And where is the outrage of what Republicans are doing in WI, NC, AZ and particularly TX, where I live? Spare me your "love for democracy" cry when your opponent starts doing what you have been doing for a long time.
Marc - Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio have gerrymandered over the past 12+ years to the point of reducing 50-50 states to overwhelming and permanent GOP majority representation - FAR more than 6 seats each. Without putting what NY Dems have done in this context you are misrepresenting the issue.
For a business leader I respect, it is highly unlikely you wrote this article with ignorance, and I have to assume it was written with willful intent. To claim you 'live in NY' is a 4th Grader's excuse -- The Ladders is not used just in NY. Do you not accept applicants from other states? Do you not follow regulations of other states?
You turn a blind eye to gerrymandering for the last decade (ever since the redistricting following the 2010 census and you wake up now? Wisconsin has a Democratic governor as does Kentucky, and what proportion of the US House seats are Democratic? You would expect that in a two party system it should be about half right? And forget about Texas Ohio etc etc. - you have to work hard to find a state with a Republican majority in the legislature (which themselves are often a result of gerrymandering) that does not have gerrymandered US House districts. It may deplorable in New York, but it's only very belated that that DumbDems are fighting fire with fire. Not to mention that the biggest enchilada that votes 70% Democratic (California) has tied one hand by nobly committing political seppuku (aka independent non-partisan redistrict committee). If you're sending this to a national audience, look at the national story.
I don't need to speak for Marc but the only thing willful is your blind belief that the federal government will solve all our problems. It's never happened and never will. It's a sure path to despotism and tyranny. Welcome welcome Nazi Germany
You're projecting. I never stated a belief that the federal government would come to anyone's rescue. I simply stated that without full representation of the issue this is nothing more than a partisan hack piece.
That and I'd like to add that you're all up in these comments in a partisan fashion as well, which strongly undermines your own weight in this conversation. Crazy doesn't change minds.
The GOP DEFINITELY doesn’t solve problems for anyone that is not in the top 1%.
At least the dems try to solve social issues that that would actually end up saving us money in the long run. The BS war on drugs that is costing us money in health care and prisons is a wholly republican invention. Started with Nixon as a way to, gasp, silence and disenfranchise people who wouldn’t vote for him.
BTW, the republican push for voting restrictions is actually a step toward tyranny. Disenfranchise anyone who won’t vote for you and gerrymander the rest.
Can you just admit in this thread that you want as much money as possible and to give as little back to the community as possible- the ONLY reason to vote GOP that makes sense is if you are in business and you want to be able to screw over others to succeed yourself?
It's weird that because I don't agree with Marc here I must be a liberal.
Nothing I've posted is partisan. I'm actually posting in an effort to deny partisanship in this conversation and bring attention to the fact that both parties are wrong here.
I've found that a certain subset from both parties however are not able to process this and that's what's really a shame.
Both parties defend the political elite and enforce the continuous control of their stranglehold on office. It must be broken with term limits and convention of states
Actually, we may not need a convention of the states. If you could break the filibuster with 60 or more votes, a law passed by both houses might do it. However, very few in either party wants term limits. Yet, why not have them? It’s a partial solution, in the long run, to gerrymandering. When you can’t vote them out due to party line voters, at least there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve been promoting, on various sites, the idea of 2-3 terms for Senators and 6-8 terms for House Reps, maybe 9 to give each a max of 18 years in office.
At least that gives the other party a better shot, but if we’re going to have fair elections (possibly a naive thought), then three things need to happen. Term limits, eliminate gerrymandering, and pass campaign finance laws that better limit contributions, making them no longer anonymous, and put more focus on campaign financial law enforcement.
You live in NY but you are sending this out to a national audience. NY is bad, but the overall damage from the gerrymandering in the top 9 out of 11 gerrymandered states goes to the GOP, and that's a lot of damage when it affects a presidential outcome. Gerrymandering should be outlawed. Meanwhile, you're at the table complaining that your sister nicked your pie, when your brother stole everyone else's meal.
NYS "steal" is not even close to "the worst". At most, it is a majority party amorally expanding their lead. States like PA have a minority GOP party using gerrymandering practices to stay in power. Minority rule. Justify that with your rhetoric??
It's really weak to claim you are only talking about a "local issue" when you use a national mailing list from an unrelated business. Pathetic! How can you, at the same time, claim that you don't live outside NY (and know what is happing outside NY) and claim it is the worst?
Stop supporting either party. neither one is really their to support you. They are serving their own self interests. Support rank choice voting!
Marc. If it's all about sheer numbers, then wouldn't it be better to look at stolen seats by each party across all states? After all "our democracy" does not depend on what happens in just one state. The pushback would stop if you simply said, "In my home state of NY the Democrats took 6 seats from the minority party through gerrymandering; the biggest number of stolen seats in the country. But any number of stolen seats is bad - gerrymandering is bad. Both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of it. It needs to stop." Are you willing to say this? Take a stand.
I think the former president would disagree that "New York's steal is the worst." The problem is not in New York, it's in Congress. We need to pass the voting rights act.
Marc - what are your thoughts on the Supreme Court's opinion on the blatantly biased opinion on the Alabama gerrymander? This appears to be not just violating fairness in terms of biasing against a particular party, but also clearly violating the VRA by biasing based on race.
Since the Supreme Court rules on all states, that would include NY as well - so it appears what the Dems have done in NY is also legal and above board. So is your complaint now null and void?
Before you make such a broad statement you should be researching facts to back up your typical Democratic Party belligerent response. Marc got e facts and statistics to sow exactly how unfair this is in New York. Democratic Party policies are what is making people flee New York. The Democratic Party is destroying democracy……. Come back and comment when you have links of research to share for a serious discussion
That’s not really nice William. Name calling isn’t welcome here. If you want to be civilized and discuss facts, your comments are very welcome even if they disagree with me. But “sticks and stones” name calling is not what this blog is about.
So what IS this blog about? Serious question. Are you trying to be fair and balanced? If so then why not include gerrymandering efforts by Republicans in Ohio, North Carolina, Texas and Alabama?
If you do claim to be an independent thinker about threats to democracy, why not shine a light on a number of other dark corners .... like the findings of the January 6th committee thus far?
Marc: William may have used a sarcastic name in describing Trump supporters, but he’s not wrong. To deny that Trump supporters ignore facts, often make up their own facts, and act as echo chambers to conspiracy theories, is to deny the truth. All of that, which was William’s point, is perhaps a bit more important than using a sarcastic name. Just saying.
It looks to sort out the difference between demographic sorting, which is significant, and partisan intent through all redistricting practices including gerrymandering. And it worked. GOP was able to net a 16 seat advantage in Congress after 2012 when demographic concentration alone would have resulted in 1-4 seats. More studies will help, but we should not need them. From a good governance perspective, acknowledging human nature and constraining it and adding ample transparency produces better outcomes for democracy.
"non-partisan Cook Report" (Marc's words) also opined on Florida's redistricting efforts.
For those without a subscription the article states Gov. DeSantis' proposed plans would split multiple districts with large minority populations and shift a 16R-11D congress towards 20R-8D (FL picked up an extra house seat during last census due to increases in minority populations). The proposal comes after the redistricting commission agreed on a map that both D&R had approved. Not as bad as NY, but if we're arguing that gerrymandering is bad then to fix it we must first explicitly acknowledge and say out loud that both sides are doing it. To me it doesn't matter who did it worse or longer...I agree with Marc we should all be angry with any gerrymandering. Let's fix it.
@Marc while I understand you are not reporting news, but rather laying out your opinions and thoughts, which I respect, I hope that future letters would include a broader spectrum of evidence to which to view the issue.
PB - please link to the legislation that takes away 6 minority party seats in Florida. I wouldn't have written this post if it were just a bad proposal in NY. There are, in fact, even more unfair and undemocratic proposals made by the majority party in New York, so I'd say it's not relevant to the topic to discuss various bad proposals from different politicians. Let's stick to legislation that has actually been voted on.
You clearly don’t actually care about gerrymandering, or you would be calling out the GOP in Congress who refuse to address it throughout the country. Stop pretending.
Marc - FL is a close to 50-50 state, so a 20R - 8D seat is like taking 6 minority party seats away. Are you actually Marc Cenedella, the founder of The Ladders, or are you some spoof account that is making him look like a partisan hack?
There is no legislation passed in FL yet, there are three separate proposals (each from the House, Senate and Governor) - with deSantis's the most egregious. Nothing has been signed into law, but, then, again, nothing has been signed into law in NY either...
Here's a summary of the situation from Fivethirtyeight...
Marc - if you seriously want to discuss this, with your reach and influence, it behooves you to take a less partisan stance. 538's site has easily accessed "efficiency gap" and "wasted vote" numbers and displays of seat competitiveness. If you are truly interested in improving the democratic process in this country, I trust you will look at it from that lens, rather than use the sophomoric excuse of "I live in NY so only NY politics interests me". That, more than anything else, is hypocritical as all your other articles are about national affairs and impact. I mean, your blog is "American Ambition", not "New York Ambition".
In fact, if you look at it, the NY redistricting is risky for the Dems as they are relying on turnout to tip many of the marginal districts created by the "cracking" end of the "packing and cracking" tactic. The GOPers have done a far more reliable job by focusing on the packing end in all the 50-50 states like WI, PA, NC, AZ and TX...
Marc isn’t wrong about NYS, as I noted in my own response to his post, but he is being highly hypocritical given the excessive amount of gerrymandering republicans have done in the past 10-12 years. This is an undeniable fact. So, complaining about NY, a very blue state, is seriously laughable and a silly distraction from a much larger issue.
Given the divisive partisan gap, people are moving to states that tend to support their political views. So, they move to lower tax red states, but find their may be less services there, but perhaps not the type of services they need, until the day they might need them. Anyway, that’s their choice they are free to make it.
Now, your comment that the Democratic Party is destroying democracy needs to come back to reality. Democrats and Republicans may want to use taxpayer money differently and have other differences on issues, but neither is destroying democracy. Only Trump supporters are attempting to destroy democracy, as seen in their efforts (some illegal) to overturn a free and fair election. The January 6th attack on the Capitol building and Congress being the most notable but far from the only attack. Falsifying electoral records; trying to replace electoral college electors with fake electors; conspiring to seize voting machines, a president calling the Georgia Secretary of State and asking him to “find” 11,780 votes. If I had been in that role I would have responded to Trump by saying “and where should I find these votes?” However, the Georgia SoS was more discrete than that with this corrupt request. I’m also sure that despite reports of Trump officials trying to destroy some internal documents (an illegal act), more will come out of the commission in its findings. Which will further show us all what the former Trump administration has been trying to hide.
So true—I try to be middle of the road as often as I can but the left’s hypocrisy in recent years is otherworldly. Where is all the outrage to the Summer of Love riots that killed dozens, how about the murders every week in Chicago, etc. Trump was wrong in not condemning the riots sooner and his post election rants are getting old but let’s not ignore the bigger facts—as horrible as Jan 6 was, one person, a Trump supporter, was killed unarmed for trespassing. Both parties seek to serve their own needs but the left as Matthew 7:5 said is so true: "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
The bottom line is that like him or hate him, Trump was an outsider, took on the swamp, and the political/tech/media elite tried everything they could to take him out - including Russia hoax, 90+% negative media coverage, multiple impeachments and censoring from social media (who would've thought we would see an American president censored in our lifetime!). Despite all that, it seems clear, most of his policies were in support of the average American citizen. Most people's lives noticeably improved vis-a-vis the Obama years, the border problem improved, no new wars, Abraham accords, and countries around the world - even adversaries - were appropriately engaged.
He did a lot and his policies were mostly positive.
You’ve got to be kidding, right. If the stories about Trump were vastly more negative than positive, it’s because he brought that kind of coverage on himself. He didn’t come close to draining any swamps. In fact, a lot of the people he brought in had to resign or he fired for the scandals they incurred.
The involvement of Russia was no hoax. His people went to at least one high level meeting and had several interactions/communications with them. That in itself is suspect and he added himself, in iman interview, that he would take such meetings when the only correct action would be to report the contact to the FBI.
