Our system is fucked up, yes.
Doing anything other than counting all legally cast ballots is not "a point" to be made. It would help our public discourse greatly if this crap is not recirculated. I'm only pushing back here because it was on a damn national news broadcast and is framed so poorly in this tweet https://t.co/jS1Lp60MZ0
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) November 1, 2020
There’s going to be all kinds of shenanigans. I don’t think they’ll be enough to keep Biden from a pretty decisive victory. But, yes, is stresses me out a bit.
If you’d like to do any last minute stress giving, the two Georgia Senate races are a good place to give, because they are likely to go to run-offs.
Raphael Warnock, Georgia Senate (special election)
Jon Ossoff, Georgia Senate (regular election)
Ballot access is *always* a good place to give and this is one is among our readers’ favorites.
Four Directions (ballot access for Native people)
You can see everyone we are supporting here.
germy
Look who this couple dressed up as for Halloween:
germy
germy
debbie
@germy:
How many years has it been since we’ve heard Rethuglicans talk about their principles the way William F. Buckley did? It feels like forever and that’s because they abandoned them back when Reagan made them feel like only they could govern the country.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I was gonna vote on Tuesday but then realized, fuck it. I went today and waited about 30 minutes in the cold rain. All the people inside were super friendly and I have never been happier filling in those ovals. Eye on the prize.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Old Dan and Little Ann: It’s great, isn’t it? I want this to be over.
WaterGirl
In case you guys missed it, gkoutnik posted this comment the other day.
Luciamia
And if Trump was way behind and they were ready to call it for Biden election night, you can bet ‘ counting every vote’ would suddenly become sacred.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Fo sho. I talked my wife into going as well. She was all about election day, too. She has zero confidence. I am the optimistic one.
dmsilev
@Luciamia: Yes, naturally. Combined, of course, with “all those votes for Biden are fake and fraud”.
Redshift
I saw that Rick Klein tweet, and it should be exhibit A in how not to handle disinformation. I’m sure he thinks he did just fine by posting the “point” by itself and then saying of course it’s all BS in the follow-up tweet, but he absolutely didn’t. This is just endemic in the media, put the outrageous quote in the headline, then debunk it in the body. In a world where the headline is what gets seen on social media, that just amplifies the lie.
MattF
@Luciamia: Votes for Trump must be counted repeatedly, all other votes must be ignored.
rikyrah
Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife ‘played game where they ranked which Liberty University students they wanted to have sex with’, says student who ‘had sexual affair with Becki after band practice with her son’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8903045/Falwells-played-game-ranked-Liberty-Uni-student-sex-with.html?ito=push-notification&ci=46698&si=733427
mali muso
@rikyrah: Good grief. And Falwell is threatening to sue Liberty for besmirching his good name. LOL.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
trump was in Michigan– the fabled Macomb County, where all the women are strong, and all the voters are Reagan Democrats– whining about the cold earlier today (he’s now in Iowa, twitter tells me)
because all the grizzled retired auto workers love a good opera singer story
germy
rikyrah
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
Good for you. Vote is banked.
Excellent :)
rikyrah
Raphael Warnock, Georgia Senate (special election)
Warnock is not a bad candidate. When it all began, the ‘ names’ didn’t want to run. He stepped up to the plate. Can’t be more of a 180 compared to the current Senator.
germy
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: She thinks trump is going to win…. New Jersey?
Baud
@germy:
Reaching out to the GOP base?
WaterGirl
@Luciamia: You’ve got that right! We may even get to see that play out exactly that way on election night. Which would reveal them to be the hypocrites that they are. But then anyone willing to see it already knows that.
hedgehog mobile
@WaterGirl: Just threw some coin at them. Last donation before The Big Day.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
All those attacks on Cory Booker hit home.
japa21
@germy: I don’t know what state she is in, but she has to get special documentation in a lot of states to be a poll watcher. Signing up with the campaign won’t do it. Usually has to be certified by the county. Also, she can challenge all she wants, but the election workers get to decide if the challenge is valid. I have a hunch they are not training the Trump people.
Baud
@germy:
Isn’t Rupar doing the same thing we’re criticizing the media for in this post?
raven
I kind of like this version. Holding Back the Years.(Symphonica In Rosso)
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Just to calm nerves, according to 538 Biden’s national polling lead with 3 days to go is larger than Obama’s in 2008. He’s less than two points from where HW was in 1988, and you have to go back to Clinton in 1996 to find the last candidate with a bigger lead at this point in the race.
japa21
Haven’t been keeping up today, but I just something about the GOP’s attempt to get the curbside votes in Houston thrown out was rejected.
MagdaInBlack
@raven: Always liked that song. Thanks =-)
Baud
@japa21:
By the state court. The wingnut federal judge is hearing a parallel case tomorrow.
raven
@MagdaInBlack: I keep holding on. . .
