I want to focus again on the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling. Because it proves Kavanaugh is not, in fact, a "brilliant jurist" as he was sold at the time. Kavanaugh talks about late votes "flipping" a result. Kagan points out that until those votes are counted, there are no results to flip. One of those statements (Kagan's) is just a stone-cold FACT. The other (Kavanaugh's) is nothing but partisan hackery dressed up in an exceptionally shitty legal argument.
The mail is also experiencing significant delays again. Right on schedule. The combination of that fact and a rigged court essentially means Democrats can't just win the game by a field goal. They have to win by three touchdowns. It's absolutely maddening. It's ridiculous to have to say this a week out, but mail-in votes are no longer an option. If you haven't voted already, you need to make other arrangements to get it in on time.
The tired "constitutional originalist" these extremists always pull out is nothing but a schtick. It's a lie to cover up and excuse doing whatever partisan ruling they want to do anyway.
Kavanaugh nor Barrett has no place on the Supreme Court. Barrett might I guess, we can't really tell because she has NO experience at all but her handmaid's tale style beliefs should be disqualifying. In any case Kavanaugh definitively does not belong on the Supreme Court at all.
Once she was sworn in last night, she had a lifetime appointment. She no longer realistically needed Trump for anything. The fact that she appeared at a political event with him anyway is ominous at best. Tells you everything you need to know about her.
If the ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day, they should count. Period. Any other conclusion, barring evidence of shenanigans, is bullshit.
Having said that, if I were not going to my polling place (I am), I would definitely not trust the Post Office to deliver my vote this election cycle. I'd be dropping it off at City Hall...
It's just infuriating it comes to this. You've likely heard the quote about Ginger Rogers, that being, she had to do everything Fred Astaire had to do, but backwards and in heels. That's Democrats in national elections. They are walking to school in snow shoes, and the other side gets a new Polaris.
That said, I trust Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report and his analysis of district by district data more than any other polling prognosticator (he is absolutely on the record as saying Hillary had serious problems in the last weeks of 2016). He has now said that while he isn't QUITE ready to call it, he is pretty damn close to doing so based on what he's getting from both Republican and Democratic internal polling.
I want to focus again on the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling. Because it proves Kavanaugh is not, in fact, a "brilliant jurist" as he was sold at the time. Kavanaugh talks about late votes "flipping" a result. Kagan points out that until those votes are counted, there are no results to flip. One of those statements (Kagan's) is just a stone-cold FACT. The other (Kavanaugh's) is nothing but partisan hackery dressed up in an exceptionally shitty legal argument.
The mail is also experiencing significant delays again. Right on schedule. The combination of that fact and a rigged court essentially means Democrats can't just win the game by a field goal. They have to win by three touchdowns. It's absolutely maddening. It's ridiculous to have to say this a week out, but mail-in votes are no longer an option. If you haven't voted already, you need to make other arrangements to get it in on time.
The tired "constitutional originalist" these extremists always pull out is nothing but a schtick. It's a lie to cover up and excuse doing whatever partisan ruling they want to do anyway.
Kavanaugh nor Barrett has no place on the Supreme Court. Barrett might I guess, we can't really tell because she has NO experience at all but her handmaid's tale style beliefs should be disqualifying. In any case Kavanaugh definitively does not belong on the Supreme Court at all.
Once she was sworn in last night, she had a lifetime appointment. She no longer realistically needed Trump for anything. The fact that she appeared at a political event with him anyway is ominous at best. Tells you everything you need to know about her.
If the ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day, they should count. Period. Any other conclusion, barring evidence of shenanigans, is bullshit.
Having said that, if I were not going to my polling place (I am), I would definitely not trust the Post Office to deliver my vote this election cycle. I'd be dropping it off at City Hall...
It's just infuriating it comes to this. You've likely heard the quote about Ginger Rogers, that being, she had to do everything Fred Astaire had to do, but backwards and in heels. That's Democrats in national elections. They are walking to school in snow shoes, and the other side gets a new Polaris.
Part of that is simply logistics. Voting in a relatively rural city/town is just much less of a hassle than voting in a large urban district. Democrats have a much larger urban proportion than Republicans.
I want to focus again on the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling. Because it proves Kavanaugh is not, in fact, a "brilliant jurist" as he was sold at the time. Kavanaugh talks about late votes "flipping" a result. Kagan points out that until those votes are counted, there are no results to flip. One of those statements (Kagan's) is just a stone-cold FACT. The other (Kavanaugh's) is nothing but partisan hackery dressed up in an exceptionally shitty legal argument.
The mail is also experiencing significant delays again. Right on schedule. The combination of that fact and a rigged court essentially means Democrats can't just win the game by a field goal. They have to win by three touchdowns. It's absolutely maddening. It's ridiculous to have to say this a week out, but mail-in votes are no longer an option. If you haven't voted already, you need to make other arrangements to get it in on time.
The tired "constitutional originalist" these extremists always pull out is nothing but a schtick. It's a lie to cover up and excuse doing whatever partisan ruling they want to do anyway.
Kavanaugh nor Barrett has no place on the Supreme Court. Barrett might I guess, we can't really tell because she has NO experience at all but her handmaid's tale style beliefs should be disqualifying. In any case Kavanaugh definitively does not belong on the Supreme Court at all.
Once she was sworn in last night, she had a lifetime appointment. She no longer realistically needed Trump for anything. The fact that she appeared at a political event with him anyway is ominous at best. Tells you everything you need to know about her.
