2020 Elections

[Vrede too]

Wow.
Where's all the $$$?

Besides all of the gravy to friends and family there are tons of ads running here.

[GoCubsGo]

Wow.
Where's all the $$$?

Besides all of the gravy to friends and family there are tons of ads running here.

My condolences.

[Vrede too]

My condolences.

Likely a pointless transfer of wealth from poorly educated Trumpettes to the fake news lamestream media. Awww.

More Than 2 Million Have Already Voted In North Carolina .

4.6M voted here in 2016.

[O Really]

I'm not defending repugnant's obvious and admitted efforts to suppress voting, but as an alternative point of view we all remember when "election day" was one day and essentially everybody went to their designated precinct voting place to vote in person. Some places had lines, some not. As long as you were in line when the polls closed, you still got to vote. If everybody went back to that, would it really be "voter suppression" or would people adjust?

The scum-bag governor of Texas is clearly trying to make it more difficult by allowing only one drop-off box per county, but it only affects those relatively few that can qualify to cast absentee ballots (over 65, disabled, out of state). Doesn't the postal service go by everybody's house once a day? Even with Trump's disparagement, would you really trust the postal service less than some unknown person assigned to pick up ballots from the drop-off boxes? Is your mail carrier more likely to lose/destroy your ballot than the possibly repug box tender?

[Whack9]

NJ has recreational weed legalization on the ballot this year.

[Vrede too]

I'm not defending repugnant's obvious and admitted efforts to suppress voting, but as an alternative point of view we all remember when "election day" was one day and essentially everybody went to their designated precinct voting place to vote in person. Some places had lines, some not. As long as you were in line when the polls closed, you still got to vote. If everybody went back to that, would it really be "voter suppression" or would people adjust?

The scum-bag governor of Texas is clearly trying to make it more difficult by allowing only one drop-off box per county, but it only affects those relatively few that can qualify to cast absentee ballots (over 65, disabled, out of state). Doesn't the postal service go by everybody's house once a day? Even with Trump's disparagement, would you really trust the postal service less than some unknown person assigned to pick up ballots from the drop-off boxes? Is your mail carrier more likely to lose/destroy your ballot than the possibly repug box tender?

Criminal corruption can happen at any point in the process. Idk that election workers are less trustworthy than USPS folks, and the latter are delivering ballots to election workers, anyhow.

People (like me) are suspicious of the intentional USPS delays, but Idk how serious they are in TX and folks do seem to be adjusting by mailing ballots in sooner. Probably a good thing this year, thus diminishing the theoretical impact of PINO's Hail Marys and October surprises. The Rudy/NY Post Hunter Biden "revelations" seem to have flopped, regardless.

I've wondered if the one box rule might be more likely to affect people living in TX's huge counties - usually cons, just like those over 65. Maybe they figure that there are more urban absentees, even if any individual rural person is more likely to struggle.

It could even be that the scrutiny on voter suppression is pissing people off and backfiring on the Repugs. I hope so.

[Vrede too]

The Biden town hall was pretty good.

Saw this comment on the net that sums up Trump's town hall: "Trump debates nobody and loses".

Trump's town hall completely backfired on him.

Let's hope that undecided (how is that possible?) voters agree.

How are there still undecided voters this late in the race?

... Recent polls show that anywhere between 2 percent and 8 percent of the electorate say they’re undecided. The share of undecided voters this year is about half what it was at this point in 2016, when a late shift among that group helped put Trump over the top. But it’s still a large enough segment to tip this year’s race if it broke en masse in one direction....

Undecided voters are also the subject of equal parts fascination and derision from some members of the public who find it inexplicable that anyone could still be on the fence this late into a race with such starkly different candidates. “To be undecided in 2020, to me, you literally would have to be on an ice floe,” one political analyst said. Late night host Stephen Colbert called such people “mentally impaired unicorns.”

Why there’s debate

Because of undecided voters’ importance in deciding elections, political analysts have spent years trying to understand who they are and what they think. Demographically, they skew younger than the average voter, are disproportionately Hispanic and are less likely to have a college degree. Unsurprisingly, they often describe themselves as moderate politically.

While individual reasons vary significantly, the most common reason people are undecided this late in the race is dissatisfaction with both major-party candidates. A large share of undecided voters in this year’s election are moderate conservatives who dislike Trump personally but are wary of Biden’s policy agenda, experts say. Another group of undecideds likely consists of voters who would typically support a third-party candidate but may fear “wasting” their vote in an election with such high stakes.

The challenge for many undecided voters, some argue, is less about choosing between the candidates than about deciding whether to vote at all. Voters who are undecided at this moment in the race tend to be less politically engaged than the general public and often feel that none of the options on offer represent their interests. Others say that most undecided voters aren’t really undecided at all and that they are merely putting on an act before backing the candidate they’ve preferred all along....

[Vrede too]

I'm thinking trump will bring a bullhorn to the debate in order to obviate the muted debate mics since we all know trump just cannot stand not being able to lie, whine, and brag.

Great minds . . .

