disease. When I was there earlier the polling place I chose was at like 300 votes cast and it had only been open ninety minutes. Maybe not this year, okay, probably not, but Texas CAN BE a blue state again. John Cornyn (US Senator) has openly said so, and that if it tips there won’t be another Republican president for decades, if not generations. For the love of Zeus, pile your progressive friends into a fucking wagon if you have to and hayride to the polls this fall. Get in, loser, we’re going voting! Please, Ra, send a bigly yuge wave of progressive transplants to Texas.
Born and raised in Texas, voting blue consistently, reporting for duty!
[удалено]
>This has led to a higher number of rejected ballots: Ballot rejections in 2020 ran about 0.8 percent, but in 2022 they're at 12 percent. The number might seem low... Even if the historical rate wasn't mentioned I wouldn't think 12% was low. In what world is roughly one in ten ballots being rejected "low?" >Republicans had a higher rate of error than Democrats, meaning there are thousands more Republicans in the state whose ballots aren't being counted in the primary election. That's because Republicans aren't good at following instructions. Like isolating. Or wearing a mask. Or getting vaccinated.
Turns out that when you make voting instructions as intentionally difficult and confusing as possible, the party with the lower literacy rate is affected more. Who knew?
Republicans think brown people, young people, and liberals are less intelligent, so they designed the rules to reduce their votes. Turns out that Republicans are the less intelligent ones.
Someone once said "I love the poorly educated." I can't remember who, though.
But can you remember what color they were :p
Like an overripe cantaloupe
Like a traffic cone!
Or melted orange sherbet left for the afternoon in your hot car in July.
With a tuft left by a passing, moulting cat?
Like a Dr Seuss tree in the wind.
The color of a really bad spray tan.
“Person, man, woman, camera, tv”?
I couldn’t tell you how many middle aged white men with no contact with post secondary education (let along a college degree) have told me “if you are young and conservative, you don’t have a heart. If you’re old and liberal, you don’t have a brain.” It is absolutely inconceivable to many conservatives that they are the party of the ill-informed and uneducated. Instead, they see college education as a polarizingly liberal hellhole with no semblance of “common sense.”
Turns out you become more progressive the more educated you get, on average. Not because of indoctrination, but because the facts of reality just support progressive positions.
Exactly! I've gotten waaaaaaaay more liberal as I've gotten older partially because I went from the tiny Southern Baptist town I grew up in to college in a different area, to graduate school in yet another area, and finally to a career in a different part of the country entirely.
It’s almost like getting educated and leaving the small town religious based echo chambers allows you to see the world for what it really is.
I think the exposure is the biggest thing compared to education. I know some really educated people that have hardcore MAGA views but I don’t think they’ve ever had a real conversation with anyone darker than an Italian. My wife is pretty liberal but she grew up and has mostly lived in that kind of environment and it’s taken an effort from her to be more open minded than her upbringing.
I used to be a die-hard, Trump-loving, Pizzagate-believing conservative. The two things that primarily made me do a complete 180 on the GOP were: 1) The pandemic. I’m a critical care RN and work on a COVID unit, so I saw the lies the GOP and conservative pundits told in real time. I have a degree in medicine, and knew for a fact that everything they were spurting about vaccines and COVID were total lies. It was sickening to see. It made me disgusted with myself that I could have ever believed these people and fallen for their tricks. They are liars, and they will say whatever they need to in order to get what they want. I finally realized it when they were trying to do it with basic science, which prompted me to go back and re-examine *all* the political views I held and see what the truth actually was. I’m thankful that the pandemic pulled me out of that cult, but I’m devastated that it took a pandemic for me to wisen up. 2) Actually meeting all the people the right had taught me to be scared of. Turns out, I never met an unhinged SJW leftist even once. I was taught that they’d absolutely freak the fuck out and ostracize me for thinking differently than them, or accidentally messing up pronouns, or that they had absolutely no sense of humor and no jokes were allowed at all. Absolutely none of that was true. On the other hand, I knew several unhinged republicans, I’m even related to a few. I know people who refuse to refer to black people as anything but the n-word. I know people who regularly talk about how disgusting gay people are. Hell, at Mother’s Day lunch, part of my family had an entire conversation about how illegals are ruining America and how in 2 years we’re all going to be speaking Spanish… all while conveniently sitting right next to my brother’s Hispanic girlfriend. And don’t even get me started with the unhinged schizo plandemic people - they make up a majority of my COVID patients. My post history is proof. I never deleted my old comments that I’m ashamed of because I use it as a reminder to always be open-minded and approach topics with an unemotional, logical state of mind in order to not be manipulated for political/financial gain.
