Good news in North Dakota thanks to dedicated activists. https://t.co/U1TkN4sN8g
— ACLU ?? (@ACLU) November 1, 2018
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Efforts by American Indian tribes in North Dakota to provide free identification with street addresses to thousands of members in advance of Tuesday’s election are cutting into the number of Native Americans who could potentially be turned away at the polls for lack of a proper ID under recently tightened state rules.
The free programs launched with the help of groups including the Lakota People’s Law Project and the Four Directions nonprofit so far have provided more than 2,000 voters on four reservations with the proper credentials. The effort to ensure a strong Native American vote comes amid uproar over what some believe is an attempt to suppress their votes.
“We’re at our best in crisis,” said Phyllis Young, an organizer on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation for the Lakota People’s Law Project, adding that the issue “is only making us more aware of our rights, more energized, and more likely to vote this November.”…
Changes to North Dakota’s voter ID laws came just months after Heitkamp’s win by fewer than 3,000 votes with the help of Native Americans in 2012, though Republicans say that had nothing to do with updates aimed at guarding against voter fraud. American Indians make up about 5 percent of North Dakota’s population.
The Turtle Mountain Chippewa, Standing Rock Sioux, Spirit Lake Sioux and Three Affiliated Tribes all have launched programs to provide free IDs with street address to tribal members in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.
As of Tuesday, the programs had provided 1,050 IDs on the Turtle Mountain Reservation, more than 380 on the Spirit Lake Sioux Reservation and 440 on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The Three Affiliated Tribes had provided only 140, but the program had just been launched the day before…
The effort is largely being financed through donations. The Native American Rights Fund has given the four tribes a total of $50,000, and a GoFundMe site set up by the Standing Rock Sioux had raised more than $200,000 from more than 4,300 donors as of mid-day Wednesday.
Alexis Davis, 19, chairwoman of the Turtle Mountain Youth Council, has an ID with a residential street address but said many of her friends do not. The voter ID issue has made them more resolved to be a part of the election process, she said.“It’s like, oh you want to make this harder for me? Oh, you want to take away my rights?” she said. “It’s like, no, now I’m going to fight that, and I’m going to be more resilient, and I’m going to make sure that I’m going to go vote.”
In the Washington Post, Jamie Azure, tribal chairman for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians — “North Dakota’s voter-ID law aimed to silence Native American voters. Instead, it rallied my tribe”:
… The state has a voting-eligible population of 580,000, and about 70,000 lack the right kind of ID. The law requires that these IDs have street addresses printed on them and specifically bans using a P.O. Box. This was clearly designed to target Native Americans. Most tribal IDs don’t have this information. In fact, many tribal citizens don’t have residential mailing addresses — the U.S. Postal Service does not provide residential delivery to their rural communities…
Members of the Turtle Mountain Band were key to fighting North Dakota’s law in the courts. At the same time, our tribal council made contingency plans so that when the Supreme Court declined to intervene to protect our voting rights last month, we sprang into reaction mode. Our tribal motor vehicle department, which issues IDs, had already arranged with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to get access to its database of street addresses so we could print that information on the new cards. (Members of other tribes have not been so fortunate. Some have reported that their county officials have been unavailable, or even issued incorrect addresses.) Through some finagling, we secured a new ID machine for each of our four polling sites on Election Day, to ensure that all eligible citizens can get an ID and vote when they show up. We have also waived the processing fee. For a single mother with three kids, that $15 could buy milk for a week. Our community has a nearly 15 percent poverty rate and a 59 percent unemployment rate. We don’t want people to have to make that choice.
Three generations ago, until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Native Americans didn’t have the right to vote at the federal, state and local levels and still maintain tribal citizenship. This new law is intended to disenfranchise our population and hold us down. Ironically, it may have only served to rally the Turtle Mountain people and tribes across North Dakota. In 2016, our voter turnout was an all-time low. But a month ago, when we first opened the office to distribute free IDs to first-time applicants, hundreds of people showed up. The machine got so hot that it started to melt the cards. Then, at this week’s nonpartisan “Stand-N-Vote” rally — starring actor Mark Ruffalo and musician Billy Ray Cyrus, and with an ID machine at the ready — close to 1,400 tribal members filled the auditorium of our community college. The energy was electric…
Crowdpac fund here: Take Back the Senate in 2018 by getting Native Americans to the Polls
What's happening right now in North Dakota is just a disgrace, a totally open effort to prevent the state's American Indian population from voting. Watch this. pic.twitter.com/bCw268iKPK
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 2, 2018
This election will mark 70 years since the last de jure ban on voting by Native Americans. Miguel Trujillo, a Pueblo from New Mexico, should be in the history books for challenging his state's illegal ban on Indian voting.https://t.co/TwW1HgYR8X
— All Saints Dia De Los Muertos Hat (@NonWhiteHat) November 2, 2018
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
I’m sure Suzy Collins will be along shortly to call this a bribe or something else “unethical”.
Mnemosyne
I tried to early vote in Pasadena (CA) this afternoon, but the line was so long that I didn’t have time to wait in it before I had to head off to my other errands. And I was wearing my special “Vote” t-shirt and snowflake pants, too!
I guess I’ll be voting first thing Tuesday morning after all. ?
satby
Good for them!
