After being sued for libel and settling for millions, being the cause of the perpetration of violence, now trying to attack proper voting procedures, what will this bastard organization do next to amass millions of dollars offshore donated by naive ignorant citizens.

No one is attacking proper voting procedures, counselor.

You should know better than to believe a one sided portrayal of a complicated foreign issue.  The article is a belated reaction to May hearings in Alabama which bear litte resemblance to the actual testimony.

“It is unfortunate that we are making it harder for people to vote and not easier for people to vote,” said U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama, one of three committee members present at the hearing. “We need to go out and vote in numbers that we’ve never seen before in every election, because that’s the only way we’re going to turn it around. In Alabama we need help. We need federal oversight.”

Abudu repeated to the committee comments from Alabama’s top election official that indicated he views voting as a “privilege” and believes “casting a ballot should be a challenge.”

“In 2016, Secretary of State John Merrill told a documentary film crew, and I quote, ‘If you’re too sorry or lazy to get up off of your rear and to go register to vote … then you don’t deserve that privilege. As long as I’m secretary of state of Alabama, you’re going to have to show some initiative to become a registered voter in this state.’

“He also expressed hostility to early voting on multiple occasions saying, and again I quote, ‘There is no future for early voting as long as I’m secretary of state.’ So, this means that the man in charge of administering Alabama’s elections freely admits that he does not see voting as a fundamental right that he is charged with safeguarding. Instead, he sees voting as a privilege reserved only for those with the time and resources to navigate the outdated and archaic system he continues to oversee.”

With the 2020 Census and redistricting cycle for federal and state legislative districts quickly approaching, the SPLC will work to ensure that historically disenfranchised communities are educated about the redistricting process and trained on how to play a significant role in drawing political boundaries. The SPLC will also assist those communities in identifying and remedying violations that prevent them from casting ballots.

Further, the SPLC will engage in legislative efforts to expand automatic voter registration, same-day registration, no-excuse absentee voting, vote by mail, and early voting – or, in states such as Alabama and Mississippi, finally establishing those practices used widely by neighboring states

In her testimony, Abudu addressed Alabama’s voter ID law, which requires voters to show a state-approved form of photo identification in order to vote. The law discriminates against minority voters who are less likely to have such identification, she said.

Additionally, according to SPLC research, Merrill has promoted confusing and misleading information about voters in the state, such as a statement that 94 percent of eligible Alabamians and 96 percent of eligible black voters are registered, she said. However, the Census Bureau estimates that 69 percent of eligible Alabamians and 67 percent of eligible black voters were registered at the time of the 2018 election.

Abudu also cited voter purges in Alabama as a way in which the state has depressed voter engagement and turnout.

In her closing remarks, Abudu addressed proposed legislation in Alabama that could expand voters’ access to the polls, including bills that would establish modest early voting programs, giving Alabamians more opportunities to cast their ballots, and a bill that would streamline the rights restoration process for Alabamians who have a disqualifying felony conviction. She also cited a bill that would create an automatic voter registration system, allowing more Alabamians to get registered. The bill would also improve the accuracy of the state’s voter rolls, she said.

“It is not that the state is lacking in ideas, “Abudu said. “We are lacking in the will to make these ideas a reality.”

splcenter

You've established elsewhere on one of my seeds, a book review of all things, your opinion that opinions are not valid to post on NT notwithstanding they are not news stories and contain no falsehoods.

Somehow that does not quite support this site's motto: SPEAK YOUR MIND.

I know. No matter how many times you block quote from a seed, it doesn't improve the quality of the quotes.

What is especially funny is that  Miller has been Secretary of State for 4 years and Perkins thinks that fraud has been rampant...

Additionally, according to SPLC research, Merrill has promoted confusing and misleading information about voters in the state, such as a statement that 94 percent of eligible Alabamians and 96 percent of eligible black voters are registered, she said. However, the Census Bureau estimates that 69 percent of eligible Alabamians and 67 percent of eligible black voters were registered at the time of the 2018 election.

Perkins can't be completely right when the Census Bureau says Miller is wrong.

Opinions are not welcome if they happen to be posted in an article on a site that the one guy who runs MBFC thinks is to the right of his personal bias.  NT does not say there is no God, because its golden calf is MBFC.

Alabama is supressing voter rights.

brennancenter

Georgia  and  North Dakota  have gotten a lot of attention for vote suppression this season. But Alabama, a state with a long and troubling voting rights history, deserves scrutiny of its own. 