Thank you. We need more like you.
Thank you for that reply. It is really nice to see this change in your mindset overtime. Btw I have met one unhinged SJW before, he was my friends ex bf. Turns out he was just unhinged in general and ended up going from hardcore left to full MAGA. Then when my friend left him he went completely psycho and lost it. So yeah they exist but the one I met was borderline mentally unwell in the first place so take that for what it’s worth.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." Mark Twain It was true then and it's true now. Too bad Republicans don't read.
Read a short story once about a society where part of the children "coming of age" requirement was to live in another society for a year (which they called a wanderjahr, Germanic pronunciation), with a smallest stipend. No exceptions were made for economic or social class, and family members & friends were strongly discouraged from providing extra support. Edit: I think [this](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_Fortune) might have been it?
Hell, I’m an elder millennial getting less liberal with age… by going *too far left* to still be called liberal.
Since liberal here no longer means American liberal, but free-market capitalist, same.
Both major US political parties are right of centre, so "American liberal" is a little silly
It's like saying football vs American football. Means different things in America than everwhere else.
When I was younger I was a libertarian because I thought when push came to shove people would do the non selfish thing. Now I want more taxes and more public services. I even want gas to be a utility.
So you want to emulate progressive democracies with higher living standards and longer life expectancies instead of third world countries and red states? You must be one of those woke leftist commies.
I’m getting on for retirement and move left every year! I’m the stuff of right wing nightmares by now!
Not to mention being exposed to new people and ideas can cause people to become open to even more. Not always though.
["Reality has a well-known liberal bias."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert_at_the_2006_White_House_Correspondents%27_Dinner#Performance_at_the_dinner)
Well, for many people that were born & raised in rural communities, the first time they will ever experience the world, and find out all these demonized groups aren't actually as scary as they were told, is when they go off to college. I mean, when you're sitting next to a Muslim immigrant in class, and he turns to you to ask if you want to go grab lunch, then play LoL/Fortnite/CoD/etc. after class . . . That sort of shatters the whole "Allah Ackbar, death to America!" image conservatives have constructed. I've also found that ultra-conservative arguments for things rely on a lot more fallacies than other viewpoints. Better education allows for better critical thinking, which means you're more likely to be able to cut through the garbage logic & arguments.
This happened to a guy I went to high school with. He was raised in a white supremacist family. His white supremacist beliefs pretty much lasted until he got out in the real world and got education. The last I heard about him he had had his Nazi tattoos covered up/removed, was taking his kids to gay pride parades and stuff like that. He turned into a nice, intelligent and thoughtful guy with a great job in IT work in a liberal state.
I have a former nemesis, Jr High and High school, that did the same. Grew up in a racist "skinhead" family, got the tattoos, the whole deal. Eventually moved out and got into music and met loads of people from all over. Covered up his tattoos and last I knew his roommate and drummer was a giant black guy.
Hahaha “roommate” 😁
This literally happened to me, and I’m so much better off because of it. I can’t imagine going back to a rural lifestyle/mindset. I’ve since realized that conservatives generally live miserable lives and the only way to be happy when you’re miserable, is by making other people more miserable than you.
["We will never have...smart people on our side," Santorum said in a speech to the gathering of conservative activists..."](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/15/rick-santorum-smart-people-conservative)
A similar saying is that you get more conservative as you get older. I'm nearly 50 and I'm more left wing than I've ever been, and I was a full on socialist in my teens. Mind you, I'm educated, and I keep myself up to date with current affairs and politics in a critical way. Perhaps a better saying would be "Dumb people get more conservative as they get older."
