Tag: voting

Romania – The first “post-election” democracy?

In December 2024, a Romanian court cancelled the second round of the planned Presidential election and annulled the completed first round, citing (totally theoretical) “Russian interference”.

This caused massive protests in Romania, as you can imagine. The first round had been won by right winger Călin Georgescu following a social media-based campaign, and he was predicted to quite easily win the second round as well.

The Romanian opposition – denied a likely victory – took their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Then, earlier today, the ECHR threw the case out without even hearing it. Apparently, the Romanian courts were perfectly within their rights to simply indefinitely postpone their election on the basis of unproven allegations, and all those people who already voted and wanted to vote again can just go to hell.

This is the ECHR, which lectures the world on rights and democratic norms on the regular.

And everyone is apparently just fine with it. It’s crazy.

Imagine the outrage in the media if Putin or Trump had suddenly cancelled elections they looked like losing because “they weren’t going to be fair”.

Anyway, now Călin Georgescu has been arrested, and his supporters are taking to the streets, while  the Romanian government is set to crack down on “conspiracy theories” and other “misinformation”.

This anti-election narrative is growing outside of Romania too.

Ukraine, of course, hasn’t had any elections in years either. They also outlawed certain political parties, religions and television channels. Meanwhile, laundering billions of dollars/pounds/euros through the Ukrainian government to boost the bottom line of arms manufacturers is considered “defending democracy”.

Last month, former EU chairman Thierry Breton remarked that they had already had to cancel the Romanian elections, and might have to do the same in Germany. (As it happens the “right side” won in Germany, so I guess that election was fair).

To a smaller extent, nine local elections across the UK have been “postponed” for at least a year for unknown reasons.

Keep reading

Ohio GOP Lawmaker Files Bill To Revise Voter-Approved Marijuana Law With Less Sweeping Changes Than Senate-Passed Measure

A Republican Ohio lawmaker has introduced a rival bill to Senate-passed legislation that seeks to amend the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law. And the proposed changes in the House measure are less sweeping—for example, maintaining the current allowable amount of cannabis plans that can be grown at home by adults.

Rep. Brian Stewart (R), chair of the House Finance Committee, is sponsoring the new 120-page cannabis bill.

Unlike the Senate proposal from Sen. Steve Huffman (R) that moved through the full chamber late last month, Stewart’s legislation would not alter a provision of the current law allowing adults 21 and older to grow up to 12 plants for personal use by cutting that amount in half.

However, it would reduce the maximum THC limit for cannabis extracts from 90 percent to 70 percent, as News 5 Cleveland first reported.

The Senate bill would lower the maximum household plant limit for home cultivation from 12 to six, but it similarly calls for the same reduced THC cap. Both bills would also make it so only 350 dispensaries could be licensed in the state.

“While there will obviously continue to be good faith debate and disagreement over the pros and cons of legalization, a majority of our constituents have made it clear to us that they support legal adult-use marijuana that is taxed at a reasonable rate, that is regulated by the state to ensure products are as safe as possible and that can, if desired, be grown at home,” Stewart said during a press briefing on Thursday.

Keep reading

Idaho Lawmakers Approve Measure To Block Voters From Being Able To Legalize Marijuana

The Idaho House passed a resolution on Wednesday seeking voter approval to amend the state constitution and give the Legislature exclusive authority to regulate marijuana.

House Joint Resolution 4 aims to eliminate voters’ ability to legalize marijuana through a ballot initiative. As a resolution, the legislation does not hold the force of law. Instead, it would place a question on Idahoans’ ballot about whether to amend Idaho’s Constitution to allow only the Legislature to have a say in legalizing “psychoactive substances.” A majority of voters would need to vote yes in order for the constitution to be amended.

Currently, a “Decriminalize Cannabis Now” ballot initiative is in the signature gathering process, according to VoteIdaho.gov. If it qualifies, and if the Senate approves House Joint Resolution 4, then both questions would appear on the 2026 ballot, sponsor Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa said.

Skaug said the resolution comes from a place of concern for the “virtue and sobriety” of Idahoans.

“It’s time for Idahoans to proactively decide the state’s fate relative to marijuana, psychoactive substances and narcotics,” Skaug said. “I’m asking that we let our state go on the offense.”

Keep reading

Marijuana Consumers Are Under Attack In Multiple States, And It’s Time To Fight Back

Seventy percent of Americans, including majorities of Democratic and Republican voters, say that marijuana should be legal for adults. Yet this legislative session, lawmakers from both parties are placing cannabis consumers in their crosshairs.

