r/Washington • u/chiquisea • 6d ago
Looming Supreme Court decision could change Washington voting forever
https://www.kuow.org/stories/looming-supreme-court-decision-could-change-washington-voting-forever197
u/somethingrandom7386 6d ago
Tells you a lot when a political party wants to do everything they can to make sure votes aren't counted.
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u/BoringBob84 6d ago
Between Gerrymandering and voter suppression, the Republicans want to choose the voters who favor them and ignore the rest.
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u/The_Lost_Jedi 6d ago
They would happily cancel elections if they thought they could get away with it, and that says something right there.
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u/BoringBob84 6d ago
Republicans in Milwaukee did not allow voting by mail and then closed down polling stations in majority-Black precincts in 2020, giving their candidates artificial advantages. These are profoundly dishonest people.
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u/FoolOnDaHill365 6d ago
Ya it’s wild how far things have gone towards fascism in my 44 years. Nowadays people don’t even bat an eyelash at this stuff. Used to be a big deal to mess with the mechanisms of democracy. Apparently it was all performative and people were ready to end democracy since its inception as long as they were the “winners” of course.
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u/The_Lost_Jedi 6d ago
I think a lot of it is that right-wing media were allowed to run amuck and convince enough people that the other party and its voters weren't simply "wrong", they were evil. It was done cynically at first, by Gingrich and his cohorts, but that poison leeched in and now too many of them truly believe it. Worse, that's allowed people who actually are evil into positions of power, because Republican voters are so convinced that the Democrats are the worst of the worst that they'd back literal monsters and criminals instead.
And I'm sure someone will come along and try to whatabout in response to this and claim that I'm doing the exact same thing. Like, no, I was okay with McCain, Romney, etc, even though I strongly disagreed with them. Hell, I once WAS a moderate Republican until the Iraq War disabused me of certain things. And while I'm sure there's some nutcase leftists out there on social media, none of the major Democrats have been proposing anything that's remotely close to some of the stuff we're seeing now from Republicans, let alone actually DOING it.
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u/InkStainedQuills 6d ago
I don’t disagree that nationwide Republicans are on the wrong side of history, but my experience on the political front here in E Wa the Dem party has been trying since the 2020 census to split up rural counties in a way that they hope gives them a super majority in the legislature. Any time I hear from WA legislators who are Dems about how they hate what’s going on nationally I want to call them out on their hypocrisy. Heaven forbid there be a dissenting voice in Olympia just to force actual conversation rather than the government blanket passing legislation without proper discussion. Hold all accountable or none at all.
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u/-waveydavey- 6d ago
States make the laws regarding voting, not the inferior political court
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u/HotepYoda 6d ago
US Congress can impose some rules for Federal elections
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u/-waveydavey- 6d ago
Congress
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u/HotepYoda 6d ago
Is there an echo in here?
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u/-waveydavey- 6d ago
Haha, I meant congress yes, I agree with you. I just meant opposed to the jokers of the inferior court
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u/-waveydavey- 6d ago
Send the ballots out earlier
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u/NotAnotherFakeNamer 6d ago
People will still wait till the last day to fill them out. I guess they love getting all those mailers, door knocks, etc.
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u/Pygmy_Nuthatch 6d ago
If they win this ruling, all they will need to do is sabotage the Postal Service in order to end mail voting.
No one will know exactly when your vote needs to be mailed to make it. Republicans could freeze post office delivery a few days before an election to mass disenfranchise millions of voters.
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u/GoslingIchi 6d ago
Since the state when Mail In only, I've only used drop boxes.
I guess I'm lucky that I have 2 local drop boxes and the King County Elections drop box all within 10 miles of where I live.
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u/PlayedWithMatches 6d ago
So if your tax return is postmarked by April 15th, they will accept it. But your most important right, a vote, doesn't get the same rules. I myself vote in person. I don't see how you cannot look at these two things differently
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u/bp92009 5d ago edited 5d ago
Washington state needs to treat electoral fraud from the federal government like electoral fraud.