His policies did not generally help the average person. And his handling of the pandemic, other than fast tracking vaccines, which he the then didn’t support people getting, was a disaster that has cost needless thousands of deaths.
That’s not being a good president. That a failure to protect Americans. Plus his foreign policies, with a few exceptions, made the world a more dangerous place and the US the laughingstock of the world. Ask average, not radical right wing people in other countries. I know some. And his treatment of the press was classic authoritarianism. Their job id to hold those in power accountable, which he hates because they try to make known what he’s trying to hide. Pulling out of the Paris Accords, s scrapping the Iranian deal, giving North Korea a giant PR boost. The list goes on.
Don’t know who you are, anonymous AP, but I never mentioned the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. Also, saying someone else’s comments are baseless means nothing unless you provide the facts for your cl. Which you can’t as I’ve only noted what has come to light in the files/documents that came straight from the White House. The very same documents Trump felt needed to stay hidden. In fact, apparently Trump had a habit of tearing up many documents, of all types, that by law should become part of the historical record. The Presidential Records Act is quite specific on how all memos, correspondence, notes, etc. are to sent to the Archives. The real problem is three fold. First, he’s violating the Act; second, he doesn’t care as he thinks he’s above the law or doesn’t care about such laws; and third, there’s no real enforcement mechanism for that law. It relies on presidents and their staffs respecting the law. Not a Trump priority. So, his staff, in trying to follow the law, spent who knows how many hours trying to collect and tape together documents. Taxpayer money hard at work undoing the unlawful acts of a man who doesn’t respect the office or the law.
I'm not going to regurgitate facts that anyone can go research for themselves. I mean like lowest unemployment rate across all demographics, highest savings rates across all demographics, energy independence which garnered lowest gas prices in 30 years, lowest illegal infestation since Bush 1, historic peace accords with Israel UAE and Bahrain.
And let's see...you've sited no facts yourself. You've only parroted the spin you hear on the lamestream media. As far as tearing up docs...the only evidence we have is that hag and thief Nancy Pelosi tearing up the state of the Union on prime time TV - illegal. So please no more left wing witch hunts costing 50 million of our taxpayer money. Crawl back to the shell you slimed out of.
desrault> Broad statements: "Typical Democratic Party belligerent response," "The Democratic party is destroying democracy." perhaps you should come back and comment when you stop making broad statements...
Sorry, the righteous indignation does not fly. Every investigation, EVERY investigation from left and right said the election was fair. But you choose to believe a pathological liar and narcissist who just can't handle losing? If I hired someone who lied to me every day, I'd fire his butt in a hot second. What's with you?
No court of law, NOT ONE, heard any of the cases on its merit despite thousands, THOUSANDS, of sworn testimonies that there was fraud and obstruction of election oversight. Not to mention all 6 battleground state's voting machines going down in the wee hours- with actual video footage of boxes of prestine ballots pulled from underneath covered tables exactly after all the other volunteers were asked to vacate the poll premise due to a watermain break that never happened?!?!? Please. Don't give me your sacrosanct BS. The election was complete fraud and our country will not survive it.
As to Trump being a pathological liar, I don't see any evidence. There is however plenty of evidence of Biden lying in just about every statement he makes. I'm not going to provide a litany here but going back to plagiarism from the last time he ran for president is enough for me.
I have to ask you (I'm really curious) what makes Trumpers so loyal? He lies endlessly, tweeted embarrassingly childish mis-spelled rants daily, golfed on YOUR dime, even his own people said he was "fact-free" and "unprepared," and he dumped us— what, 11 TRILLION dollars deeper in debt with nothing to show for it? He never even got an infrastructure bill started, much less the "big beautiful healthcare plan" he boasted about. And then there was his endless kissing of Putin butt. So what was it? His fascist tendencies? Any Republican could give you a supreme court pick, why choose a malignant narcissist and bankruptcy king?
Over 60 court cases and "not one" heard on the merits? Even from Trump judges? Surely you don't believe that. pssst, the NYT contacted election officials in every state, blue and red, and were told there were no voting irregularities to speak of. Again, why believe a pathological liar over all those state officials and judges? No evidence of lying? WAAA? Here ya go:
“We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
“The wealthy are not getting a tax cut under our plan.”
“Our tax plan will cut down the deficit by a trillion dollars.”
“I have a big beautiful healthcare plan. Everybody will be covered!”
“I’ll be too busy working to play golf.”
“We’re building the wall. Mexico’s going to pay for it.”
“I was first in my class at college.”
“My father was born in Germany.”
“Tariffs are making America rich.”
“We passed the biggest tax cut and reform in American history.”
“Democrats are “radical socialists” who want to turn America into Venezuela.”
“The Mexican government forces many bad people into our country.”
“Since my election, China's lost $20 trillion." (Not even close.)
“no one could have seen this pandemic coming.”
“30 million, it could be 34 million illegal immigrants in America.”
"Our ambassador for hostage negotiation said Trump is the greatest of all time. I only tell you that because you'll never say it.” (well, He never said it).
"During the Obama administration, $500 billion a year was being lost to China. Five hundred billion.” (Never. Not even close.)
“Mexico can afford to build a wall because the country’s trade deficit with America is billions of dollars.”
“I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering” as the World Trade Center collapsed.
“Two percent of asylum seekers come back to court.” (it was 89% in 2017)
“I was totally against the war in Iraq,”
“There is “no system to vet” refugees from the Middle East.”
‘The highest that China pumped into the farmers in the form of purchase?' '$16 billion.' We're taking many, many times that in tariffs.… I did that with $16 billion," (China spent 29.6 billion in 2014)
"We're building a lot of wall right now" (August 2019. Nope. No was being built).
“no more (car) companies are going to leave because we have reasons that they can't leave anymore.“ (no rules prevent car manufacturers from leaving the U/S.)
“The unemployment rate may be as high as “42 percent.”
“The governments of Honduras and Guatemala are forming caravans of criminals and sending them up.”
“The Louisiana LNG plant that's so incredible … It was many, many years trying to get permits, they couldn't get the permits, but we got the permits." (LNG was approved in 2014)
“We’re the highest taxed nation in the world.”
“China called!”
“Ted Cruz’s father was with Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”
“We pulled off an economic turnaround of historic proportions.”
“Obama separated children from their families at the border.”
“The Russia probe is a witch hunt.”
“Republicans support protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”
“The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia.”
“Troops received one of the biggest pay raises ever! — the first pay increase in more than 10 years!”
“Saudi Arabia has ordered $450 billion, ‘$110 billion of which is a military order,’ producing “over a million jobs.”
"Take a look at Judicial Watch, take a look at their settlement where California admitted to a million votes. They admitted to a million votes."
“Democrats want to give (undocumented immigrants) cars.”
”James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION”
“Wisconsin hadn’t been won by a Republican since Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1952.” “The state of California is begging us to build walls in certain areas. They don’t tell you that.”
On the diversity visa lottery program, “they give us their worst people, they put them in a bin,” and “the worst of the worst” are selected.
“For years, they have not been able to get tax cuts -- many, many years, since Reagan.”
“ Joe Scarborough is party to an “unsolved mystery” from his time as a congressman.”
“Chicago is the city with the strongest gun laws in our nation.”
“Ending the estate tax would protect millions of small businesses and the American farmer.”
White nationalist protesters in Charlottesville “had a permit. The other group didn’t have a permit.”
Amazon has a “no-tax monopoly.”
“We’ve gotten more done than any other administration.”
“Steel and automaker investments are skyrocketing.”
CNN’s ratings are “way down.”
“This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”
Before the presidential campaign, “I didn’t know Steve (Bannon).”
Terrorism and terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe have “gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported.”
There was “serious voter fraud” in Virginia.
There was “serious voter fraud” in New Hampshire.
“I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”
“At a campaign rally President Barack Obama spent so much time screaming at a protester, and frankly it was a disgrace.”
“Hillary Clinton wants to let people just pour in. You could have 650 million people pour in and we do nothing about it. Think of it. That’s what could happen. You triple the size of our country in one week.”
“Wikileaks also shows how John Podesta rigged the polls by oversampling Democrats, a voter suppression technique.”
“When Hillary Clinton ran the State Department, $6 billion was missing..”
“It’s possible that non-citizen voters were responsible for Obama’s 2008 victory in North Carolina.”
“Of course, there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day.”
“We don’t have any” chess grandmasters in the United States.”
“I won the second debate with Hillary Clinton in a landslide in every poll.”
“Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape they’ve ever been in before. Ever. Ever. Ever.”
“I finished the controversy about where President Barack Obama was born.”
“My opponent has no child care plan.”
“Hillary Clinton has not answered a single question about her immigration plan.
The number of illegal immigrants “could be 3 million. It could be 30 million.”
Says the U.S. election system is “rigged.”
“Barack Obama founded ISIS. I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.”
“We don’t know anything about Hillary in terms of religion. Now, she’s been in the public eye for years and years, and yet there’s no — there’s nothing out there.”
“Hillary Clinton has even deleted this record of total support (for the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Amazing how they can’t see it AP—children under 12 can’t eat in a restaurant in NY without showing vaccine ID and there are other examples, but what is so wrong about showing ID to vote? You have to show ID at Costco but not at the voting booth? What is more democratic than ensuring the people who are voting are actually who they are? Do not all people, regardless of color or ethnicity who are citizens have ID? Why is this still such an issue?
So true! In fact how presumptuous and patronizing is the lunatic left claiming that some of our citizens do not know how or somehow are unable to obtain ID?
You’re right in that this type of gerrymandering shouldn’t be allowed to happen. However, are you also complaining about the massive amount of gerrymandering done by republicans since the 2010 census? Or the continuing gerrymandering done by republicans as was just done in Texas, for example, with the new seats the state picked up? I didn’t see any of that in your post.
I didn’t see any mention of the voter suppression aspects of the more than 30 new laws passed in republican controlled states to curb early voting, shorten voting periods, cut out Sunday voting, curb voting at drop boxes, curb mail in voting (which has been used successfully by several states for decades and suddenly its a bad thing), or make it illegal to give someone a bottle of water or any food after they’ve been made to wait for hours to vote? The hypocrisy of doing these in the name of election security is such a lie (given the lack of voter fraud) that some state legislature reps have been caught talking about the real reason for these changes; stopping democrats from voting. Didn’t see your complaints about the unfairness to voters for these changes. Why is that? Simple answer: Those restrictions and massive gerrymandering by republicans help them to keep seats in Congress. However, when democrats try to copy what republicans do, it’s suddenly wrong. This is the very definition of hypocrisy and the continuing efforts of the minority imposing its will on the majority.
Yes, both sides, in the past, did some gerrymandering. However, what happened in 2010 and has continued (on the republican side) was an order of magnitude above what was done in the past and it was planned and well executed in the republican controlled states.
Also, you don’t see democrats passing laws to put barriers in the way of republican or any voters.
Voting is the basic RIGHT of the citizens of our country and republicans are so concerned about keeping control, because your policies are now nearly nonexistent, that they are literally passing laws to make it more difficult to exercise that right. And to be clear, it’s not a privilege to be able to vote, it’s a right. So arguments that talk to “making a little more effort” are completely disingenuous and hypocritical given the true reasons for these voting barriers and at which voters they are aimed.
What was done in NYS is not right either, but for you to complain about it, using the very same complaints about what republicans have openly done since 2010, is the height of hypocrisy. If it’s still possible, you should be ashamed of putting this type of propaganda out to your readers.
I never mentioned showing ID as an issue. And so long as getting an acceptable ID is made easy and free to all Citizens, then I have no issue with it. What I do have issue with is voter purges which don’t verify why a voter is purged (say for being dead - which, by the way was attempted by those voting republican). What is being done, instead, is purging people from voting roles who might have moved their residences, or simply not voted in a few past elections, also their right if they didn’t like any of the candidates, and then not telling them. Then, to keep them from voting, remove same day registration do they can get back into the registration roles. It’s obvious to any reasonable person that they won’t know they’ve been purged from the registration roles until they go to vote. If you also eliminate same day registration, then your truly making an attempt to stop that person from voting. This is the definition of voter suppression.