So, voting in the blue dot of South Bend in the red state of Indiana mysteriously speeded up toward the end as they brought a couple of machines online (the ones used to demo the voting process to new voters). Only one guy left the line to come back tomorrow to vote, the rest of the people stuck it out. The wait ended up being two hours. The election judges were tired, but I think pretty excited to be part of a high turn out year. At least they didn’t have time to be bored.
And I hope a few more lurkers join us, because I talked about voter suppression strategies and how we have to demand less onerous procedures in the future. People were surprised to learn that voting doesn’t require all the affidavits, checks, and IDs in other places not controlled by Republicans.
joel hanes
Here’s the GoFundMe:
https://www.gofundme.com/helpStandingRockvoters
SFAW
I think it’s hilarious that the only demographic that aren’t immigrants are the ones who are being suppressed.
Where “hilarious” equals “fucked up and bullshit, and hoping that there is a Just God to smite all the fucking Rethuglicans who actively or passively support this bullshit.”
Motherfuckers.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Maine’s population is only about 0.5% Native American, but there are 5 recognized tribes, it’s a low-population state (like ND) so even a few votes can make a difference, and the tribes have already been on the outs with state government for a while. After seeing what happened in ND, Collins is probably keeping her mouth firmly shut about anything that could alienate yet another potential vote bloc.
I will never stop being angry at her.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I’ve been slowly filing out my ballot and am getting ready to walk over to the library to drop off my ballot.
On a side note, that judicial site that rates judges for their republicianess helped a lot to figure out who not to vote for. And it agreed with the democratic lit that I got in the mail, which weren’t complete lists. Just vote opposite the judicial watch website and done!
Yarrow
Back from canvassing. Great day talking to voters. One guy talked my ear off for 30 minutes. Said he had voted straight ticket Dem for the first time in his life and any “good” Republicans, including one judge who is a personal friend of his, were just going to be “collateral damage” – his words. Too bad, he said, that’s the way it goes. He’s a 65 year old white guy and is completely pissed off with Republicans. He was so fired up about it. He’s already voted and wasn’t even the target voter on my list at his address. That was his wife who is definitely voting Dem on Tuesday.
Also, has this made it over here yet?
Fingers crossed.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@satby:
I live in Ohio and I wish we didn’t have to use IDs to votes. I vote by mail-in absentee now and it’s really easy compared to going to a polling place. I remember when I went a few years ago and I had to check-in before getting my ballot. The older guy checked my ID against their list and he said I already voted! Well, it turns out my father had already voted earlier in the day. We have the same name, aside from my middle name. Which, btw, I had on my registration since I anticipated such problems. We got it cleared up but it was real annoying.
Congrats on voting! That wait sounded like it would have sucked!
debbie
Between this and Kansas, where they’ve gotten buses to drive voters to the long but very remote polling place, this midterm will be a psychological win for Dems, even if we don’t win every single seat.
Ruckus
@SFAW:
Don’t be so polite and nice to the assholes, they don’t in any way deserve it.
What they do deserve is…papofasnlvsoiguwe90r;’ljnasnivohasofwojtrw4;o8ywwfasl;vapsijga 0yrwhrkl;asvjpafnwerkwaefasfasfd
You can understand that, can’t you?
Suzanne
I signed up for the PEVL (Permanent Early Voter List) and I mailed my ballot back last week. I verified that it was received, signature verified, and counted. Woot.
I resisted the PEVL for years because I like the civic ritual of voting altogether. And I like the stickers. A LOT.
But the PEVL saves me from ridiculous lines, and it makes it easier to help SuzMom, who typically wants to copy my ballot.
debbie
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I vote on Election Day. Early voting is a 30-mile round trip; my voting place is three blocks out of the way on my drive home. I recognize most of the poll workers (and they, me), they give me the low-down on the turnout, and the high school choir always has a bake sale set up at the entrance. Win win win.
MazeDancer
Doug put up a thermometer and BJ raised $4,306 for Four Directions. That had to have helped a little.
The campaigns of BJ Candidates Lizzie Fletcher (TX) and Elaine Luria (VA) notify daily that they’ve burned through the call sheets they load into the Phone Bank apps, so time to change the code. They seemed surprised phone banking is going so well.
Please consider phone banking for both candidates- they are simply outstanding. Lizzie is down 1 (in Texas!) and Former Naval Commander Elaine is down 3. Turnout will be victory for both of them.
Connect to their phone banks: PostCardPatriots.com
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Yarrow:
Glad to see you again, Yarrow! We were missing you, with your tick-tocks. Hopefully, Beto will pull that thing off and win. Even if he doesn’t, you can’t he didn’t for lack of trying!
Mary G
@Yarrow: So great to see your name again. Love the story. Only one thing missing, so I will say it:
TICK TOCK MOTHERFUCKERS
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne: CA seems to really encourage mail-in rather than in-person early voting. Only a few voting places open early, etc.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Nor will I. I’ll never forgive myself for believing that she would do the right thing. The stakes were so high, I guess I deluded myself.
Yarrow
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I am doing everything I can. I want no regrets on Tuesday for what I maybe could have done and didn’t.
