Tag Archives: voting

Pointing fingers in the right direction

07 Thursday Nov 2024

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Old media, if not anything else, can turn on a dime.

The gaslighting hasn’t infiltrated everywhere just yet. This morning.

Mika Brezinski: “Was Joe Biden’s presidency a failure.”

Eugene Robinson: “No.”

The Democratic Party doesn’t have to figure out anything, nor change its core beliefs.

Look in the mirror. American voters faced an important test on Tuesday. Too many of them failed, by commission and omission.

They deserve what they’re going to get.

Far too many others, our most vulnerable, don’t.

#Resist

The conversation

08 Sunday Oct 2023

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Jess Piper (D) [2023 file photo].

Yesterday:

Piper For Missouri
[October 7, 2023]
How we can “flip” Trump voters? I remember so many of them wearing shirts that said “I’d rather be Russian than a Democrat” and “Grab them by the 🐱”
I don’t waste my breath. We have to register new voters, engage apathetic voters, and get them all to the polls.

Some of the responses:

Once a person joins a cult it’s hard to get them out

The right is very good at creating outrage and misleading people. They are excellent at that. People love that rage diet, you’d think it would be exhausting but they eat it up. One of my friends is a literature teacher and brought up banned books (she was speaking against banning) and one of her friends piped up about books that needed to be banned in 1-5 grade that showed “sexual positions” and other immoral subject matter. I asked her to provide the titles of those books. She told me to Google that it was “all over the news and that her friends took her kids out of public school because of it” I told her I did Google and could not find these sexually explicit books being taught in 1-5th grade, could she please tell me which books because I have elementary aged kids and I agree 1-5 graders should not be taught “sexual positions and sexually explicit content”. She responded to me but blocked me before I could read her response.

utterly ridiculous people just spewing straight up BS.

Ask them what evidence would change their mind.
IMO, the problem is the 20-year-old “get a trade, not an education” campaign. Critical thinking skills, bias, and logical fallacy are all taught in college. Not public school, not trade school. [….]

…Completely missing from the dialogue is the fact that education being available to people who weren’t born into the “upper classes” is a fairly recent development and was something for which people fought hard. This whole idea of “you won’t need it so why learn it” is exactly how they justified not teaching peasants how to read. Scary to me that people would even be willing to flirt with going back to that. But I’m a first generation college student, so I have never taken for granted how lucky I am to have gone to college, and I can see exactly what advantages it has given me over my parents.

I have asked the “what evidence would it take?” question hundreds of times. Literally, not one citing.
They’re choosing the Rule of One over the Rule of Law.
I thought We settled that 250 years ago.
I appreciate your perspective. I think we should learn our whole life. But I think empathy and consideration of the Rights of others can be taught at any (every) level. School or job site.
I’ve barely a high school education, retired from const/maint sector. Trying to see the world through another’s eyes has taught me, wherever I have ventured.
Please, don’t get me wrong. These attacks on higher education are appalling and clear as to their intent. I have and will fight for free and equal education always.
Because my education was majored in empathy.

I’m not saying [higher education] is the only way; it’s just the current accessible way. College is Bloom’s Taxonomy, a reading list, and rhetorical modes. People who are curious enough can access these and self-teach. I have much more respect for the people who did the work autonomously. They are my favorite thinkers. My famous people to learn from and be in a room with. However, we kill curiosity in this country with shaming. It starts in elementary school with smart shaming and dumb shaming. We put so much value on diplomas that people stop learning after achieving that goal. There is a great book called I Don’t Know: In Praise of Admitting Ignorance (Except When You Shouldn’t) by Leah Hager Cohen. She talks about this. It is the answer to Carl Sagan’s question, what happens to students between kindergarten and sixth grade. Reading is a great teacher of empathy but it must start at home. Travel is a great education.

the greatest freedom I ever found was realizing how little I know. The greatest peace, being OK with it.
It allows me to still learn and grow, but helps to beat back my hubris. And judging of others. Because of how much I just don’t know. I still do judge, no doubt. I’m not going to be blind, but it tempers it some.
After “playing outside hard” for 60 years, I’m too broken down to travel very far. All the more reason to be thankful that my parents had a subscription to National Geographic. Empathy 101.

