2020 Elections

[neoplacebo]

Yep, trump is ahead in all REAL polls and the US Treasury is full due to all the money flowing in from China and the GOP has a fabulous health care plan that is cheap and covers everything. Not to mention that Mexico just sent a check for the border wall.

[O Really]

People shouldn't get so freaked out over those "wrong" 2016 polls. National numbers were right on, and the three midwest states that put Trump in office were well within the stated margin of error for the polls, as well as being pretty much a unicorn in a bottle to win all three of them being that close anyway. And last election, for people that wanted something different, Trump was the outsider. Now he's the incumbent and the cause of most all the problems. Last election, a lot of people flat hated Hillary. This year it's Trump generating the hate. More difference than I can name in the elections, yet people keep saying "2016 polls...2016 polls..." Trump's been painted into this image of the bad creature in a horror film that keeps coming back every time you think you've killed him.

[GoCubsGo]

Cawthorne Sounds Racist Dog Whistle in Attack on Journalist

[Vrede too]

Cawthorne Sounds Racist Dog Whistle in Attack on Journalist

I'm so proud of NC11 that I could burst.

How Harris County, Texas, Won The Early Voting Game

On the first day of early voting in Harris County, Texas, on Oct. 13, a single-day record of 128,186 voters turned out to cast ballots. This broke the previous record of 100,005, set on the last day of early voting in 2016.

Then, on the second day of early voting, Harris County voters surpassed 2016’s record again. And again on the third. And yet again on the fourth.

Historically a low-turnout state, Texas now leads the nation in early voting, with more than 6.3 million ballots cast. And Harris County, which includes Houston and its sprawling suburbs, is leading the way, thanks to efforts by local leaders to expand access to voting, even as county and state-level Republicans try to shrink it.

Already, 951,066 Harris County voters have cast ballots either at early in-person polling locations or by absentee ballot. That is 98% of all the early and absentee ballots cast in 2016, and 73% of the total 1.3 million votes in that election. This year’s early votes and absentee ballots are almost certain to eclipse 2016’s vote total before anyone goes to the polls on Nov. 3.

These record-breaking numbers are hugely consequential for the 2020 presidential election. Texas hasn’t seen a competitive presidential race since Bill Clinton was president, and a Democrat hasn’t won the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976. But President Donald Trump’s deep unpopularity in heavily populated urban and inner-ring suburban regions is helping Democratic nominee Joe Biden run almost even with Trump in states like Texas once seen as untouchable to Democrats.

Harris County is exactly the type of region primed to dislike Trump. It boasts a racially diverse population and high levels of college graduates among the 2 million residents of Houston and its suburbs. Being the state’s most populous county with 4.7 million residents, it is key to Democrats who rely on such demographics to win elections. And the region has swung hard for Democrats since Trump became the Republican Party leader.

In 2016, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton beat Trump in Harris County by more than 12 percentage points. That was a huge improvement over President Barack Obama, who only won the county by slim margins of around 1 point in both 2008 and 2012. After Clinton’s dominance, Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke increased the spread against Sen. Ted Cruz (R) to a 16.7-point margin. Harris County’s huge voter turnout could be a sign of an even greater margin for Democrats this time....

Instead of shrinking the number of polling sites, as many localities have done during the pandemic, the county expanded the number of early voting locations from 40 in 2016 to over 120. Ten polling sites allow drive-thru voting. An additional eight will soon open as 24-hour locations. And every county resident over the age of 65 was mailed an absentee ballot application.

Who cares about ballot drop-off locations?

This was all possible due to a huge bump in funding from both the county commission and the federal government. Harris County’s election spending jumped from $4 million in 2016 to $33 million in 2020. This is being funded from $12 million in appropriations from the county and $17 million from the CARES Act, the first federal coronavirus relief package and only one containing money for elections.

These additional funds enabled the county to pay for the increased number of election workers needed to expand early voting polling locations, purchase personal protective equipment for those workers and buy new machines to scan and process an influx of absentee ballots.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without increased funding,” Hollins said.

Thanks, PINO and Moscow Mitch!

The idea for 24-hour polling sites came from consultations with voting rights and community organizations. The only other jurisdiction in the country to operate around the clock is

Guess.