If the ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day, they should count. Period. Any other conclusion, barring evidence of shenanigans, is bullshit.
Having said that, if I were not going to my polling place (I am), I would definitely not trust the Post Office to deliver my vote this election cycle. I'd be dropping it off at City Hall...
It's just infuriating it comes to this. You've likely heard the quote about Ginger Rogers, that being, she had to do everything Fred Astaire had to do, but backwards and in heels. That's Democrats in national elections. They are walking to school in snow shoes, and the other side gets a new Polaris.
Part of that is simply logistics. Voting in a relatively rural city/town is just much less of a hassle than voting in a large urban district. Democrats have a much larger urban proportion than Republicans.
I want to focus again on the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling. Because it proves Kavanaugh is not, in fact, a "brilliant jurist" as he was sold at the time. Kavanaugh talks about late votes "flipping" a result. Kagan points out that until those votes are counted, there are no results to flip. One of those statements (Kagan's) is just a stone-cold FACT. The other (Kavanaugh's) is nothing but partisan hackery dressed up in an exceptionally shitty legal argument.
The mail is also experiencing significant delays again. Right on schedule. The combination of that fact and a rigged court essentially means Democrats can't just win the game by a field goal. They have to win by three touchdowns. It's absolutely maddening. It's ridiculous to have to say this a week out, but mail-in votes are no longer an option. If you haven't voted already, you need to make other arrangements to get it in on time.
The tired "constitutional originalist" these extremists always pull out is nothing but a schtick. It's a lie to cover up and excuse doing whatever partisan ruling they want to do anyway.
Kavanaugh nor Barrett has no place on the Supreme Court. Barrett might I guess, we can't really tell because she has NO experience at all but her handmaid's tale style beliefs should be disqualifying. In any case Kavanaugh definitively does not belong on the Supreme Court at all.
Once she was sworn in last night, she had a lifetime appointment. She no longer realistically needed Trump for anything. The fact that she appeared at a political event with him anyway is ominous at best. Tells you everything you need to know about her.
If the ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day, they should count. Period. Any other conclusion, barring evidence of shenanigans, is bullshit.
Having said that, if I were not going to my polling place (I am), I would definitely not trust the Post Office to deliver my vote this election cycle. I'd be dropping it off at City Hall...
It's just infuriating it comes to this. You've likely heard the quote about Ginger Rogers, that being, she had to do everything Fred Astaire had to do, but backwards and in heels. That's Democrats in national elections. They are walking to school in snow shoes, and the other side gets a new Polaris.
Part of that is simply logistics. Voting in a relatively rural city/town is just much less of a hassle than voting in a large urban district. Democrats have a much larger urban proportion than Republicans.
I want to focus again on the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling. Because it proves Kavanaugh is not, in fact, a "brilliant jurist" as he was sold at the time. Kavanaugh talks about late votes "flipping" a result. Kagan points out that until those votes are counted, there are no results to flip. One of those statements (Kagan's) is just a stone-cold FACT. The other (Kavanaugh's) is nothing but partisan hackery dressed up in an exceptionally shitty legal argument.
The mail is also experiencing significant delays again. Right on schedule. The combination of that fact and a rigged court essentially means Democrats can't just win the game by a field goal. They have to win by three touchdowns. It's absolutely maddening. It's ridiculous to have to say this a week out, but mail-in votes are no longer an option. If you haven't voted already, you need to make other arrangements to get it in on time.
The tired "constitutional originalist" these extremists always pull out is nothing but a schtick. It's a lie to cover up and excuse doing whatever partisan ruling they want to do anyway.
Kavanaugh nor Barrett has no place on the Supreme Court. Barrett might I guess, we can't really tell because she has NO experience at all but her handmaid's tale style beliefs should be disqualifying. In any case Kavanaugh definitively does not belong on the Supreme Court at all.
Once she was sworn in last night, she had a lifetime appointment. She no longer realistically needed Trump for anything. The fact that she appeared at a political event with him anyway is ominous at best. Tells you everything you need to know about her.
If the ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day, they should count. Period. Any other conclusion, barring evidence of shenanigans, is bullshit.
Having said that, if I were not going to my polling place (I am), I would definitely not trust the Post Office to deliver my vote this election cycle. I'd be dropping it off at City Hall...
It's just infuriating it comes to this. You've likely heard the quote about Ginger Rogers, that being, she had to do everything Fred Astaire had to do, but backwards and in heels. That's Democrats in national elections. They are walking to school in snow shoes, and the other side gets a new Polaris.
Part of that is simply logistics. Voting in a relatively rural city/town is just much less of a hassle than voting in a large urban district. Democrats have a much larger urban proportion than Republicans.
I have never had to wait more than 10 minutes to cast a vote and I live in a city with a population close to a million.
Well, I was referring to here in the US. Not our Eastern neighbor! (East of me anyway, northern neighbor for most everybody else). I didn't say it has to be that way either, it just is...
I want to focus again on the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling. Because it proves Kavanaugh is not, in fact, a "brilliant jurist" as he was sold at the time. Kavanaugh talks about late votes "flipping" a result. Kagan points out that until those votes are counted, there are no results to flip. One of those statements (Kagan's) is just a stone-cold FACT. The other (Kavanaugh's) is nothing but partisan hackery dressed up in an exceptionally shitty legal argument.
