The Voting Thread (Procedures, Turnout, Legal Challenges)(Update: Trump to file suit in PA, MI, WI, AZ, NV, GA) (2 Viewers)

[Lapaz]

There is a lot of push-back from Trump on voting by mail, but most states allow it, and 1/3 allow it without any excuse. His rationale is that it will lead to vast fraud, but of course that isn't his real reason. His real reason is that he thinks it will be worse for conservatives, but studies have shown that states that have instituted much broader voting by mail haven't had any statistical changes in party voting.

Stanford study: Mail voting doesn't benefit one party over another

Coronavirus-spurred limits have intensified a push to allow more mail balloting in November.

www.politico.com

Voting Outside the Polling Place: Absentee, All-Mail and other Voting at Home Options

Most states offer at least one method for any eligible voter to cast a ballot before Election Day. While some states provide early in-person voting, this webpage addresses absentee voting and all-mail voting.

www.ncsl.org

Although, normally voting by mail doesn't affect party votes, I bet it might this year if we have another resurgence of Covid, because I think the right is much more apt to discount the virus than the left. I know that is why Trump is against it.

Whether you're left or right wing, expanding mail in votes is the right thing to do to reduce the likelihood of spreading the virus, to expand voter participation, and to make it easier for those that do show up to stay distant. It will also allow any people with susceptibilities to remain safer. I think voting by mail could be made extremely secure by having people vote using traditional postal mail, coupled with requiring a confirmation either by phone, email or text. If done by phone, then voters can provide confirmation that can include confirming their form number. If done by email or text, it can include a picture of their form, and then confirmation that that was their form. Rather than staffers individually calling people, this can be automated by having voters call the number, text the number, or email the address provided to them on their form. A website can even be created with a database of those that have voted, and perhaps a link to allow people to confirm their vote was correctly registered. For people without computers, a site can include a means to access the database over the phone with some confirmation information. These types of systems are used extensively by banks and other sites that need security, so I think they are mature enough to use. We could even use such a site for people to confirm their vote on the day of the election.

 

[insidejob]

Isn't Louisiana one of the only states to not even have the "Real ID"? I know that we were one of two back when the law was first passed a few years ago, but I think we still don't have whatever is so special about it and only have regular old driver's licenses.

I did hear some talk about it on the radio not too long ago, but I wasn't in the car long enough to actually hear the segment or what the conclusion was.

I just googled my own answer and I guess I'm not eligible since I didn't do it before the deadline. But this doesn't say anything about voting.

So, since I voted in the 2020 election using my driver's license, I don't need a "Real ID" unless for the purposes listed in this link from WAFB? Guess I'll see what I can do to get one since I do like flying places but haven't even considered it since COVID. I am going to have a real issue with the utility bills thing. Never mind. I've got the vehicle registration and insurance documents. Have a lease as well. None of my utilities are actually in my name though.

A valid US passport, passport card, and a military ID are also acceptable REAL ID-compliant forms of identification.For more information about what documents residents will need to obtain a REAL ID, CLICK HERE.Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the United States Government decided it needed a better, more authentic way of identifying citizens. Congress came up with the REAL ID program. The Department of Homeland Security states on it’s website, “The REAL ID Act establishes minimum security standards for license issuance and production and prohibits Federal agencies from accepting for certain purposes driver’s licenses and identification cards from states not meeting the Act’s minimum standards. The purposes covered by the Act are: accessing Federal facilities, entering nuclear power plants, and, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft.”The Act was passed in 2005 but has been delayed numerous times over the years by Congress.



A REAL ID CANNOT be obtained online. In order to obtain a REAL ID you must go to your local OMV location and provide the following documentation:

• One document (with full name) proving identity and date of birth (birth certificate, US passport, valid unexpired foreign passport)
• One document (with full name and Social Security number) confirming Social Security number (Social Security card, 1099 tax form, W-2 form)
• Two Documents (with current physical address) proving Louisiana residency (utility bill or cable bill, school records, Louisiana vehicle registration card, insurance policy or title, housing lease or contract, mortgage statement, property or income tax statement, military orders or military documents)

If applicable, you will need to provide one or more documents verifying any name changes.

If you are not a legal US citizen, you will also need to provide one document (with full name) proving legal presence/lawful status.



The deadline for Federal REAL ID requirements is Oct. 1, 2020

Officials remind Louisiana residents to get REAL ID before 2020 deadline

We are less than a year away from the deadline for Louisiana to become REAL ID compliant.

www.wafb.com

 

[Goatman saint]

A lot of poor people don’t have the option of printing at work, though, they would get in trouble for it or they just don’t have access to do it. These obstacles that seem fine to the middle class are just onerous on the poor, effectively denying them the right to vote.