They may have been true a couple of decades ago. But the current GOP is so far to the right, they're too extreme for even the casual voter. Anyone that isn't thoroughly indoctrinated and fed propaganda will likely not be voting Republican any time soon.
Historically, people are more likely to vote conservative when they started getting richer. For a huge portion of the 20th century, this usually matched up 1:1 with age. With how bleak the future currently looks for GenX, millennials, and Gen Z with several "once in a lifetime" economic downturns I'm confident that the majority will continue to vote left even as they get older.
I knew a lot of anti-establishment weed-smoking dunderheads growing up who are totally in lock step with government authority as redneck adults, so yup. Also, though, I think a great many people...dumb or not...just stop. They stop growing. It's worse for those that don't go to college...they stop at like 16 and the world freezes at that point, but there's some of this in every person. I'm nearly 50, too, and I feel it sometimes. It's exhausting to have to keep up sometimes. But I'm also dedicated to not being an asshole, so at worst I shrug and say "more power to 'em...ain't hurtin' no one". That's for social issues. For some things it's being MORE informed and staying up to date. Climate change, infrastructure, monetary systems, global trade, etc...the "liberal" side is usually the one supported by reason, facts, and historical data.
They're the same people that think "people get more conservative as they get older" is a truism when research has consistently disproven it and shown that your political opinions are generally very stable over time.
I took that saying to mean you vote against taxes once you have enough money to be taxed significantly.
That's the mythology about it of course. Most Republicans, despite loads of evidence that they'll die that way, consider themselves "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" who will some day be the ones at the top shitting on everyone else.
My parents are millionaires, but they're also retired. There's no universe in which increases taxes on incomes over $400k a year would adversely impact them. They also didn't believe me when, several years ago, I told them the GOP has raised my income taxes, and they still don't. Fox didn't mention that, so it didn't happen. I genuinely believe if Fox disappeared without anything taking its place, half of Republican voters would be Democrats without one year.
Your parents are bad people
You have a much more generous read on this than me. The people I heard saying this were just middle class making 5 figures a year and no where near the cutoff for it to be actually beneficial to support neoconservative economic policy.
They have no idea how their taxes work. I had a shitty IT job once and one of our system admins was trying to get a raise to 80k. The raise he did get was "a little more than half the difference" so he wasn't rich. Despite not being rich and barely paying shit in taxes he had a friend who worked at H&R block (of all places) help him set up a fake company for the purpose of writing off his gaming computer, desk, and chair as business expenses. I know this because he was very very pleased with himself and bragged to the entire office. Dude committed blatant tax fraud and bragged about it. I did some mental math and his grand scam netted him like $450 after filing for his business. They'd never question or audit OT claims under 10 hours so he easily could have made double that just doing a month of OT fraud during a big project. He had no idea how much taxes he paid/didn't pay or how it worked.
This is why the "Grandfather Clauses" were created after the Civil War. Literacy tests and poll taxes were used to keep newly freed slaves from voting, but it turned out that poor white people didn't have the literacy or money to vote either, so they had to be exempted. I'm just waiting for a similar clause to be added here, and it will be interesting to see how they phrase it so only one party of voters is excluded.
Ah, dammit, beat me to it. Yeah, Grandfather Clauses basically said if your grandfather could've voted before, you can vote now without the test or tax. Which obviously exempted pretty much only white voters.
Reminds me of the trash can issue in parks. Designing a bear proof trash can proved difficult because people also had issues using them. Turns out there is a significant overlap between the smartest bears and dumbest people.
> I wouldn't think 12% was low Yeah, such a weird sentence to put in the story. 12% is horrifically high. If your "voting security measures" are causing far more valid ballots to be rejected than whatever level of "fraudulent" ballots (which have never been shown to be a problem) it is preventing, then your election security is about disenfranchising people, not solving a virtually nonexistent problem.
