Betty, Adam, FL commentors — you have my sympathies. I had not realized how dedicated Florida members of the GOP Death Cult were to preserving, if not surpassing, Florida’s infamous ‘Brooks Brothers Riot’ history of blatant voter suppression!
Rick Scott, Florida man and garbage person, actually wants it to be a law that any votes you’re not able to count in 24 hours get tossed in the trash. That’s actually what he’s proposing. https://t.co/g5Y1mOA3Qk
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 24, 2020
That moment when @SenRickScott reveals he doesn’t give a damn about the right of the overseas military to vote. https://t.co/EQJfvTsegI
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 24, 2020
Rick Scott’s bill proposes that every single state takes all the mail-in ballots that could not be counted within 24 hours of the election and THROWS THEM IN THE TRASH.
When Republicans show them who they are, believe them. And they are not a party that believes in elections. https://t.co/oPi9JQkeeK
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) September 24, 2020
This, right after Florida AG’s assault on restoring voting rights to Florida citizens…
As some Republicans shift uncomfortably and say that of course Trump didn’t mean anything undemocratic by saying he wouldn’t cede power, Florida Republicans bend over backward to maintain the racist exclusion from the franchise that the electorate tried to repeal already. https://t.co/Kn6R09PsnX
— Jacob T. Levy (@jtlevy) September 24, 2020
I have to assume all this is meant to signal public fealty to the Squatter-in-Chief, not to Florida voters?
Baud
I would like to throw away Rick Scott after 24 hours.
chopper
god, i hate these people so, so much.
cain
@Baud:
Let’s make it about 1 minute. Even 24 hours is just too damn long.
Winston
I voted at the precinct, early voted and by mail in the last three elections. At the precinct you insert your ballot and it’s tallied in the machine. Same for early voting. On the day of the election, mailed votes being prescreened for signatures are counted first, by running them through the talley machine. Then the tallies from early voting and precinct votes are added. They usually start counting at 7:30 and finish by midnight.
As far as I knowvotes received after the polls close are not counted.Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
I’m getting a Brooks Brothers ad here on Balloon Juice. First time I’ve seen one. Must be the multiple Brooks Brothers riot mentions…
dmsilev
@Baud: I’d settle for stripping him of all the ill-gotten gains that his company looted from Medicare.
dmsilev
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Nah, John Cole has decided to rethink his personal fashion choices.
geg6
Don’t these assholes know any history? It was only in the latter half of the last century that anyone got results within 24 hours of the election. Hell, that’s one reason that Inauguration Day used to be in March.
Redshift
@geg6: They aren’t giving a thought to history or precedent, just “it’s only a fair election if we win, so whatever we do to make it more likely we win is automatically fair!”
dmsilev
@geg6: They may well know that, but I’m sure they don’t care.
The odd thing about this particular push of Scott’s is that “Democrats voting heavily mail-in” is unusual because of the pandemic. It’s normally Republican-leaning groups like seniors that are predominantly absentee/mail-in. So, he’d be screwing over his own supporters.
taumaturgo
I approve of this timely message.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/517927-democrats-cowardice-must-end-its-time-to-teach-the-gop-a-lesson
kindness
Every day I’m even more shocked how openly ‘responsible’ Republicans announce new ways to rig the elections. paraphrased: At long last sir have you no shame? (it worked better than decency)
Chyron HR
Well as long as they’re not throwing them in the river…
Jeffro
What, pray tell, is Rick Scott’s tortured logic that a ballot counted at the 25th hour should count for nothing?
Jeffro
Senator Scott, maybe you would get more votes (inside your blessed 24-hour window or otherwise) if you and your Republican colleagues were offering anything that a majority of the American public wanted.
oh wait, I think I see the flaw in my reasoning there, my bad.
Kay
Weird and dumb. Does Rick Scott not know all the races go on the same ballot? How is he going to throw out the federal results while keeping the state and local? Especially local! Those are often really close elections. I don’t know- have they thought this through? This “throwing out the votes we don’t like” could get complicated.
Put Jared on it. He’ll sort it out.
Josie
What does Scott’s proposal accomplish, since we all know it has no chance of passing the House?
mad citizen
Lizard Man sez what?
TS (the original)
@taumaturgo:
I don’t, it defines the honesty of democrats and their adherence to the law of the land as timid and the work of cowards. If defines the actions of trump & McConnell as manly and forceful. Every negative word I can imagine is used to denigrate congress democrats in this article.