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I did the Choose Democracy online training on How to Beat an Election-Related Power Grab. It’s excellent, and somehow reassuring despite the need for such a training to exist. There’s one again today at 5PM Pacific/8PM Eastern, and another (except we really, really hope not) on November 5.
It’s led by George Lakey, a longtime and immensely experienced Quaker civil rights activist and professor, and part of the fun (!) for me was the flashback to my Quaker college days. If you can, do it. If you can’t, read this article in the Atlantic about it.
WaterGirl
@japa21: I thought that was scheduled to be heard on Monday?
There were two similar cases (not to have the votes thrown out but to shut down the voting from the car) that were shut down by the Texas Supreme Court.
But the most recent one – in federal court – is supposed to be heard on Monday. Do you have a way to check whether what you heard was federal court or the TX supreme court?
raven
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I read your comment yesterday. Stick it.
WaterGirl
@raven: What does that mean?
raven
@WaterGirl: It wasn’t directed at you. She’ll know.
MagdaInBlack
@raven: Yeah, dumb me, wasnt til you posted the video that I caught on to the post title ;-)
japa21
@WaterGirl: See Baud’s comment. In theory, having the state court throw it out should keep it out of the federal court, but it won’t.
Ocotillo
Mrs. O worked as an Election Judge for early voting this year. I say that in the past tense today because she is not going to work Election Day even though she was supposed to. She has a underlying condition so I had tried to talk her out of working but she has been cooped up since March and wanted to get out of the house. Poll workers are required to wear masks. Voters are not. She set up her location in such a manner that everyone that came in would get their hands sanitized and be given a glove to use the touch screen voting machine. Terminals were set up at roughly six foot intervals. One of the machines was designated to be used if an unmasked person came in. Out of over 22,000 votes cast, she approximated maybe 6 people did not wear a mask. They did not create a scene, if it was a couple, one was asked to wait outside while the other used the designated voting machine.
Friday was the last day of early voting which would end at 10:00pm. At 7:00, an unmasked poll watcher showed up. Due to the limited space inside the facility, it was determined a maximum of 2 poll watchers could be in at a time. The unmasked poll watcher asked to speak with one of the 2 that were already in the facility. The person who had been poll watching agreed to leave and give up her spot to the unmasked poll watcher. Mrs. O asked her to put a mask on. She refused. The Elections Office was phoned and ruled the poll watcher could not be compelled to put a mask on. This upset Mrs. O.
Mrs. O and the alternate Election Judge (a non-practicing Medical Doctor) decided they would not continue to work at the poll if they would be compelled to be exposed to an unmasked person for more than the amount of time it took to vote. The poll watcher stayed for 3 hour and due to limited spacing, where she chose to sit took away the ability to use to voting machines because she was too close to the machines. There was nowhere else to put her.
Voting was constant although there was not a long line, people just kept showing up.
When Mrs. O spoke with the county Elections Office and explained why she would not be reporting on Tuesday (nor the alternate judge) of course it put them in a tough spot. They were empathetic and apologized and said they understood her reasoning but the Governor (Abbott) had ruled they could not compel poll watchers to wear a mask.
So here is GOP ruled Texas, Abbott’s need to play along with the Covidiots not only risked exposure of poll workers and voters. The unmasked poll watchers “right” to not wear a mask also took two voting machines out of a commission for three hours.
Keep in mind, a fair number of the poll workers are senior citizens doing a temporary job. Mrs. O worked over 75 hours this past week so I empathize with the full time Elections people and the temporary poll workers who are doing amazing work under stressful conditions. It is really despicable the behavior of Republicans in this election process to really take away the right to vote. If only they valued the right to vote as much as the right to bear arms.
J R in WV
Did Balloon Juice actually raise nearly a Quarter of a Million $$$$$$ for Jon’s Senate race in GA? $240,000 specifically! Or are there others contributing to that funding…
So glad to see folks kicking in to Four Directions, which I first donated to in the 2016 cycle IIRC.
Leto
@japa21: @Baud:
https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/texas-drive-thru/
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Rupar isn’t always to my liking. But he does a great job of collecting clips.
lgerard
Love this
https://twitter.com/EMIMDoc/status/1322277936297332739/photo/1
Mousebumples
@J R in WV: I think that includes Ossoff fundraising for when he ran for the open House seat a few years back?
japa21
@Leto: I haven’t followed this too closely, but if the votes were cast, how do they know which ones were the ones they are arguing against. Or does TX do early voting in a way none of the ballots are actually submitted until election day?
Leto
@japa21: Here’s a longer explanation on it, as well as who’s bringing the challenges:
“It’s wholly un-American”: Harris County drive-thru voters await court rulings as Texas Republicans push to invalidate 127,000 votes
James E Powell
I am tapped out on cash donations. I’ve already donated the equivalent of the VOX AC 15c1 I have been thinking about for the last two years.
But I have time, so I’m texting to my beloved home state of Ohio. Response rate is below 10% – I’ve received a few horrible responses from Trump voters, a few “voting for Biden” replies, but mostly people texting STOP!
