Texas voter fraud bill would ban 'harvesting' of mail in ballots

Texas Tribune:
House Republicans on Thursday struck back at Democrats who in 2011 alleged there wasn’t a need for a state voter ID law because most of the fraud at the ballot box occurs on mail-in ballots.

The lower chamber tentatively approved a measure that would make it a Class A misdemeanor for someone to collect and deposit 10 or more mail-in ballots from other voters during an election. It does not apply to the collection of ballots cast by military service members, their spouses or dependents.

Republicans said that the measure, House Bill 148 by state Rep. Cindy Burkett, R-Sunnyvale, would prevent crimes by eliminating “ballot harvesting,” which proponents of the bill say lead to voter fraud and possible voter intimidation. The bill also prohibits a courier who collects such mail-in ballots from receiving compensation. The measure, which was supported with an 86-41 vote Thursday, is still subject to final approval by the House.

The measure drew contentious debate after Democrats said the measure would create confusion about who is eligible to collect ballots and what argument those people could offer in their defense if they were charged. The bill exempts caretakers in state-licensed care facilities, state-certified facilities and those acting within the scope of their normal day-to-day duties.
... 
Democrats object to this bill too fearing it will inconvenience their operatives.  I am not a big proponent of mail in ballots for those outside the military.  I think they are abused to take advantage of nursing home patients.  For those in nursing homes I would prefer to see someone acting in an official capacity supervise their voting to make sure it is voluntary.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t...
Read more

Is the F-35 obsolete?

Headline USA: Pentagon Fires Back after Musk Calls Its Most Expensive Project ‘Obsolete’ 'Yeah, as I'm sure you can appreciate, Mr. Musk is, currently, a private citizen, I'm not going to make any comments about what a private citizen may have to say about the F-35....'   ... ... Drones appear to be replacing jets for many operations.  The Russia-Ukraine war is an example of that.  Drones are often hard to detect and can be used for intelligence operations as well as for attacking enemy targets.  It would not surprise me to see drones engaging other drones in combat.  They also cost much less than manned fighters.  
Read more