"Will you shut up, man?" US Politics October 2020

What are the many things they could have done?

― Change Display Name: (stevie), Tuesday, October 27, 2020 10:11 AM bookmarkflaglink

win the White House/take the Senate were the two direct things, though that's in the past now

My wife and I signed up to do some text banking for Michigan. Wisconsin was one of the states we were considering too, but since she grew up in Michigan she has a close tie to the state.

Like invent a time machine and ask RBG to step down (my preferred method)?

The problem, as I understand it, is that different states have different standards for when ballots can no longer be accepted. The conservatives on the SC are being disingenuous, but even they are (legally) right that what flies in PA may not fly in WI. That's something states really need to clean up and deal with. I think I saw some statement from AOC yesterday or the day before that if NY were a swing state, its voting process and laws would be earning cries of bullshit as loud as those in FL or WI or TX or wherever.

btw I got ridiculed by several people when I said this back in March.

Like invent a time machine and ask RBG to step down (my preferred method)?

Re: WI voting, I don't see that ruling that ballots received after election day should not be counted where state law says they shouldn't signals that the SC would rule the same where state law says they should.

xp to JiC - bingo

Trump is so beyond the pale and so dangerous (tbf slightly mitigated by also being lazy and incompetent) that just electing a Democrat is not corrective enough. They need to hammer in safeguards and laws that have been pried loose over the past several years, and ideally make a strong case for it so that they don't lose the house the next cycle. (Assuming they get the WH and Senate, or even just the WH, which, if they don't ... I don't even know anymore).

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, October 27, 2020 8:54 AM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean, this is what it all really comes down to. Any system that a) doesn't correct for the fact that there will always be people trying to find ways to game the system in their favor and b) isn't dynamic enough to evolve its methods of correction as the methods of cheats and scoundrels evolve is a system doomed to collapse. Shit needs to be locked down during the Biden admin or it's game over, man.

frankly, Democrats should vote with the assumption in the back of their mind that the GOP will do everything in their power not to count their vote. that means voting in-person (safely), dropping off ballots if possible, double checking to make sure it was received.

it's fucked that we're in this position but i would pretty much say anybody who hasn't mailed a ballot back yet should consider not mailing it back at this point and either spoiling the ballot and voting in person, or dropping it off if that's allowed in your state.

sadly...there will be those that don't and aren't counted but if we can minimize that number, that helps.

god it just makes me so fucking angry and is exhausting.

FWIW, I think a lot of dems have been operating under just that assumption. I mean, I opted to drop off my ballot (and briefly enter a building other than my home for the first time since March) rather than mailing it in specifically because of the DeJoy shit. A lot of the surge in early voting seems to be a direct reaction to likely GOP fuckery. It just remains to be seen if the surge is gonna be enough to effectively curtail it.

It may be worth noting again that Democrats seem to be sending in their mail ballots considerably sooner than Republicans. Democrats are +27.5% on returned ballots so far, but a narrower +12.7% on ballots requested but not yet returned.https://t.co/Ii5lBCeY9j

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 27, 2020

I'm in line to vote early in person. Probably a three hour wait, last day to do this in PA. Talk about voter suppression

Yesterday was the day we were supposed to mail our huge stack of postcards to Texas (fwiw I think they were designed to arrive *after* election day, a second wave thanking people for voting after a first wave of bazillions imploring people to vote). It was tough to drop them all in the closest box, which was more or less full! I'm not sure I'd seen that before. It was after the scheduled pickup time, too, so, nervous, I made sure to walk back in an hour and make sure it had been picked up, and indeed it was.

I'm also sleep-deprived and furious that the pigs (yes, they're pigs) murdered a mentally ill neighbor yesterday evening. I'm missing therapy for this, and I need that appointment right now.

What are the many things they could have done?

― Change Display Name: (stevie), Tuesday, October 27, 2020 10:11 AM bookmarkflaglink

obama could've forced garland onto the court with a recess appointment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recess_appointment

But voter suppression leads to viral videos of people dancing in line and that's supposed to warm our hearts!

(xpost)

xp to neanderthal (and nate silver), yes that is somewhat encouraging, but the court's decision means that they're slamming the door on tens of thousands of ballots that favor the dems by 13 points.

xpost <3 table - that story was fucked up

That is horrific, table. Thank you for voting.

sorry to hear that table, that's messed up.

That story is horrifying, sorry table.

p sure she was asked...
― A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Chooglin (will),

the NYT ran a story several weeks ago explaining how Obama mildly offended her in 2013 by quietly insisting she retire.

ugh

Thanks for good thoughts, y'all. 💜

xxxxxxpost yes but the "700,000 unreturned ballots" stat is total, not Democratic ballots. Wisconsin doesn't report party affiliation for requested ballots, so we do not know what proportion of ballots that were returned for each party, as well as the proportion of the ballots that are outstanding for each party. as Wisconsin has never tracked that info, we can only guess.

Also, I looked at Wisconsin's stats, and they're confusing. they have in-person absentee voting, and their report for 10/27 shows 1,451,462 have been returned, and of that total, 352,073 were in-person absentee votes. the site Nate quotes (https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/WI.html) subtracts the in-person absentee votes from the ballots returned. but if these in-person absentee voters are counted in the ballots mailed, then there are only something like 362,000 ballots outstanding, not 700,000, if 352,073 person all just absentee voted in person.

the NYT ran a story several weeks ago explaining how Obama mildly offended her in 2013 by quietly insisting she retire.