JMG
@Josie: It gave him a chance to stand on the Senate floor and shoot his mouth off. Also to give the GOP in Florida ideas.
dmsilev
@Josie: I think they’re trying to project the image that “we need to deal with this huge ballot fraud issue”. An absolute total lie, of course.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Jeffro:
The GOP keeps counting on norms, laws, and traditions to give them cover to keep doing what they’re doing. I look at these flabby, soft, old men and I think to myself how they wouldn’t know what to do in an actual physical fight
cmorenc
Scott can’t successfully get such a proposal enacted (only ballots counted within 24 hrs of (close of polls on election day?) are valid – because the proposal would also need to attract a majority vote in the House of Representatives, which isn’t going to happen with a D majority in place. Also, isn’t there a federal law prohibiting changes in state voting laws within a certain time of the election (not sure what the limit is, but it’s longer than the 40 days to and including election day).
WaterGirl
@Winston: Have you added yourself to the I Voted! thread?
Gvg
I thought election laws were state not Federal?
Miss Bianca
@taumaturgo: That’s because you probably fucking wrote it. Certainly sounds like your idiotish take on things, anyway.
WaterGirl
@taumaturgo: That article is just slamming Democrats as weak. Why are we supposed to think that’s a good thing?
Oh, right.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca:
It was written by Lili von Shtupp or something.
MomSense
@TS (the original):
Well said.
Kathleen
OT but had a ball dragging Rob Portman on Twitter. Even Jennifer Rubin chimed in. The ratio was epic. Lost the tweet so no link.
patrick Il
@Winston:
Different states have different laws.Some states will take ballots postmarked on election day and received days later. It is these . stateS particularly that Scott and. Trumpare targeting.
Kathleen
@WaterGirl: Yawn. Episode 280 of the epic narrative drama “How Democrats Disappointed Me Today.
dmsilev
@Kathleen: What did he do (this time) to spark the derision?
RedDirtGirl
Check out Amy Klobuchar’s takedown of the zodiac killer!
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: LOL!
“I’m TIRED…of Democrats being UN-WIRED…”
Martin
@Josie: Get Democrats to oppose it, then bash them for not wanting ‘fair’ elections.
Winston
@WaterGirl: Florida just started mailing the ballots out today. I am voting by mail, so I haven’t yet voted.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Winston: Same here in Illinois. This year there will be drop boxes. We’ll use one to return out ballots.
PsiFighter37
I still do not understand how anyone with a brain could vote for Rick Scott.
TS (the original)
@patrick Il: I think Scott has realised that losing the olds means the advantage of postal voting has swung to democrats. They were, and still are the most likely group to vote by mail when a choice is given.
It’s always about what is best, at this point in time, for the GOP and me me me
Kathleen
@dmsilev: He hopes both parties honor voters/peaceful transition of power yadda yadda (very bad paraphrase but that’s the gist.) I reminded him of Rethuglican efforts to manipulate the electoral process at the cost of Americans’ safety and lives in 1968, 1980, and 2000 elections. And I used the term “Rethuglican”.
I also left angry voicemail about his willingness to confirm a SC nominee after reading what he said about Garland nom in 2016 and commented he behaved differently when President was Black and a Democrat.
Mike in NC
Fucking Batboy never disappoints, does he?
Josie
@JMG:
@dmsilev:
@Martin:
It just sounds like a stupid waste of time and energy to me, but I guess I’m not the target audience.
TS (the original)
@PsiFighter37:
I have said the same about voting for trump 3,761 times – each week since Nov 2016. The word is deplorable.
dmsilev
@PsiFighter37:
Voter: “Governor, every thinking person would be voting for you”.
Adlai Stevenson: “Madam, that is not enough. I need a majority.”
Patricia Kayden
Definitely.
dmsilev
@Kathleen: Got it. Nicely done on your part.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
Does any of that even really matter though? Who outside of the cult would buy that crap? It sounds like a waste of time tbh
Winston
@patrick Il: I think Florida’s system is pretty slick. One can track one’s mail ballot from the time it is sent out by the election board, the time it is received back, verified and counted. All online. More states should invest in a system like Florida imo. It’s a shame we produce such pieces of shit politicians, though.
Patricia Kayden
@kindness: My ability to be shocked completely evaporated when Trump became President. My only question is how much lower will Republicans go with their next Presidential candidate.
Aleta
Playing now:
Prince – Sign O’ The Times (Live at Paisley Park 12/31/87)
On Thursday, September 24th, The Prince Estate in partnership with Warner Records and YouTube, will Premiere a vault recording of Prince’s celebrated 1987 New Year’s Eve Benefit Concert. The concert (was) in support of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, and was Prince’s … only on-stage collaboration with jazz legend Miles Davis.
PsiFighter37
@TS (the original): @dmsilev: I get both of you, but honestly…this clown was:
1) elected in 2010, barely
2) barely reelected again, against a former governor who won by a much wider margin in 2006, no less
3) barely won in 2018, against a fairly popular senator who was an astronaut in his past life
The only conclusion is that people in Florida are really fucking stupid. Not everyone, for sure, but way too many of them. And having been down to various sunburnt parts of that state, it is not terribly surprising.
Bill Arnold
Rick Scott should not be talking about voting fraud. Nor should Ron DeSantis.