Oh I agree. Which is why I think voter is a bunch of garbage. I personally don’t have a real ID, if I need to fly or something I’ll just use my passport. To heck with that.

But yeah with the barcodes and such, then having to match signatures (which mine was returned to me as I sign my name differently than 25 years ago) there can be very little effective fraud. Every time this pops up, every time it’s shot down.

But I’m also a fan of same day registration and provisional ballots. The world is so linked with technology why not use it to make sure everyone can vote if they choose?

 

[JRad]

The world is so linked with technology why not use it to make sure everyone can vote if they choose?

Anyone who can legally vote should be able to vote.

 

[DaveXA]

Anyone who can legally vote should be able to vote.

That really is the bottom line. We need more access, not less.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I still think that in order to change rules to prevent voter fraud they need to prove there is rampant voter fraud and these changes are needed

Real proof - just claiming that there were millions of illegal votes cast isn't proof

 

[MT15]

They can’t prove it and they know it. It’s a cynical abuse of power, and they’re fine with it (the GOP politicians). They will use this crazy crap that Trump is responsible for to enable themselves to win elections despite being in the minority on the issues. It’s disgusting.

 

[JRad]

I still think that in order to change rules to prevent voter fraud they need to prove there is rampant voter fraud and these changes are needed

Real proof - just claiming that there were millions of illegal votes cast isn't proof

Last Week Tonight had a quote on this - "It's a solution looking for a problem"

Last night's was on voting, obviously nsfw

 

[insidejob]

Last Week Tonight had a quote on this - "It's a solution looking for a problem"

Last night's was on voting, obviously nsfw

"____ me stupid, you weaponized ocean _____!!!"

I shall go around telling this to strangers, whether they're lobsters or not. Sue me.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The mid terms are going to be interesting
============================


The Republican Party is planning to increase its poll watching and election litigation efforts for the 2022 midterm elections and beyond after a majority of the GOP's post-2020 election litigation failed, according to comments made at a conference.

Josh Findlay, the election integrity director for the Republican National Committee (RNC), said on Friday at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference that the RNC has already brought on election integrity directors in nine states and plans to appoint several more ahead of the 2022 election, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Findlay said the committee will be putting more staff to work earlier and will have a larger number of deputies and regional field directors as part of the efforts.

In Michigan, for example, the RNC has already brought on a full-time director, and volunteers are being recruited and trained, the Detroit Free Press reported, citing Meshawn Maddock, the co-chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. The state is still 13 months out from the 2022 midterm elections, when Michigan voters will head to the polls to weigh in on governor, attorney general, secretary of state and the Michigan Supreme Court, in addition to other positions...........

MSN

 

[Optimus Prime]

sounds reasonable
=================

A pro-Trump congressional candidate in Virginia called for election audits in every state after an audit in Arizona's Maricopa County found no substantial changes in the results of the 2020 election, upholding President Joe Biden's victory.

Republican Jarome Bell, who is running in Virginia's second congressional district, tweeted Friday, "Audit all 50 states. Arrest all involved. Try all involved. Convict all involved. Execute all involved. #MaricopaCountyFraud."

Bell, who served in the Navy as a chief petty officer for 27 years, is running as a conservative "America First" candidate in the suburban swing district encompassing the Virginia Beach area, according to his campaign's website. Democrat Elaine Luria currently represented the district.............

MSN

 

[Goatman saint]

How about audit all 50 states. Arrest and try those with treason who are trying to tear down our electoral system and tried to overturn an election that was fair

 

[Optimus Prime]

this could have gone in a number of threads
============================

.......A tighter race could have turned uglier. Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, said: “It’s a damn good thing the California election wasn’t close at all because Larry Elder and Donald Trump and every other Republican signalled that if the election were going to be close, it was all going to be because of voter fraud.

“This is the Republican party playbook. It’s going to be hard to find, moving forward, any Republican candidate who loses and accepts the results of his or her election. They’re all going to be a big sore loser like Trump.”

Walsh, who challenged Trump for the Republican presidential nomination last year, added: “To be a viable Republican today, you have to lie or you have to deny the truth. You cannot say that Joe Biden won fair and square. You cannot say that January 6th was an insurrection. You’ve got to be careful saying the vaccines work.

“To be a Republican today, you’ve got to pretty much call into question every single election that you lose. This is Trump’s legacy and you’re going to see it again big time in 2024.”

