I guess it’s lucky for all of us that the United States has no demonstrable problem with the integrity of our national elections, because we can save a lot of money now. From The Washington Post:

At issue is a grants program overseen by the federal Election Assistance Commission and aimed at helping states administer their elections and improve voting systems; Democrats want to continue grant funding through 2019, while Republicans say the program already has been fully funded.



Republicans argued strenuously in floor debate Wednesday that states had plenty of money from prior congressional allocations to spend on election improvements. But Democrats accused the Republicans of abetting President Trump in his refusal to take a hard line against Russian President Vladi­mir Putin at this week’s summit in Helsinki.

It’s important always to keep in mind that voter-suppression has been an important part of Republican politics ever since the parties flipped on civil rights in the 1960s. The late chief justice William Rehnquist made his bones in conservative politics by harassing Hispanic voters at the polls in Arizona, and the current Chief, John Roberts, has been fighting the full implementation of the Voting Rights Act for his entire public career. This isn’t Trumpism. This is modern conservative Republicanism in full flower, trying desperately to cling to its relevance and its power at a time when every major demographic shift is running hard against it.

House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) termed such arguments from Democrats a “shrewd political shenanigan that has no merit to it.”

Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas. Getty Images

Sessions said Congress has fully funded election assistance grants that were created under the Help America Vote Act passed in the wake of the contested 2000 election. He said states still have money left from this year’s $380 million appropriation—and that lawmakers have not been made aware of any outstanding needs as the November midterm elections approach.

Jesus H. Christ on line at the RMV, man. Turn on your damn TV. “Outstanding needs” are all over the place.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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