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When voters arrived at their polling place on March 1 in Azle, Texas, a small city outside of Fort Worth, they saw a framed, printed sign with standard voting instructions: no phones, printed materials allowed. Taped to it was another handwritten sign that read: Sorry No Democrat voting (not staffed).

More than 170 election workers in the county dropped out at the last minute, Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair Allison Campolo told The Intercept. The party did not know how many voters had been stopped from voting at the countys Azle location that day. Across the state, Campolo said, both parties had trouble finding election workers on primary day. But Tarrant County experienced an extreme number of last minute drop offs of available election judges.

According to the Texas Tribune, more than a dozen polling locations in Tarrant County were closed for several hours due to staffing shortages among election judges. Texas is one of several states also including Missouri, Maryland, and Colorado to employ election judges to open and run poll locations, manage poll workers, and settle disputes. Other states call these officials poll workers or election clerks, but in Texas, where election judges have been used for decades, theyre partisan, and during primary elections, they are appointed by the chair of the county political party holding the primary. Numerous states had issues with recruiting poll workers at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the number of jurisdictions that reported difficulty in finding enough poll workers increased by5 percent between the 2016 and 2018 elections. But the number of sudden dropouts in Tarrant County this month was unusual, according to Campolo.

Many of the difficulties with recruiting and retaining election workers for this months primary stemmed from Texass new voting law, known as S.B. 1, Parker County Democratic Party Chair Kay Parr told The Intercept. At least 19 states passed restrictive voting measures in the year after the 2020 election, which Republican officials continue to falsely claim was stolen, but S.B. 1 is one of the nations most restrictive. Enacted by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott late last year, the law bans drive-thru voting, implements new ID requirements for mail voting, ends 24-hour voting, and expands the power of poll watchers. It also puts election officials at risk of committing a felony while carrying out their job duties.

S.B. 1 prohibits officials from soliciting or distributing mail ballot applications to people who havent requested them, meaning that answering questions about filling out a mail ballot or helping voters submit them could now be considered crimes punishable by up to two years in jail and $10,000 in fines. In the eyes of the election judges, Parr said, the law threatens legal liability for human error.

Beyond that, with the elimination of mask mandates in most of the United States including Texas working the polls can be hazardous for the temporary staffers, many of whom are elderly or retired, amid the ongoing pandemic. They are often required to work for more than14 hours onelection days, a taxing shift for any worker. The new law only compounds the difficulty, adding considerable risk to a job that requires long hours, entails tedious duties, and pays minimum wage.

Azle sits on the county line between Tarrant and Parker counties, and both counties have their own rules for designating election officials from either party to assist voters. Parker didnt have issues on primary day, Parr said, but several voters who werent able to vote in Tarrant came to the Azle poll site, about a five-minute drive away, on the Parker County side to try to cast their ballots.

Joe Grizzard, an alternate Democratic election judge at the Parker County polling location in Azle, said he had seen a posting prior to primary day saying that the Tarrant County elections office still needed poll workers. And he was worried about the impact the new law would have on election workers.

The county elections office knew they had problems and they were trying to fix them but they didnt fix them in time, said Grizzard, who has been an election judge for five years. I still have concerns for legal liability for telling someone something wrong or helping someone do something that Im not authorized to do because of the change in the laws.

Other aspects of the new Texas law made it harder to vote even before primary day. Last month, Texas election officials reported that thousands of mail ballots across the state were rejected at unprecedented rates because many people did not include the correct ID number on their envelope, as required by the new law. The number had to match the one they used on their voter registration, whether that was a drivers license number or a partial Social Security number. Harris County, the most populous in the state, rejected 35 percent of ballots received by the mail ballot deadline, Reuters reported, compared to a rejection rate between5 and 10 percent in recent years. Applications for mail ballots were also rejected at similar rates due to missing or incorrect ID numbers.