Alabama was where African American citizens marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge were brutalized, providing the final spark for the Voting Rights Act. It’s also the home of Shelby County, which in 2013 brought down the landmark civil rights law’s core provision in a lawsuit that made it to the Supreme Court.

That provision required Alabama to seek federal approval before instituting any voting-related change to make sure it was not discriminatory. While the law was in effect, the U.S. Department of Justice  blocked  more than 80 proposed voting changes in the state of Alabama.

It should not be surprising then that Alabama continues to be a hotbed of voting restrictions. Here are six ways that the state has erected voting barriers:

Strict voter ID law:  Alabama passed a strict voter ID requirement in 2011, but it did not go into effect until 2014. In 2011, the state was still required under the Voting Rights Act to get federal approval before implementing any changes to its voting rules. State officials did not even submit the new ID law for federal review at that time, likely because the Department of Justice had previously blocked similar requirements five separate times, finding them discriminatory. Alabama officials only put the law into effect in 2013, right after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act provision that was holding it up. 

Under Alabama’s new law, voters need to show one of a limited number of state-issued photo IDs to vote either at the polls or absentee. (The only exception is if two election officials at the polls positively identify you.) More than  100,000  Alabamians do not have IDs acceptable under this law, according to a lawsuit filed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

For low-income and rural voters, it is especially difficult to overcome this obstacle. A 2012 Brennan Center for Justice  report  found that close to a quarter of eligible voters  both  live 10 miles from an ID-issuing office and do not own a car. Making matters worse, Alabama invests no public money in transportation and ranks 48 ^th  nationwide in intercity transit for rural residents. 

The problem intensified in October 2015 when officials announced a plan to close 31 ID-issuing offices to save costs.  Research  by the Brennan Center at the time found that the move would have a strong disparate impact on the black community: ID-issuing offices would be closed in all six counties in which African Americans compose over 70 percent of the population, while 40 offices would remain open in the 55 Alabama counties in which whites compose over half the population. Facing mountain public condemnation and an  intervention  by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Alabama scrapped the plan.

You couldn't find something more current? Also, try a less left leaning source next time.

influencewatch

The Brennan Center for Justice (the Brennan Center) was formed as a way to memorialize and put into action the values of left-of-center former Supreme Court Justice William Brennan , the “father of modern judicial activism, ” by Brennan’s former clerks. ^[1] The organization is hybrid think-tank and activist center housed by New York University Law School. ^[2]

The Center has devised a “robust toolkit’ of scholarship, legislative drafting, lobbying and legal action” ^[3] that is merged into “an almost seamless effort aimed at action.” ^[4] While the group purports to be “nonpartisan,” it has received substantial funding from George Soros -associated organizations, ^[5] and is mainly funded by left-leaning organizations, having received substantial funding from other liberal groups including the Kohlberg Foundation, Tides Foundation , Proteus Fund , Joyce Foundation , Schumann Media Center , Public Welfare Foundation , and JPB Foundation . ^[6]

This liberal financing has turned the Center into a cog in the liberal legal movement.  The Center pursues a left-wing issue agenda, supporting liberal activist policies on ethnic preferences, restrictions on political campaign speech, and protections for foreign terrorism suspects.

nationalcenter

discoverthenetworks

Also, try a less left leaning source next time.

As opposed to the very right-leaning source of this seed, which receives a "mixed" rating for factual reporting?

Authored by Tony Perkins.  Still right-leaning.

Originally published on Family Research Council ( frc.com ) which is banned here.

Well the rules say otherwise.

QUESTIONABLE SOURCE

IN ONE MAN'S OPINION.  PRAISE BE TO BA'AL.

I'll never understand how methods used to prove the bona fides of a voter can be construed as voter suppression.

A person needs a valid ID to:

Apply for welfare

Buy smokes

Buy Booze

Apply for food stamps

Apply for Unemployment

Apply for Medicaid

Apply for SS benefits

Get married

Adopt a pet

Pick up a prescription

Donate blood, etc, etc

But requiring an ID to vote is voter suppression?

Unbelievable.

Voter suppression isn't just about IDs. It's about closing voting in certain neighborhoods. It's about lies and propaganda. It's about Citizens United. It's all about far right wing billionaires buying elections (can you say Koch brothers?).

