The ND Secretary of State's duplicity over their voting laws is disgusting.

[joshcryer]

So the Supreme Court failed to hear a lower court ruling that stated that residents of North Dakota had to provide a residential address in order to vote. Yaknow, typical voter suppression crap.

The problem is that many North Dakota Native Americans don't have a residential address, they are assigned a PO Box by the USPS.

So the North Dakota Secretary of State's office sent out an appallingly duplicitous letter to the Native Americans of North Dakota.

It starts off with this misleading, offensive attempt to obsfuciate and confuse the matter (no doubt parroted by right wingers especially on sites like Facebook and others):

The same federal and state laws apply to all qualified electors of North Dakota with the exception that tribal members have more forms of ID and supplemental documents available to them for voting than do other qualified electors.

Oh, sounds great, tribal members have all sorts of options proving their residency in the state, right? I mean this sounds reasonable that they have extra forms of identification since, yaknow, tribes are their own sovereign territories and all, so if the tribes can provide IDs and they're accepted, that sounds cool.

In a paragraph shortly after, though, they bring up the "residential address" requirement:

If the information on the ID is incorrect, not current, missing, or is a mailing address rather than a residential street address, the information may be updated by providing supplemental documentation that contains the correct information to the election official distributing the ballot.

They admit that the tribal provided ID doesn't have sufficient information because of the "residential street address" aspect, and they require more supplemental information (thus the tribal members in fact don't have "more forms of ID and supplemental documents available to them, they must conjure them out of thin air).

So what happens to the 18 year old tribe member who lives with their parents, who's tribal ID has their PO Box assigned, who doesn't have a bank account, who doesn't have a utility bill? They're completely unable to be recognized as a voter. They will have to work overtime to prove this information.

Then they add this juicy piece of incoherent rhetoric at the end:

If you encounter anyone who says to you that they do not have a residential street address to provide to either the DOT or the tribal government to obtain an ID, please encourage them to reach out to the 911 Coordinator in the county in which their residence exists to start the simple process to have the address assigned. The North Dakota Association of Counties maintains a list of all 53 County 911 Coordinators. A simple phone call to this individual can start this no charge process that can usually be completed in an hour or less when the individual can describe the location of the home. After the address is assigned, the office assigning it will provide a letter upon request that confirms this new address.

Look at this Google Map view of a location, on an unnamed road, on one of a mobile home park on a reservation: https://goo.gl/maps/yyZJvapnERM2

There are lots of examples like this. So, what am I as a tribal member going to do? Tell the office that "I live on the third street on the right going east on 23 after the intersection of 87th Ave and 23"? Sure. That'll fucking work, of course it'll work.

They won't send anyone out to verify it of course, because the documents they mail will be sent to your PO Box anyway. They might even do what I've done here, look at Google Maps and see if their "description of the location" matches what they're seeing on Google Maps.

And importantly, they're making no efforts to actually reach out to the tribes to get these "residential addresses" assigned. They're making it an active process on behalf of the tribe members to make sure their vote will be counted.

It's utterly disgusting and duplicitous to the core.

[sprinkleeninow]

1. I don't know how much more I can stand to hear.

*They* are so adept at manufacturing crap always and continually.

[joshcryer]

2. Peoples eyes are slowly being opened, I hope.

The depths of their lies and cronyism has been going on for decades but it's finally being opened up for all to see.

[sprinkleeninow]

8. One must needs to have some hoping that most people, as it's said,

employ a modicum of critical thinking skills, even if not that formally educated.

My God, my ancestors came from Europe escaping what was going on there early 1900's. They had no formal education but had an inner 'wisdom', sage-like. They would be utterly appalled by what our country is being turned into.

It's said my maternal grandfather, after embarking at Castle Garden, knelt down on two knees, kissed the ground and exclaimed, "God bless America!"

I tear up when I have remembrance of that.

[sprinkleeninow]

9. I really have a tad resistance saying this. That mb it had to get so bad to then get so good again.

It may not get to overwhelmingly 'good' instantly, but to achieve a state of 'better' would be encouraging.

[joshcryer]

11. In 2008 social media penetration wasn't that big.

In 2016, thanks to Obama, things were going "well." And when things go "well" the Republicans quitely use us to fight ourselves and depress our vote. That's what they did to local government. Meanwhile we bashed the only people keeping it together (the Democrats) and they lost seats one after another in a domino effect.

[sprinkleeninow]

12. It's depressing to know that Dem ideology is what is needed to govern effectively and

with more 'integrity' than any sham of governance that the 'cons' have in their system, and yet people continue to be duped.

I had come to realize that *they* have been methodically dismantling for decades now.

That is disturbing and depressing.