(Obligatory IMO.)
James E Powell
@PsiFighter37:
I have no reason to defend Florida, but that conclusion applies to quite a few states.
Alison Rose
@PsiFighter37: Some people without brains do an awful lot of voting, don’t they?
Jeffro
@Aleta: oh, very cool – thanks for the heads-up!
Jeffro
Apparently Donnie thinks he’s going to be able to “rebrand” Obamacare and call it his own – with an ‘executive order’ protecting those with pre-existing conditions. Gee thanks, that’s awesome, if only it were already enshrined in law.
Oh wait.
Alexa, look up “pathetic beyond description” in the dictionary, thesaurus, and Fox News archives…
Patricia Kayden
Ken
@Josie: @JMG: It also puts him on the side that the Federal government can pass laws telling states how they must conduct elections. I think that’s something of an own goal, especially if the Democrats take the Senate too. All sorts of extras could be put into the Representative John Lewis Voting Rights Act, such as requiring motor-votor registration or universal vote by mail.
WaterGirl
@Winston: Oops I parsed this sentence wrong:
I interpreted that as “I voted at the precint (this time); early voted by mail in the last 3 elections.
Reading comprehension fail.
debbie
Doubtless, the Act has a provision for hiring thousands of people to ensure all ballots will be opened and counted. //
Miss Bianca
@Aleta: Ooh…
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s why I am going in person. Drop box votes and mail-in votes don’t start getting counted in Illinois until 7pm on Nov 3.
edit: Illinois needs to change that before the next election.
Suzanne
@geg6:
No.
Of course they’re about nothing other than naked power plays. It’s time we respond accordingly.
RaflW
Today’s Fox News polls in OH, PA and NV again show a GOP in terrible shape. And without the cash to really fight.
While grassroots Dems continue to pour money into races. Why, even Miss Lindsey was railing about the Democrats money advantage today.
So, sure, Rick will tip his hand that voting is only for his people. No way his bill goes anywhere, least of all to Nancy’s house.
James E Powell
@zhena gogolia:
No, it was by Marik von Rennenkampff, of the Düsseldorf von Rennenkampffs, if I’m not mistaken.
I don’t agree with the specifics or the tone, but I do think we need to send a message to the Republicans that this time, there won’t be any looking forward & reaching out for compromise like in 2009.
HumboldtBlue
WaterGirl
@James E Powell: I agree. But that article wasn’t written in the tone of “okay, we tried to be collegial, blah blah blah, but it’s time to take the gloves off.”
It was more like “Democrats are whiny little bitches.”
edit: I’m not at all sure that taumaturgo bats for Team D.
James E Powell
@Winston:
We have the same/similar in California. If you live in the Golden State, you can check here.
James E Powell
@WaterGirl:
That’s why I said I did not agree with the tone.
Ken
I’ll begin construction of the stocks and pillories immediately.
Did you want a guillotine? Voltaire says that even one example does wonders pour encourager les autres.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Hard to believe our media would publish such a piece.
zhena gogolia
@RedDirtGirl:
That was excellent.
patrick Il
@dmsilev:
zhena gogolia
@patrick Il:
Glad you fixed that! I thought it was a new internet tradition I had to learn — “the mule of it.”
James E Powell
@Ken:
I reject capital punishment and I’m sure the laws have been written in such a way that they won’t even have to give the money back.
I’d settle for a full exposure of the evil. The nation and its press/media needs to have it hammered into their heads that these are bad people.
Benw
It’s respite time for me, folks. NBA conference finals!
ETA conference, duh
Subsole
@taumaturgo: How old are you?
Gin & Tonic
I’ve heard but not confirmed that that HHS bozo Michael Caputo has been diagnosed with metastatic head/neck cancer. Might explain bizarre behavior.
Bill Arnold
@Miss Bianca:
I liked this link though, about the Evangelical shift from human life begins at first breath (60s, 70s) to human life begins at conception. The article is full of backing links. (rewirenewsgroup has a left bias, FWIW)
When the ‘Biblical View’ for Evangelicals Was That Life Begins at Birth (Jonathan Dudley, Sep 27, 2019)
patrick Il
@zhena gogolia:
Fat fingers on a cell phone.
TS (the original)
@James E Powell:
I found it impossible to get past the tone. It was not written in good faith.
Then again … no political discussion is written in good faith at this point in time – otherwise we would have 90% of the media supporting Biden and the democratic party.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
It was in a thread a few levels down (comments, not FP). I don’t wish that on anyone, notwithstanding the loathsomeness of Caputo and the damage he did. Terrible, painful disease.
debbie
Haha, Twitter says Trump is insisting he did not hear the chants when he was at the Supreme Court.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Can’t believe he was telling the truth when he said he left for health reasons.
Gin & Tonic
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, I don’t know what kind, but I’ve had two good friends succumb to glioblastoma. It pretty much sucks.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@patrick Il:
But how would that help him? No Supreme Court is going to invalidate ballots just to help Trump. That would hurt a lot of Republicans down ballot
Catherine D.
