The Erickson Report for October 14 to 27, Page 1: More on voter suppression

We start this time with some news on voter suppression. I think I said last time that I couldn't begin to catalog all the efforts in states across the country to block, limit, purge, and intimidate voters and voting, but I do want to note a few more.

First, quickly because I suspect you have heard about this, the GOPpers are spending $20 million to recruit 50,000 volunteers in 15 states to "observe" polling places on election day, with the expected targets being minority districts, taking advantage of the fact that the courts allowed a consent decree banning voter intimidation to expire in 2018.

Next, Republican Sen. Rick Scott - known to us here a Voldemort - has introduced legislation that would have the effect of having millions of mail-in votes not counted.

Under the proposal, counting of mail-in ballots could not start until the morning of Election Day and would have to be completed within 24 hours of when voting closes, with any state laws to the contrary being preempted.

That is, all mail-in ballots would have to be counted within one roughly 36-hour window, and any not counted in that time would just be dumped, the same as if they had arrived too late.

The bill won't pass if only because it won't get through the House - but it does show the lengths to which the GOPpers will go in their attempts to attack voting.

Meanwhile, telegraphing the GOPper plan, Lindsey Grahamcracker insists the GOPpers will allow for a peaceful transition of power - defined as accepting whatever decision the Supreme Court reaches, the voters, apparently, be damned. Which is why, he insisted, we just have to rush through to get Amy Bugs Bunny Barrett on the bench because we can't have a 4-4 tie. I wonder which of the reactionaries currently on the Court the GOppers are worried will not vote as they order.

They may not have to worry, considering that in July that reactionary majority approved of what amounts to a poll tax, supposedly banned by the Constitution.

In 2018, Florida voters approved an amendment to the state constitution giving convicted felons who had done their time the right to vote. The right wing state legislature immediately undermined the decision of the voters by requiring that ex-felons must also have paid all fines and fees - even though the state imposes a mind-boggling array of fees on defendants to the degree that at trial level in the case that followed it was revealed that the state has no idea how much those folks owe.

So it's "pay up or don't vote" - which is a poll tax by any reasonable standard - "even though even if you want to pay, we can't tell you how much you owe or for what."

The trial judge blocked the measure only to be over turned by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, allowing this poll tax to go into effect. SCOTUS then refused to hear an appeal, in essence saying "Sure, go ahead, we're fine with that."

Next, you know, I'm sure, about the attacks on the US Postal Service. In late September, documents released in a court case revealed that despite their lies about it, top executives at the United States Postal Service were instrumental in pushing, were the ones driving, strategies that delayed mail delivery at a time when everyone was expecting an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots, delays that could cause unknown thousands of such ballots to arrive too late to be counted.

On October 1, Texas Gov. Greg Abattoir issued an executive order that drop-off balloting locations must be limited to one per county - despite the enormous population differences among counties and despite the fact that Harris County, the state's most populous and a major Democratic stronghold, has an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. Actually, scratch "despite" amd substitute "because of."

Next: For at least 40 years, it has been policy at the Department of Injustice to make no announcements and take no public actions close to an election if the surrounding publicity could potentially affect the outcome.

On October 2, that was changed. Now if a US attorney’s office suspects election fraud, investigators will be allowed to take public actions before the polls close, even if those actions do risk affecting the outcome of the election.

Singled out in the announcement were cases involving postal workers and military employees - in other words, the people who might in some way be connected to mail-in ballots.

Last at least for now, GOPpers in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives are proposing a GOPper-dominated special committee "to investigate, review, and make recommendations concerning the regulation and conduct of the 2020 general election," with powers including subpoenaing witnesses and documents - including, it would appear, as-yet uncounted ballots - and with a goal of recommending legislation even before the election.