Election Issues

s Donald Trump descends into COVID/drug-induced madness, there must be no illusions about what we face.

Trump is using White Supremacism to incite violent fascist cadres. These assaults on the 2020 election parallel Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 Germany.

Throughout the US, right-wing thugs are escalating the terror at voting centers. They have blocked voter access at Alexandria, Virginia, and will certainly be seen elsewhere.

Ballots are in the mail. Vote centers are opening. 

Wherever you can, cast your ballot NOW. 

Then become a poll worker and Election Protection volunteer.

Do NOT wait until November 3rd, or even late October. 

If your ballot arrives in the mail, check all the boxes on the envelope, see that your signature matches your best ID, that your name and address are perfect, and that required documents are copied and included. Call the election board and/or an Election Protection group to go over the details, and to find out if you can walk in your ballot. 

THANKS, MICHAEL!

We’re getting killer e-blasts from the Democratic Party with your spot-on warning that Trump could win again. 

Like you, we’re terrified. But it’s NOT inevitable, and now we need you where it really counts … at the grassroots, where the election must be protected. 

In 2016, Hillary Clinton ignored our warnings that (as in 2000 and 2004) the election was being stolen. In Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, where the theft was most obvious, she refused to fight for recounts and left us all twisting in Trump’s evil, idiot wind.

This time around, she’s thankfully urging Joe Biden not to concede. And the public has begun noticing the myriad ways the Republicans are lining up to steal it again.

That’s where we need your help. Especially in the Upper Midwest, the Trump Cult wants to corner the “trifecta” of election theft.

First, they’re stripping the voter rolls, disenfranchising some 17 million voters, nearly all of them (of course) non-millionaires of youth and color.

Please join us Monday, August 10, 5-6:30 pm ET / 2-3:30pm PT

For our next Zoom meeting. 

Please register in advance for this meeting here:  https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYldumtrjIiH9L7_KfcFV1n8ynuO3anTGwp

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing call-in numbers and other information to join the meeting via computer, phone, or other device.

Convened by Harvey “Sluggo” Wasserman & Joel Segal

Engineer:  Mike Hersh

Special thanks to Dr. Paul Zeitz and the COVID-19 response coalition

PRELIMINARY AGENDA:  

NORTH CAROLINA:  Amazing organizational progress; Hendersonville soliciting students to work polls at $15-20/hour?   Joel Segal

GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION REPORTS

REALITY WINNER, RUSSKIES & KILLCHAIN :  Lori Grace

As election 2020 draws ever closer, the flawed, easily gamed nature of the American quasi-democracy becomes increasingly visible, thanks, of course to Donald Trump, our Fluhrer wannabe, who sees no need to hide his contempt for any result in November other than his own victory.

Election theft could well be looming, in a number of ways, and it’s crucial to look at them. But first, I feel the need to point out that the theft is already well underway. Indeed, Part 1 is already finished. Have you noticed? There’s no candidate with a progressive vision in the race, even though public demand for such a candidate — Bernie Sanders, maybe someone else — has been swelling.

On Sunday afternoon, four candidates for the Democratic nomination for Congress in Virginia’s Fifth District held a debate — or really more of an amicable forum in which they didn’t much try to distinguish themselves from each other. I had blogged about them some weeks back when John Lesinski seemed the best among them to me based purely on their websites. Now, Cameron Webb seems the best of the lot to me, though I’m thoroughly underwhelmed and still largely guessing in the dark.

The more we learn about COVID-19, the more likely it seems most of us will be voting by mail this fall. Voting in person has become, and will likely remain, too dangerous.

Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Colorado and Utah have long been voting by mail. California now says it will join them, and other states are likely to follow. 

The Trump administration is acting as though it wants to eliminate the U.S. Postal Service, which would make it virtually impossible to get ballots out and back, something President Donald Trump appears to desire.

What’s needed is a national commitment to voting by mail. Under this system, all registered voters would receive a postpaid ballot. They can then make their choices, sign the ballot, seal an interior envelope and send it back. 

 With six months to go until November’s 2020 election, dozens of America’s top legal minds convened to consider what would have been unthinkable before Donald Trump’s presidency. They gathered to brainstorm what could be done to prevent the country from descending into a “civil war-like scenario,” as one participant put it, if Trump and Joe Biden both claim that they won the presidency—and won’t back down.

Their May 4 teleconference parsed a series of nightmare scenarios in the aftermath of the November 3 election that would lead to competing Electoral College results being sent to Congress from battleground states—one issued by a Republican legislature backing Trump, and another issued by the Democratic governor backing Biden.

National and local election reform groups have weighed in on the local controversy about the purchase of new voting machines, assailing the process for its unwarranted secrecy. Representatives of AUDIT Elections USA (AUDIT USA), a national nonprofit advocating for hand-marked paper ballots and post-election audits, have said that the secrecy surrounding the Shelby County purchasing process is unprecedented. The organization has advocated for auditable and secure elections in various local jurisdictions around the country, assisting local grassroots activist groups. It hosted an April 9 national forum focusing on the Shelby County controversy with experts from around the country. 

“The Shelby County Election Commissioners are being asked to vote on a staff recommendation for a $10 million purchase without even seeing the alternatives they’re voting on,” said AUDIT USA founder John Brakey. “The public is being asked to comment without seeing that information either. In all our efforts around the country, we’ve never seen anything like it.”