Lol .... Hillary outspent Trump by over 500 million dollars and still couldn't beat him.

She really  tried to buy the election.   Mainly thorugh Super PAC's, large individual doantions and donation bundlers.

Ooooops .....  to whoever donated to her ....

Voter suppression isn't just about IDs

So, you must support requiring ID's for voting?

It's about closing voting in certain neighborhoods.

Prove it. Closing or consolidating polling places due to lack of funding; or low turnouts isn't about voter suppression. Or are you going to call out California for voter suppression?

calmatters

Many Californians who haven’t participated in an all-vote-by-mail election seem leery of the changes. A survey by the   Engagement Project   found that   61 percent   of Californians don’t like the idea of vote centers replacing neighborhood polling places. Voters expressed concerns about everything from driving times to the vote centers, to trusting that their ballots will be delivered and counted.

So why the change?

Turnout in the last mid-term, in 2014, dipped to a mere 42 percent of registered voters. Nearly a third of registered voters who said they did not always vote cited time or schedule constraints as the reason, according to a   report   by the Public Policy Institute of California. “There was a reaction to really low numbers in 2014,” said Romero. “That was the driving reason people wanted to take action—that coupled with the example coming out of Colorado.”

In Colorado’s 2014 elections, the state sent every registered voter a ballot by mail, eliminated assigned polling places and established vote centers where any voter in a county could cast a ballot. The new voting system saved Colorado money, but the state did not see a significant increase in voter participation.

It's about lies and propaganda.

Which both sides do, and don't even try to deny it.

It's about Citizens United.

No Democrat has ever benefited from that ruling./S

It's all about far right wing billionaires buying elections (can you say Koch brothers?).

You forget about far left wing billionaires buying elections (can you say Soros, Bloomberg?)

opensecrets

Until the photo ID is provided free of charge and without effort, they cannot be required to vote, which is a constitutional right. The use of requiring a photo ID to vote is just another attempt to create a poll tax. They are blatantly illegal ways of limiting the votes for poor and disadvataged demographics. 

There is no proof that there is voter fraud that can be reasonably addressed without limiting the voting rights of many people.  If you are 6 Sigma qualified there is less voter fraud than what is required for a corporation to achieve ISO-9001 cert. Instead, we should be working to get +95% of the population to vote instead of making it harder to vote.  Voting by the use of absentee ballots for everyone would increase the voting rate, but that is the last thing that conservatives want because the more people vote, the fewer conservatives tend to get elected. This is why the GOP wants to limit who can vote as a way to protect their political power.

• A comprehensive 2014 study published in The Washington Post found 31 credible instances of impersonation fraud from 2000 to 2014, out of more than 1 billion ballots cast. Even this tiny number is likely inflated, as the study’s author counted not just prosecutions or convictions, but any and all credible claims.
• Two studies done at Arizona State University, one in 2012 and another in 2016 , found similarly negligible rates of impersonation fraud. The project found 10 cases of voter impersonation fraud nationwide from 2000-2012. The follow-up study, which looked for fraud specifically in states where politicians have argued that fraud is a pernicious problem, found zero successful prosecutions for impersonation fraud in five states from 2012-2016.

If you are an engineer and were required to take a course in statistics and SPC then you will understand just how low these numbers are.

This is from The Bernen Center.

A review of the 2016 election found four documented cases of voter fraud. 138+million people voted and there are 4 mistakes.   Boeing, Intel, Motorola, GE, Mercedes Benz, and AMD would kill themlseves for those process failure rates.

Prove it. Closing or consolidating polling places due to lack of funding; or low turnouts isn't about voter suppression.

Alabama isn't California and appearances do matter...

John Archibald, a columnist for the Alabama Media Group, noted that the majority of Alabama’s driver’s license office closures were in places with majority black populations that had high voter turnout:

Take a look at the 10 Alabama counties with the highest percentage of non-white registered voters. That’s Macon, Greene, Sumter, Lowndes, Bullock, Perry, Wilcox, Dallas, Hale, and Montgomery, according to the Alabama Secretary of State’s office. Alabama, thanks to its budgetary insanity and inanity, just opted to close driver license bureaus in eight of them. All but Dallas and Montgomery will be closed.

Look at the 15 counties that voted for President Barack Obama in the last presidential election. The state just decided to close driver license offices in 53 percent of them.

Look at the five counties that voted most solidly Democratic? Macon, Greene, Sumter, Lowndes and Bullock counties all had their driver license offices closed.

Look at the 10 that voted most solidly for Obama? Of those, eight – again all but Dallas and the state capital of Montgomery – had their offices closed.

truthorfiction

nytimes

snopes

annistonstar

You forget about far left wing billionaires buying elections (can you say Soros, Bloomberg?)

Sure, they are, together they give as much as Adelburg alone.

Are you implying that Adelburg isn't "buying " elections either?

smh

Exactly. Work toward allowing voting remote via your electronic device of choice. We all use it to shop and bank...safeguards can be put in place to protect the integrity of the the election process just as easily. Engage as many citizens as possible, but it will not be too hard to guess who will find any and every excuse not to institute such a system...examples to follow....

Even with block-chain technology, I do not trust remote electronic voting.

cnet

We vote with computers in Ohio and I have seen problems. I voted for one candidate in 2014 and the computer recorded the vote for a 3rd party candidate. I had to start over to correct that mistake.  I now ask to vote with a paper ballot that is scanned when possible because I do not trust the machines.

I think that issuing everyone a postage-paid absentee ballot is the proper course for secure voting.   if people do not believe that the process is secure they will not invest the time to learn about candidates and vote.

I have voted by absentee ballot for more than 25 years.   Most times I drive to registrars office and submit it in person

How can everyone of those reasons be a falsehood? I don't understand. Please explain.

Alabama dsos.alabama provide free ID.

They still have to go get it when the DMV is open, which poses a hurdle for people with disabilities or who don't have a car or who live in rural areas with no DMV office close by.  They also have to have documentation to prove their ID which can prove difficult if they weren't born in a hospital.

My mom was born at home in the early part of the century and her birth certificate is little more than a few names and a date on an index card. It took 6 months for the DMV to accept it, despite the fact that the DoD didn't have a problem when she served in the Navy as a nurse during the Korean War. Social Security and the IRS likewise didn't have a problem with it and neither did the nursing professional accreditation because she worked as an RN for more than 40 years.

She worked at the polls for 10 years after she retired, but in 2004 she needed to have a photo ID just to vote. The requirment for a photo ID is partisan nonsense as a way to limit people who can vote. 

No one should be allowed to vote without photo ID. It makes such common sense which is why the left opposes it.

So what you are saying is that your mother was able to get ID.

Good for her!

Maybe she can teach others how to do the same.

Why should it take more than 6 months to get a $12.00 photo ID that they cannot prove prevents vote fraud. if it wasn't for me helping her she would not have been able to do so and could not have voted in 2004.  Most people would have given up because of all the hoops that she had to jump through.

Voting is a constitutional right that they have to prove that you are not eligible to vote. You cannot be forced to prove that you are by being forced through hoops. That hoop jumping is an example of Jim Crow laws. 

Because they want to protect the ability of illegal aliens and the dead to vote in blue precincts of these red states.  

Where is the proof that undocumented immigrants vote? Your beliefs are not proof.

No one should be allowed to vote without photo ID.

There is no proof that a photo ID prevents voter fraud. It doesn't prevent many people from voting who are otherwise eligible to vote. The fact that you have been told and believe this claim is irrelevant.

It makes such common sense which is why the left opposes it.

Your ad hominem is noted.

Pretty sure that SOMETIME in the last 4-5 years that the stars all aligned correctly and even those folks could have obtained an ID, if they had chosen to do so.

 What part of a Jim Crow law do you not understand?

HOUSTON — In his wallet, Anthony Settles carries an expired Texas identification card, his Social Security card and an old student ID from the University of Houston, where he studied math and physics decades ago. What he does not have is the one thing that he needs to vote this presidential election: a current Texas photo ID.

For Settles to get one of those, his name has to match his birth certificate — and it doesn’t. In 1964, when he was 14, his mother married and changed his last name. After Texas passed a new voter-ID law, officials told Settles he had to show them his name-change certificate from 1964 to qualify for a new identification card to vote.

So with the help of several lawyers, Settles tried to find it, searching records in courthouses in the D.C. area, where he grew up. But they could not find it. To obtain a new document changing his name to the one he has used for 51 years, Settles has to go to court, a process that would cost him more than $250 — more than he is willing to pay.

washingtonpost

You have yet to prove that photo IDs prevent vote fraud. How many eligible voters are being denied their constitutional right to vote because of this partisan shenanigan? If you are claiming that photo IDs prevent vote fraud than you must prove your claim to be empirically true.

