Going one step beyond to the real scheme of things, involving the possible loss of another 35- or 40,000 American lives before election day, is the continuing Republican battle to keep voters away from the polls.
It’s still tough to understand why Donald Trump is urging the continued prevalence of coronavirus prior to the 2020 election. The poorly-timed spasmodic “reopening” leaves the specter of manslaughter continuing to slink about disguised as “politics.”
I figure we’ll be seeing a big no-mask “hero Donald” push on the vaccine issue not long before election day . . . filling the fall with empty promise.
Here is the beginning of a June story from The Hill, https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/501577-heres-where-your-state-stands-on-mail-in-voting “As the coronavirus pandemic continues to grip the country, more states have embraced mail-in voting as a way to prevent large crowds from gathering at polling places.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended states encourage voters to cast ballots through the mail and a number of governors and elections officials have begun taking steps to make doing so easier while litigation over the issue continues.
But President Trump and other Republicans have suggested the practice invites fraud, despite studies suggesting otherwise.
“Five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah — currently conduct elections almost entirely by mail.
The rest of the states can be divided into two categories: those that allow any registered voter to apply for mail-in ballots, and those that require an excuse. Increasing voting by mail also comes at a cost for states. Though the CARES Act allocated $400 million in election assistance for states, experts say more is required, even as states face budget fallouts spurred by the sudden economic crisis.”
Meanwhile, Texas is recognized as a key swing state in the coming election. It has 38 electoral votes (to Washington’s 12). The Texas Supreme Court ruled around March 1 that being afraid of contracting the coronavirus alone is not a “disability” and therefore all self-identified able-bodied people living in the state must gather at a polling location. However, Texas voters are still able to self-identify as disabled without having to produce evidence.
Last year, Texas led the U.S. south in an unenviable statistic—closing down the most polling stations and making it more difficult for people to vote and arguably benefiting Republicans. Trump and his crowd would love to emulate this operation all around the country.
A report by civil rights group The Leadership Conference Education Fund found that 750 polls in Texas had been closed statewide since 2012. A Guardian analysis based on that report confirms what many activists have suspected—the places where the Black and Latinx population is growing by the largest numbers have experienced the vast majority of the state’s polls-site closures.
At up to 10,000-plus voters per polling station this is no small matter. Such closures threaten to exacerbate Texas’ already-low voter turnout rates to the advantage of incumbent Republicans.
Others of the 50 states have their own peculiarities, including the unsupported lies by Donald Trump about fraud; and they also make interesting reading on the Internet.
