H.R.1, which contains voting protections and much else, just passed the house, 220 -210.
Late Night Open Thread – H.R. 1 Passes The HousePost + Comments (65)
This post is in: Open Threads, Voting Rights
H.R.1, which contains voting protections and much else, just passed the house, 220 -210.
Late Night Open Thread – H.R. 1 Passes The HousePost + Comments (65)
by Adam L Silverman| 73 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Open Threads, Right to Vote, Silverman on Security, Voting Rights
Yesterday conservative news, social, and digital media, as well as the President’s campaign went into freakout mode because the US Attorney (USAO) for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, David Freed, issued a statement that nine absentee ballots submitted by members of the US military voting for the President had been first lost and discarded and …
by Betty Cracker| 162 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Politics, Right to Vote, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Voter Suppression, Voting Rights
As we all know, Trump is trying to steal the election by (among other things) buggering the postal service. Rep. Ted Lieu understands the scale of the emergency, and he says everyone who’s voting by mail needs to mail in their ballots by October 22: The House cannot adequately fund USPS without the consent of …
What’s your voting plan?Post + Comments (162)
Some states/counties provide secure 24/7 drop-boxes to collect mail-in ballots. Others don’t but will accept them at the supervisor of elections office. So maybe the best approach is to review your county’s supervisor of elections site to familiarize yourself with the rules in your location.
It’s also a good idea to periodically check your registration status, particularly if you live in a state that has a Republican governor and/or secretary of state. Brian Kemp was only the most recent Republican to blatantly steal an election by purging eligible voters from the rolls.
In 2000, then-Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his corrupt Secretary of State Katherine Harris set Jeb’s brother George up to steal the 2000 election with massive, flawed voter purges.
That’s why I’ve periodically checked my voter registration status for the last two decades. (I’ve never been purged, maybe because I’m a white lady with a name that screams, “I’m a white lady.” Florida’s Republican governors tend to be demographically selective in their purges.)
So, here’s my voting plan: when my husband and I receive the mail-in ballots we requested, we’ll fill them out immediately and drop them off at the 24/7 lock box our county provides. It’s a longish drive to another town, but what the hell — it’s a scenic drive.
This plan ensures we won’t have to depend on the USPS to return our ballots on time. It also means our votes will be banked, even if we die in a plane crash before November 3. (The plane would have to crash into our sofa — we hated flying even before the pandemic.)
In our county, the supervisor of elections has to mail ballots to voters no later than 33 days before election day. When you return it, there’s an online portal where you can confirm your ballot was received and tabulated, so we’ll be doing that. If we don’t receive our ballots by mid-October, we’ll visit the supervisor of elections office in person to investigate the delay.
If the mail-in ballots never show up, we’ll go to the polls in person on election day and demand the right to exercise our franchise. I’ll hand-cuff myself to the auditorium doors if necessary, though I don’t think my husband would go that far.
As you can see, my voting plan needs work, but here’s my point: now is the time to think about possible contingencies. What’s your voting plan?
by Adam L Silverman| 56 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Civil Rights, Domestic Politics, Military, Open Threads, Political Action, Politics, Racial Justice, Silverman on Security, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Voting Rights
This Sunday, 2 AUG 2020, Citizens Against Intolerance and the League of United Latin American Citizens will be telecasting a virtual rally to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the issuance of Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the US military. The rally is virtual because of Washington, DC’s COVID-19 response precautions and orders and was recorded …
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Right to Vote, Voter Suppression, Voting Rights
I oscillate regularly between optimism and pessimism about the upcoming election. If you’re on Team Don’t Drink Bleach, then Trump must go, of course, but the composition of Congress is everything too. Whether we get an opportunity to take a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to the orange shit-stain in the White House, pass legislation that …
This post is in: 2020 Elections, A Woman's Place Is In The House, Excellent Links, Post-racial America, Voting Rights
90,000 Americans are dead.1,400,000 confirmed U.S. cases.36,000,000+ unemployment claims filed. Trump had plenty of warning, but he failed to act to slow the spread of the pandemic.@StaceyAbrams takes us back in time to explain Trump’s failed coronavirus response: pic.twitter.com/wbOODu1vB9 — CAP Action (@CAPAction) May 18, 2020 The Washington Post did an anodyne and extremely predictable …
Election Year Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Knows Her WorthPost + Comments (115)
From the NYTimes, Stacey Abrams Wants More Than the Vice Presidency:
… Traditionally, Democrats have sought a vice-presidential pick that appeals to swing voters, those suburban whites whose operative variable is not whether they show up to the polls, but whether they go blue or red upon arrival. Such a priority this year would elevate the appeal of a running mate like Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
But there is another, oft-overlooked slice of the electorate that Ms. Abrams argues is equally crucial to the party’s success, voters who grapple with a different binary: voting Democratic, or not voting at all.