And yes, ballot harvesting is not right, but only if there is any indication that the people collecting those ballots are influencing the voters. There are many elderly and informed voters who need help and can’t stand on long lines for hours (which is another form of voter suppression by making sure the number of working machines are way too few for the number of voters in that area. A dirty trick to make it harder for workers, who get paid by the hour, to vote). Since these voters, in those districts, tend to vote democratic, this in a planned action to reduce there numbers.
The only real question is why are republican controlled states taking all these unnecessary (for election security) measures instead of trying to convince voters as to the benefits of their political proposals and views? The answer is simple, they can’t (for whatever reason) so they do these voter suppression acts instead.
If you’re thinking that democrats do the same thing (the classic two wrongs make it right cognitive dissonance response), then you’ll have to show me where democrats try to suppress republican voters in democratic controlled states. Please let me know how that search goes.
Cognative dissonance? If you think it's difficult for a legal citizens to get an ID then you're a fool bamboozled by the progressive Marxist propaganda machine. And please show me where republicans deny anyone to vote? On the other hand let's see you squirm out of the proof that Dem poll watchers blocked Repub counterparts from poll watching oversight.
And they continue to just want to drop ballot boxes in public places were the boxes can be stuffed with illegal votes—no one watching! Who does that benefit? The left of course. Trying to kill the filibuster, adding Supreme Court judges—whose ideas are those? No shock who’s looking to control the country indefinitely and no one on the left especially CNN and MSNBC who selectively report their outrage.
People who move get a new voter ID for the new address/new precinct, so the former residence vote should be purged. Its multiple votes from the same person that resulted in some precincts getting more votes than the census population numbers!!!
I live in Illinois, a democrat controlled state where common names like --- Begum or Mohammed --- with an address in another precinct, were shown the computer voter list and told to pick another address. I tried to stop and report it but useless. As long as they vote democrat its 'more, the merrier!!!
True, if they remember to send for or ask for one. I’m sure every STG as a similar process. And it’s up to every state to keep their voter registry current. Purges, due to cross referencing with a death certificate database, criminal data, etc. are to be expected and should be done as part of election security procedures. It’s purges simply to remove voters who haven’t voted in a year or more, that are concerning. Especially when little or no attempt is made to see if those voters are still in the state or district. Either way, same day registration, with proper Id, helps to resolve such instances without being adversarial against the voter. The state is essentially taking away the right of those citizens to vote that year.
Purges done badly are supressive; purges done badly in secret are all kinds or wrong. As a Texan, it is appalling that after the botched and awful and clumsy "purge" in 2019, our new politically appointed Secretary of State is being sued for not releasing information about this current purge that they are legally required to release. Just because we have an under-indictment Texas Attorney General violating open records laws and not releasing campaign donor information as required by law, does not mean other agencies should follow suit. Good governance requires transparency, and corruption breeds in the dark.
So once again an individual bears no responsibility to make sure their vote will be valid? Come on...it's always the same argument with progressives. The Government has to take care of every personal responsibility under the sun. No Thanks. The less government the better
Voter ID laws are absolutely "Voter suppression". The GOP is NOT interested in fair elections or they would have voted for the "We the people act"....they voted against that. It would have stopped many unfair voting practices including Gerrymandering, Dark Money in politics, and foreign interference. But Mitch McConnel and the GOP blocked that bill. Voter ID laws impact poor people, the elderly, and students more than other demographics, and those demographics vote primarily for Democrats. Voter ID laws would only fix "in person voter fraud", which exactly ZERO states have reported having that problem. So why does the GOP want it so much?
And as for "Dead people voter harvesting" that's just scare tactics the GOP uses. Do you know how many states claim this is a big problem? Again ZERO. The GOP just uses it as an excuse to do bulk registration purges, which again keeps people from voting. The GOP does better when fewer people vote. AND Voter ID laws would not impact this.
Fraud does happen, and dead people do vote, however there is no evidence that those numbers are anything but tiny and statistically insignificant. BUT the smaller the turnout, the more it is possible that a local, small town, way down ballot race could potentially be impacted. People pay the least attention to those governments which affect them most, and the best defense against the tiny numbers (statistically speaking) of proven voter fraud approaching significance on any level is more voter turnout. Making it harder for hourly workers with no PTO, or less-mobile folks, or folks who don't have vehicles, or people with child care issues, or anyone other than office 9-5ers that drive and work for companies that let employees go vote without docking them, is contrary to our collective best interests, regardless of how much we think we should stack the decks for "our team".
Last I checked polls were open from 6am to 8pm in most states. If you can't find an opportunity to cast your vote within a 14 hour window your vote shouldn't count. End of story
End of your story, perhaps. Hours in Texas are 7-7. But that does not change the circumstances of every individual, and it turns out you are not in charge of which votes do count, although free to opine about which "should". In 2020 we had people waiting in line more than 6 hours to cast their votes; shall we say that anyone not willing or able to spend 6 hours or more to vote should not get to? We also, after closing 750 polling places between 2012 and 2018, have now closed even more in our most populous counties via our most recent legislation. Texas has 254 counties, and our largest is 6,193 sq miles; as a bonus, if you want to drop off your mail in ballot rather than mail, you could enjoy the up to one-and-a-half hour one-way drive. Yes, people need to take personal responsibility for their vote, especially so when their government makes it harder.
That’s plain BS. First off, it’s completely unamerican to claim anyone’s vote shouldn’t count because of your own narrow minded personal views. That’s not how it works in the US and any real citizen would know that. Your ridiculous point of view would keep people who work during that time or who don’t have a means of transportation, from voting. Typical radical right wing authoritarian crap. Anyone you genuinely wants to give the topic a whole five seconds or more of thought can list many reasons why some people who need a larger window to exercise their legal right to cast their vote. To deny them that right because of some perceived but not real inconvenience is to deny democracy itself. Don’t know what country you’re from but that’s not how it’s done here, unless you have to cheat prof their rights in order to win an election.
Dead people Vote!!! CBS chicago/Pam Zekman did a piece of it. And dead people need mail-in ballots to vote.
Those who change residence get multiple votes. Its so easy - go to the past addresses and give your name and address for that precinct and vote. Then go to the new address show your new id/DL and vote again. So old addresses need to be purged.
I bought this house in 2004. But the voter id for the seller ( I think they moved to the NE, NY?) still comes to my address. I have put return to sender, moved... on the mail but 17 years and still a problem.
Fraud related to ballot harvesting (and voter fraud, in General) just does not exist and that has been substantiated multiple times with audits in red and blue states.
Showing ID or providing validation for absentee voting, should be common sense and a non-issue. I’ve lived in reddest of red and bluest of blue states and have always had to show ID when voting.
You're not thinking through what it takes to commit "in person voter fraud". First off it's a crime. Second, you need the social security number of the person you are planning on impersonating. Third, you need to know that person is a registered voter. Fourth, not only does the person need to be a registered voter that you're impersonating, but you need to know that person won't show up to vote themselves. Four-A - If they vote before you then the computer will immediately flag you for voting twice, you could be arrested on the spot, and what you're doing is a crime. Four-B if you vote before they show up, then they will get flagged for voting twice, and as they can prove who they are, they will wind up just replacing your vote with theirs and your effort will be wasted, you risked getting caught doing a crime for nothing. Five - Some state's computers check to see if your signature matches your registration signature. If you're in one of those states, you'd also need the ability to accurately fake their signature. Six - There is a 50%-ish chance the person who's vote you are trying to steal was already going to vote for your candidate, so again you risked getting caught doing a crime for nothing. Seven - You had to stand in line to vote this extra time, which if any of the above Six things went bad, then you wasted the time you spent in line for nothing. For all these reasons - In person voter fraud is incredibly rare. No states report this is a widespread problem. And every state would know it's going on if it was due to multiple votes being cast by many people. And no state has reported this is going on. The GOP only wants voter ID laws to suppress votes. If the GOP actually cared about voting integrity they would have voted for the "We the people act", and they voted against that.
Yes some vote machines (gee all the ones in critical swing states) all went down at the dead of night 2-4am and mysteriously and all the evidence to support it has now vanished and were supposed to believe no fraud was committed?? By the way, ballet harvesting fraud on a wide scale will be unveiled shortly
You sound like the "My Pillow Guy" .... all this amazing evidence "coming soon to a theater near you". If you think some Shinnanigans went on with voting machines, how come when Georgia did it's two recounts (one with the computer, and one by hand) they all three matched?
This anonymous AP guy is just full of it. I’ve now seen enough of his posts to report his responses. Doubtful that Marc will do anything, but this guy is simply a lying, card carrying radical right wing nut who seems to think he has all the answers. I’ve met his type before and they aren’t interested in living in the same decent America that most of us want. He’s a trumper through and through so his reality meter is set pretty low.
If that were all that the GOP were about, we would all be agreeing. Unfortunately, the GOP is working hard to suppress the votes of people who don't look or think like them. If it's happening in NYS, perhaps we should have a national law that prohibits such things. The GOP is against that though, so here we are. NYS is fine. Just fine.
I don't speak for the GOP because they're just as bad as the criminal DNC. What conservatives don't want is federalizing the Presidential election. And there's good reasons for that you can find in the Federalist Papers
Wrong and there have been multiple prosecutions and guilty verdicts handed. And now thanks to the unintentional GPS tracking technology of your woke friends at Google the massive ballot harvesting will be exposed and many prosecutions will be sure to follow...as long as the tyrannical dems don't have opportunity to white wash it
Ydanis Rodriguez, democrat councilman who represents Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, is the prime sponsor of a bill that would allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.
Nowhere in the world are non-citizens allowed.
So in NY, Voting is open to anyone who can get to the poll booths - even non-citizens or terrorists like the 911 bombing crew!!! who lived in NJ but could easily get to the voting centers in NY.
All the Covid dead of NY also voted - that is illegal
"Nowhere in the world are non-citizens allowed" to vote...if you say things like that around an amateur political scientist (grad school dropout) you run the risk of having facts tossed back over the net...because I know this to be untrue. Non-citizens do have various voting rights around the world. I read some stuff on this a ways back; below is a link to one of the papers.
In addition to the United States which allows it in some local elections, other countries in the paper include countries that have allowed it in various forms in the past as well as some that currently do including Switzerland, Israel, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Spain, Sweden, New Zealand, Uruguay, to name some...
If you're so outraged by gerrymandering, you might want to note the Federal bill introduced by Democrats to address gerrymandering nationally, that the Republicans are refusing to pass. Focus on fixing the rules, not whining about those who don't want to play by them but would be fools not to.
Really??? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Shame on you. What a hypocrite. The Republican Party has spent the past 30 years gerrymandering its way to minority control of state governments. Please explain how in Pennsylvania, which has a solid 400,000 Democratic edge in voter registration, the Republicans in 2010 manipulated redistributing in order to gain a 13 to 5 majority in Congressional seats. Republicans are trying to do the same this year. Republicans are the ones who have been “stealing elections” for the past 30 years. What does our country have to show for it? A false flag operation in Iraq, The Great Recession, and Putin’s Puppet in the Whitehouse for four horrific years. Not exactly the party of Lincoln or TR, is it?
Really really???? Why don't you go study the history of gerrymandering which runs back to 1812 by the Massachusetts Jeffersonian Republicans (Democrats)?
Because this isn’t 1812. Today’s Republican Party doesn’t believe in a Democratic Republic. It wants permanent minority rule by its regressive principles which are designed to guarantee a permanent underclass of Americans who can never achieve the American Dream.
Hate or love Trump but more minorities, women and others worked under his administration and had better quality of lives. Trump’s mouth is what hurt him not his policies. The left has promised more handouts to minorities over the decades to ensure they can control their votes but has that provided more jobs or opportunities? It's why you see minority voters moving to the right b/c they’re tired of being gaslighted by the left.
True, but incorrectly applied. During a period between 1860 and 1936 the Democratic and Republican parties switched platforms.
In 1812, the Democratic party was running on a platform more aligned with today's Republican party, a fact which negates your argument here against Democrats.
Are you kidding me? The Republican party refuses to pass voting rights legislation which would address gerrymandering as well as equal access to voting booths. Why does the Republican Party continue to suppress voting for so many?
