MORE PROOF THAT ONLY ONE POLITICAL PARTY IS INTERESTED IN DOING THEIR JOB

 

…The Governor of Texas, Gregg Abbott (R) has become a dictatorial, authoritarian Republican leader

 

Fortunately, the U.S. Justice Department is being run by a party, other than the GOP

 

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit over the Texas Republicans new voting restrictions.  The lawsuit alleges the restrictions disenfranchise eligible voters, which is correct.  This includes both older Americans and people with disabilities, and these restrictions violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The lawsuit was filed against the state of Texas and the Texas secretary of state over Senate Bill #1, which Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott (R) signed into law last September. The Texas bill imposed new criminal penalties for violating voting laws.  It also bans 24-hour and drive-through voting (a popular voting tradition of Blacks & minorities) and it allows more access for highly partisan poll watchers.

“Our democracy depends on the right of eligible voters to cast a ballot and to have that ballot counted,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement last Thursday. “The Justice Department will continue to use all the authorities at its disposal to protect this fundamental pillar of our society.”

In September, Abbott falsely argued that the legislation would “solidify trust and confidence in the outcome of our elections by making it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”

However, the Texas opponents swiftly took to federal court, filing two separate complaints seeking injunctions to stop the bill from going into effect. 

The Justice Department’s complaint alleges that provisions of Senate Bill #1 will harm eligible Texas residents seeking to exercise their right to vote, including those with limited English proficiency, voters with disabilities, older voters, members of the military deployed away from their homes and American citizens residing abroad.

The complaint also argued that, even before Senate Bill #1, Texas had already imposed some of the strictest voting limitations in the country on granting voting assistance to certain citizens and on mail-in voting, even during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Laws that impair eligible citizens’ access to the ballot box have no place in our democracy,” Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “Texas Senate Bill #1’s restrictions on voter assistance at the polls and on which absentee ballots cast by eligible voters can be accepted by election officials are unlawful and indefensible.”

The new voting restrictions in Texas are part of a wave of efforts by GOP-led state legislatures and Republican governors who have enacted or tried to enact voting restrictions across the country. For nearly a year, former president Donald Trump has falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, and Trump has continued to push Republican-led audits of election results and he sows doubts in the integrity of elections around the country. There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have changed the results of the election.

 (If this ends up being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if they will take the case, with the current conservative majority, (6 to 3), they might decide to just ignore it.) 

In March, Georgia Gov., Brian Kemp (R), signed into law a restrictive voting bill that curtails the use of drop boxes and imposes new ID requirements for mail voting. The state faced immediate blowback from local Democrats and civil rights groups, as well as economic consequences as major corporations spoke out against the bill.

Earlier this year, Texas state Democrats went to extreme measures to try to block their Republican colleagues from passing new voting restrictions. In May, Democrats in the Texas House staged a walkout to remove a quorum to prevent the Republican majority from passing what was then known as Senate Bill 7.  In July, after Abbott called a special session to take up that specific issue of voting restrictions, dozens of Texas Democrats fled the state, traveling to Washington to implore their colleagues in Congress to pass federal voting rights legislation.  Such efforts by the Texas Democrats floundered, however. 

Republican senators on Wednesday blocked debate on the third major voting rights bill that congressional Democrats have sought to pass this year. The vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named after the civil rights icon and former congressman who died last year.  It fell short of the 60 votes necessary to proceed, (Final vote, 51 to 49). Only one Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted to advance it.

(Another example of the GOP doing whatever they can to mess with all U.S. election.)

It is highly disturbing that there are Red states that know they are in the minority, but their Republican legislation still try to pass any voting restrictions that would give them a voting advantage

It these GOP groups are successful, we can probably kiss our hundred years of having a real democracy, decided by the voting American public, goodbye.

For the greatest free nation in the world, it is disturbing that those Republican lawmakers that were elected to serve the citizens of this country, are ignoring their jobs.  It is disgusting that of our two party system, only one party is interested in serving their country.

The country cannot survive if this situation is allowed to continue, by these anti-democratic individuals being continually re-elected.

Copyright G. Ater 2021