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As if you'd needed another excuse to hate QAnon, an Californian father took both of his kids to Mexico in order to kill them...Because he thought it was the only way to save the world and he was convinced that they had reptilian DNA in them, or something. Fortunately, the feds have arrested him when he came back and their Mexican counterparts have found the bodies.

 

I know that "the lizardmen are running Congress!" thing is a joke, but wasn't that from several decades ago?

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Texas Senate passes their voting restrictions bill:

https://www.courthousenews.com/texas-senate-passes-voting-restrictions-after-15-hour-filibuster/

Can't be voted on the House though, lacking quorum due to most of the House Democrats having left the state. With actual arrest warrants signed to force them back to the state congress floor, less chances they will.

On a similar subject, census results are now out which means redistricting time has begun. Let's how how many get Gerrymandered...

Edited by Acacia Sgt
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On 8/13/2021 at 12:10 AM, Acacia Sgt said:

Texas Senate passes their voting restrictions bill:

https://www.courthousenews.com/texas-senate-passes-voting-restrictions-after-15-hour-filibuster/

Can't be voted on the House though, lacking quorum due to most of the House Democrats having left the state. With actual arrest warrants signed to force them back to the state congress floor, less chances they will.

On a similar subject, census results are now out which means redistricting time has begun. Let's how how many get Gerrymandered...

Thank you so much for sharing.

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On 8/12/2021 at 10:10 PM, Acacia Sgt said:

Texas Senate passes their voting restrictions bill:

Thing is, I've actually read the bill on the Texas Government website, and there are no restrictions at all. This bill actually increases the voting hours available to voters, requires the count to be livestreamed in areas with a population of 100,000 or more, and requires an official to watch over the voting process. There's nothing "restrictive" about this at all.

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38 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Thing is, I've actually read the bill on the Texas Government website, and there are no restrictions at all. This bill actually increases the voting hours available to voters, requires the count to be livestreamed in areas with a population of 100,000 or more, and requires an official to watch over the voting process. There's nothing "restrictive" about this at all.

Link what you saw, because the bills are here:

https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/871/billtext/pdf/HB00003I.pdf#navpanes=0
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/871/billtext/pdf/HB00003H.pdf#navpanes=0

And the restriction are there plain as day. To list:

First Restriction - Banning drive-through voting:

Quote

(b)AAEach polling place shall be located inside a building. No voter may cast a vote from inside a motor vehicle unless the voter meets the requirements of Section 64.009.



 

Sec. 64.009. VOTER UNABLE TO ENTER POLLING PLACE. (a) If a voter is physically unable to enter the polling place without personal assistance or likelihood of injuring the voter's health, on the voter's request, an election officer shall deliver a ballot to the voter at the polling place entrance or curb.

(b) The regular voting procedures may be modified by the election officer to the extent necessary to conduct voting under this section.

(c) After the voter is accepted for voting, the voter shall mark the ballot and give it to the election officer who shall deposit it in the ballot box.

(d) On the voter's request, a person accompanying the voter shall be permitted to select the voter's ballot and deposit the ballot in the ballot box.

Drive-through voting was implemented in Harris County, a heavy Democrat voting area, with little-to-none issues in the 2020 elections. It helped with early voting, and even allowed for record turnout:

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/31/early-vote-tally/

Republicans didn't like that, so they're trying to ban it. They don't want people to simply drive in, show their ID, vote, and drive out. Specially in a heavy Democrat voting area. They tried to ban the practice in the November elections and invalidate 127,000 votes:

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/31/harris-county-drive-thru-votes/

Again, in a heavy Democrat voting area. Thus, Republicans fear this may be implemented in more areas across the state, so they're moving in to ban the practice state-wide before it can take root.

I can continue, but at least so far I've proven you're wrong in that the bills aren't restricting voting rights. They are. Republicans wants this, because they know they wouldn't be able to win in a fair election otherwise.

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14 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Link what you saw, because the bills are here:

https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/871/billtext/pdf/HB00003I.pdf#navpanes=0
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/871/billtext/pdf/HB00003H.pdf#navpanes=0

And the restriction are there plain as day. To list:

First Restriction - Banning drive-through voting:

Drive-through voting was implemented in Harris County, a heavy Democrat voting area, with little-to-none issues in the 2020 elections. It helped with early voting, and even allowed for record turnout:

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/31/early-vote-tally/

Republicans didn't like that, so they're trying to ban it. They don't want people to simply drive in, show their ID, vote, and drive out. Specially in a heavy Democrat voting area. They tried to ban the practice in the November elections and invalidate 127,000 votes:

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/31/harris-county-drive-thru-votes/

Again, in a heavy Democrat voting area. Thus, Republicans fear this may be implemented in more areas across the state, so they're moving in to ban the practice state-wide before it can take root.