@RedDirtGirl: I was in my happy, happy place.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
We’re going to see a QAnon caucus in Congress in 2021, so I figure we’ll have a QAnon presidential candidate in 2024.
TS (the original)
It’s sometimes good to listen to Rachel. She talks about Biden and the democrats campaign. Rest of the media thinks they do not exist.
dmsilev
@Jeffro: They might have had a chance at it, except that every Republican around has spent the last ten years shrieking about Obamacare. You branded it, guys, you’re stuck with the branding.
Baud
@TS (the original): That’s good to hear. I haven’t been watching lately, but when I would she would also talk a lot about Trump.
James E Powell
@TS (the original):
There will always be self-proclaimed lefties whose main goal in life is to focus their wrath on the Democrats.
Steeplejack
dmsilev
@debbie: I believe that. Yes, his ears may have detected the sounds, but there’s no way his brain registered them as booing. It’s unpossible, in his mind, for people to hate him.
James E Powell
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I expect QAnon to be to the 20s what Drudge Report was to the 90s.
At first, it will be regarded as fringe and a little silly. Eventually, it will be the talk of the Beltway and the number one source for the NYT’s investigations of the Biden administration.
Baud
@Jeffro: Biden’s ad team will have a field day with that one.
Shakti
I hate that gimlet-eyed, granny-robbing motherfucker. So of course, he’s been governor and is my senator and is not up for reelection this year. My rep is my former governor.
It’s just trashtastic we’ve been subjected to a four year reelection campaign (seriously GSLiC filed with the FEC on his inauguration day ) but Scott wants to rush through the actual counting of votes?
patrick Il
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): like Trump cares about down ballot Republicans – But it wouldn’t hurt Republicans this year anyhow because far more democrats are projected to use mail-in ballots,’ So it helps down ballot Repubs as well.
Redshift
@patrick Il: And as I see it, a good deal of this flows from Bush v. Gore, and the argument that continuing to count ballots risked “harm” to Bush, and argument that only works if you’re assuming Bush will be the winner (and thereby betrays their intent.) Honestly, I’m surprised none of them has cited it yet.
hueyplong
FL GOPers seem to be even more sure of a Dem win than the pollsters are.
In earlier times there would at least have been an attempted pretext.
This is just, “We’re counting our votes and not yours.”
Redshift
@Goku (Amerikan Baka):
Umm, you do know the Supreme Court invalidated ballots to help Bush in 2000, right?
Baud
@Redshift:
They didn’t invalidate ballots. They stopped the recount of the ballots.
patrick Il
Since Scott knows this will never become law. another motivation is that he wants to show fealty to Trump. HHS may have a spot open next term and it would give him a chance to join in the graft and help his wife’s ( wink, wink ) healthcare company make a little money.
TS (the original)
@Baud:
She started talking about trump, not so long after my post. It was mainly about the Justice Department supporting his attempts to declare mail voting fraudulent
Dear Heavens, now she has Bernie on – I’m gone
Steeplejack
Boy, kudos to Bernie! Rachel Maddow just played an extended clip from a barn-burner speech he gave today that eviscerated Trump cleanly and eloquently. Will have to look for the video.
He is coming up as her live guest in a minute or two.
Subsole
@James E Powell: Nah. If they don’t pay SOME way, the lesson will be “this is an effective method of achievement”.
No
The lesson MUST be “doing this shit will put you out of business and you are VERY lucky it stopped at that.”
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@patrick Il:
Trump may not care, but down ballot Republicans will. It would open a Pandora’s box. And I’m not entirely convinced that any newly seated justice would be beholden to Trump. They would have a lifetime appointment and even Gorsuch has occasionally voted in favor of our side. Any likely justice would be inclined to favor the party’s interests rather than save Trump’s ass
Baud
@Steeplejack:
I’ll take it just like I take the Lincoln Project help.
Chief Oshkosh
This is probably somewhere in the thread, but i’m heading to bed and too lazy to read it all…
This is another attempt to add uncertainty to the vote and election. Scott knows that even if this doesn’t make it to a vote in the Senate, much less goes to House, there will be enough elected Democrats decrying it that he will be able to cast further shade on mail-in ballots and on the Democrats.
TS (the original)
@Baud:
I couldn’t listen – click.
Subsole
@Gin & Tonic: Ooof. My gramps died of that shit. Horrible way to go. Hope his passing is easier.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Video of Sanders’s speech here.
Redshift
@Baud:
The recount involved examining ballots by hand to determine voter intent so ballots that were not counted initially could be included. Stopping that process caused ballots not to be counted, it wasn’t just making sure they’d tallied them up correctly.
patrick Il
WaterGirl
@James E Powell: So we are in agreement!