“Muting the mics ― it’s the same strategy my daughter’s teacher uses for Zoom kindergarten. Would a mute button even work on Donald Trump? I feel like if you turn off his microphone he’ll just pull another one out of his hair or something.”
-- Jimmy Kimmel
https://www.yahoo.com/news/jimmy-kimmel ... 10615.html

[Vrede too]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/polls-show-d ... 00775.html

Democrats have a reasonable chance of sweeping Georgia's Senate and presidential races this Election Day.

Georgia has two U.S. Senate seats up for grabs this fall, and as a New York Times/Siena College poll out Tuesday revealed, Democratic candidates are winning one and tied in the other. Meanwhile in the faceoff between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, candidates are tied at 45 percent support in the typically red state.

Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) is up for re-election this fall, and is tied with Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff at 43 percent support, the poll showed. Raphael Warnock, the Democrat looking to fill the seat vacated by retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, meanwhile has 32 percent support over current Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) (23%). Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), who is also looking to fill the spot, has 17 percent support, the poll shows.

billy.pilgrims fav , Lieberman (D), has dropped to 7%.

But it's not as if the Republican faceoff could spoil the party's chances of winning. If no one in the three-way race of Collins, Loeffler, and Warnock gets a majority of the vote, the top two candidates will have a runoff election. Still, Warnock led both Collins and Loeffler, 45-41, in a hypothetical runoff, the poll found. Warnock's 46 percent favorability rating was the highest of any candidate on the poll.

2020.

[GoCubsGo]

The swamp.

[neoplacebo]

Isn't this the same sort of shit that Duncan Hunter GOP rep from CA is in prison for? Also, before he was convicted his wife testified against him. Let's hope Meadows suffers the same fate.

[Vrede too]

I'm not defending repugnant's obvious and admitted efforts to suppress voting, but as an alternative point of view we all remember when "election day" was one day and essentially everybody went to their designated precinct voting place to vote in person. Some places had lines, some not. As long as you were in line when the polls closed, you still got to vote. If everybody went back to that, would it really be "voter suppression" or would people adjust?

The scum-bag governor of Texas is clearly trying to make it more difficult by allowing only one drop-off box per county, but it only affects those relatively few that can qualify to cast absentee ballots (over 65, disabled, out of state). Doesn't the postal service go by everybody's house once a day? Even with Trump's disparagement, would you really trust the postal service less than some unknown person assigned to pick up ballots from the drop-off boxes? Is your mail carrier more likely to lose/destroy your ballot than the possibly repug box tender?

Arguably more outrageous than Texas' one drop-off box per county rule:
viewtopic.php?p=128210#p128210

Trump +3.6
Close enough to dream.

[GoCubsGo]

Making WNC proud every day.


[/quote]

[O Really]

Arguably more outrageous than Texas' one drop-off box per county rule:
viewtopic.php?p=128210#p128210

Continuing my defence of devilry, I don't think there is a Constitutional right to fill in a ballot incorrectly. That ruling can be made to sound awful, but it was really pretty narrow, and covering circumstances that in most any other election year wouldn't matter much. Consider: if the instructions are reasonably clear and state "you must sign here" and you send in an unsigned or improperly signed ballot, why should they have to give you another chance? Isn't that like having to go to a list of those who received ballots and sending out a reminder if they haven't voted yet? Nope. You get your ballot - send it in, don't send it in, they're not going to remind you about it. If you recall, they didn't give the voters with hanging chads a chance to re-do, either.

The job of the election boards is to provide a reasonable opportunity for everyone eligible to vote, and not get in the way. It isn't to make sure everyone actually does vote. Of course, a lot of them aren't doing their job one, but that's not the issue in this decision.

[Vrede too]

Continuing my defence of devilry, I don't think there is a Constitutional right to fill in a ballot incorrectly. That ruling can be made to sound awful, but it was really pretty narrow, and covering circumstances that in most any other election year wouldn't matter much. Consider: if the instructions are reasonably clear and state "you must sign here" and you send in an unsigned or improperly signed ballot, why should they have to give you another chance? Isn't that like having to go to a list of those who received ballots and sending out a reminder if they haven't voted yet? Nope. You get your ballot - send it in, don't send it in, they're not going to remind you about it. If you recall, they didn't give the voters with hanging chads a chance to re-do, either.

The job of the election boards is to provide a reasonable opportunity for everyone eligible to vote, and not get in the way. It isn't to make sure everyone actually does vote. Of course, a lot of them aren't doing their job one, but that's not the issue in this decision.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-doesnt ... 52752.html

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decided Monday that Texas doesn't have to inform voters that their mail-in ballots were rejected due to signature problems until after the Nov. 3 election, and need not give them a chance to correct or "cure" their ballots. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled Sept. 8 that the current signature-verification system in Texas "plainly violates certain voters' constitutional rights" and must be either abandoned or replaced.

The 5th Circuit appellate court stayed Garcia's ruling Sept. 11, and it won't rule on the merits of the case until after the election. Under current law, Texas must inform voters that their ballot was rejected within 10 days after the election.