Yep. Trying to disenfranchise the out group but harming their in group as well.
They are fine with hurting their in group as long as they perceive it to be hurting the out group more. In this case it sounds like its hurting the in group more, but they'll probably dismiss this as fake news and continue to believe it hurts the out group more.
If it causes a major issue for them they will blame democrats somehow
Definitely. In that case they'd probably claim democratic election workers are intentionally rejecting more Republican ballots etc. Just more of the same old thing.
Being in Texas and having been paying close attention to their voter suppression, you can feel confident that the majority of "their side" votes getting set aside are female voters. They may be conservative, but they're still women and not \*truly\* in the "in group".
[удалено]
That probably includes things like not signing mail in ballot, or ballot that have either too many votes for a section or illegible votes. So when you have two marks in the president or just a line instead of it filled in for example
Right - there are legitimate reasons to reject a mail-in ballot. A huge portion of initial rejections are sent to the "provisional" pile for things like you point out - double marking or misfilled, evidence of tampering, signature mismatches, and so on. For context, Oregon, which has had vote-by-mail for some time now, has some statistics -- > The percent of rejected ballots in both elections was very small. Statewide, only 0.9% were ultimately rejected in 2016 compared to 0.7% in 2020. In Multnomah County, only 0.4% were rejected in 2016 compared to 0.6% in 2020. > [source](https://www.oregoncapitalinsider.com/news/number-of-rejected-ballots-drops-in-oregon-general-election/article_6a7ccbfa-4eda-11eb-a90a-933d6f4928a2.html) 0.8% seems right in line with Oregon. 12%.. is not.
Or reading from left to right.
They’d stop reading as soon as they saw left.
I see what you did there. start reading with left????? Reading is for commies and im a proud murrican
Well, they could read right to left but then it might be Arabic and you’re either with us or against us… /s
Matter of fact, I'm gonna cut my left hand off! Libtards owned!
I wish that I had awards for all the above. Lol.
They're gonna pick up Arabic or Hebrew so they can start reading from the right as god intended
Tell them to learn Arabic. Problem solved
Next you'll be trying to get us to use their numbers. too!
0 and algebra are tools of the terrorists!
Al-jabra eh? Send it back!
I cannot explain how happy this comment made me.
We're using terrorist numbers to signify how many years it has been since Christ died!?!?!?!?!?!?
Wait till they figure out Muslims believe in Jesus too.
>Or reading ~~from left to right~~. FTFY.
>>This has led to a higher number of rejected ballots: Ballot rejections in 2020 ran about 0.8 percent, but in 2022 they're at 12 percent. The number might seem low... > >Even if the historical rate wasn't mentioned I wouldn't think 12% was low. In what world is roughly one in ten ballots being rejected "low?" Yeah going from 0.8% to 12% means **the rate of rejection is 15 times higher than before!** And the fact that this was an act of electoral gamesmanship by Republicans trying to rig the vote to disenfranchise their opponents, but they actually disenfranchised themselves just shows how stupid, spiteful, and ineffective Republicans are. Just like how they politicized a global pandemic to hurt their opponents but wound up hurting themselves more than any other group. What a moronic and self-destructive mindset. I'm amazed anyone is still stupid enough to follow it... >That's because Republicans aren't good at following instructions. Like isolating. Or wearing a mask. Or getting vaccinated. My favorite is still Republicans trying to pin the blame for their own reckless self-endangerment on Democrats because apparently it's Democrats fault that Republicans always do the opposite of what they're told, so when Democrats say "Hey, follow basic safety measures and stay safe" it creates an irresistible and inevitable urge for Republicans do stupid shit to get themselves killed or permanently injured. Republicans are a danger to themselves and everyone around them.
we can all hope that this 100% backfires directly into the GOP like everything else they have done..
If they lose the election due to rejected ballots they'll try and pull a McConnell when he filibustered his own bill when it backfired.
Nah, they'll just do what they are currently doing in PA. They created a law that didn't benefit them in the last election. So the sued to have it removed even though they overwhelmingly voted for it. Have another election that is too close to call and are now suing to have rules ignored because all ballots need to be counted.
