Hello All:
Isn't it interesting how suddenly our United States Postal Service, which has been in existence since the days of Benjamin Franklin, who started it in Pennsylvania in the 1700s, has become a weapon against Americans under the dictatorship of the predator in chief and his newly hired hatchetman?
Interesting how he started making noise and grunts against the USPS early in March when it became clear that they would become the goto alternative in an era of Pandemic, when folks were trying to figure out how to vote and stay healthy? His utterings were that he was against mail-in votes because with them, no repuglycon would win. He began to, even then, start talking about how the USPS was not "making any profit," and how he was going to "make some changes," and curtail the budget, possibly by June. It was then that I tried to circulate a petition, which I launched on May 25, 2020, under MoveOn, called "HANDS OFF OUR USPS!"
However, it did not get the traction it should have, partly because MoveOn did not keep their word in distribution, but also because people did not realize how really serious this cretin was. It was incredible to believe that anyone in the position of president, or running for president, would be allowed to do something as nefarious and unethical as destroy a part of the Federal Government that is protected by the constitution. It is why I constantly and continuously say that many of our elected officials are either in cahoots with T-rump, stuck on stupid, or just plain comatose.
Of course, we all know that tampering with the US Mail is a federal offense and subject to arrest and heavy fines. And it's hard to conceive that this could be happening in real time in an age when we are supposed to be move advanced, developed, technologically aware - this can't be happening in the most powerful country in the world. We have to realize that denial does not make the evil go away.
This has gotten so out of hand that while people are still advocating vote by mail, no one can guarantee that doing so will be secure, counted, delivered on time, not tampered with.
With more and more evidence of the fact that the inquiries by the Congress against the actions of Dejoy have been flaccid, we had better have some serious alternatives to putting our votes in the hands of a system that has already been broken - and has no indication that it will be reinstated to it's former self in time to make sure our votes are counted.
Katherine Anne Porter wrote a book, Ship of Fools, that later became a movie, that depicted people returning from the US to what was becoming Nazi Germany, even though they knew they were the target population. They had all kinds of rationalizations about why they would not turn back, or chart a different course. I kind of think that's what we are, if we don't have in play alternatives to voting by mail. It's a great alternative if you don't have a walking national disaster posing as a president who wants to continue devastating America's rights.
But now, we have to have alternatives! Which is why Philadelphians are putting together corona-safe transportation to physically carry the voters to the polls - let them vote in person, and return home. The project is called VOTER MOBILE! We can't allow our rights to usurped, trampled on, distorted, disrespected. A cadre of concerned citizens are not going to allow the repuglycons to highjack their rights to vote. Black people fought to get the right to vote. And Philadelphians are looking to make sure their rights are maintained.
In the South, which has been doing this for quite some time, they have a program called SOULS TO THE POLLS - and it has made the difference in turn out and accessibility to the polls. Of course, unlike Pennsylvania, many states in the south also offer early voting, making it possible for people to have a better turn out. Get in touch with those in your area - volunteer to work with them to expand their effectiveness.
Below are articles from NPR detailing some of the egregious acts against vote by mail that is taking place across the US. Other evidence came by way of reports from California, Texas and other areas where mail carriers were sighted dumping mail into the river or dumpsters.
We have to wake up
We have to Vote
We have to put a stop to this
America's future is being dumped on by T-rump
Time to put a stop to this
The vote you save may be your own!
Signed, Sealed, Undelivered: Thousands Of Mail-In Ballots Rejected For Tardiness
A rally outside the Montclair, N.J., town hall on July
1. Protesters hung 1,101 absentee ballots to represent the number of
votes that weren't counted in a mayoral election that was decided by
just 195 votes.
An NPR analysis has found that in the primary elections held so far this year, at least 65,000 absentee or mail-in ballots have been rejected because they arrived past the deadline, often through no fault of the voter.
Those who use mail-in voting for the first time — especially young, Black and Latino voters — are more likely to have their ballots rejected because of errors, said Charles Stewart, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies election administration.
''That's the sort of thing that makes me wary about what's going to happen in November when we get an even larger influx of people who haven't voted, or haven't voted by mail in the past," he says.
