As Ronald Reagan famously said, “There you go again!”. Portsmouth’s paranoid Republican politicos are still trying to sell us on the existence of voter fraud and the non-existence of voter suppression by using a phony bait and switch argument and a cherry picking logic.
The bait is an appeal to the readers’ ego by claiming that their ballot is being nullified and their basic right to vote is being stolen. Time to rally the troops! The switch is that they never present any proof of this and quickly move on to argue for a voter ID law. A direct connection is not needed.
Using intimidation as the symbol of voter suppression is also a sham. It is the most onerous and obvious technique and also the least common for good reason, it is illegal. The trick is that there are many ways to suppress voting and to base your argument on only one is intellectually dishonest.
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Republican—and only Republican--administrations, across the country are: reducing polling hours, polling machines, polling personnel, cutting early voting, restricting student voting, eliminating early and same day registration and installing ID requirements all in the name of preventing voter fraud. Visit the BrennanCenter.org website for a full description of the extensive actions being taken.
I’m hard pressed to see how fewer voting days, shorter hours or fewer voting machines will do more than create longer lines, discourage voters and indirectly suppress the vote.
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This multi-layered reaction to a miniscule problem is gross overkill, especially when one exempts absentee voting. Absentee ballots present the greatest risk for voter fraud, no ID or personal appearance required. But! The majority of absentee ballots are Republican and we wouldn’t want to do anything that would reduce their number. Do I smell hypocrisy?
The hallucination that Republicans love to enjoy is that busloads of Democrats are sneaking into NH, under the cover of darkness, on election day eve. Presumably they hideout somewhere until the polls open and then go in with their Groucho Marx disguise and use the name of a dead person to vote. Let’s get real folks, if I were a poll worker I would be annoyed with the presumption that multiple individuals are successfully impersonating my dead neighbors and I can’t figure it out.
Republicans’ disproportionate response to a rare attempt at voter fraud and their cavalier dismissal of purposeful infringements on voter’s rights, by Republican led states is illogical. Thirty three states introduced 93 restrictive bills in 2013. Their attitude reflects a warped perspective that should disqualify them from public office in NH and the USA.
With their new found free time maybe they could enjoy a night at the opera?