The mail is also experiencing significant delays again. Right on schedule. The combination of that fact and a rigged court essentially means Democrats can't just win the game by a field goal. They have to win by three touchdowns. It's absolutely maddening. It's ridiculous to have to say this a week out, but mail-in votes are no longer an option. If you haven't voted already, you need to make other arrangements to get it in on time.
The tired "constitutional originalist" these extremists always pull out is nothing but a schtick. It's a lie to cover up and excuse doing whatever partisan ruling they want to do anyway.
Kavanaugh nor Barrett has no place on the Supreme Court. Barrett might I guess, we can't really tell because she has NO experience at all but her handmaid's tale style beliefs should be disqualifying. In any case Kavanaugh definitively does not belong on the Supreme Court at all.
Once she was sworn in last night, she had a lifetime appointment. She no longer realistically needed Trump for anything. The fact that she appeared at a political event with him anyway is ominous at best. Tells you everything you need to know about her.
If the ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day, they should count. Period. Any other conclusion, barring evidence of shenanigans, is bullshit.
Having said that, if I were not going to my polling place (I am), I would definitely not trust the Post Office to deliver my vote this election cycle. I'd be dropping it off at City Hall...
It's just infuriating it comes to this. You've likely heard the quote about Ginger Rogers, that being, she had to do everything Fred Astaire had to do, but backwards and in heels. That's Democrats in national elections. They are walking to school in snow shoes, and the other side gets a new Polaris.
Part of that is simply logistics. Voting in a relatively rural city/town is just much less of a hassle than voting in a large urban district. Democrats have a much larger urban proportion than Republicans.
I have never had to wait more than 10 minutes to cast a vote and I live in a city with a population close to a million.
Well, I was referring to here in the US. Not our Eastern neighbor! (East of me anyway, northern neighbor for most everybody else). I didn't say it has to be that way either, it just is...
...due to voter suppression. Yes, yes, quite aware of the hypocrisy of the United States claiming to be a beacon for democracy.
I use to complain in this thread that those in American citizens who are in prison do not have the right to vote. Now it seems its being extended to law abiding citizens concerned about the rampant viral outbreak that the current administration ignored.
If the Supreme Court rules the way frat boy wrote today, let me be the first to welcome the American population into an authoritarian state.
Well you piqued my curiosity so I had to see how many polling stations were in a similarly sized US city. I chose Houston, Texas (pop. 2.3 million).
I downloaded the PDF and attached it but I'm not sure if you'll be able to read it or not. I was expecting there to be fewer polling stations than in Toronto, but instead there's like 8 pages worth of them! There's more at play than just numbers of polling places. I'd say you guys must just be more efficient...
Edit: My favorite is "Residence Garage - location: garage".
@Grond0: You're definitely correct in that I see the world in more absolute terms these days, and I'm more cognizant of my "side" than I used to be. I think coming out as trans is largely responsible for this--and hearing folks talk with anticipation about how easy it would be to win a civil war against the left, because we so seldom own guns, certainly didn't help. Politics used to just be money stuff for me, but people in my country have been killed over it, and we haven't seen the end of it.
I've been both a majority and a minority, and it does shift your understanding of the world, even in the short time since I figured it out the summer of 2019. I had to adjust to the reality that there were places I could no longer safely go and things I could no longer safely do; that there were new rules I had to live by and there were people who would wish me harm. My everyday safety depends on either passing as a cis woman, or being close to people who I know are okay with me being trans.
For the rest of my life, I will never be judged just by the content of my character. Anyone who knows I'm trans will see me through a filter.
That filter impacts how everyone in the world treats me. But my only form of control over that filter is to ask people not to put dirt in it.
My girlfriend Lily is seen through that filter, too. Her life will depend on what people put in it.
It does make you hypersensitive to prejudice, and it does make you less likely to assume best intentions. You see prejudice more often when you're one of the targets, and you pay closer attention because you can't afford not to.
It's possible that Rowling is only attacking women because she thinks she's defending women. But she's still putting dirt in the filter, and the people I love will be treated worse because of it. Rowling having the best of motives won't change that.
But honestly, I think the main reason I'm so skeptical of her motives is because I can't attribute it to ignorance. If this was just some random person saying they couldn't get behind some aspect of transgender rights, the most likely answer is "this person, like the majority of the population, isn't familiar with trans issues; they're just working with the limited information they started with." Ignorance is our natural state, and most transphobia is just not knowing X, Y, or Z.
That much is not worthy of harsh judgment, and I've never faulted someone for not knowing something.
But Rowling doesn't have the excuse of ignorance anymore. She's been told what she's doing and she hasn't stopped, and that's what tells you whom you can trust.
Ya, I was going to do the same thing, but I was on my phone and on the bus when I wrote that.
And 8 whole pages you say! (I think you meant 58). Now that I am home, I can count properly... Toronto had 1829 polling stations in 2018. (This was an provincial election, but from past experiences, polling places are consistent regardless of election type).
Houston, or Harris County, has 815 (quick math of 57 pages x 14 per page + 8 on last page + 9 on first page). Harris County also has 4.713 million people. That means each polling place serves an average of 5783, with that guys garage being on the low end, one has to wonder how many are actually being served in Urban areas like Houston, but sticking to average, on election day, if everyone voted during the 7 to 7 time slot, each polling station would service (on average) 481 people per hour, or 8 people a minute. That is unrealistic IMO.
