I guess trump war right about mail in ballots

[Scepticalscribe]

I’ve never understood why so many people feel college students = liberal. Have they never heard of the Young Republicans?

Time warp, stuff.

They are still haunted by 1968.

When I was a student, yes, we were (or, some of us were) more liberal than many, if not most, of our teachers.

But, when I started teaching, I realised that I was a lot more radical than the vast majority of my students.

 

[lizkat]

There is a school of thought that says "Moscow is running plays in the federal government."

Well exactly, and that's why I have trouble keeping a straight face any more, when I hear that old canard being thrown around again over the back fences. Anyway this year covid-19 has the kids all gone home from SUNY colleges near here. So if there are plays to be run from Moscow in DC next year then it's at least in part thanks to regular ol' so-called conservative Republicans from here just re-upping on the meddling Trump attracts... God forbid.

 

[SuperMatt]

Well exactly, and that's why I have trouble keeping a straight face any more, when I hear that old canard being thrown around again over the back fences. Anyway this year covid-19 has the kids all gone home from SUNY colleges near here. So if there are plays to be run from Moscow in DC next year then it's at least in part thanks to regular ol' so-called conservative Republicans from here just re-upping on the meddling Trump attracts... God forbid.

I think Oneonta got hit really bad - they fired their president...

Upstate NY SUNY president resigns after coronavirus outbreak

The school says that the decision to resign was 'of her own volition.'

www.syracuse.com

 

[Thomas Veil]

I guess I'm wrong. I'm surprised to see that California reached a sort of compromise with the Republican party about those ballot boxes.

OAKLAND — California officials lowered the temperature Friday in their legal standoff with the California Republican Party over its unauthorized ballot boxes, saying the party had committed to enough changes for now to satisfy their concerns.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, said the state GOP had agreed to “no longer deploy these unstaffed, unsecured and unofficial ballot drop boxes.” The practice had drawn national interest as the major parties jockey for seats in California congressional battlegrounds that Democrats won in the 2018 midterms — and as Republicans continue to attack the state's election system.

In an earlier response to Padilla, the California Republican Party said it would continue to accept mail ballots at boxes but promised some safeguards: The boxes will be attended to whenever the public has access to them, and ballots will be secured and then delivered to elections officials within the required 72-hour frame, the party said. The party pledged to not represent those boxes as “official,” saying a volunteer had done so in error, while arguing that the process was legal due to a 2018 law that loosened collection requirements.

I don't know. I. Just. Don't. Trust. Them.

 

[fooferdoggie]

so more blatant voting tampering
NEW: A Cleveland company that agreed to print absentee ballots for dozens of counties in OH and PA is 10 days late in getting them to voters. The company's owners are Trump supporters and flew a Trump flag at their HQ.
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1317159055144685569/

 

[Huntn]

I’ve never understood why so many people feel college students = liberal. Have they never heard of the Young Republicans?

Maybe as a whole, liberal students would out number conservative students.

 

[lizkat]

Maybe as a whole, liberal students would out number conservative students.

It doesn't matter to the media machine of today's right wing. If there is one liberal-leaning student on campus then the place is maligned as "infested by radical lefties." But yes, there may be more liberal lean among students in at least the public colleges and universities. Secondary education in those venues is meant to broaden, not just deepen our exposure to ideas.

Unfortunately the left sometimes feeds into the right's intent to redefine to its own advantage both "free speech" and "political center" on a university or college campus. If a right-leaning speaker shows up (or is even invited to speak) by a group like the Young Republicans, a protest then often ensues. Whether infiltrators take a hand in that activity or not, the propaganda machine of the right promptly cries out in the public square "See? Censorship by the radical left!" with respect to that educational institution.

It's a university administration's nightmare: to try to walk the line between demonstrating openness to ideas and yet to avoid helping disseminate sheerly anti-democratic (small d) propaganda. In a case with possibly better outcomes, the speaker is invited to speak but only with real time rebuttals, e.g. in a panel format rather than having a solo performance by a speaker with extreme views.

The question that both left and right lean in with during these polarized times naturally enough becomes "yeah, but what is extreme"? and the supplied answer is generally "anyone who doesn't agree with us."

I often think CEOs are way overpaid... but am reluctant to apply that as a generalization to university administrators in the current political climate, at least in the USA.

 

[lizkat]

Brookings Institution has a map up with its grade assigned to each state on readiness to handle mail-in voting during the pandemic, and also provides details for each state on why it got the grade it was assigned.

Voting by mail in a pandemic: A state-by-state scorecard | Brookings

Ranking all 50 states on pandemic voting preparedness.

www.brookings.edu

 

[SuperMatt]

Brookings Institution has a map up with its grade assigned to each state on readiness to handle mail-in voting during the pandemic, and also provides details for each state on why it got the grade it was assigned.

Voting by mail in a pandemic: A state-by-state scorecard | Brookings

Ranking all 50 states on pandemic voting preparedness.

www.brookings.edu

I don’t think they expected it would be possible for a state to get a negative score when they came up with the scoring system. You go, Alabama!!!!!!

 

[lizkat]

I don’t think they expected it would be possible for a state to get a negative score when they came up with the scoring system. You go, Alabama!!!!!!

Yeah Alabama really lost points on items in that "special scoring" section. Imagine needing a notary or two witnesses to file a valid absentee ballot.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Barack Obama - on Twitter - has a lovely video showing (demonstrating - step by step - "what to do when voting by mail & how to do it" on the video), on how he has completed his ballot to vote by mail.

 

[SuperMatt]

Yeah Alabama really lost points on items in that "special scoring" section. Imagine needing a notary or two witnesses to file a valid absentee ballot.

At this point, why not just bring back the poll tax? They could bring back the literacy test, but Trump supporters would never pass it. They are so regressive on voter suppression that it’s basically the 1950s again.

 

[Alli]

I don’t think they expected it would be possible for a state to get a negative score when they came up with the scoring system. You go, Alabama!!!!!!

I’m so embarrassed.

 

[lizkat]

I’m so embarrassed.

Let's hope someone in the Alabama state government connected w/ the Brookings map and didn't just roll eyes and move on.

On the bright side, no place to go but up...