The Cumulative Effects of Various Forms of Voter Suppression

I've been waving the red flag for a while now about how, since the primaries, the signs have been there for massive voter suppression in the November Presidential, Senate, and House elections. Well... More evidence is coming in to support it

Now, we really need to think about the cumulative effect of the "little" challenges we'll have with voting in November and the efforts being made to discredit mail-in voting, reduce the number of polling stations, and, we're finding out now, efforts to SLOW mail down and "leave it behind."

Check the links, read them, see what you think...

1. The president (and those around him) discredits mail in / absentee voting - if he loses because of those, "it's a sham election." He has been saying that for weeks, because of pushes to EXPAND absentee voting during increases cases of the virus. More people with access to absentee voting = more HONEST voting = closer to a popular vote, which he lost in 2016.

2. Close the number of polling stations - Reduce poling stations in areas known to lean Democratic in swing states. Net result = more likely for the state to land Republican when you take out mail in / absentee votes.

3. Slow down mail / "leave behind" mail - So, in different areas, how are absentee votes counted? Is it based on post mark or Received by dated? It may depend on the region, BUT when going through the articles for my post below, some of them were talking about received by. If the new USPS Chief appointed by the President is going to enact changes, which will, in effect, slow mail down, think about this - what if we look at zip codes? Which zip codes are more likely to vote Democrat or Republican? What if Democrat zip codes are slowed down just enough, so a higher percent miss the cut off, while more Republican zip codes do not? This could be "nudged" simply because, "oh, it's their distance from the local post office" or regional dispatch. There are any number of reasons to excuse it.

4. Lawsuits - don't forget as well that there are a number of lawsuits going on to make mail-in / absentee voting even more complicated! Needing to have your mail-in vote witnessed... Some people are suing to be able to mail-in-vote at all (safety)...  Well, all you have to do is search on mail in voting lawsuits and you'll find hundreds of articles - just avoid partisan web sites and there's some good reading.

This is just FOUR things - pre-contest, restrict voting in places which would be more likely to vote you out, "slow down" the ability for people to vote you out, restrict mail-in / absentee voting. You get the idea!

The cumulative effect of all of this is to take a substantial lead Biden has over Trump on election day and hack away at it through tricks, not a fair election. Long lines, limited polling stations, slow mail... And, if it comes down to waiting for absentee votes which may be in transit - how long to wait until BIDEN is in a position where he has to either contest the election himself or bow out?

Do we want a free and fair election, where the PEOPLE choose the president, or do we want corrupt politicians to rig the "game" and choose for us? I'm sorry, but I'd be FURIOUS if a Democrat OR a Republican was pulling this same thing. Everyone has said the system is rigged for how long? Well, someone these guys are hitting the game with both palms and the machine hasn't started flashing TILT TILT TILT yet. It's time...

I can guarantee that the 2020 primaries and 2020 presidential election WILL lead to law changes - it's just a matter of whether they will be able to be enacted in 2021.... or 2025.

DO NOT REWARD CHEATING - DEMAND FAIR PLAY!!!

About me - Data analyst by day, so I'm used to looking at up to millions of lines of data at a time... Looking for the "ghosts" in the data. Also a long history of working in supply chain / logistics and process improvement / management. I look at everything going on from the 30,000 foot view, dig into the details, processes, what's going on behind what people are saying, and what, perhaps, could be done in the best case / worst case situation.

It's kind of funny what "logistics" can do to screw up an election, just like lines on a map can impact how people vote - polling stations, allocation of supplies, etc... Slow this down, shorten this, give more to the "right" areas, and you can subtly pre-skew how the results will come out in various areas comprising zips, counties, and states. It's not playing the odds... it's rigging them. We don't want anyone to do this from either party for any reason. We don't want anyone to decide who is "worthy" to vote or whose vote is more important. That is not democracy - it's a farce.

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/07/15/postal-service-slower-mail-delivery
https://www.postaltimes.com/postalnews/postal-service-memos-detail-difficult-changes-including-slower-mail-delivery/
https://www.businessinsider.com/postmaster-general-carriers-leave-mail-delays-routes-usps-postal-service-2020-7
https://www.newsbreak.com/new-york/new-york/news/0PcIUH6p/disturbing-memo-reveals-trumps-usps-chief-has-slowed-delivery-amid-calls-to-expand-voting-by-mail
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/01/865043618/need-a-witness-for-your-mail-in-ballot-new-pandemic-lawsuits-challenge-old-rules
https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/06/22/splc-lawsuit-challenges-louisiana-vote-mail-restrictions-during-pandemic

Voter Suppression Issues I was talking about in June on Social Media - Just a copy and paste with links...