Spoiler:

Las Vegas.

Of course.

“We’re trying to serve every single voter and to do so you have to make voting convenient for every single voter,” Hollins said....

What a concept, 180 degrees from the Repug philosophy.

Hah, I posted that before reading down to:

“Every single thing we’ve done to make voting easier for the people of Harris County has been met by opposition by those who don’t want people to vote,” Hollins said. “And more often than not, that has directly included the Republican Party or Republican elected officials.”

In their effort to block Harris County’s plans to increase access to voting, Republicans have filed lawsuits in state courts....

[Vrede too]

In two political battlegrounds, thousands of mail-in ballots are on the verge of being rejected

... Mail-in ballots, however, aren’t automatically accepted as in-person ballots are. Rather, they can be rejected if they have signature defects on their return envelopes. Unless cured by voters – which means that voters fix the signature errors on them – these submitted ballots will be rejected.

Thanks to ongoing reporting of voter turnout in two battleground states, Florida and North Carolina, we can identify the number of mail-in ballots at risk of being rejected. So far, we can tell that there are thousands of ballots flagged for rejection in these two states. In addition, racial minorities and Democrats are disproportionately more likely to have cast mail ballots this election that face rejection....

In Florida, 3,210,873 voters have cast mail ballots, and of these, 15,003 ballots face rejection, corresponding to a potential ballot rejection rate of 0.47%. This rate is not an estimate. It is based on counts drawn from official statewide data.

These thousands of mail ballots currently in limbo can make a difference. Consider the 2018 midterm election. In his successful United States Senate bid in this contest, Republican Rick Scott beat incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson by only 10,033 votes.

Over 2 million Floridians have yet to return the mail ballots sent to them by county election officials, so the number of mail ballots subject to rejection in Florida could grow well beyond 15,000.

In North Carolina, an even greater percentage of mail ballots face rejection. In that state, 8,228 of 701,425 mail ballots fall into this category, yielding a potential rejection rate of 1.2%.

As in Florida, North Carolina’s elections can be extremely close. In the state’s 2016 gubernatorial race, a mere 10,277 votes out of roughly 4.6 million cast separated the winner, Democrat Roy Cooper, from incumbent Republican Pat McCrory. The number of ballots at risk in North Carolina – 8,228 – remains smaller than this margin but could grow as more ballots are returned....

We can see from our Florida and North Carolina election data that registered Democrats have greater rejection rates than Republicans. The partisan differences in potential ballot rejection rates – Democratic rate minus Republican rate – are approximately 0.07% and 0.16% in Florida and in North Carolina, respectively.

In addition, Democrats have expressed a greater willingness to vote by mail than Republicans – though this might be changing. This will compound any biases caused by differing ballot rejection rates across Democratic and Republican voters.

Official election data in Florida and North Carolina also reveal a clear racial pattern among mail ballots facing rejection: Black and Hispanic voters are much more likely to have their ballots flagged for missing signatures or other discrepancies than are white voters.

In Florida, ballots cast by Hispanic voters face a rejection risk 2.6 times that of white voters. In North Carolina, where the two most common racial groups are Black and white, the risk of ballot rejection for Black voters is three times that of white voters. White voters thus have lower ballot rejection rates than minority voters, who tend to support Democratic candidates over Republican ones....

[Vrede too]

irelandbasingerbaldwin
October 3

[GoCubsGo]

This could be helpful as well as baffling.

[Vrede too]

This could be helpful as well as baffling.

Is that a pro or anti PINO yard sign?

[GoCubsGo]

This could be helpful as well as baffling.

Is that a pro or anti PINO yard sign?

I believe it's disparaging pino.

[Vrede too]

Is that a pro or anti PINO yard sign?

I believe it's disparaging pino.

One would think, but Trumpettes might think it's pretty cool.

[GoCubsGo]

Maybe, just maybe...

[neoplacebo]

Is that a pro or anti PINO yard sign?

I believe it's disparaging pino.

One would think, but Trumpettes might think it's pretty cool.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking; that message works for them either way. cat fan victimhood on a massive scale. Pathetic.

[GoCubsGo]

25 year old sham candidate. Could WNC really be stupid enough to elect him?