The Department of Justice sued Texas over S.B. 1 in November, arguing that the law would disenfranchise some eligible mail voters based on paperwork errors or omissions immaterial to their qualifications to vote. The case is expected to conclude before the general election, but the timeline is still in flux. In December, Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria and Cathy Morgan, a volunteer deputy registrar, filed a complaint in federal court against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Both women represented by the Harris County Attorneys Office, outside counsel, and the Brennan Center argued that the provision that criminalizes helping someone vote by mail criminalizes constitutionally protected speech.

Several weeks before the primary, an appeals court stayed an injunction against the portion of S.B. 1 that criminalizes solicitation of mail ballots. The matter is still pending in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Unless courts reinstate the injunction, the problems are likely to persist through the runoff and the general election in November, said Andrew Garber, a fellow with the Brennan Centers voting rights and elections program. Were going to continue to see mail ballots rejected at high rates because its confusing, he told The Intercept. People are going to continue to be confused, fill out the wrong form, miss information on the form that could be resolved if the qualified election officials were able to print out public notices and preemptively help people do that.

Texass law was designed to create this exact disenfranchising outcome, Garber said, and similar problems are likely to arise in at least 18 other states including Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Iowa that joined Texas in passing restrictive new voting laws. It makes the process of voting harder so that the end result is fewer people can vote.

The shortage of poll workers has certainly been made worse in Texas by some of the laws that have been passed, according to Parr. Our poll workers have fear of being sued now because of all of the national attention that voting got with the last election and the lies about the voter fraud. Its harder for us to get poll workers. And that, combined with the lies and Covid, its made it much more difficult for us to get the experienced judges that we need for our poll sites for both parties.

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Texas Voting Restrictions Take Their Toll: Sorry No Democrat Voting - The Intercept

KALAMAZOO, MI Carol Heflin will be remembered as someone who was an ardent supporter of women, for helping those less fortunate and as someone who never shied from standing up for causes she believed in.

The former chair of the Kalamazoo County Democratic Party, Heflin died at the age of 67 on Tuesday, March 15, just three weeks after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, her family and friends confirmed earlier this week.

Heflins husband of 30 years, David Heflin, preceded her in death after succumbing to early onset Alzheimers disease in January 2021.

Carol was just a furiously strong and ardent advocate for women, said Michelle Zukowski-Serlin, a friend of Heflins for 35 years.

She worked alongside Heflin on numerous causes such as supporting Medicaid-funded abortion, making marital rape illegal and participating in organizations like the National Organization of Women (NOW) and events such as the Kalamazoo Area Womens Festival.

Whatever she believed in, she put her whole self into, Zukowski-Serlin said. Whether it was feeding the homeless in Bronson Park, taking people into their home when they were in need, fighting for human rights. Carol was there and she didnt have to be asked. She was always fighting for people.

Heflin, who is survived by six children, was involved in numerous political campaigns throughout her life and met her first husband while attending an anti-war rally in the 1970s when she was in her late teens, her daughter Lynneea Brown told MLive.

Growing up, it didnt take long before Brown, now 35, realized her mother was different from most other moms.

One of the first tell-tale signs, Brown said, was when she was just 5, and her mother pulled her out of school to meet President Bill Clinton. That same year, Brown also recalls standing on the steps of Kalamazoo City Hall alongside current city commissioner Don Cooney, carrying a sign for living wages.

Nobody elses kids were out knocking on doors, handing out flyers, Brown said. She was born politically active, something she got from my grandmother, and now she has six kids and 21 grandkids who are doing or going to be doing the same thing.

Heflin worked on national, statewide and local campaigns. They included, among many others, those of former attorney general candidate Amos Williams, former Gov. Jennifer Granholm and former state Rep. Ed LaForge.

Its hard to remember all the things she was involved with, said LaForges widow, Ann LaForge, one of Heflins closest friends and a former business partner. She was never too busy or had so much on her plate that she would not reach out and help someone who needed it.