Do we see the writing on the wall for November? Right now, the Rep's are working to maintain their hold on the Senate. Believe what you will about the left or right, voter suppression is WRONG. If both sides are doing it (we know it happens), it should stop. Below, we're seeing how areas are targeted by closing polling locations. Limit the number of votes that can be cast, limit people who are willing to brave the pandemic, and wait out the clock.

So, southern states, how do you justify closing down polling locations in heavily African American communities, meanwhile making it difficult to do mail-in voting and/or claim that mail-in is rife with fraud?

We can't allow this to continue NOW, and certainly not heading into November.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-locations/southern-us-states-have-closed-1200-polling-places-in-recent-years-rights-group-idUSKCN1VV09J <-- 1200="" dramatically="" has="" in="" jumped="" p="" recent="" the="" weeks.="">
Georgia - 868 voting locations were closed across the state, "usually in areas with poor people and minority communities that have less resources to get to other locations..." The voting locations are in 53 of the 159 GA counties. "Of the counties that have closed voting locations, 39 have poverty rates that are higher than the state average. Thirty have significant African-American populations, making up at least 25 percent of residents." Voter suppression? The long lines in the counties impacted and other complications certainly indicate a concerted effort to keep some peoples voices "less" heard, doesn't it?

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/voting-precincts-closed-across-georgia-since-election-oversight-lifted/bBkHxptlim0Gp9pKu7dfrN/
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/09/873054620/long-lines-voting-machine-issues-plague-georgia-primary
https://www.governing.com/topics/politics/sl-polling-place-close-ahead-of-november-elections-black-voters.html

Kentucky - Kentucky cut the total number of polling places in the state from 3700 down to 200. In some of the most populous counties, there's ONE polling location per county.

Jefferson County, Kentucky, population 766k, has ONE polling location. The absentee ballot period has passed for people to request them... “We mailed out just under 55,000 ballots. We had to get everything done that had been requested through application, process return, or through the portal, they had to be mailed out before midnight last night," and that was on the 17th. FYI, two of the cities with the largest African American populations are in Jefferson County. It's kind of funny that it's Mitch McConnell's city (when he was a county judge back in the day), but he would do his best to suppress the vote of that county when it comes down to it...  You cut voting locations at the last minute and the mail-in voting cut-offs (application period) has passed. The process appears that it was complicated to begin with as well. Interesting...

https://wfpl.org/judge-rules-against-lawsuit-calling-for-more-kentucky-polling-places/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/06/kentucky-slashes-polling-places-voting-rights-mcgrath-booker-lebron-james/
https://lebronwire.usatoday.com/2020/06/20/lebron-james-criticizes-kentucky-for-closing-of-polling-places/
https://www.wsaz.com/content/news/Limited-voting-locations-for-Kentucky-counties-571277101.html
https://news.yahoo.com/kentucky-officials-criticized-cuts-primary-204804279.html

"If it doesn't fit, get a bigger hammer" or “Don't force it, get a bigger hammer”

I can't figure out if the president is trying to channel his inner German, Tim the Tool Man Taylor, or Arthur Bloch... Regardless, the idea that he's telling the governors of the US to use MORE force, be more dominating in their approach to leadership, that they're weak and that they're "going to look like a bunch of jerks" if they don't "dominate" the situation, while his press secretary says, on his behalf, "what stops anarchy is action," is the complete wrong message.

In a time like this, when frustration is justly high, it's a message of empathy, sympathy, unity - SOMETHING to bring us together - that will help.

Instead, he's instructing governors to call in the national guard, use more force, arrest, and jail for up to ten years. That will end everything in his mind.

Meanwhile, we have the family of George Floyd calling out for Peace. Continue to protest the injustices, but do not riot and destroy.

We have our last president saying to protest, but not riot and destroy, and to remember that change comes in the ballot box.

True leaders unite and see what they can do to fix problems - they don't stoke the flames.

Our current president, as reporter Jim Acosta put it a few days ago, "is a president at times as we know who likes to light the match, set the fire, and then run away from the flames."

As people die from COVID-19, he's safe as everyone around him gets tested regularly. He can flaunt not wearing a mask, encouraging others not to as well.

As people protest, demanding justice, he demands force is used against men and women, as he is secure in his bunker without fear of harm.

Color blindness should not be color indifference

Right now, I could be writing this from anywhere in the country, inside or outside, in a restaurant, or loitering, hanging out on a boardwalk, and no one would blink. In fact, I’m usually ignored to the point that you’d think I’m invisible (couple of stories there). I never thought much of it aside from the humor… Not until the last week.

