Tag: voting

Ohio ACLU Slams GOP Plan To Gut Voter-Approved Marijuana Law

Less than a month ago, Ohio voters approved marijuana use, possession, and sales for adults. It was a 57 percent to 43 percent vote, a considerable landslide in voting terms. The margin was not a surprise. Legalization is popular across numerous demographics and, apparently, across the state.

Issue 2 also passed as an initiated statute, not a constitutional amendment. The difference is the initiated statute process, by design, invites some level of input from state legislators. In fact, because it was state law—not the Ohio Constitution—that was changed, legislators have the power to tinker with, improve or entirely scrap all of Issue 2 anytime they want.

No one expects legal sales to start when Issue 2 is officially enacted this week, 30 days after its passage. Understandably, there is a regulatory framework that takes a little time to put together. This is true even if Statehouse politicians were 100 percent on board with every word of Issue 2.

However, “on board” is the opposite of what Senate Republicans have in mind. Before this week, House Bill 86 was a non-controversial bill tweaking state liquor laws. It passed the House 85–6. On Monday, with very little notice, it became the vehicle for the Senate GOP’s planned demolition of Issue 2.

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NY Lawmaker Claims “Smoking Gun” In NYC Migrant Voter Fraud Scheme

A New York state lawmaker says she’s found ‘smoking gun’ evidence that New York City is trying to illegally register migrants to vote in upcoming elections.

“On page 50 of this contract, there is an entire section dedicated to voter registration,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) on Sunday, after she and four other Staten Island Republicans claimed a city contract with a nonprofit hired to run a Staten Island shelter includes a stipulation that voter registration forms are to be distributed among asylum seekers.

“We believe this is the smoking gun that proves what we’ve been saying all along — that the city intends to register non-citizens to vote.”

The contract in question, between the city and Homes for Homeless, governs the operation of the shelter at the site of a shuttered nursing home in Midland beach.

According to Malliotakis, who obtained the document via a state Freedom of Information Law request, includes a provision that the nonprofit will act in accordance with the NYC charter, which states that they “shall provide and distribute voter registration forms to all persons,” which are to be made available in Spanish and Chinese. In another portion, the nonprofit “shall not inquire about a client or potential client’s immigration status” unless it pertains to the services in question.

It is unclear if the language is standard in city contracts for shelter and housing services.

Under city law, Big Apple voters must be US citizens, have been a New York City resident for at least 30 days and be at least 18 years of age before Election Day.

A measure passed overwhelmingly by the City Council in December 2021, opened the door for green card holders and other legal non-residents to qualify to vote in local elections — although not in state or national races — but was struck down by a Staten Island judge.

Supreme Court Judge Ralph Porzio issued a permanent injunction blocking the law in June 2022, but that ruling is being appealed by Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. –NY Post

While it’s unclear if the language is standard in city contracts for shelter and housing services, the city’s Department of Social Services hit back on Sunday, saying in a statement “These allegations are false and baseless. DHS is legally required to include language around voter registration in shelter contracts and this guidance applies only to eligible clients who are citizens, and would clearly not apply to asylum seekers in shelter.”

What?

“They are bringing to you voter registration of people who are here illegally, and as soon as they’re here for 30 days, how is it they’re entitled to vote?” said State Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo in comments to reporters. “What’s the first thing they’re going to vote for? Better hotel rooms?” he quipped.

“How do they even understand the American system of government?“

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Over 140 Mail-in Ballots Discovered from Inactive Mailboxes Across Washington State

Washington county election officials reported the retrieval of over 140 ballots from inactive mailboxes across the state. This incident illuminated critical postal service mishaps just as the nation gears up for the upcoming 2024 elections.

The ballots were found after the November 7 election when vigilant voters who hadn’t seen updates on the status of their ballots raised concerns, King5 reported.

Officials reported finding 87 ballots in King County, 37 in Pierce County, with smaller counts in Clark and Thurston counties.

A concerted effort by election officials confirmed that all but one of these ballots were validly cast for the November 7th elections. Officials emphasized that the count reportedly did not affect the outcome of any races.

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Voting Machine ‘Error’ Flipped Ballots In Pennsylvania Election: Report

A “coding error” was to blame for a voting machine flipping votes in a local election in Pennsylvania earlier this week, a mistake that will likely prompt new criticism of such machines and a call to return to paper ballots.

“A coding error in Northampton County, Pennsylvania’s voting machines, caused a significant issue during a recent election. The glitch resulted in votes being incorrectly flipped on a ballot question concerning the retention of two state judges,” Resist the Mainstream reported.

