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Stephen Wolf@stephenwolf.bsky.social |
2523 followers 147 following 735 posts
Daily Kos Elections writer covering voting rights, redistricting, election reform, demographics, maps, & political science.
Twitter: @PoliticsWolf
Threads: www.threads.net/@electionswolf
Website: www.dailykos.com/blogs/elections
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Taniel
@taniel.bsky.social
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NEW: You sent bolts many questions, asking how elections work in France & the UK.
Is there gerrymandering? disenfranchisement? what are these runoffs? What's the deal with proxy voting?!
We answered 10 in run-up to this week's big elections: boltsmag.org/how-voting-w...
0 replies 9 reposts 16 likes
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Josh Chafetz
@joshchafetz.bsky.social
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1/ I'm agnostic as to whether Biden should withdraw from the race. It's a genuinely tough question IMO. But I have clarity on one thing: He should absolutely not step down as president. If Harris becomes President, the Vice Presidency is empty. Under the 25th Amendment ...
14 replies 92 reposts 371 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Mississippi news from Tuesday, not 1966:
1) Conservative white officials threatening journalists who exposed massive corruption www.nbcnews.com/investigatio...
2) A federal court overturned conservatives' legislative gerrymanders for discriminating against Black voters www.wlbt.com/2024/07/03/f...
1 replies 13 reposts 54 likes
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Daniel Gilmore
@gilmored85.bsky.social
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The reactionary centrism of the NYT is all in on helping to usher in fascism, which they will continue to frame through anodyne euphemisms
7 replies 33 reposts 165 likes
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Bruno J. Navarro
@brunojnavarro.bsky.social
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She won a Pulitzer for exposing how the country's poorest state spent federal welfare money. Now she might go to jail. "The rabbit's got the gun now," said a lawyer for former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who is trying to force reporter Anna Wolfe to reveal her sources.
9 replies 245 reposts 471 likes
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Miranda Yaver
@mirandayaver.bsky.social
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Trump committed these crimes as a private citizen, prior to becoming president. This is ridiculous.
8 replies 19 reposts 83 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Delaware's Supreme Court has reinstated early voting and the permanent mail voting list, reversing a lower court ruling that sided with Republican plaintiffs who oppose efforts to expand voting access
0 replies 8 reposts 30 likes
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Kevin M. Kruse
@kevinmkruse.bsky.social
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The States Project is one of the best bang-for-your-buck options for your campaign donations. Even beyond it, though, state legislatures deserve your attention. Next time you're tempted to send money to whoever's going to lose to MTG, send it instead to a contested state leg seat.
18 replies 261 reposts 644 likes
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b-boy bouiebaisse
@jbouie.bsky.social
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i think we should see the Trump v. United States ruling as a group of Republican apparatchiks taking their opportunity to vindicate Nixon and write the unitary executive into the Constitution. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/o...
44 replies 303 reposts 1133 likes
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Adam Serwer
@adamserwer.bsky.social
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Nytimes politics desk is just overtly pro Trump at this point. bsky.app/profile/jaco...
24 replies 145 reposts 610 likes
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Popehat
@kenwhite.bsky.social
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There are two elements to the immunity decision that are particularly extreme in a way that many will miss: (1) motive is irrelevant and (2) immune acts are not just excluded from prosecution, they’re excluded from evidence. /1
50 replies 900 reposts 2424 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Five of nine U.S. Supreme Court justices were confirmed by Senates where Republicans had won a majority of seats despite winning fewer votes nationwide than Democrats did.
Data here: www.dailykos.com/stories/2023...
0 replies 3 reposts 12 likes
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Seth D. Michaels
@sethdmichaels.bsky.social
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maybe seizing and arresting the Supreme Court majority for aiding and abetting an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government can be a "core constitutional duty" and an "official act," why not
48 replies 498 reposts 1885 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Republicans repeatedly won fewer votes than Democrats for president and Senate but got to appoint a Supreme Court supermajority that just placed Republican presidents above the law. There's a name for this system of government, but "democracy" or "constitutional republic" isn't it
0 replies 6 reposts 19 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Republicans repeatedly won fewer votes than Democrats for president and Senate but got to appoint a Supreme Court supermajority that just placed Republican presidents above the law. There's a name for this system of government, but "democracy" or "constitutional republic" isn't it
0 replies 6 reposts 19 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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5 of 6 GOP-appointed Supreme Court justices were confirmed by GOP-run Senates where the Dem minority had won more votes & represented more people than the GOP.
