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QUESTION GOP Rigs Elections: Gerrymandering, Voter-ID Laws, Dark Money - Rolling Stone

"To say that Republicans are facing a toxic political environment heading into the 2018 midterm elections would be a massive understatement. Donald Trump is the most unpopular president at this stage of his term in modern American history. Just three in 10 Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party, and Democratic voters' enthusiasm to vote in 2018 tops Republican voters' by 17 points. But because of sophisticated gerrymandering, Republicans who should be vulnerable, like Wanggaard, have been seen as untouchable. "It's more challenging than it should be because of the way the districts are drawn," says Jenni Dye, who works for Democrats in Wisconsin's state Senate. Wanggaard is among 11 Republican state senators up for re-election in 2018, but no one has stepped forward to challenge him yet.

Dougy 7 Jan 25
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4 comments

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1

This cheating of democracy is reprehensible and these issues need to be addressed and fixed. I have three proposals that would help to even things out.

First, Washington DC and Puerto Rico ought to be given statehood. Each has more than the minimum population to qualify and currently citizens there are not given appropriate representation. Both would almost certainly vote Democrat which is a very big reason why they have not yet been made states.

Second, Election Day out to be a Federal holiday. It would give most everyone the day off so that the maximum number of voters will have the opportunity to vote. Because high voter turnout is correlated with electoral victory for Democrats, this will help to erode the unfair stranglehold on power that Republicans have. Also, it would give us a day to celebrate our democracy. Patriotic Americans should be proud of this republic. Is one day once every other year too much to ask?

Third, voter registration ought to be automatic. Why add extra hassle? Every citizen should be added to the voter roles without need to request it in advance.

1

“It’s a dirty job, but sombody’s got to do it.” Pennsylvania is currently in the process of “re-re-districting” voting districts after the last few years of gerrymandering, hopefully see some balance in next election. Georgia, Alabama (who didn’t know that) have a long history of voter suppression (or intimidation) with new requirements that seem to change every election.
Gerrymandering and Electoral College needs to be eliminated.

Tomas Level 7 Jan 25, 2018
1

Every day it seems more likely a major revolution will be needed to take our country back. Thomas Jefferson believed the the Constitutional principles would constantly evolve and every generation would face battles. Luckily, the only major conflict was the civil war. When the main promoters of this deranged party, business, see their livelihood is jeopardized things might start to change. It might even take a crash in the stock market to get the ball rolling!

2

The gerrymandering in Wisconsin, which experts call among the most extreme in U.S. history, is but one part of Republicans' stealth plan to stay in office. Since Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican Legislature took power, they've also introduced some of the country's harshest voting restrictions, passing laws that make it harder for Democratic-leaning constituencies to register to vote and cast ballots. At the same time, the state has become the "Wild West of dark money," according to Lisa Graves, a senior fellow at the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy, with Republican politicians like Walker raising unprecedented sums from billionaire donors to finance their campaigns.

"All three of these things have to be seen as part of a whole," says Eric Holder, Barack Obama's attorney general, who founded the National Democratic Redistricting Committee in 2016 to challenge Republican gerrymandering efforts. "Unregulated dark money combined with these voter-ID laws combined with gerrymandering is inconsistent with how our nation's system is supposed to be set up. American citizens ought to be concerned about the state of our democracy. We could end up with a system where a well-financed minority that has views inconsistent with the vast majority of the American people runs this country."

Dougy Level 7 Jan 25, 2018
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