Feeling Angry, frustrated and outraged that Georgia once again doesn’t have enough voting machines to handle the turnout in Georgia, and people have to wait in line for hours?
We can’t add polling stations, but you can help turnout in Georgia!
Sign up to call newly registered voters and other voters of color in Georgia on Thursday from 3-8 Eastern Time to help make sure these voters know about early in-person voting.
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC):
Early, in person voting began yesterday in Georgia. Sometimes called advanced voting, early voting can help voters avoid crowds or cast their ballot when it’s more convenient for them in the weeks prior to Election Day. Unlike Election Day, Georgia voters do not have to vote at an assigned polling location during early voting.
For this week’s SPLC Virtual Phone Bank, we will be calling newly registered and other voters of color in Georgia to help them find an early voting location nearest them along with the information they need to cast their vote early.
Using your own phone in your own home, you can help make sure Georgia voters know about early in-person voting. Our Virtual Phone Bank will provide you with a complete script, the names and phone numbers of voters, and easy-to-follow instructions to record the results of your conversation.
Register below to join SPLC supporters from across the country to help Georgia voters cast their ballots early in person!
Georgia Early In-Person Voting Power Hour
Virtual Phone Bank
Thursday, Oct. 15
3-8 p.m. Eastern Time
If you’re not doing this, please tell us what you are doing. We can do this.
Update: Promoted from below, a suggestion from Mousebumples for people who cannot contribute to political campaigns, for one reason or another. Food and water for folks who are standing in line to vote! Chefs for the Polls
WaterGirl
Quick note: MazeDancer will continue to illustrate voting plans through October 15. You can see all the illustrations she has done under Election Action! in the sidebar.
Looks like she has illustrated more than 165 voting plans for BJ folks. I’m curious…
If you are posting them on twitter and facebook, are you getting and responses? Seeing other people announce their voting plans after you post yours?
Faithful Lurker
Somewhat off topic. I went to the Balloon Juice ActBlue donations to make a donation to Gary Peters and the ActBlue donation sign is missing for the MI senate race. I went directly to the ActBlue site and did it but someone should put up the rest of the Gary Peters donation imformation.
WaterGirl
@Faithful Lurker: I figured out what you meant and added Gary Peters back in. thanks much for the heads up!
New Deal democrat
This is your periodic reminder that it is entirely within Congress’s power to put an end to this via simple legislation. From the Congressional debates on the 15th Amendment:
On January 28, 1869, James B. Beck, Democrat from Kentucky, discussing the proposed Civil Rights Act, addressed the issue of Congress having the power to set the “time, place, and manner” of voting for Representatives. After declaiming at length about the States having the right to determine who formed their electorate, and to determine the times, places, and manner for elections to the State legislatures, he turned to the issue of elections for the US Congress:
This is a much more cramped reading than that given by Congressman Stewart earlier that same day. To the point, it is unclear to say the least whether the reforms of 1842 which outlawed Statewide general ticket elections for Congress and replaced them with individual districts, would fit within the confines of Beck’s reasoning.
But even Beck agreed that if the states “fail to designate places … or if they are unsuitable or inadequate” for Congressional elections, Congress could and indeed ought to intervene.
Since one form of modern voter suppression is to provide inadequate numbers of polling places, or put them in places difficult to reach, or to provide inadequate equipment at those places where “undesired” voters will cast votes, Congressional action to remove these impediments under Congress’s Article I, Section 4 power is squarely within even Beck’s interpretation.
Source: Congressional Globe, 4oth Congress, 3rd Session, p. 689.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
since the subject is Georgia…
how far up the ass of reality TeeVee do have to be, never mind to believe, but to not be insulted by the idea that this trust fund grifter has a “work ethic”?
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
Based on my experiences trying to reach people applying for disability benefits, it might be better to text. A lot of people won’t answer if they don’t recognize the number.
James E Powell
@a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio:
Completely agree. Though the text should include a number for those who have questions or need follow up.
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “You too can be born into a rich household and ‘work’ in the family business, get plastic surgery to look like your dad’s ideal woman, marry a rich guy who also works for your dad, and then parlay your government connections and secrets into more money for yourself, but only if you work hard at it.”
The Aristocrats!
WaterGirl
@a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio: @James E Powell: Okay, critics. :-)
Give me a link or two to text banking places you have volunteered your time to, and I’ll add them to the post.
edit: or better yet, text banking for GEORGIA.
ceece
an organization I volunteer for: Center for Common Ground with a program: Reclaim Our Vote is also doing phonebank and textbanking to people of color in selected states. We did a ridiculous number of postcards this summer (more than 6 million) but now have switched to phone and text. It’s a great organization, please help them out.
ceece
oh , and if you are into textbanking (recommended for introverts) Resistance Labs is texting for Black Voters Matter and other GOTV campaigns to FL WI MI GA NC and other states this week.
