Election integrity and the transfer of power

[Grifman]

“When asked if there was a “West-Wing” like contingency plan for Republican leaders if Trump did something radical in the coming days, the senior Senate GOP aide was coy.

“I can’t really talk about that,” he said. “It’s not something I can really get into.”

But when pressed, he offered the following: “It’s all hypothetical, but if they do what Jason Miller was talking about you’ll see a lot of people” — he paused for a moment — “not agreeing.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/0 ... ats-433910

[Smoove_B]

https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1 ... 1081062400

BREAKING: USPS fails to meet deadline set by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to sweep facilities and immediately deliver remaining mail ballots. As of this week, USPS said there were some 300,000 ballots that lacked a delivery scan

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Seems like a pretty obvious ploy by DeJoy: say they can’t deliver the ballots today and then makes the courts decide whether they should be counted. Unfortunately, they’ll probably side with him. Maybe Judge Sullivan can toss him in jail for contempt of court?

[Isgrimnur]

I look forward to seeing the judge's completely ineffectual punishment for this failure.

[Alefroth]

https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1 ... 1081062400

BREAKING: USPS fails to meet deadline set by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to sweep facilities and immediately deliver remaining mail ballots. As of this week, USPS said there were some 300,000 ballots that lacked a delivery scan

They've still got 6+ hours. I hope they didn't just give up.

[malchior]

They are claiming they don't have the "manpower" to comply with the order. And that it takes people away from important election day activities. I want to say I'm not surprised. Hopefully it won't matter.

[Zaxxon]

They are claiming they don't have the "manpower" to comply with the order. And that it takes people away from important election day activities. I want to say I'm not surprised. Hopefully it won't matter.

I'm confused as to what could possibly be more important an election day activity than delivering ballots.

[malchior]

They are claiming they don't have the "manpower" to comply with the order. And that it takes people away from important election day activities. I want to say I'm not surprised. Hopefully it won't matter.

I'm confused as to what could possibly be more important an election day activity than delivering ballots.

They are complaining about the short notice but that was my first thought. I actually expected this. The problem with an order like this is they can cite all kinds of operational problems and at whatever cut off tonight it is all moot anyway. In our insane system, it is just easier to get away with breaking the rules. There are no consequences.

[Enough]

So the USPS can just ignore a judge's order and say they will stick to their own methods? Yeah, definitely not normal and concerning to say the least. Little Raven, assuage my fears and tell me this is normal.

[malchior]

So the USPS can just ignore a judge's order and say they will stick to their own methods? Yeah, definitely not normal and concerning to say the least. Little Raven, assuage my fears and tell me this is normal.

The DOJ interceded and said they were not going to comply since their normal process would handle it. Their normal process in some states will potentially find the missing ballots after the cut off. There is no reading other than they just said, "nope" to a court order.

The judge has ordered them to appear and explain tomorrow....but by then the damage is already done. I'm sure they are shaking in their jack boots.

Edit: There is a potentially positive reading here though - the USPS implied that they complied with previous orders so there was no need to do more. Sullivan set up data collection. They might show that the issues were cured. If so, then they were just being a little 'unruly' but in the end it didn't matter much.

https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1 ... 8625849344

[Enough]

Christ, that's some banana republic shit.

[Isgrimnur]

It's not like timely vote delivery is a constitutional right.

[stessier]

Quick update as we're cleaning up, if in reading our printouts right, v Trump won this precinct 4:1.

[Unagi]

bummer, thanks for your work.

[stessier]

So that was an interesting day.

It started when I arrived at the site about 5:45am. The chaos from the night before left me a bit hesitant about what the day would be like and it didn't start off great with the clerk still a bit harried. (By the end of the day, I realized this is just how he is.) We had to go around and finish setting up the 18 ballot marking devices and then set up 8 e-tablet check in devices. We also had to print out the four Zero Tapes (showing the scanners had zero votes for all races -2 tapes per scanner x 2 scanners) and get 28 people to sign them. We had to sign our timesheet (we get paid $160!) and then take our Constitution Oath and Poll Manager Oath and then sign that as well. At 7am sharp, the clerk went into the hall and announced "The polls are open!" and we were off and running.

