Election reform is crucial to our future
To the Times:
It is imperative that our senators in Washington pass SB-1, The “For the People” act, which is voting reform legislation that would help ensure free, fair elections nationwide.
There is a sentiment that Republican voting laws being passed at the state level nationwide are primarily about voter ID, they are not. These Republican voter laws, nationwide, target Election Day polling place staff and, empower partisan poll watchers.
I have been a Democratic party poll watcher here in Havertown for five years. I have a good idea what goes on at a polling place. And I do not think I should be more empowered. As an example, let’s look at what the proposed Republican Texas election law would do, and why almost half their state legislators fled the state to prevent its passage.
The Republican Texas voting law would:
• Entitle partisan poll watchers to sit or stand near enough to see and hear activity, and would receive one warning if they violate election law before they could be removed from a polling place.
• The current law in Texas states “Poll watches may stand or sit conveniently near election workers to observe”. The current Texas law is similar to PA. As a partisan poll watcher in PA, with a poll watchers’ certificate (which you request from the county) I can spend the day in the polling place, get as close as I want, look over the sign-in book, be there at open and close to watch the voting machines as they are set up/closed out, etc. What I can’t do is watch people fill out their ballots. But under this proposed Texas law, a poll watcher could walk over, watch you fill out your ballot, threaten you, and all they would get is a warning not to do that again. So, one free hall pass for voter intimidation.
• Under the new Texas voting law it would be a state felony to distribute an unsolicited mail in ballot application.
• To be clear we are talking about the application for a mail in ballot, not the mail in ballot itself. Under the proposed law, If I decided to drop off blank mail in ballot applications at the homes of voters in Texas, that would be a felony.
This begs the question, why would this be made illegal? This is not sending a mail in ballot to every registered voter, this is just an application to request a mail in ballot, and it’s a felony. I’ll give you a hint, which party votes most by mail?
• The new voting law would require video recording in polling places ...in large counties only.
• Election Day is already a 16-hour day for poll workers. And now, in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio they will have to get there earlier and stay later to set up and break down video equipment.
• Also coming to large counties only .... tracking software to monitor all input and activity on voting machines.
• Voting machines should never be hooked to a network, and it sounds to me like that’s the plan here, although I could not find specific information on how that would work. More significantly, the effect of all this harassment of election precinct workers in “large counties” will lead directly to a reduction in staffing of polling places.
Especially after the inevitable arrest of some poor election workers for messing up the paperwork. Election Day workers in those “large counties” will decide it’s not worth the headache of being targeted to work an 18-hour day for basically free. All of this together will lead to fewer polling locations, longer commutes to vote, and longer lines when you get there. But again, “large counties” will be the only ones subject to these rules.
Republicans make it sound as if Democrats are against any sort of voter ID, that’s not the case. What this really is, nationwide, is an assault on non-partisan Election Day workers in “certain” (minority) locations. These are just some of the reasons it is imperative that our Representatives in Washington pass SB-1, the For the People act, which would help preserve free, fair, non-partisan elections, which are the foundations of a functional Democracy.