3 were also appointed by Trump, who lost the popular vote, & 2 more by Bush, who lost it for his 1st term www.dailykos.com/stories/2023...
2 replies 5 reposts 15 likes
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Adam Bonin
@adambonin.bsky.social
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As Justice Sotomayor explains, today's Supreme Court decision on Trump immunity transforms America from a land of "no more Kings" to one of "no, more Kings."
9 replies 246 reposts 597 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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This is completely antithetical to the bedrock principles of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. This Supreme Court is making Republican presidents into kings who are above the law
0 replies 12 reposts 46 likes
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Seth Masket
@smotus.bsky.social
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YES THAT WORKED SO WELL AND DID NOT AT ALL THROW THE PARTY INTO A DIVISIVE NOMINATION CONTEST AND LOST ELECTION THAT WOULD HAUNT IT FOR THE NEXT HALF CENTURY
90 replies 390 reposts 1936 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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That Kristof suggests Sherrod Brown—making Democrats’ tough path to holding the Senate impossible—to get a nominee just 10 years younger than Biden is so unserious. Same NYT columnist who quit his job to run for Oregon governor in 2022 & was disqualified for failing the state residency requirement
2 replies 13 reposts 76 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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This is a catastrophe for the Voting Rights Act. It's now practically unenforceable in AR, IA, MN, MO, NE, ND, & SD. Plaintiffs won't appeal to the Supreme Court, likely fearing it would dismantle the VRA nationwide. That would let a Trump Justice Department just refuse to enforce the VRA at all
1 replies 15 reposts 19 likes
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Brendan Nyhan
@brendannyhan.bsky.social
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"the Court has begun to implement the policy preferences of its conservative majority in a new and troubling way: by simultaneously stripping power from every political entity except the Supreme Court itself"
8 replies 117 reposts 309 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Gerrymandering gave North Carolina Republicans a supermajority. They just used it to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to ban non-citizen voting—which is already illegal. They refused to repeal the NC constitution's racist Jim Crow literacy test. Very revealing choices in symbolism
1 replies 5 reposts 10 likes
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Chris Ingraham
@cingraham.bsky.social
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Roberts, the man who dismissed basic mathematical facts about redistricting as "sociological gobbledygook"
0 replies 22 reposts 64 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Supposedly nonpartisan pundit: Democrats' unwillingness to denounce their candidate as too old is more breathtaking/consequential than Republicans standing by the fascist who tried to overthrow democracy after losing an election. False equivalence & BothSidesism has been his calling card for years
6 replies 4 reposts 44 likes
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Kevin Elliott
@kjephd.bsky.social
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Here's the big picture: a previous Republican Supreme Court put in place a rule to protect a Republican president's deregulatory agenda. Today, another Republican Supreme Court has gotten rid of that rule, giving themselves more power, because their party struggles to win presidential elections.
0 replies 12 reposts 36 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Reminder: 5 of 6 GOP Supreme Court justices were confirmed by GOP-run Senates where the Dem minority had won more votes & represented more people than the GOP.
3 were also appointed by Trump, who lost the popular vote, & 2 more by Bush, who lost it for his 1st term www.dailykos.com/stories/2023...
0 replies 22 reposts 31 likes
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Joshua J. Friedman
@joshuajfriedman.com
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SCOTUS overrules Chevron, a massive blow to the ability of federal agencies to function. The familiar 6–3, with Roberts writing for the majority www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23p...
22 replies 123 reposts 319 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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If only the rich “centrists” were spending their millions on ballot initiatives to create state-level proportional representation instead of the top-4 “primary” nonsense designed to tear down parties
1 replies 1 reposts 4 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Yeah it’s hardly perfect—party list proportional representation would be a vast improvement—but that’s politically implausible and impossible to adopt for Congress by state action alone. This amendment’s partisan fairness formula should be a strong safeguard & large improvement over the status quo
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Today would be a good day to read @daschloz.bsky.social & @samrosenfeld.bsky.social’s new book, “The Hollow Parties,” on how the evolution of internal organization weakened both formal parties to their own detriment, leaving the Democratic organization ineffectual & the GOP ripe for extremists
0 replies 3 reposts 11 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Those previous measures were shams that Republican legislators passed to block citizen-led reforms, knowing they could still gerrymander. This would remove their control entirely and set a strict formula to ensure maps are fair on a partisan basis. It isn’t perfect, but it’s a vast improvement
0 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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That wasn’t a constitutional amendment and didn’t take redistricting out of the legislature’s hands like this would, though. Very different type of reform
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Denny Carter
@cdcarter13.bsky.social
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new strategies for overthrowing the US government*
0 replies 68 reposts 199 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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WaPo Headline: "Trump allies test a new strategy for blocking election results" "In five battleground states, county-level officials have tried to block the certification of vote tallies — which election experts worry is a test run for trying to thwart a Biden victory."