I was raised color blind. I am thankful to my father for that. In the military, shoulder to shoulder with other soldiers, starting in Vietnam, it was about your fellow man for him, not about the color of their skin. For me, I was raised on military bases, which were always a melting pot. No one told me someone was this or that. To go 80’s on it, “people are people, so why should it be? You and I should get along so awfully…”

As I got older, I entered the workforce while I lived on a military base, still a melting pot, working around men and women, but I never gave much thought to color, nor gender – just the work. Good work was good work, bad work was bad work. That stuck with me when I moved into Corporate America and the world moved into being more PC and we really had to mind our P’s and Q’s. But, I was looking at people as people, not male or female, their cultural background, or whatever. I just cared if they could do the job, compose an email at above a 4^th grade reading level, and follow processes.

I’m not saying this to toot my own horn…

What I missed somewhere along the way is that there is a difference between color blindness and color indifference.

In the early 00’s, there was a crackdown on, let’s call it, indecent usage of the internet. Before that time, I let it be known, “don’t send that $%#@ to me,” when it was circulating. When guys would say things about women on the clock when I was younger, I wouldn’t say anything. It would make me uncomfortable, but I would just walk away, shrug it off, or mumble nonsense. I didn’t stop it.

I’ve realized now that I’ve done the same thing with racial intolerance. People have said things to me… “around” me over the years. Despite doing MY best to treat everyone equally, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, sexual preference, gender assignment, or physical ability… By not saying something when people say things that, in my heart of hearts, I know to be wrong, I’ve helped to perpetuate intolerance on multiple levels. Don’t get me wrong, some people knew what they said made me uncomfortable, but I didn’t do enough. I know that now.

I have to do better… We have to do better.

To the “where I’m writing this” example… I could be writing this from anywhere, while an African American man could get harassed by a police officer in La Mesa, CA for sitting, doing nothing, waiting for a friend. While I’m “invisible”, others are profiled and targeted for no reason. Is that right?

If I had asked the same lady in the Ramble in Central Park to leash her dog – I’m a geek comic writer / editor just like Christian Cooper – would she have called the cops on me and said I was threatening her? No.

I can’t even imagine with what happened in Minnesota… It’s too horrible. That SHOULD NOT have happened. I have had an experience with a counterfeit $20 bill, but it was such a NON-ISSUE when I was younger. It was given to me as change over twenty years ago and I didn’t catch it, it was noticed when I tried to use it somewhere else. Oops, and it was handed back to me. I believe I ripped it up when I got home. It happened so long ago that the details are fuzzy except the broad strokes – that’s just how little of an impact it made on my life. It was an inconvenience in that I was pissed that I was out $20. I lost $20, while George Floyd lost his life.

Over. Twenty. Dollars.

The racial tension that has built up for decades has only gotten worse in the last five years due to our current political climate, but this shouldn’t be about that. The last five years HAVE shown us, however, live on television – from protests waving Nazi flags to politicians quoting hateful rhetoric – the dirty little secret in America is out in the open… Racism is alive and well.

I think all of our eyes are VERY open today to that fact.

There’s a piece of graffiti that I’m reminded of that someone posted – “Make racists afraid again.”

While I think we all know what, over the last five years, has “uncorked” the rhetoric, it has intensified over the last three. People have come to think it’s okay to say what you want and do what you want to the point that it’s okay to walk into a state’s capitol, armed with AR-15’s and wearing tactical gear, yelling to open up America… As long as you’re white.

It’s okay to loiter, to wander, and get close to chaos… as long as you’re white.

The last week has taught me the true meaning, FINALLY, of white privilege. And, by God, I’m sorry it has taken me this long.

Peaceful protesters were not treated well in recent days by the police – tear gas, rubber bullets, bean bags, and arrests.

White reporters left alone while an African American reporter was arrested. Same general positioning, different response.

Is there some sort of inequity here?

I see that it’s not okay to sit idly by – if you’re in a group and someone says something or does something that is not acceptable, you HAVE to call them out on it. You don’t have to judge them on the past, but if they do something, say something and give them the opportunity to move forward.

The next time something happens that you’re not comfortable with – something said or something done – let them know it’s not okay.

LET’S START TODAY. NOW.

This goes from tossing around derogatory names for different ethnicities to treating people differently or “less than” for any damned reason.

Again, we’re in the middle of a reality check here… I’m shifting my way of thinking. I’m just asking my friends, my family, everyone… please… take the time to think about it and see if you can take this journey with me.

We are all one people, but we do not experience the world the same way.

We can treat each other equally AND celebrate our differences.

When we look to people, and this includes those in power, we need to hold them by the same standards – We can’t allow our leaders to judge others based on race, gender, physical ability, sexual preference, sexual orientation, or identification – they are part of us, but they are not the sum total of what comprises US.

WE the people, not We the people*.

*only if you agree with me.

To everyone:

Extend a hand.

Start to heal.

Make some changes.

#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd