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Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)


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1 hour ago, DShomshak said:

I don't know. In addition to US Mail, though, there are also drop boxes where you can deposit your ballot. I don't know if the post office handles those.

 

Dean Shomshak

Let me expand on that. Here's how Washingtonian vote-by-mail works.

 

You get your ballot by mail. This can be a problem for people who don't have mailboxes, but there are ways around this. The other day my local public radio station aired a story about a Seattle homeless man who gets his ballot through a homeless shelter. (And if anyone tells you that "voting is too much trouble," this gentleman's example calls bullpucky on them.)

 

If you don't get your ballot on time, call the county auditor's office to request one.

 

You fill out your ballot.

 

Your ballot comes with an unmarked security envelope and another pre-addressed, postage-paid envelope. Put your ballot in the security envelope, then put that in the pre-addressed envelope. seal it and sign the affirmation that you are a legal voter and rightful recipient. Put it in the mail or the drop box. It is important that you do this early enough that it gets postmarked by Election Day, or it won't be counted.

 

When the ballot is received, your signature is checked against the voter rolls. Then the ballot is removed from the outer envelope, and from this point it's secret.

 

I suppose a zealous postal delivery person could rip up ballots from anyone who has a yard sign of the party she doesn't like, or he could remove a percentage of ballots from a drop box in a neighborhood with a known political preference. But the effect would be quite local. Unless an election is already known to be very tight, I can think of better ways to interfere. I also suppose that a statistical analysis would show if voter turnout in a particular preceinct dropped more than normal, and election officials could call registered voters to find if they actually had voted, aqs a way to detect tampering; but I don't know if there is any such plan for this. It's just my supposition that this could be done if tampering were suspected. I also presume that if anyone anted to know if their ballot arrived, they could contact the election office and ask if your name was checked off. All in all, though, it sounds like a great effort for an uncertain result, and IIRC the federal penalties for interfering with the mail are pretty severe.

 

Dean Shomshak

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I voted by mail this year, and I found it to be incredibly easy, convenient, and helpful. I was able to get online and look up information on the ballot initiatives and candidates while I voted. I feel like I did my homework this time perhaps better than for any election in the past decade, and I had the opportunity to do it while I was voting and in the correct mindset. I loved the experience.  Would definitely vote by mail again.

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1 hour ago, L. Marcus said:

I warn you -- in Swedish terms I'm center-left-green-feminist, so in American terms I'm a flaming pinko.

 

Yeah, translating across the Atlantic is rough.

 

I'm a small government constitutionalist who is also a civil libertarian which places me in the "right wing" according to most people who look at American politics.

 

In Europe, "right wing" could be anything from neo-Nazis to Nazis to "Christian" political parties which back a lot of what Americans would consider to be socialist policies to monarchists.

 

So in the immortal words of Bill Clinton, "I feel your pain!"

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1 hour ago, DShomshak said:

 IIRC the federal penalties for interfering with the mail are pretty severe.

 

I've been close enough to the USPS to know that you do not want to f*ck with the mail.  Interfering with the mail carries sufficiently harsh penalties that regular LEOs often look for mail fraud or similar violations as a means of locking up a bad guy for a while.  Also postal inspectors are armed to the teeth and have no sense of humor.

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Voted about a half hour ago, and now eating a late lunch. Polling place had one person in line ahead of me. The California (Los Angeles) ballot was a slog, with 10 judges, 11ballot propositions, and some real crap choices for local politicians. I don’t expect a lot of success locally as I am in the bluest of blue enclaves in a blue state, with me being a Second Amendment Absolutist, and favoring small government, but I observe he ceremony and go to a polling place, rather than mail-in or Early voting. Now it’s just going home and not watching any news until 9pm. 

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6 hours ago, Hermit said:

 

 

Yeah, I saw the ones about here get shooed back about 2 years ago. Very non partisan, but a republcian and a democratic candidate got shooed by the folks running the polls so it worked

 

Locally, the boundary is marked with a Xeroxed sign saying polling place (and often a plastic American flag)  on a lamp post around the proper distance.  Then a flip sign owned by the establishment at their entrance. 

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1 hour ago, Scott Ruggels said:

Voted about a half hour ago, and now eating a late lunch. Polling place had one person in line ahead of me. The California (Los Angeles) ballot was a slog, with 10 judges, 11ballot propositions, and some real crap choices for local politicians. I don’t expect a lot of success locally as I am in the bluest of blue enclaves in a blue state, with me being a Second Amendment Absolutist, and favoring small government, but I observe he ceremony and go to a polling place, rather than mail-in or Early voting. Now it’s just going home and not watching any news until 9pm. 