I should probably backtrack a bit. The polling place was in a grammar school gym on a high school sized basketball court. We had people entering one door and then leaving out a door on the opposite side of the gym. The gym was at then end of a 200' long corridor in the school that people entered from directly outside. The line when I arrived at 5:45am was already out that door. I heard when we started, the line wrapped around the school. It was 33F at 7am.

The check-in tablets were connected to the county voter registration database via two Verizon wireless hotspots. As soon as we started checking in voters, one of the tablets wouldn't connect. At one point around 7:30am, we had 5 of the 8 unable to connect. This was Defcon 1 with people on phones and county reps trying to figure out what was going on. Fortunately, by 8am, things seemed to have been fixed and the tablets stayed up for the rest of the day.

My job was to direct voters from the check-in area to the ballot marking machines, be sure they insert their ballots correctly, and then instruct them to proceed to the scanners when they were done to actually cast their ballot. I estimate I said the following right around 700 times over the 12 hours "Okay, take the ballot just like you are holding it and insert it into the green arrows. When you are finished, that ballot is going to come back out. Look at what is printed on it to be sure it matches your selections then follow this black line to the scanners at the end of the aisle to actually cast your ballot. You can use the q-tip to touch the screen to make your selections." My voice is shot today. There were 8 ballot marking devices between the court's endline and midcourt and that is where I spent almost the entire day - I had 10k steps when I went to bed.

The instructions seem simple, but the complicating factor is that we are never allowed to touch a voter's ballot. So they have this sheet of paper that has to go into a slot in a specific way and we can't help them turn it correctly. The paper has one corner cut off and pictures showing how to insert it, but it's a lot to take in for someone who's never done it before. I had many people cycle through all possible orientations with me going "No - twist it, turn it, flip it over - yes!" The other issue is that the slot for the green arrows are apparently ambiguous about where the slot is - many people tried jamming the paper into a gap in the machine case. Once the ballot was in, we stepped away and were on to helping the next voter.

After everything got up and running, the morning flew by until lunch at 11:30am. From 7-8 I was checking my watch every few minutes. From 8-11:30, I never checked it once - it was a constant flow of people. I heard from the managers assigned to walk the line and get people into order that the people at the end of the line at 7am took 2 hours to vote. By 10am, the wait was around 50 minutes. By 11:30 when I got lunch, the line was 12 people long. By noon, there was no line - and there never would be for the rest of the day. We had 1700 votes cast by lunch and ended the day with just under 2700.

After lunch, I spent about an hour at one of the tablets checking in voters. The software was nice and the process was pretty simple - ask a voter for one of the five approved forms of picture ID. Verify the document wasn't expired and that the picture matched (with the instruction that we would really only question it if the race was obviously different). Then ask the voter to confirm their address and date of birth. We then printed out their blank ballot (meaning the header of the date of the election and polling place was printed) and gave them q-tip and sent them on their way. I only helped about a dozen people over the course of my hour and didn't have any issues.

Many issues did arise over the course of the day, though. If someone didn't have a picture ID, if their address was different than what was in the system, or if they didn't appear in the system at all, they were sent to the Resolution table. That was where the Clerk and his assistants hung out. They had to decide what the root of the problem was and give the voter their options. For example, if the voter moved but hadn't updated their address with Voter Registration, they could cast a provisional ballot. They would then have to go to a hearing on Friday in County Square (downtown). Before that hearing, they would have to update their registration (by going to the DMV or County Board). If they got the work done, the hearing would decide to count the ballot. If they didn't, the ballot wouldn't be counted. A number of people had that issue. Maybe a handful had registered to vote after Oct 3 and so were ineligible to vote in this election - those were more miffed but seemed to understand when they left why they couldn't vote. I was glad that job was left to the Clerks - it was very technical and had the potential for dealing with unhappy people.