No I'm not kidding. They won't pass legislation that removes the vote for the President away from the People. Read the Federalist Papers and then come talk to me. Showing ID and proving you are who you say you are is not suppression so just stop
isn't it funny that the people who point to ID as "suppression" are revealing how little they think of minorities, the vast majority of whom have identification.
100 years from now, the Left will still be using Trump as a talking point. Bullying is burning cities, suspending law and order and altering voting laws. Now we see the same for a SCOTUS judge. Remarkable that ANYONE would think a republican is a bully in today's world.
You have been living under a rock it seems. Your lover boy trump really should be in jail by now but your ego is over your head and you can't bear admit that.
What a disgrace you are to write an article like this about NY and ignore what Republicans do and have been doing in so many other states. Talk about getting up on a soap box! I'm not disputing what you say about NY, but if you were really concerned about the "problem" you would point it out on both sides. Gerrymandering is a BIG problem around the country that is hurting our democracy, from both sides. It promotes extreme ideology by not having politicians play to the middle. You should be embarrassed to publish such an article. You come off as nothing more than a political hack. I'll be sure to unsubscribe to anything with your name on it.
Marc, the challenge I’d suggest to you is to refrain from divisive rhetoric. It’s not ‘criminal’ since no law is being broken. Merely it’s unfair to the political minority. And it’s unfair to both parties when you move to a national scale.
The same manipulative tactics are happening in red and blue states and further the divide. Pleading ignorance of this because you don’t live in a red state impugns your integrity.
As for ID and ballot harvesting. I believe you should have to have an ID to vote. I’ve always been required to show and ID or provide information confirming I was a legitimately eligible voter since I turned 18 and started voting.
Fraud related to ballot harvesting (and voter fraud, in General) just does not exist and that has been substantiated multiple times with audits in red and blue states.
Voting should be easy for those eligible to vote. Anyone, trying to prevent legitimate voters from casting a ballot is not in favor of, or protecting, our democracy.
Marc who needs people like that who have no grip on reality spewing nonsense. It’s good to hear people like that unsubscribe, canceling themselves for a change and not others—all they do is use derogatory names when they can't provide facts or defend an argument without sidetracking with negative grandstanding. Let’s have civil discussions and disagree with respect.
The real challenge is ‘reality’ and which reality people are choosing. When people are hitting people with clubs, hockey sticks and busting out windows and one person’s reality is that is an assault and the others reality is that is a tour group or peaceful protest, the chance for a civil discussion with any level of respect pretty much goes out the window.
And that is where we are in America. Until basic logic and agreement on facts becomes the reality, versus beliefs and opinions, we will be stuck in this abyss.
And please please explain a state like PA where the Democrats have a majority of the voter registration lopsidedly elects more Republicans. Oh yeah...PA is really far from New York so you don't know anything about it.
Are you nuts? Tell us about what just happened in Nashville. Read about the district in Texas that looks like Dan crenshaws eyepatch. Pretty disingenuous to point out what’s happening in New York State with no mention of EXTENSIVE gerrymandering by republicans, which to another commenters point would be stopped if republicans in the senate would help pass the voting rights bill which they won’t. Please stick to resumes.
You also live the in the United States, so you can take your head out of the sand at some point and acknowledge this is a national issue the Republicans (not the Democrats) are refusing to address.
Or how Republicans are purging democrats from GA registration? Or do you just blame the other party, not yours while claiming the dems are being partisan? You're so full of shit
It's almost as if we need federal regulation to prevent gerrymandering in every state and ensure access to vote for every living legal US citizen. You're very selective in where you want action. Just another conservative hypocrite.
Marc is speaking of his own state and that's not hypoctitical...afterall "all politics are local" as stated by your man Tip O'Neill. Both side have been applying gerrymandering techniques since the beginning of the Republic so let's not say it's one sided. The question is what should be done about it so all legal votes are counted?
I guess we should only publish information or our opinions only to those directly effected. You're right...no one should even dane to think anyone else would or should care. Clearly there's no end to idiocy!
This site is nothing more than an echo chamber for a Republican hack. His own response to a challenge of Republican gerrymandering "I don’t live in Wisconsin, California or Texas. I live in New York." Hypocrisy at it's very worst. Opinions should be limited to those interested and labeled as such so people don't confuse opinion with fact. I did not ask for this to be sent to my in-box but I have time and don't mind pointing out hypocrisy and idiocy when I see it. You have to decide for yourself if you are going to continue with it or make a change.
You speak common sense AP, so good to hear someone say it like it is without all the name calling on some of these responses. Couldn’t agree with you more!
Exactly. To be fair, a story though should report both sides. No where do you mention the republican gerrymandering that has gone on for years. One-sided, conservative biased story. More worthless news.
Worthless is in the eye of the beholder, but Substack is not news, and the content creators do not have to report both sides. I miss the Fairness Doctrine, and appreciate the news outlets that nevertheless continue to practice journalism with that intent (imperfect in execution, of course, because humans). In this increasingly buyer-beware world we each get to use what reason, logic, skepticism, interest and time we have sort out journalism, news, editorial, opinion, information, analysis, commentary, content, monetized content, and everything else out there so we can choose what kind of echo chamber, pep rally, or debate we will participate in. Fortunately interesting reactions can happen in all of those places, and if we choose to, we can see more sides and improve our skills in productive, or unproductive, disagreement.
"It’s not fair. It’s not nice." But it is illuminating, at least to those with IQ in excess of room temp. One party is doing things that it accuses the other party of doing. Predictably, the first party's supporters either don't see the problem or instantly flip to 'what about' mode as if that somehow justifies what's going on in NY. It is telling that no one tries defending what the Dems are openly doing on substance. No one has challenged the facts of this article's argument. Why not? If what you think the Repubs are doing in other states is so terrible, should what Dems are doing in NY be seen as equally terrible?
You're probably right, the Democrats should complain about Republican gerrymandering, try to pass laws against partisan gerrymandering, but be the "bigger people" and create fair districts and just let a Republican minority take control of the US House of Representatives.
The only thing that is terrible is that it gives the enemy the edge. People need to get away from this mythos of we are all together. There is no we. It's always a struggle of competing interests. The Schmidt friend enemy distinction of any political battle is clear to those who seek power. Everything else is just disarming language designed to obfuscate from the battle thats occurring beneath the surface. To your point, the redistricting maps is what people do when battling for power. Power is not moral. Power is amoral. Humans are moral and that morality is fluid if there is not a shared ideology to coalesce around. The premise adopted by most ambitious is that once having obtained power, one can enact in a moral manner. However, if said moral manner is not shared then those who don't act moral can use one's morality as a weakness. Its the nature of entropy or corruption. Once something is built, if said thing is not constantly reinforced and supported, time will eventually be its demise.
As for the current state of affairs, the Republicans and Democrats are both on the edge. The uniparty is real, it is the neoliberal consensus and that is whats under attack from the Trumpists. If you look at Red states, they are redistricting but to the degree that its happening its not designed to drastically change the make up of the representation distribution. Both Red and Blue leadership would like to keep homeostasis as long as possible. They now have a common enemy in populism which is a threat to their game. Dems hold power, Republicans pretend to oppose and neoliberalism bumbles along. Look at what Republicans represent. A blocking coalition for Democratic overreach (which is a show) and tax cuts that disproportionately assist Democrats (who are the primary wealth holders in America). Democrats get in power and blame the Republicans for not allowing them to get anything done but they don't want anything to get done, they are currently trying to outflank the progressives who are challenging rule. It doesn't appear that way but they needed to figure out a way to get the progressives marginalized as the scapegoat for a Republican majority in the House. The Republicans in turn know not to rock the boat and do what they always do, sit idly by and say we are standing athwart history (aka these loony Dems) yelling stop. The Republicans don't want to get anything done because their business model is predicated on pointing at the Dems and saying we are the only thing between the status quo and Venezuela. Notice in this whole process, nothing really gets done. That's the point. The neoliberal consensus protects itself. McConnell and Pelosi have far more in common than the rest of the populace. McConnell doesn't care about anything but staying in DC being the kingmaker.
It is equally terrible. The divisiveness of the commentary continues to further the divide. Hypocrisy fuels the divide (both republicans and democrats).
If I were to ask you, ‘what rep or senator in D.C. would you feel comfortable hiring into your company to represent your business with integrity and honesty,’ who would you name?
You're outraged about what the Democrats are doing? How about being outraged about what the Republicans are doing? Are you a Trump-ite? Unsubscribing! Sending you to spam!
Going to have to call BS on this commentary. Both political parties engage in shameless gerrymandering. Just look at the Texas maps that slice and dice to marginalize urban voters. Tennessee carves up Memphis and Nashville. The new NC maps (which are being challenged to the state supreme court) do the same. And don't get me started on Florida.
The world is laughing at America, the only democracy on Earth that allows politicians to select their own voters. As I recall, it was the Democrats that introduced legislation requiring state and federal districts to be drawn by independent commissions nationwide. Republicans balked and blocked. If you don't like gerrymandering (who does except for the self-interested politicians that benefit), then contact your representation to tell them you support non-biased, non-partisan, fair voting maps.
And where is the outrage of what Republicans are doing in WI, NC, AZ and particularly TX, where I live? Spare me your "love for democracy" cry when your opponent starts doing what you have been doing for a long time.
I don’t live in Wisconsin, California or Texas. I live in New York. And as I mentioned, in sheer numbers, New York’s steal is the worst.
So you're being willfully misleading regarding gerrymandering simply because you live in NY?
If you won't represent the whole issue regarding gerrymandering, you've simply wrote a republican propaganda piece. Shame.
Which other state took away 6 seats from the minority party?
Marc - Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio have gerrymandered over the past 12+ years to the point of reducing 50-50 states to overwhelming and permanent GOP majority representation - FAR more than 6 seats each. Without putting what NY Dems have done in this context you are misrepresenting the issue.
For a business leader I respect, it is highly unlikely you wrote this article with ignorance, and I have to assume it was written with willful intent. To claim you 'live in NY' is a 4th Grader's excuse -- The Ladders is not used just in NY. Do you not accept applicants from other states? Do you not follow regulations of other states?
Sad.
Also, this may sound a bit snarky -- but, if this is a NY issue, why are you sending it in a newsletter to everyone in the world?
You turn a blind eye to gerrymandering for the last decade (ever since the redistricting following the 2010 census and you wake up now? Wisconsin has a Democratic governor as does Kentucky, and what proportion of the US House seats are Democratic? You would expect that in a two party system it should be about half right? And forget about Texas Ohio etc etc. - you have to work hard to find a state with a Republican majority in the legislature (which themselves are often a result of gerrymandering) that does not have gerrymandered US House districts. It may deplorable in New York, but it's only very belated that that DumbDems are fighting fire with fire. Not to mention that the biggest enchilada that votes 70% Democratic (California) has tied one hand by nobly committing political seppuku (aka independent non-partisan redistrict committee). If you're sending this to a national audience, look at the national story.
I don't need to speak for Marc but the only thing willful is your blind belief that the federal government will solve all our problems. It's never happened and never will. It's a sure path to despotism and tyranny. Welcome welcome Nazi Germany
You're projecting. I never stated a belief that the federal government would come to anyone's rescue. I simply stated that without full representation of the issue this is nothing more than a partisan hack piece.
That and I'd like to add that you're all up in these comments in a partisan fashion as well, which strongly undermines your own weight in this conversation. Crazy doesn't change minds.
You sound insane.
The GOP DEFINITELY doesn’t solve problems for anyone that is not in the top 1%.
At least the dems try to solve social issues that that would actually end up saving us money in the long run. The BS war on drugs that is costing us money in health care and prisons is a wholly republican invention. Started with Nixon as a way to, gasp, silence and disenfranchise people who wouldn’t vote for him.
BTW, the republican push for voting restrictions is actually a step toward tyranny. Disenfranchise anyone who won’t vote for you and gerrymander the rest.
Can you just admit in this thread that you want as much money as possible and to give as little back to the community as possible- the ONLY reason to vote GOP that makes sense is if you are in business and you want to be able to screw over others to succeed yourself?
Yes and the fentanyl pouring over the border is helping our society...oh that's right Dems don't believe in borders.
But now onto to someone with a brain...
Both political parties serve the elites. Repubs are obvious about it while Dems just fool the foolish.