[joshcryer]

13. The problem is that evil and cronyism is successful.

Good and justice wins in the end, but the short term gains for evil are easy. And it keeps happening, over and over again. 73 oil crisis, Black Monday, Savings and Loan, Enron, Dot Com Bubble, Housing crisis, etc.

Every time the Republicans do it, every time we have to clean up the mess. And of course, the way we clean up the mess is because we never have majorities, we wind up putting a piece of tape over the issue, and maybe making it worse in other areas.

Carter was as much responsible for Savings and Loan as Clinton was the housing crisis. Because there's never a perfect fix if you don't have absolute majorities and two terms with the ability to get stuff passed.

[sprinkleeninow]

14. As *they* gleefully uphold *their* ringleader and together *they* line their pockets

with what 'their' scripture calls filthy lucre.

[TwistOneUp]

19. Cronyism

You got dat right! I'm originally from Chicago, so I know from cronyism.

[Skruffy]

4. I agree.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. priority 1 should be straightening out the election system

It is appalling what Repugnants and their judicial puppets have created.

[pat_k]

6. Kick the Democratic establishment into gear - WIN BACK SOS OFFICES!

The feeble efforts to win back SOS offices by the Democratic establishment have been a joke.

From Republican gains in secretary of state posts jolt Democrats (WashPo)

"...Democrats will start out relatively small in this year’s election..."

The massive takeover happened in 2008 (Just check out the Republican Secretaries of State Committee Map Center).

Ok. It's 2018. It took you guys a decade to be "Jolted"?

Why start out "relatively small"? The current state of affairs wasn't enough of a "Jolt" to kick you into high gear?

What is wrong with you! What is wrong with us?

Sometimes I feel like I'm a member of the brain-damaged party.

Unlike the Republican Secretaries of State Committee, which has electing Republican SOSs front and center on their agenda, and on their site, I can't find anything equivalent on Democratic party's counterpart http://www.demsofstate.org

The site has plenty about efforts to strip voting rights, but they just make "statements"... if they aren't out there trying to raise A LOT of money to DO SOMETHING, what good are they? "Issues" are all well and good, but get on the ball! Electing Democratic SOSs should be their front and center battle cry. It should be their reason for existence!

But there is a little GOOD NEWS

At least iVote (below) is trying to do something:

iVote put 5 million into an effort
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/01/25/democratic-group-will-spend-5-million-to-elect-secretaries-of-state-the-latest-front-in-voting-wars/?utm_term=.fd25d9bccff6

iVote site:
https://www.ivoteforamerica.org/secretaries_of_state

It's late in the game, but FWIW, I just donated.

[joshcryer]

10. Yeah, "brain damaged party" should motivate people to vote.

Every thread...

[renate]

5. It's especially enraging considering the population being disenfranchised

THEY WERE HERE FIRST.

If we’re going to impose any system of government on the people who were here first, it should at least be democracy.

[joshcryer]

7. Preying on the weak is their modus operandi.

They know that the effects are minimal at best, and that their constituents don't actually have empathy for their fellow Americans.

[DFW]

15. Republican M.O. is simply "cheat to win."

Deny the vote to people less likely to be white Republicans. What could be more simple than that?

[joshcryer]

16. Yes, they are a den of liars.

And when they're called out on it, they somehow turn it back on you, or make it not to be a big deal. The very fact that we have a dude in the White House who lies literally every day and he's not repeatedly and overwhelmingly called out on it each and every fucking time all day long is a disgrace.

[joshcryer]

17. Do a Google Street View of Parshall, ND. Practically 0 mailboxes.

https://goo.gl/maps/j7PWoTnHpcy

Drag the little person to any street and drive around until you hit dirt paths.

The entire town is assigned a PO Box for their mail. I see a couple of houses with mailboxes but I would bet money that they are elderly people or people who asked for a mailbox specifically for their house and the USPS obliged.

Looking at any government office or business, they all use PO Boxes:

https://parshallndlibrary.com/

https://www.parshall.k12.nd.us/

http://www.dakotaqualitygraincooperative.com/index.cfm?show=16&mid=4

https://www.uqcoop.com/about/contact

http://www.parshallnd.com/contact_us_9.html

That's hundreds of voter aged people who will have to jump through hoops for their vote to be counted. How many will do it?

[dem in texas]

18. Had to use P.O. Box in Kentucky

We used to live in Tennessee, the road in front of our house was called State Line Road for good reason, our side was Tennessee, the other side was Kentucky. Our mailing address was a P.O. Box in the nearest town, which was in Kentucky. We got our electric and phone service from Kentucky, but paid taxes to the Tennessee side. Thank goodness, we didn't have the voter address restrictions that now exist.