The media gives Republicans a free pass on voting rights

So galling: In much of the media coverage of the Dem failure to pass democracy protections, lockstep GOP opposition has been simply erased as a factor in what's happening, even as Republicans continue to actively restrict voting in many states.

Reupping this: https://t.co/MMm2VpqGoI
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 17, 2022

Excellent point. Republicans have abdicated their responsibility and get a free ride https://t.co/nKi655RNLJ
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) January 14, 2022

Completely agree with this. I don't fault Biden for the unrelenting Republican obstructionism. There aren't 10 Republican moderates in the Senate that would join with Democrats to pass legislation that could not be filibustered. https://t.co/Ydzif3etq8
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) January 17, 2022

You should note that it's also been undercut by Republican unwillingness to stop red state efforts to restrict voting rights. I'm tired of seeing the GOP get a free pass and having all the focus on Manchin and Sinema.
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) January 17, 2022

Being furious at Manchin & Sinema distracts from the truth that we can’t even pretend to have a hope of pressuring a single Republican to vote for voting rights reform. Not even the “moderate” ones. The entire party is a lost cause when it comes to saving democracy.
— Amanda Litman (@amandalitman) January 14, 2022

The voting rights act reauthorization used to be bipartisan. So while Sinema may argue that Dem leadership did not do enough to forge consensus, Republicans have also moved away from the consensus too. https://t.co/asvyLyzc63
— Sam Stein (@samstein) January 13, 2022

Your periodic reminder that:

1. Congressional negotiations are always annoying

2. It’s asinine to blame Biden for two pain in the ass Senators when all 50 Republicans are refusing to do their jobs

3. This isn’t over yet
— Angry Staffer (@Angry_Staffer) January 13, 2022

Altho Manchin & Sinema appear to remain opposed to changing the filibuster, don’t divert your attention from the fact that not a single GOP Senator is willing to vote FOR voting rights. Democrats remain united on the importance of protecting our elections.
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 18, 2022

Texas bad voter restrictions

I’m sure other red states will do this.

What Manchin & Sinema are enabling: “Election officials in one of the most populous counties in TX have rejected about half of the applications for ballots because of the state’s new voting restrictions enacted by Republicans last year.” https://t.co/b8A7fg0HBU
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) January 15, 2022

Hundreds of mail-in ballot applications are being rejected in some of Texas's largest counties because of the new voting law passed by the Republican-led state legislature last year, according to multiple election officials. https://t.co/Bkxpu71c1U
— CNN (@CNN) January 15, 2022

In Harris County percentage-wise we’re rejecting 7 times more mail ballot apps than before, because of new TX voter suppression laws that create a maze of technicalities. Example: if you register to vote with your DL number but request a mail ballot with your SSN, you’re rejected
— Lina Hidalgo (@LinaHidalgoTX) January 17, 2022

Republican voting restriction strategy 'paying off already' in Texas https://t.co/MRCzUkrNHM
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 18, 2022

Politico poll on voting rights

Most things proposed by Democrats are popular. Republicans don’t care.

POLITICO Playbook: Our exclusive new poll on voting rights

It may be too late for election reform

Better late than never. Biden, Harris and DOJ should have said something before states passed bad election laws. It’s late now, hopefully not too late.
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) January 11, 2022

I’m worried about voting rights

Let’s be optimistic. Let’s say that Manchin and Sinema agree to bypass the filibuster and one or more voting rights bills pass and are signed into law by Biden. (I don’t think this will happen but just for sake of discussion, let’s say it does.)

This is what worries me:

Republicans would take this to the courts and it would go all the way to the Supreme Court. The right-wing Supreme Court has already shown they are not interested in voting rights when they gutted the 1965 law. They have said they will not interfere with partisan gerrymandering.

I would expect them to overturn any new voting laws and we’ll be right back where we are today. None of this will change until (if and when) we get a liberal majority on the Supreme Court.

__________

I just saw this:

I'm not even going to link because it's too depressing but Federalist Society law professors are already feverishly crafting theories about how courts should eviscerate or invalidate this bill if it somehow passed. The Senate is a problem. The courts are a bigger problem. https://t.co/57BIxbKuMh
— Mark Joseph Stern ***FAIR COLAs FOR SLATE*** (@mjs_DC) January 13, 2022

Voter suppression update – 8/15/21

"What we are witnessing in real time across the country is a widening divide," the Voting Rights Lab said, "whereby some states are working to strengthen and expand participation in our democracy just as a significant number of states work to curtail it." https://t.co/OdkwIwYrFC
— NPR (@NPR) August 13, 2021

Some Very Smart People have argued that voter suppression can rile up voters so much that they turn out at higher rates than before—the so-called “backlash effect”—so it’s really not a big deal.

But my new research shows this isn’t always the case. https://t.co/2BnIl9M2Jd
— Charlotte Hill (@hill_charlotte) July 29, 2021

"Not all bad laws come in big packages labeled voter suppression. Not all disenfranchisement tactics make the nightly news…Yet, regardless of the size of the law, the tragic result for citizens and democracy is the same." https://t.co/54sQofJO3I
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) August 12, 2021

The Supreme Court is the biggest obstacle to voting rights legislation

Even if Congress passes voting rights legislation to undo damage done by the Supreme Court and Republican states, the Supreme Court is likely to strike it down. This is very discouraging. We will only make progress in voting rights when the court doesn’t have a Republican-appointed conservative majority.

