Since all the headlines are breathless accounts of the score of the D v R game I thought I would do a little digging. What is in the Freedom to Vote Act?
Here’s a link to the text
Here’s the Common Cause site describing it.
From the Common Cause site
The Freedom To Vote Act would:
Establish automatic voter registration, online voter registration, and same day voter registration so every eligible American can participate in the way that works best for them
Restore voting rights to people with prior felony convictions
Expand early voting so people with busy lives can still cast their ballots without waiting in line for hours
Prohibit voter purges that kick eligible voters off the registration rolls
Enhance election security with increased support for voter-verified, paper-based voting system and more oversight over election vendors
Prohibit providing false information about the elections process that discourages voting and other deceptive practices
Establishes federal protections to insulate nonpartisan state and local officials who administer federal elections from undue partisan interference or control
Set up fair standards for legislative districts so politicians can’t abuse their redistricting power for their own advantage
Expand identifying documents to satisfy voter verification laws in states that require them
Strengthens protections for federal election records and election infrastructure in order to protect the integrity and security of ballots and voting systems
Require secret money organizations that spend money in elections to disclose their donors
Upgrade online political spending transparency rules to ensure voters know who is paying for the advertisements they see
Create a small donor-focused matching system so candidates for Congress aren’t just reliant on big money donors to fund their campaigns and set their priorities
Strengthen oversight rules to ensure those who break our campaign finance laws are held accountable
Overhaul the Federal Election Commission to enforce campaign finance law
Prohibit the use of shell companies to funnel foreign money in U.S. elections
Require government contractors to disclose their political spending
As an individual which of those points above would you not want pertaining to your elections? I find the Republican party goose stepping in unison against this disturbing.
They would argue that they don’t object to the content of the law but rather it is the federal takeover boogeyman that they object to and that individual states know best how to maintain their voter “integrity”…
OMG, the PDF is 594 pages with huge margins. That’s gonna kill my eyes. I’ll respond to the biased framing of the Act from the Common Cause website.
Establish automatic voter registration, online voter registration, and same day voter registration so every eligible American can participate in the way that works best for them I’m against same day voter registration
Restore voting rights to people with prior felony convictions on the fence
Expand early voting so people with busy lives can still cast their ballots without waiting in line for hours one can vote in my state weeks in advance. It takes volunteers to have polls open. One can go too far with early voting.
Prohibit voter purges that kick eligible voters off the registration rolls good. But how does one identify those that are ineligible? Is this saying “prohibit voter purges” or only those that incorrectly remove valid people?
Enhance election security with increased support for voter-verified, paper-based voting system and more oversight over election vendors probably OK, hopefully not too expensive
Prohibit providing false information about the elections process that discourages voting and other deceptive practices sounds good; how do you enforce this?
Establishes federal protections to insulate nonpartisan state and local officials who administer federal elections from undue partisan interference or control good
Set up fair standards for legislative districts so politicians can’t abuse their redistricting power for their own advantage “fair standards” is tough to quantify. I’d need to learn more about what “should” prompt an area to redistrict. And no one should be allowed to influence redistricting in one’s own area
Expand identifying documents to satisfy voter verification laws in states that require them If voting is important, then one can obtain the proper ID. The valid types of ID should be communicated well in advance (meaning right now) to allow people to conveniently obtain them.
Strengthens protections for federal election records and election infrastructure in order to protect the integrity and security of ballots and voting systems good
Require secret money organizations that spend money in elections to disclose their donors good
Upgrade online political spending transparency rules to ensure voters know who is paying for the advertisements they see good
Create a small donor-focused matching system so candidates for Congress aren’t just reliant on big money donors to fund their campaigns and set their priorities not sure. I don’t like the biased “set their priorities” comment
Strengthen oversight rules to ensure those who break our campaign finance laws are held accountable good. I’m not a big fan of fundraising and advertising campaigns. Ideally there would be a non-partisan committee that would be allowed to pull all deceptive ads off the airwaves.
Overhaul the Federal Election Commission to enforce campaign finance law sounds OK
Prohibit the use of shell companies to funnel foreign money in U.S. elections good
Require government contractors to disclose their political spending maybe. depends what kind of limits exist today
Just like so many bills, there is way too much in here. Trying to do too much at once, which includes some nebulous ideas.
Everything I have seen and heard talks about getting rid of the filibuster. Nothing about all this other stuff. Thank you for the information. I feel like the news should also be giving us this information and not an actuarial forum
Seems more about false information about the elections process, not about one’s Communist opponent. False information like, say, “You can drop your ballot off at the (insert either) Party headquarters, and we’ll take care of it!”
That could be. I just watch local news and they have a nation news portion and some ABC guy is on and talks about news stories for 5-10 minutes. I suppose if I turned on a more national news station I would have more information but they always seem too biased for me to watch
I don’t have a good answer for that. I understand that most of what I know came from a news source that I know is biased, I think what they present is usually factual, but I know they also will completely ignore things that are factual that do not fit their narrative. I think I agree that voting rules should mostly be set at the state level, but rules some states are setting are frightening. We do have a problem with how we hold elections - things like long lines are always an issue in poor minority areas and they are often voting until the late night local news. That is a current problem that needs to be fixed, but many states are putting more voting power into the hands of partisan legislatures, and that should frighten just about everyone.
Another reason we should have a smaller Federal government imo. If people in Georgia want to have less democratically elected representatives for their state that’s largely a GA issue. If the Federal government is small then that’s not really a big concern of mine.
Agreed, that’s the scary bit. I’m in favor of basic federal voting protections but I think this is just another reminder of the importance of Federalism so Alabamans, etc. don’t have the power to f it up for the rest of us
I wish Republicans would just dump Trump and the MAGA cult…we all talk about how bad the Democrat’s messaging is, but Republicans have completely ditched their roots for the shiny object. It would be nice to have real debates about role of the federal government. While it is a handful of noisemakers in the GOP that is grabbing headlines, the GOP leadership has been completely ineffective at redirecting the party.
I completely agree. NJ Republicans should denounce the awful party leadership and things like pushing Liz Cheney out of party leadership. Easy to say you hate Trump but rely on party money and connections come election time.
My initial response was a bit harsh as I think ONA’s response mostly highlights the damage that Trump’s rhetoric has done against the country where those who want to ignore politics most of the time and only show up once every 4 years now think of ABC/NBC/CBS as overly biased. I think they are still a decent news source.
I can’t enough. He’s not even that shiny. Very disappointed in the R’s.
The bold problem is spot on, but predates MAGA by a lot. When was the last time R’s really debated the size of the federal government vs just the whether to have a half trillion vs trillion $ deficit & the direction the debt should be spent?
R’s simplified the debate to a question about the level of federal taxes. I have long said if we simply required some balancing of the federal budget that it would force the conversation on both sides.
Having said that, the Democrats have included funding mechanisms in most of their recent spending proposals. I won’t argue they are realistic and instead will likely lead to more debt, but at least there is something there to consider.
enough. He’s not even that shiny. Very disappointed in the R’s.