Term limits thru convention of states is the only thing that can save our country now.
Wholeheartedly agree. Term limits, fiscal restraints, and limits on federal power and jurisdiction through Convention of States. Momentum is building.
Shame on Matt. Why don't you join the Biden crime family? Maybe Hunter will share a few scraps with you.
It's weird that because I don't agree with Marc here I must be a liberal.
Nothing I've posted is partisan. I'm actually posting in an effort to deny partisanship in this conversation and bring attention to the fact that both parties are wrong here.
I've found that a certain subset from both parties however are not able to process this and that's what's really a shame.
Both parties defend the political elite and enforce the continuous control of their stranglehold on office. It must be broken with term limits and convention of states
Actually, we may not need a convention of the states. If you could break the filibuster with 60 or more votes, a law passed by both houses might do it. However, very few in either party wants term limits. Yet, why not have them? It’s a partial solution, in the long run, to gerrymandering. When you can’t vote them out due to party line voters, at least there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve been promoting, on various sites, the idea of 2-3 terms for Senators and 6-8 terms for House Reps, maybe 9 to give each a max of 18 years in office.
At least that gives the other party a better shot, but if we’re going to have fair elections (possibly a naive thought), then three things need to happen. Term limits, eliminate gerrymandering, and pass campaign finance laws that better limit contributions, making them no longer anonymous, and put more focus on campaign financial law enforcement.
No argument from me there.
Stop pretending a national problem (that the Dems are trying to solve but the Rs are blocking) is a local one. You’re being willfully naive.
Oh now who's being naive? See my response to your progressive friend above
Your response is inane.
You live in NY but you are sending this out to a national audience. NY is bad, but the overall damage from the gerrymandering in the top 9 out of 11 gerrymandered states goes to the GOP, and that's a lot of damage when it affects a presidential outcome. Gerrymandering should be outlawed. Meanwhile, you're at the table complaining that your sister nicked your pie, when your brother stole everyone else's meal.
NYS "steal" is not even close to "the worst". At most, it is a majority party amorally expanding their lead. States like PA have a minority GOP party using gerrymandering practices to stay in power. Minority rule. Justify that with your rhetoric??
It's really weak to claim you are only talking about a "local issue" when you use a national mailing list from an unrelated business. Pathetic! How can you, at the same time, claim that you don't live outside NY (and know what is happing outside NY) and claim it is the worst?
Stop supporting either party. neither one is really their to support you. They are serving their own self interests. Support rank choice voting!
Marc. If it's all about sheer numbers, then wouldn't it be better to look at stolen seats by each party across all states? After all "our democracy" does not depend on what happens in just one state. The pushback would stop if you simply said, "In my home state of NY the Democrats took 6 seats from the minority party through gerrymandering; the biggest number of stolen seats in the country. But any number of stolen seats is bad - gerrymandering is bad. Both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of it. It needs to stop." Are you willing to say this? Take a stand.
You’ve gone from posting great information to full trump half truths. Present the entire argument or not at all. I’m off your list
The ‘steal’ that was the worst was the Supreme Court.
I think the former president would disagree that "New York's steal is the worst." The problem is not in New York, it's in Congress. We need to pass the voting rights act.
Federalize our voting? No way! Delete!!
Term limits is what is needed not more government- especially at the federal level.
You should look at the new districts in Texas before you make that "worst" claim.
How did the state’s popular vote tally in the recent election?
Please, keep your disinformation to respectable news sources like twitter, instagram, Oan, and Facebook
Village Idiot.
The steal is bad in Illinois too!!!
Illinoians are so ignorant they think Abe Lincoln was a democrat!!!
Possibly. I don’t live there but if Lincoln was alive today, he most certainly would be a democrat.
That's a definite no. Lincoln is turning over in his grave with the continuous constitutional abuse of the Let's Go Brandon regime
I don't live in NY so why should I care about your problem?
No, Texas is the worst.
Marc - what are your thoughts on the Supreme Court's opinion on the blatantly biased opinion on the Alabama gerrymander? This appears to be not just violating fairness in terms of biasing against a particular party, but also clearly violating the VRA by biasing based on race.
Since the Supreme Court rules on all states, that would include NY as well - so it appears what the Dems have done in NY is also legal and above board. So is your complaint now null and void?
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/07/1078292766/supreme-court-lets-alabama-use-gop-backed-map-of-the-states-congressional-distri
It is fools like you who are ruining the USA
Thank you for proving my point. By attacking me you show how stupid and hollow your stance is - whatever that may be. Thank you.
Before you make such a broad statement you should be researching facts to back up your typical Democratic Party belligerent response. Marc got e facts and statistics to sow exactly how unfair this is in New York. Democratic Party policies are what is making people flee New York. The Democratic Party is destroying democracy……. Come back and comment when you have links of research to share for a serious discussion
It’s not the facts Mark included, it’s those he excluded
Then get those facts and the sources to prove it….
Why, history proves that trumpites have a limited ability to acknowledge facts.
That’s not really nice William. Name calling isn’t welcome here. If you want to be civilized and discuss facts, your comments are very welcome even if they disagree with me. But “sticks and stones” name calling is not what this blog is about.
So what IS this blog about? Serious question. Are you trying to be fair and balanced? If so then why not include gerrymandering efforts by Republicans in Ohio, North Carolina, Texas and Alabama?
If you do claim to be an independent thinker about threats to democracy, why not shine a light on a number of other dark corners .... like the findings of the January 6th committee thus far?
Marc: William may have used a sarcastic name in describing Trump supporters, but he’s not wrong. To deny that Trump supporters ignore facts, often make up their own facts, and act as echo chambers to conspiracy theories, is to deny the truth. All of that, which was William’s point, is perhaps a bit more important than using a sarcastic name. Just saying.
Ok, facts and data on gerrymandering. Here is a recent paper - maybe the most recent I have seen - in the Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/elj.2019.0605
It looks to sort out the difference between demographic sorting, which is significant, and partisan intent through all redistricting practices including gerrymandering. And it worked. GOP was able to net a 16 seat advantage in Congress after 2012 when demographic concentration alone would have resulted in 1-4 seats. More studies will help, but we should not need them. From a good governance perspective, acknowledging human nature and constraining it and adding ample transparency produces better outcomes for democracy.
Need facts? Take a look at Tennessee’s division of Nashville into 3 separate districts!
"non-partisan Cook Report" (Marc's words) also opined on Florida's redistricting efforts.
For those without a subscription the article states Gov. DeSantis' proposed plans would split multiple districts with large minority populations and shift a 16R-11D congress towards 20R-8D (FL picked up an extra house seat during last census due to increases in minority populations). The proposal comes after the redistricting commission agreed on a map that both D&R had approved. Not as bad as NY, but if we're arguing that gerrymandering is bad then to fix it we must first explicitly acknowledge and say out loud that both sides are doing it. To me it doesn't matter who did it worse or longer...I agree with Marc we should all be angry with any gerrymandering. Let's fix it.
@Marc while I understand you are not reporting news, but rather laying out your opinions and thoughts, which I respect, I hope that future letters would include a broader spectrum of evidence to which to view the issue.
PB - please link to the legislation that takes away 6 minority party seats in Florida. I wouldn't have written this post if it were just a bad proposal in NY. There are, in fact, even more unfair and undemocratic proposals made by the majority party in New York, so I'd say it's not relevant to the topic to discuss various bad proposals from different politicians. Let's stick to legislation that has actually been voted on.
You clearly don’t actually care about gerrymandering, or you would be calling out the GOP in Congress who refuse to address it throughout the country. Stop pretending.
Marc - FL is a close to 50-50 state, so a 20R - 8D seat is like taking 6 minority party seats away. Are you actually Marc Cenedella, the founder of The Ladders, or are you some spoof account that is making him look like a partisan hack?
Vik, please link to the legislation that passed with a 20-8 assignment.
There is no legislation passed in FL yet, there are three separate proposals (each from the House, Senate and Governor) - with deSantis's the most egregious. Nothing has been signed into law, but, then, again, nothing has been signed into law in NY either...
Here's a summary of the situation from Fivethirtyeight...
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/redistricting-2022-maps/florida/
Marc - if you seriously want to discuss this, with your reach and influence, it behooves you to take a less partisan stance. 538's site has easily accessed "efficiency gap" and "wasted vote" numbers and displays of seat competitiveness. If you are truly interested in improving the democratic process in this country, I trust you will look at it from that lens, rather than use the sophomoric excuse of "I live in NY so only NY politics interests me". That, more than anything else, is hypocritical as all your other articles are about national affairs and impact. I mean, your blog is "American Ambition", not "New York Ambition".
In fact, if you look at it, the NY redistricting is risky for the Dems as they are relying on turnout to tip many of the marginal districts created by the "cracking" end of the "packing and cracking" tactic. The GOPers have done a far more reliable job by focusing on the packing end in all the 50-50 states like WI, PA, NC, AZ and TX...
Marc isn’t wrong about NYS, as I noted in my own response to his post, but he is being highly hypocritical given the excessive amount of gerrymandering republicans have done in the past 10-12 years. This is an undeniable fact. So, complaining about NY, a very blue state, is seriously laughable and a silly distraction from a much larger issue.
Given the divisive partisan gap, people are moving to states that tend to support their political views. So, they move to lower tax red states, but find their may be less services there, but perhaps not the type of services they need, until the day they might need them. Anyway, that’s their choice they are free to make it.
Now, your comment that the Democratic Party is destroying democracy needs to come back to reality. Democrats and Republicans may want to use taxpayer money differently and have other differences on issues, but neither is destroying democracy. Only Trump supporters are attempting to destroy democracy, as seen in their efforts (some illegal) to overturn a free and fair election. The January 6th attack on the Capitol building and Congress being the most notable but far from the only attack. Falsifying electoral records; trying to replace electoral college electors with fake electors; conspiring to seize voting machines, a president calling the Georgia Secretary of State and asking him to “find” 11,780 votes. If I had been in that role I would have responded to Trump by saying “and where should I find these votes?” However, the Georgia SoS was more discrete than that with this corrupt request. I’m also sure that despite reports of Trump officials trying to destroy some internal documents (an illegal act), more will come out of the commission in its findings. Which will further show us all what the former Trump administration has been trying to hide.
You mean the inquiry by the unselect committee?? Please! You can't cure stupid!
You have so many comments that are baseless in this post that I don't have time to address them
So true—I try to be middle of the road as often as I can but the left’s hypocrisy in recent years is otherworldly. Where is all the outrage to the Summer of Love riots that killed dozens, how about the murders every week in Chicago, etc. Trump was wrong in not condemning the riots sooner and his post election rants are getting old but let’s not ignore the bigger facts—as horrible as Jan 6 was, one person, a Trump supporter, was killed unarmed for trespassing. Both parties seek to serve their own needs but the left as Matthew 7:5 said is so true: "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
The bottom line is that like him or hate him, Trump was an outsider, took on the swamp, and the political/tech/media elite tried everything they could to take him out - including Russia hoax, 90+% negative media coverage, multiple impeachments and censoring from social media (who would've thought we would see an American president censored in our lifetime!). Despite all that, it seems clear, most of his policies were in support of the average American citizen. Most people's lives noticeably improved vis-a-vis the Obama years, the border problem improved, no new wars, Abraham accords, and countries around the world - even adversaries - were appropriately engaged.
He did a lot and his policies were mostly positive.
You’ve got to be kidding, right. If the stories about Trump were vastly more negative than positive, it’s because he brought that kind of coverage on himself. He didn’t come close to draining any swamps. In fact, a lot of the people he brought in had to resign or he fired for the scandals they incurred.
The involvement of Russia was no hoax. His people went to at least one high level meeting and had several interactions/communications with them. That in itself is suspect and he added himself, in iman interview, that he would take such meetings when the only correct action would be to report the contact to the FBI.
His policies did not generally help the average person. And his handling of the pandemic, other than fast tracking vaccines, which he the then didn’t support people getting, was a disaster that has cost needless thousands of deaths.
