Texas GOP playbook: make it as hard as possible to vote, even in pandemic, to prevent Dems & voters of color from taking power. It's now been adopted by Republican Party at all levels motherjones.com/politics/2020/…
As Greg Abbott cuts number of mail ballot drop off locations from 12 to 1 in Harris County, which has 2.4 million registered voters & is larger than Rhode Island, remember that Mitch McConnell has been blocking legislation to restore Voting Rights Act for 300 days
Not surprisingly, Abbott's new order limiting mail drop off locations to 1 per county hits counties with large numbers of Democrats & voters of color the hardest washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
Harris County Texas is bigger than Rhode Island & has 5 times as many people
Rhode Island will have 41 drop boxes for mail voting this year across state & at 400 polling places on Election Day
Harris County has 1
82 year old Ralph Edelbach of Cypress TX wants to drop his mail ballot off because of USPS delays. When Harris County had 12 drop off locations he had to travel 16 miles to closest one. Now with 1 location he has to travel 36 MILES, 90 min drive. Insane campaignlegal.org/sites/default/…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Huge case before SCOTUS today: Republicans want to reinstate extreme gerrymander in NC giving GOP 71-78% of House seats in state where Trump got 49.9% of vote & grant state legislatures unprecedented power to pass new gerrymanders & voter suppression laws motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Leonard Leo & Federalist Society engineered right-wing takeover of SCOTUS. Now they want court to give state legislatures king-like power to rig state & national elections. One anti-democratic system entrenching the other
A ruling that state legislatures could not be constrained by state courts or constitutions would eviscerate checks & balances, give heavily gerrymandered legislatures huge power to rig state & national politics & embolden them to attempt to overturn future election results
SCOOP w/ @RyanLittleE: Georgia voters 45 times more likely to have mail ballot applications rejected & not vote in Nov 2021 vs 2020 after GOP passed new voting restrictions
“States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever” Mitch McConnell claimed last year
Here are facts: "During municipal elections in Nov, Georgia voters were 45 times more likely to have their mail ballot applications rejected—and not vote as a result—than in 2020"
Before he sided with GOP to kill voting rights bills Joe Manchin said: “We act like we’re going to obstruct people from voting. That’s not going to happen.”
4500% increase in rejected mail ballot applications in Georgia & 700% increase in Texas shows he is very wrong
Stunning stat: 48 Democrats who supported reforming filibuster to pass voting rights bills represent 34 MILLION more Americans than 52 senators (all Republicans + Sinema/Manchin) who opposed it
48 senators who voted to reform filibuster represent 182 million Americans, 55% of US
52 senators who upheld filibuster represent 148 million Americans, 45% of US
“Manchin & Sinema allowed 41 GOP senators representing just 21% of country to block a bill they both supported that would protect voting rights for tens of millions of Americans, reinforcing how filibuster has historically been used to block civil rights” motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Sinema & Manchin represent 2.8% of US population but allowing 41 GOP senators representing just 21% of country to block voting rights bills supported by 70% of Americans that would protect voting access for tens of millions. US political system completely broken
“Sinema, by refusing to support changes to the filibuster, is now giving the anti-democratic party veto power over protecting democracy. She is saying it would be divisive and partisan to respond to a divisive and partisan effort to weaken democracy” motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
GOP states have passed new voter suppression laws, gerrymandered maps & election subversion bills through simple majority, party-line votes yet Sinema & Manchin demand bipartisan supermajority to protect voting rights. This is how coup succeeds motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
This week is one of most pivotal in history of American democracy. If Dems don’t pass federal legislation now to stop voter suppression, extreme gerrymandering & election subversion, GOP will make it impossible to have fair elections going forward motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Republicans not just suppressing votes & subverting fair elections, but trying to enshrine anti-democratic system where they hold power no matter the views of a majority of voters
“They are basically signing off on a political apartheid system” says @ericholder
It makes no sense that Republicans can pass voter suppression laws at state level with simple majority vote & confirm right-wing judges to uphold those laws with simple majority vote but Dems can’t protect voting rights with simple majority vote
Under extreme gerrymandered Texas US House & state legislative maps:
Whites 40% population but control 60% districts
Latinos 39% of population but control 20% districts
Blacks 12% of population but control 2% districts
Asians 5% of population but control 0% districts
95% of population growth in Texas from communities of color during last decade but gerrymandered GOP maps increase # of majority white districts & decrease # of majority Latino/Black districts. Incredibly brazen racial gerrymandering motherjones.com/politics/2021/…