US Election Day 2020

[Romana]

 

[Free]

Any guesses as to what The Former One's intent is for the State of Arizona?

It''s likely his contacts in Arizona were telling him the "audit" wasn't going his way.

 

[bubblesort]

If you are in Pennsylvania, tomorrow is primary voting day!

Check to make sure your poll location hasn't moved. Mine did, this time, but it's a small move, just next door.

Normally, primaries are pretty boring, which means low turnout, which means your vote matters more than normal.

Here's Pennlive's voters guide.

The candidates aren't really the main attraction this time. The big things on the ballot will be 4 referendums. 2 of them are all about the republicans crying that Wolf is governor, because they can't win elections or something. These questions are getting national coverage. One is to extend rights to minorities in the state constitution, which I support.

The last one is a bit wonky. It's asking whether or not we should allow volunteer fire departments to go into debt. I can see multiple ways to approach this, but personally, I think I will say no on that one, because that's exactly the kind of thing that lets vulture capitalists turn disasters into boondoggles, by price gouging and profiteering during disasters. If municipal services can't go into debt in order to handle disasters, then any damage the profiteers do is limited by the amount of money the municipal services has on hand. Even without price gouging and profiteering during disasters, it invites corruption. Just ask anybody from Puerto Rico if they think volunteer fire company debt is a good idea, they will tell you all about why it's a terrible idea. That said, if any fellow Pennsylvanians have more insight into this ballot question, I'm all ears! I get the feeling there's more going on behind the scenes on this one than I know about.

Here is how the referendums will look on my ballot. Note that the questions are laid out stupid. They go top to bottom, not left to right, so Amendment 1 is above Amendment 2, then in the next column you have Amendment 3 and below that is the statewide referendum 2020-91, which is the one about the fire department debt.

So on the referendums, if you want to vote like I vote (and who wouldn't want to vote like me?), then here is what I plan to do:

Amendment 1: No
Amendment 2: No
Amendment 3: Yes
Referendum 2020-91: No

So referendum 3 is the only question I'm voting for.

 

[Noodles]

I kind of hate that imporst referendum votes get put on Primaries and off year elections, where turn out is known to be lower.

It feels really devious.

 

[bubblesort]

I kind of hate that imporst referendum votes get put on Primaries and off year elections, where turn out is known to be lower.

It feels really devious.

Yeah, I hate referendums. In theory, it's a nice idea, but in practice, there is a lot of malarky.

Also... if we are using referendums to legislate, then what fhe hell are we paying legislators for? We came up with representative democracy specifically to avoid having to legislate directly.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Yeah, I hate referendums. In theory, it's a nice idea, but in practice, there is a lot of malarky.

Also... if we are using referendums to legislate, then what fhe hell are we paying legislators for? We came up with representative democracy specifically to avoid having to legislate directly.

On the other hand, they can allow the people to override legislatures who aren't doing their job - like in Florida we have amendment to the state constitution on our ballots. Most are rubbish but not all of them are [like allowing former felons to vote, medical marijuana].

What seems weird is that they aren't on the general election ballot [unless this is to get them on the GE ballot?]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I kind of hate that imporst referendum votes get put on Primaries and off year elections, where turn out is known to be lower.

It feels really devious.

I really think referendums are a bad way of deciding this kind of thing -- I mean, what if your reply to the question about the local services being allowed to go into debt is "Yes, under certain circumstances and subject to certain conditions, up to a certain amount, and subject to someone's approval, and why are you asking me these stupid questions that it should be the legislature's job to decide?"

 

[bubblesort]

I voted, and this time the democratic party had an actual booth set up! I mean, when I ran this ward for the party as a local committee person, for 13 years, I had a folding table and a sheet of butcher paper with "DEMOCRAT" scrawled across it in sharpie. It was a little crude, sitting next to the republicans fancy pop up canopy and professionally printed schwag, but people said they dug my punk rock sensibilities, LOL. This time, the democrats looked every bit as professional as the republicans. That was nice to see.