Redshift
@Steeplejack: I heard a bit of it on BBC earlier, and I agree it was quite good.
WaterGirl
@Baud: It’s hard to believe they would publish anything else! :-)
Baud
@TS (the original):
I started to but when he started talking about rigged elections I had to turn it off. Like I said, I’ll take it, because we have a greater evil to deal with.
Cameron
@Steeplejack: Well, you just drew fire for the rest of the night. Apparently the only honorable thing that the Bern can do is commit seppuku while advising same to his followers.
Shalimar
Scott’s plan is 2-part, they just keep part 2 quiet. That’s where they underfund election offices in Democratic areas so they don’t have enough people to count all the votes.
WaterGirl
@Baud: First time ever! Next thing you know, people will actually be quitting to spend more time with their families!
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
Esophageal cancer in Caputo’s case.
Baud
@Redshift:
But what Trump needs here is for them to not count these ballots in the first place.
The Moar You Know
@James E Powell: Look. After four years of these people, we all – every last person in the world, never mind America – know what these people are. They understand they’re not just just bad but actively evil. That is simply not the problem. The problem is that about 40-45% of our citizenry is FUCKING THRILLED that they are bad people, and would like them to double down on that.
The only way you fix that is consequences. We’re way past education. We educated them and about half of them thought 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale sounded like damn fine ideas.
patrick Il
@Redshift: I agree with that. The only people with legal stakes in that Case were the voters, and their interests were entirely discounted in that decision .
And that thievery is the Case that gives Trump hope.
Baud
@Cameron: He drew no fire. You just made that up.
Gin & Tonic
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for clarifying. Still probably not fun.
Baud
@WaterGirl: Ha! It’s a new day.
Redshift
@Chief Oshkosh: Ideally, Democrats will respond to it with something like “Senator Scott seems to have the strange idea that counting votes as fast as possible is more important than counting them accurately. A party that cares about the will of the people rather than undermining it wouldn’t support such a ludicrous proposal.” Or talk about how declaring a winner on Election Night doesn’t come from the Founders, it comes from TV networks.
Don’t mention or even make reference to his lies about ballots, just point out that there is no good-faith argument for his plan.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud:
Heh, cosigned
ETA: @Baud: another sign of the horseshoe formed by the trumpist right and the Bernier-than-Bernie left: They are always the victims, always martyrs, no matter what the circumstance
SiubhanDuinne
@Shakti:
GSLiC? Translation, please? I assume the last two letters stand for “in Chief,” but I need help with the “GSL” part.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@patrick Il:
That plan would place themselves at Trump’s mercy for at least another 4 years or more. On top of that, look at how people reacted to the Breona Taylor murder grand jury decision. Multiply that by 1000 and you will get the reaction to the Surpeme Court declaring Trump “president”
raven
@The Moar You Know: Thanks for the input back yonder.
TS (the original)
@Baud:
When he goes on every political show and tells his supporters to stop with the stupidity and vote for Biden – I’ll listen, otherwise he is a pointless waste of space.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
But, the ballot only needs to be postmarked by November 3rd.
A properly postmarked ballot has two more weeks to arrived do into the election authority.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
he’s just baiting Twitter Nixon, and maybe the real ghost, at this point
TS (the original)
@Cameron:
Nope – all he has to do is tell his supporters to vote for Biden without any snark or any additional comment. How hard is that?
J R in WV
@Aleta:
WOW~!!~what a gifted musician and performer. So sorry he was lost so young. Watched and listened to quite a bit of it. Wonderful.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Exactly!
Redshift
@Baud:
Agreed, this would be a stronger action. But considering the made-up justification in that case, I don’t have a lot of confidence that Federalist Society ideologues wouldn’t come up with an equally flimsy rationale for it.
I’m not hair on fire about it, I was just pointing out that there really isn’t much basis for flat-out asserting that no Supreme Court would ever do that.
Baud
@TS (the original):
I’ll settle for him not being affirmatively harmful. I’ll be interested in seeing if and how he responds if Trump tweets at him about this latest speech.
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
Of course he doesn’t~!!~ He has been a dessert cartoon on my device for quite a long time now!!!!!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Cameron:
I’m by no means a Bernie fan, but I have to say he brought it with the thunder today. More articulate than I’ve ever seen him.
Baud
@Redshift:
I agree that nothing is beyond the realm of possibility now. But if the Court does something like that, I think they know there’s no coming back from it for them this time.
Redshift
@Shalimar:
Good point.
The Moar You Know
@raven: I was going to try and hunt you up and make sure you got the word but I had to go into work for a while. Glad you got it; it’s misery but even if it’s a bad injury it does get better. And those shots hurt like fucking Satan’s battery acid.
