Now that US electors have selected Joe Biden as president and Georgia voters have selected 2 new Democratic lawmakers for seats the US Senate, the GOP is pushing back using back ass tactics similar to those with which they attempted to keep Herr Trump in office for nearly two months.
State by state, GOP members in positions of power are quietly holding sessions behind closed doors to create and enact burdensome legislation that not only places limits on the number of constituents able to cast votes, but allows the GOP to directly change the results of future elections as they see fit.
Part of the wretched issue is the backward channels being used to do so and the speed with which these laws are being enacted. Typically new legislation moves at a snail's pace in order to gather support and allow wide opportunity for input. But who in their right mind would support these laws. And apparently in Georgia even attempting to find out more info about the proposed laws or trying to discuss their content and intent may be used as grounds for arrest.
Case in point, yesterday (26 March, 2021) Rep. Park Cannon was arrested by state troopers after she knocked on the governor's door to discuss legislation being pushed through the governor's office. She was dragged away in handcuffs, imprisoned, and charged with 2 felony counts for allegedly intentionally attempting to interrupt his live stream announcement that he had already independently signed the bill into law. and stepping on a police officers toes with high heeled pumps.
6/8/21: TX governor revives GOP's thwarted new voting laws. AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott on Wednesday revived the GOP’s thwarted efforts to pass new voting laws in America’s biggest red state after Democrats temporarily derailed a restrictive bill with a late-night walkout in the state Capitol in May. As expected, Abbott made new election laws one of nearly a dozen items - including border security and other GOP lightning rod issues - that he is instructing lawmakers to revisit over the next 30 days in a special session that begins Thursday. 6/18/21: Gov vetoes funding for TX Legislature over Democrats’ walkout. Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
Gov. Greg Abbott followed through Friday on a threat to veto a section of the state budget that funds the Texas Legislature, its staffers and legislative agencies. 6/25/21: TX House Dems & staffers take Gov to court for defunding Legislature. Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
A group that includes Texas House Democrats and legislative staffers is asking the Texas Supreme Court to override Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent veto of a portion of the state budget that funds the Legislature, staffers there and legislative agencies. More than 60 Democratic members of the House signed a petition for a writ of mandamus, which was filed Friday morning, as did the House Democratic Caucus and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, four state employees and the Texas AFL-CIO. “The state is in a constitutional crisis at this moment,” said Chad Dunn, an attorney involved with the petition, during a briefing with reporters Thursday.
7/8/22: Texas GOP Reveals Bills of Far-Reaching Voting Restrictions. “There’s no doubt this is going to be a voter suppression session,” said Sarah Labowitz, the policy and advocacy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
The defiant tone continued on the sun-baked steps of the Capitol, where roughly 20 of the 67 Democrats in the Texas House joined voting rights advocates at a rally organized by Black Voters Matter, the Texas Right to Vote Coalition, the Texas for All Coalition and allied groups. After former President Donald J. 3/28/21: Delta Praises Georgia’s New Voting Laws That ‘Improved’ Suppression Tactics.
Source: Scott Olson / Getty Georgia-based corporations tried to play both sides in a recent battle over a new law that enacts additional barriers to ballot access.
Several of the corporations have dodged direct questions concerning the wave of voter suppression laws, often hiding behind the chamber of commerce. But a statement released by Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, praising SB 202, raised alarms. LaTosha Brown, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund, tweeted that the statement seemed like Delta wrote it in coordination with Gov. Brian Kemp’s team. 3/26/21: SB 202, Georgia’s restrictive new voting law, explained. Georgia’s new voting law, signed by Republican Gov.
Brian Kemp on Thursday night, is a small-d democrat’s nightmare. The bill, known as SB 202, gives state-level officials the authority to usurp the powers of county election boards — allowing the Republican-dominated state government to potentially disqualify voters in Democratic-leaning areas. It criminalizes the provision of food and water to voters waiting in line, in a state where lines are notoriously long in heavily nonwhite precincts. It requires ID for absentee ballots and limits the placement of ballot drop boxes. 3/27/21: Warnock on GA politicians sacrificing democracy on 'Rachel Maddow Show'
Sen.
Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) ominously warned Friday on “The Rachel Maddow Show” that Georgia’s assault on voting rights is a “defining moment” for democracy and for all U.S. citizens. “Let me be very clear ... if you think this is something happening down in Georgia, you are misapprehending the moment that we’re living in,” he said. “If you think that this is something happening to Black voters, you still don’t quite clearly understand,” he added. “This is a defining moment for American democracy. If this is happening in the state Capitol in Georgia, it will not take very long for it to visit a state capitol near you.” 3/27/21: In Georgia County, Elections Bills Have Consequences. 3/25/21: GA Rep Charged With Felony For Knocking On Gov's Office Door.
Georgia state Rep.
Park Cannon (D) was arrested and charged with felony obstruction on Thursday night after she protested the signing of a restrictive new bill that will dramatically limit access to voting for communities of color. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported that Cannon, a Black woman who has served in the Georgia House of Representatives since 2016, was detained by Georgia State Patrol officers after she attempted to witness the signing of the law.
The Republican-led Georgia legislature passed the measure on Thursday, which will impose new identification requirements on those who vote by mail, limit the use of drop boxes for absentee ballots and make it illegal for voting groups to give food or water to people standing in line to cast their ballots. Clips from a live-streamed video show Cannon knocking on the door of Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) office after speaking with Georgia State Patrol officers. 2/19/21: Georgia GOP's sweeping new effort to make it harder to vote. Sign up for the Fight to Vote newsletter Georgia Republicans have unveiled sweeping new legislation that would make it dramatically harder to vote in the state, following an election with record turnout and surging participation among Black voters.
The measure is one of the most brazen efforts to make it harder to vote in America in recent years. The bill would block officials from offering early voting on Sundays, a day traditionally used by Black churches to mobilize voters as part of a “souls to the polls” effort. 3/25/21: O'Rourke drives 8.5 hours to fight voter suppression in Texas. 7/29/16: U.S. Appeals Court Strikes Down North Carolina's Voter ID Law.