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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana lawmakers passed legislation Thursday that expands the power of the state to verify voters’ addresses and adds an additional residency requirement for first-time voters.
The bill’s Republican sponsor state Sen. Mike Gaskill called it a “commonsense bill” that adds protections against fraud, but voting advocates have blasted the changes as new hurdles for people seeking to legally cast their ballots.
The bill passed the state Senate on a 34-13 vote, largely along party lines, sending it to Gov. Eric Holcomb for his review. Unless vetoed by the governor, the bill will go into effect July 1.
Indiana voters are already required to show photo ID when casting a ballot, and a law passed last year that tightened mail-in voting requirements in the state.
Under the bill, residents who are new voters in Indiana would have to provide proof of residency when registering in person, unless they submit an Indiana driver’s license or social security number that matches an Indiana record.
Voting advocates have said the provision adds hurdles to the process for college students, homeless people and the elderly who may not have traditional utility bills, as well as people who just moved to the state.
Additionally, the new bill would allow the state to contract with third-party vendors who supply credit data. The data would be cross referenced with voter registration records to identify possible residence changes and any voters registered at nonresidential addresses.
If the state identifies a voter registration at a nonresidential address, the bill outlines a process to investigate the discrepancy. If unresolved, the voter could eventually be removed from registration.
Opponents say out-of-date or inaccurate credit data could result in some voters eventually losing their registration status.
The bill also requires officials to cross reference the state’s voter registration system with data from the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The intent is to identify any noncitizens enrolled in the voter registration system, something voting advocates in Indiana say does not exist.
National researchers also have found few instances but former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have continued to make the unsupported claim.
Indiana law already forbids noncitizens from registering to vote.
The bill says an individual found unlawfully on the voter registration system would have 30 days to provide proof of citizenship to the county voter registration office or face the cancellation of their registration. It does not specify how often the state will cross check the bureau data or how often the bureau data on temporary identification cards is updated.
Democratic Sen. J.D. Ford told lawmakers called the timeline to prove citizenship too narrow of a timeframe.
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What is the incidence of illegal voting now? What evidence exists to prove it is a problem?
Absent credible answers to these questions, one could reasonable say the proposed legislation is nothing more than a MAGA effort to suppress the right of voters to cast their ballots.
Of course the flip side of Brent’s questions is; why is it such a problem for Democrats, usually of color, to show a photo ID, when they have years to obtain one? Why is the narrative never, rural conservative voters having “their rights surpassed!”?
Absent credible answers, how about Democrats simply show the photo ID they need for every other aspect of life?
You could make the same case for adding a waiting period before buying guns, Chuck.
Of course, you are also talking to a guy who thinking we should do away with the vast majority of early and mail-in outside of Election Day in exchange for making Election Day a federal holiday and ensuring that adequate numbers of election sites exist. Why wouldn’t Republicans accept such an easy compromise if they’re so worried about the security of elections? Because it’s not about the security of elections, and because Republicans are cheap to boot.
I’m only against voting ID laws at this point because the people pushing them are the same people pushing, evidence free, the allegations that the 2016 and 2020 elections were rigged. It has nothing to do with securing elections or even making Dear Leader feel better in his inadequacies, it has everything to do with making it harder for “those people” to vote and it’s not as though they will stop when they get voter ID laws.
Nailed it Chuck. Self-declared Progressives like Brent think minorities are little more than crippled puppies–too stupid and too helpless to get something as basic as an ID, brought about–using their logic–by the bigotry of rural whites.
But then, it’s this same gaggle of hiveminds that think the notion that the 2016 and 2020 elections were rigged is “evidence free”, because, of course, their preferred legacy media outlets said so. These are the same outlets, of course, that once amplified Russiagate: no collusion found after 18 months of investigation by people very friendly to the Deep State. And of course the same outlets that suppressed all the evidence of a forgotten Delaware laptop of a certain Presidential son.
Those of us wise enough to disregard absolutely everything the legacy media says know that there’s tons of shenanigans going on in places like Arizona with NGO- and church-supported groups working with an organization called “No Mas Muertes” to distribute invaders form south of the border so that they can use them to rig additional elections in purple states like Arizona and Nevada…which of course the legacy media will fail to cover, thus explaining “evidence free”.
It’s almost like the party that has meddled with elections as a matter of routine (Tammany Hall, Jim Crow) might still be doing it. But then, if you believe “the ends justify the means”, you’ll be willing to do anything. Once a Dixiecrat, always a Democrat.