I’m doing this because I hate phone banking and I hate phone banking because I hate getting phone calls from people I don’t know, but don’t mind texts. I do wonder if this stuff works.
Obdurodon
That exchange with the finance director from Four Directions just warmed my heart. If anyone deserves more help with having their voices heard, it’s the people they represent. And yeah, I did put my money where my big mouth is.
WaterGirl
@James E Powell: The Pod Save America guys pointed out that if you get even 2 or 3 good responses out of 100, when you multiply that by the number of people who are doing it, that could make the difference between winning a state and losing it.
PJ
@James E Powell: I hate getting texts from people I don’t know. Maybe this is a generational thing, but it irritates me more and takes more mental energy for me to type STOP (or to find the unsubscribe link and type out my email in the unsubscribe box) than to have a discussion with someone.
Quiltingfool
@raven: OT: Luxury vinyl tile, from previous post, re what does my husband think of it. Well, I can tell you he has installed vinyl tile, but he hates it, and he also hates Berber carpet. His dislike of vinyl tile is that it tears easily and really doesn’t wear well. He likes tile better for floors in kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms. He will tell you Berber carpet wears like iron, but he thinks it is very rough and scratchy. However, whatever a customer wants, a customer gets.
The Busch family (beer guys) had a compound at Lake of the Ozark, and my husband helped install pure wool carpeting in the houses. Very expensive stuff. I asked him why someone would spend so much on wool, as I thought it would wear out quickly. He told me that wool actually wears quite well, much better than acrylic fibers.
Matt McIrvin
Just saw my first comment with peculiar spelling on 538 confidently predicting that Massachusetts will go for Trump! I’d seen several people insisting that California would vote for Trump but this is the first time they’ve been that confident.
James E Powell
@Matt McIrvin:
Just trolls. Trump supporters – unlike some Democrat I know – never do that “OMG! Just saw another poll that says we’re losing!” thing.
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin: Mind games.
raven
@Quiltingfool: Thanks!!!!
Yutsano
From WaPo:
Wingnut tears! Getcher fresh hot wingnut tears right here! Hot and sweet and oh so delicious!
mrmoshpotato
“We first gotta beat Donald Trump! He’s the virus!”
– Joe Biden in Philly right now talking about beating COVID-19.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: I laughed out loud. Go Joe!
David ?Booooooo!? Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s genius. Nothing connects you more with Joe Sixpack like a good Metropolitan Opera antidote.
David ?Booooooo!? Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That said, I love the Met Opera’s “Nixon in China” production.
The guy playing Mao is off the charts:
Smedley Butler couldn’t have said it better.
Barbara
@Quiltingfool: I had LVT installed in my kitchen after my laminated flooring was ruined by a water leak. I think it was around 15 years ago. The brand is Amtico and I love it to bits. I would never, ever have tile flooring in a kitchen.
David ?Booooooo!? Koch
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch: * anecdote, not antidote
WaterGirl
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch: That’s okay. Earlier today I said that there would be much whaling and gnashing of teeth. Multiple references to Moby Dick followed.
Kathleen
@germy: I don’t see what the problem is. I’m sure NYT would refer to him as an “avid Trump supporter” which in their minds makes him cuddly.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, that does it. No way in hell I’m voting for Pavarotti.
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin: “Knock it off, Doug J.”
different-church-lady
A view from the NYTs:
different-church-lady
Shit! NOVEMBER SHOCKER! FBI ANNOUNCES INVESTIGATION!!!
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: That’s good news. Where is that from?
different-church-lady
@WaterGirl: NYT’s news service, via boston.com frontpage
The bold stuff is my way of saying, “Count on nothing.”
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@Redshift:
I saw this come across my dash on Tumblr a few weeks ago about:
These people are idiots
J R in WV
@Quiltingfool:
My grandparents built a house just down the ridge top from our house.All that land was bought back in the 20s or 30s and gifted to all the aunts and uncles and my dad… ot keep the family together, which worked pretty well.
Part had parquet oak flooring, but the living room/dining room had grey wool carpet. Was really nice, but as a V young child, I spent a lot of time on that floor, and it was kinda itchy.
Granddad had a clue about all his grandchildren… to have them around all summer, he built a little concrete pond. This was before pools with heaters and filters, it was just a concrete box with spigots at the top and a drain at the bottom.
We drained it every 6 weeks, scrubbed it with lysol filled it back up with ice cold city water straight from a trout creek. And by “we” I mean the grandkids!
But we were there a whole lot as kids.
sdhays
@Leto: The Republican Speaker of the Texas House:
ETA: He goes on to add that Republicans should be trying to win people over with their ideas rather than trying to prevent people from being able to vote. What a concept!
Ocotillo
@sdhays: former Speaker. He was to squishy for the howl at the moon idiots that populate the Texas GOP these days.
beckya57
You need to put up a new post for the GA runoffs. I had to go digging for this.