Textbanking is great because you can send a link to state voting info in the first msg. even if they don’t respond to your msg, they still have most of the info they need.
Benw
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: cling harder to the Trumps, my friend!! That’s the ticket!
Mousebumples
https://chefsforthepolls.org/
Sent this to Doug J earlier this am, especially thinking of international Juicers who can’t donate to USA election stuff.
I’m still doing #PostcardsToVoters. I don’t think there are any Georgia races right now, but Ossoff was one candidate i wrote for. ??️
WaterGirl
@Mousebumples: I added your chefs for the polls link up top.
germy
@WaterGirl:
You were looking for a link to Sheldon Whitehouse’s testimony?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjcXVKg43qY
bemused
I can’t imagine waiting in line in all kinds of weather to vote for 5 hours or more in America. Now we are the country no other countries want to emulate.
By the way, serious question, what do the voters do when they need to use a bathroom?
Nicole
Waiting on my next delivery of postcards so I can do Postcards to Voters some more. I was using plain pre-stamped ones from the PO, and I know they’re fine, but I really like the pretty ones PtV has in the Etsy shop and I guess, if I were on the other end, I’d rather receive a pretty postcard as a plain one.
Note to self: remember to get stamps!
UncleEbeneezer
You can also help support the people in lines by sending them some pizza:
https://polls.pizza
geg6
Been doing postcards with instructions for how to fill out the PA ballot correctly and the various options to submit the ballot. I have 60 to do and have about half finished. Hope to get them in the mail by Thursday.
ALurkSupreme
Just voted in Athens, down at the Elections Office. Took more than an hour. Time well spent!
UncleEbeneezer
I just drove by the Pasadena GOP headquarters (in Hastings Ranch, by Trader Joes) and while a month ago there was a HUGE “Trump 2020” banner…now it’s all just “Republican Party, Back The Blue etc.,” without a SINGLE mention of Trump.
opiejeanne
@UncleEbeneezer: Back the blue? We’re the blue!
raven
@ALurkSupreme: I thought it might thin out this afternoon, it was around to the canon this morning
eta. Although if it took an hour it may have still be there. I saw that they had two lines as well.
germy
Total Collapse Of Democracy So Horrifying America Decides It Hasn’t Happened Yet
brantl
Is it possible for the Georgians to recall that asshole in Georgia, that he only got his office by cheating when he was the SOS?
Jesse
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: don’t tell them that “fireside chat” is an FDR thing.
Cheryl Rofer
I voted last week. Forty-five minute wait.
I am working with the county and state Democratic Party texting effort.
raven
@ALurkSupreme: My wife just texted me from there and said it too no time at all! I applied for an absentee so I don’t think I can vote in person until it comes.
Gin & Tonic
@Cheryl Rofer: I talked with our town clerk (early voting starts tomorrow) who said they are accepting appointments. I’ll drive by and see how it looks, and if necessary I’ll call for an appointment. One of the advantages of a small town, I guess.
LuciaMia
@Jesse: “them that “fireside chat” is an FDR thing.”
Make sure Ivanka sits really close to the fire; to neutralize any random virus she might still be shedding.
JoyceH
Guys, can we hold off on calling this line in Georgia ‘voter suppression’? Let’s wait and see what happens. If the lines are like this day after day, then yes, this voting site is under-provisioned and probably voter suppression. But this was the first day of early voting, and what we’re seeing could just as likely be the result of voter ENTHUSIASM. People have been waiting four years to cast this vote and couldn’t wait another day.
LuciaMia
@JoyceH: I like your outlook.
WaterGirl
@germy: oh, yes, thank you! looking forward to that.
WaterGirl
@bemused: I know! I saw this morning that someone waited 11 fucking hours to vote in Georgia yesterday. It’s so wrong.
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: For some reason, I started crying when I went to that website.
WaterGirl
@opiejeanne: No, the other blue.
meander
I suspect that one of the few positive effects of these long lines will be as an educational effort for early voting. Someone turns on the nightly news, sees the long lines, learns that they are for something called “early voting,” and then looks up the details. And maybe goes to early voting an a later day…
Redshift
I’m texting six days a week here in Virginia, where a million people have already voted! We got an update last night that our campaign has sent two million texts! And that’s volunteer texts, not the automated fundraising ones.
mali muso
So here in Virginia, today is the last day for voter registration and the website crashed. Apparently due to a “cut cable”.
Fingers crossed there will be an extension. Given that we have Dems in charge and therefore sane governance, I think it’s a reasonable expectation.
Jinchi
Didn’t the same thing happen in Florida last week?
ALurkSupreme
@raven: Good! The line didn’t look too bad for us when we arrived this afternoon, but things still took a while. Beautiful day to stand outside, at any rate.
