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H.R. 1, the For the People Act, is a sweeping bill to protect and fix our democracy, so it's no surprise Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has denounced it.
Secure elections and expanded voting rights. H.R. 1 would outlaw voter purges, promote automatic, same-day, and online voter registration, restore voting rights, end partisan gerrymandering, move to secure paper-based voting systems, expand and improve early and absentee voting, and restore voting rights to people with felony convictions.
Kicking big money out of politics. H.R. 1 would create a small-dollar matching system to end the reliance on big money, ban shell companies that funnel foreign money into our elections, strengthen oversight and spending disclosure rules, reform the Federal Election Commission, and force secret money organizations to reveal their donors.
Government for the people. H.R. 1 would require presidents to disclose their tax returns, supercharge the Office of Government Ethics, demand a judicial code of ethics for Supreme Court justices, crack down on conflicts of interest and limit the corrupt revolving door between government and Wall Street.
No one can argue that getting the money and corruption out of the system is anything but beneficial. The evil turtle man denounced this for reasons that we do not have to wonder about.
McConnell doesn't want democracy. He wants big money to pour in money, and as small a voting pool as possible. And he wants to pick his voters through gerrymandering. That's the only way Republicans can win.
It's a massive bill which I of course haven't read all of. I'm just going through the early sections and have a couple of questions. Do you agree with them that it is the governments responsibility to ensure everyone is registered to vote? Voting isn't mandatory, why should registration be mandatory? And if registration is govt responsibility - registration is mandatory.
Do you agree that 16 years olds should be registered to vote? 2 years ahead of when they can vote?
You mean the goal of making it easy for people to vote? I don't agree with every provision of the bill (I really don't think 16 year olds should vote) but there are many parts that are very necessary in restoring democracy. But McConnell will not even consider it. The Senate should be taking up the bill, changing the parts it doesn't like, etc., not just ignoring it.
I was watching the news the other day about hacking votes. We use machines. I already knew the answer but I asked the wife "are the voting machines connected to the internet". She says "no". I than ask "then how exactly are they supposed to get hacked"?
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Originally Posted by Aussiehoff
It's a massive bill which I of course haven't read all of. I'm just going through the early sections and have a couple of questions. Do you agree with them that it is the governments responsibility to ensure everyone is registered to vote? Voting isn't mandatory, why should registration be mandatory? And if registration is govt responsibility - registration is mandatory.
Do you agree that 16 years olds should be registered to vote? 2 years ahead of when they can vote?
The goals of this bill are very transparent.
Governments should make it easier to register to vote. That's what county election commissions, registrar of voters, etc. were for, even pre-internet: to provide an easy-to-find place for people to register to vote. Online registration is simply an extension of this government obligation (thought on the down side, it does introduce the risk of hacking into the registrar office's server).
That said, I don't believe in mandatory voting, as I understand Australia has (although I appreciate their reasons for having it).
Overall, I do think it's a good bill, especially about making it harder for states to purge voter registration rolls, and making it difficult for poor people to register to vote. History shows that societies that neglect their poor do not get away with it (i.e., a major cause of long-run political instability).
If Mitch McConnell is against this, then that's both not surprising, and shows how much he is simply into pure power politics, beholden to the big business set.
The bill is a sham. Every registered voter who hasn't already proven they are a citizen should be required to do so and every person here forward that will register in the future should be required to prove citizenship as well. Additionally, every single person who votes should be required to show their State issued ID, drivers license or US military/dependent ID in order to vote, no exceptions, and the ID number should be entered into a national ID tracking system to verify a person doesn't vote more than once. Absentee and mail in ballots should be required to write their ID/DL number on the ballot form they send in and without an appropriate ID/DL number their vote shouldn't be counted. As far as new voter registration is concerned, it should NOT be automatic. If a person isn't politically aware enough to know HOW to register to vote, they shouldn't vote. Additionally, voter purging should be allowed, especially if it is suspected a registered voter is no longer alive or isn't a US citizen. When they purge a voter the State should send a single notification letter to the last know address of the purged voter to let them know that they've been removed and why it was done, along with instructions to re-register, including instructions about bringing proof of citizenship to register and a State or US military issued ID/DL, not only to register but to the poll place when the voting is to take place.
As far as keeping money out of elections, the bill will get nowhere as SCOTUS has already decided this issue and the bill is not in compliance with the SCOTUS decision. Further, I'm certain the BS House bill excludes their favorite sources of money like that from unions and other sources where the money benefits the left. They, the left have no intention of keeping money out of elections. They just want to keep money that favors their opponents out of elections. They already get a ton of free money/advertising benefit from all but one major MSM news outlet on TV, almost every newspaper in the nation, most magazines, etc. There is absolutely no way SCOTUS would let this bill be the law of the land.
Leave it to the left to attempt to portray themselves as victims because good Americans expect them to obey the law, be citizens and show ID in order to vote, etc. The Senate would be right to trash this nonsense bill.
The bill is a sham. Every registered voter who hasn't already proven they are a citizen should be required to do so and every person here forward that will register in the future should be required to prove citizenship as well. Additionally, every single person who votes should be required to show their State issued ID, drivers license or US military/dependent ID in order to vote, no exceptions, and the ID number should be entered into a national ID tracking system to verify a person doesn't vote more than once. Absentee and mail in ballots should be required to write their ID/DL number on the ballot form they send in and without an appropriate ID/DL number their vote shouldn't be counted. As far as new voter registration is concerned, it should NOT be automatic. If a person isn't politically aware enough to know HOW to register to vote, they shouldn't vote. Additionally, voter purging should be allowed, especially if it is suspected a registered voter is no longer alive or isn't a US citizen. When they purge a voter the State should send a single notification letter to the last know address of the purged voter to let them know that they've been removed and why it was done, along with instructions to re-register, including instructions about bringing proof of citizenship to register and a State or US military issued ID/DL, not only to register but to the poll place when the voting is to take place.
As far as keeping money out of elections, the bill will get nowhere as SCOTUS has already decided this issue and the bill is not in compliance with the SCOTUS decision. Further, I'm certain the BS House bill excludes their favorite sources of money like that from unions and other sources where the money benefits the left. They, the left have no intention of keeping money out of elections. They just want to keep money that favors their opponents out of elections. They already get a ton of free money/advertising benefit from all but one major MSM news outlet on TV, almost every newspaper in the nation, most magazines, etc. There is absolutely no way SCOTUS would let this bill be the law of the land.
Leave it to the left to attempt to portray themselves as victims because good Americans expect them to obey the law, be citizens and show ID in order to vote, etc. The Senate would be right to trash this nonsense bill.
It would seem that you see this proposed bill as a real threat to the right-wing stranglehold that currently has our federal government in its grip.
No one can argue that getting the money and corruption out of the system is anything but beneficial. The evil turtle man denounced this for reasons that we do not have to wonder about.
If they were serious about doing this they would offer something that has realistic chance of getting passed that included some compromises like voter ID.
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