There's also 200+ years of history in this country for not requiring an ID to vote and absolutely zero indication or verifiable account of increased voter fraud that should spur such a need.
OT: Happy Juneteenth
- Thread starter Dointhatrag
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It happened to me for the 2016 Presidential election for the first and only time. And the reason why, once you finally got to the front of the line, was pretty obvious. One, not enough voting machines. Because lots of counties are cheap, and don't want to spend money on more machines. And two, they were woefully understaffed. You probably needed a minimum of four people just to do the job at any sort of acceptable level. And that was exactly what they had, four people. So someone needs to go to the bathroom, the whole process breaks down. Someone needs a break to get something to eat, the whole process breaks down. Someone has an emergency or an issue at home and needs a few minutes to make a phone call, the whole process breaks down. And once they fell behind, which surely happened early in the day, they had no way at all to catch up.
And here's the thing about that. A month or so before the election they had an ad out that they were looking for more poll workers in some locations in the county. So I thought hey, I have a bunch of vacation time at work I still haven't used yet, let me check the list. If my local polling place is one of the ones that doesn't have enough people and needs someone, maybe I'll sign up. So I checked the list, and no, my polling station wasn't one that had a need.
And yet on election day, there were fewer people working the polls than ever before, on a day when probably more people were trying to vote than ever before.
It was nothing more than rank incompetence.
In person voting with valid ID should be the only way to vote, with the exception of absentee ballots where the voter's absence is verifiable (military service overseas, disabled in the hospital, long term illness that prohibits going to a poll). That's the way it always was before and should return to that. I don't see what the issue is.
because it was Jan 1, 1863..already a holiday....the 13th amendment was ratified on Dec 6, 1865 which was pushing into Christmas...so they came up with something that 95% of the country had never heard of 20 years ago and made it a national holiday to fill the void...
Here's the thing....for NATIONAL ELECTIONS (President, US Senator and Congress) the voting methods/machines/methods should be standardized from state to state. For state and local, hell I don't care if you use colored rocks for candidates. But as anyone in any type of office or corporation, you do all you can to avoid even the appearance of impropriety in something as important as this.
Well as someone who travels, sometimes you have to be away on that day. That is why making it a holiday would be nice.
I agree. Election Day is every bit as much of a holiday as Juneteenth, probably more so. I also used to travel 5 days a week until I got rid of my employment anchor a couple of years ago, so I know what you mean.
Too many hoops to jump through. I have to remember to request a ballot, actually request it, remember to fill it out, remember to mail it and even in doing that, the chance of some partisan election worker tossing it in the trash is like 97% I've been told.
Heck, a couple times I was out of the country on election day. Telling me that I don't get to vote because my employer needed me to be out of town for the week would certainly seem like a shitty way to run voting.
Yes, probably more than 1,000 people per day in this state alone.
Fun fact, Pennsylvania only allows State police to use radar for speeding citations and even then they can only use them on highways. That's one reason why you should never answer when an officer asks if you know how fast you were going.
If you made voting 1-2 weeks long, the chances of you not being in your hometown during that whole period is thin. I am fine with eliminating mail-in ballots if they made in-person voting 1-2 weeks. Seems like a fair trade. Republicans want long lines and very limited in-person voting because their fans are more devoted and will wait. Dems want mail-in voting because their fans are going to see a 2 hour wait and say screw that.
Make it easy to vote...unless you are afraid that the majority will then all vote.
I've been doing mail in ballot since the pandemic because I'm lazy. No need to go after work and stand in line.
I'm not buying that people are throwing away mail in ballots (they'd go to jail if caught, is it worth it), or that dead people are voting...they would have had to have requested their mail in ballot before they died, then died. Those instances are likely anecdotal and few & far between if they didn't catch it at the polls. Trump's people tried to challenge this at the last election. There were 2...TWO. and one they caught and didn't count hers (in Michigan).
www.wesa.fm
Again, the people who don't want to make it easy to vote do so because it makes it easy to win as a minority group, along with gerrymandering the district maps.
I've been doing mail in ballot since the pandemic because I'm lazy. No need to go after work and stand in line.
I'm not buying that people are throwing away mail in ballots (they'd go to jail if caught, is it worth it), or that dead people are voting...they would have had to have requested their mail in ballot before they died, then died. Those instances are likely anecdotal and few & far between if they didn't catch it at the polls. Trump's people tried to challenge this at the last election. There were 2...TWO. and one they caught and didn't count hers (in Michigan).
How do states ensure dead people’s ballots aren’t counted?
To ensure dead people's ballots aren't counted, election officials regularly use death records to update voter registration files. They may also check for voter deaths through other means, such as coordinating with motor vehicle departments, searching for published obituaries or processing...
www.wesa.fm
Again, the people who don't want to make it easy to vote do so because it makes it easy to win as a minority group, along with gerrymandering the district maps.
People say..."well you can get an absentee ballot". Yeah, sometimes you don't know you will be out of town in time to do that.
UM DISENFRANCHIZED!!!
Red states typically have at least 2 weeks of early in-person voting. I've lived in GA, TX and NC and had extended early voting in all of them. There was nobody in line the last time I voted - in and out in under 10 minutes, with a voter ID.
I never understood racial inequality in voting until I voted in a primarily black district: it took four hours to cast a ballot. Now there are states that prohibit drinking water being passed out to those in line. It takes me less than 10 minutes to vote in my McCandless suburb. No water needed.
