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Characterizing this dispute as one over “voting rights” is a coup for the partisans pushing HR1. This isn’t about voting rights, it’s about voting convenience. The partisans adopt the term “voting rights” because it has positive moral resonance going back to the fight over the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The controversial state laws in Georgia and other states don’t deprive anyone of the right to vote. They arguably make it less convenient than the emergency voting rules passed during the pandemic, but that is a far cry from denying people the franchise. That is and ought to be the matter of the debate – should the federal government mandate certain levels of voting convenience? My opinion is no: matters of voting convenience ought to be debated and decided at the state level, not the national level.

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Jan 5, 2022·edited Jan 5, 2022

"measures including criminalizing providing food or water to those waiting in line to vote"

This canard from the liberal left refers to Georgia's prohibition of providing food or water only to those *** within 150 feet *** of the polling booth, not to those farther away, This simple provision prevents, for example, loads of BLM volunteers, each holding a water bottle, from intimidating voters filling out their ballot.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/29/josh-holmes/facts-about-georgias-ban-food-water-giveaways-vote/

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Jan 5, 2022·edited Jan 5, 2022

It doesn’t help that both parties have been stripping the guardrails from the system since the 1990’s. Maybe the import of the moment will cause Democrats to stop doing foolish things like push election “reforms” that tighten presidential control over the FEC (gosh, who recently would have abused that power?) or campaign with Stacey “Stolen Election” Abrams? Or they’ll just consider it politics as usual, look at each violated taboo as one more weapon for the next election cycle, and let the gyre widen. As an alienated centrist, the Democratic crocodile tears over the rollback of pandemic voting emergency measures don’t move me. The real danger is in who counts the votes, and that’s what Republicans are working assiduously to change, and Democrats are ignoring, because they think they can benefit from the corruption when the pendulum swings. It’s disgusting.

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I believe Republicans will continue to win, not because of Trump’s nefarious actions, but because the Democrats are headed in a bad direction on issues of education, Covid mandates, and so-called equity issues. Democrats will use this as an excuse for why they lost rather than reflect on the extremism in their own party.

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Alexander, in terms of Texas bill, I read that early voting is actually being expanded:

"The legislation would require counties with populations of more than 55,000 to hold at least 12 hours of early voting for a second week before Election Day, an expansion of early voting hours that will loop in smaller, more rural counties that until now had not been required to offer so many hours."

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/570136-texas-legislature-approves-voting-overhaul

Interestingly enough, the reason I found Hill article was because I knew there had been an expansion, but couldn't remember why. This article is way down in Google results and many mainstream media articles leave it out.

Also, Weren't some of the things being restricted passed to cope with Covid (from same article)?

"The sweeping omnibus measure would limit some opportunities for voting that major Texas counties implemented in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic. Drive-thru voting and round-the-clock voting, both of which were used in Harris County, home of Houston, would be barred."

In terms of this, "including criminalizing providing food or water to those waiting in line to vote", can you elaborate.....or state the law itself. I remember seeing it explained and once explained, its frisson kinda melted.

One of the reasons I subscribed to Persuasion was precisely to avoid the speciousness that seem to pululate in this article. This is not the only article published by Persuasion recently that seems to have this issue.

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Sometimes, I really do not understand the mentality in the USA. In Sweden, as in many other parts of the EU, the case is that a government agency sends me a voting ballot paper some months before the elections. After that, I take the ballot paper and got to a voting station in my local area. The elections take place on a Sunday and I can earlier vote by post. Why make things complicated, or? I mean, democracy should not be rocket science.

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