@Mary G: I said it earlier today and I’ll say it again. I’m doing everything I can do with my limited time. Republicans are going down. Let’s crush them. Tick tock, motherfuckers.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@dmsilev:
It’s cheaper, isn’t it? And the turn-out is higher in states with vote by mail anyway, I think.
dmsilev
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Yes to both. There are issues; for instance, it’s hard to guarantee the right to privately cast a ballot (consider, for example, someone who has an abusive spouse), so ideally you don’t want to make mail-in the only option, but by and large it works well.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
I mostly used the “Union Voting Guide” I got in the mail, but I switched out a couple of judicial votes based on the fact that a couple of candidates endorsed by the union had more stars than the other on the website.
Suzanne
@Yarrow:
Let’s make some blog shirts with this to raise money for 2020.
Uncle Cosmo
@debbie: Here in Baltimore City, the nearest early-voting site to my domicile (open 10-8 every day) is actually closer & more convenient than my regular polling place. I went there a week ago Saturday at 6 PM – no poll workers but a forest of signs, & while there was no wait the staff told me it had been brisk all day.
Schlemazel
Door knocking today. temps in the 40’s and slushy rain. Not the most fun I have ever had. Talked to a lot of pissed off people who sure are going to vote. Also had to deal with a couple of assholes but I just smiled & told them to be sure to vote November 7th.
Got home soaked through & not feeling well. We cannot fail, this time we MUST break through
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
I just wanted to highlight my state’s early absentee turnout so far:
Right now, 538 is giving Rich Cordray a slight edge in the governor’s race (0.8%, a toss-up basically). Hopefully this increased absentee turnout, along with early voting (which I wish I could find data on for OH), will put him over the top. Just as important are the statewide offices, such as SOS, state AG, etc. If all goes well, they’ll ride his coattails into office on Tuesday, along with state leg candidates.
Yarrow
@Suzanne: When I was out today I saw a woman wearing a t-shirt in the same khaki green color as that stupid jacket Melania wore with the “I don’t really care, do you?” on it. Her shirt had, in the same font as the words on the jacket, “I really do care and I vote.” Yes!
Also, after canvassing I was doing something else but still wearing my candidate’s t-shirt and this girl, maybe about ten years old, hollered over at me, “I like your t-shirt!” Go kids!
Mnemosyne
@dmsilev:
Yep. And you can request a mail-in ballot until about 2 weeks or so before the election — this year, the deadline was 10/31.
At the early voting places, you fill out an absentee ballot and drop it there. It’s not an Inkavote like the regular ballot.
SFAW
@Ruckus:
Uncle Cosmo speaks a lot more languages than I do, try him.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Yarrow:
At work, I saw a guy wearing a “Fuck Trump” hoodie.
@debbie:
Bake sale? Well, no duh you vote on Election Day. Cookies are totally worth that!
schrodingers_cat
Did mega grocery run. Indian grocery store, Trader Joe and Asian grocery store. Will hit the regular grocery store and the wine store on Wednesday. Its for Diwali and guests coming next weekend. I already voted because this week is going to be cray cray.
guachi
Anecdotal evidence from my uncle via my father. My Uncle Jim, in his 70s, lives in Texas in an area filled mostly with older voters. He was a Republican at one point and even ran in a Republican primary for Congress. Now he is a Democrat.
My father told me today that his brother told him earlier today about all the Beto signs out there. My response was that younger voters often have all that enthusiasm for signage and going to rallies. By my father said that my uncle was seeing the signs all over his neighborhood mostly filled with retirees. And that my Aunt was hearing from her conservative friends (note: neither my aunt nor uncle advertise they are now Democrats. The area they live is too conservative for that) that none of them like Cruz and many will split ticket for governor/senate or not vote for the senate race at all.
Sure, it’s an anecdote. But I’m sure it’s a reasonably accurate reason why Abbott is ahead by 15 or so and Cruz is ahead by 5 or less.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@guachi:
Could be McConnell’s threats to destroy Social Security and Medicare, too.
Tony Jay
It’s worth stepping back just a fraction to appreciate just how obvious the reporting on this makes the yawning gulf in the MSM’s coverage of the two major political groupings in America.
If Democrats did anything like this (yeah, I know, counterfactual, but bear with me) the MSM’s main thrust would be how angry and disgusted such a scheme would make Independent voters, how it would split the Democratic base, in short, how this kind of blatantly anti-Democratic bullshittery would hurt the Democrats electorally.
With the Republicans the entire thrust is about…. How what they’re doing angers Democrats and might win them the election in North Dakota. Nothing about how denying the vote to thousands of Native Americans might drive away Republican voters disgusted with the anti-democratic nature of the Voter-ID changes, because that’s obviously not even a concern.
It’s that obvious. They don’t think Republican voters give a tiny wee shit about small D democracy, it’s not a consideration, and that’s just fine with the MSM. Nothing to worry about, it’s just the way things are in American politics.
It’s instructive, in a way. Nice of them to make it clear what they think the two Parties stand for.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Yarrow: I wore my Nevertheless She Persisted T-shirt in Panera, and the young lady behind the counter (who is many, many years youngers than I am) complimented me and said she had one too. :-)
I had myself convinced tomorrow was election day even though obviously I know better. I must really want it to be over
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: On Tuesday keep an eye on TX-22. Sri Preston Kulkarni has been running an excellent campaign. I think he’s got a very good chance of taking the district. He’s reaching people in the district who have been ignored forever and has brought them into the campaign.
