General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTexas' New Voting Law Is an 'Absolute Nightmare'
Link to tweet
Noah Bookbinder
@NoahBookbinder
The effects of Texas new voting lawincluding a rise in rejected mail-in voting applications & ballots and limited resources for election workersare a reminder of why we need to keep up the fight to pass national voting rights protections.
thedailybeast.com
Texas New Voting Law Is an Absolute Nightmare
Election administrators in Texas are reporting a record number of ballot rejectionsand early voting has only just begun.
12:30 PM · Feb 14, 2022
https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-voting-law-sb1-is-absolute-nightmare
A rapid rise in rejected mail-in voting applications and ballots. Limited resources among election workers. Confusion galore, and a March 1 primary election quickly approaching.
This is the reality in Texas as SB 1a controversial voting bill signed into law last yeargoes into effect. With primary voting already underway, election officials, advocates, and everyday voters are struggling to navigate the newly enacted rules, with little room for error.
And folks on the ground are sounding the alarm, concerned about disenfranchisement among perfectly eligible voting populations.
Honestly, its been an absolute nightmare, Charlie Bonner, communications director for the voting-rights group MOVE Texas, told The Daily Beast.
SB 1 is jam-packed with new rules for voting throughout Texas. Among those is a provision requiring voters to provide a drivers license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on their mail-in voting applications and ballots. The number provided must match what the state has on file for any given voter.
*snip*
MontanaMama
(23,352 posts)Make it so difficult that people don't bother.
onecaliberal
(32,929 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,737 posts)Chainfire
(17,663 posts)Texas just wants to end "mob rule." (AKA Democracy) Running the country is too damn important for the people to have a say in it.
sakabatou
(42,186 posts)northoftheborder
(7,575 posts)said that 50 percent of mailed ballots are failing to be accepted because of confusion of having to put a number (either driver's license or SS #) or the wrong one (has to match the one given when originally registering) on the envelope. Then the elections office has to contact each one of those people and let them correct their number entry, causing huge extra obligations on that office to accomplish in time, and of course extra undue stress on the voter.
Bettie
(16,132 posts)and use your DL number, your ballot is rejected? Wow, I registered to vote over 20 years ago...I wouldn't recall that.
exboyfil
(17,865 posts)Also it should be a state issued DMV ID card that is most commonly a DL. They should have spent billions getting everyone such a card (since SS is not supposed to be used for identification). The ID card should also be free - anything more is a poll tax.
I think we should have leaned into the ID thing early on. That is really the only club they have in their bag (ineligible voters voting). We could have turned it by using it as an opportunity to also register to vote.
SoCalDavidS
(9,998 posts)Turning TX Blue was highly unlikely to begin with. Now it's pretty much impossible. Spend the money in states where the Democrats have a chance.