The Third Circuit Court of Appeals will not rehear an election case out of Pennsylvania, leaving voting rights lawyers to pick between dwindling options to prevent mail-in ballots from being tossed out during a critical election.
Imagine if R’s actually tried to win votes rather than block D voters.
“Southern states habitually used such errors as pretext to keep Black people from voting”
FIF. Passive tense is nonsense here. It is literally…LITERALLY…what they continue to do and what they are trying to maintain the ability to do in this very case/situation.
Or—and I know this is crazy—work for good in the world.
PA voter here.
Several points:
My handwriting is so atrocious that my scribbled date on the exterior ballot is illegible anyway. I’ve been voting by mail (I hand deliver the ballot days / weeks before the election to my local library) and my votes have always counted. The exterior date is irrelevant, as the instructions state clearly that the ballot must be “received” by County Voter Services by 8:00PM on election day.
It is against PA law for me (or vice-versa) to deliver my spouse’s sealed ballot to County Voter Services or my local ballot drop-off location, unless she was fully disabled and can’t drive, etc. I guess this is PA Republicans’ effort to stop “ballot harvesting” or whatever it is called. A valid ballot is a valid ballot, no matter how it is delivered to Voter Services, so another Republican attempt at voter suppression.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin - some good news for a change.
It’s excellent news on the address, decided by the Elections Commission (that the GQP has not been able to eliminate) by a 5-1 vote.
Still looking for the date info. The date of the election is preprinted on the outer envelope, along with the voter information. It’s the date that the voter and witness sign that I’m not certain on. I’m sure there’s some GQP battle going on about it.
They’re going to throw out whatever votes are needed to let Trump win.
This is what happens with unlimited money in politics. Companies have bought the government.
Trump was just the ‘businessman’ all those media companies owned by businessmen had been pimping for decades.
Not only is it not tradition, it’s contrary to generations of successful practice among their partisans and their not yet GQP forbears.
The GQP should change it’s mascot to something more relevant to the objectives of the party. I propose ditching the elephant and going with a cartoon version of two copulating rodents which are both wearing fright wigs and facepaint.
I feel like this would be a fantastic image to symbolize the party of ratfucking clowns.
Anyone else have any ideas? @irasdad
If local election authorities in Pa. are allowed to adjust the design of the ballot return envelopes, as suggested in this story, why could they not preprint the year “2024” in the area for the date, leaving only a space for the voter to fill in Nov. 1, 11/1, or whatever? This would minimize the number of voter “errors.”
"America, We Hardly Knew Ye"
None of this minimizes the responsibility of Congress to enact a new voter-protection law that imposes uniform, minimum standards across the country in terms of who is allowed to vote and when–as provided in the Constitution, where Congress has the final authority. I realize this is not going to happen under current conditions, but it should be talked up and taken to the voters over the next few years until it is widely demanded in all parts of the country.
What a stupid situation! I hope the Dems are going to introduce a bill to negate the date issue, since they have a majority in the PA House. It’s close enough in the PA Senate that I’m sure the Dems could strongarm the votes necessary to pass it, and the Gov would sign it.
In fact, the 2024 ballots were redesigned. From my recollection from 2023 to 2024 ballot changes included a very bright yellow and black “privacy envelope.” Before this year, it was a plain white envelope, leading some voters to discard it, leading their votes to not be counted.
Here’s an article from our local PBS station, the excellent WHYY, describing that even the redesigned ballot still caused issues:
But would it? What date is SUPPOSED to be written in? The date the envelope is mailed? The date the ballot is filled in (and are there date ranges that must be met)? The date of the election? The date an election worker physically receives the envelope?
Why is this field even required?
Dems: Crap! This is no way to run a democracy!
GOPers: Great! This is a way to ruin a democracy!
Even if they do, it’ll get passed ‘too late’ to change the rules for the November election.
Of course, if the Right gets its way, the whole idea will be irrelevant after November.
At least the courts aren’t be so stupid as to make you print ave, st, way, dr, and the like.
Before this decision, and before it was affirmed by the NEW Wisconsin SC, that was required!