Congressional candidate Cawthorn responds to controversies surrounding his campaign

[O Really]

When I think of some of the people who have been ridiculed for being ridiculously unqualified for office, some of whom have won, I think Cawthorn may be the worst candidate I've ever heard of to get this far. Sure, anybody can "run" but to get through a primary and stand a good chance to win a Congressional seat? For example, they laughed at Sonny Bono, because they confused the person with the entertainer, but he had already had a successful term as mayor of Palm Springs. And there are some examples of a person with insignificant political experience still performing in office successfully, but these are all people who have other experiences in which they were successful, e.g. the "Governator." Cawthorn has literally done nothing.

[Vrede too]

25 year old sham candidate. Could WNC really be stupid enough to elect him?

Yes. Don't forget the average IQ drop when you and O Really left . Plus, his predecessors were Meadows, Shuler and "Chainsaw" Charlie Taylor. We have a type.

Congressional candidate Cawthorn responds to controversies surrounding his campaign

Wow.

FYI folks, WLOS is the only WNC network TV station. Our others are out of Upstate SC. Idk what kind of coverage they're giving to this.

I won't make a prediction, but I'm starting to have the tiniest bit of hope that Davis can win, a huge upset. We need mo' Moe in Congress.

When I think of some of the people who have been ridiculed for being ridiculously unqualified for office, some of whom have won, I think Cawthorn may be the worst candidate I've ever heard of to get this far. Sure, anybody can "run" but to get through a primary and stand a good chance to win a Congressional seat? For example, they laughed at Sonny Bono, because they confused the person with the entertainer, but he had already had a successful term as mayor of Palm Springs. And there are some examples of a person with insignificant political experience still performing in office successfully, but these are all people who have other experiences in which they were successful, e.g. the "Governator." Cawthorn has literally done nothing.

Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene could rival Meadows and Steve King for worst team ever, with Gaetz being the third Stooge for both sets.

[O Really]

Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene could rival Meadows and Steve King for worst team ever, with Gaetz being the third Stooge for both sets.

Gaetz is bat-shit crazy, but he's a bat-shit crazy with a law degree and previous experience in Florida legislature. Meadows is also bat-shit crazy, but did have a real business, and was active in repug politics.

[Vrede too]

Gaetz is bat-shit crazy, but he's a bat-shit crazy with a law degree and previous experience in Florida legislature. Meadows is also bat-shit crazy, but did have a real business, and was active in repug politics.

I'm not disagreeing with you, just elaborating on the possible consequences.

[billy.pilgrim]

Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene could rival Meadows and Steve King for worst team ever, with Gaetz being the third Stooge for both sets.

Gaetz is bat-shit crazy, but he's a bat-shit crazy with a law degree and previous experience in Florida legislature. Meadows is also bat-shit crazy, but did have a real business, and was active in repug politics.

His daddy was president of the Florida Senate. He's always been a pol.

[O Really]

Gaetz is bat-shit crazy, but he's a bat-shit crazy with a law degree and previous experience in Florida legislature. Meadows is also bat-shit crazy, but did have a real business, and was active in repug politics.

I'm not disagreeing with you, just elaborating on the possible consequences.

The best consequences of Cawthorn getting elected with a Dem majority House is that no bill he ever gets ghost-written will ever seen the light of day; the only committee he'll ever be on will be for cost cutting in paper clips; he'll occasionally say something stupid enough to get some coverage and the rest of the country will laugh at the fools in NC-11 who elected him. Meanwhile, the District will get nothing out of his ummm "representation."

[Vrede too]

The best consequences of Cawthorn getting elected with a Dem majority House is that no bill he ever gets ghost-written will ever seen the light of day; the only committee he'll ever be on will be for cost cutting in paper clips; he'll occasionally say something stupid enough to get some coverage and the rest of the country will laugh at the fools in NC-11 who elected him. Meanwhile, the District will get nothing out of his ummm "representation."

Yup.
viewtopic.php?p=128383#p128383

... Likely silver lining: Qidiot Greene will be a frustrated minority party Rep, with Biden in the WH, and the Dems can turn her into the wingnut terrorist postergirl for the entire GOP.