That’s not being a good president. That a failure to protect Americans. Plus his foreign policies, with a few exceptions, made the world a more dangerous place and the US the laughingstock of the world. Ask average, not radical right wing people in other countries. I know some. And his treatment of the press was classic authoritarianism. Their job id to hold those in power accountable, which he hates because they try to make known what he’s trying to hide. Pulling out of the Paris Accords, s scrapping the Iranian deal, giving North Korea a giant PR boost. The list goes on.
Don’t know who you are, anonymous AP, but I never mentioned the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. Also, saying someone else’s comments are baseless means nothing unless you provide the facts for your cl. Which you can’t as I’ve only noted what has come to light in the files/documents that came straight from the White House. The very same documents Trump felt needed to stay hidden. In fact, apparently Trump had a habit of tearing up many documents, of all types, that by law should become part of the historical record. The Presidential Records Act is quite specific on how all memos, correspondence, notes, etc. are to sent to the Archives. The real problem is three fold. First, he’s violating the Act; second, he doesn’t care as he thinks he’s above the law or doesn’t care about such laws; and third, there’s no real enforcement mechanism for that law. It relies on presidents and their staffs respecting the law. Not a Trump priority. So, his staff, in trying to follow the law, spent who knows how many hours trying to collect and tape together documents. Taxpayer money hard at work undoing the unlawful acts of a man who doesn’t respect the office or the law.
I'm not going to regurgitate facts that anyone can go research for themselves. I mean like lowest unemployment rate across all demographics, highest savings rates across all demographics, energy independence which garnered lowest gas prices in 30 years, lowest illegal infestation since Bush 1, historic peace accords with Israel UAE and Bahrain.
And let's see...you've sited no facts yourself. You've only parroted the spin you hear on the lamestream media. As far as tearing up docs...the only evidence we have is that hag and thief Nancy Pelosi tearing up the state of the Union on prime time TV - illegal. So please no more left wing witch hunts costing 50 million of our taxpayer money. Crawl back to the shell you slimed out of.
desrault> Broad statements: "Typical Democratic Party belligerent response," "The Democratic party is destroying democracy." perhaps you should come back and comment when you stop making broad statements...
Let me site a few for you;
Allowing non citizens to vote in NY
Allowing people to vote without ID
Blocking voter integrity by boarding up windows
Blocking and removing Republican oversight on election day
Getting leftist friendly state judges to pass unconstitutional voting laws Allowing illegals to pour over our southern border
Destroying vote evidence post election
Ignoring court ordered decrees to turn over physical and digital evidence
...and that's all I have time for right now
Sorry, the righteous indignation does not fly. Every investigation, EVERY investigation from left and right said the election was fair. But you choose to believe a pathological liar and narcissist who just can't handle losing? If I hired someone who lied to me every day, I'd fire his butt in a hot second. What's with you?
No court of law, NOT ONE, heard any of the cases on its merit despite thousands, THOUSANDS, of sworn testimonies that there was fraud and obstruction of election oversight. Not to mention all 6 battleground state's voting machines going down in the wee hours- with actual video footage of boxes of prestine ballots pulled from underneath covered tables exactly after all the other volunteers were asked to vacate the poll premise due to a watermain break that never happened?!?!? Please. Don't give me your sacrosanct BS. The election was complete fraud and our country will not survive it.
As to Trump being a pathological liar, I don't see any evidence. There is however plenty of evidence of Biden lying in just about every statement he makes. I'm not going to provide a litany here but going back to plagiarism from the last time he ran for president is enough for me.
I have to ask you (I'm really curious) what makes Trumpers so loyal? He lies endlessly, tweeted embarrassingly childish mis-spelled rants daily, golfed on YOUR dime, even his own people said he was "fact-free" and "unprepared," and he dumped us— what, 11 TRILLION dollars deeper in debt with nothing to show for it? He never even got an infrastructure bill started, much less the "big beautiful healthcare plan" he boasted about. And then there was his endless kissing of Putin butt. So what was it? His fascist tendencies? Any Republican could give you a supreme court pick, why choose a malignant narcissist and bankruptcy king?
Over 60 court cases and "not one" heard on the merits? Even from Trump judges? Surely you don't believe that. pssst, the NYT contacted election officials in every state, blue and red, and were told there were no voting irregularities to speak of. Again, why believe a pathological liar over all those state officials and judges? No evidence of lying? WAAA? Here ya go:
“We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
“The wealthy are not getting a tax cut under our plan.”
“Our tax plan will cut down the deficit by a trillion dollars.”
“I have a big beautiful healthcare plan. Everybody will be covered!”
“I’ll be too busy working to play golf.”
“We’re building the wall. Mexico’s going to pay for it.”
“I was first in my class at college.”
“My father was born in Germany.”
“Tariffs are making America rich.”
“We passed the biggest tax cut and reform in American history.”
“Democrats are “radical socialists” who want to turn America into Venezuela.”
“The Mexican government forces many bad people into our country.”
“Since my election, China's lost $20 trillion." (Not even close.)
“no one could have seen this pandemic coming.”
“30 million, it could be 34 million illegal immigrants in America.”
"Our ambassador for hostage negotiation said Trump is the greatest of all time. I only tell you that because you'll never say it.” (well, He never said it).
"During the Obama administration, $500 billion a year was being lost to China. Five hundred billion.” (Never. Not even close.)
“Mexico can afford to build a wall because the country’s trade deficit with America is billions of dollars.”
“I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering” as the World Trade Center collapsed.
“Two percent of asylum seekers come back to court.” (it was 89% in 2017)
“I was totally against the war in Iraq,”
“There is “no system to vet” refugees from the Middle East.”
‘The highest that China pumped into the farmers in the form of purchase?' '$16 billion.' We're taking many, many times that in tariffs.… I did that with $16 billion," (China spent 29.6 billion in 2014)
"We're building a lot of wall right now" (August 2019. Nope. No was being built).
“no more (car) companies are going to leave because we have reasons that they can't leave anymore.“ (no rules prevent car manufacturers from leaving the U/S.)
“The unemployment rate may be as high as “42 percent.”
“The governments of Honduras and Guatemala are forming caravans of criminals and sending them up.”
“The Louisiana LNG plant that's so incredible … It was many, many years trying to get permits, they couldn't get the permits, but we got the permits." (LNG was approved in 2014)
“We’re the highest taxed nation in the world.”
“China called!”
“Ted Cruz’s father was with Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”
“We pulled off an economic turnaround of historic proportions.”
“Obama separated children from their families at the border.”
“The Russia probe is a witch hunt.”
“Republicans support protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”
“The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia.”
“Troops received one of the biggest pay raises ever! — the first pay increase in more than 10 years!”
“Saudi Arabia has ordered $450 billion, ‘$110 billion of which is a military order,’ producing “over a million jobs.”
"Take a look at Judicial Watch, take a look at their settlement where California admitted to a million votes. They admitted to a million votes."
“Democrats want to give (undocumented immigrants) cars.”
”James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION”
“Wisconsin hadn’t been won by a Republican since Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1952.” “The state of California is begging us to build walls in certain areas. They don’t tell you that.”
On the diversity visa lottery program, “they give us their worst people, they put them in a bin,” and “the worst of the worst” are selected.
“For years, they have not been able to get tax cuts -- many, many years, since Reagan.”
“ Joe Scarborough is party to an “unsolved mystery” from his time as a congressman.”
“Chicago is the city with the strongest gun laws in our nation.”
“Ending the estate tax would protect millions of small businesses and the American farmer.”
White nationalist protesters in Charlottesville “had a permit. The other group didn’t have a permit.”
Amazon has a “no-tax monopoly.”
“We’ve gotten more done than any other administration.”
“Steel and automaker investments are skyrocketing.”
CNN’s ratings are “way down.”
“This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”
Before the presidential campaign, “I didn’t know Steve (Bannon).”
Terrorism and terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe have “gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported.”
There was “serious voter fraud” in Virginia.
There was “serious voter fraud” in New Hampshire.
“I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”
“At a campaign rally President Barack Obama spent so much time screaming at a protester, and frankly it was a disgrace.”
“Hillary Clinton wants to let people just pour in. You could have 650 million people pour in and we do nothing about it. Think of it. That’s what could happen. You triple the size of our country in one week.”
“Wikileaks also shows how John Podesta rigged the polls by oversampling Democrats, a voter suppression technique.”
“When Hillary Clinton ran the State Department, $6 billion was missing..”
“It’s possible that non-citizen voters were responsible for Obama’s 2008 victory in North Carolina.”
“Of course, there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day.”
“We don’t have any” chess grandmasters in the United States.”
“I won the second debate with Hillary Clinton in a landslide in every poll.”
“Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape they’ve ever been in before. Ever. Ever. Ever.”
“I finished the controversy about where President Barack Obama was born.”
“My opponent has no child care plan.”
“Hillary Clinton has not answered a single question about her immigration plan.
The number of illegal immigrants “could be 3 million. It could be 30 million.”
Says the U.S. election system is “rigged.”
“Barack Obama founded ISIS. I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.”
“We don’t know anything about Hillary in terms of religion. Now, she’s been in the public eye for years and years, and yet there’s no — there’s nothing out there.”
“Hillary Clinton has even deleted this record of total support (for the Trans-Pacific Partnership
What are they doing? Demanding people show ID and prove they have the right as a citizen to vote?
Amazing how they can’t see it AP—children under 12 can’t eat in a restaurant in NY without showing vaccine ID and there are other examples, but what is so wrong about showing ID to vote? You have to show ID at Costco but not at the voting booth? What is more democratic than ensuring the people who are voting are actually who they are? Do not all people, regardless of color or ethnicity who are citizens have ID? Why is this still such an issue?
So true! In fact how presumptuous and patronizing is the lunatic left claiming that some of our citizens do not know how or somehow are unable to obtain ID?
Now that's what you call ironic 🤭
No facts there. Typical.
Exactly!
Hear, hear!
You’re right in that this type of gerrymandering shouldn’t be allowed to happen. However, are you also complaining about the massive amount of gerrymandering done by republicans since the 2010 census? Or the continuing gerrymandering done by republicans as was just done in Texas, for example, with the new seats the state picked up? I didn’t see any of that in your post.
I didn’t see any mention of the voter suppression aspects of the more than 30 new laws passed in republican controlled states to curb early voting, shorten voting periods, cut out Sunday voting, curb voting at drop boxes, curb mail in voting (which has been used successfully by several states for decades and suddenly its a bad thing), or make it illegal to give someone a bottle of water or any food after they’ve been made to wait for hours to vote? The hypocrisy of doing these in the name of election security is such a lie (given the lack of voter fraud) that some state legislature reps have been caught talking about the real reason for these changes; stopping democrats from voting. Didn’t see your complaints about the unfairness to voters for these changes. Why is that? Simple answer: Those restrictions and massive gerrymandering by republicans help them to keep seats in Congress. However, when democrats try to copy what republicans do, it’s suddenly wrong. This is the very definition of hypocrisy and the continuing efforts of the minority imposing its will on the majority.
Yes, both sides, in the past, did some gerrymandering. However, what happened in 2010 and has continued (on the republican side) was an order of magnitude above what was done in the past and it was planned and well executed in the republican controlled states.
Also, you don’t see democrats passing laws to put barriers in the way of republican or any voters.
Voting is the basic RIGHT of the citizens of our country and republicans are so concerned about keeping control, because your policies are now nearly nonexistent, that they are literally passing laws to make it more difficult to exercise that right. And to be clear, it’s not a privilege to be able to vote, it’s a right. So arguments that talk to “making a little more effort” are completely disingenuous and hypocritical given the true reasons for these voting barriers and at which voters they are aimed.
What was done in NYS is not right either, but for you to complain about it, using the very same complaints about what republicans have openly done since 2010, is the height of hypocrisy. If it’s still possible, you should be ashamed of putting this type of propaganda out to your readers.
Showing ID is not voter suppression. On the other hand ballet harvesting and votes from dead people is illegal
I never mentioned showing ID as an issue. And so long as getting an acceptable ID is made easy and free to all Citizens, then I have no issue with it. What I do have issue with is voter purges which don’t verify why a voter is purged (say for being dead - which, by the way was attempted by those voting republican). What is being done, instead, is purging people from voting roles who might have moved their residences, or simply not voted in a few past elections, also their right if they didn’t like any of the candidates, and then not telling them. Then, to keep them from voting, remove same day registration do they can get back into the registration roles. It’s obvious to any reasonable person that they won’t know they’ve been purged from the registration roles until they go to vote. If you also eliminate same day registration, then your truly making an attempt to stop that person from voting. This is the definition of voter suppression.
