PartyGate is getting: wild Sue Gray, a high ranking public official in the government, has finished a report over half a dozen or so parties in the Prime Ministers residence during lockdowns, when such parties were banned. For weeks, the London police didn't want to investigate because "they don't investigate past crimes". Suddenly, they do want to investigate, but now they want the report to be censored of all information about the parties to avoid interference in their own investigation...

Arizona bill would allow legislature to overturn election results thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/…

> The bill, introduced by state Rep. John Fillmore (R), would substantially change the way Arizonans vote by eliminating most early and absentee voting and requiring people to vote in their home precincts, rather than at vote centers set up around the state.

> Most dramatically, Fillmore’s bill would require the legislature to hold a special session after an election to review election processes and results, and to “accept or reject the election results.”

This is absolutely wild

> We should have voting in my opinion in person, one day, on paper, with no electronic means and hand counting that day. We need to get back to 1958-style voting,” he added.

that's not possible

there's a reason why people kept saying to not listen to people declaring election victory on the first night

not to mention i would not be surprised that the bill also isn't making election day a public holiday

@Wipqozn Fucking wild. Basically they are giving themselves the right to veto the will of the people if they don't like it. Wow for democracy.

hand counting is good. Not allowing absentee ballots is stupid

@MadScientist or early voting

We never had early voting here, I'm not really seeing the need for that

@MadScientist it's useful for if you have to be working or otherwise unavailable to vote on the day

We vote on sundays

and for every other reason you just use the absentee ballots

@Memor-X @MadScientist It also helps reduce the time required to vote. Shorter lines and all that.

If lines are the problem, you don't have enough polling places

I've never waited more than 5 minutes to vote

Neither have I

I've never been encountered a line of any kind

Canada usually has plenty of polling places and early voting. Plus you can just go to any elections Canada office once the election starts and vote there too.

Even in the US, polling lines are much less common in suburban and rural areas, this is primarily an issue in urban areas.

It's no coincidence that those are the areas that lean more democratic

I dont know the process of circumscriptions in Canada/Quebec, but I think they are drawn by a comitee that must have members representing all parties that have at least 1 elected member.

God damn just that would fix the gerrymandering problem

So a neutral-sounding policy like reducing voting hours or voting methods across the entire state, are in fact a deliberate voter suppression effort against the democratic-leaning voters in urban areas.

This isn't accidental

But IMO if there was one thing that would fix the US political problem, and its probably too late for that, its a viable third option

holding hope that if there is some in the GOP that don't want to bet it all on trump they would split off and have a third party, like the 'sane GOP' but every day i doubt it more.

Excellent thread about why calling the current spate of voter-suppression efforts "the new Jim Crow" is no exaggeration:

Why is “Jim Crow 2.0” an apt description for the new voting laws?

@MadScientist absentee ballots are still allowed in that law, but they are restricted to a few situations. Not having that day off of work is not an acceptable reason according to the new wording

a shame really

all of this could be resolved by making it a holiday, yeah

@BradC I live in an urban area in Minnesota and I haven't ever waited in a line to vote, but I am also only old enough to have voted 3 times so take that anecdote with a grain of salt lol.

@Flats That's part of what the various voting right acts are trying to do, the acts that Manchin and Sinema are blocking.

@Nzall right but they're not blocking the bills directly, they're blocking the policy change that would make it impossible for the bill not to pass

There's bills that both sides try to pass with plenty of good stuff in it along with a bunch of stuff that their opponent would never agree to. Fictitious example - republicans propose a bill that gives a larger social security benefit, but also bans abortion. now they can say "look! Dems don't want to help the elderly!" when the real reason is completely different

"Manchin and Sinema don't want voting rights legislation to pass! They're DINO's! They hate minorities and support 'Jim Crow 2.0' laws. (<--hyperbole, I know people aren't saying this part, but what's to stop them?) They don't even want voting day to be a holiday! We can all agree on that, right?" but really what they object to is the removal of the 60 vote minimum in the senate for legislation. It's slimy and its the reason that bills are so ridiculously and unnecessarily large.

January 6 committee subpoenas individuals tied to fake elector push

> The January 6 Select Committee has issued subpoenas for 14 Republicans from seven states who served on bogus slates of Trump electors in 2020 as part of the Trump campaign's scheme to subvert the Electoral College.