The cult members are a lost cause. They’re brainwashed and can’t be convinced of anything. Need to go after new voters, never voted, undecided folks.

Fifteen years ago, on undecided voters.:

What. He. Said. (October 22, 2008)

Because we ourselves don’t realize the magnitude of what we’re fighting for. If we did, we’d be a lot louder. Magnitudes louder.
We’re deciding whether All have Equal Unalienable Rights or not.
How many of Us fall into “All”?
Republicans have proven they will take Unalienable Rights from Women, POC, and the LGBTQ Community. Attempting to violently take it from Voters.
The very Core of our Country, Equal and Unalienable means nothing to them. If everybody thinks they’ve got nothing to worry about, ask Women, ask POC, ask the LGBTQ Community.
Declare to all what we have at risk.
All with Equal Unalienable Rights.

I’ve also surrendered. Back in 2016 I worked in a pretty Trumpy department. There was wild support for that wall that Mexico was going to pay for. Then, Trump said something about keeping families together and allowing families with little kids into the country. And suddenly the MAGA folks were wildly in favor of that. He clarified after a couple days that he didn’t actually support families coming here, and everyone flipped back. That was where i threw up my hands. If your only “ideology” is supporting whatever Trump said most recently, there truly isn’t any point in engaging.

They will never cast a vote for anyone not named Donald Trump. They didn’t vote before 2016. They won’t vote in 2024 if TFFG isn’t on the ballot. They don’t matter.

You can not flip a Trump voter, but there are some republicans that will not vote for either candidate. So it will be blank and not count. We need to get people to the polls and to register. I also know people who think because we are such a red state now that there vote in the blue pockets, like STL do not matter. We need to scream yes they do matter.

We out number them just vote

Otherwise, why would republicans make it more difficult to vote?

100%. We can’t afford to waste our time on minds we can never sway or educate. We have to spend every minute wisely

The Trump Cult is alive. Can’t do anything about it.

It is impossible to speak on logical subjects with totally illogical people. A person who still supports trump isn’t dealing with a full deck.

because it is a cult. It is emotional. Logic has nothing to do with it.

Yep.

Early Voting

28 Friday Oct 2022

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It’s actually considered no excuse absentee voting, apparently.

We decided to vote today.

This involved gathering our government issued photo IDs (U.S. Passport, Missouri Driver License) and trekking over to the County Courthouse. We found the voter office. An individual in the office almost apologetically took our IDs, checked them with the voter roll, and printed two forms for signature. One form had our printed address from the voter roll. We were instructed to print our address on the second form and sign it. Another individual at the counter pointed out, when given that instruction, that the office had already printed our addresses from the voter roll on the first form (which we were also required to sign). The response from the other side of the counter was that this is what the law required. I thought of that other irritated voter, perhaps unfairly, “You voted for this.”

We got our ballots, were escorted to a nearby room, were instructed to not photograph our ballots (it’s in the statutes), finished our voting, took an “I voted…” sticker, and were then on our way.

Just do it.

The time is now

16 Sunday Aug 2020

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Yesterday:

Bill Clinton @BillClinton
If there was ever a time to protect this beautiful experiment we call a Democracy, it’s now.
2:23 PM · Aug 15, 2020

And:

Bill Clinton @BillClinton
We expect our elected officials to protect the right to vote and to ensure every vote is counted. This attack on the Postal Service —an institution as old as the Republic itself and depended upon, and trusted by, millions of Americans— is designed to ensure that neither is done.
2:23 PM · Aug 15, 2020

You all know what to do. Call. Call your members of Congress. All of them. Two senators and your representative. In Washington and their local offices. Jam the lines with your outrage.

Gov. Mike Parson (r): safety, meh, voting, meh

28 Thursday May 2020

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“…You know, I hope people feel safe, but, uh, to go out and vote. But, if they don’t, you know, the number one thing is their safety should be number one, so if they don’t, um, then, then, don’t go out and vote. You know, you know, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard myself say that, but, but, you know if you didn’t feel safe than I wouldn’t do that…”

Today, at Governor Mike Parson’ (r) press conference.