Patricia Kayden
If there is any way that Democrats can pass federal voting legislation to avoid situations like what is happening to Native Americans, it should be priority #1. I’m hoping they will control Congress and the White House in 2020 and get this done.
germy
After reading the magazine profile of Ted Cruz’s wife, I suspect she’d be relieved if he lost. I think she’s sick of all the bullshit.
Yarrow
@germy: Then he’d be home all the time and that would be worse.
jl
I followed a link on this here blog to contribute to getting them IDs and voting, last week, I think. I hope it works.
I am doing my last round of contributions. Just finished contributing to some Dem house challengers that Nate Silver’s lite model says are between 48% and 50% likely to win, while listening to boogie on the youtube.
One or the other, or both, seems to have given youtube weird ideas about what I am interested in.
It’s pushing this Jordan ‘ Patriarchy ‘ Peterson guy on me. I don’t know why. I didn’t know he had an ‘ all beef ‘ diet (whatever that means) and I’m not interested.
Maybe a hint from the sky to me to go outside, get some sun, and do something fun.
Schlemazel
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
The older folks I talked to today were all very concerned about the GOPs plan to gut SS. Most were already voting D so I don’t know how wingnut retirees feel about it but we can hope.
Here’s to yarrow: tick-tock motherfuckers, tick-tock
germy
@Yarrow: Or maybe he’d get busy in the private sector and she’d never see him.
jl
@Schlemazel: Seeing the horrible likes of Cruz, McSally, Kemp, and Steve King go down would be great. I included Abrams on my contributions today.
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: Yeah I read about him. Kulkarni’s family is from the same part of India that my folks are from. Kulkarni is a fairly common name like Smith in that part of the world (Maharashtra).
ETA: I know many Kulkarnis, could be less than 6 degrees of separation away!
germy
Tonko is a good man. He’s been working hard for the community; shows up for everything. The local news organizations seem to have a problem with him.
jl
@Yarrow: Thanks, I’ll take a look at the campaign site.
Schlemazel
@jl:
I am glad it is nearly over, I am worn out but it will be all worthwhile if those assholes are unemployed next January.
Here is the dark side in my mind. Things are not going to be OK next January even if we win every race. Things will not really even start to be getting better. What we will do is stop the destruction, make the getting worse come to an end. People better not think all things will be sunshine & lollipops simply because we sweep Tuesday. That is when the really hard work will be needed. We need to get people to understand they can’t sit back and need to double down for 2020
Mart
Would the law allow lat and long, that’s more accurate than a street address. Probably a few weeks late to come up with ideas…
TS (the original)
@germy: I have my doubts. She lives with him & supports him – there was some sympathy for Melania before she showed who she was.
jl
@Schlemazel: Good advice. I’m heading out to nice warm sunny outside Standard Time late afternoon something or other. Not sure what yet.
@TS (the original): Yeah, some recent interviews indicate she is fully on the Trump train. Wore her weirdo and inappropriate ‘I don’t care do you?’ jacket on that trip as a message to the ‘lefty’ press. Not much more sense than Trump himself.
satby
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: people were chatting, letting older people sit while they held their place in line, children waiting with parents made friends and played together. All races, all ages, all sexes. It was community, and they were determined to have their vote.
It was great.
ruemara
The good thing about being a WOC in America is that you definitely know what you’re going to be doing for the next 20 or so years.
@germy: Don’t trust these heifers. This is Mordor orc fighting. If they’re alone, they’ll feud, but you pop up and they’ll both focus on you.
tobie
Heitkamp’s campaign is still looking for phone bankers. I did make a number of calls for her but didn’t feel like I was effective at all there. I’ve never spoken to a cagier or more hostile group of voters. I guess North Dakotans are being inundated with calls. Missourians by contrast are much more friendly. And because MO has party registration, you don’t find yourself ringing up an abortion freak who gives you an earful about the Dems wanting to rip babies from wombs or a nativist complaining about illegals crossing the border to use government services. Maybe I had piss poor luck.
SiubhanDuinne
Took today off from phonebanking, as the last several days have done a real number on my voice. But I’ll be back at it tomorrow and Tuesday. Every last Stacey Abrams/Carolyn Bourdeaux vote counts!
We can be confident and optimistic without being complacent.
And we can be clear-eyed and realistic without being doom-and-gloom Eeyores. Eyes on the prize, folks. Eyes on the fucking prize.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Running for office as soon as you get your citizenship? Just sayin’. ?
@schrodingers_cat:
I emailed you late Friday — I finally watched “Newton”! I still need to write up my notes, though. And I’m a little confused by the epilogue.
germy
Who are the assholes who go to rallies to heckle Obama?
FlipYrWhig
@germy: Yeah if you’re looking for someone to do the OPPOSITE of plundering money and sucking out life you’d have to go with Donald J. Trump. For fuck’s sake, dude. (Not you, the dumbass candidate in your linked story.) SMH.
SiubhanDuinne
@ruemara:
LOL. But it’s a bitter laugh.
