Free Republic

The people of California may get to decide whether prisoners convicted of felonies should be allowed to vote while incarcerated in state or federal prisons in California. The state's Constitution says those serving time in California for a felony conviction must be disqualified from voting until their sentence is complete. But Assemblyman Isaac Bryan — who represents a portion of Los Angeles in the California Assembly and chairs the body's Elections Committee — introduced an amendment Monday that would nix that requirement, allowing those prisoners to vote while incarcerated. "This measure would repeal that requirement regarding the disqualification of electors...

The House on Thursday approved a resolution denouncing socialism in a bipartisan vote that fractured the Democratic caucus. The resolution overwhelmingly cleared the chamber in a 328-86-14 vote. The majority of Democrats - 109 of them - voted with all Republicans for the resolution, while 86 voted against it and 14 voted “present.” The measure, which runs three pages, says “socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has time and time again collapsed into Communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorships.” It argues that “many of the greatest crimes in history were committed by socialist ideologues” - mentioning Vladimir...

A new report indicates that a shortage of paper at multiple Harris County polling places on Election Day was more severe than initially indicated. According to KHOU-TV, 121 polling places did not initially receive enough paper to cover the voter turnout at their polling places. The county’s Elections Administration Office had previously estimated the number as being between 46 and 68 polling places. The county’s post-election review document admitted that its investigation “has not yet revealed how many of these VCs had to turn voters away due to a paper shortage,” using the abbreviation VC for “voting center.” [more at...

The FAIRtax- The lady doth protest too much, methinks! Today’s Chairman’s Report is written by Jade Walle. Jade is a partner of a CPA firm and is on the board of Americans For Fair Taxation. [AFFT] The FAIRtax is once again in the mainstream news given the insistence from certain lawmakers that the FAIRtax Act of 2023, H.R. 25, get a vote on the House floor. This of course will be a red-letter day for the FAIRtax because since its first introduction in 1999, it has never received a House floor vote. Until now, it has languished and died in...

2024 will mark a sorry anniversary for the Republican Party: 20 years since President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign won both the popular and Electoral College votes. That feat has since eluded three GOP presidential nominees and one incumbent. The critical question is, “Are Republicans capable of nominating a winning ticket to halt this embarrassing losing trend?” I doubt it since rapidly changing demographics are reducing the Republicans’ popular vote count in battleground states. In 2016, Donald Trump was elected president by winning only the Electoral College — a political fluke that he did not repeat in 2020. Moreover,...

The voter integrity movement needs to start playing hardball. The big money guys aren't doing it, but we are. If incoming email is any judge, there are large swaths of our citizen friends who want to get involved in fighting voter fraud — "just do something!" Two years ago, most Americans thought phantom voters were comic book characters. Nobody had ever seen one. This week, we reached our 5,000th volunteer request (in 60 days) to help clean voter rolls — and we never asked for a single volunteer. We are just technology guys. Americans are fed up; they get it...

Less than a month removed from serving in Congress, former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois recently spoke about his "detox" from political life, where he stated that he "thanked God" for not being a part of the contentious series of House votes to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California as speaker. Kinzinger, who served in Congress for 12 years and became one of the most prominent voices on the House January 6 committee, appeared on Charlie Sykes' Bulwark podcast in his new capacity as an ex-legislator and a more distant observer of the ins and outs of politics in...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s restrictive new election law significantly shortens the window for mailed ballots to be received — despite no evidence that the extended timeline has led to fraud or any other problems — and that change is angering active-duty members of the military and their families because of its potential to disenfranchise them. The pace of ballot counting after Election Day has become a target of conservatives egged on by former President Donald Trump. He has promoted a false narrative since losing the 2020 election that fluctuating results as late-arriving mail-in ballots are tallied is a sign...

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., revealed on Sunday that he is being placed on the House Republican Steering Committee in exchange for supporting Kevin McCarthy for House speaker. Donalds revealed the new appointment during a Sunday appearance on "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo. His appearance followed an epic 15-ballot election for McCarthy to become House speaker. To become speaker, McCarthy had to make concessions to a small group of hardliners who refused to support him until he yielded to their demands. "I’m frankly just happy that it’s all over with, and that we got something transformational and sound for the...

