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Post by BearClause on Oct 7, 2020 18:48:44 GMT -5
Hey bro-mensas I thought all those mail-in ballots come with free return postage? Even if it doesn't. Stamps, bros. No. That's a matter of states and/or election offices to decide. California is now using Business Reply Mail for all ballot return envelopes. Not sure what the deal is in Texas. There have been some states where some counties have paid for it while others haven't. And the USPS says that they won't return a ballot lacking postage. They'll just make a note of how many and then charge the election agency later. I wouldn't necessarily count on that working though.
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Post by mikegarrison on Oct 7, 2020 18:53:16 GMT -5
We used to have to put first-class postage +19 cents for "overweight" first class, but later the state switched to pre-paid.
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Post by hammer on Oct 7, 2020 19:08:17 GMT -5
Remember everything is bigger and better in Texas ...
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Post by donut on Oct 7, 2020 19:10:25 GMT -5
The rural Texas counties aren't that large, and the ones that are more even border counties. (Notice how those ruby red rural areas are in smaller counties than Harris?) And the pandemic-related risks for traditional in-person voting are much lower in sparsely populated areas, and in terms of raw voting numbers Harris County represented between 1/6th and 1/7th of all votes cast despite there being 254 counties. We all know what impact this is going to have. Why are you trying so hard to argue against it? I am just not so easily jumping to 'voter suppression'. The article from the first post - only mentions 3 congress people (one from NY, CA, SD) that is complaining. Are Texas Democrats complaining about this? Is anyone in Harris county complaining? I know that Harris county originally set up for 12 locations, but is that what they really want or think is still best? Maybe there is something to this - but so far it looks like political grandstanding from people who don't know crap about Texas elections. ... you've still yet to criticize Harris County for arbitrarily closing all but 1 drop-off location, but you're now questioning why they had 12 in the first place? This is a riot. Born and raised Texan here who knows more than just "crap" about Texas elections. Texans are complaining. Harris County is complaining. Texas has a history of voter suppression (see: Texas NAACP v. Steen or Veasey v. Perry for starters). Anything else? The rationale for the rule was "ballot security protocols." The Texas Tribune article in the first post puts it well: "Vote-by-mail fraud is essentially non-existent and Texas already has stringent controls for the return of early vote-by-mail ballots... Limiting the ballot delivery locations went against federal health guidelines in the pandemic and would force thousands of voters to congregate at a single county clerk’s office to deliver mail-in ballots.” Since the rationale given is utter horsesh*t, what rationale do you have for this rule in the middle of a pandemic? You must have something else if you're unwilling to "jump to voter suppression."
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2020 19:12:49 GMT -5
I have ancestors from Texas. The confederate side of the family. Harris County factored into the history.
In short, I'm an expert on the state. Ask me anything.
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Post by ironhammer on Oct 7, 2020 19:49:44 GMT -5
I am just not so easily jumping to 'voter suppression'. The article from the first post - only mentions 3 congress people (one from NY, CA, SD) that is complaining. Are Texas Democrats complaining about this? Is anyone in Harris county complaining? I know that Harris county originally set up for 12 locations, but is that what they really want or think is still best? Maybe there is something to this - but so far it looks like political grandstanding from people who don't know crap about Texas elections. Yeah they're complaining. There's a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn this. Any updates on the progress and chance of success of this lawsuit?
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Post by Wolfgang on Oct 7, 2020 21:19:50 GMT -5
I have ancestors from Texas. The confederate side of the family. Harris County factored into the history. In short, I'm an expert on the state. Ask me anything. Is cow tipping a thing?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2020 21:23:46 GMT -5
Not in Texas. We pay them a decent wage.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2020 21:57:23 GMT -5
I'm jealous of Harris County's original plan for 12 drop-off locations.
Here in Minneapolis, Hennepin County only has the one drop-off for the county. They're not comparable, of course, but it's around 1.2-1.3M people in 607 sq. miles. Harris is 4.7M in 1777 sq. miles.
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Post by keener on Oct 7, 2020 22:07:33 GMT -5
Hey bro-mensas I thought all those mail-in ballots come with free return postage? Even if it doesn't. Stamps, bros. No. That's a matter of states and/or election offices to decide. California is now using Business Reply Mail for all ballot return envelopes. Not sure what the deal is in Texas. There have been some states where some counties have paid for it while others haven't. And the USPS says that they won't return a ballot lacking postage. They'll just make a note of how many and then charge the election agency later. I wouldn't necessarily count on that working though. Broclause if you are a Texas resident and you went through all the hassle to get an absentee ballot in the first place and then f*($ed up the mailing and the postage and your ballot didn't get counted well then you deserve everything that happened to you. Consequences. It's like if you show up live to vote and you mess up your ballot by filling it in wrong or do they even use those punch machines anymore or were they banned after the 2000 hanging chads thing in Florida but same thing if you screw that up and punched too many squares or didn't follow directions well then they threw out your ballot and you deserved it for not following directions. That's not voter suppression that's voter stupidity.