Marcopolo
Finished knocking out a ridiculously long canvass about forty-five minutes ago. Almost 5 hours. Any longer & I would not have been able to read addresses due to darkness. Seriously wish field organizers would get better results with lists that are half as long—I can almost understand it with two days left but they’ve been doing this since July. When I returned to the office they were all a little surprised I knocked all the doors. I suppose it could be because I am a fat middle aged white dude but suspect it is more likely that not a lot of the lists gets completed. I guarantee campaigns would have happier, more fired up & ready to help more volunteers if they were given tasks they could finish in a reasonable amount of time & get a sense of having a positive accomplishment & helping out. When you can’t finish your 100 door list you feel like you are letting the campaign down.
Anyways enough kvetching. Out of the 100 doors I only found two non-supporters, lots of supporters and the ever pervasive NH.
cthulhu
@Yarrow:
A VERY important thing to remember about the energy of the O’Rourke campaign (and, heck, there are Beto yard signs in LA right now) is that even if he doesn’t win, he will almost certainly get plenty other Dems in non-statewide races over the finish line. That’s a big impact regardless of if he, himself, wins. I certainly hope he does but making Texas just that more purple would be a good consolation prize.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: I will go check my email, right meow!
germy
@ruemara:
I don’t. Cruz’s wife is just as hideous as he is. And Melania is a birther. No sympathy for them.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
I spent this afternoon at the public library. There is a huge Indian-American community, and the library was doing four straight hours of Diwali celebrations today. The place was overflowing, from little kids hardly old enough to walk, to elderly ladies in stunning saris!
Yarrow
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I met Julián Castro. He gave a short speech to fire up volunteers. One interesting note is that he said he can’t wait to see the news announce that J.D. Scholten has beaten Steve King in Iowa. This was not at an event in Iowa or even close to Iowa. We all cheered, of course. It did make me wonder if he has info we don’t have. Is that race even closer than we think?
Mary G
InStyle Magazine has a great feature on Stacey Abrams:
I’m starting to think she may be able to pull it off.
germy
@Yarrow: And is Julián Castro thinking of making a run for president?
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: He’s running an excellent campaign. That area has been ripe for flipping Dem for a long time but they just have to get the voters engaged. Kulkarni has done a fantastic job of that. He’s up with TV ads but I don’t think the current R incumbent, Pete Olson, is. Olson seems completely out of his depth in this race. Good.
joel hanes
@schrodingers_cat:
Diwali
Indian-American houses in my neighborhood are all festive with colored lights.
May your holiday with family and friends bring you great joy.
Percysowner
I voted early. I canvassed for John Kerry and Obama. I phone banked for both of them and Hilary Clinton and registered voters for Clinton. However, this year, I’m spending 10-12 hours a day taking care of my granddaughter, so all I can do is throw money at people, which I have been doing all month. I will be glad when this is over. I’m not counting on winning anything, and I probably never will again. 2016 killed any optimism I might have. SNL’s midterm ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdNNjCHGixE was right on the money for me
Barbara
@tobie: Wisconsin 2004 – one guy told me he was about to go insane from all the calls he was receiving. I gave up calling and took myself canvassing not far from where my mother lived. It was a lot more rewarding.
Ruckus
@Yarrow:
Pigmuck has less than $200,000 on hand. Companies are pulling out on him faster than a firetruck going to a 4 alarm. The only support he’s getting is drumpf. JD has about $900,000 on hand. Pigmuck is showing his true colors to the voters and some of them don’t seem to be liking what they see. He may still win as there are other pigfuckers in IA but not everyone is for sure. Wouldn’t that be nice to see his ass curb stomped, even if only electorally?
Pigmuck doesn’t have a lot of power but he has a voice. And right now that voice is saying, This is Iowa, this is who we are. Not everyone in IA is happy about that.
schrodingers_cat
@joel hanes: Thanks!
gene108
@Yarrow:
When I was canvassing, a few weeks ago, I met an older white guy, who said he was voting straight Dem for the first time.
He was just pissed off at Trump.
Keeping fingers crossed for Tuesday.
tobie
@Barbara: I remember hearing that in Florida 2012. But Floridians were different than North Dakotans. I could recognize the irritation as a New Yorker. It was much more on the surface. This is a colder, deeper anger, if that makes any sense. Then again, maybe 2018 is just a different world than 2012. There was still some sense of being one nation.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’d bet we could get a million upvotes for that in a few minutes if we could get it out there.
It’s not like we didn’t know who and what the republicans were before now, it’s just that they didn’t try to prove it every ten seconds. Now they seem to be standing in line to show us just who every last one of them are. I’m not sure the level of shit is any deeper, well with the exception that the current occupant of the WH, who is attempting to make white the national color but of course white is the absence of color, which is their goal.
Barb 2
Vote by mail – the Washington State way of voting!
Anyway I have been donating to the efforts to get out the Native American vote. And from what I’m reading this is money well spent. Also I’m reading that the massive amounts of small donations added together are making a major impact. Each of us doing what we can to fight the evil.
We can’t give up we have to gear up for the next election. No rest in this war – and we are at war.
Donations are an investment in the future. Donations of time and money. I am so amazed at the funds raised by the anyone but Sen. Collins efforts.
Now we wait to see the vote totals and try not to worry about what can go wrong.
Voting by mail with paper ballots should be a universal right for all citizens. No worries getting to a polling location. The drop off locations have expanded in my county. Now there is a drop off box for ballots just down the road, as well as fire stations etc.
