I’m calling them Democracy Wars today. But I could just as easy call them Infinity Wars — as the fight by so many for the right to vote and the fight by others to prevent them from voting at all — never seems to end. But the name Infinity War may already be otherwise spoken for. [Audio link to full show follows below.]
Among the many stories covered on today’s BradCast…
- A couple in Ohio sends their kids to summer camp, with masks and social distancing in an area of the country with a very low infection rate. Days later, predictably, COVID breaks out at camp, kids and counselors get sick, everyone becomes terrified, overwhelmed and is quarantining. Just a preview of what you will begin to see when/if schools are ordered to prematurely reopen for in-person classes as soon as next month, as Trump and his Republicans are pushing for;
- In Texas, Republicans recently went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to make sure only voters over 65 or those actively infected with COVID can vote by absentee ballot (with a doctor’s order). Last Tuesday, the Lone Star state held its primary runoffs, but 68,0000 Texans were diagnosed with the virus after the deadline for registering to vote absentee and before the actual election. How many of them were then forced to endanger everyone else at the polling place or lose their right to vote? One couple’s story of the difficult choices they were forced to make after recently contracting the virus after the deadline, and the nightmares they confronted in order to try and safely cast a vote (or not) under the state’s absurdly restrictive absentee ballot laws;
- The U.S. Supreme Court blocks a compromise today by a U.S. District Court judge in Florida that would have allowed as many as 1.4 million former felons to register to vote this year, after the state’s Republican Governor and legislature passed a law to undermine the state constitutional amendment, adopted statewide in 2018 by an overwhelming 65 to 35 percent of the vote, to allow exactly what the GOP is now blocking. Hundreds of thousands will not be able to vote in the state’s August primary, thanks to the stolen Republican majority at SCOTUS. That voter suppression may continue in the Sunshine State even through November’s critical Presidential Election unless the new Republican majority on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals works very quickly. But why would they? Expect much more of this between now and November. And it’s a good time to familiarize yourself with the absurd, so-called “Purcell Principle”, if you haven’t already;
- A three judge panel on a state court in Michigan, by a vote of 2 to 1 this week, has ruled that absentee ballots which arrive after the close of polls may not be counted. That, after voters expanded absentee voting via a statewide Constructional ballot measure in 2018 that allowed for voters to vote by mail during the 40 days prior to an election. If not overturned by the state Supreme Court, the ruling — which seems wildly wrong on the law — could result in tens of thousands of votes, cast and postmarked by Election Day, not being counted in November, in a state which Trump is said to have won by just over 10,000 votes in 2016. (That’s especially troubling given this week’s directive from Donald Trump’s new Postmaster General to all USPS postal workers to slow mail delivery down, please!);
- And then, quickly back to Texas, where absentee voters, prior to Tuesday’s Primary Runoff Election Day, were mysteriously receiving their voted and mailed ballots back in the mail, for reasons still unknown;
- Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as Joe Biden announces a major progressive proposal to fight climate change and create millions of jobs, while Donald Trump rolls back yet another landmark environmental law.
The BradCast
with Brad Friedman
7/16/2020
Democracy Wars Intensify Amid Pandemic: ‘BradCast’ 7/16/2020 | SCOTUS blocks 1.4M potential new voters in FL; Tough choice for TX voters diagnosed with COVID; Absentee ballots returned to Dallas voters; MI court blocks counting of tens of thousands of mail-in ballots... · · · · · Democracy Wars Intensify Amid Pandemic: ‘BradCast’ 7/16/2020 | SCOTUS blocks 1.4M potential new voters in FL; Tough choice for TX voters diagnosed with COVID; Absentee ballots returned to Dallas voters; MI court blocks counting of tens of thousands of mail-in ballots...
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I live in Washington state and we have been all-mail voting for well over a decade and before that, we were mostly mail-in. I don’t see the problem these states are having trying to figure this crap out. We have so many options over and above just mailing them that voting is a breeze here. Most every county, city and state building has secured drop-boxes that are set up and monitored by poll workers when they mail out the ballots. Also all ballots postmarked before the deadline are counted. If you didn’t get a ballot or lost one, you can go to your county building anytime before the election. Fill it out in person and drop it in the drop box, or take it home and mail it. During the last few days before the deadline, poll workers set up drive-up drop boxes at convenient locations, in front of libraries, in parking lots etc. You can find them easily online as they put out a list. Local papers also carry the list. If you haven’t registered, you can do it at the county even on election day and get a ballot. You also can register at any DMV. They do not ask your party so I imagine gerrymandering is cut down a lot as we have open primaries here.
This is not rocket science. If you live here and are a citizen, you can vote. If officials are claiming that it’s just too difficult to figure out mailing people ballots, then you need to get rid of them because they are trying to disenfranchise voters and should not be in any positions of power.