5 replies 20 reposts 34 likes
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Daily Kos Elections
@dailykoselections.bsky.social
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America's oldest ally is about to hold momentous elections that could usher in France's first far-right government since Vichy, so we've brought @taniel.bsky.social from @bolts.bsky.social on to The Downballot podcast this week to break everything down for us
1 replies 3 reposts 2 likes
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David Noll
@david.noll.org
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As @joshchafetz.bsky.social says, this is a massive election year gift to the Republican Party. Instead of the consequences of right-wing extremism being fully on display, the story will be a "muddled legal landscape" with the suggestion that federal law can save us from red state legislatures.
3 replies 35 reposts 145 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Agreed, some courts have deemed them a "one person, one vote" violation, but nothing definitive from SCOTUS, which would probably do something terrible with its current majority
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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This would take it out of the hands of lawmakers & impose a specific partisan fairness formula, so there's no way Republican legislative/executive officials could pass gerrymanders on party-line votes again. They only got away with it in 2022 because the court couldn't draw its own legislative maps
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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North Carolina GOP is considering a constitutional amendment to require same-party appointees to fill vacancies in elected state cabinet offices. The (Dem) governor currently can pick regardless of party. Possibly a sign the GOP thinks Dem Josh Stein will beat far-right Mark Robinson for governor
3 replies 5 reposts 19 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Supporters say they will submit more than 750,000 signatures. 413,000 of those must be valid, which seems very likely. They also need a certain # of signatures in half of Ohio's counties, a requirement that heavily penalizes Democrats, but abortion rights supporters overcame that obstacle last year
1 replies 2 reposts 10 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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An Ohio campaign to end GOP gerrymandering will submit voter signatures next week for a ballot initiative to amend OH's constitution.
We detailed how the amendment would replace the flawed "bipartisan" system with an independent commission to draw fair maps for 2026 www.dailykos.com/stories/2023...
3 replies 27 reposts 73 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Sure, but 2010 already unleashed restrictions in non-covered states. 2009 Bartlett SCOTUS ruling made drawing VRA-protected districts much harder; many states had racist maps by 2012. GOP won gerrymandered majorities in 2012 while Dems won more votes for US House & in MI, NC, NH, NY, OH, PA, & WI
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Stephen Wolf
@stephenwolf.bsky.social
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Agreed, but that would be unfortunate because it should be 2000 instead. Florida election debacle, the start of frequent minority rule in presidency & Senate, GOP whipping up voter fraud hysteria to reject losses like MO Senate & justify restrictions, Bush politicizing the DOJ to enable them, etc.
1 replies 1 reposts 7 likes
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Kevin Collins
@kwcollins.bsky.social
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SCOTUS says it's okay to bribe officials as long as you pay after you receive the thing you paid for
26 replies 129 reposts 386 likes
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Tyler King
@tylerking.bsky.social
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DeSantis has arbitrarily removed/replaced more elected Democrats from office than any modern Florida governor as a means of usurping the rights of voters in blue districts. Then they attempt to disguise themselves as Democrats to retain office in low-turnout local elections.
1 replies 37 reposts 57 likes
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Don Moynihan
@donmoyn.bsky.social
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Maybe I’m wrong but this feels very much like a consistent editorial choice to commission stories on Biden’s age www.mediamatters.org/washington-p...
29 replies 159 reposts 518 likes
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Coach Finstock
@coachfinstock.bsky.social
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If you needed a handy infographic on just how much journalistic malpractice is going on at everyone's favorite publications
30 replies 433 reposts 949 likes
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Kevin Elliott
@kjephd.bsky.social
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This story is about more than emigration--it's a dissection of the means Orban has used to 'legally revolutionize' the Hungarian regime from democracy to autocracy. There are essential lessons here for everyone interested in preserving democracy
0 replies 10 reposts 31 likes
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Kevin Morris
@kevintmorris.bsky.social
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Eleven years ago, SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act in #ShelbyCounty, arguing that "things have changed" since the 1960s. Today, we know that things have changed since this ruling: namely, that the turnout gap exploded in formerly-covered places 1/n
www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...
4 replies 191 reposts 416 likes