Infuriated. Soft-peddling of threat to women's voting and habitual blindness to GOP voter caging will kill democracy
This is the plan. It’s obvious. It will be successful.
*Pass SAVE act equivalent in swing states
*Focus media on ‘showing a driver license’ or ‘new registrations’.
- like lightning rods and pressure relief valves, these reduce or divert energy
*Use agencies and big data to create lists of “suspect” voters — any divorced women in specific zip codes? Anyone changing their address from one liberal neighborhood to another?
*Cast a huge net to disenfranchise and create chaos; and fight it out in the courts when it is too late
SOFT-PEDALLING: “Married (or divorced) women MAY NEED additional documentation”? No, they WILL need it, unless they have a current passport.
This bipartisan policy.org research study focuses on whether the requirement will disadvantage BUT cannot name the elephant in the room.
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/article/do-documentary-proof-of-citizenship-requirements-disadvantage-one-party-more-than-the-other/
Stats such as this are an example:
Research from Pew Research Center finds that Republican women are about half as likely as Democratic women to keep their last name after marriage (10% versus 20%), suggesting that Republican voters may be somewhat more likely to have to complete additional steps 4 linking their birth certificate to their current voter record.
Great — Democrats have an advantage because only 80% of women change their last name after marriage instead of 90%?? Golly gee.
THE BIG CAGE; Objective groups and opposition do nice surveys and statistics that nonetheless miss the big boat, or the big cage:
There are rules, and then there are rules that will be weaponized only on demand against specific groups of people.
The SAVE act in Florida at least mandates that the voter-roll-keepers act on reports from other agencies that cast doubt on accurate registration (absence of proof in a database that has never kept such proof; an address change).
So one DeSantis appointee can send a list of people in District xyz based on whatever caging rules that he wants; the voter rolls will be purged accordingly. Never fear; if the letter gets returned to sender, they might have to put a note in a local newspaper including you on a long list of names; or put it on line. This can happen WEEKLY.
They WON’T use these tactics in an even-handed way. It’s naive to think that.
1. They can concentrate their search in specific zip codes or neighborhoods, for example.
2. They can reduce the resources available to fix problems in the cities — while giving red areas plenty of staff or access — just like they’ve done with voting machines themselves, to cause incredibly long waits for some voters.
3. They can tamper with the SSN or other databases themselves. Remember when DOGE deleted 9.9 million people from the social security database claiming they were ‘impossibly old’? https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/social-security-conducting-major-records-cleanup-marking-7m-listed-age-120-deceased. They had WRITE access to the social security database at one point, for heaven’s sake.
STRATEGY. If you think that efforts by ALEC or DOGE or DeSantis aren’t all mapped out somewhere on a flowchart or strategy plan for dismantling US democracy, you don’t understand the GOP. Fending off the SAVE act at the federal level is important, but it is NOT a comprehensive strategy.
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Like USDA cattle.
and BTW ... PLEASE< PLEASE< PLEASE...Democrats: Stop targeting the Democrats that you don't like.
You will NEVER find candidates that check all of your boxes.
The Congress is a numbers game, pure and simple. WE need every D vote... even ones you don't like.
Let's get the numbers first and we can sort for performance later.
THIS IS A FIVE ALARM FIRE AND IT'S ALL HANDS ON DECK.
WAKE UP PEOPLE.
Drag away.
What if you're married and the house is in your husband's name? What if your bank accounts and credit cards are in his name? How do you prove that you actually live where you live, if all the bills and mail are coming to him?
Also this: what if you got divorced "X" number of years ago, and you're still going by your old married name because your kids have that name too? What hoops do you jump through to prove that the birth certificate is/was yours, when you're not using that name and you're no longer married to the man whose name you are using?
And what if you should remarry, then what? It's Loony-toons.
My only solution is to get a US passport in your MAIDEN NAME and never let it expire. Keep renewing it every 10 years without fail. Be sure your bank and your employers know you by your maiden name, even though your friends may call you by your "married" name, if you so choose.
It seems that many younger (Gen-Z) women are side-stepping the entire issue by keeping their maiden name always. This is what we've come to in this country and it's absolutely insane.
marriages and name changes over 50 yers.
Not good enough.
But now that you mention it, I think I did need to show them something with my current address. My vehicle registration has always been handy because it lists my current residence.
In Pennsylvania we have Insurance ID cards and Vehicle Registration cards that both show one's current residence. Is that done in other states too? There are ways to comply with these stupid laws, if we come prepared.
