Well, maybe it's not CNN style fake news, there is some element of truth in the story just not the whole truth. In the article by Mary Anne Marsh "Mary Anne Marsh: Stop making it hard to vote -- midterm elections are too important for such shenanigans several examples are listed of situations that make it harder to vote in the mid-term elections. These include
In Georgia, more than 4,500 vote-by-mail applications are missing in DeKalb County, as well as over 900,000 having been removed from voter registration lists.
In North Dakota, Native Americans can no longer use their legal address, which is a PO Box, for voter registration as they have for years and as recently as the primary.
In Kansas, the only polling place in Dodge City was moved a mile out of town.
In Missouri, thousands of voters received false information about absentee ballots.
In Texas, students at Prairie View A & M University, a Historically Black College and University, have been denied the right to vote on campus or a polling location in their town.
In Georgia, Dekalb County has investigated the claim by Democratic officials of 4700 names of people who have requested for vote-by-mail applications and never received them. Dekalb County officials found evidence of receiving 50 of the request and have not received evidence from the Democrat Party to substantiate claims of the remainder of the request.
At for the 900,000 removed from voter registration list, Georgia employs a "use it or loose it" strategy to keeping the list of registered voters up to date. If you don't vote in two general election cycles, your name is removed from the list of registered voters. 850,000 people who are eligible to vote have been removed from voter registration list, but also so have 417,000 people who are deceased, felons, moved out of state, duplicate registrations or other legitimate causes for being removed. The NAACP has filed a federal lawsuit against this practice that is currently awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court on a similar case in Ohio.
Efforts are being made in North Dakota to tighten the voter ID laws. This is because North Dakota has no voter registration. Voting is based on what precinct you should be voting in, without a valid street address it's impossible to determine the proper ballot for the precinct the voter is from. Here's a quote from the ABC article listed below by Secretary of State Al Jaeger:
"It becomes very difficult if somebody just comes in with a PO box because we have no way of knowing which ballot that they should receive,” Jaeger said, giving examples of how election issues vary in different towns across the state. “Voting is tied to a residential address, and so there's a lot of different ballots."
The North Dakota voter ID law has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
In Dodge City the polling place had to be relocated due to construction and was located a half mile outside the city limits. Dodge City is apparently a small place with only 13,000 voters. While there are no sidewalks or public transportation, the city is providing rides to and from the polling place on election day. How many of us live in larger cities drive more than a half mile to get to our polling place? Is this really such a hardship?
In Texas, the assertion that students "have been denied the right to vote on campus or a polling location in their town" is a blatant falsehood, a lie, fake news, whatever you want to call it. The reality is that students didn't have a polling place during the first week of early voting which last for two weeks. Because they couldn't vote during the first week of early voting five students sued the county. In turn the county expanded the early voting in Prairie View. The students were never "denied the right to vote", in fact the lawsuit was about an equal opportunity to vote rather than being denied the right to vote.
Ms. Marsh goes on to talk about votes being changed in Texas and Georgia. In Texas, officials have been notified of fewer than 20 related issues which have been tied back to operator issues, in all cases the problem was corrected when voters reviewed their ballots before casting them. In Georgia, the problem stems from older voting machines, but again the problem is correctable by reviewing your ballot. Is this really a problem that Ms. Marsh should be concerned about?
But I forgot to tell you anything about Mary Anne Marsh. From the Fox News website
Mary Anne Marsh is a Democratic political analyst and a principal at Dewey Square Group in Boston where she provides strategic counsel for Fortune 100 companies, non-profits and political campaigns.
The Dewey Square Group helps companies communicate a message the way the customer wants the message communicated. They help customers put the proper spin on communications to portray a certain message. I have to wonder if Ms. Marsh got help from the Dewey Square Group to put the spin she wanted on the massage she wanted to portray in her article.
Ms. Marsh is correct about one thing, midterm elections are too important for this kind of shenanigans.
Sources:
State investigating new claims regarding absentee ballot applications
Georgia’s ‘use it or lose it’ voter purge forced more than 850,000 eligible voters off the rolls
North Dakota Native Americans fight to protect their right to vote after court ruling
‘Impossible’: Both sides clash in court over adding second Dodge City voting site
Here’s how to avoid problems with straight-ticket voting in Texas
Reports: Votes in Texas, Georgia are being changed at polls