Latest news with #disenfranchisement
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
‘Tired of Democracy dying': Newsom redistricting push getting pushback for disenfranchising Californians
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom's redistricting effort is receiving pushback from Republicans in the state assembly who are accusing the Democrats of keeping them in the dark and of "disenfranchising Californians." GOP Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo, vice chair of the California State Assembly Committee on Elections, slammed Democrats for giving her "barely 24 hours" to examine the redistricting bill before a Tuesday hearing – while Democrats, she claimed, had advance notice. Macedo vowed to defeat the redistricting push, saying, "We are in the super-minority, but we are effective, and we will defeat this." She added that by the time she received the bill's language as vice chair of the elections committee, several Democratic co-authors signed on. That, she argued, meant Democrats had a first look, while she had "barely 24 hours before committee tomorrow to prepare." Macedo warned that witnesses appearing at Tuesday's hearing could face legal consequences if they refused to answer her questions. "Let me warn anybody who will be testifying tomorrow. If you don't answer my questions tomorrow, attorneys will be making sure you answer them in a courtroom," she said, adding, "You can run, but you cannot hide." Despite Democrats dominating California politics, Macedo pledged, "We are not backing down from this fight." "You are disenfranchising Californians, and we are tired of democracy dying here," she said. "We will fight back." She added that if Republicans are not able to stop the redistricting plans in the assembly, then their victory will be "in a courtroom or it will be at the ballot box." Four GOP state lawmakers have filed a lawsuit in California's Supreme Court to stop the Democrat-controlled legislature from holding a vote by the end of this week to advance the redistricting push. Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez, one of the four Republicans behind the suit, told Fox News Digital that she joined the lawsuit because "Californians have already spoken clearly at the ballot box." "In 2008, voters approved Proposition 11 to take redistricting power away from politicians and give it to an independent citizens' commission," she said. "Two years later, with Proposition 20, voters doubled down and expanded that power to include congressional districts, passing it by a decisive 61% to 39%. Governor Newsom's plan is a direct attempt to undo that mandate and put politicians back in control. I'm standing up because this isn't about partisan advantage; it's about respecting the will of the voters who demanded fairness and transparency." Newsom announced he would advance a redistricting map in California to counter the Texas redistricting bill being pushed by President Donald Trump. On Friday, California Democrats and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) released a new district map that would likely eliminate five GOP congressional seats, theoretically nullifying the five additional seats Republicans would gain if Texas' redistricting push is successful. The California legislature introduced a constitutional amendment on Monday to be brought to a referendum vote in November. If passed by California voters, the amendment would allow the legislature to temporarily suspend its nonpartisan districting commission and move forward with its redistricting plans as laid out by the DCCC. Newsom's office declined Fox News Digital's request for comment, with a spokesperson saying he would "point you to the Legislature given this is about the legislative process." Fox News Digital also reached out to the office of Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Democrat, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Tired of Democracy dying': Gavin Newsom redistricting push facing possible lawsuit
California Republican Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo is threatening to sue over Governor Gavin Newsom's redistricting push, which she says is 'disenfranchising Californians.' (Office of Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo)
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
‘Tired of Democracy dying': Gavin Newsom redistricting push facing possible lawsuit
California Republican Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo is threatening to sue over Governor Gavin Newsom's redistricting push, which she says is 'disenfranchising Californians.' (Office of Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo)
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
‘Profound harm': Veterans blast Trump threat to mail-in ballots that could disenfranchise thousands of troops
Donald Trump's blanket attempt to 'get rid' of mail-in ballots could disenfranchise thousands of American troops inside and outside the United States, a threat that military veterans and advocacy groups have condemned as the president's latest attack on service members. On his Truth Social account Monday, Trump promised to 'lead a movement' and sign an executive order that he claims would target the 'completely disproven Mail-In SCAM.' 'We're going to start with an executive order that's being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they're corrupt,' Trump said in the Oval Office later that afternoon. Nothing in Trump's statements appeared remotely legal or constitutional but marked his administration's latest attempts to restrict voting access and take federal control of election administration. Nearly one-third of all ballots cast in 2024 elections were submitted by mail, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Roughly three-quarters of the 1.3 million active-duty troops are eligible to vote absentee, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program. If Trump tries to implement a total ban on mail-in and absentee ballots, thousands of overseas voters in the military — as well as disabled veterans and troops who cannot show up in person on Election Day — could be blocked from the ballot box. 