In Republican-led states like Montana, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota, lawmakers are seeking to either repeal or significantly roll back voter-approved legalization laws. In Democrat-led states like California, Maryland, Michigan and New Jersey, lawmakers are seeking to undermine existing legalization markets by drastically hiking marijuana-related taxes.

In all cases, elected officials are treating cannabis consumers as targets, not constituents.

These concerted attacks on state-legal marijuana markets are an explicit reminder that the war on cannabis and its consumers remains ongoing and, in some cases, is escalating. Our opponents haven’t gone away; in many cases they’ve simply regrouped and tweaked their strategies–such as by advocating for arbitrary THC potency caps or calling for new criminal penalties for consumers who don’t obtain their cannabis from state-licensed dispensaries.

Those who oppose legalization have also become bolder and more cynical in their tactics. No longer convinced that they can win the hearts and minds of voters, they are now frequently seeking to remove them from the equation altogether.

Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers in South Dakota sought to repeal the state’s voter-initiated medical cannabis access law, despite 70 percent of voters having approved it. The effort failed, but only by a single vote.

In Nebraska, lawmakers are also considering legislation to roll back that state’s voter-approved medical marijuana law and the state’s Republican attorney general has urged lawmakers to ignore the election results altogether.

In Ohio, GOP lawmakers in the Senate recently approved legislation to rescind many of the legalization provisions approved by voters in 2023. Changes advanced by lawmakers include limiting home-cultivation rights, imposing THC potency limits and creating new crimes for adults who share cannabis with one another or who purchase cannabis products from out of state.

In Texas, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued several cities, including Dallas, for implementing voter-approved ordinances decriminalizing marijuana possession. As a result, local lawmakers in various municipalities–including Lockhart and Bastrop–are ignoring voters’ decisions to rethink their marijuana policies rather than face potential litigation.

Keep reading

Rep. Pete Sessions to Introduce Make Elections Secure Act – Would Eliminate Voting Machines and Ensure Hand-Marked Paper Ballots – Severely Restrict Mail-in Voting

The Gateway Pundit has obtained a draft copy of the Make Elections Secure Act (MESA), authored by Representative Pete Sessions (TX-17), which would repeal the outdated Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.

Among other things, it would also almost entirely eliminate electronic voting machines and ensure each voter casts their ballot on a hand-marked paper ballot with a manual hand-count.  Exceptions for machine use would be permitted for voters requiring accessibility accommodations due to disabilities.

The bill, which would also apply to primary elections, also “restrict[s] mailed ballots to specific eligible voters with stringent verification process.”  As of now, those are outlined as active-duty military stationed outside their voting jurisdiction and those with a physician-certified medical condition that would prevent in-person voting.

MESA would also provide accountability to the public by ensuring “maximum transparency by providing public access to all election processes and comprehensive Election Data, including unscrambled ballot images and cast vote records, with at least five days for officials to upload data.”

During the 2020 election and those ensuing, election officials often denied access to certain public records or quoted exorbitant prices for public records requests.  Garland Favorito and VoterGa have been engaged in a years-long battle to simply examine the physical paper ballots in the state of Georgia for the 2020 Election, despite a Supreme Court ruling that VoterGa did, in fact, have standing to bring their case.  That decision was made in December of 2022, sending the case back to the lower courts where it’s been waiting for an assignment ever since.

Keep reading

Ohio GOP Leaders Claim Bill To Roll Back Marijuana Legalization Law Doesn’t Disrespect Voters

Ohio’s Senate president is pushing back against criticism of a bill that would scale back parts of a voter-approved marijuana legalization law, claiming that the legislation does not disrespect the will of the electorate and would have little impact on products available in stores.

“My definitive message is: If you want to go purchase marijuana products from a licensed dispensary, that is going to be unchanged by Senate Bill 56,” Senate President Rob McColley (R) said on a podcast posted on Friday. “The only difference you’ll notice is the packaging may not look as appealing to children, but you’ll still be able to buy the same products.”

McColley was speaking on a The President’s Podcast, produced and published by Ohio Senate Republicans. He and host John Fortney, the communications director for the Senate GOP caucus, spent the first half of the podcast defending SB 56, which would amend the cannabis law passed by voters in November 2023.