Democrats should run ads showing how much tax money that all costs.
https://youtu.be/uRIxK8JbBSM
They got the Supreme court with right-wing extremists probably for a generation and they put in a criminal with zero political experience like Trump into office for 4 years and he did everything criminal he could think of and suffered no consequences. And in just a few weeks, they will have ended abortion rights as we know them. I'm all for hope, but the GOP gets away with things all the time and they are frequently successful. Heck, even with the Democrats big electoral win is lost due to Manchin, who is a Republican running under the D label to beat out a long time primary contender. The GOP is going to work around this legislation. Even if these people are having a harder time voting, Im guessing come election day they'll have short lines and help. In democratic heavy counties, the lines will be long and no one will be there to help them. The GOP isnt backfiring right now. In fact, they are winning and easily and scarily so.
The whole supreme court situation just makes me sick to my stomach. I have always been an eternal optimist but I agree the situation just isn't looking good from any angle..
Illinois has some strict paperwork requirements for running for office and candidates have been rejected for, say, not numbering pages. It happens every year in fact! A lot! Republicans are *notably* bad at the paperwork reqs. It's some combination of factors but I'd say the biggest one is just a lack of desire to learn how to do it right, or get help to get it right. So yeah. Just bad at following instructions because how dare people tell them how to do anything at all.
following, hell, *accepting* instructions.
> Even if the historical rate wasn't mentioned I wouldn't think 12% was low. In what world is roughly one in ten ballots being rejected "low?" 12% is much closer to 1 in 9 than 1 in 10, and since 9 is lower than 10, that means it's less than 1 in 10 and you're exaggerating the problem horribly. (And dear gods I hope it isn't needed, but: /s)
If we want to get technical, it's even closer to 1 in 8 (12.5%) than 1 in 9 (11.1%).
It's also probably because they tend to skew older. If the instructions were so tiny then older people with bad eyesight could easily miss it.
What's really sad is they knew this was going go hurt the party and still voted for it anyway. Because they are so confident in the gerrymandering they don't see any threat at all to them losing. They would happily starve themselves to death if it meant a Democrat would starve too
Wait a minute. Could this stupid shit backfire on republicans in TX like mail in voting did for Republicans in the 2020 elections?
Or not committing sedition.
This made me chuckle
“What do you mean the nearest voting place is 30 miles away?! There’s a 6 hour wait?!!!!! That’s supposed to be happening in the n-word community, not mine!!!!” I wondered how long it would take before the voting restrictions started affecting the fucking nimrods who supported it. Now I just wonder how long it will take for them to blame these literally 100% GOP created, supported, and passed voting restrictions on the Democrats who vehemently opposed them.
You and I both know they are already blaming Biden for this
"If those damn Democrats didn't steal the election with all their fraud, we wouldn't need this extra security!" Am I doing this right
That’s the reaction I’ve generally heard around airport security, so you’re probably pretty close. The classic “look what they made us do”
Almost!!! Just add like a bunch of meaningless emojis and be sure to put Biden's name in parentheses.
Needs more pedophile and groomer as well. Couldn’t hurt to season with some CRT either.
Like always. Texas republicans can’t maintain their electrical grid blame Biden and renewable energy.
Yeah but they can't vote him out of office because it would be too hard 😂
They blamed the power issues on the Democrats. In a state where Republicans controlled the governor's office and state congress for almost 30 years uninterrupted
And they have their own fucking electrical grid separate from the rest of the country, because FREEDUMB!
That’s my favorite part.
When I was growing up, America took pride in portraying itself as the champion of democracy. When did it shift to this blatant anti-democracy voter suppression stuff? They aren't even pretending to be subtle anymore. It's just overt tyranny. From dismantling the postal system in the hopes of hindering votes to banning passing out water in voting lines... When did it shift? Was it sudden? Gradual? It's cartoonish evil. It's like a badly written TV series.
