Watch carefully for the last pieces to fall into place. When do Republicans go full authoritarian, move to abolish elections altogether, and declare Donald J. Trump president for life and Republicans the forever victors? It’s what Trump wants. It’s what Trump expects.
Texas Republicans are working hard to meet Dear Leader’s expectations (Washington Post; emphasis mine):
The Texas legislature on Saturday moved closer to enacting dozens of new restrictions on the voting process, as Republican lawmakers reached a deal that imposes a raft of hurdles on casting ballots by mail and enhances civil and criminal penalties for election administrators, voters and those seeking to assist them.
The measure would make it illegal for election officials to send out unsolicited mail ballot applications, empower partisan poll watchers and ban practices such as drop boxes and drive-through voting that were popularized in heavily Democratic Harris County last year, according to a final draft distributed by legislative staff to voting right advocates Saturday morning.
In a last-minute addition, language was inserted in the bill making it easier to overturn an election, no longer requiring evidence that fraud actually altered an outcome of a race — but rather only that enough ballots were illegally cast that could have made a difference.
It’s all about ensuring that “fraud does not undermine the public confidence in the electoral process” that the GOP and its agents have spent decades undermining expressly to justify them fixing it.
Naturally, “the reforms to the election laws of this state made by this Act are not intended to impair the right of free suffrage guaranteed to the people of Texas by the United States and Texas Constitutions, but are enacted solely to prevent fraud in the electoral process and ensure that all legally cast ballots are counted.” It is in the eye of the Republican-controlled legislature which ballots are legally cast. All votes cast in wrong-leaning districts are presumptively illegal until proven otherwise. Especially if the vote is close. Extra-especially if the Republican loses.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) will sign this with a flourish when it lands on his desk. Voting rights groups will see him in court.
The bill would broadly prohibit local election officials from altering election procedures without express legislative permission — a direct hit against Harris County, home of Houston, where election officials implemented various expansions last year to help voters cast ballots during the pandemic. It also specifically targets some of those expansions, explicitly banning drive-through voting locations, temporary polling places in tents and 24-hour or late-night voting marathons.
The proposed new voting hurdles come after the state logged record turnout in the 2020 election, including huge surges in early voting in cities including Austin and Houston.
A couple of these provisions are new, at least to me:
● Allow signatures on mail ballot applications to be compared to any signature on record, eliminating protections that the signature on file must be recent and that the application signature must be compared to at least two others on file to prevent the arbitrary rejection of ballots;
● And require individuals to fill out a form if they plan to transport more than two non-relatives to the polls, and expand the requirement that those assisting voters who need help must sign an oath attesting under penalty of perjury that the person they’re helping is eligible for assistance because of a disability and that they will not suggest whom to vote for.
Recognizing that signatures change over time, my state scans signatures every time a voter signs an affidavit or voting-related form so there is a historical record. Signatures are matched against the most recent version(s).
Republicans have for years harassed activists who ferry Black voters to the polls. They’ll get in their faces, claim what they’re doing is wrong somehow, and take photos of their license tags. There would be one pissed-off Black woman if North Carolina Republicans tried that “fill out a form” shit here to discourage driving voters to the polls. Boys and girls, you do not want to piss off Ms. Elinor.
The other day, some idiot in Nashville mocked Covid vaccines and the Holocaust by selling yellow stars of David with “NOT VACCINATED” on them. (No, I’m not providing a link.) A name that lives in infamy attaches to the political party that first created those patches.
The Collins English Dictionary already incudes “Trumpism” among its entries, but only as British English. “Policies advocated by Donald Trump” elides specifying the authoritarian, antidemocratic nature of the movement Trump leads even in exile. It is just a matter of time before that term sees broader use. Trumpism and Trumpist will attach to his political party and cult that under the guise of election integrity laid waste to the American republic and dispensed with democracy altogether. Because if it is not stopped, it is just a matter of time before creeping Trumpism does just that.
