Today I learned about ERIC, a national data clearinghouse that helps states keep their voter rolls accurate. It does this by sharing information among states about voters who have moved, changed their registration, mistakenly registered in multiple places, or died.
Since Republicans are constantly complaining about inaccurate voter lists that can lead to fraud, you'd think they'd be enthusiastic supporters of ERIC. And they were until recently. Then they began to drop out. Why?
In January 2022, the extreme right-wing website Gateway Pundit published a series of articles accusing ERIC of being “essentially a left-wing voter registration drive disguised as voter roll cleanup.” It claimed that the program was funded by George Soros — eternally the dark mastermind of every liberal corruption in the right-wing mind-set — and described one of its founders, David Becker, as a “hard-core leftist.” (Mr. Soros has given money to Pew but not to ERIC, not that it really matters.) Gateway Pundit also strongly suggested, without the slightest proof, that ERIC was somehow connected to Democratic Party databases.
....The misinformation worked. One week later, Louisiana dropped out of the program and didn’t give a clear reason. Other states, all Republican-led, began to follow, each with dubious rationales. Some said they didn’t like being required to spend money to reach out to unregistered voters, who they believed (wrongly) are more likely to vote for Democrats. Others cited the Soros conspiracy theory. Florida officials cited undefined “partisan tendencies” and concerns about data security (though ERIC has never had a data breach). The basic theme of all the complaints was distilled in a social-media post by Donald Trump, who claimed in March that ERIC “pumps the rolls” for Democrats.
God almighty. Is there any conspiracy theory that conservatives won't eagerly follow off the cliff of common sense? Apparently not. Gateway Pundit is among the crankiest of the conservative cranks, cavalierly inventing endless gibberish that a five-year-old wouldn't take seriously. Yet MAGA Republicans take it in like holy writ and Republican politicians are afraid to tell them they're being played for chumps by hustlers and frauds. Instead they cave in and ruin a project they themselves had praised only months before. There's just no end to it, is there?
Well, now you know the mental age of a Republican.
I'm sure ChatGPT could write a convincing essay about how AI generated pics and video are only going to make this much much worse.
Back in 2019 Rudy Giuliani and an OAN reporter went to Ukraine to get the goods on corrupt Ukrainian payments to the Bidens. They were spooked by black sedans that kept following them and decided to get out as soon as possible. They were driving to the airport when they discovered the airport was controlled by George Soros. Cleverly, they moved up their private plane rental to that evening. As they took off they saw a car enter the airport and an enraged George Soros jump out.
My god these people are truly delusional!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/23/giuliani-soros-ukraine-trump/
Believing in demonstrably crazy, imaginary shit and then implementing public policy based upon it pisses off liberals, so full steam ahead! That's all they care about these days.
I remember when Obama was saying their fever would break....
I'm pretty sure that what Obama said was that their fever would break the United States....
I used to think there were religious overtones to the party, and then it became cultish. While I'm convinced it's cultish now, they go ahead and become a death cult, with sneakers, and track suits, and spaceships.
I'm pretty sure I'd never heard of George Soros when I decided I had to start voting a straight Democratic ticket. However, if Mr Soros will send me a million dollars, I'll promise to vote a straight Democratic ticket forever, in every state of the union, after I die.
There's just no end to it, is there?
Correct. Next year marks the 60th anniversary of Richard Hofstadter's famous article, The Paranoid Style in American Politics.
Americans aren't more naturally prone to wearing tinfoil hats than other peoples, I think, but their country's political systems seems to accommodate and frequently reward such lunacy more than others.
Just today you learned about ERIC? It's been all over the place the last few months in the WaPo and the Guardian...and also was a pretty big deal before that. Republicans used to love it, just like how they created the "non-partisison" Wisconsin Election Commission to replace the WI Government Accountability Board when they didn't get their way with the GAB. Of course since the WEC doesn't rubber stamp everything they do there have been rumors they want to replace too. Let's put Michael Gableman in charge!
But guess you've been busy kicking cancers ass. Glad the treatment worked out. Keep on blogging on!
One of the requirements of ERIC is that the state to which a person moves must reach out to get that person registered to vote.
Republicans no longer want people to vote so this is clearly part of the liberal agenda to cancel Republicans. /s
Trump's social media post:
All Republican Governors should immediately pull out of ERIC, the terrible Voter Registration System that “pumps the rolls” for Democrats and does nothing to clean them up. It is a fools game for Republicans….And while these Governors are at it, GO TO SAME DAY VOTING, ALL PAPER BALLOTS, AND VOTER I.D. (VOTER IDENTIFICATION). Mail-In Voting ONLY for FAR AWAY MILITARY and those that are VERY SICK! PROBLEMS ON ELECTION’S SOLVED!
Interestingly enough, I endorse all paper ballots. But a digital assistant to help print those ballots is completely fine. And of course, the paper ballots should be machine readable. An audit trail is a good thing.
Voter ID is dumb, because it solves a non-problem. I strongly endorse vote by mail, though. It's at least as secure as voting in person, at least the way we do it in CA is.
Republicans want it to be easier to commit voter fraud. Several have been caught voting for dead people. Mark Meadows and his wife claimed a rusty old trailer as the NC residence on their voter registration after they had sold their NC home.