Evap
@JoyceH: just what I was going to post! I don’t think the lines are voter suppression. People in the Democrat areas are so eager to vote that tons tried to vote in the first day. Plus it was a holiday for some working folks. My area is heavily Democrat and while there were lines in some voting places, the one near me was fine all day. Fulton county, which is heavily Democrat, had a huge arena seat up for voting and it was apparently easy to vote there all day, few lines.
I think we will see fewer lines next week and the week after.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: @Evap:
Fair point. But I’m pretty sure it’s intentional. Still, I revised the title and the text up top. For the text, I should have used strikeout but I didn’t think to do that at the time, so it’s just revised text
edit: I looked at Stacey Abrams feed and she is still all about getting people signed up to vote by mail and emphasizing the positive. But the phone banking is definitely still needed in Georgia or the Southern Poverty Law Center wouldn’t be organizing it, so I hope some folks here will try it. It’s just one day, this Thursday.
germy
@WaterGirl:
Sorry. I messed up the Sheldon Whitehouse link (I left out the last letter)
Here’s the correct link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjcXVKg43qY
mali muso
@Jinchi: I think in Florida’s case, it was a case of poor design and/or IT support. Here, I don’t really think the officials are out to try to make it harder, but who knows. I saw a post on FB by Mark Herring (AG) that they would be rectifying it and making sure people had fair access.
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
@WaterGirl: if I knew of them, I would! I’ve been doing postcards to voters, myself, as I can fit around my work schedule. Is there a way to pass that on to the SPLC’s folks?
greenergood
OT: just spoke from Scotland with my 90-yr-old mom in assisted living in Pennsylvania – we moved her there from NY in the fall. I asked her if she had a ballot, and she said she didn’t know how to get one – so my task today is to figure out how to get her one – will phone her wonderful (they are expensive but also amazing) assisted living place in the morning – she’s been a die-hard Repug all her life, and now she tells me that if that ‘idiot’ gets back in again we may as well ‘shoot ourselves’ – so I’ll figure her vote out pronto!! It’s just one vote, but it’s a Pennsylvania vote, and it’s one I’ve been waiting for all my adult life!! ;-) Thanks Mom – Rockefeller Republican Dad’s looking down from Heaven saying ‘Thank f— for that, honey …’ ?1?!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@bemused:
Depends.
ceece
@greenergood: I have been texting to PA. The absentee request deadline is Oct 27, you still have time, but the mail is delivering them at a snail’s pace. Many people who requested a month ago still don’t have them. link to absentee request page: here
Once the request is in, you can track it in both directions, there is a link on that same page above.
She can mail it back or have someone take it to the county drop off location.
Good on your mom for seeing the light!
WaterGirl
@germy: the original one still worked! I am watching it now. I love him.
WaterGirl
@a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio: I imagine they have thought it through and they have settled on phone banking as the way to meet a particular need.
I don’t know if they also have text banking and postcards, but what they have this week is phone banking. There are many who think phone banking is better than the others.
Even on Pod Save America last night, Tommy said something like “I don’t think anyone really knows which is the most effective method, so pick the one you are most comfortable with and go with it.”
dww44
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s because he doesn’t have one himself. He made his money the old fashioned way, i.e. climbing the corporate ladder, getting several golden parachute payouts, all so that when he was in a position to actually serve his constituents, he elected instead to front run the system and protect his investments.
As a lifelong Georgian, I can tell you we have never had two such obvious in it for themselves Senators. Plus both are such first class Trump suck ups. If there is any justice, they will both be goners after Nov. 3. It’s looking like Loeffler, though, may have the weakest hand to play. I’d rather he lose, if only one can. Cause that’s a 6 year term. Hers is just for 2 years and then she must run again.
UncleEbeneezer
@opiejeanne: What they mean is “Black Lives DON’T Matter!”
dww44
@raven: You can vote without it. But, the elections supervisor has to cancel it out of the system after confirming that it hasn’t been returned. This circumstance accounts for some of the line delays.
I am training as a poll worker for election day and am currently serving as a poll watcher. It can be a convoluted system from the administrative side. Plus there are not that many BMD’s (ballot marking devices) inside the polling locations because of Covid restrictions. At least that’s what we are being told.
greenergood
@ceece: thks for the info ceece! Will definitely get on it in the morning given what you’ve told me!!
Richard
@bemused: In my country, if we were standing in line for 5 hours to vote, i would have new friends. I would say “can you hold my place? I need to pee”. No problem.
Richard
@opiejeanne: We are the blue. I don’t know who came up with that flag that they wave or that slogan “back the blue “. Remember, early on in this nightmare, those same idiots were saying blue lives matter? And before that they were talking about a thin blue line? Phucomol .
km
Texting and moderating at Indivisible & Biden campaign text sites :) And texting for CA-21 – a very tight race in the Central Valley that I’ve worked for a lot over the past few years. And helping run some phone banks.
I was texting into Georgia yesterday & there was a bit of concern about the long lines. But many positive responses.