On today’s BradCast: Donald Trump’s error-laden prime-time speech to the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night did little to ease the nation’s anxieties over the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, it appears to have made things much worse in a number of ways.
The Dow Futures market plummeted as his remarks began, with the DJI closing down more than 2,300 points on Thursday. In all, after hitting a record high just weeks ago, the markets have lost nearly 90% of the gains they’ve seen since Trump took office in January of 2017. One more day like this and all of those gains will be lost. So much for “rocket fuel to the economy”.
Fortunes on Wall Street, however, may be the least of the country’s problems right now. Trump’s announcement on Wednesday night called for a travel ban from all European countries other than the United Kingdom (for reasons that no one seems able to explain) and for the payroll tax cut he’s been seeking for months (long before the virus), which few experts believe will be much help amidst this worsening epidemic. Moreover, no sooner did Trump finish his teleprompter remarks than the White House had to begin issuing corrections to them. No, trade and cargo would not actually be banned from Europe, as Trump claimed, and the health insurance industry didn’t actually agree to offer free coronavirus treatments to all as the Liar-in-Chief claimed Wednesday night.
Europe was blindsided by the announcement, and it was left to Democratic Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders to try and calm an anxious nation today with their own speeches addressing the crisis as Trump continues to refuse to declare a national emergency because it would reveal he had lied about the epidemic for weeks. (And apparently he needs to get Jared’s permission first.)
The NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball all announced they are suspending their seasons, the NCAA cancelled their March Madness tournaments, Disneyland will be closing their doors, and Tom Hanks announced that he and his wife Rita Wilson have both contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
But what about the upcoming primary and general elections? Are we really going to continue asking voters to stand in long lines with hundreds of people to vote on potentially virus-infected touchscreen voting systems? As it turns out, hand-marked paper ballots still moist from hand-sanitizer also caused problems this week in New Hampshire’s municipal elections, jamming optical-scan tabulators at precincts.
The U.S. Vote Foundation, led by former GOP Chair Michael Steele, is now calling on Congress to immediately pass legislation requiring every state in the union to allow no-excuse absentee/Vote-by-Mail ballots for all voters. And while I am no fan of Vote-by-Mail usually (other than in jurisdiction where voters are forced to vote on touchscreen voting systems at the polls), it’s looking more and more like we are all going to be voting via VBM this year if the virus continues on its current trajectory.
We cover all of that and much more on today’s show, before ending on a “lighter note”…with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News Report (which, believe it or not, actually has a quite a bit of welcome good news today…at least once we get past the coronavirus part of it anyway.)
Cryptography Pioneer Seeks Secure Elections the Low-Tech Way
Hi Brad – As someone living in an all Vote By Mail (VBM) state, Washington, I have always, as have you, had some trepidation about VBM being secure, but compared with the fiasco in many other states, I feel it’s probably the best available at this time.
I also think your suggestion of making VBM mandated in all states this year is a sound one. But rather than making people “ask” for ballots they should just be sent to all registered voters. Here in Washington we are used to keeping our addresses current for that reason because VBM ballots are never forwarded. People should be warned to update their addresses, and officials should just send everyone on the rolls ballots. I know that’s going to be hard to grasp for officials in those states who like to play voter suppression games with voting locations, but they can just get over it!
One more thing. In our state, they warned people not to lick envelopes for the obvious reasons, and election workers still had to wear masks and gloves to open everything. I have sent an email to the Washington Secretary of State suggesting that we go to the peel-and-press style self-sealing envelopes for future elections, both for the protective inner envelopes and for the outer envelopes. I know they cost a bit more but the stress reduction ratio makes it worth it.
All states should go to peel-and-press style self-sealing envelopes if we do an entire VBM general election this year. Even with the extra costs, it will still be WAY cheaper than in-person elections!