Talking Points Memo had the legal filing papers on the North Dakota tribes efforts to get “legal” addresses that those living in reservations have to endure in order to vote. I thought I hated the Republicans before now my disgust has increased with that very long list of the GOP dirty tricks.
Thank you everyone. Every little bit helps and so many of you guys are doing the leg work for candidates. I can donate and try to spread out my money to spots where it will make a difference. Now we wait.
Yarrow
@germy: He has already said he is considering it.
gene108
@dmsilev:
You also need an elections board that is committed to free and fair elections.
I believe Florida rejected thousands of mail in ballots, unsuprisingly mostly minorities, because the BoE folks decided signatures didn’t match, names didn’t match because one place it is “Smith-Jones” and in another “Smith Jones”, so no hyphen no vote.
I know some of the election fuckery* was thrown out in court, but mail-in ballots still can have issues.
* My phone auto filled “fuckery” for me right after typing “election”. Guess, I am training this thing well.
schrodingers_cat
@gene108: How are you feeling this evening?
J R in WV
We’ve contributed to several congressional candidates who are Native American, any one of which may be first at something. I also kicked in to one of the northern plains organization groups, I don’t recall which one right now.
We tried doing phone banking, it wasn’t very rewarding. When someone answered the phone, sometimes they were clearly Trump boosters, sometimes they were vague, a few were “Gonna be straight Democratic this year!” That was good, but not frequent.
So more recently we’ve just been making contributions when moved to do so. I would have to review all the Act Blue receipts in my email folder to list everyone. The former CIA operative in VA, the former Marine fighter pilot in KY, the former helicopter pilot in TX… lots of women, a couple of guys,
Stacy in GA, Gillum in FL, Beto in TX. I’m going to be trying to follow so many congressional races all over the country.
The guy running against Nunes, the guy running against the indicted stealer of campaign funds for personal use in CA, the insider trading indictee in NY. So many.
I’m going to have to make a spreadsheet to track all our candidates come Tuesday night…
You know, if WVU can beat Texas at Texas, with a record-breaking crowd in attendence, and be ranked above OSU, then many other unlikely but good things can happen! I think we’ll win a lot of races Tuesday. Hoping hard.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
I’m a little concerned about lines on Tuesday in Virginia. No early voting here, unless you represent that you will not be available on Election Day. My polling place is in an ethnically mixed neighborhood, but this is navy blue Fairfax County. There haven’t been long lines in the past, but I don’t think anyone knows how much more turnout there will be for this election. I plan to go after the morning rush, maybe around 9:00-9:30, and see how it goes.
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
All the actual voting places have to be staffed, and that takes money. Even if the poll workers didn’t get paid, just setting it all up costs and I believe the workers do get something. From what I see I’d bet the places that allow early voting were/are traditional polling places on election day so there is not as much work. But you can drop off your ballot at a lot of places or mail it, same envelope. I just got back about 1/2 hr ago from dropping off my ballot and the ballot box was pretty damn full. Had to stuff mine in. Hey I got to stuff a ballot box! The box was no where near as full in the primary, same place, public library. I hope every republican and republican idea gets stomped. OK I’ll settle for 90%
Corner Stone
I am sick to fucking death of Maria Theresa Kumar telling me some number of Hispanics have not been contacted during this election cycle. It’s an even year. Trump is in the WH. Go fucking vote.
Marcopolo
@Patricia Kayden: Yes, it was/is called the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court gutted a fair portion of it in 2013. North Dakota may not have been covered but states that had a history of bad voting practices had to get the approval (called preapproval) of the DoJ before they made changes to elections procedures. Directly following the SCOTUS decision NC totally rolled back everything the state had done in the prior 10 years to make voting easier.
Of course, the Trump Admin DoJ might have allowed all the crap happening now anyways.
tobie
@Corner Stone: Sorry to be a pedant…but aren’t all midterm elections in even years–2006, 2010, 2014, 2018? There are a few states, like VA, that do their state elections in odd years. I catch your drift all the same.
Barb 2
@Schlemazel:
From what I’ve been reading the evil ones are already planning about how to stone wall a Democratic majority House.
Every single election and election year will be critical! The good news is that the young ones are out there – getting registered to vote. We need to hang onto our anger and rage and fuel it into massive changes like voting rights for all citizens. Getting the evil ones out of office. Our votes are powerful and the only way the GOP can win is by cheating people out of their right to vote.
I don’t think this change will happen during my life time – the new keeper of the flame have a massive job to save democracy. And not to forget the planet and Global warming. . . .
H.E.Wolf
Sending love to everyone who’s been canvassing, phone banking, etc.
I voted last week. Today, I reached my stretch goal of 5600 volunteers matched with local field organizers in our state. Tomorrow I’ll participate in a get-out-the-vote sing-along with some colleagues. Tuesday I’ll drive 85 miles round trip for a teaching gig, then may go in to the local campaign HQ and help with data entry.
@ruemara: I regret missing you on your visit this time – please return soon!
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: was back at Lake Oconee this weekend and this time saw a couple of Stacey Abrams signs, which was far more encouraging than my score on the golf course this morning. My 8-iron was playing longer than my 7-iron—have you ever heard of such insanity?! Kemp is scum. But then so is Nathan Deal, and so was Sonny Perdue, and so on and so forth in Georgia.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Bro’ Man is so serious about this election that he is taking tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday off from work. Sighthound Hall is going to be a hotbed of cooking, drinking, political analysis and (no doubt) celebration. I’ve got to check in tomorrow to see what I need to prepare/bring.