Heflin and Ann LaForges friendship began when the two worked together at a small community newspaper east of Kalamazoo. At the time the paper folded, they had been working on a project focused on the rise of women-owned businesses.

LaForge recalls Heflin asking their boss if the two could take the work they had done with them and use it for another project. That project became known as WomaNet, a publication the two produced for a few years in the mid-late 90s that served as a directory for women-led businesses and organizations in Southwest Michigan, as well as a community resource guide for women in need of crisis intervention or who may be experiencing domestic violence.

Her passion for helping those in need did not stop with her political voice, or the publication.

She had a much expanded version of what family is, said her son, Shawn Malone, 45. It wasnt just blood. Anybody who was down on their luck, in a marginalized community. She was the first person to bring them into the family. Growing up, I cant think of an Easter or Thanksgiving where there wasnt somebody who was there that we didnt know.

At one point, we had a young woman living with us with her child, who had been been abused by her boyfriend. She stayed with us a few months until mom was able to help her get on her feet. Thats just who she was. She was all about How can we really make a difference in peoples lives every day?

That commitment carried over to catering meals for the homeless, both when there was an encampment at Bronson Park in 2018, and for months afterward when the encampment was no longer visible, said her friend Cheri Bell, an Oshtemo Township trustee.

Without fanfare, she reached out to congregations and people she knew cared about that issue, organized, cooked and delivered meals for weeks for the people in Bronson Park, Bell said. The issue of whether or not that was an appropriate place for the encampment, what did it mean for the city, none of that mattered.

Her care and concern was about the individuals suffering on the ground, and that is where she came from as a human being.

That care is what also led Carol and David Heflin to open their Dowagiac restaurant Foodies Fresh Caf that they owned and operated for about seven years on holidays and prepare free meals for community members in need, Brown said. Her mother would also routinely hire people who were in the early stages of recovery and try to help them up.

Champions and heroes sometimes are the people doing the work that you dont see, Bell said. And Carol Heflin, while sometimes she had a more public persona than others, she was always doing the work to lift up people in need whether she was out front or not.

A memorial service for Heflin will be held at 11 a.m. May 21 at the band shell in Portage.

Also on MLive:

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Peregrine falcon chicks could hatch before your eyes, on live cam high above downtown Kalamazoo

Walk to End Homelessness will support Kalamazoo nonprofits $100K fundraising goal

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Kalamazoo County Democrat Carol Heflin remembered as advocate for women, those less fortunate - MLive.com

Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty

Failing in the polls and struggling to craft a compelling message ahead of this Novembers elections, Democrats are turning to a new strategy. Or, really, an old strategy: health care.

Placing health care front and center paid dividends for Democrats in 2018 and 2020, when they won both chambers of Congress and the White House after spending monthsand millionsreminding voters that Republicans had just worked tirelessly to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

But as the 2022 midterm season ramped up, Democrats had little fodder to revive that playbookuntil Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) opened his mouth.

In a March 7 interview with Breitbart News, Johnson said that if Republicans took control of Congress in 2022, they could actually make good on what we established as our priorities.

Can Three New Words Save Democrats From Disaster?

And Johnson went straight to Obamacare as an example. If were going to repeal and replace ObamacareI still think we need to fix our health-care systemwe need to have the plan ahead of time so that once we get in office, we can implement it immediately, not knock around like we did last time and fail, he said.

The Wisconsin Republican, who is up for reelection in November, later attempted to walk back those comments, saying he was not suggesting repealing and replacing Obamacare should be one of those priorities.

But by that point, it was too late. Democratic organizations had already blasted out a seemingly endless stream of press releases about Johnsons comments, designed to put vulnerable Republicans on the spot.

House Democrats official campaign arm, for example, quickly sent out a half-dozen emails about it. GOP getting more honest about their agenda, the release said, before asking if 16 different Republican congressional candidates in various states agreed with Johnson.

