"When KS🚨did a version of the #SaveAct, it purged ~40 ineligible voters - & stopped 31K legal citizens from registering to vote (12% of all applicants). That's 775 legal voters lost for every 1 ineligible voter."
-J Reidl
"Are you one of nearly 70M American women who changed their names when they got married? 🙋♀️
Republicans in Congress want to make it harder for you to vote."
-H Clinton
Tweet from Rep. Mark Pocan discussing the cost and documents required for voting, including a passport, a birth certificate, and military service papers, criticizing these as modern-day poll taxes.
It’s #NewstodonFriday once again, Please enjoy a selection of stories from independent newsrooms on politics, technology, books, history, and giant almond trucks. Check out the thread, comment, like, follow their accounts and give them your money. ⤵️
Postal services in some areas of the USA are unreliable, so it makes sense to have a grace period when it comes to returning election ballots — at least, that’s been the case for a number of years in around half of the states across the political spectrum.
@bolts reports on how that’s changing. “This past March alone brought news that two states … will repeal their grace periods; that conservative federal judges are on the brink of killing grace periods in two other states; and that Trump, who for years has falsely alleged rampant mail-voting fraud, wants to pressure the rest of the nation to reject every mail ballot that arrives after polls close,” writes Alex Burness.
Biggest self-own ever to go from that to whatever this is today.
The image is a screenshot of a tweet from Sibylle (@AHaschi
). The tweet reads: "America You had it all". Below the tweet, there is an infographic titled "PRESIDENT BIDEN’S ECONOMIC LEGACY" with a photo of Joe Biden on the left. The infographic includes the following statistics: "JOBS: 16.6 MILLION jobs created," "UNEMPLOYMENT: 14.1% in January 2021 decreased to 4.1% in December 2024," "S&P 500: 5,996 on January 17, 2025, was 3,786 on January 15, 2021," and "DOW JONES: 43,487 on January 17, 2025, was 30,814 on January 15, 2021." The infographic is credited to @US_ELECTIONS
at the bottom.
@georgetakei say what you will but the eggs were simply unaffordable, we had to stick it to the libs, punish black and brown people for no reason, and stop women from becoming ever more independent. Next thing would have been smart, black women getting better pay than their half-witted, white, male colleagues and polluters, scammers, Russian agents, and tax cheats being held accountable for their crimes. That's why we had to go nuclear on everything... But don't worry. This is just transitional: Transitioning from an exceptionally healthy, a resilient economy to a full recession and from democracy to autocracy, and from being the leader of the Free World to a rogue regime picking fights with everyone simply because we think we can... #TheUnAmericanVotersDidThis#VoterSuppression#WhiteChristianNationalists#Racists#LeftPurists#OilAndGasMafia#RussianAssets#BillionaireGrifters did this.
A couple of weeks ago on the other account, I wrote a very short thread about my increasing frustration with Very Serious PeopleTM asking if Trump really means it every time he starts rambling on about all the fascist shit he wants to do. In that post I mostly noted that Trump, a fascist, literally has no idea how to tell a joke, has at least tried to do all the nazi shit people thought he was joking about in the past, and fascist in general were not known for their sense of humor. Whether or not Trump is actually able to accomplish all the nazi crap he says he wants to do, is often a matter of debate. But if he says it, he means to give it a try.
What brought that outburst on, was an article about a democracy watchdog group warning that people weren't taking Trump's threats to circumvent term limits and run for (or make himself) president again in 2028 seriously enough, and that was a bad idea - a position I agree with wholeheartedly.
I'm bringing this up now because apparently the slightly less disgusting Cuomo had noted fascist propagandist Steve Bannon on his podcast this week; Bannon remains a very close ally of Trump and a big supporter of the regime even though he's not actually working in the government this time. During that discussion, Bannon revealed that the Trumpist political movement is actively working on ways to secure a third Trump term already:
'We're Working On It': Bannon Says Planning Underway for Trump 2028
"Appearing on journalist Chris Cuomo's NewsNation podcast, far-right mouthpiece Steve Bannon demurred when asked if he had ambitions to run for president himself, replying: "No, and I'm a firm believer that President Trump will run and win again in 2028, so I've already endorsed President Trump."