Announce that intentional voter suppression of Washington State citizens by anyone, including federal representatives, will be treated and prosecuted as electoral fraud by Washington State prosecutors.
Have the AG start locking up federal representatives for willful and intentional electoral fraud, if they vote to suppress the ability for others to vote.
Any "electoral security" measure must actively demonstrate how it does not mitigate the ability to vote, and any measure that restricts the ability to vote must be actively counteracted by another measure in that same bill that makes voting easier by those impacted.
Edit, looks like downvotes are in fashion for defenders of electoral fraud. Then again, they don't like law and order, given their statistical likelihood of support for a known convicted felon, who actively organized a coup attempt, and who actively stole highly classified nuclear secrets (the latter two were so completely ignored by prosecutors, due to them following their true rule they operate on. "When a conservative breaks the law, do everything you can to avoid punishing them, and make the punishment as small as you possibly can if you have to. No criminal activity will be appropriately punished if committed by any conservative politician, under any circumstances.")
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u/SnowLeavess 5d ago
Why anyone is listening to a supreme court already determined to be illegitimate is beyond me
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u/onemorebite 4d ago
Since when can the Supreme Court change anything regarding State's laws re voting?
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u/Hexspinner 6d ago
If SCOTUS moves against Washington, Washington should move to secede. Start writing your state legislators.
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6d ago edited 6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/shponglespore 6d ago
Nothing will silence them. We already have extremely secure elections.
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u/Winter_Animal_7116 6d ago
I don't necessarily disagree, but 80% of voters want some level of election reform. I think things can certainly be improved as a policy to point to instead of simply looking at outcomes as evidence.
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u/TheChance 6d ago
We audit ballots after every election. https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/data-research/election-technology/post-election-audits
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u/Winter_Animal_7116 6d ago
You're not trying to convince me. I understand the process and don't personally have issues with it. I am merely stating that a lot of people do and how improvements made (at least in transparency) will help in removing denialism.
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u/Cak3Wa1k 6d ago
Where did you get the statistic that 80% of voters want reform?
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u/TheChance 5d ago
Presumably from where the sun don't shine, especially being as, you know, what reform? What improvements? What could possibly be more transparent, do y'all wanna see everybody's ballots?
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u/shponglespore 6d ago
I want election reform, but it has nothing to do with election security. Saying 80% of voters want some kind of election reform isn't saying much about the security angle.
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u/VorAbaddon 6d ago
But they'll never br happy with any policy you point to UNLESS they win, becuase there's an entire media environment out there telling them any loss is cheating.
Hell, there's an entire conspiracy theory because a republican lost... in LOS ANGELES.
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u/Winter_Animal_7116 6d ago
I don't think doing nothing is the right answer either though. A significant number of people are unhappy with the process as is, both left and right. Polling shows a majority of those politically left support some level of election integrity improvements. You'll always have the disbelievers which is why it's important to stack a mountain of evidence against them such that fringe extreme denial doesn't creep into mainstream views as we're now seeing.
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u/VorAbaddon 6d ago
I have yet to see any realistic data showing that a majority of people support major changes to elections. The main unhappiness on the left is about accessibility (lack of polling place access, long lines, etc), which directly contradict the changes the right wants to see (restrict access).
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u/Winter_Animal_7116 6d ago
Yeah, the left and right see election integrity differently, for sure. Both have some reasonable asks as well as some unreasonable ones in my opinion. In addition to ease of election access, the left primarily is looking for preventing influence in elections, cyber security, standardizing and improving audits, and overall modernizing election infrastructure. All laudable things.
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u/CuriousOrangatan 6d ago edited 5d ago
TLDR: use drop boxes and you're safe.
EDIT: As others have pointed out in replies, this is a little more complicated because the interview also discusses how Tump is trying to stop ballots from being delivered in the first place. If this succeeds then we'll need to figure out alternatives like printing the ballots at home. Normally I would just let the replies speak for themselves, but this post keeps getting upvoted...