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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1339697
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1339697
What’s the Early Voting situation in PA?
To me the more compelling question is whether states do, in fact, control the electoral process as is the current custom. Thus, some states allow mail in balloting, early voting, drop-off boxes, drive-in voting, same day registration, etc. while others are more restrictive (voter ID, limited polling places, restricted times, etc.). While I personally favor a universal, liberal application of the national franchise, that is not our custom. what is different here is that Republicans (and conservative members of the court) favor state control of national elections when it suits their needs, but not when a fair contest would work against them. This is as un-American as it gets.
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There’s no in-person voting, per se, in Pennsylvania. You can apply for an absentee ballot, complete it and drop it off at an elections office or at designated drop boxes. But there are no voting machine locations prior to election day.
Instructions –
https://www.votespa.com/Voting-in-PA/Pages/Early-Voting.aspx
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Yup, we are behind the times here in PA. No early in-person voting. All in-person voting done starting at 7:00 AM on Nov. 3rd and polls close at 8:00 PM.
Mail-in balloting was new here in PA for the primary in June.
Also, my biggest beef with our Republican-led legislature is that they will not pass legislation to allow for counties to start counting all of those millions of mailed-in ballots until NOVEMBER 3rd.
Ridiculous, so it will just end up costing PA time in counting the votes. PA won’t be completed tallying votes until Friday, Nov. 6th, if not maybe longer.
Shitshow, thanks to the Republican-led legislature.
Philly Inquirer just reported 1.2M mail-in ballots have been returned so far, out just over 9M registered voters across all parties.
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Did DeJoy force Pennsylvanians to think about in-person voting as more of an option?
ETA…(question based on ignorance) or election-office drop-offs?
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Moscow Mitch and Trump are rushing through the Amy Covid Barrett nomination in a hurry for a reason. It’s because the fix is in. She will rubberstamp the entire GOP anti voting agenda. This only matters if the election is close, but isn’t it obvious the Supreme Court needs to be expanded by a minimum of 4 to prevent further damage to our voting rights?
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Well, I can only speak of my county. Our County Commissioners and Voter Services Department set up dozens of drop boxes for mail-in ballots. All of these drop boxes are staffed by Voter Services Department employees and have been mobbed since they were set up.
The wife and dropped our ballots at the Voter Services Department office drop box and just in the three minutes we were there, probably 50 people were coming and going dropping their ballots. That was the first day it was open for depositing ballots.
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That does not paint a picture as drastic as I had originally thought. To wit: Being determined to get ballots in on time either by election-office drop-offs or voting in-person can neutralize the Barrett Effect.
In addition, assuming the voting population is roughly similar, that 0.6M divided by 4.5M=13%% of the total of Dem votes are in, assuming preferences are close
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My anecdotal analysis of friends, co-workers, etc., (maybe around 50 people, plus spouses / partners) shows most or all are hand-delivering their ballots to these various drop boxes and not relying on the mail.
Given the many convenient drop box locations throughout my county, it is an easy decision to make for those able to get in their car and drive to a drop box.
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Short of passing new legislation that the Democratic governor would veto, there is nothing the GOP-run lege can do to change how the election is going to work.
SCOTUS is unlikely to revisit the decision even if Amy Covid Bigot is confirmed, because the PA GOP would have to bring another suit and there isn’t really enough time to get it on the docket.
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Well agreeing with most of your post, I have a major disagreement with one sentence.
You are distinguishing “conservative members of the court” with “Republicans” and in fact there is no distinction. In fact there is nothing at all conservative about the Republicans on the court, they are Republicans first and only and any judicial philosophy is just a ruse.
That is what is different now is that Republicans, including those on the Supreme Court, don’t give a damn about the constitution, their oaths of office or democracy and their only purpose is to do whatever will help Republicans hold office and judicial philosophy be damned.
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Meh…The GOP and its state legislatures and its packed SCOTUS steal this election and that’ll be the end of it. The streets will run red and half this country will decide they have fucking had it and want out of the union. We will instantaneously have gone from the “light on a hill” and “greatest democracy in history” to the single greatest threat to democracy ever to exist and an existential threat to survival of the human race.
And Putin will be shitting himself laughing.
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I have zero doubt that SCOTUS will decide this issue based on what they want the outcome to be, not on any highminded legal or constitutional principle, although they will grant themselves a figleaf and write it up with ungracious aplomb. That’s just what they did with Bush v Gore.
But the actual winning argument is that the PA legislature DID proscribe how presidential electors are chosen, and it’s by the votes of “electors”, meaning just voters. That’s the law. This particular PA legislature run by Republicans may not like it, but that’s the law the state legislature passed. So they deferred the presidential electors to popular vote, just like every other state. That law had to pass state constitutional muster as well, but that’s not the issue here.
So the only legal question is whether the PA Supreme Court can interpret PA absentee voting statutes also passed by the PA state legislature and signed into law as to provide flexibility in the case of pandemic for receipt and counting of absentee ballots. There nothing about THAT in the US Constitution as the state legislature also deferred that issue to PA law and the PA Constitution. And PA Supreme Court ruled that enforcing the absentee ballot deadline under these circumstances would violate the PA Constitution and fashioned a reasonable remedy of a 3-day extension. I think it would do the same in the case of a natural disaster, as has been done multiple times in multiple states.
But logic and fairness and consistency are the opposite of what Republicans and their judicial lackeys use to decide cases. “Is it good for my side?” is their only question and as long as it’s easy to answer they will rule that way. Disgusting!
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There is a case at the Supreme Court that by how the Court has handled the case to include its timeline that tells in no uncertain terms that 5, with Cony-Barret 6, total Republican partisan hacks currently control America’s legal system.
The case involves Trump’s emergency order taking from money appropriated by Congress for the military to build his wall. The Supreme Court last ruled on a similar case in Trump’s favor, that Trump has the power to do this. The case will be decided after the election and what is obvious is that the results of the election will determine what Chief Injustice Roberts and other Republican hacks on the court decide.
The case is about Trump’s legal authority to do this, which the Court decided last year he had. The reason you know this has nothing to do with Trump, and everything to do with a possible Biden administration, is that the Court is allowing Trump to spend the money well it decides. That is if the Court had any intention of limiting Trump’s authority it would not let him spend the money until the case was decided. Hence the only possible reason the Court would consider a ruling other than “YES, the President has the authority”, is if Trump will no longer be president and the Republican Court wants to start ASAP to limit the authority of President Biden.
That is the Court will, if Biden wins, use this case that it has already said Trump has the power to say President Joe Biden does not have the power. It is as obviously bias as bias can be in favor of Republicans and against America and democracy.
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The look on Justice Kagan’s face in the photo says it all doesn’t it?
Yes. This will be the grounds of rebellion!
If majority vote is overruled by EC…Americans WiLL rebel.
I’m so tired of this fucking “the fix is in” fear factor bull shit. If people can’t put the bong down and get off their asses and vote after what this country has been through the last 4 years then maybe it’s not worth saving. People shouldn’t have to be scared into voting. It should come naturally.
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The problem is not people getting off their asses to vote as they are already doing and I have as well. The problem is the GOP suppressing the vote in various ways either via GOP legislatures, governors or courts.
Though it was the same GOP majority legislature that passed anyone can vote by mail in October 2019. Some of them are regretting that action, hence refusing to change the mail vote deadline. Interesting to see how the state house turns this year. GOP house had a supermajority not long ago, not beyond possibility it could flip Dem, especially if Dem turnout surpasses 2016, as it seems will happen.