I can continue, but at least so far I've proven you're wrong in that the bills aren't restricting voting rights. They are. Republicans wants this, because they know they wouldn't be able to win in a fair election otherwise.

Are there really a non negligible number of people who are too lazy to vote if they have to get out of their car, or is it more there are queues of people lining up to vote and their voice simply isn't heard because polling stations close at a certain time even if there are voters who haven't hard their chance to vote that are there already due to congestion?

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Just now, Jotari said:

Are there really a non negligible number of people who are too lazy to vote if they have to get out of their car, or is it more there are queues of people lining up to vote and their voice simply isn't heard because polling stations close at a certain time even if there are voters who haven't hard their chance to vote that are there already due to congestion?

It's more complex than that. Another factor is that voting days are not holidays, so people can either only vote way early in the morning, or way late in the afternoon. It's worse for people with unorthodox working hours. So yes, people don't have much chance to go and vote. And when they do, they spend hours in line. Which can be discouraging. This is also why Republicans in Georgia are also imposing their own restrictions, like making it a felony to hand out food and water to people in line:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/26/politics/georgia-voting-law-food-drink-ban-trnd/index.html

Hmm, okay, I can bring up another restriction of the bill related to this. NinjaMonkey says it's increasing the voting hours, which is true. They got increased by 1 hour and population thresholds for presidential, senate, and house voting which have their own schedules.

Thing is, while it increased the voting hours, it also imposed an upper limit on them. Again, Harris County implemented 24-hour voting, allowing people to vote as early as just after midnight:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Harris-County-s-24-hour-voting-starts-with-a-15688608.php

This allowed around 10,000 people to be able to vote at a more convenient time for them, or just vote at all. Again, Republicans don't like people, specially Democrats, having more time to cast their vote, so they're imposing a strict schedule that while it is slightly higher than the previous one, it's much lower than what Harris County implemented.

You see, the Republican strategy is aimed at putting barriers and inconveniences to the voting process, specially in Democrat areas, in order to discourage voting turnout. Anything that makes voting an easier process thus gets under attack by Republicans. This was also seen in 2020. They tried to sabotage mail-in voting as much they could:

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-admits-he-wants-block-usps-funding-sabotage-mail-voting-2020-8?r=MX&IR=T

Because of the pandemic, Democrat voters were more in favor of such methods like mail-in voting since it'd be much safer to do. After all, people standing in lines for hours is a good way to turn it into a spreader event of COVID. Republicans knew this, so they tried to obstruct as much they could, thinking that Democrat voters would rather avoid risking the chance to gain COVID over voting in person.

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4 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It's more complex than that. Another factor is that voting days are not holidays, so people can either only vote way early in the morning, or way late in the afternoon. It's worse for people with unorthodox working hours. So yes, people don't have much chance to go and vote. And when they do, they spend hours in line. Which can be discouraging. This is also why Republicans in Georgia are also imposing their own restrictions, like making it a felony to hand out food and water to people in line:

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/26/politics/georgia-voting-law-food-drink-ban-trnd/index.html

Hmm, okay, I can bring up another restriction of the bill related to this. NinjaMonkey says it's increasing the voting hours, which is true. They got increased by 1 hour and population thresholds for presidential, senate, and house voting which have their own schedules.

Thing is, while it increased the voting hours, it also imposed an upper limit on them. Again, Harris County implemented 24-hour voting, allowing people to vote as early as just after midnight:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Harris-County-s-24-hour-voting-starts-with-a-15688608.php

This allowed around 10,000 people to be able to vote at a more convenient time for them, or just vote at all. Again, Republicans don't like people, specially Democrats, having more time to cast their vote, so they're imposing a strict schedule that while it is slightly higher than the previous one, it's much lower than what Harris County implemented.

