(X-post from GD) Montana's voter ID laws may backfire on GOP

[Qutzupalotl]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

I was talking to a Republican committeeman that I'm friendly with. Won't say which county, don't want to give him away. I asked about GOTV. He looked despondent. I asked him what was the biggest problem. What he said in the next tweet:

"The Legislature and the SoS fucked us. They put a lot of people on the inactive voter file, and to become active, they had to either respond to the postcard, or provide proof of residence when they show at the poll."

That didn't seem like a big deal to me. So I said "I thought you guys love Voter ID laws. What's the problem?"

His answer floored me. "The people without the ID in Montana aren't minority and young voters, you can't do anything in Montana without a driver's license, so everyone has one, except for the anti-government nuts who don't want the government to know where they are. They live up in the hills, the house and vehicles are in their wife's names, and they don't have any ID. We let them vote with a mail to their address and register the day of, before. Now the legislature iced out 50-60k of our voters."

Now, this is just one man's opinion, but I hadn't really thought of it that way. A lot of these people turned up and voted day of in 2020, and then didn't respond to postcards. Maybe they just showed up to vote for pot, but they voted solid red up and down the ballot.

This year, they won't be able to vote. Their vote won't count. We only have a limited number of DMV locations (thanks GOP legislature) and they are booked until after the election. So no ID, no vote. It would be hysterical if Sheehy lost because of new voter laws.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1846015477018939641.html

[TlalocW]

1. Replying to bookmark

Hopefully some schadenfreude in November.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Just FYI on Montana's population. This article actually shocked me, that the GOP would go so far, in

restricting its citizens' rights to vote.

Montana Population by Year
In 2023, the population of Montana was 1.13 million, a 0.88% increase year-by-year from 2022. Previously, in 2022, Montana's population was 1.12 million, an increase of 1.49% compared to a population of 1.11 million in 2021.

ME: I didn't realize that there are so few people in Montana, and still, the legislature went so far in dealing w/ voting rights. Isnt's this a little paranoid?

Another place where Garland needs to step in and address, or Congress needs to address, to stop this unprecedented movement in restricting voting.

[MontanaMama]

3. It was a sad sad day when Montana's population

grew to just over a million people. We have Covid to thank for that. And that godforsaken tv series Yellowstone.


ETA: I don’t support any voter restrictions…but if the party of thugs insists on damaging their own voters…all I can say is FAFO. However, this will affect voters on both sides of this thing. As an aside, our SOS office is crooked as the day is long.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Yes, and I always wondered about this, that don't they (repugs) know that they are bound to hurt their own voters?

[MontanaMama]

5. Rethugs are nothing if not short shighted.

It is their superpower.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. One of these days, perhaps one of them (repugs) will explain their logic to me, in cutting voter logs, and their logic

in doing so, w/o impacting their own voters too, negatively.

I'm already expecting some kind of crazy convoluted logic in their explanation to me, sort of like the logic (?) conveyed by djt in trying to explain anything...using his 'weave' technique.

Republicans have never been really good w/ explanations (and I'm biased here, so forgive me (or not!)), when they could say all along that it's solely for the tax cuts for their wealthy friends and that's it. That's all they have to say.

Now of course most people would want a far better rational for tax cuts for the top 1% or so people, such as the very logical one that if the 1% get tax cuts, they wouldn't spend it, thus it doesn't stimulate the economy, whereas if you cut taxes for those making from $25K to $100K, you stimulate the economy much more (have a higher velocity of money in short, the money goes further).