 

Thank you for your vote: the (very, very) few, the proud.

 

:D

 

I do early voting so I can stay glued to the TV all day and into the wee morning hours of tomorrow (go MSNBC!!!). Election day is my equivalent to what the Super Bowl is for football fans.

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I voted this evening after coming home and eating a quick dinner.  Probably about 6 pm.  No line to wait in, which surprised me.


One of the ladies working at the polling place said that of 1,300 registered voters for that district, they had about 900 voted thus far.  So around a 70% turnout by that point, probably a decent amount more than that by the time polls close. 

 

One of the proposals for Michigan is to appoint an independent commission to redraw voting districts - I won't go into the details.  But I was rather amused by one of the mailers I got for Yes on Proposal 2.  It looks like the cover of Dr. Seuss's "Oh, The Places You'll Go" (but with a guy in a suit on top of the peak).  It's titled, "Oh, the Lengths Politicians Will Go."  Inside, it reads:

 

Quote

Oh, the places you live,
The places you know.
Politicians don't care.
They follow the dough.

They draw up their own voting districts.
They divide up our blocks.
We don't get control,
Lobbyists call all the shots.

Take back the power.
Unrig the game.
Vote Yes on 2,
So we're treated the same.

 

 

Gotta admit, that was creative and eye-catching.

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As part of my job, I end up driving a route that takes me past my old high school a few times a week. There's a stretch of government-owned land near the road, and election signs tend to sprout on it like wildflowers after a rain in the desert. Two signs for one of the candidates for governor caught my eye a few days ago, for Ryan Bundy*. Tonight, while driving out to another property, I noticed that someone had vandalized one of the signs to read "Al Bundy". 

 

 

 

*Cliven Bundy's son. He's also known for "camping out" with his brother in Oregon a few years back.

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2 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

I voted this evening after coming home and eating a quick dinner.  Probably about 6 pm.  No line to wait in, which surprised me.


One of the ladies working at the polling place said that of 1,300 registered voters for that district, they had about 900 voted thus far.  So around a 70% turnout by that point, probably a decent amount more than that by the time polls close. 

 

One of the proposals for Michigan is to appoint an independent commission to redraw voting districts - I won't go into the details.  But I was rather amused by one of the mailers I got for Yes on Proposal 2.  It looks like the cover of Dr. Seuss's "Oh, The Places You'll Go" (but with a guy in a suit on top of the peak).  It's titled, "Oh, the Lengths Politicians Will Go."  Inside, it reads:

 

 

Gotta admit, that was creative and eye-catching.

 

Creative, but we did that in California, and the non-partisan redistributing committee, were simply Democrats. Thus we have a one party state for the most part. 

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We have a ballot initiative in Utah for an independent redistricting commission. If it passes, the commission will consist of three members of the majority party (meaning Republican, in this state) and three members of the leading minority party (read: Democrat) with a seventh member unanimously selected by the other six.

 

Ultimately, however, the final decision will still belong to the state legislature, which is about as red as red can be.

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11 minutes ago, Scott Ruggels said:

 

Creative, but we did that in California, and the non-partisan redistributing committee, were simply Democrats. Thus we have a one party state for the most part. 

 

8 minutes ago, Pariah said:

We have a ballot initiative in Utah for an independent redistricting commission. If it passes, the commission will consist of three members of the majority party (meaning Republican, in this state) and three members of the leading minority party (read: Democrat) with a seventh member unanimously selected by the other six.

 

Ultimately, however, the final decision will still belong to the state legislature, which is about as red as red can be.

 

If Proposal 2 passes (which looks very likely), we'll have a 13-person commission:  4 from each of the two major political parties, plus 5 who self-identify as unaffiliated with major political parties.  Officeholders, their employees, and lobbyists cannot serve as commissioners.

 

FYI, it also looks like Michigan will be joining the legal-marijuana states. 

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17 minutes ago, megaplayboy said:

Nancy Pelosi recovers the Speaker's gavel.  While the Senate results are disappointing for Dems, picking up the House is a huge win tonight.  Let the subpoenas flow like a never-ending stream.

 

It will be two years of nothing getting done in the house, with the senate saying, “ No”, Trump being effective. And probably a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which I would consider a win. Unfortunately no border wall, unless the military builds it. 

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