Stop the steal!
No, I’m not talking about the idiotic lies that the propaganda influencers shoved down the rubes throats after the 2020 election, but rather the fact that our democracy is based on one simple idea — one person, one vote. This has worked for over 200 years until a demigod who lost his election freaked out and went into hyper-drive Tweeting lies about “it’s rigged!”
Back in 2012, I was part of the Humboldt County contingency that went to Clark County, Nevada, to campaign for President Obama’s reelection. Nevada, much like California, wants as many legal (18 and over, preferably not dead) U.S. citizens to vote as possible. They do this by promoting Vote By Mail. Nevada sets up early voting sites at schools and fire stations ten days prior to the general election.
California takes this a few steps further by allowing same day voter registration and voting. Here in Humboldt, we had Vote By Mail drop boxes throughout the county. During COVID, all of California was sent Vote By Mail ballots, however you could still vote in person on election day if you chose. I just read that Humboldt County now has 85% of are eligible citizens registered to vote. The goal should be simple in all 50 states— to get as many legal citizens registered to vote as possible. Of course, the next step is motivating the registered voters to actually vote.
There’s an old saying in politics: “If you can’t get more votes than your opponent, then make sure your opponent gets fewer votes.” Republican state legislatures across the country are doing their best to steal future elections. In 43 states across the country, GOP lawmakers have proposed at least 250 laws that would limit Vote By Mail, early in-person voting and Election Day voting with such constraints as stricter ID requirements, limited hours or narrower eligibility to vote absentee. Anything to make it harder to vote and easier to challenge the election results. No I’m not talking about some third-world banana republic, but Republicans here in America.
Like Ray Charles said, “Georgia on my mind.” Last week the Georgia state legislature passed Senate Bill 202, making new laws requiring voters IDs for Vote By Mail ballots. Not just any IDs, but government issued photo IDs. If you’re an out-of-state student attending University of Georgia and all you have is your Georgia student picture ID, then you wouldn’t be allowed to vote. If you’re a senior who doesn’t have a valid Georgia driver’s license because you haven’t driven in years, then you wouldn’t be allowed to vote. Yes, I know you can get a government issued photo ID (not a driver’s license), however most seniors don’t bother with that.
After churches services, many Black churches bus their congregation to early voting sites, called “souls to the polls.” Georgia now wants to eliminate early Sunday voting. It’s now a crime to hand out food or water to those standing in long voting lines on Election Day. Georgia eliminated drop boxes for vote by mail ballots because of … ?
Finally as retribution to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Georgia stripped the authority from the Georgia Secretary of State, making him a non-voting member of the State Election Board and now allows state lawmakers to initiate the takeover of local election boards. Why do this? Because Republican white males want to disenfranchise Black voters in urban areas that tend to vote Democrat by blocking the certification of their voting jurisdiction. In other words, invalidate millions of Democratic votes to steal an election for your candidate. Why bother voting in the first place? Let’s just go the Georgia state Legislature so they can tell us who won the state.
It’s pretty simple. If you can’t win an election fair and square, then cheat. There was no systemic fraud in the 2020 elections, especially in Georgia. Yet the former president said over and over again that the Georgia elections were riven with fraud. I find it ironic that 235 Republican Georgia State electeds who voted for Senate Bill 202 all won their elections in November 2020. Why didn’t they resign their seats if the 2020 election was fraudulent?
Their goals are fairly simple in Georgia and Arizona. They consider themselves red states, even though the top of the ticket went blue in 2020. So let’s make it harder for students, seniors and Blacks to vote as these three voting blocs tend to vote Democrat.