Democrats arent expecting to get eight months of mileage out of an offhand comment from a rank-and-file senator. But Johnson isnt the only Republican still talking about repealing Obamacare.

Story continues

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), chairman of the Senate GOPs campaign arm, recently put out a plan that proposed raising taxes on low-income Americans and ending all federal programs, including Social Security, Medicare, and presumably the ACA, unless Congress can reauthorize them.

Why Republicans Are Starting to Love Health Reform

Those developments have cracked open the door for Democrats to pivot toward an issue that, perhaps more than any other, allows them to set up the contrast they want with Republicans.

One of the things we have to do is remind people whose side were on, said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI). And the stakes couldnt be higher in this election because Republicans have already demonstrated what they want to do.

Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who helped set the partys messaging on health care in several election cycles, argued that Democrats have seen over and over how Republicans keep putting their hands on the hot stove, again and again when it comes to health care.

That may be the case for some, but GOP leaders and campaign organizations decided long ago to avoid the issue, after the political winner turned into a surefire political loser. Virtually no Republican in a competitive race in this election year is on the campaign trail professing their passion to destroy the health-care law. In fact, many GOP candidates have even adopted Obamacares most popular parts in their own health-care messaging.

Because of that, its hard to imagine Democrats Obamacare-focused pitch having even close to the same effect it did in 2018 or 2020. But some Democrats believeor, at least, hopethat Republicans will continue burning themselves on that hot stove. And they are trying to create as many opportunities as possible for them to do just that.

A Democratic aide, speaking anonymously to candidly describe party strategy, told The Daily Beast they cant emphasize enough how important the health-care contrast will be for the party in 2022.

Unequivocally, Democrats are going to hold Republicans feet to the fire on this, and make this an issue for them they have to own and talk about, the aide said.

Asked about the partys strategy on Obamacare, Chris Taylor, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the DCCC plans to remind voters frequently about the GOPs stances on health care.

Democrats want to lower the costs of medicines, protect health care, and lower costs for families, Taylor said. Were going to make sure voters know the difference between us and them.

GOP Plows Forward on Plans to Kill Obamacare, Pandemic Be Damned

Its a good time for Democrats to refocus on favorable turf, given that the current political landscape is bleak for the party as the midterm season heats up. And with the anniversary of the law coming up next week, national and state level Democratic Party organizations have a slate of events planned to keep it on the agenda.

The slumping of their legislative agenda on Capitol Hill, plus the growing political challenge posed by inflation, have forced Democrats to engage in some public soul-searching over what, exactly, their pitch will be to voters.

The chair of the DCCC, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), has candidly acknowledged Democrats communications struggles. The problem is not the voters, he said last week. The problem is us.

Its much smarter for the Democrat in charge of House campaign strategy to talk about the failings of his party than to just ignore them. But for Democrats, to play the inflation political game is to lose: they can propose as many solutions as they like, but even if they pass, current inflation is a global phenomenon with complex causes.

Republicans know that, in just hammering home the problem and blaming the party in power, Democrats risk looking insensitiveor just out-of-touch if they minimize the impact of rising costs or reject the blame.

And so, Democrats are now trying to talk about inflation, but through the frame of health care. Increasingly, Democrats are framing their health-care talking points in the kitchen-table language of costs.

That might help bail Democrats out. One strategist with access to recent polling information found that voters have given Republicans a 5-point advantage on reducing inflation. But they gave Democrats a 10-point advantage on reducing the cost of health care.

A recent press release from Building Back Together, a Democratic political group, highlighted Johnsons comments while declaring that President Joe Biden is laser-focused on lowering costs while congressional Republicans unveil plans to increase strain on working Americans.

GOP Senator Denies Wanting to Raise Taxes... After Releasing Plan to Raise Taxes

Democrats believe that the COVID pandemic has only underscored that advantage, and that their programs to rein in individuals health-care costslike the ACAwill look even more essential to voters as prices increase on all manner of goods and services.

