General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBREAKING: Philadelphia Court REJECTS Republican's latest effort to block mail ballots.
Link to tweet
https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/philadelphia-mail-ballot-intervention/
On behalf of the Philadelphia City Democratic Committee, we intervened in a case brought by the right-wing Public Interest Legal Foundation that sought to invalidate some Philadelphia mail ballots.
order: https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/11/2020-11-02-Order-Denying-Petition-for-Writ-of-Mandamus.pdf
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Maraya1969
(22,441 posts)from voting. So much time and effort to suppress votes.
They don't want democracy. Not at all.
Republicans can only win by CHEATING 😡.
C_U_L8R
(44,889 posts)You'd think they'd get a clue by now.
irisblue
(32,828 posts)cause I fully bet the gop will file
gab13by13
(20,849 posts)and I don't think that would look good on Robert's legacy.
BigOleDummy
(2,260 posts)... isn't it something that we regular people have to hope in Mr. Roberts patriotism and concerns about his historical legacy for even a halfway chance of remaining a democracy.
As an aside, Mr. Roberts has surprised me more than once since being elevated to the SC.
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,271 posts)AllaN01Bear
(17,346 posts)bucolic_frolic
(42,651 posts)These fascists should be shipped to a Gulag for a little refresher on freedom and voting rights!
stillcool
(32,626 posts)the GOP has lost in PA?
Illumination
(2,458 posts)This is like a marathon event...or is it more like a triathlon?...
Roisin Ni Fiachra
(2,574 posts)lastlib
(22,978 posts)"Public Interest Legal Foundation"
Are its members PILFerers?
I would say yes..........
OMGWTF
(3,891 posts)Like when GWB's invasion of Iraq was first named Operation Iraqi Liberation or OIL.
bucolic_frolic
(42,651 posts)based on the rules as widely known when they voted, should not be deprived of their voting rights.
BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)As we used to say when I lived in Center City.
DENVERPOPS
(8,677 posts)but a gang of corrupt thugs who have hijacked the republican party, and America........They will stop at nothing, even if they lose.
As far as they are all concerned, there is no U.S. Constitution, and no Rule of Law...........
Rizen
(703 posts)They can't win elections fairly so they have to gerrymander and do things like this.
BumRushDaShow
(127,257 posts)Here are the Wards and the 54th is in the lower Northeast of the city -
I looked at the order (and this is from the lowest state court), the plaintiff apparently withdrew his bullshit allegations of "impropriety" and couldn't produce any other justification for the other bullshit claims for his case, so the court denied further action on it (it was apparently an attempt to halt providing replacement ballots, which localities are allowed to do by law, to those whose ballots were never received or were damaged, etc).
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)Which is wrong, right? As the crooked Rs did win their crooked suit to disallow any ballots not received by Election Day?
BumRushDaShow
(127,257 posts)where the issue was that the SCOTUS left some wiggle room to "revisit" that issue of "postmarked on Tuesday Nov. 3rd but received by Friday Nov. 6th (including whether the postmark was legible or not)". The problem was that USPS has been obviously undergoing issues so first class mail has not been arriving on-time.
But you also have the issue where overseas ballots from military in foreign countries, have until (I think) November 11 to get their ballots in, so the GOP attacking ballots coming "after" November 3rd could potentially throw out a good chunk of military.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)And the PA.gov site doesn't make it clear. https://www.pa.gov/guides/voting-and-elections/#VotingbyMailBallot
And, while were on the subject of PA ballots, I wonder why we still need absentee ballots, which require an acceptable "excuse," when we have mail-in ballots, which require no excuse.
(Also, unrelated, but do you know that PennDOT was still charging people for "duplicate" copies of vehicle registration documents, even after they had begun only providing a ,pdf you have to print yourself?)
BumRushDaShow
(127,257 posts)and both the state and federal courts have weighed in to dismiss the cases.