Uncle Cosmo
In MD it is illegal for any local board of election to even open a vote-by-mail ballot until 8 AM on the day after Election Day. MD Code, Election Law, Section 11-302, Canvassing:
Nevertheless I have been told by an employee of the State Board of Elections (with a 3-2 GOP majority due to our Governor being a Republican) that they are strongly urging local boards to count absentee/vote-by-mail ballots as early as possible – IOW, to break the law.
This sounds to me like a setup for Rethug lawyers to go to court arguing that every mail-in ballot in MD must be invalidated.
Therefore I (over 70, type 2 diabetic, heart condition – IOW, in the COVID-19 crosshairs) am voting early in-person. With the future of American democracy at stake, I’ll take my chances to ensure my vote is counted, and fuck the GOP with a rusty chainsaw, sideways!
The Moar You Know
@WaterGirl: that account has been trolling here a good long time. Well before 2016. I think he does play for team D – team Duma. More of a chaos agent than anything else.
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: I’m pretty sure they don’t.
Kathleen
@dmsilev: Thank you! Feeling quite ranty today.
Shakti
@SiubhanDuinne: Golden Shower Lover in Chief
patrick Il
@WaterGirl:
They don’t count the ballots in Virginia until the polls close either. However, they “process” then as they receive them which means checking the signature and correctness of the ballot before hand. All thats left to do on election day is to feed them into the tabulator which should go quickly.
Bill Arnold
@Uncle Cosmo:
If this is indeed the case, it is possible to get this publicized and fixed well before election day.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Redshift:
My main point was that doing so would hurt a lot of down ballot Republicans and open a Pandora’s Box. I don’t think the Court would be willing to destroy other Republicans just to save Trump and annihilate their own credibility at the same time
Miss Bianca
@James E Powell: and then, following the arc, gradually dwindle into irrelevance, to the point where when it pops its head up again somewhere, people are all like, “Wow,
theDrudge ReportQ-Anon is still around?”WaterGirl
@The Moar You Know: @Miss Bianca:
I was going for the polite company version of what I actually think.
Ken
@Miss Bianca: Yes, with the difference that Drudge never ran as a third-party spoiler drawing votes from a GOP candidate, which seems a distinct possibility for QAnon.
Omnes Omnibus
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Since Steve in the WTF left, I thought that I was the only Brooks Bros person on the blog.
Cameron
@Baud: Of course! Bigly!
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Ken:
Doesn’t it seem far merely likely that Q-Anon would take over the Republican Party? We already have Q-Anon nuts winning GOP primaries
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I still tell myself that Steve in WTF will come back. Do we even know why he left?
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh barf.
SiubhanDuinne
@Shakti:
?
Thanks.
PaulWartenberg
Florida resident here.
I had been screaming about Rick MEDICARE FRAUD for ten goddamn years, and he keeps getting worse as a human being. How the hell did he beat out a good man like Sen. Nelson?! Oh, right, the vote suppression in 2018… /rage
That the Florida AG is going overboard to stop any effort to aid the disenfranchised to regain their power to vote is unsurprising, nor is her hypocrisy in revealing how the suppression effort was a Poll Tax all along. The sad thing is she and the GOP will make certain these non-violent ex-felons will be denied their rights well into 2022 (when DeSantis faces the music for his disastrous governorship).
Miss Bianca
@Ken: Well, there’s that.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Whatever happened to Steve in the ATL, anyway? Or Mnem? Yarrow? Was there a falling out or argument in Mnem’s case?
boatboy_srq
When Governor Voldemort was first elected, it was stupefying. Like a certain other figure we know, he too said the quiet parts out loud. We thought it would be the end of him. Whoops.
I can remember talking to people after that election who were horrified by his policies.
“Why are you upset? You voted for all this.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“He said he was going to do all this when he was campaigning. It was most of his platform.”
“Yes, it was. But I never thought he’d actually do any of it!”
I think that was when I gave up on Conservatists.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@PaulWartenberg:
Doesn’t mean they will succeed. We have agency too
PaulWartenberg
@PsiFighter37:
It’s not a question of having brains, it’s a question of having souls, of having moral compasses. An openly corrupt Medicare fraud should not have won a fucking primary let alone the governorship.
trollhattan
California, before election day:
California, after election day:
When is the process complete?
In summary: Fuck you, Rick Scott.
PaulWartenberg
@Goku (Amerikan Baka):
it’s a question of time. Registration for new voters ends the first week of October. If the GOP can sabotage shit until then… :(
PaulWartenberg
By the way, did anyone tell Rick Scott how many REPUBLICAN VOTERS who are homebound mail-in balloteers in Florida will get screwed by his plan?
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
I emailed him a couple of weeks ago, but haven’t heard back.
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV: But you pie everyone.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: @Goku (Amerikan Baka): Steve literally could not take it anymore.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: I currently only have one commenter pied.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Somebody literally used literally wrong?
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I literally have no idea.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Is it me?
J R in WV
@Omnes Omnibus:
I didn’t ever pie you, for example.
