And another day of staggering impacts, gerrymandering, mail-in voting laws, allowing legislatures to overturn elections, subpoenas, Omicron deaths, and seeing what else the child tax credit did comes to a close:
“Don’t trust the person who has broken faith once.” — William Shakespeare
Deaths
US: 905,661 (+3521)
World: 5,668,110 (+11,353)
Cases
US: 75,271,402 (+576,069)
World: 370,441,419 (+3,594,832)
We uncovered the impact of GOP voting restrictions in one key state. It's staggering. “States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared last year. Facts on the ground in Georgia tell a different story. A new data analysis by Mother Jones shows that the number of voters disenfranchised by rejected mail ballot applications skyrocketed after the GOP-controlled legislature passed sweeping new restrictions on mail voting last year. The law enacted in March 2021 shortened the time people have to request and return mail ballots, prohibited election officials from sending such applications to all voters, added new ID requirements, and dramatically curtailed the use of ballot drop boxes, among other changes. During municipal elections in November, Georgia voters were 45 times more likely to have their mail ballot applications rejected—and ultimately not vote as a result—than in 2020. If that same rejection rate were extrapolated to the 2020 race, more than 38,000 votes would not have been cast in a presidential contest decided by just over 11,000 votes. In November 2021, Georgians who successfully obtained mail ballots were also twice as likely to have those ballots rejected once they were submitted compared to the previous year. If that were the case in 2020, about 31,000 fewer votes would have been cast in the presidential election. This data from a key swing state suggests that voter disenfranchisement caused by GOP-backed voting restrictions could significantly increase in 2022 and 2024. People who vote in local elections are usually highly informed about how the voting process works and should be the least likely to have their ballots rejected, so the true impact of the GOP’s cutbacks to voting access will likely be felt even more in the fall, when a larger and less experienced electorate casts ballots.
How gerrymandering makes the US House intensely partisan. "Here in Austin, what the Republicans did was pack as many Democrats into as few districts as possible in order to shore up as many other Republican districts as they could to cement their majority in the Texas congressional delegation for years to come," Texas state House Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner said while walking down an Austin street. Regardless of the approach, gerrymandering is all about elected officials trying to keep their power by manipulating the makeup of the population that they represent, thereby making it easier for their party to win. The consequences are severe. Lawmakers in both parties speaking candidly admit that gerrymandering House districts is one of the big reasons that the chamber has become more partisan over the last several decades.
Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law unconstitutional, appeals court finds. In an opinion from Judge Mary Leavitt Friday morning, Commonwealth Court found that the law, which allows all Pennsylvanians to vote by mail without an excuse, was unconstitutional, agreeing with 14 House Republican lawmakers who filed suit against the law in September.
Arizona bill would allow legislature to overturn election results. An arch conservative member of Arizona’s state House of Representatives has proposed a mammoth overhaul of the state’s voting procedures that would allow legislators to overturn the results of a primary or general election after months of unfounded allegations and partisan audits. The bill, introduced by state Rep. John Fillmore (R), would substantially change the way Arizonans vote by eliminating most early and absentee voting and requiring people to vote in their home precincts, rather than at vote centers set up around the state. Most dramatically, Fillmore’s bill would require the legislature to hold a special session after an election to review election processes and results, and to “accept or reject the election results.” — Republicans know they can’t win without cheating.
Jan. 6 committee subpoenas fake Trump electors in 7 states. The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection subpoenaed more than a dozen individuals Friday who it says falsely tried to declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election in seven swing states.
“A major music service picking Joe Rogan over Neil Young is everything Neil Young has been warning us about for fifty years.” — Seth Masket
Omicron drives US deaths higher than in fall’s delta wave. Omicron, the highly contagious coronavirus variant sweeping across the country, is driving the daily American death toll higher than during last fall’s delta wave, with deaths likely to keep rising for days or even weeks.
Sweden decides against recommending COVID vaccines for kids aged 5-11. "With the knowledge we have today, with a low risk for serious disease for kids, we don't see any clear benefit with vaccinating them," Health Agency official Britta Bjorkholm told a news conference.
US appeals court overturns convictions of former bankers prosecuted for rigging interest rates. It means that what has been prosecuted as interest rate rigging in the UK is not regarded as a crime in the US. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that it was not against the rules to seek to influence the estimates a bank submits of the cost of borrowing cash. That directly contradicts a key British appeal court ruling that was used to prosecute 24 traders, nine of whom were jailed between 2015 and 2019.
The expanded child tax credit briefly slashed child poverty. Here's what else it did. For six months, the United States experimented with an idea that's new here but is already a backstitch in the social fabric of many wealthy nations: a monthly cash payment to help families cover the costs of raising children. Less than a year in, though, this U.S. experiment, known as the expanded child tax credit, has already been unwound by a deadlocked Congress. Still, it's worth asking: What did it accomplish? Here's what the data tells us.
The benefit reached more than 61 million children in December
The payments cut monthly child poverty by roughly 30%
The expansion gave more help to millions of kids who needed it most
Families spent the extra cash on basic needs
The monthly payments slashed food insufficiency by a quarter
There's no evidence the money drove caregivers to quit working
The expanded credit also cost a lot more taxpayer money
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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