Tuesday’s Election – Denial and Suppression

Democracy flexed her muscle on Tuesday, in Ohio, with an unusually high voter turnout; 800,000 more voters than in the last odd year election. The reason was abortion and the demographic drawn in were young voters. The pro-abortion rights amendment was voted in by a margin of 56.6% to 43.4%. YES to embedding abortion rights in the state’s constitution. That message is loud and clear. Abortion bans are the line in the sand that will end the GOP… in theory.

We are the majority and this is called a democracy, but the new GOP doesn’t accept the election results it doesn’t like. And rather than adjust their stance to reflect the inclinations of the communities they represent, Ohio officials argue they will not honor the amendment and have vowed to uphold the current six-week abortion ban.

By definition, the United States is not a democracy. The majority here does not rule. In states like Ohio, the minority wields power. Republicans there, in many districts, run unopposed. When republicans dominate local politics, they impose unpopular laws and restrictions, like their near total abortion ban. They do what they want without fear of their next election. Jim Jordan is an example of an unpopular guy who sits securely thanks to gerrymandering.

Planning to override the will of the people underscores our danger of slipping into authoritarianism. Disregarding election results is a blatantly unconstitutional act.

Republicans use many tactics to cheat and retain power:

• Gerrymandering, drawing district lines to give republicans an unfair advantage,
• Tossing voter registrations when Election Day approaches without notification, surprising residents who arrive to cast their ballots,
• Closing polling stations, so voters don’t know where to vote or how to get there,
• Supplying democratic precincts with broken voting machines to keep lines long, in hopes people will leave before voting.

And this happened :

Mississippi’s election on Tuesday was sabotaged. Every predominantly democratic precinct ran out of ballots early on. They replenished the ballots in stacks of less than 100 at a time. Lines wrapped around buildings and down streets, and when polling stations closed, after staying open two extra hours, thousands had not voted. Again, this happened in democratic precincts only.

Guess who prevailed. Mississippi Republican Governor Tate Reeves won reelection and thanked Donald Trump. He won by disenfranchising voters with the “oh, we’re out of ballots” game. This is blatant voter suppression.

Of the handful of red states that held elections this week, Mississippi was the only one won by republicans… and that was because they cheated.

It’s old news now. The media mentioned it, in a blip days ago. There are no talks of rerunning the election, to let everyone vote.

Republican’s attack on voters, women’s autonomy, their refusal to regulate guns, anti-LGBTQ laws, and threats to end Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food assistance programs won’t end well for them.

Democrats had a great day on Tuesday, but what happened in Ohio and Mississippi underscores the importance of voting in every election. That is not enough. We need representation in every precinct. Come on, Gen Z, run for office! Exercise your civic duty. This is your future.

“Former Republican senator turned Newsmax pundit Rick Santorum says “very sexy” issues like abortion bringing out young voters is evidence that “pure democracies are not the way to run a country.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rick-santorum-blames-very-sexy-issue-of-abortion-for-disaster-in-ohio

https://apnews.com/article/0eb722545983da2b8ad979d52c73aa72

https://www.meidastouch.com/news/ohio-republicans-refuse-to-accept-the-election-results