Trump.45 hates Big Votes. He can’t stand it when Americans actually have their own say, and aren’t muzzled, tricked, suppressed, gerrymandered, shut out, closed down, or deprived by old line Jim Crow Court Tactics by Judges wearing Black Robes and speaking with more cultured accents.*
The voter deprivation tactics are classic, and well-greased from prior use.
Reduced Early Voting Days, closing of polling places, removal of authorized Ballot Drop Boxes, phony challenge signature comparisons by unqualified personnel, antiquated and unreliable voting machines, reduction of poll location staffing, restrictive absentee ballot request criteria, and limited voting hours, are all part of a set piece program. A 30-year organized campaign.
Republicans hate large voter turn-out elections They just generally don’t go well for the party of us versus them.
Trump and his cohorts are doing their damnedest to Spike the Vote in 2020.
Their playbook works best when all the votes are funneled into a single mad rush on Election Day. This year there is sand in their collective gears. Election Day is now Election Season. More and more states have been increasing the proportion of Early Voting, In Person and Mail In (Absentee), an accelerating trend over the last decades.
This year it is likely the total pre-Election Day Early Vote in America will equal or surpass the actual in person vote on Election Day itself.
Republicans can only say, “Drats! Foiled Again.”
Here is the past week’s (6 full days) worth of surprising and joyful data from McDonald’s United States Elections Project Early Vote tracking database through early afternoon.
And what do we see?
67 million Early Votes already banked. Mail-in ballots coming in at a 60:40 ratio compared to In Person votes. New votes added at a rate of more than 4 million per day for the entire week. No slowdown in activity over the whole week. On pace to add another 30 million Early Votes at least over the last 7 days of early voting.
Yahoo and Hallelujah, America!!
Do Your Job! Have a Plan! Go and Vote!
If you have not voted yet, DO NOT RETURN Your Ballot by Mail Any Longer.
Trump.45 has already screwed that up royally. It is too late to be certain of timely arrival by mail if a ballot is sent after today.
Vote Early in Person if You Can. Or Drop off your Mail Ballot at an Official Drop Box or Election Clerk’s Office. If need be, Go Vote in Person on Election Day.
Wear a Mask and Social Distance. Stand your Voter Ground. It might take a while. It’s so worth it in 2020.
Make Your Voice Heard. Dance & Sing with Others While You Wait to Vote.
Joy to the Polls!
*This vicious stain on American Democracy started in the 1870’s and lasted in full flower in much of our nation right up until 1965. The Son of Jim Crow is making a Hard Right comeback now, starting with the practical gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013), possibly the worst decision made by the John Roberts Court, save for Citizens United (2010).
As you read this the Supreme Court is insisting on rapacious meddling in state election procedures in the very middle of vote counting and election operations that have already been underway for as long as 45 days, with a clear purpose of suppressing valid citizen votes because…
in the latest examples, the Post Office which has been deliberately sabotaged by Trump’s hand-picked demolition man, can’t deliver legally mailed ballots by the close of Election Day because of deliberate new work slowdowns, equipment removals, and rule changes.
It is preposterous. And you don’t need to be a lawyer to understand it. Paying Federal Income Tax is a critical citizen responsibility. Not filing taxes on time will get you penalized and might be a crime. But as most Americans already know (and might well have taken advantage of at some point) if you mail in your Tax Return, properly signed and filled out, and it is postmarked by midnight on the official due date, you’re good.
The IRS and the US Treasury (the government) consider that return filed on time and quite properly for legal purposes, whenever it arrives at the IRS Service Center, even if that is 2 days, 1 week, even 10 days or more later.
You don’t think a Citizen’s Vote is just as precious as their obligation to pay taxes?
Jesuitical Court reasoning otherwise to toss out timely postmarked mail in ballots is outcome determined sophistry, not faithful to the founder’s intentions, and plain judicial activism of the rankest, most radical sort.
Here’s another obvious example. If you have a legal case before a state court most of them permit paper filings and a valid postmark will establish compliance with any court ordered deadlines, regardless of Post Office delivery delay. And even Federal Courts under Rule 5 enumerate a number of situations when mailed documents are proper and considered timely filed for their purposes.
There is no honest basis for otherwise valid ballots properly sent through the official US Postal Service delivery system with a timely postmark by Election Day not to be counted the same as any other vote, except naked voter suppression. Especially during the time of a Pandemic when citizens exercising precious constitutional rights should not be further locked out of civic participation.