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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 21, 2024

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One to watch in the betting markets: Virginia.

Beyond the 7 swing states, there really isn't an 8th state that is within easy reach for Trump. Virginia is the closest with a 17% Trump chance.

But, if the election fraud claims are true, Virginia could break a lot more towards Trump than many expect. The Republican governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, has taken a lot of common sense actions to prevent voter fraud. It would be very strange and interesting if Virginia went for Trump while Michigan, Wisconsin, or other "fortified" states went for Harris. Michigan in particular is an interesting case. Supposedly the state has more registered voters than eligible voters.

So a sell Michigan, buy Virginia trade might make sense.

Whatever happens, I think Trump's support in Virginia/Michigan will say a lot about the election fraud claims.

https://x.com/GlennYoungkin/status/1849826145258148113

A federal judge decided VA must allow non citizens to vote. This election is going to be fortified so hard.

The judgement is a fairly uncomplicated application of section c2 of 52 USC 20507 (the National Voter Registration Act) which says that you have to complete voter roll purges at least 90 days before the election. The idea is to ensure that legal voters purged by mistake (based on media coverage, it looks like this is about 1% of the people affected in this case) have plenty of time to re-register.

If Youngkin is going to make a big deal out of this, he should explain why he failed to meet a statutory deadline, given that the election date was known in advance, as was the desirability of removing non-citizens from the rolls.

Because you can register to vote up to 21 days before the election in VA. What good does it do to purge the voter rolls of non citizens 90 days out, and no later, when they can register for another 69 (nice) days?

Next question.

That was literally just explained, so that citizens have time to catch that they have been removed and be added back on. It's that part you just said about fortifying the election, only unironically.

If Youngkin objects to the law, he should lobby for its repeal. Instead he went ahead and did something he's not allowed to do and got smacked down. It turns out you can't just ignore laws you don't like.

Laws that make it illegal to catch criminals should be ignored.