Texas Republicans want power to overturn Harris County elections over mishaps at the polls

 If you live in Harris County, Texas, (where Houston is located)  your vote may not count if you're a Democrat - if Republicans in the state have their way. Here's the latest scheme by the Republican Party to defraud voters of their votes. It's hard to believe that one party is trying everything they can to rig elections to stay in power, but it's true. How can you stop this? Vote republicans OUT. Here's the story from the Houston Chronicle. 

Texas Republicans want power to overturn Harris County elections over mishaps at the polls 

HOUSTON CHRONICLE, May 2, 2023

Legislation advanced by the Texas Senate on Tuesday would give a governor-appointed official authority to toss results and call a new election.

The GOP-controlled Texas Senate on Tuesday passed a proposal allowing the state to overturn elections in Harris County, home to the state’s most populous city Houston.

The legislation penalizes county officials for running out of ballot paper at some voting sites in the 2022 election, the Houston Chronicle reported. Still, more importantly, it gives Republican Gov. Greg Abbott “precedent-setting” power to undo election results.

“There is no reason, there is no excuse why we can’t competently run our elections and have adequate ballot paper,” said state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, a co-author of the bill whose district includes part of southeast Harris County.

The measure provoked outrage from outnumbered Democrats in the Texas Senate who blasted Middleton for trying to give the governor new authority to toss election results as President Donald Trump sought to do after he lost in 2020.

“You want to vest in a political appointee the ability to make a decision as to whether or not an election should be overturned and reheld?” asked state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, during a debate in the Senate on Monday.

Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, took offense to Middleton’s bill for only giving Abbott’s appointee the power to overturn an election in Harris County, the most populous of the state’s 254 counties. The cost of that new election would also be the responsibility of taxpayers in Harris County, which would cost millions of dollars.

"Does that seem kind of biased to you?" Miles said. "We're just going to pick on my county?" FULL ARTICLE: https://web.archive.org/web/20230502231219/https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/texas-republicans-seek-overturn-elections-mishaps-18073334.php

Idiots of the Week: Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and GOP-Georgia Legislature Signs Extreme Voter Limits into Law

This week's Idiots are people who believe in restricting voting rights. HOW does that help people elect someone? It doesn't.   As someone who votes in every election, I just don't understand why Republicans want to limit voting as much as possible. The party and their governor in Iowa just signed into law a bill that places extreme restrictions on the ability of people to vote.   Georgia Republicans did the SAME thing.  

    Why is that? Because their base is really old white people (who are generally racists) and always vote on election day. Meanwhile, they understand that people who are liberal thinkers tend to be employed, educated and include people of color. Employed people find it harder to get to the polls- and that's the truth. Just read the new stupid restrictions in the article here from the Sioux City Journal - Gov. Kim Reynolds YOU are this week's idiot for signing this extremely restrictive law that inhibits all voters from casting a ballot.  Here's the story>

Iowa Governor  Kim Reynolds Signs Extreme Voter Limits into Law

 .Tim Hynds, Sioux City Journal

ERIN MURPHY Journal Des Moines Bureau

DES MOINES — Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed into law sweeping legislation that will significantly alter Iowa’s elections, including by reducing the amount of time for early voting.

The legislation was rushed through the law-making process by majority Republicans — it was introduced and passed by the Iowa Legislature in just more than a week — and became law with only Republican support.

Under the new law:

 • The polls will close on Election Day at 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. 

 • The number of days to vote early is reduced from 29 to 20. (Until two years ago, Iowa’s early voting period had been 40 days.) 

 • Absentee ballots cannot be mailed to voters until 20 days before the election, down from 29 days, with limited exceptions. 

• Local officials can only mail out an absentee ballot request form if the voter requests one.

 • There can be only one drop box per county for dropping off completed early ballots. 

 • Local elections officials face stricter requirements before setting up a satellite early voting location. 

 • Voters must return and submit their own early ballot, with limited exceptions. 

 • Early ballots must be received by the county auditor by Election Day. With limited exceptions, early ballots that arrive after Election Day will not be counted, no matter when they were mailed. 

 • A voter’s registration status is changed to inactive after missing just one election. 

 • County auditors face stronger penalties, including a Class “D” felony, for violating elections laws.

Under the new law, Iowa’s early voting window is shortened to just less than the national average. However, the shortened time in which absentee ballots can be mailed out to voters puts Iowa in the bottom handful of states. 

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Here's what the Georgia GOP did on March 9, 2021:

GOP ATTACKS GEORGIA VOTING RIGHTS 

The Republican-controlled Georgia Senate has passed legislation to suppress voting rights. The bill would end no-excuse absentee voting, among other restrictions. It's expected to pass the Georgia House, but Republican Gov. Brian Kemp hasn't said whether he will sign it. The move follows unprecedented election wins for Democrats in Georgia.

In the news -Susan B. Anthony Museum Rejects President Trump's Pardon Of The Suffragist

This says a lot when a museum honoring an historic figure rejects the current president's pardon.
Here's the story and the reasons why...

Susan B. Anthony Museum Rejects President Trump's Pardon Of The Suffragist
NPR - August 20, 2020

On Tuesday Aug. 18, President Trump officially pardoned leading suffragist Susan B. Anthony, who died in 1906. He noted she was arrested in 1872 for voting before it was legal for women to do so.

(Photo: This 1895 portrait of Susan B. Anthony was painted by Carl Gutherz when Anthony was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, a group dedicated to women's voting rights. National Portrait Gallery)

"She was never pardoned!" he exclaimed in a White House ceremony. "Did you know that she was never pardoned? What took so long?"

Well, it was partly that Anthony would not have wanted to be pardoned, according to some historians who've pointed out that the activist did not think she'd done anything wrong. Joining those voices is the executive director of the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House in Rochester, N.Y.

"Objection! Mr. President, Susan B. Anthony must decline your offer of a pardon," Deborah L. Hughes wrote in a statement. She continued:

"Anthony wrote in her diary in 1873 that her trial for voting was 'The greatest outrage History ever witnessed.' She was not allowed to speak as a witness in her own defense, because she was a woman. At the conclusion of arguments, Judge Hunt dismissed the jury and pronounced her guilty. She was outraged to be denied a trial by jury. She proclaimed, 'I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.' To pay would have been to validate the proceedings. To pardon Susan B. Anthony does the same."

Hughes pointed to Anthony's support of sex education, fair labor practices, excellent public education, equal pay for equal work and elimination of all forms of discrimination.

She suggested that the best way to honor Anthony would be taking a clear stance against voter suppression and advocating for human rights for all.