The biggest problem for Democrats, however, might be that they havent yet made good on their lofty promises to enact significant changes to lower health-care costs.

The partys marquee legislationthe multi-trillion dollar package formerly known as the Build Back Better Actwas supposed to carry measures to lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand Medicaid.

That legislation fell apart last year after months of talks. Democrats are hoping a last-ditch effort to pass a narrower package with health-care measures could succeed, but the odds are not especially good.

Leaving Democratic candidates empty-handed on the campaign trail is a nightmare scenario for many in the party. But right now, operatives insist that the party will not lose credibility with voters if they dont make progress in expanding health-care access and lowering costsmostly because they are confident they can persuade voters that Republicans would do much worse.

Democrats have a credibility contrast no matter what happens when it comes to the issue of health care, said Jess Floyd, president of American Bridge 21st Century, a major Democratic super PAC. She noted a number of GOP Senate hopefuls in key swing states who have taken actions to dismantle Obamacare, previewing the potential attack lines for Democrats later in the year.

Most Democrats emphasize that health care is just one key component of a broader message that, if successful, could shore up the partys cred with pocketbook-focused voters.

The party would be overjoyed if they could spend the next year just running against the policy plan proposed by Scott, the Senate GOP campaign chair. His proposal to give Americans skin in the game by imposing taxes on those who dont pay them was a gold mine for the party.

The plan quickly became such a lightning rod that many Republicans, including Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-KY), publicly distanced themselves from it. A national GOP strategist told The Daily Beast that Scotts plan was incredibly dumb, which is why you havent seen many serious Republican candidates across the country embracing it. Faced with such criticism, Scott has defended his plan as a defiance of Beltway cowardice.

In a brief interview in the Capitol, Scott downplayed Republicans designs on health care. Notably, Obamacare is not mentioned once in his 11-page document, and he affirmed his support for keeping protections for patients with pre-existing medical conditions.

I dont think the Democrats have anything to attack us on, he said, arguing that Democrats are not doing anything to make sure people get health insurance, theyre not doing anything to fix Medicare.

Of course, congressional Democrats tried for the better part of a year to give millions more people health insurance. Some, like Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), believe that the politics of the issue are so bad for Republicans that they wouldnt even take a pass at Obamacare, or other key health-care programs, if they had the chance.

When we won in 2018, health care was front and center. Its an issue that affects everyone, regardless of what their political ideology is, whether theyre political or apolitical, Kildee said. Republicans will make a mistake if they decide theyre going to threaten health care again. Well make sure people know that.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Democrats Want to Party Like Its 2018 and Push Health Care - Yahoo News

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As previously announced, the Tallahassee Democrat will end printing of its Saturday edition as we continue to respond to readership trends.

While our dedication to covering the Big Bend hasn't changed, readerhabits have. Many people still enjoy the printed paper, but these days, more and morepeople want to readnews as it happens on their computer, tablet or phone.

More: Tallahassee Democrat making Saturday edition digital starting in March

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As Saturday newspaper goes digital, here's everything you need to know about the change - Tallahassee Democrat

If you believe the talking points of Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration, Americans are seeing high gas prices through no fault of theirs but because of two reasons Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinRepublican senators introduce bill to ban Russian uranium imports Hillicon Valley Invasion complicates social media policy Defense & National Security Blinken details Russia's possible next steps MORE's invasion of Ukraine and the price gouging of selfish American oil and gas producers.

This outrage is laughable because Democrats areactively pursuingat least 17 energy tax increases that would raise prices for families and small businesses.

President BidenJoe BidenRepublican senators introduce bill to ban Russian uranium imports Energy & Environment Ruling blocking climate accounting metric halted Fauci says officials need more than .5B for COVID-19 response MORE's fiscal year 2022 budget includes a dozen tax increases on American energy. The Democrats' socialist tax-and-spend bill,Build Back Better, includes several tax hikes on energy including a home heating tax. Progressives like Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth WarrenThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - What now after Zelensky's speech? Senate panel advances Biden Fed nominees to confirmation votes On The Money Fed starts hiking rates as prices climb MORE (D-Mass.) and Sheldon WhitehouseSheldon WhitehouseGas prices lead to tensions within Democratic Party Senate unanimously approves making daylight saving time permanent Carole King to discuss forest fires before Oversight subcommittee MORE (D- R.I.) want a 50 percentwindfall profits taxon oil and gas businesses.

