Apparently the political stink of the day is that Republican Senators blocked the passage of a highly partisan bill titled the "For the People Act."
The bill was designed to give the Federal Government greater control of the election process in Republican dominated states.
Left wing loons are claiming that failure to pass a highly partisan bill is itself an act of voter suppression.
I don't buy the argument that blocking a partisan voting bill is an act of voter suppression.
Voter legislation shouldn't be passed by a partisan vote. Voter legislation, more than any other legislation, should have input from all people.
During the 2020 election, unelected officials (many of whom received funding from George Soros) imposed new election procedures. The procedures appear to have been designed to favor progressive candidates.
Many believe that the changes made by unelected officials opened US elections to election fraud. In response to these fears, Republican controlled legislatures reasserted their control of the election process.
A primary drive for the current legislation is a claim by Stacey Abrams that her Republican rival in the Georgia election won the election by suppressing the vote.
Specifically her rival had purged the voting roles of inactive voters.
NOTE: If a person found that there record was purged on election day, the would be able to cast a provisional ballot. There was not a lopsided number of provisional ballots. They would not have turned the election.
We currently have claims that there was massive election fraud in 2020. Stacey Abrams claims that there was voter suppression.
I dislike both election fraud and voter suppression.
I want to put forward the observation that there is a substantial difference between these two problems.
Voter suppression happens before and during an election. People can actually see it happen.
Americans are known for being pretty loud. Since voter suppression is visible, people can see it and they will scream about it.
Election fraud, however, is a different beast. Election fraud happens after the casting of a ballot. Voter fraud can happen by injecting fake ballots into the system. Voter fraud can happen by destroying ballots. Voter fraud can happen by encouraging people who are ineligible to vote to cast votes. It can happen when ballot harvesters pay people to vote.
Voter fraud is more problematic because it is not visible.
I do not claim that the United States is free of voter suppression. However, I think it is far more important for legislators to guard against election fraud (the invisible enemy) than to pass national legislation against voter suppression (a visible problem).
Who Should Regulate the Vote?
The US Founders believed that local governments were more important than the national government; therefore, they gave the state legislatures power over local election laws.
This system was problematic in that legislators are prone to pass laws that favor their faction.
The term "Jim Crow" refers to a systematic campaign of disenfranchisement by Democrats in the Southern US. This campaign not only involved corrupt laws, there were thousands of lynchings primarily of black men. The victims were usually Republicans and Independents.
During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, the Democrats finally switched position on segregation. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
The Civil Rights Legislation depended on forcing states to change oppressive election laws.
Civil Rights legislation created a more balanced system where election laws were passed by the states. The Feds would step in to counter egregious misconduct.
During COVID19, unelected officials enacted sweeping changes to the election system. Some of these people had received support from George Soros. It is possible that the changes opened the US election system to voter fraud.
I think that Republican Legislatures were correct to reassert their control of the election system.
I can see some argument for national regulation of elections; however, I think the founders got it right. Local elections should be more important than national elections. The election process should be run by the people who live in the local community and regulated by the State and not the Federal Government.
I decided to post this in ProofOfBrain #POB because I believe that the human brain matters more than the voter count. Our political system should start with the brain of individuals and work outwards.
A system that starts with the Federal Government government and works down the people is bound to be top heavy become corrupt.
Yes, the Feds should step in when there is obvious voter suppression or voter fraud. This is an exception. The rule should be to start local and work outwards.
A Final Note on Disenfranchisement
In the political theater of the day: Democrats are screaming that they are the victims of Voter Suppression. Conservatives are screaming that they are victims of election.
There is one group that is disenfranchised in the United States.
I am an unaffiliated voter. Like a growing number of Americans, I dislike both parties.
But, when one looks at State and Federal Legislatures, one sees only Democrats and Republicans. Non-partisan voters are completely disenfranchised.
For the picture I grabbed a section of a public domain image from Wikicommons. The picture was published in Le Petite Journal in 1906. It depicts a race riot in the Jim Crow South. Click the picture to see the full image.
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