Democracy Clips: February 2, 2023

 

BIG LIE AND ELECTION DENIALISM

 

Dallas County Republicans Question Voting Machines, Lobby For Paper Ballots. “The Dallas County Republican Party says its top legislative priority this session is lobbying for the return of the paper ballot. Local Republicans say that the electronic voting system currently being used may have counted more votes than were actually cast in the 2022 election, despite the Dallas County Elections Department’s saying that is not the case. The GOP points to those votes that rolled in after polls closed and to 188 ‘phantom voter’ errors the state found in the 2020 election as proof that the county’s electronic voting system can’t be trusted.” [Dallas Morning News, 2/1/23]

 

Your Right To Know: Wisconsin Taxpayers Still Paying For Election Fraud Probe Records Fights. “Many people in Wisconsin are under the impression that the disastrous probe into the state’s 2020 presidential election conducted by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman is over, as are its costs to taxpayers. They’re wrong. The probe, conducted over 14 months by Gableman at the behest of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, failed to find any evidence of significant fraud. It did, however, reveal ample evidence of incompetence on the part of Gableman and his team, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), including multiple spelling errors. It also led to contempt charges against both Vos and Gableman, and to a judge’s referral of Gableman to the office that regulates attorney conduct for his disgraceful behavior during a court proceeding.” [Wisconsin Watch, 2/1/23]

 

Arizona Republicans Fear They May Blow It Again. “Kyrsten Sinema’s defection from Democrats should be a golden opportunity for the GOP. But two high-profile 2022 election losers in Arizona are eyeing Senate runs in 2024, sparking angst among Republicans that they will blow an increasingly winnable race. […] Kari Lake, the unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate, is also considering a Senate campaign, but any decision is expected to come after her legal challenge alleging false claims that her 2022 election was stolen is completed, according to a person close to her. The possibility of Lake and Masters entering the political waters once more is complicating the newfound optimism GOP officials felt about capitalizing on Sinema’s recent party switch to independent.” [Politico, 2/1/23]

 

Analysis: Republican Party brings election fraud allegations back into the fold. “Donald Trump wasn’t the first Republican to suggest that American elections were riddled with fraud. Part of the reason his gambit was so successful, in fact, was that Republican voters had long viewed unfavorable election results with suspicion. In 2007, for example, President George W. Bush’s Justice Department announced that a five-year investigation had turned up no evidence of systematic voter fraud in American elections, a probe meant to respond to the hum of allegations from Bush’s base.” [Washington Post, 2/1/23]

 

Top Jan. 6 investigator says FBI, other agencies could have done more to repel Capitol mob had they acted on intel. “The House Jan. 6 committee concluded that the FBI and other federal security agencies could have prevented a violent mob from overrunning the Capitol had they acted on the large volume of intelligence collected beforehand, the chief investigator told NBC News in an exclusive interview — a judgment the committee left out of its televised hearings and final report.” [NBC, 1/31/23]

 

Bias and Human Error Played Parts in F.B.I.’s Jan. 6 Failure, Documents Suggest. “Days before the end of the 2020 presidential race, a team of F.B.I. analysts tried to game out the worst potential outcomes of a disputed election. But of all the scenarios they envisioned, the one they never thought of was the one that came to pass: a violent mob mobilizing in support of former President Donald J. Trump. The team’s work, which has never been reported, is just the latest example of how the Federal Bureau of Investigation was unable to predict — or prevent — the chaos that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Apparently blinded by a narrow focus on ‘lone wolf’ offenders and a misguided belief that the threat from the far left was as great as that from the far right, the analysis and other new documents suggest, officials at the bureau did not anticipate or adequately prepare for the attack.” [New York Times, 2/1/23]

 

VOTER SUPPRESSION AND INTIMIDATION

 

Advocates Fight For NC Voting Rights To Remain In Place For Felony Offenders. “Nasheila Haywood still remembers the first time she voted and that's because it wasn't that long ago. ‘It was so exciting,’ said Haywood. ‘It was kind of exhilarating. It was like kind of a rush of I can do this now.; Voting was far removed from Haywood's mind back when she was serving time in prison. She was released in 2017 and five years later, she was able to vote in the 2022 Midterm Election. It was the first time the 38-year-old ever cast a ballot. That's because a 1973 law previously prevented her from voting as a person on post release from her felony conviction.” [ABC 11, 2/1/23]

 

FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY INFLUENCE

 

Big Oil-Backed Insurrectionist Paul Gosar to Chair House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations. “Today, House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman and the MAGA majority tapped a reliable ally of Big Oil and one of the most vocal supporters of the January 6th insurrection, Representative Paul Gosar, to chair U.S. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Reform. In response, Accountable.US released the following statement, exposing his anti-government extremism and industry ties.” [Accountable.US, 2/1/23]