Voter suppresion/"stealing the election" megathread

[Arbitrage1980]

Disgusting

https://twitter.com/srl/status/1304479389321777154

Awesome! This is a great decision.

[Arbitrage1980]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1304896885707038720

Agree with the President. Mail voting has enormous potential for fraud if a state allows any one of the following: 1) sending ballots to all registered voters even when it was not requested, 2) no signature or ID verification, 3) ballot harvesting.

[Gass3268]

What's that ?

https://twitter.com/JohnBarrowman/status/1304530250487836672

Our democracy is dead

This is legal and has always been legal.

https://twitter.com/grace_panetta/status/1304766910953852929?s=21

[GeneralMacArthur]

Agree with the President. Mail voting has enormous potential for fraud if a state allows any one of the following: 1) sending ballots to all registered voters even when it was not requested, 2) no signature or ID verification, 3) ballot harvesting.

It's a good thing none of those three things are what Pennsylvania is actually doing.

Let's dig into the actual article (an EDITORIAL by the conservative WSJ) and see what they're upset about.

A week after the June 2 primary, about half the counties in the Keystone State were still tallying ballots. On June 11, Philadelphia alone had 42,255 votes uncounted. President Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by 44,292.

If Mr. Trump and Joe Biden run neck and neck in November, how long might Pennsylvania keep the Electoral College hanging? In the campaign’s closing weeks, arriving mail votes will pile up in local offices, but state law says they can’t be processed until 7 a.m. on Election Day. This wasn’t enough preparation to give timely results when 1.5 million residents voted absentee in June, and it won’t be in November.

This isn't an argument against mail-in-voting.  It's an argument in favor of more resources devoted to counting ballots.  I would have to imagine Pennsylvania is going to be better prepared for the presidential election than it was for the June primary.

Tight deadlines are another problem. Pennsylvanians can request a mail ballot as late as 5 p.m. on Oct. 27. For votes to count, they must arrive at local election offices by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. That leaves seven days, including a Sunday, for applications to be handled, blank ballots delivered, and votes dropped off or return mailed. The U.S. Postal Service says such a turnaround is unrealistic and creates a high risk of tardiness. America’s first postmaster general, Ben Franklin, would be unhappy to see his Pennsylvania setting up the USPS for failure.

Oh ffs, Pennsylvania isn't setting the USPS up for failure.  The USPS set itself up for failure by intentionally breaking its own processing and handling systems so that everything would take longer.  This is the game Trump and DeJoy want to play -- "we broke it so now you can't use it" -- and Democrats are right to not play it.

In some states, straggling ballots are valid if they’re postmarked by Election Day. Pennsylvania law has no similar provision, but Democrats are asking the state Supreme Court to conjure one. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, wants to count votes arriving by Nov. 6. Pennsylvania also lacks a way for voters to fix ballots that are rejected for suspect signatures. This is a recipe for extended legal mischief and for judges to determine which votes are counted. With the state Supreme Court controlled by Democrats, that could be what Mr. Wolf has in mind.

Not being able to fix rejected ballots is bad and PA should fix that.  Wolf is also correct in trying to get ballots counted if they are merely postmarked by election day, especially given the aforementioned USPS shenanigans.  In Washington, both of these are true.  You can check online to see if your vote has been counted, and you'll get contacted through multiple different avenues if your signatures do not match (happened to me once, just had to verify).  And as long as your ballot is in the mail by the deadline, it counts, even if it arrives a week later.

And that's it, that's all the WSJ is complaining about.

Republicans in Pennsylvania have a bill that:
1) Lets voters with signature issues prove their identities
2) Gets rid of vote drop-boxes and tells voters to drop their ballots off at a polling station
3) Says you have to request a ballot two weeks before the election
4) Lets absentee votes get counted early

IMO, (1) is obviously good, (2) is obviously bad and totally pointless other than as a poison pill, (3) is bad and they should instead devote more state resources to ballot counting, and (4) is fine although the better solution is more resources devoted to counting absentee ballots.

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

What's that ?

https://twitter.com/JohnBarrowman/status/1304530250487836672

Our democracy is dead

This is legal and has always been legal.

https://twitter.com/grace_panetta/status/1304766910953852929?s=21

Can't let something like legality get in the way of someones narrative!

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/meganmesserly/status/1305037571697725441

Trump should be impeached and removed just for this, not to mention the 100 other things he's done that warrant it.

[Hammy]

Dems obsession with preventing people who aren't voting for them from voting at all is going to make it harder for Dem voters to get their ballots in on time, possibly throwing the state to Trump.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/13/politics/2020-election-pennsylvania-ballot-delay/index.html

The state's Democratic Party remains in court battling to keep the Green Party off the ballot. The pending legal dispute has led to a delay in certification of the November ballot, and as a result, all Pennsylvania county election officials who this year could have started offering absentee or mail-in ballots, as well as in-person early absentee voting, starting September 14 are in a holding pattern.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Dems obsession with preventing people who aren't voting for them from voting at all is going to make it harder for Dem voters to get their ballots in on time, possibly throwing the state to Trump.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/13/politics/2020-election-pennsylvania-ballot-delay/index.html

The state's Democratic Party remains in court battling to keep the Green Party off the ballot. The pending legal dispute has led to a delay in certification of the November ballot, and as a result, all Pennsylvania county election officials who this year could have started offering absentee or mail-in ballots, as well as in-person early absentee voting, starting September 14 are in a holding pattern.

