You would think that if Republicans were so sure their policies were the right ones for their states and the country, they would want everyone to vote and everyone to be represented. You would be wrong about that.
After Sam Alito opened the floodgates for southern states to revert to the New Jim Crow era, Tennessee legislators rushed to carve up Memphis, the only district represented by a Democrat and comprised of majority Black voters, which they hope will help them have 9 Republicans representing Tennessee in the midterms.
Worse yet, the requirement that voters be notified of any change to their polling place has been eliminated as well. The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government observed that the bill eliminates that requirement and instead requires county election commissions only to publish notice of the redrawn congressional districts on their “official website, if one exists.”
If one exists. Cool.
After TCOG’s article was published, Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins said it was “not his intention to eliminate statutory requirements to provide voter notice of changes to precinct boundaries,” and that reimbursement for those mail notifications was available under a different bill.
He said that the language in SB7001/HB7001 replacing all notice requirements in Title 2 with publishing information on websites may have been “too broad.” So my reading of the actual bill that passed and the fiscal note on the bill creating new congressional districts is that although county election commissions would not be required to mail notices of precinct boundary changes related to congressional districts to affected voters, if they do, they can apply to the state to be reimbursed for the cost.
You see what they did there, right? They eliminated the requirement but allowed reimbursement if the mailing is done to notify voters of their new districts and polling places.
Remember Texas a few months ago? The primary election, run by Allen West (yes THAT Allen West, friend of Catherine Engelbrecht and Ginni Thomas), was a disaster, especially in the Dallas area where the precinct locations changed, and voters were required to vote in their assigned precinct, a different procedure than the countywide availability they had in the past. No one informed them of the changes, and those changes West claimed were available on the Secretary of State’s website were, in fact, not available.
That’s what they’re doing in Tennessee. This is just another way to make sure voters can’t vote.
I reiterate: If Republicans are so sure of winning, why do they have to cheat?
h/t The Tennessee Holler