Governor Mike Parson (r) – press conference – May 28, 2020.

On voting in the June 2, 2020 local elections:

Question: …Uh, Governor, there’s gonna be, uh, municipal and local elections all over the state June second. Um, do you plan on voting in the local elections, and, uh, are you gonna go in person?

Gov. Mike Parson (r): You know, I don’t know if I’ll go in person or absentee, yet, you know. Not for sure. But I’ll plan on voting then. If at all possible, if I can.

Question: Okay. And, um, is there any message that you have for Missourians who are contemplating, uh, going to vote in person on Tuesday?

Gov. Mike Parson (r): Yeah, I hope they get out and I hope they vote. That’s one of the most, uh, important things we can all do is to vote. I think most of your elected officials that I know of across the state, I think they’re well prepared, they know the situation. And I think they’re gonna make that safe. As any where else you go in the State of Missouri, whether it’s some other business or that. But, I, I’m confident that counties and the local elected officials understand, uh, what we’re up against here. And they’re gonna be, uh, uh, above all means they’re gonna be making sure it’s safe. It’s there. I think the Secretary of State was out a week or two ago, I mean to almost every polling place in the state making sure they had equipment there. Making sure they were prepared when this vote comes, so. You know, I hope people feel safe, but, uh, to go out and vote. But, if they don’t, you know, the number one thing is their safety should be number one, so if they don’t, um, then, then, don’t go out and vote. You know, you know, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard myself say that, but, but, you know if you didn’t feel safe than I wouldn’t do that. So, but I hope people feel safe enough to go out and vote. For those elections are important. They’re important for what happens down the road as we all see right now what elected officials on the local level are doing and how important it is to make sure you got the right people in the right place.

Every polling place? Really?

It’s nice to know what’s important.

Governor Mike Parson (r) [2018 file photo].

HJR 99, HB 1811, and HB 1600: afraid of voters

14 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by in Missouri General Assembly, Missouri House

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Introduced today by Representative John Simmons (r):

HJR 99
Proposes a constitutional amendment to prohibit selecting electors for the President of the United States based on the national popular vote
Sponsor: Simmons, John (109)
Proposed Effective Date: 8/28/2020
LR Number: 3107H.01I
Last Action: 01/14/2020 – Introduced and Read First Time (H)
Bill String: HJR 99
Next House Hearing: Hearing not scheduled
Calendar: Bill currently not on a House calendar

There are 2,868,691‬ reasons [pdf] for that one, eh?

And, earlier:

HB 1811
Modifies provisions for initiative petitions and referendums
Sponsor: Simmons, John (109)
Proposed Effective Date: 8/28/2020
LR Number: 3186H.01I
Last Action: 01/09/2020 – Read Second Time (H)
Bill String: HB 1811
Next House Hearing: Hearing not scheduled
Calendar: Bill currently not on a House calendar

The summary [pdf]:

HB 1811 — PETITION REGULATIONS
SPONSOR: Simmons

This bill changes the format of signature sheets and requires the Secretary of State to make petition sheets available in an electronic format for printing and circulation. There is a $500 filing fee for each initiative or referendum petition sample sheet with an additional $25 fee per page of text in excess of two pages. The fee is refundable if the petition is approved for circulation. This bill changes the maximum number of words that the official summary statement can contain from 50 to 150 words and requires signatures on petitions to be in black or blue ink. Initiative petitions may not invalidate or modify federal statutes, regulations, executive orders, or court decisions, amend federal or constitutional provisions, or accomplish any act delegated to the General Assembly under the Constitution of the United States. This bill changes the “Publications Fund” to the “Secretary of State’s Petition Publications Fund”. The procedure for counting or evaluating signatures are specified in the bill. The bill specifies that any court ordered changes to a ballot title results in the invalidation of signatures collected prior to the order. This bill is similar to HB 290 (2019).

“…any court ordered changes to a ballot title results in the invalidation of signatures collected prior to the order…”

Convenient. Have enough money and don’t like an initiative petition with a lot of popular support? Just sue to change the ballot title.