Illinois lawmakers have changed the state’s election laws to explicitly allow county clerks and other election authorities to verify mail-in ballots using a process a judge had ruled was illegal, as it “would be an obvious way to commit ballot fraud.” Last week, the Democrat-dominated Illinois General Assembly granted final approval to the legislation known as House Bill 45. The legislation makes a number of changes to the state Election Code and the state’s Circuit Courts Act to establish so-called judicial subcircuits and resident judgeships in county courts in and around Champaign and Winnebago counties. However, one of the legislation's...

For the first time in more than 100 years, the U.S. House of Representatives is unable to elect a speaker. Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Rep. Kevin McCarthy on Thursday lost the speaker of the House vote for an eighth time. During the seventh and eighth votes Thursday, McCarthy received only 201 votes, short of the 218 needed for a majority of the full House. Florida Rep. Byron Donalds snatched up 19 votes and 17 votes, respectively. All 212 Democrats voted for Democratic nominee Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., voted for former President Donald Trump both...

As Republicans scramble to seat a Speaker, Democratic leaders are urging their rank-and-file members to remain in Washington for the duration of the process - a strategy that will make it tougher for GOP leaders to resolve their historic dilemma to get the House up and running. Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the incoming Democratic whip, said Thursday morning that she’s calling on members of the caucus to forego any personal plans to ensure that all 212 Democrats are in their seats and voting on the chamber floor, for as long as the process goes on. “And this is not a...

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave the 20 conservative holdouts four more concessions before Thursday’s continued speakership vote. The concessions, negotiated Wednesday night between McCarthy and his critics, are meant to peal several members away from the group of 20 holdouts. McCarthy needs 16 lawmakers to break ranks with the so-called “rebels.” The concessions McCarthy made are significant. Axios and Politico Playbook reported: One member motion threshold needed to force a vote ousting a speaker, instead of five. More House Freedom Caucus members on the House Rules Committee (two seats). Pledges to hold votes on lawmaker term limit and border security...

The Jan. 6 select committee is reportedly planning to vote on at least three criminal referrals targeting former President Trump on Monday, a significant step from the panel as it nears the end of its year-plus investigation. Multiple outlets reported on Friday that the committee will vote to recommend the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against Trump for insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. A spokesperson for the select committee declined to comment when reached by The Hill. The committee is working to wrap up its probe and release its findings before the...

A couple explained how they kept their marriage together amid a tense election on an episode of Dr. Phil released Friday. In an episode focused on bridging America’s political divide, Barbara, a liberal, explained how shocked she was when she found out her conservative husband Rick was about to vote for Donald Trump in the 2020 election. "It floored me, it challenged what I thought I understood about Rick’s beliefs," Barbara said. "When he told me, I felt like the ground was opening up under my feet, and it was disorienting." The wife explained at length that she saw a...

Georgia Lt. Gov Geoff Duncan (R) said he did not vote for either Republican Herschel Walker or Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) in the state’s Senate runoff. “I showed up to vote this morning,” Duncan told CNN’s John Berman on Wednesday. “I was one of those folks who got in line and spent about an hour waiting, and it was the most disappointing ballot I’ve ever stared at in my entire life since I started voting.” “I had two candidates that I just couldn’t find anything that made sense for me to put my vote behind, and so I walked out...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is confident he can narrowly win the speakership in January, even if it takes multiple rounds of voting for it happen. McCarthy said Tuesday that if he does not reach the number of votes needed on January 3 to win on the first ballot — that is, 218 votes if all voting members are present and vote for a person, rather than vote “present” — then he plans to put up a fight to win on subsequent ballots.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that lawmakers will be asked to vote on lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 following a top-level court decision. The country's Supreme Court ruled on Monday that not allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote amounted to discrimination, in line with New Zealand's Bill of Rights. Ardern said that she supported the move, but campaigners admit that it will be difficult to get the 75% support needed from lawmakers to pass the legislation. The court's ruling means that parliament must discuss the issue, but it does not oblige parliament to...

ATLANTA (AP) - A judge on Friday said Georgia law allows counties to offer early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which is the only possibility for Saturday voting before next month’s Senate runoff election between Democratic Sen Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. Warnock’s campaign, along with the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, filed a lawsuit this week arguing that early voting should be allowed that day. They were challenging guidance by Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that said it would be illegal to hold early voting on Saturday, Nov. 26, the day...

For months leading up to the midterm elections, Mark had been imploring his audience on TV and radio to ignore talk of the red wave. The most important thing to do was vote and ignore the static from the pundits. Watch as Mark breaks down the numbers and statistics about why a red wave was unlikely in 2022, but why the numbers help him hold out hope for 2024. Did you catch red wave fever? Did you vote?