The water thing is a lie. The law doesn't allow any contact from representatives of political organizations to people in line within 150 feet of a polling place. That includes handing out water. In other words, it is a law similar to that which exists almost everywhere about electioneering activities. Poll workers can provide drinking water to those in line, including water delivered by political operatives.
If I go the wrong time of day and in my Republican district, I can wait 2 hours. And then they don’t ask for ID which frustrates me because I could be anyone. But all of that inequality stuff aside, it hasn’t stopped virtual 100% turnout in black communities over the last few Generals.
Yeah, fortunately for me the times I had to be out of town were all trips that were scheduled well in advance, so it was easy to get an absentee ballot. But, for example, there are guys I work with now that get called out to customer sites on short notice on a regular basis. There's a guy that might get a call on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday morning he's on the road going to Detroit or Chicago or wherever. A person like that gets screwed by a system that doesn't allow early voting.
I think that people who can vote in person should vote in person, and their IDs should be checked when they cast their ballot. But there's no reason that voting can't or shouldn't last more than one day. Election day is just the last day of a process, not the only day of the process.
Yep-
It works extremely well just like plenty of other states , including ruby red Utah
Yep
The founders wanted participation.
Otherwise they’d have wanted verification
Voter registration should also be automatic
It would help if you were correct one of these time. The statement is not a lie, it is literally in the text of the bill. These types of arguments would be a lot smoother if people took 5 minutes to actually look up the plain text instead of spending hours listening to political hacks.
Here is another fun fact since you liked my last one so much. Georgia consistently has terrible election wait times because it is one of, if not the lowest spending states for running elections per capita. It provides ($0.99/capita) about 1/2 of Florida's budget($2.22), 1/5 of Arizona's($4.55), 1/5 of Ohio's($5.37), and 1/3 of PA's ($3.36).
Much of the difference had been made up with private donations to counties, but the state banned private donations after 2020. In urban areas private donations sometimes were 2x-3x the amount the state provided.
So counties that are struggling to budget for hiring/training/retaining poll workers, are now supposed to also be in charge of passing out water while also reducing the wait times?
Oh, and to answer your previous question about speeding. Electronic speed strips, stop watches, pacing, intuition,
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Let's not get carried away. The founders wanted only the "right" people to decide the vote. They were terrified that the landless masses would outvote the elites. That's why much of the voting was left up to the states and why we have the electoral college.
John Adams said:
If you are in line 200 feet from the polling place, are you allowed to be given water?
Why did you omit the rest of that section?
"No person shall solicit votes in any manner or by any means or method, nor shall any person distribute or display any campaign material, nor shall any person give, offer to give, or participate in the giving of any money or gifts, including, but not limited to, food and drink, to an elector, nor shall any person solicit signatures for any petition, nor shall any person, other than election officials discharging their duties, establish or set up any tables or booths on any day in which ballots are being cast:
- Within 150 feet of the outer edge of any building within which a polling place is established;
- Within any polling place; or
- Within 25 feet of any voter standing in line to vote at any polling place."
Counties have their own election budgets. If they aren't responsive to the needs of their voters, maybe they should be replaced.
It took less 5 minutes to find this.
A Georgia law has not “criminalized giving people bottles of water.” It pertains to political organizations.
Thanks for that. It proves my point that measurement devices are required to assess a speeding violation. Measurement systems, like voter ID, are similarly needed to assess voter fraud. Otherwise, it cannot be found.
Btw, your statement that "intuition" is enough to cite someone for speeding works only if the "speeder" is a fool. No court accepts that as proof. They require a measurement device.
actually the founders wanted participation from those who owned land. Stakeholders.
no, it's 150 feet from the polling place or 25 feet from anyone in line.
edit: Apparently they might be able to hand out water if it's beyond 150 feet, but that's only because a federal judge has ruled that the 25 feet rule is unconstitutional under First Amendment protections. That however does not change the text of the bill passed by Republicans in the state, nor does it change the text of the law that's on the books. It simply means that Republicans passed a law the was found to be so unconstitutional that even a Republican judge appointed by Trump had to step in and rule it unenforceable.
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I omitted the rest of the section because it doesn't matter in the context of your claim. Your specific claim was that the law ONLY prevented representatives of political organizations from handing out water. But in reality it it written to prevents you, your mother, your grandmother, their pastor, their accountant, etc. from legally handing someone in line a bottle of water unless they are employed by the county as a poll worker.
I specifically state in my reply that it’s now the county's burden to provide manpower and resources to pass out water. The same poll workers that are needed to do other things to try and get people into vote. If a polling location has a long line, do you really think that location has a bunch of poll workers free to pass out water to 100+ people standing in line?
Except there's a problem with your answer. You posted that "the statement was not a lie". The statement I stated was a lie was "Now there are states that prohibit drinking water being passed out to those in line." That statement is a lie. Poll workers can distribute water.
Yeah, the only way someone could think that the "founders wanted participation" would be if they were completely ignorant of early American history. The founders wanted no such thing, to the point where Senators were NOT elected by the voters of their state until 1913. It took the 17th amendment to the Constitution to replace the phrase "chosen by the Legislature thereof" to “elected by the people thereof” in the Constitution.
Because the founders most certainly did not want the rabble making important decisions.
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