In comparison, Toronto's polling stations average roughly 1600 residents each. With a 9-9 voting times, each polling place would average 133 people per hour or 2 people per minute if everyone voted.
Now obviously what skews these numbers is that not everyone is eligible to vote (age of majority and needing to be a citizen), turn out can also be below 60% (Ontario's was 58%) and other people vote early or by mail but the numbers IMO are still equivalent to the point that not enough is being done to allow American citizens to vote efficiently during elections.
I haven't emphasized this before, but there's a huge problem with expecting trans women to undergo hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or surgery before they can be considered women, legally or socially. Even just hormones are not available to everyone. They can be very hard to get a hold of because doctors are hesitant to prescribe them than most meds, and depending on the area, you have to jump through hoops in order to get treatment. I've heard it's even worse abroad, with years-long waiting lists just to get hormones, or even just to get counseling.
Worse yet, some doctors knowingly withhold them from trans patients because of their personal beliefs. A lot of folks end up finding out their healthcare has been delayed by months or even years due to mindless gatekeeping and a lack of transparency.
On top of that, not everyone can take them. They have side effects, and folks with certain pre-existing conditions can only take them at a certain risk. Not everyone is willing to take those risks in order to get HRT.
And while HRT is a typical form of treatment, not everyone who's trans strictly needs it. I know several people whose transition does not involve HRT; not all of the effects are desirable, especially for nonbinary critters. The effects on your libido can be super important for some people and actively bad for others. Even the folks who can safely take it don't always want everything that comes with it, and so they abstain.
Surgery is even more fraught. Most trans people do not get bottom surgery; a lot of folks don't even want it. I'm on HRT, but I wouldn't get bottom surgery if you paid me to.
That's why we can't make these things prerequisites for equal treatment.
Ya, I was going to do the same thing, but I was on my phone and on the bus when I wrote that.
And 8 whole pages you say! (I think you meant 58). Now that I am home, I can count properly... Toronto had 1829 polling stations in 2018. (This was an provincial election, but from past experiences, polling places are consistent regardless of election type).
Houston, or Harris County, has 815 (quick math of 57 pages x 14 per page + 8 on last page + 9 on first page). Harris County also has 4.713 million people. That means each polling place serves an average of 5783, with that guys garage being on the low end, one has to wonder how many are actually being served in Urban areas like Houston, but sticking to average, on election day, if everyone voted during the 7 to 7 time slot, each polling station would service (on average) 481 people per hour, or 8 people a minute. That is unrealistic IMO.
In comparison, Toronto's polling stations average roughly 1600 residents each. With a 9-9 voting times, each polling place would average 133 people per hour or 2 people per minute if everyone voted.
Now obviously what skews these numbers is that not everyone is eligible to vote (age of majority and needing to be a citizen), turn out can also be below 60% (Ontario's was 58%) and other people vote early or by mail but the numbers IMO are still equivalent to the point that not enough is being done to allow American citizens to vote efficiently during elections.
Also - I dont know a whole lot about Toronto, but Houston is one of the largest cities in term of square footage in the world. It's absolutely *massive* in footprint. So even disregarding the point about population, there's also something to be said about having voting locations spread in a larger city.
I've done exactly 0 fact checking here, but I'd be willing to bet the Black/Hispanic neighborhoods have access to fewer polling centers, meaning both a longer wait time to vote and a longer travel time to vote as well.
I got back from volunteering at the polling place, though I didn't get to do much since the lines were nonexistent and I had no big line of voters to greet and assist. Basically I just went through a checklist to make sure the polling place was up to a few specific regulations, and there were no problems. I voted while I was there and the folks were super friendly.
By chance I ran into a nice lady named Karen who also volunteers for Election Protection! She showed me how to ask to meet the election judge and there was a nice moment when the custodian wandered over and Karen asked if she was the judge. I might be volunteering at Planned Parenthood sometime out of Karen's inspiration.
The only irregularity was outside the place; both polling places were listed as closed on Google Maps. I reported it to the hotline so they can see if someone manipulated the posted times.
Hopefully I can go someplace a little bit busier for my next shift, and hopefully it won't be 40 degrees and bitterly windy. I don't retain heat like I used to.
Ya, I was going to do the same thing, but I was on my phone and on the bus when I wrote that.
And 8 whole pages you say! (I think you meant 58). Now that I am home, I can count properly... Toronto had 1829 polling stations in 2018. (This was an provincial election, but from past experiences, polling places are consistent regardless of election type).
Houston, or Harris County, has 815 (quick math of 57 pages x 14 per page + 8 on last page + 9 on first page). Harris County also has 4.713 million people. That means each polling place serves an average of 5783, with that guys garage being on the low end, one has to wonder how many are actually being served in Urban areas like Houston, but sticking to average, on election day, if everyone voted during the 7 to 7 time slot, each polling station would service (on average) 481 people per hour, or 8 people a minute. That is unrealistic IMO.
In comparison, Toronto's polling stations average roughly 1600 residents each. With a 9-9 voting times, each polling place would average 133 people per hour or 2 people per minute if everyone voted.
Now obviously what skews these numbers is that not everyone is eligible to vote (age of majority and needing to be a citizen), turn out can also be below 60% (Ontario's was 58%) and other people vote early or by mail but the numbers IMO are still equivalent to the point that not enough is being done to allow American citizens to vote efficiently during elections.