'By attacking mail-in voting, he is attacking the men and women in uniform who are serving overseas to defend our right to vote, those on base away from their homes, and all of their families,' Marine veteran and VetVoice Foundation CEO Janessa Goldbeck told The Independent. Troops stationed overseas 'could soon lose their democratic voice because Donald Trump demanded it,' she said. For more than a decade, Trump has repeatedly raised bogus claims about mail-in voting, lied about election results, and questioned how elections are run by raising unproven allegations of widespread voter fraud. Trump has done so while casting ballots by mail himself and launching messaging campaigns encouraging his supporters to do the same. His false, ongoing narrative that the 2020 election was 'rigged' and 'stolen' from him has fed conspiracy theories targeting the legitimacy of election outcomes and voting by mail. In 2020, nearly half of Republicans believed that any eligible voter should be allowed to vote by mail if they want to, according to polling from the Pew Research Center. Four years later, only 28 percent of Republicans agreed with that. In response to The Independent 's request for more information about Trump's proposal, including whether U.S. troops and disabled voters would be exempt from threats to mail-in ballots, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields claimed Democrats — not the president — are responsible for undermining election outcomes. 'Democrats have eroded faith in our elections with reckless laws, such as unfettered mail-in voting, illegally changing laws to benefit their voters, and slow-walking the counting of votes far past Election Day,' Fields said. Goldbeck pointed out that mail-in voting 'should not be a partisan issue'. 'Mail-in voting is crucial in having elections that truly capture the voice of the people,' she added. 'When we limit elections to only those who are physically able to travel to their correct polling location, we disenfranchise millions — including those who serve.' Trump's proposal would 'strip away a vital lifeline for democratic participation from the very people who fought for this country's freedoms,' according to Naveed A. Shah, Army veteran and political director of Common Defense, a progressive veterans' advocacy group. The move could also disenfranchise veterans and other American with disabilities, as well as 'the elderly, individuals with disabilities, rural residents, and low-income families who face transportation challenges or health risks,' he told The Independent. 'Ultimately, what President Trump is proposing would lead to increased voter suppression, widening inequities, and undermining trust in our electoral process, which is a disservice to the servicemembers and veterans who have sacrificed so much for our democracy,' Shah added. Trump issued an executive order earlier this year that called for dramatic changes to how elections are run, including directing the Pentagon to require military voters to prove citizenship to cast a ballot from overseas — additional hurdles that the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law called not just 'impractical and impossible for many to meet, but shameful.' Trump's order also tried to block states from counting mail-in ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and arrived later. A federal judge has temporarily blocked Trump's order while a legal challenge is ongoing. Voters who live overseas or serve in the military are largely protected by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which guarantees military members who are stationed abroad can still participate in elections. Last year, Republicans filed a flurry of lawsuits in battleground states to target ballots cast by American voters living abroad — including military service members — by challenging the 40-year-old law. Less than two months before Election Day, Trump raged without evidence that Democrats are 'working so hard to get millions of votes from Americans living overseas.' 'Actually, they are getting ready to CHEAT!' he wrote. Elon Musk also amplified baseless allegations of overseas voter fraud, including sharing a post on X claiming Democrats 'plan to steal elections using 'overseas' ballots.' Those lawsuits were tossed out of court, but Trump's latest threats will likely trigger another wave of litigation. Voting is nearly entirely conducted by mail in eight states, and there already exists a rigorous system of checks and balances, as well as prosecutorial power, to ensure that only eligible citizens are voting abroad. Voters overseas must meet the same identification and registration requirements as all other voters, including providing proof of a residential address in the U.S., under penalty of law, according to the Brennan Center. Martha McDevitt-Pugh, International Chair of Democrats Abroad, said Trump's latest proposal is 'nothing more than an authoritarian attempt to seize control of our election systems, strip away one of the safest and most accessible ways to vote, and lay the groundwork for voter suppression in 2026.' Mark Ritchie and Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat with the U.S. Vote Foundation and its Overseas Vote program called Trump's threat 'unconstitutional, unprecedented, and an attack on the rights of millions of American voters, including our military and overseas citizens.' Trump's latest threat to mail-in voting also came just days after he claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that the 2020 election was 'rigged' because of it. 'He said 'your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,'' Trump claimed to Fox News host Sean Hannity last week. 'He said, 'mail in voting, every election — no country has mail-in voting. It's impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.' And he said that to me … because we talked about 2020. He said, 'you won that election by so much.'' Trump appearing to take the advice of "authoritarian leaders abroad' is 'not only misguided but dangerous,' Ritchie and Dzieduszycka-Suinat said. 'The administration's threats serve only as a distraction from other failings and do not deserve serious consideration.'