Democrats and voter advocacy groups have filed suits in at least 10 states, challenging laws that require mail-in ballots to be received by or before Election Day. They're asking judges to allow ballots to be accepted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, because of difficulties voters might encounter due to the pandemic and delayed mail delivery.
The Republican Party and election integrity groups are fighting back. They argue that extending the deadline will undermine public confidence in the results, which could be delayed for weeks. They also insist, without evidence, that it will raise the potential for fraud — a position President Trump has taken repeatedly.
In the meantime, voters have been left confused, discouraged and in some cases disenfranchised.
A Clark County election worker scans mail ballots following Nevada's June election.
"It was just really disappointing and surprising that by following the instructions that are printed on the ballot, I was set up for failure," she says. Sonneborn insists that she didn't see anywhere that her ballot needed to be received within two days of the election to count, which was especially frustrating because the mayor's race was decided by only 195 votes. Residents held a rally outside town hall the day the new mayor was sworn in, calling for officials to "count every vote" in future elections.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/14/politics/usps-warn-states-mail-in-ballot-delivery/index.html
In Wisconsin's chaotic April primary, 2,659 ballots were rejected for missing the deadline, but the number could have been much higher. About 79,000 ballots were received after Election Day but within a six-day period that was allowed on an emergency basis.
Tens of thousands of other ballots were discarded this year for other reasons, most often because of a missing or mismatched signature. Last week, the League of Women Voters filed suit in New York state, where more than 34,000 absentee ballots — or 14% of the total — were rejected in 2018. The group wants voters to have the opportunity to correct any problems before their ballots are discarded.
The suit is part of a flood of litigation over mail-in voting this year.
Signs direct people to the entrance of the Clark County Election Department during Nevada's election last month.
Kirk Nielsen, one of 10 plaintiffs in the case, says the fate of a ballot is out of a voter's hands once it goes in the mail. His was one of thousands of ballots rejected in the state in 2018. Nielsen says he mailed it eight days before Election Day, but it was not received until eight days after. He worries about being disenfranchised again.
His case is scheduled to be heard this month, but Republicans were heartened by the judge's refusal to issue a preliminary injunction against the state's mail-in rules.
The judge said the Election Day receipt deadline "eliminates the problem of missing, unclear, or even altered postmarks, eliminates delay that can have adverse consequences, and eliminates the remote possibility that in an extremely close election — Florida has had some — a person who did not vote on or before Election Day can fill out and submit a ballot later."
These are all arguments that Republicans have made in defense of keeping the Election Day deadline currently in place in most states.
"Allowing massive amounts of ballots to arrive or the counting to continue well after Election Day really allows room for fraud," says Mandi Merritt, national press secretary for the Republican National Committee. "It allows losing candidates or other partisan operatives to go find more late votes that could potentially change the legitimate outcome of an election and really just leaves room for unnecessary litigation."
While Merritt did not offer an example, she says even the possibility of fraud would undermine voters' confidence in the results.
Most election officials would disagree that candidates could "find more late votes" to change the results, but some do worry about extending the deadline for other reasons.
Katie Hobbs, Arizona's Democratic secretary of state, thinks voters would be confused if the deadline were switched so close to the election, especially in a year when the pandemic has upended voting in so many other ways. She says it takes time to educate the public and to implement such changes, which can be more complicated than people think.
"There's an assumption that every piece of mail automatically gets postmarked, and that's just not the case," says Hobbs. "Our ballots are postage paid, so they're sent with bulk permits, and oftentimes those pieces of mail are not postmarked."
Arizona recently reached a settlement with progressive groups that had sued to extend the ballot deadline. The state has agreed to boost voter education and outreach programs and to encourage other options, including drop boxes where voters can deposit their absentee ballots, to be picked up later by election officials. Hobbs says this option allows voters to get their ballots in on time without risking exposure to the coronavirus at the post office or a polling site.
A number of states have increased their use of drop boxes. But the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign don't like that option either. They recently filed a lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania, arguing that such drop boxes are insecure, are prone to fraud and should be prohibited.
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