We kept waiting for the dinner time rush and it never materialized. By 6:30pm, it was clear it wasn't coming and we started doing some clean up and organizing - taking down signs, counting uncast ballots, etc. Our last voter came in at 6:50pm and at 7pm, the Clerk announced the polls were closed and clean up began in earnest. We had everything unplugged and packed by 7:30pm and then we sat and waited...and waited. The Clerk has to reconcile the number of paper ballots we started the day with versus those issued + the number run through the scanner + the number spoiled (ruined in some way and discarded) + loose blank ballots. The math wasn't adding up. The blank ballots come in packs of 100. When you open the pack, you have to count how many are actually in it and it varies from 99-101 (because of course this is something you want to have variation in). Every Check-In station gets a pack, so we start with 800 loose ballots. The goal is to have very few loose at the end of the day, but best laid plans... I don't envy the guys trying to make it match. Somehow, they got it all sorted out by 8:15 and at 8:20 we all got to go home.

A few other anecdotes from notes I took through the day:

• My voice was shot by the end of the day and I was really dehydrated from all the talking with the mask on (and not drinking, which was mostly on me).
• We could not require masks and I would guess maybe around 70% were wearing them. Not always correctly, but I was happy with any usage.
• One guy I took to the Ballot Marking Device was listening to my instructions when he pulled up the bottom of his mask so he could suck on a cut on his index finger. My brain still can't wrap itself around that.
• We did have Poll Watchers. One from the Republican Party came in early in the morning, left, and came back around mid afternoon and left by 5pm. I never spoke with him and he spent most of the time texting or scrolling on his phone. The Democratic Party monitor arrived after she got off work around 1:30pm and actually stayed and helped us clean up. I spoke with her a fair amount - she was very nice and thought we did well with our flow. She mostly paid attention to the Resolution Table and got the Clerk to explain every time someone was sent away without voting or cast a Provisional Ballot.
• No election materials are allowed within 200' of the polling place. We didn't see any inside and I figured everyone was just well behaved - and for the most part, they were. But I heard later from the managers who were policing the line that they had to tell around a dozen people that they had to remove masks or t-shirts for political speech reasons. Most were MAGA things. Only two people got upset because they asked if BLM would get the same treatment and per County rules it would not because that organization is not party specific. They made a pretty big stink about that, but we never heard anything inside the room.
• If a voter had a question while marking the ballot, two Poll Managers have to go over and help them out. I like the system but during busy times it did cause delays in finding someone who was free to help me talk to someone. The concept looked so nice and smooth in the training videos.
• I now know that I can maintain a cheerful and helpful exterior while I am absolutely dying inside - I helped sooooooo many people correctly vote for Trump.
• The ballots need to be clearer or we need people to take more responsibility to learn about how to vote before they come. When the ballot loads, the first option is straight party line vote. There is a Next button on the bottom of the screen, but nothing saying you don't HAVE to make a selection. This caused all sorts of headaches throughout the day. There's also nothing that says you don't HAVE to make a selection for every race and the vote will still count. That answer was easier to give, but it still is confusion that seems like it could be avoided with a simple instruction on each screen.
• Language barriers - they exist and they make voting unfair (imo). I can't communicate with the voter and they can't read what's on the screen. There are some people I really have no idea if they know who they voted for (less than 10, but still).
• There was one woman who just could not get her ballot to print out - it kept coming out blank - four times in a row! We kept going over to help her but she (quite fairly) didn't want us looking at the screen so we were only able to answer exactly what she asked - and she was asking the wrong things (and there was a bit of a language barrier, but not too bad). We finally figured out that she had made a straight party selection on the first screen which marked all those candidates on all the subsequent screens (you still have to go through all 15 screens). Well, when she was going through those races, she was selecting her candidates again - which removed the check marks and her vote! So she got to the end with a blank ballot. Once we made her realize this, she was done in 3 minutes.
• One of the assistant clerks also handled our Curbside Voting. Every 15 minutes, she had to go check for voters. At 5pm, she went out with 3 ballots and it looked like she was going to an Ebola outbreak. We later learned that there was a car with three Covid patients. We really appreciated they didn't try to come in to vote. The assistant clerk changed as much clothing as she could when she got back and practically bathed in Purell. Hopefully she'll be fine.