Anyway, I went up to the democratic party table and asked them what our party line is on the fire department debt referendum. They said the party hasn't taken a stance on it. That was disappointing. I mean, it's not really surprising, but it's disappointing that the party kind of threw us to the wolves on this one. Voters are all trying to read this and scratching our heads going WTF? The poll workers told me everybody was taking forever to vote because nobody can read the damn thing. This is in one of the most educated, affluent neighborhoods in the area. Everybody has at least a bachelors degree around here. I can't imagine what people in areas with lower levels of educational attainment thought of it. I voted no, not just because of the content of the referendum, but because I don't want to see referendums like that in the future. If the legislators can't decide things like that for us, then we should fire them for being useless, lazy, buffoons.

New rule: If a referendum is not written simply enough that the average 8th grader could understand it, I'm voting against it. Referendums should never read like a Jim Crow era voting literacy test.

 

[bubblesort]

All the referendum measures passed. The debt initiative passed with 72%, while the equality amendment got 73%, which makes it seem like people just voted for it because it was proceeded by something nobody in their right minds would vote against. The republican whiny baby referendums passed by slim margins, probably helped along by some malarky at the polls. There was republican campaign literature taped to the walls of the voting booths at my GF's polling location, they ran out of ballots in York, and they had to hand count some write ins because of a printing error.

Also, the mayor of Harrisburg was unseated in a surprise upset by Wanda Williams. Due to demographics, the republican candidate doesn't have a chance at winning, so Williams is now the heir apparent. Williams has been a name in local politics for a generation, so maybe she will provide some stability, without all the racist attempts at gentrification that Papenfuse and his cronies have been trying for the last 8 years.

 

[Free]

Tech company running Arizona ballot recount backs out: 'They were done'

The contract for Pennsylvania-based Wake TSI ended May 14, the original completion date for Arizona's ballot recount, and the company chose not to renew.

www.azcentral.com

The contract with Wake Technology Services, Inc. ended May 14, the original completion date for the hand count, and the company chose not to renew its contract, according to Randy Pullen, an audit spokesperson and former state GOP chair.

"They were done," he said. "They didn't want to come back."

Wake TSI was the subcontractor that developed and oversaw the procedures for recounting the county's nearly 2.1 million ballots, working under Cyber Ninjas, the state Senate's main contractor performing the overall audit of the county's general election results.

The audit was on break from May 14 until Monday, as high school graduations took place in the coliseum.

 

[Romana]

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Contract ON America thanks.

 

[Romana]

Arizona GOP's election 'audit' going far worse than Trump realizes

Trump believes the Arizona GOP's election "audit" is "engendering such tremendous respect, even adoration." Reality tells a very different story.

www.msnbc.com

 

[Cindy Claveau]

And I'm sure he's mustering his Proud Boys or whoever over there right now to "make sure" it doesn't happen.

He probably didn't even know who the Proud Boys are until Jan 6.

"Oh, hey, more chumps who swallow my bullshit! Those are my people!"

 

[Innula Zenovka]

He probably didn't even know who the Proud Boys are until Jan 6.

"Oh, hey, more chumps who swallow my bullshit! Those are my people!"

He might not have remembered, but certainly he'd heard of them.

It does all seem so long ago, though. So much has happened since.

 

[Romana]

He might not have remembered, but certainly he'd heard of them.

It does all seem so long ago, though. So much has happened since.

He knew. He was boosting the signal, remember? "Be there on January 6th, it's gonna be wild!"
I won't be surprised if it turns out that he was in touch with them, if not directly, then through an intermediary like Flynn or even MyPillow guy.

 

[Noodles]

He knew. He was boosting the signal, remember? "Be there on January 6th, it's gonna be wild!"
I won't be surprised if it turns out that he was in touch with them, if not directly, then through an intermediary like Flynn or even MyPillow guy.

Keep up here!

FBI Uncovers Contact Between Trump White House and Proud Boys Before Capitol Attack

(PS, I don't mean anything bad by that comment, just bad comedy)

 

[Romana]

 

[Romana]

Long but really interesting thread dissecting this guy that's apparently suing everyone he can think of over Biden ''s win. Damn, these people really can't let go, lol.


I love seeing real lawyers dismantle these things.

The thread breaks a few times ; it seems to end but then he continues, so if you want to see all the fun, or skim for the really good bits, when it seems to end but doesn't say "/fin", there's more, so check the replies. He uses some choice language (not profane, just hilarious).

 

[Romana]

More on Georgia, this time about the former guy.