Just So You Know
I have survive a week on the ballot board and only two more days to go. I’ve only gotten into one fight.
The Republicans have a new voter suppression plan: We have a retired Republican judge who wants to disallow every ballot where the signature doesn’t exactly – dammit, exactly – on the back of the ballot envelope to the application. Okay, 98% of people who get a mail ballot are either over 65 or disabled. They requested these ballots back in January.
I am over 65. If I go from January to the end of October without falling down, smacking my head against the top of the car door, having my shoulder go out on me, forgetting where I put the damn ballot when it arrived and having to fish through the garbage to find it, or can find the same pen in October that I used in January, then y’all throw flowers on me because I am dead.
Sometimes I use my birth name as my middle name, sometimes I don’t. He hates that so I will continue to do it forever in his damn honor. If you sign one with a felt tip and the other with a ball point, you have forsaken your right to vote. If your T isn’t crossed at exactly the same level or your I isn’t dotted in the exact same place you put it January, he will defend his right to void your right to vote.
Sumbitch needs to get a damn life. I am going to sign him up on every liberal email list I can find and make donations in his name to every damn Democrat in Texas. He’ll be so swamped with mail and email that we’ll have to get professional spelunkers to come find him.
That’s how liberals do things.
Here in Colorado, a machine does the verification. IF the signature doesn’t match, it is given to a bi-partisian team to research every public record with a signature to see if there is a match. If not, the voter is contacted, not throw the ballot out. snacilbupeR are the waste bin of the universe.
1Why can you charge something in a store, use those stupid pads that distort your signature, and have That signature count?
Please ask him that.
2Elect a descent Judge, Dem or Repub, to a district court judge position, and ask that your awful retired judge gets appointed to defend people charge with felonies, juveniles, and whatever else is available. That should keep him or her busy, and make them wonder about their own past practices.
3This guy needs to be somewhere there is 24 hour care. He is way past his good use date and thats the kindest way I can say this. I bet he wouldn’t believe you if you told him that CSI units and really top notch prosecutors know that no one signs their name exactly the sam way twice and for good reason, not a felonious one. I bet he wouldn’t believe anybody on this subject. Isn’t there a judge at a higher level who can tell him to stand down?
4Make a donation to the DNC in his name. For a very small amount they will haunt the crabby old crank for at least 10 years after his death. If he’s married, I can send you a list of sites that signing him up will guarantee his wife will nag him into that grave a few years early.
5Many years ago, I was fired from a job because the company VP wanted to place a friend in my place. I printed out hundreds of labels with his name and address and then I went to the Houston public library and signed him up for subscriptions and free offers from every magazine I could find. Friends said he was bringing in stacks of magazines every day in an effort to stop the subscriptions and find out who was sending them. About a year later, I called him the day the company fired him and reminded him that I had a job and he didn’t. Sounds like the judge messed with the wrong person.
6If this is a retired judge, does his opinion carry any weight? He can’t implement it, right?
7I do love all the mailing ideas. I think they should all be implemented, right?
8@ Sam. A group of us did the same thing to a radio preacher at the radio station where I worked. His sermons always had one theme: Send money.
9The signature issue concerns me greatly because I have developed tremors in my hands. My signature may not be the same from one second to the next. Does this mean that people with Parkinsons are disqualified to vote. Raise that issue with that addlepated excuse for a judge and see if he’s willing to discriminate against citizens with disabilities. Sounds like a huge lawsuit waiting to happen
10Let me guess: everybody with a disallowed signature is a Democrat, yes?
I have some trouble with y’all’s junk mailings idea because my sister-in-law got that treatment from a guy she broke up with, and it was a serious problem for a while. Granted, she wasn’t a jerk and didn’t deserve it, but still….
11Is there a dirty trick that the Texas Rethuglicans haven’t thought of???
I hope you have reinforcements in your efforts.
Keep up the good work; you’ve only got until next Wednesday.
12Hope he didn’t get away with that nonsense. I had to sign on a machine when I voted this time and it scanned my driver’s license. I can assure you my signatures didn’t match.
13That judge should be retired from life. With votes, as we say at Wonkette.
14Please hand this judge a piece of paper and have him write his own name fifteen times. If each of them is exactly the same without the tiniest variation, then he should be allowed to continue this incredibly stupid and probably illegal practice.
15When you sign him up on various lists, hope you include a truckload of LGBT, climate change, save the whale/oceans/etc. groups. If you need money for postage, I’ll chip in. So very grateful for all you do and write. Sic em, gal.
16Diane: Because they’re taking your money. If that happened to Republicans they’d take your money, too, no matter what your signature looked like.
17You fight him, kid.
18The snacilbupeR party is incompatible with democracy. Send them to Russia to hang out with their boyfriend.
19Years ago when I stumbled into this Salon, I thought, I like this lady and how she thinks. I’ve now come to admire what you do also. Thank you.
20Has anyone pointed out that two identical signatures is a sign that at least one has been forged?
21I use initials only on return addresses, and I print them. Looks quite different from my signature,of course. Would that retired judge have disqualified me? That said, voted in person last Wednesday at the Austin Area Urban League office just three miles from my house; walked right in with no wait. Stuck the “I voted” sticker on my hat.
22Be sure to check this judge’s signature and see if it looks like the one he used 20 years ago.
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