So that was the day. I was dead by the time I got home - my legs and feet haven't been that sore since I ran my last marathon. I really liked being able to help people and the insight I got into how voting works. I have a lot more confidence in the safeguards around the casting and counting of the ballots (although the engineer in me couldn't help musing during the slow times about how I'd attack the system). The quality of the poll workers was really great - everyone just wanted to make sure people got the chance to vote and that their ballots reflected their wishes. I recommend anyone who has the interest and opportunity to try it once.

[The Meal]

Amazing write-up! Thank you for spending your day doing this (sweet $160 !!) and especially for telling us all about it.

[Blackhawk]

• My voice was shot by the end of the day and I was really dehydrated from all the talking with the mask on (and not drinking, which was mostly on me).

Bring Ricola cough drops! Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa syrup is better, but harder to find (Amazon has it, but that requires knowing in advance you'll need it.)

When I went back to GMing pen-and-paper RPGs after my cancer/throat radiation, I found that my voice gave out much more quickly than it used to and spent some time researching what professional voice actors use when they have to perform for hours on end. Those two solutions were both popular. If it gets really bad (and you don't have the syrup), crush a couple of Ricola into a cup, pour in boiling water, and stir. Some singers use that particular trick during concerts.

[wonderpug]

everyone just wanted to make sure people got the chance to vote and that their ballots reflected their wishes.

Around half of the country thinks that’s a wonderful sentiment!

[RunningMn9]

I am still trying to figure out how I am going to be able to not punch these people squarely in the face, let alone speak to them in a civil tone.

Nearly 50% of the country looked at this shit show over the past four years and stepped over probably 300k dead Americans to say “Yes, this is what I want, give me more of this.”

I cannot process this.

[Unagi]

I am still trying to figure out how I am going to be able to not punch these people squarely in the face, let alone speak to them in a civil tone.

Nearly 50% of the country looked at this shit show over the past four years and stepped over probably 300k dead Americans to say “Yes, this is what I want, give me more of this.”

I cannot process this.

This is where I am at.

This country is half filled with selfish, inhumane total garbage people.


How is this the same country that came out in such great force and numbers for Obama, or even if you want to just say 'the idea of Obama'. Where in the FUCK did all those people go? How are those same people not coming out in the same numbers to reject this fucking piece of shit President and Senate. How is this even possible, I mean it? WHERE ARE THOSE VOTERS ?

[malchior]

Let's put this in perspective. When the counting is done Biden is going to be up probably 52-48% *at least* so yes a lot of people accept this and that sucks. The reality is many more people voted against it but this untenable system is silencing the majority. We're in for rough, rough years. And I don't mean us. Many of us will still have great jobs, live in good communities, but we will have to witness abject depravity and be helpless to stop it.

[wonderpug]

I am still trying to figure out how I am going to be able to not punch these people squarely in the face, let alone speak to them in a civil tone.

Nearly 50% of the country looked at this shit show over the past four years and stepped over probably 300k dead Americans to say “Yes, this is what I want, give me more of this.”

I cannot process this.

This is where I am at.

This country is half filled with selfish, inhumane total garbage people.

I think a significant percentage of Trump voters don't realize they're voting for a monster. I've lost the link, but I read something earlier this morning that showed a lot of Trump voters don't actually know where he stands on policies. I'm going off of memory, but I think it said something like 80% of the Republicans who are in favor of a national mask mandate think that Trump is also in favor of one.

So if you're looking for a thread of hope to cling to, don't forget that a huge chunk of these voters are being directly and intentionally misled by Trump and the Republican party. They literally don't understand what they're voting for.

[Blackhawk]

"I always vote Republican, because that's who Paul always voted for."

My grandmother, referencing her late husband, 20 years gone. Also, the moment, decades past, that I realized that politics aren't rational.

[Smoove_B]

Yes. I have a septuagenarian aunt here in Jerz that was voting Biden all summer, but last week decided to vote for Trump. Why? Because of socialism and taxes. She hasn't left her house since March (other than for food) or seen her grand kids, but Joe Biden's socialism scared her more. She's deeply Catholic (more than just about anyone I know), but she just couldn't bring herself to vote for Biden over money. It's NJ so it didn't matter, but I suspect she's not alone in her rationale. It's beyond disgusting and I'm ashamed for her.