You see, the Republican strategy is aimed at putting barriers and inconveniences to the voting process, specially in Democrat areas, in order to discourage voting turnout. Anything that makes voting an easier process thus gets under attack by Republicans. This was also seen in 2020. They tried to sabotage mail-in voting as much they could:

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-admits-he-wants-block-usps-funding-sabotage-mail-voting-2020-8?r=MX&IR=T

Because of the pandemic, Democrat voters were more in favor of such methods like mail-in voting since it'd be much safer to do. After all, people standing in lines for hours is a good way to turn it into a spreader event of COVID. Republicans knew this, so they tried to obstruct as much they could, thinking that Democrat voters would rather avoid risking the chance to gain COVID over voting in person.

Congestion is an interesting issue, and not one I think we really have any issue with in Ireland due to much smaller and less dense population (though I come from a small village in general so perhaps I'm just ignorant). There's probably some issue I'm over looking here, but it sounds to me like the best solution would be to make voting a two day event. People would probably procrastinate and leave it to the last minute anyway, but it seems doubling the hours entirely would be a lot more convenient.Though it would be twice as expensive to pay the staff that work at polling booths to work two days (that's if polling booth staff actually get paid for the work and that it's not just volunteer workers).

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Just now, Jotari said:

Congestion is an interesting issue, and not one I think we really have any issue with in Ireland due to much smaller and less dense population (though I come from a small village in general so perhaps I'm just ignorant). There's probably some issue I'm over looking here, but it sounds to me like the best solution would be to make voting a two day event. People would probably procrastinate and leave it to the last minute anyway, but it seems doubling the hours entirely would be a lot more convenient.Though it would be twice as expensive to pay the staff that work at polling booths to work two days (that's if polling booth staff actually get paid for the work and that it's not just volunteer workers).

It's like I said, ease of voting. Harris County implemented stuff like drive-through voting and 24-hour voting, and lots of people went to vote. An extra day isn't needed, as there's a clear pattern that if people simply have an easier time to vote during the one day, they will go and vote.

https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/historical/harris.shtml

Comparing 2016 with 2020, overall turnout went from 52% to 65.86%. More than a 10% increase. Early voting also got a big jump, from 33% to 87.79%, the first time ever early voting got that high of a turnout. Second highest is only still under half of that. So it works.

Problem is, the Republican party knows this. They also know there's more Democrat voters than Republican. So what they do is basically cheat and sabotage. The less [Democrat] people vote, the better for them.

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31 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Problem is, the Republican party knows this. They also know there's more Democrat voters than Republican. So what they do is basically cheat and sabotage. The less [Democrat] people vote, the better for them.

You know, there's also the off chance that they're inconveniencing Republican voters, as well.

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Just now, Armchair General said:

You know, there's also the off chance that they're inconveniencing Republican voters, as well.

Oh, certainly. But so long they get to inconvenience the Democrats more, it's a "risk" they're willing to take. That's why they employ tactics like Gerrymandering in order to secure safety nets even if there's collateral and Republicans voters also find themselves unable or inconvenienced to vote.

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3 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

You know, there's also the off chance that they're inconveniencing Republican voters, as well.

They in fact are, I saw a story the other day of veterans who vote Republicans being upset at these changes. This was discussed before in the thread but for whatever reason, the Republican party itself just seems to think that the easier it is to vote and the more people that vote, the more likely it is that they will lose.

They can deflect and say it's to "make the elections secure" but the evidence of fraud I've seen has mostly come from their own voters lol. I think it's rather telling of the party if they truly believe that more votes = higher chance of losing for them, it should be straight up admittance that they know they're a failing party and are just trying to latch on to power but it doesn't seem like a lot of people see that.

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35 minutes ago, Dr. Tarrasque said:

the Republican party itself just seems to think that the easier it is to vote and the more people that vote, the more likely it is that they will lose.

In a roundabout way, this is true. But it also shows how much responsibility that they're deflecting by blaming the public as why they're unpopular as opposed to trying to do something that'll encourage people to vote for them.

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It's worthy of the Professor Skinner "Out of touch" meme, that's for sure. Specially when you consider that at this point it's becoming self-destructive. You have Republican governors like Abbott and DeSantis banning mask mandates, even threatening to defund schools that implement them, all this in spite of their states shooting up in the number of infections more than others', and that the number of infected children is now on the rise too. People are already theorizing there might come a point Republicans might lose at least one election somewhere precisely because enough Republican voters are dying. Impact the redistricting too.