Also - I dont know a whole lot about Toronto, but Houston is one of the largest cities in term of square footage in the world. It's absolutely *massive* in footprint. So even disregarding the point about population, there's also something to be said about having voting locations spread in a larger city.
I've done exactly 0 fact checking here, but I'd be willing to bet the Black/Hispanic neighborhoods have access to fewer polling centers, meaning both a longer wait time to vote and a longer travel time to vote as well.
Ya, I am not a fan of how Harris County places are listed, I really don't want to deep dive into locations but I did lowkey check out that voting garage on Google Maps, Nice house.
If we do it just by square/km, Harris County has an average distance of 5.6 km between polling stations, where TO has roughly 3 per square km. That alone is telling.
But maybe that is just Houston. Perhaps another part of the US would be better?
Lets pick Nashville at random. Population of 670, 820, 1,232.6 km2. God dammit, they got me counting stars... https://maps.nashville.gov/PollingPlaceFinder/ screw that. Why is this difficult, just give me a list
ok... new random, Portland... pop 654,741; 345.8 km2. Let's see their polling places: https://www.portlandmaine.gov/1117/Polling-Places, hopefully they will be easier to count... 11... or 59, 521 per polling place. Are you effing kidding me?! Am I reading that wrong? I apologize to Harris county. That is a joke.
Ya, I was going to do the same thing, but I was on my phone and on the bus when I wrote that.
And 8 whole pages you say! (I think you meant 58). Now that I am home, I can count properly... Toronto had 1829 polling stations in 2018. (This was an provincial election, but from past experiences, polling places are consistent regardless of election type).
Houston, or Harris County, has 815 (quick math of 57 pages x 14 per page + 8 on last page + 9 on first page). Harris County also has 4.713 million people. That means each polling place serves an average of 5783, with that guys garage being on the low end, one has to wonder how many are actually being served in Urban areas like Houston, but sticking to average, on election day, if everyone voted during the 7 to 7 time slot, each polling station would service (on average) 481 people per hour, or 8 people a minute. That is unrealistic IMO.
In comparison, Toronto's polling stations average roughly 1600 residents each. With a 9-9 voting times, each polling place would average 133 people per hour or 2 people per minute if everyone voted.
Now obviously what skews these numbers is that not everyone is eligible to vote (age of majority and needing to be a citizen), turn out can also be below 60% (Ontario's was 58%) and other people vote early or by mail but the numbers IMO are still equivalent to the point that not enough is being done to allow American citizens to vote efficiently during elections.
Also - I dont know a whole lot about Toronto, but Houston is one of the largest cities in term of square footage in the world. It's absolutely *massive* in footprint. So even disregarding the point about population, there's also something to be said about having voting locations spread in a larger city.
I've done exactly 0 fact checking here, but I'd be willing to bet the Black/Hispanic neighborhoods have access to fewer polling centers, meaning both a longer wait time to vote and a longer travel time to vote as well.
Ya, I am not a fan of how Harris County places are listed, I really don't want to deep dive into locations but I did lowkey check out that voting garage on Google Maps, Nice house.
If we do it just by square/km, Harris County has an average distance of 5.6 km between polling stations, where TO has roughly 3 per square km. That alone is telling.
But maybe that is just Houston. Perhaps another part of the US would be better?
Lets pick Nashville at random. Population of 670, 820, 1,232.6 km2. God dammit, they got me counting stars... https://maps.nashville.gov/PollingPlaceFinder/ screw that. Why is this difficult, just give me a list
ok... new random, Portland... pop 654,741; 345.8 km2. Let's see their polling places: https://www.portlandmaine.gov/1117/Polling-Places, hopefully they will be easier to count... 11... or 59, 521 per polling place. Are you effing kidding me?! Am I reading that wrong? I apologize to Harris county. That is a joke.
Well my town has 5 polling places for 10,000 residents. That's at least in the ballpark of Toronto. Everybody in this country just needs to either move out to the sticks, or emigrate to ??. Problem solved!
1) GOP makes laws stating mail in ballots can't be counted until election day.
2) GOP packs the SCOTUS to rule in their favor to also not count ballots after election day.
So precincts have like a 12h period to count tens of thousands or even millions of ballots while people who try to vote in person wait in 10 hr lines to vote in person.
The Republicans are continuing the delegitimization of elections that started with the Gore V Bush ruling and has continued since.
By the way the USPS deadline was today to mail in your ballot. If you didn't mail it in yet and still have one, drop it off, DON'T MAIL IT IN.
Texas Supreme Court and Trump judges don't want people to vote.
In an arbitrary "legal" (political) decision they said it's totally cool to limit ballot drop off locations to one per county. Why? Not reason other than to force Texans in a county larger than the state of Rhode Island to drive hundreds of miles to drop off their ballot in a blue leaning area.
WTF is wrong with conservatives in this country? Pure evil? The seem determined to have a strangehold on power or ruin everything and burn it all down.
In Federal court you won't get justice either from conservatives.
"Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Governor Greg Abbott’s order to limit the number of drop off locations for mail-in ballots to one per county. All three judges — Judges Kyle Duncan, Don Willett, and James Ho — who ruled in favor of Abbott’s voter suppression plan were appointed by Trump."
"(Duncan's appointment) to the Fifth Court of Appeal was forcefully opposed by a coalition of over 200 national organizations, who described Duncan as someone who has “devoted his legal career to undermining civil and constitutional rights in America."