And yes, ballot harvesting is not right, but only if there is any indication that the people collecting those ballots are influencing the voters. There are many elderly and informed voters who need help and can’t stand on long lines for hours (which is another form of voter suppression by making sure the number of working machines are way too few for the number of voters in that area. A dirty trick to make it harder for workers, who get paid by the hour, to vote). Since these voters, in those districts, tend to vote democratic, this in a planned action to reduce there numbers.
The only real question is why are republican controlled states taking all these unnecessary (for election security) measures instead of trying to convince voters as to the benefits of their political proposals and views? The answer is simple, they can’t (for whatever reason) so they do these voter suppression acts instead.
If you’re thinking that democrats do the same thing (the classic two wrongs make it right cognitive dissonance response), then you’ll have to show me where democrats try to suppress republican voters in democratic controlled states. Please let me know how that search goes.
The same reason the democrats changed the voting laws unconstitutionally before the 2020 election.
Cognative dissonance? If you think it's difficult for a legal citizens to get an ID then you're a fool bamboozled by the progressive Marxist propaganda machine. And please show me where republicans deny anyone to vote? On the other hand let's see you squirm out of the proof that Dem poll watchers blocked Repub counterparts from poll watching oversight.
And they continue to just want to drop ballot boxes in public places were the boxes can be stuffed with illegal votes—no one watching! Who does that benefit? The left of course. Trying to kill the filibuster, adding Supreme Court judges—whose ideas are those? No shock who’s looking to control the country indefinitely and no one on the left especially CNN and MSNBC who selectively report their outrage.
People who move get a new voter ID for the new address/new precinct, so the former residence vote should be purged. Its multiple votes from the same person that resulted in some precincts getting more votes than the census population numbers!!!
I live in Illinois, a democrat controlled state where common names like --- Begum or Mohammed --- with an address in another precinct, were shown the computer voter list and told to pick another address. I tried to stop and report it but useless. As long as they vote democrat its 'more, the merrier!!!
True, if they remember to send for or ask for one. I’m sure every STG as a similar process. And it’s up to every state to keep their voter registry current. Purges, due to cross referencing with a death certificate database, criminal data, etc. are to be expected and should be done as part of election security procedures. It’s purges simply to remove voters who haven’t voted in a year or more, that are concerning. Especially when little or no attempt is made to see if those voters are still in the state or district. Either way, same day registration, with proper Id, helps to resolve such instances without being adversarial against the voter. The state is essentially taking away the right of those citizens to vote that year.
Purges done badly are supressive; purges done badly in secret are all kinds or wrong. As a Texan, it is appalling that after the botched and awful and clumsy "purge" in 2019, our new politically appointed Secretary of State is being sued for not releasing information about this current purge that they are legally required to release. Just because we have an under-indictment Texas Attorney General violating open records laws and not releasing campaign donor information as required by law, does not mean other agencies should follow suit. Good governance requires transparency, and corruption breeds in the dark.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-antonio-express-news/20220203/281599538901346
So once again an individual bears no responsibility to make sure their vote will be valid? Come on...it's always the same argument with progressives. The Government has to take care of every personal responsibility under the sun. No Thanks. The less government the better
Voter ID laws are absolutely "Voter suppression". The GOP is NOT interested in fair elections or they would have voted for the "We the people act"....they voted against that. It would have stopped many unfair voting practices including Gerrymandering, Dark Money in politics, and foreign interference. But Mitch McConnel and the GOP blocked that bill. Voter ID laws impact poor people, the elderly, and students more than other demographics, and those demographics vote primarily for Democrats. Voter ID laws would only fix "in person voter fraud", which exactly ZERO states have reported having that problem. So why does the GOP want it so much?
And as for "Dead people voter harvesting" that's just scare tactics the GOP uses. Do you know how many states claim this is a big problem? Again ZERO. The GOP just uses it as an excuse to do bulk registration purges, which again keeps people from voting. The GOP does better when fewer people vote. AND Voter ID laws would not impact this.
Fraud does happen, and dead people do vote, however there is no evidence that those numbers are anything but tiny and statistically insignificant. BUT the smaller the turnout, the more it is possible that a local, small town, way down ballot race could potentially be impacted. People pay the least attention to those governments which affect them most, and the best defense against the tiny numbers (statistically speaking) of proven voter fraud approaching significance on any level is more voter turnout. Making it harder for hourly workers with no PTO, or less-mobile folks, or folks who don't have vehicles, or people with child care issues, or anyone other than office 9-5ers that drive and work for companies that let employees go vote without docking them, is contrary to our collective best interests, regardless of how much we think we should stack the decks for "our team".
Last I checked polls were open from 6am to 8pm in most states. If you can't find an opportunity to cast your vote within a 14 hour window your vote shouldn't count. End of story
End of your story, perhaps. Hours in Texas are 7-7. But that does not change the circumstances of every individual, and it turns out you are not in charge of which votes do count, although free to opine about which "should". In 2020 we had people waiting in line more than 6 hours to cast their votes; shall we say that anyone not willing or able to spend 6 hours or more to vote should not get to? We also, after closing 750 polling places between 2012 and 2018, have now closed even more in our most populous counties via our most recent legislation. Texas has 254 counties, and our largest is 6,193 sq miles; as a bonus, if you want to drop off your mail in ballot rather than mail, you could enjoy the up to one-and-a-half hour one-way drive. Yes, people need to take personal responsibility for their vote, especially so when their government makes it harder.
That’s plain BS. First off, it’s completely unamerican to claim anyone’s vote shouldn’t count because of your own narrow minded personal views. That’s not how it works in the US and any real citizen would know that. Your ridiculous point of view would keep people who work during that time or who don’t have a means of transportation, from voting. Typical radical right wing authoritarian crap. Anyone you genuinely wants to give the topic a whole five seconds or more of thought can list many reasons why some people who need a larger window to exercise their legal right to cast their vote. To deny them that right because of some perceived but not real inconvenience is to deny democracy itself. Don’t know what country you’re from but that’s not how it’s done here, unless you have to cheat prof their rights in order to win an election.
That's my opinion and I believe it makes perfect sense to prevent fraudulent mail in voting
Dead people Vote!!! CBS chicago/Pam Zekman did a piece of it. And dead people need mail-in ballots to vote.
Those who change residence get multiple votes. Its so easy - go to the past addresses and give your name and address for that precinct and vote. Then go to the new address show your new id/DL and vote again. So old addresses need to be purged.
I bought this house in 2004. But the voter id for the seller ( I think they moved to the NE, NY?) still comes to my address. I have put return to sender, moved... on the mail but 17 years and still a problem.
Fraud related to ballot harvesting (and voter fraud, in General) just does not exist and that has been substantiated multiple times with audits in red and blue states.
Showing ID or providing validation for absentee voting, should be common sense and a non-issue. I’ve lived in reddest of red and bluest of blue states and have always had to show ID when voting.
You're not thinking through what it takes to commit "in person voter fraud". First off it's a crime. Second, you need the social security number of the person you are planning on impersonating. Third, you need to know that person is a registered voter. Fourth, not only does the person need to be a registered voter that you're impersonating, but you need to know that person won't show up to vote themselves. Four-A - If they vote before you then the computer will immediately flag you for voting twice, you could be arrested on the spot, and what you're doing is a crime. Four-B if you vote before they show up, then they will get flagged for voting twice, and as they can prove who they are, they will wind up just replacing your vote with theirs and your effort will be wasted, you risked getting caught doing a crime for nothing. Five - Some state's computers check to see if your signature matches your registration signature. If you're in one of those states, you'd also need the ability to accurately fake their signature. Six - There is a 50%-ish chance the person who's vote you are trying to steal was already going to vote for your candidate, so again you risked getting caught doing a crime for nothing. Seven - You had to stand in line to vote this extra time, which if any of the above Six things went bad, then you wasted the time you spent in line for nothing. For all these reasons - In person voter fraud is incredibly rare. No states report this is a widespread problem. And every state would know it's going on if it was due to multiple votes being cast by many people. And no state has reported this is going on. The GOP only wants voter ID laws to suppress votes. If the GOP actually cared about voting integrity they would have voted for the "We the people act", and they voted against that.
Yes some vote machines (gee all the ones in critical swing states) all went down at the dead of night 2-4am and mysteriously and all the evidence to support it has now vanished and were supposed to believe no fraud was committed?? By the way, ballet harvesting fraud on a wide scale will be unveiled shortly
You sound like the "My Pillow Guy" .... all this amazing evidence "coming soon to a theater near you". If you think some Shinnanigans went on with voting machines, how come when Georgia did it's two recounts (one with the computer, and one by hand) they all three matched?
This anonymous AP guy is just full of it. I’ve now seen enough of his posts to report his responses. Doubtful that Marc will do anything, but this guy is simply a lying, card carrying radical right wing nut who seems to think he has all the answers. I’ve met his type before and they aren’t interested in living in the same decent America that most of us want. He’s a trumper through and through so his reality meter is set pretty low.
Zero evidence as always. It’s always ‘coming soon.’ What a crock!
If that were all that the GOP were about, we would all be agreeing. Unfortunately, the GOP is working hard to suppress the votes of people who don't look or think like them. If it's happening in NYS, perhaps we should have a national law that prohibits such things. The GOP is against that though, so here we are. NYS is fine. Just fine.
I don't speak for the GOP because they're just as bad as the criminal DNC. What conservatives don't want is federalizing the Presidential election. And there's good reasons for that you can find in the Federalist Papers
Wrong and there have been multiple prosecutions and guilty verdicts handed. And now thanks to the unintentional GPS tracking technology of your woke friends at Google the massive ballot harvesting will be exposed and many prosecutions will be sure to follow...as long as the tyrannical dems don't have opportunity to white wash it
Troll
Yes name calling is very mature and demonstrates your ignorance
Voting is the basic RIGHT of the citizens of our country, but in NY, non-citizens have been allowed to Vote!! See Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/nyregion/noncitizen-voting-rights-nyc.html
Ydanis Rodriguez, democrat councilman who represents Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, is the prime sponsor of a bill that would allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.
Nowhere in the world are non-citizens allowed.
So in NY, Voting is open to anyone who can get to the poll booths - even non-citizens or terrorists like the 911 bombing crew!!! who lived in NJ but could easily get to the voting centers in NY.
All the Covid dead of NY also voted - that is illegal
Really, ‘all’ the Covid dead voted. List the names and places each voted. Otherwise, as we already know, this is a crock!
"Nowhere in the world are non-citizens allowed" to vote...if you say things like that around an amateur political scientist (grad school dropout) you run the risk of having facts tossed back over the net...because I know this to be untrue. Non-citizens do have various voting rights around the world. I read some stuff on this a ways back; below is a link to one of the papers.
In addition to the United States which allows it in some local elections, other countries in the paper include countries that have allowed it in various forms in the past as well as some that currently do including Switzerland, Israel, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Spain, Sweden, New Zealand, Uruguay, to name some...
https://ww2.odu.edu/~dearnest/pdfs/Earnest_ISANE_2003.pdf
If you're so outraged by gerrymandering, you might want to note the Federal bill introduced by Democrats to address gerrymandering nationally, that the Republicans are refusing to pass. Focus on fixing the rules, not whining about those who don't want to play by them but would be fools not to.
Right, and federalize the presidential election so they can continue to cheat at will? The fool is you.
Troll. Please stop.
This isn’t about the presidential election, moron.
Yes it is moron. Read the bill
Really??? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Shame on you. What a hypocrite. The Republican Party has spent the past 30 years gerrymandering its way to minority control of state governments. Please explain how in Pennsylvania, which has a solid 400,000 Democratic edge in voter registration, the Republicans in 2010 manipulated redistributing in order to gain a 13 to 5 majority in Congressional seats. Republicans are trying to do the same this year. Republicans are the ones who have been “stealing elections” for the past 30 years. What does our country have to show for it? A false flag operation in Iraq, The Great Recession, and Putin’s Puppet in the Whitehouse for four horrific years. Not exactly the party of Lincoln or TR, is it?
Really really???? Why don't you go study the history of gerrymandering which runs back to 1812 by the Massachusetts Jeffersonian Republicans (Democrats)?
Because this isn’t 1812. Today’s Republican Party doesn’t believe in a Democratic Republic. It wants permanent minority rule by its regressive principles which are designed to guarantee a permanent underclass of Americans who can never achieve the American Dream.
Hate or love Trump but more minorities, women and others worked under his administration and had better quality of lives. Trump’s mouth is what hurt him not his policies. The left has promised more handouts to minorities over the decades to ensure they can control their votes but has that provided more jobs or opportunities? It's why you see minority voters moving to the right b/c they’re tired of being gaslighted by the left.
True, but incorrectly applied. During a period between 1860 and 1936 the Democratic and Republican parties switched platforms.
In 1812, the Democratic party was running on a platform more aligned with today's Republican party, a fact which negates your argument here against Democrats.
Don't cherry pick. It looks bad.
Are you kidding me? The Republican party refuses to pass voting rights legislation which would address gerrymandering as well as equal access to voting booths. Why does the Republican Party continue to suppress voting for so many?
No I'm not kidding. They won't pass legislation that removes the vote for the President away from the People. Read the Federalist Papers and then come talk to me. Showing ID and proving you are who you say you are is not suppression so just stop
isn't it funny that the people who point to ID as "suppression" are revealing how little they think of minorities, the vast majority of whom have identification.
Those are all completely incorrect statements. Just because you say something does not make it true.
Democrats are bullying? Are you blind to what the Republication Party and Trumpers are maneuvering to get away with?
You mean like enforcing the law around ballet harvesting or having people show ID to prove they are who they say they are?
So they can keep their own party honest? Almost all of the very few issues of proven voter fraud over the last several years have all been Republican.
The democrats aren't so smart that they can't be caught, they by and large just didn't do it.
100 years from now, the Left will still be using Trump as a talking point. Bullying is burning cities, suspending law and order and altering voting laws. Now we see the same for a SCOTUS judge. Remarkable that ANYONE would think a republican is a bully in today's world.
You have been living under a rock it seems. Your lover boy trump really should be in jail by now but your ego is over your head and you can't bear admit that.
lots of facts there. How are things better? Facts - try hard.
It's obvious that you are not the kind who is receptive of facts according to what you said earlier. Enough is enough. Good bye.
What a disgrace you are to write an article like this about NY and ignore what Republicans do and have been doing in so many other states. Talk about getting up on a soap box! I'm not disputing what you say about NY, but if you were really concerned about the "problem" you would point it out on both sides. Gerrymandering is a BIG problem around the country that is hurting our democracy, from both sides. It promotes extreme ideology by not having politicians play to the middle. You should be embarrassed to publish such an article. You come off as nothing more than a political hack. I'll be sure to unsubscribe to anything with your name on it.
Thanks Chip, I’m glad you’re not disputing that what’s happening in New York is criminal.
Marc, the challenge I’d suggest to you is to refrain from divisive rhetoric. It’s not ‘criminal’ since no law is being broken. Merely it’s unfair to the political minority. And it’s unfair to both parties when you move to a national scale.
The same manipulative tactics are happening in red and blue states and further the divide. Pleading ignorance of this because you don’t live in a red state impugns your integrity.
As for ID and ballot harvesting. I believe you should have to have an ID to vote. I’ve always been required to show and ID or provide information confirming I was a legitimately eligible voter since I turned 18 and started voting.
Fraud related to ballot harvesting (and voter fraud, in General) just does not exist and that has been substantiated multiple times with audits in red and blue states.
Voting should be easy for those eligible to vote. Anyone, trying to prevent legitimate voters from casting a ballot is not in favor of, or protecting, our democracy.
And I'm glad you are not disputing you are a political hack.
Marc who needs people like that who have no grip on reality spewing nonsense. It’s good to hear people like that unsubscribe, canceling themselves for a change and not others—all they do is use derogatory names when they can't provide facts or defend an argument without sidetracking with negative grandstanding. Let’s have civil discussions and disagree with respect.
The real challenge is ‘reality’ and which reality people are choosing. When people are hitting people with clubs, hockey sticks and busting out windows and one person’s reality is that is an assault and the others reality is that is a tour group or peaceful protest, the chance for a civil discussion with any level of respect pretty much goes out the window.
And that is where we are in America. Until basic logic and agreement on facts becomes the reality, versus beliefs and opinions, we will be stuck in this abyss.
And please please explain a state like PA where the Democrats have a majority of the voter registration lopsidedly elects more Republicans. Oh yeah...PA is really far from New York so you don't know anything about it.
Are you nuts? Tell us about what just happened in Nashville. Read about the district in Texas that looks like Dan crenshaws eyepatch. Pretty disingenuous to point out what’s happening in New York State with no mention of EXTENSIVE gerrymandering by republicans, which to another commenters point would be stopped if republicans in the senate would help pass the voting rights bill which they won’t. Please stick to resumes.
I don’t live in California or Nashville. I live in New York, and what the majority party is doing is appalling. The NY Times agrees!
You also live the in the United States, so you can take your head out of the sand at some point and acknowledge this is a national issue the Republicans (not the Democrats) are refusing to address.
You mean like Dan Crenshaws district?
Or how Republicans are purging democrats from GA registration? Or do you just blame the other party, not yours while claiming the dems are being partisan? You're so full of shit
Like asking people to show ID and prove they are who they say they are? Or enforcing the law around ballet harvesting? Who's full of shit??
We already have to show ID in GA. What law was broken? You are full of shit. You didn't answer my questions
Like finding 11,780 votes?
The only ballet harvesting would happen with a tutu.
It's almost as if we need federal regulation to prevent gerrymandering in every state and ensure access to vote for every living legal US citizen. You're very selective in where you want action. Just another conservative hypocrite.
Marc is speaking of his own state and that's not hypoctitical...afterall "all politics are local" as stated by your man Tip O'Neill. Both side have been applying gerrymandering techniques since the beginning of the Republic so let's not say it's one sided. The question is what should be done about it so all legal votes are counted?
Then why did he not limit this to only the residents of New York? So yeah, he is hypocritical and so are you.
I guess we should only publish information or our opinions only to those directly effected. You're right...no one should even dane to think anyone else would or should care. Clearly there's no end to idiocy!
This site is nothing more than an echo chamber for a Republican hack. His own response to a challenge of Republican gerrymandering "I don’t live in Wisconsin, California or Texas. I live in New York." Hypocrisy at it's very worst. Opinions should be limited to those interested and labeled as such so people don't confuse opinion with fact. I did not ask for this to be sent to my in-box but I have time and don't mind pointing out hypocrisy and idiocy when I see it. You have to decide for yourself if you are going to continue with it or make a change.
You speak common sense AP, so good to hear someone say it like it is without all the name calling on some of these responses. Couldn’t agree with you more!
Exactly. To be fair, a story though should report both sides. No where do you mention the republican gerrymandering that has gone on for years. One-sided, conservative biased story. More worthless news.
Worthless is in the eye of the beholder, but Substack is not news, and the content creators do not have to report both sides. I miss the Fairness Doctrine, and appreciate the news outlets that nevertheless continue to practice journalism with that intent (imperfect in execution, of course, because humans). In this increasingly buyer-beware world we each get to use what reason, logic, skepticism, interest and time we have sort out journalism, news, editorial, opinion, information, analysis, commentary, content, monetized content, and everything else out there so we can choose what kind of echo chamber, pep rally, or debate we will participate in. Fortunately interesting reactions can happen in all of those places, and if we choose to, we can see more sides and improve our skills in productive, or unproductive, disagreement.
"It’s not fair. It’s not nice." But it is illuminating, at least to those with IQ in excess of room temp. One party is doing things that it accuses the other party of doing. Predictably, the first party's supporters either don't see the problem or instantly flip to 'what about' mode as if that somehow justifies what's going on in NY. It is telling that no one tries defending what the Dems are openly doing on substance. No one has challenged the facts of this article's argument. Why not? If what you think the Repubs are doing in other states is so terrible, should what Dems are doing in NY be seen as equally terrible?
You're probably right, the Democrats should complain about Republican gerrymandering, try to pass laws against partisan gerrymandering, but be the "bigger people" and create fair districts and just let a Republican minority take control of the US House of Representatives.
The only thing that is terrible is that it gives the enemy the edge. People need to get away from this mythos of we are all together. There is no we. It's always a struggle of competing interests. The Schmidt friend enemy distinction of any political battle is clear to those who seek power. Everything else is just disarming language designed to obfuscate from the battle thats occurring beneath the surface. To your point, the redistricting maps is what people do when battling for power. Power is not moral. Power is amoral. Humans are moral and that morality is fluid if there is not a shared ideology to coalesce around. The premise adopted by most ambitious is that once having obtained power, one can enact in a moral manner. However, if said moral manner is not shared then those who don't act moral can use one's morality as a weakness. Its the nature of entropy or corruption. Once something is built, if said thing is not constantly reinforced and supported, time will eventually be its demise.
As for the current state of affairs, the Republicans and Democrats are both on the edge. The uniparty is real, it is the neoliberal consensus and that is whats under attack from the Trumpists. If you look at Red states, they are redistricting but to the degree that its happening its not designed to drastically change the make up of the representation distribution. Both Red and Blue leadership would like to keep homeostasis as long as possible. They now have a common enemy in populism which is a threat to their game. Dems hold power, Republicans pretend to oppose and neoliberalism bumbles along. Look at what Republicans represent. A blocking coalition for Democratic overreach (which is a show) and tax cuts that disproportionately assist Democrats (who are the primary wealth holders in America). Democrats get in power and blame the Republicans for not allowing them to get anything done but they don't want anything to get done, they are currently trying to outflank the progressives who are challenging rule. It doesn't appear that way but they needed to figure out a way to get the progressives marginalized as the scapegoat for a Republican majority in the House. The Republicans in turn know not to rock the boat and do what they always do, sit idly by and say we are standing athwart history (aka these loony Dems) yelling stop. The Republicans don't want to get anything done because their business model is predicated on pointing at the Dems and saying we are the only thing between the status quo and Venezuela. Notice in this whole process, nothing really gets done. That's the point. The neoliberal consensus protects itself. McConnell and Pelosi have far more in common than the rest of the populace. McConnell doesn't care about anything but staying in DC being the kingmaker.
It is equally terrible. The divisiveness of the commentary continues to further the divide. Hypocrisy fuels the divide (both republicans and democrats).
If I were to ask you, ‘what rep or senator in D.C. would you feel comfortable hiring into your company to represent your business with integrity and honesty,’ who would you name?
I wouldn’t hire any of them, ever.
Your arguments would have more merit if they listed and decried all the Republican gerrymandering going on in all the other states.
Your arguments would have more merit if they offered solutions to prevent partisan gerrymandering altogether.
Your arguments would have more merit if you supported better voter laws.
Spare me the faux outrage.
The sad part is that the outrage is real. Just look at Jan 6, 2021 as that is a clear expression of their outrage. No ‘law and order.’
And the ‘if I don’t win the mega millions, it’s rigged’ argument is pathetic. Sorry, the numbers were just not in your favor.
I doubt you would have called out Republicans for doing this. Cancel my subscription.
You're outraged about what the Democrats are doing? How about being outraged about what the Republicans are doing? Are you a Trump-ite? Unsubscribing! Sending you to spam!
Going to have to call BS on this commentary. Both political parties engage in shameless gerrymandering. Just look at the Texas maps that slice and dice to marginalize urban voters. Tennessee carves up Memphis and Nashville. The new NC maps (which are being challenged to the state supreme court) do the same. And don't get me started on Florida.
The world is laughing at America, the only democracy on Earth that allows politicians to select their own voters. As I recall, it was the Democrats that introduced legislation requiring state and federal districts to be drawn by independent commissions nationwide. Republicans balked and blocked. If you don't like gerrymandering (who does except for the self-interested politicians that benefit), then contact your representation to tell them you support non-biased, non-partisan, fair voting maps.