But relentlessly trashing the electoral process could prove counterproductive. Last year Republicans feared that Trump’s claims about widespread fraud due to an expansion of mail-in voting during the pandemic would persuade many Republicans to stay at home. His constant crying foul in Georgia may have cost Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue their seats in a Senate runoff last January.

Drexel Heard, a Democratic strategist based in Los Angeles, said of the California recall: “You’ve got Republican strategists here now complaining the language the Republicans had been using, and certainly Donald Trump had been using, might have had an effect in suppressing Republican turnout in certain areas. Orange county, which was red in the last election, voted no on this recall.”

He added: “It’s almost like self-sabotaging. The more that they keep talking about election rigging, it’s not going to affect Democrats, it’s going to affect their voters, because why would their voters want to go out if they believe that their vote is not going to count? What Democrats have said is that we want everybody to vote, no matter whether it’s Democrat or Republican.”...........

California recall vote shows Trump’s big lie is now Republican playbook

Pre-emptively branding as rigged an election you are likely to lose risks turning off GOP voters and undermining democracy

www.theguardian.com

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

And here's the end result of GOP 'election integrity' legislation. Cue the resident 'Libertarians' to exclaim "but guuuuuuuuizzzz, itz just about voter ID and stuffz!"

 

[Optimus Prime]

Yikes


============
Two workers at the elections office in Georgia’s most populous county, Fulton County, were fired for allegedly shredding voter registration forms, according to a statement Monday.

The incident is likely to fuel the state’s ongoing Republican-led investigation of the office.
Richard Barron, the registration and elections director of the Fulton County Board of Elections, said in a statement that two workers were dismissed Friday after other employees reported they witnessed the workers destroying registration forms that had yet to be processed before local elections next month.

Barron referred the actions of the two workers, who have yet to be publicly identified, to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and his Office of Investigations…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/12/georgia-fultoncounty-election-workers-fired/

 

[insidejob]

Yikes


============
Two workers at the elections office in Georgia’s most populous county, Fulton County, were fired for allegedly shredding voter registration forms, according to a statement Monday.

The incident is likely to fuel the state’s ongoing Republican-led investigation of the office.
Richard Barron, the registration and elections director of the Fulton County Board of Elections, said in a statement that two workers were dismissed Friday after other employees reported they witnessed the workers destroying registration forms that had yet to be processed before local elections next month.

Barron referred the actions of the two workers, who have yet to be publicly identified, to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and his Office of Investigations…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/12/georgia-fultoncounty-election-workers-fired/

Considering the fact that Fulton County votes 70% Democrat and the forms that were shredded showed no party affiliation, wouldn't it make more sense that the two workers shredding registration forms would be hoping to make it so less Democrats registered? I mean, there's a 7/10 chance that the forms shredded were that of Democrats. This could get interesting. (Why do elections workers have access to shredders in the first place? Why wouldn't you just shred a day's worth of what needs to be shredded all at once?)

 

[Optimus Prime]

I hope it turns out to be just a stupid mistake and there was no intent

Even if all 300 were all Democrat or all Republican it wouldn’t make a dent either way

 

[insidejob]

I hope it turns out to be just a stupid mistake and there was no intent

Even if all 300 were all Democrat or all Republican it wouldn’t make a dent either way

Even if that is actually the case, I have a feeling there is no way it's going to be reported on like that. By either side.

You're absolutely right though...in a county of nearly a million registered voters, two elections workers would have to shred registrations 24 hours a day for quite some time to make any kind of real dent. And now that they've been caught, anyone who registered and isn't on the rolls will be counted anyway with a provisional ballot. I seriously doubt anyone who isn't registered/didn't register is going to try to vote because they don't care anyway.

So much of this country doesn't vote in the first place, it strikes me as odd that there is so much concern over possible voter fraud.

 

[Booker]

Pretty sickening indeed...

Speaking to a Las Vegas news station in November, Donald Kirk Hartle described being “surprised” by the possibility that someone had stolen his dead wife’s mail-in ballot and used it to vote in the 2020 election. “That is pretty sickening to me, to be honest with you,” he told KLAS-TV.

But this week, the Nevada attorney general filed two charges of voter fraud against Mr. Hartle, 55, claiming that he was the one who forged his wife’s signature to vote with her ballot.

Nevada Man Is Charged With Voting Using His Dead Wife’s Ballot (Published 2021)

Donald Kirk Hartle, a Republican, had claimed that someone voted in the 2020 election by using the mail-in ballot of his wife, who died in 2017. He now faces two counts of voter fraud.

www.nytimes.com