Gee, what do you know, a significant minority of the voters swept up in a 2017 Georgia GOP purge of the rolls were still eligible & some re-registered. And no, every state doesn't remove eligible voters from the rolls simply for exercising their right not to vote like in Georgia
Yes, it's true that every state removes people voters from the rolls when they die or move. And it's also true that, while Republicans in Georgia & elsewhere have done just that, they've also intentionally swept up many people who are still eligible, especially voters of color
The 1993 National Voter Registration Act (motor voter law) says states cannot remove eligible voters from the rolls simply for exercising their right not to vote. SCOTUS gutted that protection on the most pretextual grounds in 2018, so GOP states adopted "use it or lose it" laws
Georgia thankfully has DMV automatic voter registration, so some eligible voters who get purged for not voting will be re-registered without having to do anything, but many won't. AVR isn't same-day registration, & forcing voters to constantly re-register is Jim Crow-esque anyway
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Colorado's independent redistricting commission will release a preliminary congressional map shortly. Here are 2 maps I just quickly drew to give you a basic idea.
Both of these CO maps would have 4 relatively safe Dem districts, 3 relatively safe GOP districts (though Boebert could imperil their hold on #CO03), & the new #CO08 would be a swingy Trump '16 - Biden '20 district. I don't have precise 2020 data yet
Breaking: Colorado's independent redistricting commission just released its preliminary congressional map proposal.
This map is very problematic IMO for not drawing a substantially Latino district in Denver as I did upthread & instead prioritizes keeping Denver mostly whole
Connecticut's Dem governor just signed a law that:
✅Adopts automatic voter registration at various state agencies
✅Restores voting rights to everyone not in prison
✅Allows online mail ballots requests & makes drop boxes permanent
✅Gives workers 2 hours unpaid time off to vote
Since just 2015, there's been huge progress on the adoption of automatic voter registration after Oregon became the first state to adopt it that year, & many states (plus D.C.) both blue & red have curtailed felony voter bans in that same time period. Still a ways to go, though
Potentially huge news for efforts to strengthen democracy!
The For the People Act would enact the most significant voting access expansions since the 1965 Voting Rights Act, ban congressional gerrymandering, & adopt new campaign finance/ethics regulations dailykos.com/stories/2021/3…
Of course, if Manchin still won't curb the filibuster in some way to let Dems overcome GOP obstruction, this won't matter much, but the necessary first step toward setting up a filibuster showdown is to secure majority support & thus Manchin's vote on the bill itself
The reports of the death of the For the People Act (#HR1/#S1) at the hands of Dem Sen. Joe Manchin have been premature
Illinois Dems have enacted new legislative gerrymanders & state Supreme Court districts, making IL the 2nd state to enact new legislative maps after the 2020 census. But due to census data delays, these were drawn using population estimates & could draw a lawsuit because of it
Illinois redistricting is badly flawed & IL should adopt proportional representation to ensure fairness.
However, these legislative gerrymanders only counteract Dems' geography penalty & likely fail to obtain a Dem advantage in excess of the popular vote electionlawblog.org/?p=122269
Illinois' Supreme Court has been redistricted for the first time in 6 decades to end the malapportionment that had left one district with as many people as two others combined. The new map is much fairer but counterintuitively still has a huge GOP bias. See this thread for more:
[Thread] Major Illinois redistricting news: Dems have proposed redrawing IL's Supreme Court districts for the 1st time in decades. Compare the current districts (first), which have become badly malapportioned since they were drawn in the 1960s, with Dems' proposed redraw (second)
I wrote a story just last week on how Illinois' malapportioned Supreme Court districts could lead to a decade of GOP minority rule in the legislature as a result of the 2022 elections if Dems don't redraw the court districts to make them fairer, so this news has big implications
Dems' new IL Supreme Court districts would end the malapportionment that has left the 2nd District with as many people as the 4th & 5th Districts combined. Doing so flips the 3rd District from 51-47 Trump to 53-45 Biden & boosts Dem chances of winning the key 2022 election there
From the lame duck power grabs after Dems won governors offices in MI, NC, & WI in 2016-2018 to Trump’s Big Lie to AZ GOP considering stripping power from an elected office only when Dems win it, the Republican Party is increasingly refusing to cede power when they lose elections
Update: Arizona state House GOP has passed a bill in a committee that strips Dem Secretary of State Katie Hobbs' power to defend election lawsuits & hands that power to GOP Attorney General Mark Brnovich, but only through the end of Hobbs' term in 2022 abc15.com/news/state/sec…
In what is a highly petty move, the Arizona GOP's bill also strips Dem SoS Hobbs of her oversight of the state Capitol's museum after she flew a gay pride flag from the Capitol balcony in 2019