With respect to "absentee" vs "no excuse absentee", the biggest reason was for when people were literally not able to go to their polling location on election day, so the assumption was that they would have normally gone in person had they been home. I voted absentee the 4 years I was away at UMASS and couldn't vote at my polling place.
The GOP-run legislature actually passed the "no-excuse" absentee option last fall (effective for the spring 2020 primary for the first time), which sure as hell shocked the hell out of me and I jumped on the option right away due to coronavirus... And that same GOP had no problem with their law's language until 45 had a problem with it.
Am thinking that "no excuse absentee" seemed to be a "compromise term" between "absentee (requiring an excuse)" and full "vote by mail" in the sense that NJ or Oregon or other states have implemented where the state actually mails out ballots to EVERY registered voter without a voter's need to request it (where in PA you have to apply for either type).
And with respect to PennDOT and registrations - I think those charges came about with that big highway infrastructure package (Act 89) that included the increases in the gasoline tax, licenses, registrations, etc. So they are going to get their money no matter how they provide you the document.
I'm just glad they got rid of the sticker and will let you do 2-year registrations (which is what I did).
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)And everything you say makes sense to me. Except, the absentee ballot thing is still a bit of a mystery. I often used it in the past because the Rs at my polling place are annoyingly aggressive.
But, once they'd instituted the no-excuse-necessary mail in ballot, I can't see why it matters to have a different ballot just to declare, "I would vote in person if I could, but I can't, so I'm mailing this in because ~insert excuse here~."
My thought was that maybe, if no-excuse mail-in ballots seemed to get too many D votes in, the Rs might want to get rid of it, but would still keep the old "what's your excuse?" absentee mail-in ballots.
As for PennDOT charging for dupe dox--i knew once I'd downloaded the .pdf that I'd just need to save it in a logical place so I could find it in case I ever needed to print a new copy. But I did actually have a tiny little suspicion that they had rigged it somehow to stop me printing more copies!
BumRushDaShow
(127,257 posts)because I know for a number of years, I would always bring it up during the telephone town halls that my (D) State Senator would have and he would always seem to throw up his hands regarding any "reform".
What you say makes sense regarding ditching the regular absentees, however the GOP operates on "technicalities" and I don't think they wanted to do any "early voting" (in person or otherwise), but I expect that there may have been some push from their older and rural constituents to offer some kind of "no excuse" mail-in, where a compromise would be to "offer the option" to apply for it but not "assume" and mail a ballot to every household.
Of course back when they drafted and passed this, no one expected this pandemic to come roaring in and then get politicized.
And with respect to the registrations, I always ordered 3 of them and I last got the heavy paper ones with tear-offs mailed to me last year, so I haven't run into the PDF copy thing since mine are good until 2021... But I have run into that with my car insurance, which was a bug-out, because I have to print it and carefully cut it out to put in my wallet.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)Not that you can trust him to get anything right, but you know the one about the broken clock...
BumRushDaShow
(127,257 posts)Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)Who's going to drag him out of there?
dware
(12,092 posts)then he will be removed by the Secret Service, US Marshals Service, or a combination of both, how he goes will be up to him, but leave he will.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)I want to believe this country has wised up enough to evict him. But I'm still working on "cautiously optimistic"!
dware
(12,092 posts)down big time.
The vast majority of my trucking friends are R's and they are mostly voting for Joe Biden because of the way the Mango Menace has screwed over our livelihood, we are PISSED and are voting accordingly.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)the Mango Menace for the disaster he is! Nothing would please me more than to see him go down in flames. We shall see...
I'm not really sure what this emoji is, but somehow I'm sure it applies to Pissolini.
dware
(12,092 posts)You now owe me a new laptop, I just spit orange juice all over my screen laughing.
I am so stealing this.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)good ole days when the "Piss Tape" was one of the biggest of his scandals. I still think it's a great name for him.
(Sorry about the OJ incident, though. 😱 )
ailsagirl
(22,837 posts)BobTheSubgenius
(11,535 posts)0 and 36?