Appeals court allows Texas governor to close multiple ballot drop-off sites

Discussion in 'Coronavirus (COVID-19) News' started by CenterField, Oct 13, 2020.

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  1. CenterField

    CenterField Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    https://www.yahoo.com/news/appeals-court-allows-texas-governor-111038775.html

    Let's be honest, it looks like Texas' Republican governor has a point. It does seem like he INCREASED access to voting. His ONE measure to restrict it was not having multiple collection boxes. I didn't see him defending the rationale behind this one, but maybe it was a safety measure; one is better watched than multiple.

    In any case, everything else he did was in the sense of facilitating the voting, so kudos Mr. Governor Abbott, and may this be a lesson learned for those who react with a knee-jerk, with accusations of voter suppression. While I don't discard that this may become a problem elsewhere, it doesn't look like the Texas government is doing it, at least not as far as I know.
     
  2. LoneStarGal

    LoneStarGal Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Even before the Circuit Court decision, I was having to defend that we seem to have as much or more voting options here in Texas than ever before. I also don't remember there ever being a single "ballot drop off collection box" in the state. "Mail in ballots" are expected to be "mailed in" (USPS). lol

    Oh well. I'm reading that voting lines are extra long today on the first day of early voting, so that's great that more people are excited to vote this year. We might have kept a better and more accountable government for the last half century if more people had gotten off their duffs and gone to vote.
     
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  3. CenterField

    CenterField Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Very true. Seems like the level of enthusiasm this year is big, which is good for democracy and governance.
     
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  4. lemmiwinx

    lemmiwinx Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Hmmm... a single ballot drop-off site means every ballot gets scrutinized by election officials. What a dastardly idea.
     
  5. LoneStarGal

    LoneStarGal Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They are "mail in" absentee ballots though. The choices other than a single non-US-Mail drop off box in a county are 1) any mailbox and 2) walking in to any polling location and handing the ballot to a voting clerk. There are literally as many places to drop the ballots off as there are mail boxes.
     
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  6. LoneStarGal

    LoneStarGal Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Texas is leading the nation in early voting turnout percent of registered voters and leading as a percent of votes cast compared to total votes cast in 2016.

    Apparently the nationwide fake news that Texas was suppressing the vote made people go out and vote, thus proving the fact that it is easy to vote in Texas and there is no suppression. LOL

    In actual fact, the governor made it much easier to vote this year.
     
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  7. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

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    I voted day 1. It took about an hour. Mostly because the voter verification system was slow. I guess it was volume related. But, EVERYONE of all ethnicities and age groups walked up, handed the nice folks a drivers license, and got to vote. That's how it works. And NOONE was left out. It was heartwarming to be a part of....

    On a serious note, turns out that significantly more Texans registered to vote this year, as republicans. Imagine that.
     
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  8. LoneStarGal

    LoneStarGal Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I read that there are about 3 million new registered Texas voters than in 2016 (or was it 2018?) I didn't see the party details, but we're at almost 17 million registered voters now.

    I know I'm not registered with either party, so they don't "assign" my party until I choose whether to get in the "D" or "R" line at each new primary election. I voted for Bernie in the primaries since Trump had no competition, so they have me "listed" as a Democrat this election.

    I voted last Thursday. Got in and out in 10 minutes.
     
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  9. fiddlerdave

    fiddlerdave Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Oh, this is a relief!

    Shutting down hundreds of polling places in Texas apparently magically made it easier to vote!

    Texas apparently has elves fly voters to save the tedius bother of voters driving to polls!

    Texas must not be a very large state, I guess. I am impressed!
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2020
  10. LoneStarGal

    LoneStarGal Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    No polling places were shut down and early voting days were extended.

    In previous years, if you wanted to drop off a mail-in ballot in person, you only had one location and could only hand delivery your ballot on election day. Prior to this election, it was one location and only one day.

    Abbott extended hand delivery of mail-in ballots to all early voting days AND he added a week of early voting days.

    Everything else is pure Democrat Party lies which spread like wildfire because the left wing is not good a fact-checking their own party's propaganda and BS.


    upload_2020-10-19_15-58-27.png

    upload_2020-10-19_15-58-52.png

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/texas-governor-abbott-has-made-it-easier-not-harder-to-vote/
     
  11. fiddlerdave

    fiddlerdave Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Aside from the deficiencies of voting access for polls, the last 8 years has seen 334 voting polls closed, mostly minority areas, something notably ignored in these claims.

    Requiring monority voters to drive much farther, significant issues for low income and elderly voters both in issues of work time and driving costs) is just one more barrier to voting.

    Something that is a trivial issue with wealthier voters whose polls did NOT close.

     
  12. LoneStarGal

    LoneStarGal Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Democrats whined for years, "Texas makes it too hard to vote." Turns out that they just weren't terribly motivated to do more than whine, and then not show up to vote. They've used the excuse, "Texas is a blue state with a voter turnout problem." Isn't that a hoot! LOL

    Texas is leading all 50 states in early voting and in increased turnout over 2016 early voting. Kind of proves that people in Texas from both parties are finding that it is actually pretty darned easy to vote here.

    Anyway, Dems have always said that if turnout were high, they would win Texas. Turnout is exceedingly high, so I guess we'll find out.
     
  13. fiddlerdave

    fiddlerdave Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Texas deletes 350 polling places, most at lower income and minority polls, and Right Wing Trump boosters don't even mentions that!

    Well, its true that despite all the Republican lies, goofy precinct borders and hidden actions to gerrymander voting, actual miserable "proofs" for women who have to get multiple licenses from drunken ex-husbands, a single flaw in 60 yo birth certificates if the certificate is from a hispanic name, and all the other hassles Republicans get to stop voter turnout, it could well be Texas may become a blue state anyway.

    And the Republicans who screwed around all the divorced women, the poor and minority voters are not going to forget that for years to come.
     
  14. LoneStarGal

    LoneStarGal Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    It used to be that Texas voters had to vote at the polling location in their precinct. Several years ago, they closed voting at the elementary school in my precinct which was closest to my house when they made an improvement that voters can go to any polling location in the entire county. That opened up dozens of more convenient options. The school was closer but required a special trip. Now that we can vote anywhere, I drive by two polling locations on my way to work, plus there is a polling location in my grocery store lobby. Countywide voting is much more convenient.
     

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