Exercise Your Right To Vote With the Knowledge That Voter Intimidation Is Against the Law

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This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. 

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1341412
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I’m glad for this sober, sensible article. At some point all the wild speculation about what “could” happen to suppress or nullify votes becomes voter suppression in its own right. Certainly, the President and his enablers deserve the majority of the blame, but the media does no one a favor by reacting and over-reacting to every tweet and even preliminary court rulings. While being prepared is well and good, being panicked isn’t.

Voting in person with a mask and proper distancing is safe, mail-in is fine, but if you’ve procrastinated and plan to mail your ballot on Monday or Tuesday, know that there is a risk. And I have to ask people who planned to vote by mail but haven’t gotten around to it yet, what the F have you been waiting for?

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Voter Intimidation is Against the Law

But it’s not against the law to intimidate the intimidators.

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U.S. Department of Justice

I appreciate the sensible tone and information, but…

…have you met our new Department of Justice?

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Thanks. Enjoying Bob with some homegrown Amnesia Haze is just about right.

JJ Cale wrote this one for W times but applies to Trump as well.

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I know. State website says mine was received October 9, 2 days after I put it in the county drop box at the entrance to the town hall. Kept the USPS out of it.

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If you know any of those personally, please ask them if they need a ride to wherever they can turn the ballot in in person.

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I involved the USPS and it took ten fucking days to deliver my ballot, to a clerk’s office two miles from here. Sending mail to anywhere else in Boise usually takes one to two days. I mailed mine on October 6, and it was confirmed received on the 17th. Validated on the 18th. SoS says it is taking about a day to confirm and (signature) validate ballots right now.

I was OK with mailing it, because I had a month to go and a state that provides ballot tracking. If not, I’d have hand-delivered it.

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Speaking of home grown… I found a single mature seed embedded in a bud in jar of 30.2% Of Dutch Treat

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20201030_175233 - Copy1399×1865 1.35 MB

needs more time for sexing…but almost 100% certain to be a fem.

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We had three weeks to go, and our state provides ballot tracking. Mrs Strad took our ballots down to the Board of Elections Office herself. I checked the tracking a couple of days later to confirm that they were accepted.

It is a truly f###ed up world when I can no longer trust Dr. Franklin’s post office to do its job expeditiously.

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Nothing like happy surprises! May your harvest be bountiful.

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Fully expecting Trump dead-enders to answer the desperate begging from their Dear Leader to go out and attempt voter intimidation. Try it in my D+90 precinct, jackasses, we all have cameras. You’ll just be warming a cot for the crime boss.

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But do you actually know what accounted for the eleven days?

Are you just assuming it was “Dr. Franklin’s post office”?

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Is it really against the law if the ringleaders never get punished?

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From Josh’s blog on the main page:

“It is a grievous crime against the people even if he follows through with none of his threats. It’s mind-games, psychological warfare, a crime against every last one of us.”
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And no one will hold him to account. I wish the DoJ would. But they will not.

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The problem with the thesis is that for voter intimidation to be dealt with, the local law enforcement personnel have to do their duty. Given the state of law enforcement these days, the likelihood that the person being intimidated will be charged is quite high.

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No, not entirely. But soon after the DeJoy nonsense came to light our mail delivery in Boise dropped off a cliff. Almost nothing was delivered here for a full two weeks.

It has slowly improved since the courts started demanding the USPS do its job properly. But people were commonly reporting 10 days between mailing and confirmation of receipt. SoS saying confirmations happening within a day after receipt.

Conclusion: it sat somewhere in the postal system for a week, give or take…