And:

HB 1600
Modifies several provisions relating elections
Sponsor: Simmons, John (109)
Proposed Effective Date: 8/28/2020
LR Number: 3088H.01I
Last Action: 01/09/2020 – Read Second Time (H)
Bill String: HB 1600
Next House Hearing: Hearing not scheduled
Calendar: Bill currently not on a House calendar

The summary:

HB 1600 — ELECTIONS SPONSOR: Simmons This bill modifies election laws. In its main provisions the bill: (1) Requires candidates filing their declaration of candidacy with the Secretary of State to pay their fee to the treasurer of the appropriate political party committee; (2) Requires persons voting in person by use of an absentee ballot to establish their identity under Section 115.427, RSMo; (3) Allows voters without personal identification at a polling place to vote a provisional ballot which will be counted based upon a certification process and the return of documentation or by a signature verification process conducted by the election authority; (4) Repeals certain affidavit and notice requirements under Section 115.427; and (5) Authorizes the Missouri Secretary of State to subpoena specified records for the purpose of investigating all classifications of election offenses and other specified offenses, but terminates such authority after August 28, 2025.

§ 115.427 RSMo:

Personal identification, requirements–statement for voters without required personal identification, procedure–provisional ballot, when–form of statement–notice of requirements–report–precinct register requirements–mark in lieu of signature, when–contingent effective date. —

1. Persons seeking to vote in a public election shall establish their identity and eligibility to vote at the polling place by presenting a form of personal identification to election officials. No form of personal identification other than the forms listed in this section shall be accepted to establish a voter’s qualifications to vote. Forms of personal identification that satisfy the requirements of this section are any one of the following:
  (1) Nonexpired Missouri driver’s license;
  (2) Nonexpired or nonexpiring Missouri nondriver’s license;
  (3) A document that satisfies all of the following requirements:
  (a) The document contains the name of the individual to whom the document was issued, and the name substantially conforms to the most recent signature in the individual’s voter registration record;
  (b) The document shows a photograph of the individual;
  (c) The document includes an expiration date, and the document is not expired, or, if expired, the document expired after the date of the most recent general election; and
  (d) The document was issued by the United States or the state of Missouri; or
  (4) Any identification containing a photograph of the individual which is issued by the Missouri National Guard, the United States Armed Forces, or the United States Department of Veteran Affairs to a member or former member of the Missouri National Guard or the United States Armed Forces and that is not expired or does not have an expiration date.
  2. (1) An individual who appears at a polling place without a form of personal identification described in subsection 1 of this section and who is otherwise qualified to vote at that polling place may execute a statement, under penalty of perjury, averring that the individual is the person listed in the precinct register; averring that the individual does not possess a form of personal identification described in subsection 1 of this section; acknowledging that the individual is eligible to receive a Missouri nondriver’s license free of charge if desiring it in order to vote; and acknowledging that the individual is required to present a form of personal identification, as described in subsection 1 of this section, in order to vote. Such statement shall be executed and sworn to before the election official receiving the statement. Upon executing such statement, the individual may cast a regular ballot, provided such individual presents one of the following forms of identification:
  (a) Identification issued by the state of Missouri, an agency of the state, or a local election authority of the state;
  (b) Identification issued by the United States government or agency thereof;
  (c) Identification issued by an institution of higher education, including a university, college, vocational and technical school, located within the state of Missouri;
  (d) A copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that contains the name and address of the individual;
  (e) Other identification approved by the secretary of state under rules promulgated pursuant to this section.
  (2) For any individual who appears at a polling place without a form of personal identification described in subsection 1 of this section and who is otherwise qualified to vote at that polling place, the election authority may take a picture of such individual and keep it as part of that individual’s voter registration file at the election authority.
  (3) Any individual who chooses not to execute the statement described in subdivision (1) of this subsection may cast a provisional ballot. Such provisional ballot shall be counted, provided that it meets the requirements of subsection 4 of this section.
[….]

Ah, voter suppression. HB 1600 closes the absentee ballot voter ID loophole. Because we know with the uninformed certainty of Donald Trump (r) that voter impersonation fraud is an epidemic…

All filed by Rep. John Simmons (r). Go figure.

