Apropos of absolutely nothing but since i can’t think of a better thread, do we have any lawbros that live in Phoenix or are otherwise licensed to practice in AZ? Librarian friend of my sister was assaulted for asking a library patron to wear a mask and they are charging HER with public brawling.
6 Likes
Oops!
Most recent 5-4 podcast had this infuriating tidbit that I hadn’t heard about before:
Texas apparently has a mail-in voting system where you have to write either a drivers license number or the last 4 numbers of your social security number on your mail-in ballot. Which, fine. But the key is that the ID you include on your ballot has to match the ID you include on your voter registration. Which again sounds fine, until you realize [assuming this is framed correctly by 5-4***] that your choice of ID has to match, as well.
That is, if a voter correctly records his/her SS# on the ballot, but they originally used their drivers license number for their registration, those two ID numbers–although both tied to the same voter–will result in a rejection.
This is obviously ridiculous, as anyone who has registered for a wedding reception meal or a conference dinner can attest to. You show up to the dinner and the server asks you if you chose the steak or the salmon - a lot of people aren’t going to have any idea what they wrote on the card 4 months earlier.
Same thing here - when you’re filling out the ballot, how are you supposed to remember whether you used your drivers license or SS# as your ID? And this apparently a material issue - rejection rates in different counties are in the 30-40% range for mail-in ballots.
This is bananas.
****I’m assuming that 5-4 is getting this right, because they’re generally pretty thorough. But I haven’t seen this exact issue discussed in the news coverage I’ve seen. For example:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/03/01/texas-voting-primary-election/
1 Like
They are. Which has caused huge amount of ballot rejections, which of course the people very seriously concerned about confidence in our electoral system just waved off because, of course,rejecting a huge amount of mail in ballots is the point.
3 Likes
My guess is that the people who wrote the law just assumed that everyone who had a driver’s license would use their license number and everyone who didn’t would use their SS#.
It’s a shame we don’t have a federal database of electors like Canada does.
No. Cancelling ballots is the fucking point.
2 Likes
You’re right. Somehow, I thought the law was older.
That’s a mess of partial concurrences and dissents.
Lemme guess: Sotomayor was the 1?
EDIT: Confirmed. Literally the only actually good SCOTUS justice.
https://twitter.com/scotusblog/status/1499402264850534404?s=21
Unfortunate result, but actually seems correct. I suppose the 8-1 suggests that.