I pie people who don’t share our progressive viewpoint, people who complain about progressive viewpoints. And assholes.
Anyway, I do not pie everyone!! Just those who earn it.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Is it Itoldyouso (aka Amaranthine RBG) or tomango (sp)?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: No, but you and I have the same opinion of the commenter.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): No.
Uncle Cosmo
Why couldn’t you have simply typed that out in your post, instead of people having to ask what it meant? Are you trying to communicate meaning, or just daring your readers to figure it out for ourselves?
Unless an abbreviation is in common use, or can be readily turned up on a search, it needs to be defined on first use in a document (including a post). To do otherwise is not just bad style, it shows disdain for readers who are forced to guess at the meaning.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
What does “it” refer to?
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Matt Mcirvin?
Geminid
@The Moar You Know: I guess this Rennenkamf guy who wrote the article Taumato linked to was being serious, but I swear, it reads like parody.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ahhh…. WaterGirl.
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV: Stop hating on hyperbole.
FlyingToaster
In Massachusetts, from once having to have an iron-clad excuse to absentee vote — which I once broke, technically, as the product launch I had plane tickets for was cancelled 2 days before the scheduled launch — now has fairly expansive early and mail-in voting.
I voted in person for the primary because it sure as heck wasn’t going to be crowded (Sept. 1).
I’ll be voting early at Town Hall, probably Oct. 20th or 21st (during the first week of early voting). Basically, drop WarriorTeen at MS, drive back via Town Hall, see if there’s a crowd lined up in Saltonstall Park. If so, wait ’til tomorrow. Rinse, Repeat, until voting is accomplished. HerrDoktor is waiting until day-of, hieing the 4 blocks up the hill to the Police Station, and waiting in line to vote in person.
In previous elections, I saw the polling place staff un-sealing the evidence-bag of early ballots and feeding them into the scanner during lulls in the day-of traffic. This year, I understand they fed them in before 7am. It means that the only outstanding votes are those received by mail after Friday evening before the election; all of them are processed after the polls close, plus absentee/overseas/military ballots get added in as they arrive up to the cutoff (3 days after the election, IIRC). It means that our town results don’t get reported until 11pm, but they’re extremely accurate. The one recount I’ve witnessed — a ward alderman election in Somerville — was 8 votes apart. They recounted the ballots by hand, on the floor of the HS gym, with the basketball cam broadcasting the recount on local access. The recount result: won by 8 votes.
I would like to see how much money Bloomberg spends on lawyers to face these Flah-ri-dah asshats in court…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: The Hill lends whatever reputation it has left to some very odd people, most of whom I, as a click-happy political junkie, have never heard of.
Yutsano
@J R in WV:
Welp….I’m ungestuppt here…
Jeffro
@Omnes Omnibus: is that why he never says anything about my…oh, never mind…
SiubhanDuinne
@Uncle Cosmo:
In formal writing, I fully agree — the phrase or title should be spelled out in full before the acronym is used. But I’m far more forgiving on this blog, and on the Internet in general. In fact, I kind of enjoy the game of figuring out what the acronym means, and will only ask the author once I’ve exhausted my own brain and resources like Urban Dictionary. I don’t think Shakti deserved that level of criticism.
Cameron
@PaulWartenberg: Two-time governor, new senator – maybe Medicare fraud really appeals to us Olds down here? ‘Cause I’ll be damned if I can figure out how this guy won anything. And, frankly, whatever Andrew Gillum’s problems are, he’d have been a far better governor than the Trump Mini-Me we have.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (Amerikan Baka):
@Omnes Omnibus: More to the northwest, I think.
Benw
This is a helluva basketball game
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Bob in Portland (or Putinland), right?
Uncle Cosmo
But maybe not before mailed ballots start showing up. The MD AG, Brian Frosh, is a Democrat; I intend to contact his office & request he send out ASAP a notice to the 24 BoEs (each MD county plus Baltimore City) reminding them of the law & stating they will be prosecuted for breaking it.
That’s the zeroth-order solution. GOV Hogan cannot fix this by executive decree – it’s the law. He probably should call a quick special session of the General Assembly for the sole purpose of amending the MD Code to allow earlier counting of mailed ballots.
That is, if he’s not in on the con. I doubt the GOP will pass up the opportunity to throw a spanner in the works come November. Even if they can’t invalidate enough ballots to steal our 10 EVs for Trumplthinskin, they might be able to pick off a couple of House seats where typical Democratic margins are only 2-1 and Dems are voting by mail in large numbers.
(NB During the 2020 MD primary election the BoEs routinely counted ballots well before the official Election Day – but since all voting was by mail and all contests were intraparty, neither party objected to this procedure, even though it clearly violated the law, in the interest of timely results.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): He’s not been around in years.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): There is no reason to pie banned people.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I had to read this a couple of times to be clear Kilmeade wasn’t defending Joe Biden
The Beast seems awfully skittish about debating an old man who’s lost his grip.