The malfunction affected votes for candidates running for the Pennsylvania Superior Court, Judges Jack Panella and Victor Stabile, according to The Associated Press. Votes marked “yes” to retain one judge and “no” for the other were switched on printouts from touchscreen ballot machines, County Executive Lamont McClure said, per the AP.

The reports said that the problem was significant, affecting more than 300 voting machines. Voters noticed the glitch after seeing discrepancies on printed records. The AP noted that the Pennsylvania Department of State confirmed that the issue was limited to Northhampton County and didn’t occur in any other races.

“Panella’s votes will be returned to Panella, and Stabile’s will be returned to Stabile,” McClure said, downplaying the severity of the malfunction and referring to it as a “relatively minor glitch.”

“The county has pointed to the voting machine vendor, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), as the source of the error. Katina Granger, a spokesperson for ES&S, attributed the mistake to human error and emphasized that it was an isolated incident, affecting only the judicial retention question in Northampton County,” Resist The Mainstream added.

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Ohio Secretary Of State Forces County To Allow Local Marijuana Vote Despite Prosecutor’s Objection

Ohio’s secretary of state has ordered a county election board to certify a local marijuana decriminalization initiative for the November ballot—meaning that three Ohio localities will be deciding on the reform at the same time voters across the state will have the chance to pass a full legalization measure.

Early voting for military and overseas voters began on Friday. And, on top of statewide legalization on the ballot, voters in the villages of Harbor View, Risingsun and Sugar Grove will also see local initiatives to decriminalize possession of up to 200 grams of cannabis for personal use. That’s a higher possession limit than what would be permitted under the statewide legalization initiative, which would allow adults to have up to 2.5 ounces (about 70 grams).

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) intervened to ensure that Harbor View would see decriminalization on the ballot after the Lucas County Board of Elections voted not to certify the activist-led cannabis measure in light of a local prosecutor’s concerns. After a review, he ordered the board to reverse its decision and qualify what is titled “The OG Wild Bill Marihuana Ordinance.”

Chad Thompson, executive director of the Sensible Movement Coalition (SMC) that has worked to qualify local decriminalization measures in dozens of Ohio cities over recent election cycles, told Marijuana Moment that the board’s initial vote “caught us by complete surprise and we didn’t see it coming.”

Lucas County has historically had a “very supportive” election board that “followed the law,” he said. “Thankfully [LaRose] stepped in and corrected them.”

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How Democrats & Republicans ‘Stole’ Votes From the Greens, Libertarians in 2020

Many things that everyone knows, are not true. Sometimes, quite rarely, one of those widely-believed falsehoods not only turns out not to be true, but obscures the fact that the exact opposite is true.

Most people believe that small political parties siphon off votes from one of the two major parties. Mainstream media repeatedly declares, without bothering to cite evidence because its obviousness rises to the level of self-evident, that Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the 2000 election (not true) and Jill Stein sucked away enough Democratic votes from Hillary Clinton to put Donald Trump in the White House (also not true).

Let us, for the purpose of this essay, set aside the usual counterarguments to the claim that you shouldn’t vote Green they’re just spoilers: no presidential election is decided by a single vote so you can’t possibly individually change any outcome, people who don’t live in swing states really have no reason to worry about tipping an election, parties ought to have to earn votes, voting for a lesser evil is still voting for evil, a little party will never become bigger until we stop overthinking our tactical voting and simply support that candidate and the party we like best.

But—are small parties really electoral succubi? First, a look at Republican losers who blamed third parties for their losses.

Running as a Progressive in 1912, a vengeful Teddy Roosevelt out to punish his former protege for deviating from progressive Republicanism is alleged to have sucked away votes from William Howard Taft. We did wind up with President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat—a result cited as the ultimate example of a third-party candidate splitting a party.

But historians forget to mention that it was a four-way race. Wilson faced his own “spoiler,” from his left: Eugene Debs of the Socialist Party, who got six percent of the popular vote. Taft was such a weak candidate that neither Teddy nor Debs made a difference; Wilson would have won no matter what.

Pundits say Ross Perot created a big enough sucking sound of votes from George H.W. Bush in 1992 to hand the race to Bill Clinton. Pundits are mistaken: Perot pulled equally from the Democrats and the Republicans. Libertarian Gary Johnson is unfairly blamed for contributing to Trump’s defeat in 2020.

Similarly, left-leaning third-parties—since 2000, this has meant the Greens—have never poached from Democrats in big enough numbers to change the outcome. Green Party supporters tend to be leftists like me, who would otherwise not vote at all. If the only two parties on the ballot were the Democrats and Republicans, we’d sit on our hands.

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