Yes, leave us not forget Kennedy's strategic retirement giving us the gift of Captain Kegstand for the next several decades.

Kennedy was smarter and more ruthless than Ginsberg.

i tweeted at Nate and the ElectionProject (Michael McDonald) guy to ask how to properly interpret the returned ballots stats for Wisconsin. hoping I get a reply.

should also be noted that about 30,000+ new ballots get returned a day based on what I saw in this last week's reports.

weirdly about 5 other tweeters are asking him to check this as well. I think it's probably 362,000 ballots outstanding, which is a big difference (I think they're estimating that even if 100,000 Dem votes weren't counted, Biden would still win WI or PA)

Wisconsin doesn't report party affiliation for requested ballots, so we do not know what proportion of ballots that were returned for each party, as well as the proportion of the ballots that are outstanding for each party. as Wisconsin has never tracked that info, we can only guess.

Wisconsin doesn't track that information because it doesn't exist! There's no such thing as party registration and Wisconsin voters are free to vote in whichever primary they like (but not more than one.)

well that makes sense then, lol

sidebar, but is the chatter about Bill Barr's invisibility/absence a thing of substance or something truther-y?

https://www.axios.com/scoop-the-lincoln-project-is-becoming-a-media-business-f366aea2-d730-4ad3-a601-e8380ebf96e8.html

Going to steal some of those Pod Save ad dollars. If we’re real lucky... Rick Wilson biopic.

xpost I wish, but I think I came across a post that noted he has made a few speaking engagements in the last few weeks.

dammit

is the chatter about Bill Barr's invisibility/absence a thing of substance or something truther-y?

Was half wondering about that myself this morning.

along the same lines, when was pence's last negative test? did he skate out of it like usual?

Saw a post about a negative test yesterday IIRC

below-average pence wiggles his way out of another jam

Let us not forget that his wife's name is Karen. If Pence gets in trouble she'll demand to see the manager and that will be the end of THAT.

I haven't seen any official stats but I think he may be immune as I don't recall reading about any COVID cases among semi-sentient ventriloquist's dummies.

Oh no, I take that back, Mortimer Snerd succumbed a few months ago iirc.

Numbers numbers

With nearly 3 million early votes in a week before Election Day, more than 10% of Georgia's ~2,650 precincts have more than 50% of their *total* registered voters cast a ballot already.

I made a map of % turnout by precinct so far! #gapolhttps://t.co/LRGCqEVdTc

— stephen fowler (@stphnfwlr) October 27, 2020

Ah, so nice.

On Trump campaign call, @MikeKellyPA mocks Biden’s stutter and says voters should “Drop off some tapioca and let him make his way through that” instead of listening to the former VP.

— Gabby Orr (@GabbyOrr_) October 27, 2020

Also, not a surprise:

In recent days, registered Republicans have begun closing the early-vote gap among the total ballots cast in Florida, Iowa, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, ⁦@AmyEGardner⁩ and ⁦@PostRoz⁩ report. https://t.co/3QZVRqaOOc

— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) October 27, 2020

Couple of useful Wasserman things to read. First, his own piece:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/polls-could-be-wrong-may-help-biden-not-just-trump-n1244753

Then, him interviewed here:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/10/polling-guru-who-predicted-trumps-2016-win-is-betting-on-biden

Among other things, him on Florida and registration:

Voter registration is a feather in Trump’s cap, but it’s also critical to put (it) in context. Over the past couple of decades, we’ve seen a lot of registered Democrats, who have voted Republican at the federal level for president for years, formally switching their voter registration from D to R. For example, there is a county in North Florida: Lafayette County, which is basically—it used to be a Dixiecrat bastion.

In 2016, Democrats had a voter-registration advantage in that county of 59 to 34%. The county voted 82 to 15 for Donald Trump. And over the last four years, we’ve seen that county completely flip, and now Republicans have a voter-registration advantage of 62 to 27. That’s a 64-point swing in voter ID in four years. It doesn’t mean that Trump is gaining new voters; those are existing Trump votes. So keep that in mind. That’s one of the reasons we’re seeing Republican gains in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida.

The other thing that’s happening is that Democrats are winning a disproportionate share of young voters, and a lot of them are registering as unaffiliated or independent. But it is true that just in the past six months or so, since the presidential primaries, Republicans have done a better job of hitting the pavement because Democrats have been unwilling to knock on doors in the pandemic. And it’s an understandable decision. But we are also seeing that the past success Democrats have had both knocking on doors and registering young people on college campuses—that’s been way down during the pandemic, and that has helped Republicans to this lead.

So keep in mind that in the past six months, Republicans have added a net 344,000 registered voters in Florida, and Democrats, 197,000. In 2016, Democrats were the ones with that registration advantage, but there are gonna be over 10 million votes cast in Florida. And so it might be worth a percent on the margins. And a percent’s a lot in Florida, don’t get me wrong, but if you’re talking about the same kind of trend line in the other states—Wisconsin, Pennsylvania—would you rather be the candidate with a half-of-1% registration advantage? Or would you rather be the candidate who’s ahead seven points in polls? I’d rather be the Democrat.

thanks for posting those - digging through both

2.5 hours of waiting, I voted early in person, pig helicopter still circling my neighborhood even tho it's broad daylight and there aren't actions planned til tonight

xpost only thing I don't like about the second article is they claim Wasserman predicted Trump's victory, when, in the link to his article, he emphatically says it's not a prediction, but a possibility.

but a good article nonetheless