Chief Justice John Roberts and the Supreme Court might block anything Democrats do on voting rights https://t.co/5p207u7vDj
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 12, 2021

Biden is wrong to think Republicans will support voting rights

Republicans have made it very clear that they will suppress voting and make it easier to overturn elections. Biden is wrong to think Republicans will do anything to support voting rights.

Listening carefully again to Biden's answer on voting rights at #BidenTownHall I think it revealed his deepest instincts on the issue in three distinct ways. And all of them will likely be very discouraging to voting rights advocates.
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) July 22, 2021

Sigh. This is frustrating,

My friends on here, “why are you critical of the POTUS?”

3 reasons. He’s wrong on this and weed. And I can.

Ppl paid the ultimate cost for voting rights and the Dem caucus won’t do the bare minimum. It’s also more than JM and KS. We see y’all. https://t.co/mQ8USAWZ51
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) July 22, 2021

This @ElieNYC analysis of the futility of voting rights legislation without Supreme Court expansion is good and unsparing and correct, and this sentence made me audibly wince at how doomed we are https://t.co/CZcZIjW8pB pic.twitter.com/NJVQMSlQNs
— Jay Willis (@jaywillis) July 21, 2021

One day when Mitch McConnell kills the filibuster and a president is elected by voter suppression and state legislators picking the winner, I’m sure both sides will work super hard together to pass a voting rights bill because the rights of others is what the powerful care about. pic.twitter.com/sqUJzWW7fW
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 22, 2021

GOP is opposing real Voting Rights because it doesn’t want all of us voting; doesn’t want a public investigation of a white supremacist insurrection, but if we #EndTheFilibusterNow, a relic of segregation, there will be chaos? https://t.co/zuUfu22MMn
— Maya Wiley (@mayawiley) July 22, 2021

Biden saying he wants Republicans who "know better" to support voting rights legislation is the most unconvincing thing he's said tonight. There aren't 10 Republicans of that sort in the Senate. Not even close. https://t.co/l7ZE9sasyT
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 22, 2021

They can’t out-organize this:https://t.co/qnrW4pRGSn
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) July 23, 2021

I don’t expect Republicans to accept the results if they lose the 2024 presidential election. The issue is how to prevent them from overturning elections. Organizing people to vote won’t solve this problem in red states.
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) July 23, 2021

Would the Supreme Court undermine new voting legislation?

This is an excellent point. Based on what the court decided on Arizona, it’s reasonable to think the court would rule against any new laws that tried to restore voting rights. This is a bad situation and I am not optimistic that voting rights will ever be protected with the current court balance..

After #SCOTUS AZ ruling, "A lot of people woke up this morning recognizing there are two really big thresholds and maybe the second one is now bigger. No. 1 is: How do you pass this legislation? And second: How do you protect it from this current court?,” says @LevinsonJessica https://t.co/lq6MP93hh6
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) July 8, 2021

Next legal showdown if Ds end filibuster to pass HR 1: GOP AGs have signaled they would argue that even if "elections" clause in Constitution gives Congress authority to set the rules for House/Senate elections, "electors" clause denies them that authority for presidential races https://t.co/lq6MP93hh6
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) July 8, 2021

New: when Ds introduce updated #VotingRightsAct later this summer it likely will specifically counter #SCOTUS decision weakening the law. “W/out congressional action [the] decision will shape our efforts to protect the right to vote for at least the next decade,” @RepTerriSewell https://t.co/lq6MP93hh6
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) July 8, 2021

Terrible Republican election laws

They are afraid they can’t win a fair election. The worst things they are doing concerned how ballots will be counted and certified. They will make it possible for some legislatures to overturn the will of the voters.

As federal voting legislation falters, state Republicans push to exert new powers over elections https://t.co/b6o1KL9hP3
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 24, 2021

The new R laws and the quick flexing of them described in @reidepstein’s article are the structural counterpart to individual actions, such as purging the Republican who cast a legally-mandated, ministerial vote to certify Michigan’s electoral votes. https://t.co/sFM9wvMsEn
— Jonathan Zittrain (@zittrain) June 19, 2021

Read @JRakove explaining why federal legislation to correct voting rights abuses by state legislatures is fully consistent with the intentions of the framers:https://t.co/lFFslyLGuD
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 19, 2021

NEW: Local election officials can now be removed or stripped of power under new voting laws implemented this year by Republican legislators in GA, AR, KS and under consideration in AZ.

Most of those ousted already are Black Democrats.
w/@NYTnickc https://t.co/jlY3mqayH6
— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) June 19, 2021

Activists fight back as Juneteenth milestone is undercut by GOP discriminatory voting bills https://t.co/aGczMHIoVp
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 19, 2021

“A passionate base of voters and activists on both sides may be intensely dialed in on the issue, but a disengaged middle is baffled at the attention.” https://t.co/ITvO2jjeYD
— Julie Pace (@jpaceDC) June 19, 2021

weird that georgia republicans are using the new voting to do exactly what critics said georgia republicans would do https://t.co/8Ie1bQUXWp
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) June 19, 2021

it is very very clear where this is all headed and it feels like much of the nation’s political class is in denial about it https://t.co/2bHoTHLOLd
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) June 19, 2021