“The focus on persuasion has often been trying to persuade someone to shift from their conservative ideology to a more moderate or liberal ideology,” Ms. Abrams said in an interview. “But for voters of color, it isn’t about shifting ideology — it’s persuading them that voting actually will have an effect.”
These other swing voters, oscillating between voting Democratic or not at all, are the Americans — largely racial minorities and young people — whom Ms. Abrams has devoted her career to reaching. As she explains it, there are overt voter suppression tactics, and then there is this more insidious thread, often unwittingly perpetuated by her own party, that tells this segment of swing voters that they are less worthy of courting…
Since 2018, Fair Fight, along with its nonprofit arm, Fair Fight Action, has raised millions of dollars and funded teams at state Democratic parties across the country. In 2019, for example, Fair Fight helped Kentucky Democrats file a lawsuit that restored to the rolls some 175,000 voters who had been purged by the Republican governor. And amid the pandemic, the organization has shifted its focus to the expansion of voting by mail.
Ms. Abrams stressed that these efforts can matter little if citizens do not buy into the act of voting itself — in other words, if the barrier to participation is not so much a law or policy but a belief that the system has never valued one’s voice to begin with…
And a coda, from Georgia native Ed Kilgore, at NYMag — If 2020 Doesn’t Make Stacey Abrams Veep, It Could Propel Her to the Governorship of Her State:
… Kemp, whose coronavirus policies have been nearly as ignorantly erratic as the president’s, is presently in the midst of an extremely perilous gamble wherein he is risking a fresh wave of coronavirus infections and deaths due to premature reopening of Georgia businesses that managed to earn a rebuke from Trump. A recent Cygnal survey of Georgians commissioned by a Republican rival showed Kemp with an approval/disapproval rating of 43/52; 54 percent of respondents gave a thumbs-down to his handling of the pandemic. Kemp’s appointee as U.S. senator, Kelly Loeffler, appointed in no small part to fund Republican-coordinated campaigns this year and in 2022 (when Loeffler, in the unlikely case she wins the November special election, would be up for a full term), has been a human dumpster fire politically, generating constant negative media coverage (fanned by Republican as well as Democratic opponents) for apparent conflicts of interest involving her and her husband’s vast wealth and stock holdings.
It’s a long way until 2022, but you have to say Brian Kemp, who ran an abrasive, borderline-racist campaign in 2018 as a “politically incorrect conservative” who enjoyed offending people, doesn’t have the sort of personality that would lift him to a second term absent a strong performance as governor. And his dubious handling of COVID-19 has given Abrams all sorts of opportunities to gain local and national attention, completely aside from her veep aspirations. She’s taken advantage of it, too…
The political landscape in 2022 will certainly depend on what happens this November; if Abrams’s party loses, with or without her on the ticket, she’ll have the consolation of the midterm advantage the “out party” normally enjoys. She’ll also have had some more time to joust with Kemp and other Georgia Republicans over voter-registration rolls and other familiar issues, and figure out how to improve on her excellent 2018 turnout operation.
Any way you look at it, the immediate future looks challenging for Georgia, and promising for the politician who may become the first woman and African-American to serve as its governor — unless she happens to be otherwise occupied in Washington.
This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Religion, Voting Rights
On this auspicious occasion, we wish a #HappyVaisakhi to sangat across the world. This year, we'll miss our Nagar Kirtans and Vaisakhi programmes – but we each have to do our bit to protect the sangat we love, by staying home.#VaisakhiAtHome #Vaisakhi2020 #Vaisakhi pic.twitter.com/7b9mTyG4v1 — Sikh Tories (@SikhTories) April 13, 2020 It’s the traditional Sikh …
Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy Vaisakhi!Post + Comments (130)