When Cuomo pressed Bannon on the existence of term limits that would bar Trump from seeking a third term, Bannon said, "We're working on it. I think we’ll have a couple of alternatives, let’s say that. We’ll see what the definition of term limit is."
"We've had greater long shots than Trump 2028 and we've got a lot of stuff we're working on there," Bannon added. "We're not prepared to talk about it publicly, but in a couple months I think we will be."
Setting aside the fact that this podcast episode should not exist, because Chris Cuomo shouldn't be inviting fascists on his show to normalize fascist ideology and openly lie on behalf of the Trump regime with only mild pushback, I watched the clip; aside from what's quoted here, the only real notable addition I would make is that Cuomo let Bannon duck a question about whether or not the fascists would try another insurrection to keep Trump in power by touting how popular the regime was, and implying Trump would simply win anyway. Let's just say this wasn't Chris's finest hour, even if he did avoid literally agreeing with the nazi propagandist on his show, about nazi shit, like California Governor Gavin Newsom did.
What Bannon didn't shy away from is revealing here, is that Trump absolutely intends to run again in 2028 and his minion strategists are working on a way to circumvent the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution which would otherwise forbid that. As I've mentioned in a number of articles, we seem to be seeing a pattern of the fascist right transforming Trump's seemingly fantastical ravings, into a type of "unreality" enforced as if it were fact by the larger fascist movement, and then transformed into real and direct action by the regime itself. Given the reality that Trump has repeatedly mused about clearing the way for him to run for a third term in multiple public settings, and we now have a fascist propagandist who is closely allied with Trump revealing that the larger regime is "working on" making that a reality, I think we can safely dispense with the idea that these guys are joking.
So will the nazis get away with this? I mean, who knows; it's not easy to legally change the Constitution, but I have no idea if Trump even cares what the laws say anyway - his actions in power thus far suggest that he literally does not. Right now, the nazis seem to be in the planning and manufacturing popular support stage of this particular autocratic fuckery project, but I'd be inclined to take Bannon at his word when he says we'll be hearing more about it soon, because while Steve is a nazi liar, he rarely lies without a purpose. What I can say is that since Trump was sworn in as president, I can think of dozens and dozens of things he's done that Very Serious PeopleTM swore he couldn't do, and so far he appears to be getting away with the vast majority of it.
Whether it's acceptable to mention it in polite discourse or not, the fascist GOP's plan to formalize national targeted voter suppression based on fascist conspiracy theories designed to explain why a bloviating reality TV show nazi lost the 2020 US presidential election, is a form of election rigging. We've already discussed Der Führer's recent (blatantly illegal) executive order to do just that, but the Republican plan to fuck elections and create their own permanent Pork Reich is a multi-pronged assault. One of the key spearheads in this quest to, again, rig elections by disenfranchising millions of voters who are statistically more likely to support the opposition party, is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or Save Act, currently being cooked up in a GOP fascist-controlled Congress.
Republicans are quietly trying to disenfranchise millions of voters
"According to research by the Brennan Center for Justice, more than 21 million US citizens of voting age don’t have easy access to proof of citizenship documents, and only about half of American adults have a passport, while millions do not have access to paper copies of their birth certificates. Married women whose legal names do not match their birth certificates could be disenfranchised by the Save Act, and folks looking to obtain lost or misplaced birth certificates would face financial and logistical hurdles.
The Save Act would restrict voters’ ability to register to vote online and through the mail while also severely limiting the ability of non-partisan civic organizations to conduct voter registration drives, which have been crucial to civic engagement for more than a century. That’s because, despite voters’ ability to register to vote at the DMV and registration efforts by political parties, data shows that voter registration drives from non-partisan organizations can account for about one-fifth of voter registration applicants – roughly equal to the political power of California, Florida and Texas combined. We simply cannot sit back and allow Congress or the White House to destroy the infrastructure of our elections by disenfranchising so many voters."