[Smoove_B]

https://twitter.com/LiamWBZ/status/1324007227582259200

In South Florida, the USPS failed to deliver ~27 percent of the mail ballots.

[noxiousdog]

FWIW: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dppad/ ... s-it-seems

But there is, in fact, a good reason for hundreds of thousands of ballots not being scanned for delivery. As the USPS repeatedly stated in its daily filings with the court on delivery statistics, "Defendants maintain that the data possesses little to no analytical value and should not be considered a reliable indicator of performance." Indeed, the USPS has been intentionally making its performance look worse than it is by removing ballots from the normal sorting and delivery process to deliver ballots faster.

[LordMortis]

Yes. I have a septuagenarian aunt here in Jerz that was voting Biden all summer, but last week decided to vote for Trump. Why? Because of socialism and taxes.

This and they believe that Biden will destroy medical care just Obama did. They don't need to be old to hold this to be true. Also for reasons I've yet to filter and understand, if Trump dies they get Pence (which they see as a net positive from Trump and that is as scary of a revelation for me as anything has been in the last six months), if Biden dies they get Harris ("Herrr... Kama-laa" as they say). I don't know if that is the woman factor (which comes just as much from women as it does men) or something else but she is on a GOP voter shitlist that sure does only seem to be reserved for women. She's there as a named enemy with Pelosi, Clinton, AOC, and Whitmer among others. You can hear the disdain and mockery when they say her name.

[Little Raven]

The big Trump supporter in my gaming group was explaining to me last night that if Biden wins, the Democrats will immediately declare him unfit for office under the 25th Amendment and install Harris as President. (because she's who the Democrats really wanted all along...nevermind that she got utterly spanked in the primary!) And while she's mostly ok with Biden, whom she sees as old but inoffensive, she haaaaaates Harris with an undying passion. I'm not quite sure what Harris did to so thoroughly tick off a girl living in North Dakota who appears to pay minimal attention to politics outside of Facebook, but daaaamn. I was impressed at the vitriol.

People be whack, yo.

[$iljanus]

The big Trump supporter in my gaming group was explaining to me last night that if Biden wins, the Democrats will immediately declare him unfit for office under the 25th Amendment and install Harris as President. (because she's who the Democrats really wanted all along...nevermind that she got utterly spanked in the primary!) And while she's mostly ok with Biden, whom she sees as old but inoffensive, she haaaaaates Harris with an undying passion. I'm not quite sure what Harris did to so thoroughly tick off a girl living in North Dakota who appears to pay minimal attention to politics outside of Facebook, but daaaamn. I was impressed at the vitriol.

People be whack, yo.

I can only guess at a person's motivations but perhaps she just doesn't like uppity black socialists?

[RunningMn9]

Many of us will still have great jobs, live in good communities, but we will have to witness abject depravity and be helpless to stop it.

Yes, this. At the end of the day, as a middle-aged white man, I know I’ll be fine. And that’s the fucking problem.

Sure it sucks to witness depravity and be helpless to stop it - but the fact that I don’t even have to concern myself with feeling the depravity is why we are here.

That’s what allows these people to continue saying “yes, more of this, because those people are eating this shit sandwich and I’m cool with that.”

[Little Raven]

I can only guess at a person's motivations but perhaps she just doesn't like uppity black socialists?

Well, I don't have a window into her head, but she doesn't present as Stormfront. She's a 1st year accountant barely out of college. If she's hiding her power level she's doing a stunning job of it.

I should note that after explaining to me how the DNC was going to steal the Presidency for Harris, (to which I expressed a certain degree of skepticism) she explained that powerful groups do this sort of thing all the time. For instance, did you know that scientists developed an engine that would get well over a hundred miles to the gallon, but oil companies squashed it because it would reduce their revenue streams.

And I realize at this point that it's easy to say "Ah...she's just stupid." But....I don't think she actually IS, or at least, no more stupid than most people. She graduated college with good grades. She pumps out complex Excel macros with admirable speed, and seems to be doing well at her job. She's very young and somewhat ignorant in my opinion, but then I thought Biden was going to win in a blowout, so what the fuck do I know about anything?