Higher taxes do not just hit businesses they are also passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices. Raising taxes on corporations as Democrats have repeatedly proposed will hit families and businesses through the increased costs of basic goods and services.

The Democratic push for higher taxes on American energy producers and manufacturers will see the price of gasoline and energy increase, despite the fact that consumers are already facing record-high gas prices. In the past 12 months, gasoline has increased by38 percent, while energy has increased by25.6 percent.

However, things would be much, much worse if Democrats have their way.

First, Bidens FY 2022 budgetincluded30 tax increases totaling $3.5 trillion. This included roughly a dozen tax increases on American energy, which the left routinely characterized as tax loopholes.

However, these provisions promote manufacturing jobs and American energy independence. Repealing them would only lead to higher prices, less investment and fewer jobs. For instance, the deduction for intangible drilling costs (IDCs) allows independent producers to immediately deduct business expenses related to drilling such as labor, site preparation, repairs and survey work.

Asnotedin a 2014 study by Wood Mackenzie Consulting, repealing the deduction for IDCs would cost 265,000 jobs in the long-term.

The study notes the elimination of IDCs would also result in a $407 billion reduction in investment, or roughly 25 percent of the capital used by producers to continue investing in new projects. This would mean even less oil andhigher pricesfor American consumers.

The Democrats trillion dollar socialist Build Back Better proposal doubles down on this approach with several tax increases on American energy including a 16.4 cents per barrel tax on crude oil and petroleum products that would raises taxes by nearly $13 billion and an $8 billion home heating tax.

Americans understand that these taxes will increase energy costs according topolling conducted by HarrisX, 66 percent of voters believe these energy taxes will increase energy costs, compared to just 12 percent of voters who do not think it will increase costs.

This is not the only way prices would go up the legislation also includes $800 billion in tax increases on American businesses that would further exacerbate inflation and raise prices for consumers.

More recently, Democratsproposeda windfall profits tax which would impose a 50 percent tax on the difference between the current price of a barrel of oil and the average price per barrel between 2015 and 2019. This could raise taxes by as much as $450 billion over the next decade and would be used to finance a new welfare payment, that in combination with other Democratic policies, will pay people not to work and drive inflation.

A windfall profits tax has been tried and failed in the past. It was signed into law in 1980 by Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterWhy it's time for Black women state supreme court justices Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Walter Mears dead at 87 Administration eyes re-regulation of rail industry; would magnify supply chain problems MORE but was repealed eight years later. The Congressional Research Service hasnotedthat the windfall profits tax was an extremely complicated tax to comply with and administer, that it generated a fraction of the revenue projected and that it raised the cost of gasoline and increased dependence on foreign oil.

The Democrat's tax obsession is not limited to energy they want to use higher taxes as the solution for everything. They have pushed a global minimum tax agreement based on thebeliefthat we should be partnering with Europe, China, Russia and the rest of the world to ensure businesses pay their fair share. They havepusheda 95 percent tax on American pharmaceutical manufacturers as a solution to lower the cost of medicines. They have pushed afinancial transactions taxon every single stock trade as a solution to get tough on Wall Street and even proposed atax on businessesthat do not pay their workers $15 per hour.

While Democrats are playing politics with high energy prices and rampant inflation in general, the bottom line is their policies of higher taxes, more spending and more regulations make these problems worse, not better.

Alex Hendrie is director of Tax Policy at Americans for Tax Reform.

Continued here:
If Democrats have their way, gas prices will surge even higher | TheHill - The Hill