HJR 75: department of redundancy department

11 Wednesday Dec 2019

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‘Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.’ – Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755)

In Missouri statute:

115.133. Qualifications of voters. — 1. Except as provided in subsection 2 of this section, any citizen of the United States who is a resident of the state of Missouri and seventeen years and six months of age or older shall be entitled to register and to vote in any election which is held on or after his eighteenth birthday.
  2. No person who is adjudged incapacitated shall be entitled to register or vote. No person shall be entitled to vote:
  (1) While confined under a sentence of imprisonment;
  (2) While on probation or parole after conviction of a felony, until finally discharged from such probation or parole; or
  (3) After conviction of a felony or misdemeanor connected with the right of suffrage.
  3. Except as provided in federal law or federal elections and in section 115.277, no person shall be entitled to vote if the person has not registered to vote in the jurisdiction of his or her residence prior to the deadline to register to vote.

Filed today:

HJR 75
Proposes a constitutional amendment on voting rights
Sponsor: Trent, Curtis (133)
Proposed Effective Date: 8/28/2020
LR Number: 4011H.01I
Last Action: 12/11/2019 – Prefiled (H)
Bill String: HJR 75
Next House Hearing: Hearing not scheduled
Calendar: Bill currently not on a House calendar

On Twitter:

Curtis Trent @curtisdtrent
Today I filed HJR 75, a measure to protect voting rights by ensuring only US Citizens are allowed to vote. The integrity of our elections is important to all Missourians and vital to maintain public trust in our institutions. #moleg
[….]
3:28 PM · Dec 11, 2019

Some of the responses:

So…..we will have a Constitutional Amendment that does what the law already does.

Fixing a problem that doesn’t exist is right on brand for republicans.

That’s already the rule, genius. What’s the real motive?

Appeals to xenophobia and casting doubt on other elections (the places he mentions allow non citizens to vote only in very specific elections, like school board)

“Liberals” already know that only US citizens are eligible to vote in Missouri. If you didn’t know that, what other bills of goods are you buying from MO GOP?

Ryan Deitsch – March for Our Lives – Road to Change – Kansas City, Kansas – June 18, 2018

21 Thursday Jun 2018

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Monday evening the March for Our Lives movement hosted a town hall at the Reardon Convention Center on Minnesota Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, one of fifty or so stops in their Summer voter registration and activation Road to Change bus tour. Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, from Chicago, from St. Louis, and from the Kansas City metro area joined the town hall panel.

Before the town hall groups of media had the opportunity to speak with small groups of students, each made up of a student from Florida, a student from Chicago or St. Louis, and a student from the Kansas City metro area.

Ryan Deitsch.

[….]

Question: …certainly gun control is what everybody’s been talking about, but this event specifically seems to be targeted more towards voting and, and registering to vote, and the power of the vote. Why is that so important? Why is that the focus here?

Ryan Deitsch: Because even though the issue of gun violence is a strong issue that we face and it’s an issue that most of us have faced personally it is that you just have to be active in the political process to solve any of these problems, whether it’s gun violence, whether it’s education reform, whether it’s, uh, any economic reforms that you want to make. That you have to actually be active, sharing your voice, share who you want to represent you because right now a lot of these people aren’t being represented. We’re able to do that, we’re able to change the world.

Show Me Progress: So, um, as you go through this process of getting people to vote, and, part of the process is once they’re registered to vote, you have to get them to vote, and they have to sustain the vote. So, as you all work towards this are you thinking of a long term strategy to basically, as people get older to keep continuing to have them, encourage them to vote and register younger people?

Ryan Deitsch: I mean I’ll tell you like after the march we weren’t going away, after the Summer tour we’re not going away. We’re gonna consistently be working all the connections we make during the Summer. We’re gonna solidify by the end, we’re gonna make sure that we have group chats, we’re gonna make sure that we’re emailing them. We don’t want to lose these people. Some of these are now my friends. We, we just want to make sure that everybody in the country stays active and make sure they don’t drop the ball.

Show Me Progress: This is a long term project.

Ryan Deitsch: It’s a very long term project. I don’t know when this will end.

[….]

Previously:

March for Our Lives – Road to Change – Kansas City, Kansas – June 18, 2018