Went to Trader Joe’s myself this evening. Had to pick up instant coffee—I drink only four or five cups a week, and theirs (in the jar, not the packets) is pretty good coffee, not just instant coffee—and a few other things. Slightly bummed that they were out of their cinnamon nut rugelach, which has a nice hit of raspberry and goes well with a cup of joe in the morning. I got some biscotti instead.
Picked up Chinese food on the way home. Just had the hot and sour soup, about to dive into the chicken fried rice.
Frankensteinbeck
@Schlemazel:
They’re very concerned about the Democrats’ plan to cut Medicare and Social Security. When your most important issue is that your team are good and the other team are bad, it’s quite easy to live in Bizarro World.
Procopius
I’ve been a little puzzled by this story, maybe because they never explain what a “street address” is. Is every dirt or gravel road in the North Dakota countryside given a street name? Is every farmhouse numbered? Because it seems like a lot of rural white folks would be barred, too. Since that is never mentioned, I assume it is not the case, but I often make wrong assumptions.
polyorchnid octopunch
@tobie: The only illegals crossing the border in North Dakota to use government services are Americans going north to try and get them some of that sweet sweet socialised healthcare.
gene108
@schrodingers_cat:
I feel fine. Everyday is a bit less post-op pain.
Ella in New Mexico
Just as everyone who is not a Republican suspected, Brian Kemp’s genius Hail Mary falsely accusing Democrats of trying to hack into the Georgia SOS website is a bunch of shit.
As in, he should be in fucking jail for telling the public a big whopping falsehood and trying to use his office to swing the election kind of fucking shit.
We need the “National Voting Right Protection and Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2019” like today.
Platonailedit
J R in WV
@Platonailedit:
The Kushner Criminal Enterprise is the near equal of the Trump Criminal Enterprise. Hope they all wind up in the federal slam, RICOed into poverty after paying their defense attorneys.
Jay
@Procopius:
So, the thing is mailing address.
Rural services work off mailing address.
My mail get’s delivered to a PO Box.
My “street address” just get’s you lost on google maps or mapquest, because my street is a Forest Service Road.
My property title is listed as section X, district Y, regional district Z.
Because of Soverignity, joint tribal “title” to the land, there is no postal service to individual homes on a reserve, instead, it’s PO Boxes at a Band Office. In contrast, farmers will have Rural Route delivery to their acreages.
By requiring a “street address” North Dakota ReThug’s get to try to screw over people with a PO Box on a Reserve, while preserving the voting rights of the people who stole the land.
J R in WV
@Ella in New Mexico:
Having read the story you linked, Kemp has hired a completely incompetent contract house that has written a voter management system that could be hacked by anyone who knows or can guess the file naming convention used by the system. With no way to track changes made by a hacker, people can be kicked off the voter rolls by having inconsistencies entered on their personal data. Worse, at least 12 or 14 other states are using an incompetent and unprotected system to manage their voter registration rolls.
I graduated with a BS CS degree in 1984 and worked in software development for the rest of my working career, so when I describe how I feel about this, you may bank on the opinions. This is so wrong, so incompetent and pathetic, so amateurish, I cannot explain it better than to say the bank left the vault unlocked, just pushed it shut in the evenings. This is not how databases are supposed to work, ever!
Then, when independent systems experts noticed the overwhelming vulnerabilities in the system, reported those vulnerabilities to federal authorities, Kemp, rather than attempting to remediate the situation, instantly decided to falsely accuse the GA Democratic Party of attempting to hack the GA voter database. So crooked, so pathetic. So Republican!
Any time data is accessed, that should be booked to the audit trail data in the database. Whenever it is changed, the time and user id of the change should be booked, and in important systems, the before and after data is kept forever. You don’t change data, you mark an end date on the old information and add a new row of data with a begin date of the change date.
This is a normal way of doing business for a regulatory agency or any government agency, for it to not be the case here means anyone could change any number of Democratic voters name data to cause a mismatch when the voter attempts to vote, and no one could even tell a change was made. I could go on for 10,000 words, but it’s late.
Accusing the other party (The GA Democratic Party, of course) most interested in the integrity of this database of attempting to hack it when in fact it was never protected in any meaningful way is even worse then allowing it to be so vulnerable in the first place. So very Republican, when caught being incompetent in doing one’s single most important job, to accuse the other political party of causing one’s lack of competence ~!!~~!!~
Gaffa
@Procopius:
A few comments on this question, as well as the other North Dakota-based things in this thread, from your local North Dakotan.
First off, yes, technically every single farm house in North Dakota has a street address, even if it doesn’t make any sense. When GPS was in its infancy oh those many decades ago, our relatively-progressive state leadership at the time got a state-wide upgrade to our emergency personnel services with new computer systems to help ambulances, fire trucks, etc., reach any location in the state. Trouble is, the software came from a company which developed it for big cities, and while North Dakota has vastly less population than even a modest huge city nowadays, it has a lot more room to cover. So to get this system they splurged so much money into to work, they had to assign a street address to every single hut on every dirt road no matter how far from civilization.