Cue the defensiveness from Joe and Brent and Wesley, who TOTALLY aren’t Democrats or een leftists, they’re just appalled at how far the GOP has sunk. And thus come to Uniparty (Neo-lib/neo-con) defense every single day. Well, Joe/Brent/Wesley, I hate the GOP too. But I can certainly recognize in a time of universal deceit, the handful doing the lion’s share of truth-telling get demonized, by the Uniparty and their legacy media enablers. And in a topsy turvy world, a few dozen high-profile GOPers combined with about a half-dozen Dems get lambasted by people we Independents know are scum of the earth. And, by devoting most of our scorn to a uniparty that serves neo-libs first, neo-cons second, and 60% of Americans dead last…well, we’ll keep speaking our mind and get called far-right for it.
Remind me how the 2016 election fraud investigation led by Republicans ended, Lauren.
Here’s what I can’t understand… the media absolutely has nothing to do with it. We have a judicial system, with lots of judges appointed by Trump himself. They heard all the evidence that you claim is foolproof throughout late 2020.
You mean to tell me that the judges (including the ones appointed by Trump himself to the Supreme Court) are all part of the Deep State Uniparty and they all conspired to ignore all this evidence? All of them? In 63 cases? And all the courts conspired to then prosecute Trump’s lawyers for bringing such nonsense before them and wasting everyone’s time?
And the people who point this out are the hive minds? You’re projecting, Lauren. Again. Or, just hanging out with Snoop Dogg.
There is absolutely 0 evidence of voter fraud in Indiana. The frauds are the people adding additional barriers to voting
Not true. Diego Morales voted in a place he didn’t live in 2018. And Charlie White got everything but the death penalty, it seemed, for the same penalty in 2010.
Morales, of course, ran on a platform of election security because today’s Republican Party is the party of projection.
We’ve all seen it: a Republican victory at 5pm, and then overnight, all these ballots magically come in, ushering in a surprise Dem victory. They keep telling us that the GOP vote in-person and the Dems vote by mail, but mail-in voting can begin weeks or even months in advance. Yet somehow, they can manage the intake of all the in-person votes within a matter of an hour, yet there’s always a heap of–just enough–votes that come in overnight and push the Dems ahead.
The surge always occurs in the same direction. Every. Single. Time.
The attempt last year to rig the Colorado US Rep election, to create the illusion that Lauren Boebert faced stiff competition, was the icing on the cake. They were so, so, hesitant to call it for her…waiting DAYS, instead to see how many new ballots they could fish out or what Dominion could crank out for them. Yet in the end, the credibility was too strained among Colorado electorate and their shenanigans failed them.
Imagine what ould happen if the GOP won literally dozens of major elections through a surprise surge overnight. Can we even conceive of the degree of lefty riots? Well, yes–given that they riot on days ending in Y even when they have the wind in their sails, which, thanks to corrupt media, neo-con complicity, and other corporate accomplices, they always do.
It’s going to be a fiery but mostly peaceful summer!
Ah yes, good old Lauren Boebert. First, It’s funny you mention that person, Lauren B. She’s such a fan of American D (I think the D stands for Democracy).
Second, Boebert won her election because they kept counting votes.
From the AP on November 10th:
“Frisch held a slight lead over Boebert for much of Tuesday night; by Wednesday afternoon, the gap had narrowed to a razor-thin edge. As of early Thursday, just 64 votes stood between Frisch and Boebert with 99% of the vote accounted for, according to the AP.”
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/09/1135563472/lauren-boebert-election-results-colorado
Then as the days went on and they counted the votes, her lead grew:
“Headed into the fourth day of ballot counting in the 2022 midterm election, incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert maintained her lead over challenger Adam Frisch.
As of 7:30 a.m. Friday morning, Boebert led Frisch by 1,122 votes out of a total of 322,958 ballots counted, according to vote tallies from the Secretary of State’s Office. Previously Frisch held an even more narrow lead with just a few dozen votes.“
So they rigged the election to make it close, but they did it in such way that they intentionally lost close?
And you expect us to believe this kind of stuff?
https://www.denverpost.com/2022/11/10/lauren-boebert-colorado-election-results-adam-frisch-recount/
The big issue was of course completely ignored and that’s electronic GOP donor voting machines. If they are concerned about security then let’s go back to paper pen and a secure booth to vote in, but that’s not the goal. And second do they not realize Florida had mail in voting for years before the pandemic. Why? So the states seniors could easily vote. Soon as other “Blue” states got into the mail in voting trend it was a horrible thing. But those states Oregon Washington Colorado have been voting by mail for years with no issues. One person one ballot.
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