I side with Judge Garcia's broad defense of ensuring that all votes get counted. However, part of the problem is with TX law:

"The state election code does not establish any standards for signature review, which is conducted by local election officials who seldom have training in signature verification," The Texas Tribune reports. Counties can choose to inform voters before the election and give them a chance to cure their ballot.

It shouldn't be discretionary. That's a set-up for partisan manipulation.

... "Texas' strong interest in safeguarding the integrity of its elections from voter fraud far outweighs any burden the state's voting procedures place on the right to vote," Judge Jerry Smith, a Ronald Regan appointee, wrote for the three-judge panel.

Voter fraud is a myth, voter suppression isn't.

The conjuring judges were appointed by Reagan and President Trump....

*concurring*

Figures . Fwiw, Garcia is a Clinton appointee.

Courts’ Republican Appointees Are Dismantling Voting Rights: Study
Judges and justices appointed by Trump have ruled against voting access 85% of the time this year, the study found.



My signature has changed since I registered. Before we went all-computer I got tired of signing my full name at work. So, I switched to first name initial/last name. If elections has a problem with that and they've received my mail-in ballot before election day, I think they should take the easy step of sending me a postcard, but Idk what NC law or local office practices are.

[Vrede too]

Attorneys at Trump Campaign’s Law Firm Have Donated $90,000 to Joe Biden, Almost Nothing to the President

Attorneys at Jones Day, the international law firm that has raked in millions as the Trump campaign’s top outside counsel, have overwhelmingly donated to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign while essentially stiffing the president’s re-election efforts. Individual donations from Jones Day lawyers between January 1, 2019 and August 31, 2020 show approximately $90,000 going to the former vice president, while the total given to President Donald Trump was exactly $50, Reuters reported Tuesday morning.

According to the report, during that same span, Jones Day, where former White House counsel Don McGahn returned in March 2019 to head up the firm’s Government Regulation Practice, has been paid in excess of $4.5 million for legal work by the Trump campaign....

Similarly, lawyers from Washington, D.C.-based law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, which has earned more than $250,000 from the Trump campaign for work relating to lawsuits challenging states’ mail-in voting procedures, donated $5,750 to Biden and $0 to Trump....

Even the law firms whose attorneys have contributed the most to the president’s campaign—Fish & Richardson, Kirkland & Ellis (Attorney General Bill Barr’s former law firm), and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher–have given far more to Trump’s opponent.

“Attorneys at each of those firms donated significantly more to Biden’s campaign – about 10 times more at Gibson Dunn and about 20 times more at Kirkland,” the report stated....

[Vrede too]

NC11, fairly typical Dem ad . . .


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sPo-3Q3doA

. . . but how often have you seen a hippie featured? 0:25.

[GoCubsGo]

[billy.pilgrim]

Good Joe ad

"Sam Elliott narrates a new Joe Biden ad so full of Americana, apple pie might blush"

https://news.yahoo.com/sam-elliott-narr ... 29886.html

[Vrede too]

2020 election polls – live: Poll finds half of Americans want President criminally investigated when he leaves office

... Biden leading by eight percentage points in Pennsylvania ... The Democrat also appears to be making significant gains in Texas, a Republican stronghold, with Quinnipiac placing the two candidates level on 47 percentage points each.

... the Democratic nominee is leading President Trump by 51 to 41 per cent nationally.

... FiveThirtyEight, which collates average polls nationally, shows Mr Biden leading the president nationally by 9.8 points as of 21 October.

Half of Americans want Trump criminally investigated after presidency, poll finds

... some legal experts have said it appears state and federal prosecutors also are looking at his pre-White House activities....

President Trump and Joe Biden are tied in Texas, in latest Quinnipiac University poll

The new poll shows the former vice president and Mr Trump tied at 47 per cent each ...

If Arizona, Georgia or Texas is still in play in the Fall, Biden has won and the Senate is blue.

I won't predict or even hope for a Biden win in Texas, but if it's still in play in October Biden is POTUS.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows tightening races for the Senate

Democratic candidate Mark Kelly leads Republican incumbent Martha McSally in Arizona, 51 to 44 per cent. In their previous poll, Mr Kelly had a lead of 11 points. It was conducted between 14 to 21 October.

In Michigan, Democratic incumbent Gary Peters leads Republican challenger John James, 50 to 45 per cent. Mr Peters led Mr James by eight points in the same poll a week before. It was conducted between 14 to 20 October.

In North Carolina, Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham is tied with Republican incumbent Thom Tillis. The poll a week before showed Tillis in a four point lead. It was conducted between 14 to 20 October.

, except NC is too close.

Fox News Poll: Trump gains in Ohio, Biden ahead in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin

The 2016 Faux Noise polls were accurate.

... According to the latest Fox News poll, Mr Biden was 12 points ahead in Michigan (52-40 per cent), 5 points ahead in Pennsylvania (50-45 per cent), and 5 points ahead in Wisconsin (49-44 per cent).

Mr Trump, meanwhile, has a slim 3 point lead in Ohio (45-48 per cent), which he won by 8 percentage points in 2016....