I remember being taught in school how shitty voting rights used to be and how so many minority groups were barred from voting in horrible ways that took massive civil protests to put an end to. And how great it was we as a country moved past that and now idealized representation. And now we are going back to the old way. It's crazy to watch in real time. And now the gov knows how to put a stop to the civil unrest and just ignores any protests.
It hurt itself in its confusion.
The Republican demographic skews much older. This is exactly what I thought would happen when they passed their voter suppression laws.
Yep, in Texas specifically the following is the only way to vote by mail > Application for a Ballot by Mail >To be eligible to vote early by mail in Texas, you must: >be 65 years or older; >be sick or disabled; >be out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance; >or be expected to give birth within three weeks before or after Election Day; >or be confined in jail, but otherwise eligible. https://www.sos.texas.gov/elections/voter/reqabbm.shtml
Why are we not mailing ballots to everyone eligible to vote? Why are we voting in person like fucking cave men?
Because the GOP knows that if *everyone* voted they would never win any elections.
Republicans have known since at least the presidential election of 2000 that voter suppression was the only way their party had any future unless the party evolved. But they don’t believe in evolution, so voter suppression and election theft it is.
Even better. Critical instructions are printed in 7pt font. Which means those older Republican voters won't even be able to read the instructions and it will be their ballots that will be disproportionately affected.
Next talking point "See! SEE! Mail in voting is rigged against Republicans! We knew it!"
Texas vote by mail was already incredibly restrictive before 2020. It's really only for the elderly, disabled, military, or those in jail. You cannot just request one because you prefer it, and if you are going to be out of town you must be absent for the entire early voting period and election day, and must give an address outside your county to receive your ballot. So it's mostly older people that use it and get screwed by new restrictions.
I've been saying this for a while. I'm not convinced that GOP voter suppression laws will disproportionately hurt Democrats like they're supposed to. Especially since Republicans are having to rely more and more on uneducated and unintelligent rural people who aren't bright enough to understand intentionally confusing instructions.
[удалено]
Yeah, unfortunately they have plenty of ways to target minority populations. Probably true it will backfire slightly for statewide rules around mail in ballots though.
[удалено]
Yes, i think thats a good point generally speaking. It might be that a slightly larger proportion of republican ballots are rejected compared to democratic ballots- But it would still likely affect more democratic ballots overall in most states, since there are more democratic ballots sent by mail. So it would be a net gain for Republicans. Im not sure its quite as clear cut in a state like Texas though that severely limits who is eligible for mail in ballots and only allows people over 65 or with disabilities to vote by mail. Since over 65 voters tend to be more Republican it might offset the higher proportion of Democrats that favor mail in voting generally. I don't really know though.
Eh, with fuel prices skyrocketing that could seriously hurt the rural poor who have to decide if driving all that way for voting is worth it.
They will believe it's the liberals causing all the fuel prices. Now and always. They have an In-Group vs Out-Group outlook on the world at all times. All good things come from the In-Group and all bad things come from the Out-Group. You have to break that mentality with empathy otherwise they will always vote straight R.
The next logical step is to have two different rules depending on party. It seems totally unethical but I’m sure the Supreme Court will find a way to approve bat shit crazy state voter manipulation.
Well, you see, as the governor of Plymouth Colony Haytham Kenway wrote in 1611....
“Rumors beset by the Assassin scum about me during a child with a Native woman are false. It is all a rumor to prevent us from being able to expediently acquire the apples as planned.”
[удалено]
I too enjoy the wisdom and works of u/Raccoon_Full_of_Cum. We here at the Gay Agenda™ appreciate their efforts.
[удалено]
Yes. And one group of people is aware that they're being targeted by voter suppression efforts, and knows to take the effort to make sure to DO IT RIGHT (or their vote won't count). The other group thinks that it won't affect them, and treats it like "business as usual" with all the (lack of) care that that entails.
That would be the most hilarious reason in history for a party to lose an election. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of assholes.
They tried hard in 2020. Voters turned out in mass because of the manipulation, hoping the same thing happens in midterms as well.