I'm starting to get weary of the constant attack ads against Gina Ortiz-Jones. The whole thing is literally "she's going to destroy military jobs to pay for transgender reassignment surgery" and I've been hearing it multiple times a day for weeks. At first the blatant fearmongering was funny, but eventually it's just tiring.
So the Trump campaign, either through a failure of logistics or just not giving a shit, ABANDONED his own crowd three miles from civilization in freezing cold temperatures last night in Nebraska, where some of the old folks literally developed hypothermia walking back. They provided a way to get to the rally, but not any way to get back. My cousin's wedding dance transportation by bus was better organized. Pretty much sums them up completely. This girl is doing a parody, but what's truly amazing is that this is barely distinguishable from what you'd hear from an actual supporter:
I'm glad you pointed that out as a parody JJ (it clearly is). It's funny as shit though! The best part is where she says there would be less old people falling down if the media would just not count them. Classic!
I'm glad you pointed that out as a parody JJ (it clearly is). It's funny as shit though! The best part is where she says there would be less old people falling down if the media would just not count them. Classic!
That (because that is nearly verbatim what I see many people say about COVID-19), and the line where she says it "isn't for her to know" what lesson Trump was trying to teach them. This girl has been around some evangelicals in her time.
Meanwhile, what are the closing optics in Wisconsin?? A Badger football game being cancelled because of a virus Trump has dismissed as a non-issue. Pennsylvania is still a little too close for comfort (about 5 points on average), but Biden has a myriad of possible options to pick up IF it falls through. Michigan and Wisconsin seem lost as far as Trump goes. Iowa, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, and North Carolina are all toss-ups. Biden is likely to flat-out win Arizona at this point.
I checked with the online tracking system ... my ballot has been received, the signature verified, and the vote counted. It'll be in the batch reported on election night.
For the process - I put it in the local drop box Tuesday afternoon a week ago. And in the minute or so I had the box in sight, about five other people used it as well. Sky-high voter engagement.
In local election news, I ran across this story on a unique bit of political advertising. (Personal disclaimer: the candidate in question is running in my district. I voted for them.)
We're all familiar with broadcast ads and mailers, but how does a candidate reach homeless people? This is how.
It's also a race that's likely to be close, which I'll be watching as the results come in.
So the Trump campaign, either through a failure of logistics or just not giving a shit, ABANDONED his own crowd three miles from civilization in freezing cold temperatures last night in Nebraska, where some of the old folks literally developed hypothermia walking back.
As I've said before here, no one has less respect for rank-and-file conservatives than conservative elites.
Monmouth poll today had Biden up 4 in Georgia. ABC poll today had Biden up 17 in Wisconsin. The latter result looks to clearly be an outlier, but the former result is a slightly better than average but solid result for Biden.
I have a lot of anxiety about Trump trying to stop ballot counting the second he's ahead in 270 EV worth of states, but AZ/GA/FL/NC all look poised to go to Biden, and would pre-emptively stop Trump from having a hope on election night.
One positive sign in AZ is that while it's closer in the polls that PA, it also has a history of not undercounting GOP support at all, and because it's mostly white/old/urban - its voting pattern is more predictable. A lot of the political statisticians are making a case that AZ is more likely to flip to Biden than PA, despite the poll numbers.
If Biden wins AZ and NE-02, I think Trump ends up needing two of WI/PA/MI.
So the Trump campaign, either through a failure of logistics or just not giving a shit, ABANDONED his own crowd three miles from civilization in freezing cold temperatures last night in Nebraska, where some of the old folks literally developed hypothermia walking back.
They don't even ever have any actual reasoning for requesting massive swaths of ballots be thrown out. If they see even a hint of light shining through a crack where they can make an argument about some meaningless technicality, they will take it. They just want to throw out as many ballots as possible, hoping that it is successful enough in the aggregate to benefit them. This is quite literally all they have left. Just begging for people's votes to not be counted.
They don't even ever have any actual reasoning for requesting massive swaths of ballots be thrown out. If they see even a hint of light shining through a crack where they can make an argument about some meaningless technicality, they will take it. They just want to throw out as many ballots as possible, hoping that it is successful enough in the aggregate to benefit them. This is quite literally all they have left. Just begging for people's votes to not be counted.
It's all over the place. Anywhere they know they have to win, they're just trying to stop voting/counting votes.
Every legitimate vote that isnt counted is no different than casting a fraudulent vote. There's no difference between the two inn the end. Just like packing the the court is no different than stealing a SCOTUS seat.
Comments
It's just infuriating it comes to this. You've likely heard the quote about Ginger Rogers, that being, she had to do everything Fred Astaire had to do, but backwards and in heels. That's Democrats in national elections. They are walking to school in snow shoes, and the other side gets a new Polaris.
That said, I trust Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report and his analysis of district by district data more than any other polling prognosticator (he is absolutely on the record as saying Hillary had serious problems in the last weeks of 2016). He has now said that while he isn't QUITE ready to call it, he is pretty damn close to doing so based on what he's getting from both Republican and Democratic internal polling.
Part of that is simply logistics. Voting in a relatively rural city/town is just much less of a hassle than voting in a large urban district. Democrats have a much larger urban proportion than Republicans.
No it isn’t. Feel free to count the polling places in a city like Toronto
https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/elections/city-elections/voting-places/ which has 2.7 million people.
