Red Don hates vote by mail.

[kairos12]

Given that, I wonder if he is implementing new rules so that veterans, in far-flung posts, can't vote.

Speaking as a Vet, fuck him and Putin.

[Shermann]

1. We're going to have to "safely" go the the "safe" voting booths and vote "safely"

Just salt the words "safe" and "safely" into any activity to make it safe.

Before: Standing in long lines to enter enclosed buildings with large groups putting their hands on common touch points.

After: "Safely" standing in long lines to "safely" enter enclosed buildings with large "safe" groups "safely" putting their hands on common "safe" touch points.

[Cha]

2. BLOTUS voted by mail.

[Celerity]

6. lol at BLOTUS, and the BLOTUS is setting up false fraud charges for mail-ing voting as his frontline

coup attempt weapon when he loses. He may (if the thousand jagged pieces come together enough in his and the Rethugs' brains) try and invalidate the entire election. Then, if the Rehugs flop over, it may, absolutely worst case (a PURE NIGHTMARE, ultra extreme case) scenario (and to fill in the details would take me an hour) come simply down to whether the armed forces back him or not. I can see a remotely possible (NOT probable yet at all) path to where we get to that potentially planetary-wrecking inflection point of all inflections points from here.

Let us (meaning the world) all hope we never get within 1000 miles of that insane event horizon.

[gratuitous]

3. Do you know how hard it is to intimidate voters by mail?

When everyone has to go to a centralized voting station, it's real easy for a gang of Republican thugs to pick out the "suspicious" voters (if you know what I mean) and challenge their right to cast a ballot. When voters get their ballots a couple of weeks ahead of time, they know they're properly registered to vote, so they won't be bullied by threats of jail for casting an "illegal" ballot. When the voters have the leisure of looking over the ballot and going on line or reading the voter's pamphlet, they're more likely to cast an informed vote that aligns with their views. And they don't have to run a gauntlet of bullies and busybodies, just put their completed ballot in the mail or a convenient drop box.

And THAT's why Republicans hate it when too many of the wrong sort of people get to vote by mail.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. In an earlier discussion about voting by mail

someone -- and I can't recall if it was here on DU or somewhere else -- expressed the opinion that a spouse might bully the other or even fill out the spouse's ballot. I expressed the opinion that while that might happen, it would be such a trivial percentage of votes as to be meaningless.

[gratuitous]

5. Yeah, the short answer is . . .

What are we talking about? One in a million? A thousand? A hundred? In a typical election, the margin of victory far outstrips the hypothetical number of intimidated votes. Yeah, nonsense.

[Celerity]

7. I agree, but (and I was only 4 years old at the time) we did have exactly such a scenario where that

certainly would have come into play given the cray cray small margin of victory in a huge state. Floriduh, 2000.

I can crank out (I will not bother you with 30 maps) a shedload of EV scenarios where FL is THE decider state. and it could be any one of 15 or so other states as well. I have already found like 7 or 8 ways at least to get to the worst possible EV result. 269-269, as the House will put Trump back in the WH (they will control the bare minimum needed, 26, state delegations in the House, and maybe more. WI and FL are the only true hopes to pull one back and they are crazy gerrymandered (illegally.) Rump winning via a 231 year old arcane and arbitrary, quirky law (and doing via stolen state delegations) whilst losing the popular vote by 3,4,5 million popular votes will explode into violence and chaos I fear. Finally, to take it to SURE limite civil war level, imagine IF one for Rethugs flip in to House, and remove a delegation or two, so either NO ONE has 26, or Biden is thus elected if the flips give him 26. Trump will trigger via Tweet calls for an outright armed violent revolution attempt, even if Pence is elected VP (and thus POTUS until/if the House can get to 26) OR (and this would be insane) we take back the Senate and Biden's VP thus becomes VP and then POTUS, or if no Senate majority also occurs, Pelosi (or whoever is Speaker) becomes POTUS until the shitstorm is sorted.

cray cray time if that 269-269 nightmare happens (odds ate SO low of it happening though, thank fuck)