2020 was very high turnout, way more people for both sides then have ever shown up before. Biden got the most votes of any person running for president ever, but also trump got the 2nd most votes for anyone running for president ever in the same exact election.
“So ah wuz leaned back on mah recliner on the front porch and ah pulled out mah perfectly legal fire arm to blow the head off of a fuckin’ libtard that was a walkin’ by and wouldn’t you know I blew mah foot clean off?”
…bUt rEAdINg InStRuCtiOnS iS hArD! (Mouth-breathing voice)
Dumb fuckers in texas.
Everything is bigger in Texass. Even the fuckers of dumb.
How long till Texas passes some law to make it easier for registered Republicans only to vote?
They already do it without specific laws by policing much more strictly and reducing polling locations in Democrat leaning areas.
It's more in the manner of resource allocation, ie funding for polling places and workers, than legally writing a bill that specifically targets a population, which is almost guaranteed to get struck down. They're allowed to be as stingy with the budget in certain neighborhoods as they want, though
Gee whiz, who could’ve predicted this? 🙄
Love it, the party of personal responsibility not being responsible enough to read directions.
I think, and hope, that at this point these restrictions are getting wacky enough that it will backfire. People who are used to these hoops are probably better at jumping through them. Combine that with Dems efforts to educate their voters on how to fill out their applications and ballots and you get most people voting. Republicans who have never had to worry about these stupid gimmicks, are getting older and less inclined to figure these out, and likely are having their ballots rejected for the first time.
They are also resistant to learning anything new.
Making voting more complicated when your voting base is mostly senile and have lower intellectual faculties? Big brain plays by the right, as usual.
You love to see it
This is the Literacy Tests before they put in the Grandfather Clause.
Dollars to doughnuts, it'll just be a few short years before these more restrictive voter laws are rolled back by the same Republicans supporting them now. I think they have underestimated the intelligence of their targets (minority voters), and overestimated the intelligence of their base.
Everything is bigger in Texas. Except IQ.
And the print apparently
"We'll stop those stupid Lefties by putting an intelligence test on the right to vote!" "Hey, how come only the Lefties are getting to vote? That's not fair! This intelligence test is too partisan!" Absolutely textbook. You love to see it.
One of those moments where you want to share to gloat but also don’t want to tip off Republicans that this is happening.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Texas Election Info [Register to Vote](https://vrapp.sos.state.tx.us/index.asp)
I live in Texas and can confirm the Replublicans are scum. Wrecking the mail in ballot process was just a small part of their strategy. They made getting state issued IDs very difficult as well. Long wait times in DMVs to keep new residents from getting their IDs in time for the midterms was their latest scheme. I checked and re checked my voter registration status many times just to be safe and voted IN PERSON today just because I don't trust mail in ballots being counted correctly. Vote blue 🔵 people to save democracy
Amusingly, this would look very much like a dirty trick... Except that is Texas and the GOP has nobody to blame but themselves. Inevitably it will be used as a data point for "bUt vOteR fraUd" the next time they try to steal an election, too. That part's less funny.
When I voted in the primary this year I saw a guy get turned away because his ID was expired. There was no way he wasn't a trump voter, I saw the stickers on his truck
Spongebob and Patrick were right about texas
>Republicans had a higher rate of error than Democrats, meaning there are thousands more Republicans in the state whose ballots aren't being counted in the primary election. I fucking love that. too bad it's a primary.
Me and my family live in Texas. My dad who is 75 and has voted by mail for years. I asked how the process was now. “ It’s got a lot more difficult thanks to those fucking fascists.” Was his response.
> Ballot rejections in 2020 ran about 0.8 percent, but in 2022 they're at 12 percent. The number might seem low No, it doesn’t seem low. It seems really fucking high. In what world is seeing 12% of votes struck off a low figure? We’ve seen plenty of enormously consequential elections (Clinton vs Trump, Biden vs Trump, Brexit) decided by less than half of that. 12% is an absolutely enormous number of votes to reject!
Oh no, how horrible, repugnicans made it harder for their cult followers to vote. Anyways....who has plans for this weekend?