I have never had to wait more than 10 minutes to cast a vote and I live in a city with a population close to a million.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/jk-rowling-stephen-king-trans-women-row-delete-tweet-a9590536.html?amp
Thank you for mentioning this. Other democracies succeed in having short lines in urban districts. That the US doesn't is a choice.
Well, I was referring to here in the US. Not our Eastern neighbor! (East of me anyway, northern neighbor for most everybody else). I didn't say it has to be that way either, it just is...
...due to voter suppression. Yes, yes, quite aware of the hypocrisy of the United States claiming to be a beacon for democracy.
I use to complain in this thread that those in American citizens who are in prison do not have the right to vote. Now it seems its being extended to law abiding citizens concerned about the rampant viral outbreak that the current administration ignored.
If the Supreme Court rules the way frat boy wrote today, let me be the first to welcome the American population into an authoritarian state.
Well you piqued my curiosity so I had to see how many polling stations were in a similarly sized US city. I chose Houston, Texas (pop. 2.3 million).
I downloaded the PDF and attached it but I'm not sure if you'll be able to read it or not. I was expecting there to be fewer polling stations than in Toronto, but instead there's like 8 pages worth of them! There's more at play than just numbers of polling places. I'd say you guys must just be more efficient...
Edit: My favorite is "Residence Garage - location: garage".
I've been both a majority and a minority, and it does shift your understanding of the world, even in the short time since I figured it out the summer of 2019. I had to adjust to the reality that there were places I could no longer safely go and things I could no longer safely do; that there were new rules I had to live by and there were people who would wish me harm. My everyday safety depends on either passing as a cis woman, or being close to people who I know are okay with me being trans.
For the rest of my life, I will never be judged just by the content of my character. Anyone who knows I'm trans will see me through a filter.
That filter impacts how everyone in the world treats me. But my only form of control over that filter is to ask people not to put dirt in it.
My girlfriend Lily is seen through that filter, too. Her life will depend on what people put in it.
It does make you hypersensitive to prejudice, and it does make you less likely to assume best intentions. You see prejudice more often when you're one of the targets, and you pay closer attention because you can't afford not to.
It's possible that Rowling is only attacking women because she thinks she's defending women. But she's still putting dirt in the filter, and the people I love will be treated worse because of it. Rowling having the best of motives won't change that.
But honestly, I think the main reason I'm so skeptical of her motives is because I can't attribute it to ignorance. If this was just some random person saying they couldn't get behind some aspect of transgender rights, the most likely answer is "this person, like the majority of the population, isn't familiar with trans issues; they're just working with the limited information they started with." Ignorance is our natural state, and most transphobia is just not knowing X, Y, or Z.
That much is not worthy of harsh judgment, and I've never faulted someone for not knowing something.
But Rowling doesn't have the excuse of ignorance anymore. She's been told what she's doing and she hasn't stopped, and that's what tells you whom you can trust.
And 8 whole pages you say! (I think you meant 58). Now that I am home, I can count properly... Toronto had 1829 polling stations in 2018. (This was an provincial election, but from past experiences, polling places are consistent regardless of election type).
Houston, or Harris County, has 815 (quick math of 57 pages x 14 per page + 8 on last page + 9 on first page). Harris County also has 4.713 million people. That means each polling place serves an average of 5783, with that guys garage being on the low end, one has to wonder how many are actually being served in Urban areas like Houston, but sticking to average, on election day, if everyone voted during the 7 to 7 time slot, each polling station would service (on average) 481 people per hour, or 8 people a minute. That is unrealistic IMO.
In comparison, Toronto's polling stations average roughly 1600 residents each. With a 9-9 voting times, each polling place would average 133 people per hour or 2 people per minute if everyone voted.
Now obviously what skews these numbers is that not everyone is eligible to vote (age of majority and needing to be a citizen), turn out can also be below 60% (Ontario's was 58%) and other people vote early or by mail but the numbers IMO are still equivalent to the point that not enough is being done to allow American citizens to vote efficiently during elections.
Worse yet, some doctors knowingly withhold them from trans patients because of their personal beliefs. A lot of folks end up finding out their healthcare has been delayed by months or even years due to mindless gatekeeping and a lack of transparency.
On top of that, not everyone can take them. They have side effects, and folks with certain pre-existing conditions can only take them at a certain risk. Not everyone is willing to take those risks in order to get HRT.
And while HRT is a typical form of treatment, not everyone who's trans strictly needs it. I know several people whose transition does not involve HRT; not all of the effects are desirable, especially for nonbinary critters. The effects on your libido can be super important for some people and actively bad for others. Even the folks who can safely take it don't always want everything that comes with it, and so they abstain.
Surgery is even more fraught. Most trans people do not get bottom surgery; a lot of folks don't even want it. I'm on HRT, but I wouldn't get bottom surgery if you paid me to.
That's why we can't make these things prerequisites for equal treatment.
Also - I dont know a whole lot about Toronto, but Houston is one of the largest cities in term of square footage in the world. It's absolutely *massive* in footprint. So even disregarding the point about population, there's also something to be said about having voting locations spread in a larger city.
I've done exactly 0 fact checking here, but I'd be willing to bet the Black/Hispanic neighborhoods have access to fewer polling centers, meaning both a longer wait time to vote and a longer travel time to vote as well.
By chance I ran into a nice lady named Karen who also volunteers for Election Protection! She showed me how to ask to meet the election judge and there was a nice moment when the custodian wandered over and Karen asked if she was the judge. I might be volunteering at Planned Parenthood sometime out of Karen's inspiration.