Among other changes, the bill would halve the number of plants that adults could grow, add new criminal penalties around cannabis conduct and remove select social equity provisions in the law.

The Senate approved the proposal on a 23–9 vote last week.

Critics, such as Sen. Bill DeMora (D), who spoke against the measures on the Senate floor, contend that the plan “goes against the will of the voters and will kill the adult industry in Ohio.”

Fortney began the podcast by acknowledging “a lot of controversy around Senate Bill 56,” asserting that “all it did was preserve access to what the voters approved in November of 2023, the initiated marijuana statute, and put some safety and security parameters around it for—of all things, Mr. President—children.”

“The far left, the Democrat narrative, the narrative of the legacy media, has been, ‘Republicans are trying to take away what the voters approved,’ which is patently false,” Fortney continued. “What a lie.”

Keep reading

Oregon Resumes Automatic Voter Registrations After Errors Registered Noncitizens

The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) resumed automatic voter registrations on Feb. 27, saying it had strengthened the system to prevent the registration of noncitizens.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek in October 2024 ordered a pause of the process after an audit discovered some individuals were automatically registered to vote despite not providing proof of U.S. citizenship. Officials later disclosed they’d identified additional individuals, taking the total to about 1,600.

The DMV said it has strengthened its system to minimize the risk of more noncitizens and others who have not provided proof of citizenship being registered. This includes hiring a voter registration integrity analyst and modifying the internal interface, which the agency says will reduce the likelihood of DMV staff selecting the wrong option.

Since the pause was imposed, the DMV has sampled new records and manually compared them with information collected from customers. The DMV said that no new mistaken registrations have been found so far.

“We believe these enhanced processes and permanent system changes, along with DMV’s observations and measurements regarding their effectiveness, provide adequate confidence that data integrity … is sufficient to reinstitute the process,” Deloitte, which the governor hired to review the system, said in a report.

“As a partner to Oregon’s Secretary of State, Oregon DMV is proud of the role it plays in helping U.S. citizens engage in our elections,” Oregon DMV Administrator Amy Joyce said in a statement. “We will continue our work to ensure the Oregon Motor Voter process is more secure and reliable than ever.”

The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office is also trying to prevent noncitizen voter registration.

The office said it has added more steps, including a daily confirmation step.

“The new protections we are adding today will help us catch and fix government data entry errors faster. These are first steps, focused on getting the fundamentals right. I will continue to dig into the system and take action whenever I can to strengthen our voter rolls and prevent future mistakes. Our highest priority is – and must always be – protecting the integrity of Oregonians’ fair, secure, and accessible elections,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement.

Keep reading

Texas Judge Rejects Attorney General’s Attempt To Reverse Dallas Marijuana Decriminalization Law Approved By Voters

A Texas judge has shot down the Republican state attorney general’s attempt to block a local marijuana decriminalization law that voters approved at the ballot last November.

On Friday, 134th Civil District Court Judge Dale Tillery denied a motion for temporary injunction from Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) that sought to undermine the local law by allowing continued enforcement of cannabis criminalization in the state’s third most populous city.

The one-page order from the judge states: “Upon consideration of the pleadings, the application, responses, evidence, and oral arguments presented, if any, the Court finds that the application is hereby DENIED.”

This comes about a month after the Dallas Police Department instructed officers to stop arresting or citing people for possession of up to four ounces of marijuana, in accordance with the voter-approved ballot initiative.

Paxton had filed a lawsuit with the intent to invalidate the law just weeks after the November vote. It’s one of several examples of the state official attempting to leverage the court system to reverse local cannabis reform efforts.

Numerous Texas cities have enacted local decriminalization laws in recent years, and, last January, the attorney general similarly sought to block the reform in Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton.

State district judges dismissed two of the lawsuits—which argue that state law prohibiting marijuana preempts the local policies—in Austin and San Marcos. The city of Elgin reached a settlement, with the local government pointing out that decriminalization was never implemented there despite voter approval of the initiative.

Dallas lawmakers formally put the marijuana decriminalization initiative on the ballot in August after activists turned in sufficient petitions for the reform. Cannabis icon and music legend Willie Nelson had urged Dallas voters to pass the marijuana measure.

Prior to last August’s vote on ballot placement, some members of the Dallas City Council had expressed interest in streamlining the process of decriminalizing cannabis by acting legislatively, but plans to introduce the proposal at a hearing in June did not materialize, leaving the matter to voters.

Keep reading