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Post by BearClause on Oct 7, 2020 22:42:16 GMT -5
No. That's a matter of states and/or election offices to decide. California is now using Business Reply Mail for all ballot return envelopes. Not sure what the deal is in Texas. There have been some states where some counties have paid for it while others haven't. And the USPS says that they won't return a ballot lacking postage. They'll just make a note of how many and then charge the election agency later. I wouldn't necessarily count on that working though. Broclause if you are a Texas resident and you went through all the hassle to get an absentee ballot in the first place and then f*($ed up the mailing and the postage and your ballot didn't get counted well then you deserve everything that happened to you. Consequences. It's like if you show up live to vote and you mess up your ballot by filling it in wrong or do they even use those punch machines anymore or were they banned after the 2000 hanging chads thing in Florida but same thing if you screw that up and punched too many squares or didn't follow directions well then they threw out your ballot and you deserved it for not following directions. That's not voter suppression that's voter stupidity. Well - it might be a lot easier if there were simply more ballot return sites in a crowded place like Harris or Dallas County. What exactly was wrong with allowing counties the discretion to operate manned collection sites as they did on Friday? Can you really provide any rationale for what Abbott is doing here that makes any sense? It just doesn't make any sense. He pulled the rug out from under the rule that he made.
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Post by keener on Oct 7, 2020 23:59:42 GMT -5
Broclause if you are a Texas resident and you went through all the hassle to get an absentee ballot in the first place and then f*($ed up the mailing and the postage and your ballot didn't get counted well then you deserve everything that happened to you. Consequences. It's like if you show up live to vote and you mess up your ballot by filling it in wrong or do they even use those punch machines anymore or were they banned after the 2000 hanging chads thing in Florida but same thing if you screw that up and punched too many squares or didn't follow directions well then they threw out your ballot and you deserved it for not following directions. That's not voter suppression that's voter stupidity. Well - it might be a lot easier if there were simply more ballot return sites in a crowded place like Harris or Dallas County. What exactly was wrong with allowing counties the discretion to operate manned collection sites as they did on Friday? Can you really provide any rationale for what Abbott is doing here that makes any sense? It just doesn't make any sense. He pulled the rug out from under the rule that he made. Well, I know of a way that all these people can still vote without having to schlep all that distance to get to the SINGLE drop-off box for mail-in ballots. On November 3, 2020 they'll be a place that is way closer to every single one of these absentee voters' homes that they can go vote at. Or...like I said originally, they can just mail it in. How far is it to their mailbox? I'm pretty sure every single household in Texas has a mailbox.
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Post by holidayhusker on Oct 8, 2020 3:19:13 GMT -5
The general conclusion of this thread?
Wayyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaassyyyyyyyyy. Life is so unfair
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Post by donut on Oct 8, 2020 7:49:22 GMT -5
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bluepenquin
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Post by bluepenquin on Oct 8, 2020 8:34:09 GMT -5
Here are the 2016 EV per 1M votes per state. 3.93 was the overall average for the country.
Wyoming - 11.73 District of Columbia - 9.64 Vermont - 9.52 Alaska - 9.42 Hawaii - 9.33 North Dakota - 8.71 Rhode Island - 8.62 South Dakota - 8.11 West Virginia - 6.93 Delaware - 6.76 New Mexico - 6.26 Montana - 5.98 Nebraska - 5.92 Oklahoma - 5.86 Idaho - 5.79 New Hampshire - 5.37 Maine - 5.35 Nevada - 5.33 Arkansas - 5.31 Utah - 5.25 Kansas - 5.02 Mississippi - 4.95 Tennessee - 4.33 South Carolina - 4.28 Connecticut - 4.26 Alabama - 4.24 Texas - 4.23 Arizona - 4.22 Kentucky - 4.16 Indiana - 3.99 Louisiana - 3.94 Georgia - 3.86 California - 3.86 Iowa - 3.83 New York - 3.76 Washington - 3.62 Maryland - 3.60 New Jersey - 3.58 Illinois - 3.57 Missouri - 3.54 Oregon - 3.50 Minnesota - 3.40 Wisconsin - 3.36 Michigan - 3.32 Massachusetts - 3.31 Virginia - 3.26 Ohio - 3.25 Pennsylvania - 3.24 Colorado - 3.24 North Carolina - 3.16 Florida - 3.05
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