Yutsano
@TS (the original): Hey! If you’re still around, what is your opinion of Leigh Sales as a presenter and journalist? I feel like there are points where she successfully smacked around Huckabee Sanders but others where she just let SHS blab without pressing further. Of course this is heavily edited so it’s hard to tell if there was a further back and forth.
Oh and for everyone else: you should watch this clip. So should our journalist critters. It’s how they should be handling people like her. Oh and I hope her book gets remaindered in like two weeks.
J R in WV
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh. OK.
No hard feelings, OK?
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ok, I give up
HumboldtBlue
@Aleta:
Wow.
Just wow.
boatboy_srq
@dmsilev: I’d settle for enrolling him in The Game. The one that Michael Douglas and Sean Penn played. Right through to waking up in the crypt in Mexico with no money and no ID.
Uncle Cosmo
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): Boob in Putinland. And Bill on #201 is correct – the Kremlin likely snipped off his funding line for poor work product some time ago.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): Even I didn’t pie him back when he was around.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (Amerikan Baka): Pro tip: they won’t tell you.
HumboldtBlue
@Benw:
It really is. The skill on display s a joy to watch.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I do hope Biden ignores anything stupid he’s presented with in the debates (I doubt there will be a 2nd and 3rd debate) and just turn to trumpov and grill the shit out of him. Especially since the media hasn’t been up to the job.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: I had GoBlue pied in the old pie filter.
TS (the original)
@Yutsano:
She is probably as unbiased as you are likely to get in the media. She is always on the attack against politicians – usually regardless of party. Sometimes I think she takes it too far, but if that is what it takes …
The current government (RW) has been attacking the ABC (our public broadcaster) and continues to reduce their funding, so the bias is probably slightly to the left at this point in time. The RW hacks will always accuse the ABC of being left wing, but it is much like in the US – reality and truth trend left.
On a slightly different tack, even the most loyal of our RW government supporters are anti trump. In my age group (olds) of mainly RW voters I only know 2 people who make positive comments about trump. And they only did it once after the response they got. Our PM however, is a trump sycophant. If we had a decent opposition he would be out on his ear, but sadly, we do not.
Quinerly
@WaterGirl: I have emailed him. Hope to hear back. He reminded me years ago that I had represented SW Bell YP in a case here in St. Louis. We exchanged emails and had hoped for a meet up. Never connected.
I don’t think he has posted in months. Hope he is OK.
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
I figured that one out
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Quinerly: Yeah, he snubbed me too when he was here in town.
Johnnybuck
All of this bullshit is happening because they know they are losing, and by the way, Joe don’t need fla to win, Iowa and Ohio both are coming home. It’s all noise.
Yutsano
Incidentally, if I get banned, know this: I. Regret. Nothing.
Plus I’ll just e-mail Silverman and all will be well.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Or so you think.
Quinerly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: honestly, I think I did the snubbing. I was either in NM or NC always when he wanted to connect in St. Louis. Think Marcopolo met him here several times. I could be wrong. I had forgotten about several SW Bell cases from 1980’s-1990’s. When he and I connected thru email and he got my full name, he searched my name thru a data base re cases, appellant work.
I was like…. “OK…. ?”
ballerat
@PsiFighter37: Not about brains, it’s about power, religion and whiteness.
texasdoc
@SiubhanDuinne: People speculated in the thread below that Caputo’s head and neck cancer means esophageal cancer–but the convention in oncology would be to call it esophageal cancer. More likely he has cancer that began in the pharynx. We know he has cervical node involvement, because that is what they biopsied. The (+) node is metastatic disease, but we don’t know whether he has distant metastases (e.g. lung) which would indicate a far worse prognosis.
Chris T.
@Bill Arnold: And now, life begins at or before conception, and apparently ends at birth.
Chris T.
@Steeplejack: I always wondered about that phrase, barn-burner. Turns out there were “tear it all down” types back in the 1800s: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/barn-burner
2liberal
caputo cancer story :
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/24/politics/michael-caputo-cancer-diagnosis/index.html
Just One More Canuck
@dmsilev: Brooks Brothers makes overalls?
dnfree
@WaterGirl: needs an Oxford comma?
WaterGirl
@Quinerly: @SiubhanDuinne:
I hope you guys hear from him. He really is missed.
dnfree
@texasdoc: I have a friend who had this kind of cancer. It actually was a squamous cell (skin) cancer that started in the cells in his neck and was just a lump that got bigger over time. But meanwhile it spread internally to his esophagus and other parts of his neck. He had surgery and radiation and had to feed himself through a tube in his chest for months.
No One You Know
@Winston: Scott makes the case for early voting, of course!
patrick Il
@dmsilev: The bill has nothing to do with any practical real world effect . It will never get passed. It is Scott signaling to his voters – – See! I’m a big time asshole just like you ! Vote counting is for suckers.