Another Illegal Effort by Trump
Today in USA Today;In response to:
'Talk with your lawyer, Bill Barr:' Kamala Harris warns Trump against attempt to 'suppress the vote'
William Cummings, USA TODAY
USA TODAY May 26, 2020, 12:52 AM EDT
Sen. Kamala Harris tore into President Donald Trump Wednesday night for his threat to withhold federal funds from states over absentee ballots, warning such an act would be illegal.
"Mr. President, it is a federal crime to withhold money from states with the purpose of interfering with people's right to vote," the former California attorney general told MSNBC host Joy Reid.
"So, you may want to talk to your lawyer, Bill Barr, about that," Harris added, in an apparent swipe at the independence of Attorney General William Barr, whom critics have accused of acting more like the president's personal attorney than the nation's top law enforcement official.
On Wednesday morning, Trump said in a tweet that Michigan had sent millions of voters absentee ballots "illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State."
"I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!" wrote the president, who has railed against efforts to expand mail-in-voting in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The president was referring to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's announcement on Tuesday that absentee ballot applications – not actual ballots – would be sent to all of the state's 7.7 million voters, giving them the option to receive a ballot in the mail to vote in the Aug. 4 primary and Nov. 3 general election, rather than going to a polling place.
While it is illegal in Michigan to send absentee ballots to voters who do not formally request them, it is far from clear that there are the same legal hurdles to sending applications for the absentee ballots to registered voters, though it could be challenged in court.
Trump later deleted the initial tweet to clarify he was referring to applications, and not ballots, though that was the only aspect of the tweet he changed.
"To have this kind of distraction is just ridiculous," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whose state is facing a massive flood on top of the coronavirus pandemic, told "CBS This Morning" on Thursday.
"Threatening to take money away from a state that is hurting as bad as we are right now is just scary, and I think something that is unacceptable," Whitmer said.
The president made a similar threat against Nevada, where Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske has ordered an all mail-in election for the state's June 9 primary – which has no bearing on the presidential race because Nevada held its Democratic presidential caucus in February, and canceled its Republican presidential caucus.
Cegavske, whose decision was upheld by a federal judge earlier this month, defended the move as "necessary and prudent" in order to "protect the health and safety of voters and election workers," in a statement responding to the president's tweet.
"For over a century, Nevadans, including members of the military, citizens residing outside the state, voters in designated mailing precincts, and voters requesting absentee ballots, have been voting by mail with no evidence of election fraud," Cegavske said.
"For the President to threaten federal funding in the midst of a pandemic over a state exercising its authority to run elections in a safe and legal manner is inappropriate and outrageous," said Nevada's Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in a response to Trump on Twitter.
Trump, who himself votes absentee, has said voting by mail is a "dangerous thing" and "subject to tremendous corruption," despite a lack of evidence that there is a statistically significant amount of fraud in the five states that conduct their elections entirely by mail.
'Talk with your lawyer, Bill Barr:' Kamala Harris warns Trump against attempt to 'suppress the vote'
William Cummings, USA TODAY
USA TODAY May 26, 2020, 12:52 AM EDT
Sen. Kamala Harris tore into President Donald Trump Wednesday night for his threat to withhold federal funds from states over absentee ballots, warning such an act would be illegal.
"Mr. President, it is a federal crime to withhold money from states with the purpose of interfering with people's right to vote," the former California attorney general told MSNBC host Joy Reid.
"So, you may want to talk to your lawyer, Bill Barr, about that," Harris added, in an apparent swipe at the independence of Attorney General William Barr, whom critics have accused of acting more like the president's personal attorney than the nation's top law enforcement official.
On Wednesday morning, Trump said in a tweet that Michigan had sent millions of voters absentee ballots "illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State."
"I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!" wrote the president, who has railed against efforts to expand mail-in-voting in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The president was referring to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's announcement on Tuesday that absentee ballot applications – not actual ballots – would be sent to all of the state's 7.7 million voters, giving them the option to receive a ballot in the mail to vote in the Aug. 4 primary and Nov. 3 general election, rather than going to a polling place.