Look, I know Trump's unhinged fascist conspiracy theories about the 2020 election make most liberals very leery about uttering the words "rigging elections" but at some point you have to accept that you can't stop reality from being real, just because naming the beast makes you squeamish. Targeted voter suppression by the GOP has become so normalized that in a recent(ish) battle over election maps that clearly sought to minimize the political power of African American voters, GOP operates defended themselves from charges of racial bias by saying they weren't restricting voters because they're Black, but rather because they vote Democrat. This is election rigging, by a fascist regime, headed up by a would-be King who keeps musing about violating the Constitution to seek a third term, and it's probably time to be honest with ourselves about what that actually means - an attempt to permanently install the US Republican brand of fascism in our society by preventing free and fair elections (such as those exist, in America.)
I mean let's cut the crap here for a second okay? The Save Act specifically targets voter registrations drives because the fascist GOP is openly arguing that registering people to vote, is somehow rigging elections. Let that sink in for a minute folks; a fascist regime is trying to rig elections through nationalized voter suppression because, and they essentially admit this, if everyone gets to vote they might lose power. The fact that this type of thinking and rhetoric is considered "normal" for the right wing party in America doesn't prove these guys aren't fascist, just that America has been embracing, normalizing, and ignoring fascism for a very long time before Donald Trump ran for office.
Unsurprisingly, our GOP-controlled Congress has passed an election rigging (voter suppression is election rigging) bill that mimics much of Trump's previous fascist election rigging executive order; the disingenuously named "Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act."
US House passes bill requiring people to prove citizenship in order to vote
"About half of US citizens do not have a passport, eliminating one of the main ways to show their ability to vote under the bill. Passport fees are currently $165. Joe Morelle, a Democrat from New York, responded to Republicans who spoke in support of the bill with estimates of how much money constituents would have to pay if they all had to get passports.
“Y’all, that’s a poll tax, plain and simple, and it’s blatant voter suppression,” said Nikema Williams, a Democrat from Georgia.
Some potential voters no longer have their birth certificates, or their birth certificates don’t match their current names if they changed their names in marriage or for other reasons, Democrats have pointed out. The bill directs states to come up with a process to address those who have changed their names, though Democrats contend this could be handled differently state by state, creating confusion, and it’s not clear how long it would take for rules to be put in place."
This is mostly just a "heads up" post because we've already looked at the Save Act and the GOP's quest to use fascist conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud and the 2020 election to justify blatant voter suppression in the thread above; the bill still has to pass the Senate before it becomes law. What's important to understand in the here and now, is that a national voter suppression bill that disproportionately (to a massive degree) targets folks who are highly unlikely to vote Republican, is in fact a law designed to rig elections for the fascist GOP.
"Research from the Brennan Center, VoteRiders and other groups in 2024 found that more than 9% of voting-age citizens, about 21 million people, don’t have readily available proof of citizenship. These requirements have disproportionate impacts on people of color, young voters, rural residents, tribal citizens, people who are unhoused, people born in US territories and people who have experienced natural disasters.
Other elements of the bill have raised alarms among voting rights advocates and elections officials. It would upend online and mail registration, a particular burden on people in rural areas. States would be required to purge their voter rolls based on incomplete data and potentially start the deportation process for people who unlawfully registered to vote. It also installs criminal penalties for election officials who register people without the required documentation, even if the person turns out to be a citizen eligible to vote."
What happened to February? The shortest month seemed shorter than ever this year — even though January feels very long ago. This #NewstodonFriday, to counter the doom and the gloom, we’re watching Jane Fonda’s SAG Awards acceptance speech on repeat (it’s the last item in this thread). Please do read and boost the whole thread of stories from newsrooms with a presence in the fediverse. It makes a difference to our brave independent media friends.
Indiana has practically the lowest voter turnout in America.
@bolts’s
@taniel reports on efforts that will probably make it even lower. “Legislation banning the use of student IDs for voting passed the state Senate with near unanimous Republican support in early February and now sits with the GOP-run House,” he writes.
CBC is reporting some voters' in #Toronto-St. Paul's are being told their polling station has changed to a school just outside the riding. When they go there, there is a sign saying to go back to the actual poll they were registered.
CBC is calling it a "hiccup"