[noxiousdog]

For instance, did you know that scientists developed an engine that would get well over a hundred miles to the gallon, but oil companies squashed it because it would reduce their revenue streams.

Huh. My best friend from high school went with that one too. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has experienced it.

[LordMortis]

For instance, did you know that scientists developed an engine that would get well over a hundred miles to the gallon, but oil companies squashed it because it would reduce their revenue streams.

Huh. My best friend from high school went with that one too. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has experienced it.

GG and maybe even early OO used to make such claims and point to "Who killed the Electric Vehicle". The truth was then and remains, the auto industry will build the cars that people will buy for which they can claim the biggest market share with the most profit. What is is different now, than 25 years ago, is that the people will buy EVs. Now it remains to be seen if the old industry is "agile" enough to compete with the small market manufacturers who could pick up that growing niche. The old guard has literally had 20 years since hybrids and their tax credits proved there was a market and it has yet to make proper accommodation. IMO, Ford's partnership with Rivian is closest, but at the end of the day Rivian is still not Ford.

[MHS]

I can only guess at a person's motivations but perhaps she just doesn't like uppity black socialists?

Well, I don't have a window into her head, but she doesn't present as Stormfront. She's a 1st year accountant barely out of college. If she's hiding her power level she's doing a stunning job of it.

I should note that after explaining to me how the DNC was going to steal the Presidency for Harris, (to which I expressed a certain degree of skepticism) she explained that powerful groups do this sort of thing all the time. For instance, did you know that scientists developed an engine that would get well over a hundred miles to the gallon, but oil companies squashed it because it would reduce their revenue streams.

And I realize at this point that it's easy to say "Ah...she's just stupid." But....I don't think she actually IS, or at least, no more stupid than most people. She graduated college with good grades. She pumps out complex Excel macros with admirable speed, and seems to be doing well at her job. She's very young and somewhat ignorant in my opinion, but then I thought Biden was going to win in a blowout, so what the fuck do I know about anything?

Having grown up in North Dakota, I can tell you it's just a level of small thinking that they don't really ever outgrow. I'm going to have to unfriend 80% of my HS friends *if* I go back to Facebook, which I nuked last night. I know plenty of very smart people there who never developed critical thinking skills. I used to think it was because everyone there is the same: decent education at least through high school graduation, white, and in very isolated and insular communities of other white Lutherans. But there's actually been a huge influx of immigrants, at least to the larger towns like Fargo, Bismarck, and Minot, so you'd think exposure to that would expand their minds, but it doesn't. They still believe the whole "immigrants get free everything including cars" even though they can literally see their immigrant neighbors NOT getting those things.

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

[Skinypupy]

I'm going to have to unfriend 80% of my HS friends *if* I go back to Facebook, which I nuked last night.

(I totally get it, but still...)

[Grifman]

“Downfall” meme FTW:

https://twitter.com/rexchapman/status/1 ... 84608?s=21

[Grifman]

https://twitter.com/PattersonNBC/status ... 03778?s=20

[Little Raven]

Idiots. Count the votes. All the votes.

[malchior]

Ah another Brooks Bros riot. This is completely "spontaneous". I see that the GOP is dusting off the Bush v. Gore playbook.

[LordMortis]

I'm going to have to unfriend 80% of my HS friends *if* I go back to Facebook, which I nuked last night.

Welcome to self exile. I miss FB still not enough to go back. I blocked a lot before I left but there were some complex interwoven relationships to insanity, like Clinton controls mailin ballots and the AMA and FDA are preventing hydrachocroqet from treating COVID insanity (amiright Zaxxon and RM9?) that caused me to self exile, rather setting off a series of events that would lead to the destruction of other close friendships that I was unwilling to terminate.

After these last 36 hours or so, I'm not sure if I'm going back. The ugly face of my nation is waiting to stare me in the eye there and I hate making eye contact. I miss when FB was 100% social for me and I also am at a point where I can no longer divorce politics from social media and can lose my ability to be respectful too easily, and the I threw out my bath water with the babies.

At least I won't miss you on FB any more, right?