GOP lawmaker wants to make it harder to vote by mail as more people do it

[turbinetree]

By Dan Desai Martin -June 8, 2020 5:30 PM

Mail-in voting increased by 1,000% from 2016 in Iowa's June primary.

A Republican state senator in Iowa has introduced legislation to make it harder for citizens to vote by mail this November, days after the state saw a dramatic increase in absentee voting in its June 2 primary.

On Friday, State Sen. Roby Smith attempted to attach a 30-page amendment to an otherwise non-controversial bill "dictating the use of county seals," according to local CBS affiliate KGAN.

The amendment would, among other things, limit the secretary of state's authority to mail voters absentee ballot applications, even during a health crisis such as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The legislation would specifically bar the secretary's office from mailing absentee ballot applications unless requested by a voter.

The center noted in April that five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington — already conduct elections primarily by mail, and none has had any significant issues since adopting the system.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.


_snip-

I really believe that ALEC is behind this shit........and they should have there non-profit status removed and for that matter and any other sites that are promoting this shit...........they really do and are truing to de-legitimized central government oversight.............and as for this Roby Smith ........pure libertarian BS...........

https://ballotpedia.org/Roby_Smith

[leftieNanner]

1. What's so stupid about all of this

Is that they are making it harder for EVERYONE to vote - including their own voters. Older Republicans aren't going to be too delighted to stand in a line at a polling place any more than a Democrat would.

And statistically, VBM doesn't benefit one party over the other. It's just that expanded turnout does benefit Dems. And that is what scares them!

[donkeypoofed]

2. Statistically it does indeed make a difference

The country is primarily left or center leaning with the right being at a steady 1/3 of the population. The GOP darn well knows they have to cheat & gerrymander to have any chance of winning.

"If mail-in voting is allowed, there will never be a Republican elected in this country again" -DJT, Fox News, April 2020.

Spanky isn't politically savvy enough to have figured that out, meaning someone in the Party told him and he repeated it (pretty sure he wasn't supposed to).

So basically we absolutely know that they are suppressing votes to win ; they have no choice.

[leftieNanner]

3. Yeah. You're right

No mail in voting for us - but for the idiot-in-chief, it's A-OK!

I'm in Oregon and we have ONLY VBM here. We even elected a Republican SOS last time around. (He died in office, sadly.) But we do have a much higher turnout than states that don't have as much mail in voting.

[donkeypoofed]

5. And no reports of kids stealing ballots from mailboxes, right?

[leftieNanner]

6. LOL

Yeah. No mail box thieves!

[subterranean]

7. Voting by mail also complicates their voter suppression strategy.

Their voter suppression tactics -- reducing the number of polling places in Democratic precincts, assigning "poll watchers" to intimidate minority voters and force them to cast provisional ballots, cutting back early voting, passing voter ID laws -- won't work unless people have to vote in person. I think that's a big reason they're against vote-by-mail or expansion of absentee voting.

[Cha]

4. Of course they do.. Magats are Scared Shitless