Barbarians At The Drop Boxes
I love to vote. I have voted in every election, including off-off year school board elections. And I have been an early voter since it became a possibility. Yet despite its liberal reputation, California’s early vote arrangements are atrocious and I am a vote by mailer now.
So today I drove myself to the local post office and put my ballot in the mail receptacle inside the lobby, as I have since the pandemic began.
No muss. No fuss.
Not so in my state’s immediate neighbor to the east. In Arizona, specifically Maricopa County (home of the Cyber Ninja “forensic audit”), there are armed, masked and bullet-proof vested individuals making sure that the right sorts of people are voting, as they record videos of voters inserting their supposedly secret ballots into official ballot drop boxes. They also video the license plates of vehicles that the voters arrive in.
So if you were curious what voting in a police state was going to be like if TFG has his way, look no further than Maricopa County, Arizona.
Thanks to the pandemic, DC now mails every registered voter a ballot (including an “I Voted” sticker!). Last time, I just put it in the mailbox in our building’s lobby and it got there just fine. This year, I walked it down the street a couple of blocks to the nearest Drop Box. I did this a week ago on Saturday, which was also the annual Porchfest in my ‘hood. This is an event which gathers around 70 different bands and other music groups who play all around the area–more than a few are on people’s actual porches–for an afternoon. The Drop Box was located in a small plaza area that also had a band playing and a lot of people mingling about and standing directly in front of the Drop Box. I got a few strange looks when I asked a couple of people to move out of the way so that I could deposit my ballot. They were obviously not from the area; but, they also were not wearing armor nor were they carrying guns.
I absolutely love this mail-in system except for the fact that I got a very early morning robocall from the Board of Elections telling me that they had mailed my ballot and another one telling me that they had received my ballot and that it was accepted and counted. They also sent me emails saying the same thing and I really don’t need to be wakened by the phone. Other than that . . .what the Hell is wrong with Arizona????
1As we like to say here in Arizona: “You can’t spell crazy without AZ.”
2Must be what Putrid Putin’s sham election was like in his occupied parts of Ukraine. Same with what I expect will happen in the desantis occupied area of the US. This is really disturbing. Why do they need masks?
3NOT barbarians – but – TERRORISTS .
4Someone should slip a luggage tracker in their pickup truck and let the Freak Out begin.
5It would be so tempting to drive up with a big banner on my car saying “Hello, my name is ________, and I am voting. You can kiss my grits.”
6Masked? Well now! That tells me everything anyone would want to know.
7A good reason for them to be masked is because they have felony convictions. And you don’t get to fondle guns with that record. Most places also forbid felons from having “bulletproof” clothing, which is one reason you’ll see the Loud Boys and their ilk wearing vests without the ceramic armor that makes them bullet resistant.
Wally, I really like your idea. The only problem is that the Apple version will warn nearby Apple devices, and I don’t know how many of the Republican Brown Shirts use those instead of Android. However, even that would have the fun effect of making them even more paranoid.
8A video about Arizona election drop box goons:
https://apple.news/AOvD3KWmURwiLITQ-JzvxCg
9Even though we’re still (unfortunately, mostly) a red state (except for lovely, wonderful, Mary Peltola), some of our elections automatically go to mail in ballots, and in this upcoming one, everybody got mailed a form to request one if they wanted it…no questions asked. I don’t think AK could get away with the crap AZ is doing. It’s outrageous!
10At least most all of you actually have a choice. Some of us are stuck in Red hellhole counties and states where even a choice on your ballots is disappearing.
Half Empty and probably 99.999% of y’all, including Arizonies, just don’t know how good you have it.
You still have choices, some of us barely have a few of those left.
For example, I’m repeating here part of a comment I just made on an El Jefe thread down the Salon page:
“… most of y’all, including the Salon jefes, have NO idea just how bleak and bad things really are in vast areas of this s——e state of Texas.
Wherever you guys are, you at least have a few fellow Democrats around, and some of them actually running for office.
Do tell me if any of y’all knew just how bad things are after reading the rest of this comment.
Now let me show you how a large majority of my local area political seats are simply grouped under the following ‘Already Decided’ [ballot] header [this doesn’t include the big statewide offices listed on the other side of the ballot].
And yes, every one listed here is a Republican, there simply are NO Democratic [or other] candidates who even stand for office.
Following the header is a list of 17 county and area political positions, with the Republican already declared the winner. There are just 9 contested positions available to actually cast a ballot for a Democrat.
This caption heads up almost half of a page of my mail-in ballot, holding a large majority of all the area positions, defined long before the voting even begins:
“Unopposed Candidates Declared Elected”
[followed by a listing of most of the area positions, from the topdog County Judge on down through every significant office, and the others [with the winners already declared by name and “Rep” party affiliation]]
Great democracy we got here…
So, do any of you live in a similar one-party deathgrip controlled hellhole? I don’t think so…
Uncheck- “You have to just beat them at the polls.” Riiigghht…
El Jefe, et al., clearly didn’t envision just how effing bad it can get.
And my county votes 85%+ Republican, far worse than even the worst of the other places that make all the Democratic talking points. And it’s 50%+ Hispanic! WTF!!!”
11Well, Sandridge, here in the redder part of otherwise blue CT we did have a couple of offices where Democrats were running unopposed. Oddly, we also have a “working families party” comprising mostly Dems so every D is listed twice on the ballot.
Sure it snows here sometimes, and it can get cold. But a lap robe, sweatshirt, and some logs in the wood stove and it’s really not such a bad place.
12Yep. When I was a kid I loved dressing up for Halloween too. One year I was a cowboy!