So, yes, if your business takes you into the far rural reaches of North Dakota, in some of the more competent counties you’ll occasionally see a street sign, dozens of miles from anywhere, saying something stupid like “427th Avenue SW”, based off of whether the IT tech remapping our state decided this gravel road with only a half-abandoned farmstead 20 miles down it was more properly part of Minot (200 miles away) or Bismarck (300 miles away), or whatever random assortment of almost-village they decided this address “belonged” to.
So every street, gravel road, and farm approach in the state has a “street address”, although in the rural reaches that’s really only used for the emergency services (and I will say that once they finally finished their “remapping” of the state, the emergency service upgrade has been working pretty well). Locals, even the Post Office, just refer to things by the sensible way — county roads, third turn past the old gravel mine, six miles from the golf course, down by Roger’s place, whatever works for the area.
However, the emergency services upgrade obviously didn’t hit the many reservations in the state (to be fair, a state-based upgrade wouldn’t, as they’re their own sovereign entities within their borders). I’m not up enough on every tribe in the state to know if they have individual addresses, but I’d really doubt it. And, to no surprise, the Republican talking points about how this isn’t a racist policy is indeed bullshit of even a paltry sort for North Dakota — it’s totally racist, and the vast majority of non-First Nationers in the state don’t care about it, regardless of party.
As for the great last minute job at getting those addresses for the reservations, it is indeed an awesome story! I’m really thrilled and happy for them! But the extreme corruption of the tribal politics doesn’t help matters, either. Turtle Mountain, at least, is hopelessly corrupt in a way that would make a Chicago mayor gasp in fear; there should have been no need for a GoFundMe for this, as the entire cost to give a “remapped” mailing address to all their members could have been payed just out of the appetizer budget from the personal slush fund of the ruling family there for last month. The largely uncontrolled swag from the tribal casinos, and whatever organized crime connections came in with that, have set up a 1%/99% divide within the reservation that is symptomatic of the US in general. Those who are in with the families that have the casino contracts have a pretty good time of it; those who do not have crushing poverty on a nearly Somalian scale. Seriously: one of the big rackets in the poorer parts of the reservation is to literally steal the windows out of your house, to try to sell to someone on the other side of the lake. As you kind of need windows to have a secure and safe home (especially in a climate like North Dakota), there are federal grants that filter down through the tribal political network to help people with basic necessities — like, y’know, windows. So if your window is missing, you get a check (eventually) to get a new one. Which might be spent instead on food, medicine, entertainment — or another window, which might be stolen by someone who had their own window stolen and doesn’t want to die in a damn blizzard.
So, yes, getting these voters up and ready to vote is awesome! I’m just saddened they had to go to GoFundMe for it.
Ella in New Mexico
@J R in WV: Here’s hoping the discovery obtained from the various lawsuits filed against him plus his behavior this weekend (plus their recollection of how vehemently he opposed their assistance when they alerted him to the database weaknesses before the 2016 election) trigger an FBI investigation into criminal wrongdoing.
Based on what you’re saying, it’s the most reasonable explanation that makes sense for a Secretary of State allowing this to occur. He’s got some kind of dirty deal going on in the background and is working with someone to rig the vote.
tobie
@Gaffa: Thank you, Gaffa. Always interesting to hear from you about the history and goings-on in a state which has always felt very remote to me. As an east coast denizen, I’ve always thought of North and South Dakota as something like the frontier. That’s obviously a pretty shallow picture.
Gaffa
@tobie:
You’re welcome!
I think the biggest shock to many East Coasters about my part of the states is when they hear there is only ONE rabbi for all of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. He just travels around between all the towns trying to hit all the major festivals equally over the years.
tobie
@Gaffa: Isn’t there a synagogue in Fargo? I remember once looking this up. It may have come after a holiday special on the Prairie Home Companion which, I believe, mentioned a rabbi in the possibly imaginary town of Fleishman somewhere up there on the plains.
dnfree
@J R in WV: Exactly right about the auditing. I first learned how to audit files, and the importance of tracking changes to significant data, all the way back in the early 1980s also. I remember how surprised a user would be when they were informed that yes indeed, THEY were the person who had made such-and-such a change, on such-and-such a date….
So for any system developed over 30-some years later that contains sensitive and significant data, every change should be tracked. Thanks for making this point.
Ruckus
@dnfree:
I wonder who and how much someone got paid to write such a shitty system?
rekoob
@Gaffa: @tobie:
Another option may be What3Words, which has mapped the world in 3-meter squares:
Gaffa
@tobie:
I believe there is a synagogue in Fargo, yes; I also think we have one here. Sorry I don’t know more; literally the only Jewish person I know personally from around here is one of my best friends, and that’s only because he converted to the faith after he moved to Chicago. I knew more Muslims growing up than Jews (which would be a grand total of 1, just slightly less than the number of black students in my school, and I grew up in the second-largest city in the state).
Anything said in a story in Prairie Home Companion should be viewed as indicative but not causative. :)
Ithink
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I early voted and damn it I’m praying he will as a native Dallasite!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Ithink:
Awesome! With a bit of luck and the combined efforts of all of us he will :)
Ian R
@J R in WV: XKCD really does sum up the reaction of most people with any computer science knowledge to modern voting machines quite well.