Edited by Acacia Sgt
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I'm still trying to figure out why there's so much resistance to mail-in voting.  My state implemented it and it's so much easier!  Follow directions, fill out ballot, drop in mail, move on with life.  Work schedules become irrelevant, and I can look up candidates and their stances before voting them.

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6 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Drive-through voting was implemented in Harris County, a heavy Democrat voting area, with little-to-none issues in the 2020 elections.

Drive-in voting has never been part of the election rules, and that one county decided to do that by themselves. They aren't allowed to do that, according to the Lt Governor.

6 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Link what you saw, because the bills are here

87(1) SB 1 - Introduced version (texas.gov)

 

Edited by NinjaMonkey
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9 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

This was only implemented as a temporary measure due to the pandemic. Since there is now a vaccine available, this is not needed any more. Furthermore, drive-in voting has never been part of the election rules, and that one county decided to do that by themselves, and they aren't allowed to do that.

87(1) SB 1 - Introduced version (texas.gov)

 

And Republicans saw how it boosted voter turnout, thus want to impose an official ban in their state-wide bill. After all, if it helped more people vote in Houston, other Democrat areas could follow suit, like Austin and San Antonio.

Irrelevant. Vaccine availability does not dictate that the ease for voting should be dialed back. You're missing the forest for the trees, which is as to why Republicans want to ban and impose restrictions. The same applies for 24-hour voting. They saw how it helped more people vote, so they want to restrict voting hours as well.

If Harris County wasn't allowed to enact such measures, they wouldn't have been able to do it in the first place. As it was, they had the legality to. Even a Republican Federal Judge ruled in their favor when Republicans wanted to invalidate over 127,000 votes because they were done through drive-through back in November. Hence why Republicans are now seeking to impose a ban through a state bill.

It's the same document I linked. The restriction on drive-through voting is there.

Edited by Acacia Sgt
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21 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

They saw how it helped more people vote, so they want to restrict voting hours as well.

Except they're actually giving people more hours to vote, which is the opposite of restricting voting hours.

Edited by NinjaMonkey
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7 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Drive-in voting has never been part of the election rules, and that one county decided to do that by themselves, and they aren't allowed to do that.

I'd be a bit more sympathetic to Texas if their mail-in voting laws were more sane.

Now, for that bill. . .

Quote

Beginning January 1, 2024, equipment to tabulate votes may not be used if any wireless connectivity capability of the equipment has not been disabled or removed.

That's pretty funny.  I hope they have laws regarding physical access in place, because reflashing the BIOS isn't exactly hard.

Quote

Voting system ballots may not be arranged in a manner that allows a political party ’s candidates to be selected in one motion or gesture.

Hey, some sanity!

Quote

(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) and notwithstanding any other law, including Chapter 552, Government Code, a written letter, e-mail, or other communication, including a communication made confidential by other law, between a public official and a voting systems vendor: (1) is not confidential; (2) is public information for purposes of Chapter 552, Government Code; and (3) is not subject to an exception to disclosure provided by Chapter 552, Government Code (b) Subsection (a) does not apply to a written letter, e-mail, or other communication related to the bidding process.

"Here's the BIOS exploit code, please make this public".

Quote

(b) After January 1, 2024, an authority operating a central counting station under this chapter may not purchase or use a centrally counted optical ballot scan system that uses a data storage disc on which information, once written, is capable of being modified.

I, too, like to create problems that didn't exist.  Also RIP taxpayer money.

Honestly, reading through that bill gave me a major headache, and I'm not moving to Texas if I can help it.

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Just now, NinjaMonkey said:

Except they're actually giving people more hours to vote, which is the opposite of restricting voting hours.

No, they are. They're banning Harris County's 24-hour measure and preventing any other place in the state from adopting it by imposing a much shorter voting time. It is one hour longer than the already existing one state-wide, that is true, but their goal is to restrict it being any longer for the entire state. Again, because they saw how effective the 24-hour measure was in boosting turnout in Houston.

That's a second restriction the bill imposes.

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18 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

They're banning Harris County's 24-hour measure

I don't think that's unreasonable. Drive-in's aren't the place to be voting, polling stations are. I do concede that last year was a special case, seeing as the 2020 General Election took place during the worst of the pandemic, but that's not the case anymore. Just because a judge said it was alright in that case, doesn't mean it would be allowed in perpituity.

Edited by NinjaMonkey
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