The only irregularity was outside the place; both polling places were listed as closed on Google Maps. I reported it to the hotline so they can see if someone manipulated the posted times.
Hopefully I can go someplace a little bit busier for my next shift, and hopefully it won't be 40 degrees and bitterly windy. I don't retain heat like I used to.
Ya, I am not a fan of how Harris County places are listed, I really don't want to deep dive into locations but I did lowkey check out that voting garage on Google Maps, Nice house.
If we do it just by square/km, Harris County has an average distance of 5.6 km between polling stations, where TO has roughly 3 per square km. That alone is telling.
But maybe that is just Houston. Perhaps another part of the US would be better?
Lets pick Nashville at random. Population of 670, 820, 1,232.6 km2. God dammit, they got me counting stars... https://maps.nashville.gov/PollingPlaceFinder/ screw that. Why is this difficult, just give me a list
ok... new random, Portland... pop 654,741; 345.8 km2. Let's see their polling places: https://www.portlandmaine.gov/1117/Polling-Places, hopefully they will be easier to count... 11... or 59, 521 per polling place. Are you effing kidding me?! Am I reading that wrong? I apologize to Harris county. That is a joke.
Not enough dudes with garages there maybe?
1) GOP makes laws stating mail in ballots can't be counted until election day.
2) GOP packs the SCOTUS to rule in their favor to also not count ballots after election day.
So precincts have like a 12h period to count tens of thousands or even millions of ballots while people who try to vote in person wait in 10 hr lines to vote in person.
The Republicans are continuing the delegitimization of elections that started with the Gore V Bush ruling and has continued since.
By the way the USPS deadline was today to mail in your ballot. If you didn't mail it in yet and still have one, drop it off, DON'T MAIL IT IN.
In an arbitrary "legal" (political) decision they said it's totally cool to limit ballot drop off locations to one per county. Why? Not reason other than to force Texans in a county larger than the state of Rhode Island to drive hundreds of miles to drop off their ballot in a blue leaning area.
WTF is wrong with conservatives in this country? Pure evil? The seem determined to have a strangehold on power or ruin everything and burn it all down.
https://localnews8.com/politics/2020/10/27/texas-supreme-court-sides-with-governor-on-rule-requiring-one-ballot-drop-box-per-county/
In Federal court you won't get justice either from conservatives.
"Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Governor Greg Abbott’s order to limit the number of drop off locations for mail-in ballots to one per county. All three judges — Judges Kyle Duncan, Don Willett, and James Ho — who ruled in favor of Abbott’s voter suppression plan were appointed by Trump."
"(Duncan's appointment) to the Fifth Court of Appeal was forcefully opposed by a coalition of over 200 national organizations, who described Duncan as someone who has “devoted his legal career to undermining civil and constitutional rights in America."
Disgusting.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/523029-voter-suppression-in-texas-is-made-possible-by-trumps-judges
That (because that is nearly verbatim what I see many people say about COVID-19), and the line where she says it "isn't for her to know" what lesson Trump was trying to teach them. This girl has been around some evangelicals in her time.
Meanwhile, what are the closing optics in Wisconsin?? A Badger football game being cancelled because of a virus Trump has dismissed as a non-issue. Pennsylvania is still a little too close for comfort (about 5 points on average), but Biden has a myriad of possible options to pick up IF it falls through. Michigan and Wisconsin seem lost as far as Trump goes. Iowa, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, and North Carolina are all toss-ups. Biden is likely to flat-out win Arizona at this point.
For the process - I put it in the local drop box Tuesday afternoon a week ago. And in the minute or so I had the box in sight, about five other people used it as well. Sky-high voter engagement.
In local election news, I ran across this story on a unique bit of political advertising. (Personal disclaimer: the candidate in question is running in my district. I voted for them.)
We're all familiar with broadcast ads and mailers, but how does a candidate reach homeless people? This is how.
It's also a race that's likely to be close, which I'll be watching as the results come in.
As I've said before here, no one has less respect for rank-and-file conservatives than conservative elites.
I have a lot of anxiety about Trump trying to stop ballot counting the second he's ahead in 270 EV worth of states, but AZ/GA/FL/NC all look poised to go to Biden, and would pre-emptively stop Trump from having a hope on election night.
One positive sign in AZ is that while it's closer in the polls that PA, it also has a history of not undercounting GOP support at all, and because it's mostly white/old/urban - its voting pattern is more predictable. A lot of the political statisticians are making a case that AZ is more likely to flip to Biden than PA, despite the poll numbers.
If Biden wins AZ and NE-02, I think Trump ends up needing two of WI/PA/MI.
Such a great metaphor for the last four years
They don't even ever have any actual reasoning for requesting massive swaths of ballots be thrown out. If they see even a hint of light shining through a crack where they can make an argument about some meaningless technicality, they will take it. They just want to throw out as many ballots as possible, hoping that it is successful enough in the aggregate to benefit them. This is quite literally all they have left. Just begging for people's votes to not be counted.
It's all over the place. Anywhere they know they have to win, they're just trying to stop voting/counting votes.
Every legitimate vote that isnt counted is no different than casting a fraudulent vote. There's no difference between the two inn the end. Just like packing the the court is no different than stealing a SCOTUS seat.
It's functionally the same.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/10/28/trump-wild-transition-433025