While it is illegal in Michigan to send absentee ballots to voters who do not formally request them, it is far from clear that there are the same legal hurdles to sending applications for the absentee ballots to registered voters, though it could be challenged in court.
Trump later deleted the initial tweet to clarify he was referring to applications, and not ballots, though that was the only aspect of the tweet he changed.
"To have this kind of distraction is just ridiculous," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whose state is facing a massive flood on top of the coronavirus pandemic, told "CBS This Morning" on Thursday.
"Threatening to take money away from a state that is hurting as bad as we are right now is just scary, and I think something that is unacceptable," Whitmer said.
The president made a similar threat against Nevada, where Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske has ordered an all mail-in election for the state's June 9 primary – which has no bearing on the presidential race because Nevada held its Democratic presidential caucus in February, and canceled its Republican presidential caucus.
Cegavske, whose decision was upheld by a federal judge earlier this month, defended the move as "necessary and prudent" in order to "protect the health and safety of voters and election workers," in a statement responding to the president's tweet.
"For over a century, Nevadans, including members of the military, citizens residing outside the state, voters in designated mailing precincts, and voters requesting absentee ballots, have been voting by mail with no evidence of election fraud," Cegavske said.
"For the President to threaten federal funding in the midst of a pandemic over a state exercising its authority to run elections in a safe and legal manner is inappropriate and outrageous," said Nevada's Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in a response to Trump on Twitter.
Trump, who himself votes absentee, has said voting by mail is a "dangerous thing" and "subject to tremendous corruption," despite a lack of evidence that there is a statistically significant amount of fraud in the five states that conduct their elections entirely by mail.
(continued in my first comment below)
Comments (143)
Part of that is because the methods of voter suppression are cloaked in 'reasonableness'. People think Trump is being reasonable because he says remote voting will lead to voter fraud, despite there being no evidence that remote voter fraud is anywhere near a prevalence which would effect outcome.
Once people have had their dose of 'reasonableness' designed to trigger a fear response, everything else is rejected in a bid to maintain perceived safety.
If people automatically have the choice to suit their own needs, then it's no longer about either party controlling who gets to vote.
Confusing this with the possibility that the Democrats might win if their supporters aren't stopped from casting their ballot says something about the US voting system: it says that some people think it's unfair unless the elections are rigged in favour of the Republican party.
In a separate case, a Gardena woman told the Daily Breeze that her husband, who crossed into the country from Mexico illegally eight years ago, had received a vote-by-mail ballot for Tuesday’s election.
While he is now petitioning the U.S. government for citizenship, she said he does not have any papers or even a driver’s license, leaving him stumped about how he would receive an official ballot. His name and address on the ballot were both correct, his wife said, adding that he had never even tried to register to vote.
“I think it’s a huge deal,” she said. “Something is definitely wrong with the system.”
Asked by a reporter about the incident, the county registrar said it would be investigated once more information is received from the couple.
“It is important for the public to know that we have a full accounting of ballots issued and returned in the election,” Logan said in the statement responding to the large bundles of ballots found by Mosna.
“Under California election law, all voted mail ballots are signature-checked against the signature on the voters’ original registration prior to being cleared for processing and tabulation, providing a safeguard against someone other than the registered voter completing and submitting a ballot.”
Even the recipients of the inaccurate ballots took the them to the police and then to the post office to be returned to the sender.
Doesn't that imply that citizens are likely to take the matter seriously and act honestly?
I don't know if that's what you were trying to demonstrate, but it was under my post asking for the large figures of voter fraud that Crypt knows about.
There is going to be a lot of "mistakes" when it comes to vote by mail.
Don't confuse respecting your opinion with me challenging you for disseminating inaccurate information. Having the right to your opinion does not give you the right to collude with the oppression of other poor people, women and people of colour.
According to Professor Carol Anderson, the author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide, the register in some states are 'cleaned up' by removing people if they haven't voted for one, or more recent election. As it's a certain demographic who are more likely to vote irregularly, it's poor people, including a high rate of people of colour who are targeted using this method of voter suppression without being told that they have been removed.
There is not one credible fact showing gross fraud in the 2016 election by mail votes. NOT ONE!