13The way the worst of red states spreads like a virus to other red states (i.e. abortion bans, other voting restrictions and more), it won’t be too many elections down the road till they’ve copied Texas. AZ and FL sound like they’re already getting there. Purple states beware when you elect repugnanticans.
14Stop the Steal?
Isn’t it the robbers and thieves who are armed and wearing masks?
15lazrgrl @12, You’re politically lucky, with CT being a Blue state and without the hellhole political enviro [my local NextDoor forum is a cesspool of Christo-fascist whackjobs, otherwise known as the typical local peeps].
But I’ve worked projects in cold central states before [never been to the NE], miserable summer and winter, and I’ll stick to warm/hot S TX until I can GTFO to Kauai or Pago Pago…
16Sandridge has pointed out how there are many races in which there are no opposition choices. Although people who frequent the Salon will vote no matter what, the lack of down ballot candidates is disincentive for independents and some Democrats to vote. If these people decide not to vote at all because they know the outcome, they give an advantage to the likes of Abbott, Patrick, and the other sanity challenged state level candidates. Also, if you look at the urban districts where the Democrat has a 90-95% advantage, that can have adverse effects as well. People in these districts know that their preferred state and local representatives will get elected whether they personally vote or not. If you have to wait in line for hours to vote because voting precincts have been reduced, your ability to vote is very much compromised compared to the more wealthy and rural districts where wait times are minimal.
The blame for the lack of Democratic candidates in these races is very much the fault of the party. Back when Howard Dean was head of the DNC, he launched the 50 state strategy. He said the party needed to recruit and run candidates up and down the ballot, even in those places where they might not immediately win. The goal was to get new blood into the party and to give voters a choice. Ultimately, this is where the new leadership from the party will come from. The Democrats saw success with this strategy in 2006 and 2008 and it certainly helped Obama win. However, Rahm Emmanuel didn’t like this approach, Dean retired, and the party went back to targeting competitive national races at the expense of what worked. Fast forward and we see the results. Where are the future leaders from the party going to come from? If Biden doesn’t run in 2024, who else do the Democrats have that will excite the electorate? As effective as Pelosi has been as Speaker, who can effectively lead the party when she isn’t there?
Dean’s strategy was effective, but unfortunately there is only one party that seemed to get it. The Republicans have co-opted this strategy with great success, running people at the school board level on up throughout the country. And a lot of these people are certifiably crazy, but will win because there is no opposition. This is a failure of the Democratic Party at large which has whistled by the graveyard of democracy while the Republicans have seized power without so much as a whimper from the opposition.
I sincerely hope the voters of this country will prove me wrong, but I am not expecting it.
17This is the third time I’ve seen this today. Disgusting.
18Mark @17, You made many most excellent points throughout, subtle and extremely cogent ones. If only the Democratic ‘leadership’ were/had been following them. [BTW, per Wiki, Dean shanghaied that ’50-state’ idea from ’70s Rethugs; what the hell, it worked great]
Sadly, my TX county is long beyond the pale of ever going Democratic again [long ago it did vote Dem, but the very conservative TX Ds of yore, pre-’76/’68…].
Slamming the DNC and Obama Cabinet doors on Howard Dean, and letting Rahm Emmanuel run things was one of the most grievous and self-damaging things that any American political party has ever done.
Among many reasons that I am not fond of the Obama admin like most are. Just remember the uber-critical electoral Democratic slaughter of the key decennial 2010 elections that sealed the fates of Democrats since.
We’ve been paying a terrible price ever since that time.
No way that the Democratic Party should be hanging on by a thread election after election, given it’s inherent popular advantages. While a cacophony of lunatics gains more and more power every year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Dean#DNC_Chairmanship
19https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty-state_strategy
the three ballots from my house in Maricopa, AZ went into the drop at the recorders office in Florence,AZ. good thing my wife works in that city or I’d have made a drive. the reality is that this is voter intimidation, it is sanctioned by members of the republican legislature, and armed carry is a norm by the real snowflakes in these parts. I so want to leave this country, I am quite jealous of my nephew who lives in Sweden. when I visited him in 2016 before the election, even the cabbies wanted to know WTF was wrong with the USA to nominate djt. Now I get to be as appalled as the cabbies were years ago.
20At least y’all have early voting! Here in Alabama, the only day for voting is election day. Absentee voting is extremely limited.
21Thanks, especially Sandridge and Mark, you both write well, please write often b/c too easy to.take Oregon vote-by-mail for granted after years of no problems. please, d’s, Indys, nav’s, every one pay attention to these warnings and find a large way or a small way to do something now. It will only get harder.
22When I moved to Colorado in the mid-90s, Republicans were mainly in charge. In my first election here, 1994, the results were:
4 of 6 US Representatives were Republicans.
Republicans won Sec of State, AG, and Treasurer (while Democrat Romer got the win as Governor).
Republicans had controlling majorities in the House and Senate, and on most county commissions.
You can read about the turnaround in The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care) Paperback – May 1, 2010. Written by a journalist and a Republican legislator, it describes the 10-year effort to become competitive and more.
“The Colorado turnaround in 2008 was nothing short of phenomenal: a once rock-solid Republican state went Democratic in a big way. And members of both parties are still scratching their heads over what happened. Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer have dug into the question for their book ‘The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care.’
Step one was finding people with a long-term commitment to change decades of defeat. Step 2 was finding people willing to spend to make it happen. Step 3 was convincing people that Democrats of ANY variety were preferable to Republicans, and thus ought to be supported. And then there was a whole series of basic blocking and tackling in campaign strategy and tactics.
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