Associated Press
07-08-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Disenfranchised at convention, Republican lawmakers sue Montana GOP
Republican legislators disenfranchised at the June Montana GOP officers' convention are asking a judge to restore their voting privileges and force a new election for party leadership. State senators Jason Ellsworth, Denley Loge and Shelley Vanceweren't allowed to vote for Montana Republican Party leadership at the June 28 convention in Helena, where a new party Chair Art Wittich and Vice Chair Stacy Zinn were elected. Ellsworth, of Hamilton; Loge, of St. Regis; and Vance, of Belgrade; say they're being canceled for supporting policies endorsed by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte. All three lawmakers belonged to a minority of Senate Republicans who led an effort to, among other things, renew the state's expanded Medicaid program and back Gianforte's preferred approach to lowering property taxes on primary residences instead of other options supported by hardline Republicans. At the convention, members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, a political action committee, called for the three senators to not be recognized. Caucus member Sen. Barry Usher, R-Molt, made the motion, which then-MTGOP Chair Don Kaltschmidt called out of order. Then, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Jane Gillette, R-Three Forks, called on convention delegates to disregard the party chair's ruling, which they did. Ellsworth, Loge and Vance, who were invited to the convention as Republican legislators and paid for admission, were told to leave. The lawmakers' work with the governor didn't get a mention by either the Montana Republican Party or Freedom Caucus members during the convention. Usher took to social media early in the 2025 legislative session to characterize the lawmakers as collaborating with minority Democrats, disparagingly labeling them the 'Nasty Nine,' a reference to the three plaintiffs and six other Republican senators who frequently voted en bloc during the session. The name stuck. Capitol press lopped off the 'Nasty' and published stories about 'The Nine' for the next four months. 'Frankly, we're confused as to why they're upset. You can't quit the team, suit up for the other side, and then sue the coach for benching you,' said Tyler Newcombe, MTGOP director, in a text. 'By organizing with Democrats, The Nine removed themselves from the Republican Party. All we did was recognize what they had already made clear through their votes and their alliances.' Ellsworth said Wednesday that the bills passed through the Legislature weren't authored by Democrats. He said the legislation was sponsored by Republicans who collaborated with Gianforte's administration on shared priorities. 'They weren't Democrat bills; they were Republican bills that were in the governor's budget. He budgeted for Medicaid expansion,' Ellsworth said. 'He didn't veto it. He didn't change anything. That's a Republican bill.' Ellsworth said that by not being recognized at the convention, the lawmakers were unable to make arguments for who should be party chair. Wittich won the chairmanship by a large margin. A former state legislator and longtime political operative, Wittich told delegates that Montana lacked the feeling of a deep-red conservative state. He suggested a 'conservative governance committee' to hand out party endorsements in primaries. The Montana Republican Party has mostly avoided advocating for one Republican over another in primary races. Gianforte notably put his thumb on the scale in 2024. 'That's something you can bring up, a debate when you're voting for these people,' Ellsworth said. MTGOP 'has always managed to stay out of the fray and now it's being sunk completely into the fray. Ultimately, I think we will end up losing some seats. That's what even Art said, 'We may not have as many members, but we're going to have red members.' Well, define red.' The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Lewis and Clark District Court asks for a legal determination of what the lawmakers' rights are. The Montana Constitution grants legislators absolute immunity for legislative actions, which the plaintiffs argue should have prevented their disenfranchisement and earlier censuring by the Montana Republican Party executive board. The censure issued in April said the lawmakers weren't upholding Republican values, though questions submitted to one lawmaker, Sen. Josh Kassmier, R-Fort Benton, focused more on his interactions with Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, who lost control of his caucus on the session's first day. There's been no censuring of House Republicans who collaborated with the disenfranchised senators to build a bipartisan working majority that included Democrats from both chambers. In the House, the coalition included Speaker Brandon Ler, R-Savage, and Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls. Republican members of the working majority have said that during the session they advanced the priorities of their constituents, not 'party bosses.' At the convention, state Republican Party rules should have prevented the lawmakers from being excluded, Ellsworth said. Ellsworth is a past president of the Montana Senate who was censured during the 2025 legislative session for attempting to award up to $170,100 in government work to a longtime business associate without disclosing the relationship and not putting the work out for bid. The work was to involve monitoring Montana courts as they put into effect 27 new 'judicial reform' laws proposed by Republicans during the 2025 Montana Legislature. Only seven of the bills passed. Ellsworth maintains his innocence, but the Senate consensus was that he violated Senate ethics. Senators banned Ellsworth from in-person participation in legislative functions. He finished the Legislature participating remotely, capable of voting but not debating or asking questions about legislation. Separately, lawmakers referred Ellsworth to the Department of Justice for alleged official misconduct, a misdemeanor, stemming from the contracts. ___ This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
