Georgia to be sued for purging minority voters ahead of the midterm elections - Polidicks

https://thinkprogress.org/lawsuit-georgia-voter-purge-5fa87974e30a/ Voting activists have filed a lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State and GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp, alleging he used a racially-biased method to purge roughly 700,000 voters from the rolls ahead of the November election. The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday, alleges that Kemp has not notified the affected voters — who represent roughly one in ten Georgians eligible to cast ballots — that they have been removed from the rolls over the last two years. In additional to legal action, the activists plan to make the list of purged voters public so that individuals can check for their names and then re-register before the October 9 deadline. Kemp’s office relies on the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, maintained by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), to maintain Georgia’s rolls. But the Crosscheck system is extremely flawed. One report found that when the program flags potential double-voters, or people registered to vote in more than one state, it identifies false positives more than 99 percent of the time. The National Voter Registration Act includes protections against types of voter roll maintenance programs that inadvertently remove properly registered voters. The groups filing the lawsuit include the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Rainbow/PUSH, Georgia Coalition for The Peoples Agenda, and the New Georgia Project. Investigative journalist Greg Palast is also named as a plaintiff, alleging the state has not responded to his requests to public information regarding the purges. “What has taken place here in Georgia is an insult to all of the efforts and accomplishments that we have done throughout this country,” Charles Steele, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said in a press conference Tuesday, explaining the efforts African Americans in the South went through to secure the right to vote. Kemp, who has refused to recuse himself from administering the upcoming election while he campaigns for governor, said in a statement that the threatened lawsuit “has no merit.” “To be crystal clear, Georgia has never used data from the Crosscheck Program to conduct list maintenance in any capacity,” Kemp said in his statement, according to local reporters. “Zero voters have been removed from the rolls based on Crosscheck data in this state. Greg Palast is completely blind to this indisputable fact in his pursuit of a sensationalist headline. Real journalists have already reported that Georgia does not use this data for list maintenance. Frankly, Mr. Palast should be embarrassed, and any credibility that he had left is now completely destroyed.” Palast and the voting groups said the Georgia lawsuit is just the first of 26 they plan to file across the country in states that use Kobach’s Crosscheck system. A July report from the Brennan Center for Justice found that states purged more than 16 million voters from the rolls between 2014 and 2016, with low-income and minority voters disproportionately affected. The increase in purged voters was most significant in parts of the country like Georgia with a history of racial discrimination that, until the Supreme Court’sShelby County v. Holder decision in 2013, were required to seek pre-approval of changes to their voting laws from the Department of Justice. Many of the states conducting illegal purges use the Crosscheck program, which has generated significant controversy in recent years. At least eight states have pulled out of the system because of its high margin of error.

When the only way to win is to disenfranchise people who aren't likely to vote for you.

Every election I'm constantly reminded how much the GOP actually hates democracy.

The south used to have to run voting laws by the feds until 2013 when the SCOTUS struck that part of the Voting Rights Act down. Clarence Thomas helped to disenfranchise minorities.

Back when I used to go read the comments on Fox News (because I'm terrible) I would see people saying that only landowners or profitable business owners should get to vote.

It's the powerful using hate and ignorance to turn those they screw over against each other to guise themselves.

Not surprising, kemp has been spamming ads and switch from his extremely offensive, gun toting, deportation truck nonsense to "im a family man who loves his wife and kids". Seriously, his ads went from this: https://youtu.be/_TJS7cleb7E To this: https://youtu.be/BGyhg6lhFGU Not to mention hes been in overdrive trying to prevent any kind of election security because its "too soon" and would confuse voters to do the same shit they did on the computer as they would on paper.

Palast and the voting groups said the Georgia lawsuit is just the first of 26 they plan to file across the country in states that use Kobach’s Crosscheck system. A July report from the Brennan Center for Justice found that states purged more than 16 million voters from the rolls between 2014 and 2016, with low-income and minority voters disproportionately affected. If this is true, doesn't this mean Trump's entire administration is illegitimate and justify overthrowing them by force?

Because of the 2013 SCOTUS ruling. This year they allowed the practice in Ohio of automatically removing infrequent voters from the rolls. Fuck Roberts.

man its like Shelby was factually wrong to insist that racial discrimination no longer is an issue in this country's election system. Obviously the justices will immediately rescind that ruling and expand on it given how their basis was completely factually incorrect. no? oh right conservative supreme court.

When the court becomes more liberal they ought to look for as many cases as possible to overturn the bad 5/4s of the Roberts Court.

https://files.facepunch.com/garry/0466446f-7bb9-42bb-a2fb-e661603163cd.svg

The court was extremely conservative around the turn of the century, like 7 conservatives to 2 liberals. The court's legitimacy has been so tarnished by Republicans that intimidating the justices with another court packing scheme from Untitled Democrat President wouldn't be inconceivable.

You're assuming that the next president will be a Democrat.

at some point the way we nominate judges has to change, the president being the sole person to nominate judges has become a huge problem for the justice system, the SCOTUS has to be constitutionally nominated by the president but none of the lower courts do, switch to some kind of independant panel that nominates judges en block and only gives congress the authority to vote on them en block and require a 2/3rds majority to pass. Its not perfect but anything forcing two parties to work together is better than nothing

good beat some sense into us please

I've slowly come to the realization that if you hate America, Americans, the ideas of liberty and justice, the ability to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and lift yourself socially and economically, being free to make your own choices, and/or the concept of pursuing and achieving happiness... If you hate any or all of those things, then you should vote for the Republican party. Because they have demonstrated, irrecoverably and indisputably, over the past few years, that they hate all of those things.

2/3rds majority would never happen anymore. The nomination hearings have become more about ideological purity than actual qualifications to be on the bench. Gone are the days when a justice would be voted in because they were qualified, regardless of their stances on issues.

It's been more divided in the past than it is now. As recently as 2005 a justice was nominated by a 2/3 ratio, John Roberts. I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon though. The way Republicans obstructed Garlands nomination, used the nuclear option to appoint Gorsuch, and are now rushing to confirm Kavanaugh who is almost historically unpopular as a nominee is going to create a lot of tension.

And I would agree and wouldn't blame them one bit for it. That's exactly my point. It's become an ideological purity test.

TBH I think the cunts who push for this blatant subversion of the democratic process deserve to be on the receiving end of violence and general extremist behaviour, at this rate it seems to be the only thing they'll understand when they hide behind money/political power.

the problem is with who is getting nominated. obama's picks when given a proper hearing got confirmed. Trump is nominating hard right ideologues who were hand picked by the federalist society exclusively and they have views far outside mainstream. If there were no way to get ideologues through without support from the other party you would see moderates grow in size hopefully because they are the ones who could control nominations.

Unrelated, but can I just mention that when Georgia is mentioned, I always think of the country and not the state?