We should fine the GOP $500.00 per person per year for each voter who cannot vote because they are unable to get a photo ID for any reasons.  How much of that fine are you willing to pay to deny your fellow citizens their right to vote?

It’s also 100% true...

That is a conformation bias, until you have facts to support your claim.

Most your links are dead.

You found one person. that is statistically irrelevant when we have 138 million people voting. You should learn statistics. How many American citizens were denied the right to vote because they didn't have a photo ID?

Maria Azada, 53, of Grayslake, Ill., was arrested March 17 by ICE HSI agents and a Lake County State's Attorneys special investigator. Azada faces 17 felony counts in Lake County Circuit Court of perjury, mutilation of election materials, and tampering with voting machines in connection with illegal voting by a non-U.S. citizen.

She was not caught because she didn't have a photo ID.

As WBBM Newsradio 780’s Nancy Harty reports, Maria Azada, 53, allegedly admitted to immigration officials in February 2009 that she had voted in an election. width="1" height="1"> An investigation began, and revealed that Azada voted nine times in primary, general and consolidated elections between 2003 and 2009, according to a release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to the arrest warrant, she falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen on two Illinois voter registration applications.

You've obviously never been to Alabama...

and have a very poor appreciation for the privileges you have in California.

The requirment for a photo ID is partisan nonsense as a way to limit people who can vote. 

No it isn't but since you think it is, how do you propose election officials prove voter bona fides if not with a government issued ID?

Keep dreaming....will NEVER happen

No it isn't but since you think it is, how do you propose election officials prove voter bona fides if not with a government issued ID?

You prove your ID when you register to vote.

You have yet to prove that there is a significant amount of voter fraud that can be addressed without disenfranchising people exercising a constitutional right. The idea that it is a right means that there is a very high level of protection for that right. Voting isn't to be used as a partisan game.  

If you understand SPC, as an engineer should, then you will understand what I am saying. Every time you have a process failure you do not make changes to the system as a way to correct it. You wait until you see a predictable pattern that can be addressed without doing damage to the current system. You don't start to chase statistical outliers just because they exist.  This is basic SPC. 

6 cases of voter fraud in 138 million votes are insignificant. How many people didn't vote or were turned away because of lack of an ID? Our voter turnout is often less than 2/3 of eligible voters, so you are attacking the wrong problem when you should be trying to get more people to vote.

Keep dreaming....will NEVER happen

A bunch of goobers support this partisan idiocy.

latimes

Should the Democrats regain power in this country and actually implement what they are running on, we will have either a civil war or secession

You prove your ID when you register to vote.

And how do you register to vote?

You have yet to prove that there is a significant amount of voter fraud that can be addressed without disenfranchising people exercising a constitutional right. The idea that it is a right means that there is a very high level of protection for that right. Voting isn't to be used as a partisan game.

I don't care if its only one vote.   One fraudulent vote is one to many.   And voting isn't only a right it's also a privilege and a responsibility really.   A privilege that is earned by becoming a legal citizen that remains in good standing with the community.   A responsibility in that people shouldn't need to be cajoled or bribed to vote.   They should take the personal responsibility on there own to vote, as their civic duty.  

If you understand SPC, as an engineer should, then you will understand what I am saying. Every time you have a process failure you do not make changes to the system as a way to correct it. You wait until you see a predictable pattern that can be addressed without doing damage to the current system. You don't start to chase statistical outliers just because they exist.  This is basic SPC.

Mombo jombo ..... this isn't engineering, its civics and a system that allows for fraudulent voting is not a good system a all.    Not in the least.

Lol .... thinly veiled insult noted but don't worry.   I've been at this engineering game for nearly 35 years.   I've likely forgotten more about it that you ever knew.

6 cases of voter fraud in 138 million votes are insignificant. How many people didn't vote or were turned away because of lack of an ID? Our voter turnout is often less than 2/3 of eligible voters, so you are attacking the wrong problem when you should be trying to get more people to vote.

Lack of an ID is no excuse for not voting.   If someone is motivated enough to vote, they'll jump through what few hoops are that are required to do so.   These faux accusations of voter suppression in regards to proving voter bona fides are ridiculous, egregious and overblown.