This is a dumb statement. Challenging another party's qualification for the ballot in no way prevents a single voter from casting a ballot.

[Hammy]

Dems obsession with preventing people who aren't voting for them from voting at all is going to make it harder for Dem voters to get their ballots in on time, possibly throwing the state to Trump.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/13/politics/2020-election-pennsylvania-ballot-delay/index.html

The state's Democratic Party remains in court battling to keep the Green Party off the ballot. The pending legal dispute has led to a delay in certification of the November ballot, and as a result, all Pennsylvania county election officials who this year could have started offering absentee or mail-in ballots, as well as in-person early absentee voting, starting September 14 are in a holding pattern.

This is a dumb statement. Challenging another party's qualification for the ballot in no way prevents a single voter from casting a ballot.

There's no voting at all until the lawsuit is settled, preventing early voting as well as mail voting--when voters need as much time as they can possibly get right now. Early voting was supposed to begin tomorrow along with sending out mail ballots.

[Virginiá]

Eh, not commenting on the lawsuit, but if absentee/early voting is held up a week or two and begins over 35 days from election day, then I don't see the issue. PA's voting window with the reforms the GA passed a year or two ago was already unusually long.

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/patrickdmarley/status/1305623674062503938?s=21

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/patrickdmarley/status/1305623674062503938?s=21

Hagedorn has definitely shown some integrity in political cases.

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/patrickdmarley/status/1305623674062503938?s=21

Hagedorn has definitely shown some integrity in political cases.

He's making feel better about the future redistricting case that's probably coming next year.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/meganmesserly/status/1305037571697725441

Trump should be impeached and removed just for this, not to mention the 100 other things he's done that warrant it.

Only 100?

[wbrocks67]

Dems obsession with preventing people who aren't voting for them from voting at all is going to make it harder for Dem voters to get their ballots in on time, possibly throwing the state to Trump.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/13/politics/2020-election-pennsylvania-ballot-delay/index.html

The state's Democratic Party remains in court battling to keep the Green Party off the ballot. The pending legal dispute has led to a delay in certification of the November ballot, and as a result, all Pennsylvania county election officials who this year could have started offering absentee or mail-in ballots, as well as in-person early absentee voting, starting September 14 are in a holding pattern.

This comment is in such bad faith that I'm not even gonna continue trying to respond to it.

[Hammy]

Dems obsession with preventing people who aren't voting for them from voting at all is going to make it harder for Dem voters to get their ballots in on time, possibly throwing the state to Trump.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/13/politics/2020-election-pennsylvania-ballot-delay/index.html

The state's Democratic Party remains in court battling to keep the Green Party off the ballot. The pending legal dispute has led to a delay in certification of the November ballot, and as a result, all Pennsylvania county election officials who this year could have started offering absentee or mail-in ballots, as well as in-person early absentee voting, starting September 14 are in a holding pattern.

This comment is in such bad faith that I'm not even gonna continue trying to respond to it.

Is this because you support their indefensible and hypocritical decision to delay the start of mail voting while complaining about what Trump's doing to slow it down just because Muh Third Party Voters?

And it never stops being funny how people will go out of their way to respond to say that they aren't responding.

[bilaps]

It just shows hipocricy. Dems feel like they are entitled to Green party votes and that those people are for sure to vote for them without Greens on the ballot while crying about supression at the same time. Comments about this are in bad faith only if you're a partisan hack.

[wbrocks67]

It just shows hipocricy. Dems feel like they are entitled to Green party votes and that those people are for sure to vote for them without Greens on the ballot while crying about supression at the same time. Comments about this are in bad faith only if you're a partisan hack.

Uh, no. Given the GOP has been trying to ratf**k the ballot with both Kanye West AND the Green Party, I think your comment is severely misdirected

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/davidpepper/status/1305887451626471424

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/timelywriter/status/1305901822662643712

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/mjs_dc/status/1305974116109955078

[White Eagle]

I don't think it a good idea to vote for President by mail. They have plenty of methods to intercede the votes.
Then we have to re-check and vote again. It will be a waste of time and our tax money ?

[Ferguson97]

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1306288566515924992

[Badger]

https://twitter.com/davidpepper/status/1305887451626471424

Because the judge was a Democrat, the Ohio Republican Party predictably blasted his decision as a partisan Hatchet job. To her Everlasting credit, the REPUBLICAN Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Maureen O'Connor, blasted her own party for such a baseless partisan attack on the independence of the Judiciary.

Unsurprisingly, she is age limited from running for re-election, so take this courage with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, good on her.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1306380359647612928