The Coming Election Chaos?
“… a number of states require only that mail-in ballots be postmarked by November 3, meaning that they will be received and counted. And some states have a deadline for receiving mail-in votes that is long after election day.” - Veith
I just heard a commentator say, “If you trust mail in voting, then send me a $100 bill and ask me to send it back.” If we don’t trust sending cash in the mail, why do we trust our vote- especially when the postal union has endorsed a candidate.
[JD Miller]As a member of the postal union, I resent the implication that my union membership would compel me to tamper with the mail.I just heard a commentator say, “If you trust mail in voting, then send me a $100 bill and ask me to send it back.” If we don’t trust sending cash in the mail, why do we trust our vote- especially when the postal union has endorsed a candidate.
I remember back in 2002 or so, Boulder County CO did elections by mail, and it was the first school funding referendum that failed. So the results would not necessarily be as predictably liberal as we’d guess.
Regarding the $100 bill thing, it only takes one bad apple to really mess with things, and there are sadly numerous cases of postmen tampering with the mail, some found with garages full of undelivered mail. To be fair, it’s generally laziness and not political bias that is at stake, but in a world where billions of dollars worth of property has been destroyed by political activists in the past few months, I don’t think it’s unfair to fear this kind of tampering.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Kevin, I am not suggesting that you or most others would ever do anything wrong with a ballot. What I am suggesting is that there are certain people in this world that will do almost anything to advance the goals of their unions. I remember union members beating up those who dared cross the picket lines. Most union members did not stoop to this behavior and I am not aware that the union itself told them to beat people up, but there were some that were so committed to the goals of the union that they did whatever it took to reach those goals.
I am not even suggesting that a large percentage of union members have a cult like following of their union. I am simply suggesting that a small percentage do. Lets face it, there are even a small percentage of people that have a cult like following of Pepsi over Coke. To be concerned that we have as many safeguards in place to protect the integrity of an election is not unreasonable when we consider the depravity of man. At our local precinct no ballot is ever left with just one person. The mail changes all that.
We already have evidence of mail carriers working with political operatives to harvest ballots and change them. There is reason for concern.
WA has mail-in voting, and has had for a long time. It works fine. That doesn’t mean it’ll work fine in other States that try to implement it on the fly in an election year.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
How do you know that it works fine? None of us knew about the political operative that was harvesting mail in ballots and steaming open the packet and replacing them with new ballots until just recently. Postal employees were even assisting him with getting ballots. The ballots were so generic they were able to just make new ones on a copy machine and fill them out. The envelope is what had the security features and all they had to do was steam it open and put a replacement ballot in. How do we know they don’t already have a pile envelopes somewhere that are being filled as we speak?
Every person in this world has a choice. You can either live in constant fear of some dark conspiracy waiting to destroy the world. Or, you can trust in some reasonable and realistic precautions and stop worrying. There is a cottage industry, on both sides of the aisle, to make its people see dark conspiracies in every nook and cranny. the Left has its conspiracies. The Right has its own, too.
Life is just too short to worry obsessively about conspiracy theories from right-wing outlets. There is a woman in my church whose daughter is starting the process to immigrate to Germany because she actually believes President Trump is a dictator who will never leave the White House, and will put all minorities into concentration camps. She repeats this mantra with wide-eyed, hysterical certainty. She has been radicalized by the propaganda she imbibes as “news.” It reminds me of some (not all) of the right-wing hysteria about mail-in ballots.
SHORT TEST: If a Christian would be much more at ease in a GOP-dominated state with mail-in voting, then that Christian has let politics influence him to an unhealthy degree.
In WA, you can also go to a polling station, if you prefer!
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
Regarding the relative risks of any voting system run by the major political parties, simply look around and see which party is encouraging a good look at voting irregularities, and conversely which party is suing into high courts to prevent those irregularities from being investigated.
You could theoretically get problems with either party, but the simple fact of the matter is that the bureaucracy is overwhelmingly supportive of Democrats—for a simple reason, that the Democrats are stronger advocates of the bureaucratic state. Hence we would guess that when a voting “nudge” is given by members of the bureaucracy, it would tend to push leftward.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
If the President wins re-election, the Left will continue it’s ridiculous attempts to de-legitimize his election with attacks on the electoral college, allegations of Russian collusion, and who knows what else.
If Biden wins, the Right will do exactly the same thing and allege dark conspiracies around mail-in voting, retreat ever more into partisan echo chambers that make them feel warm and fuzzy inside, and who knows what else.
Polarization will do nothing but increase unless or until we have a President who has the courage to unite Americans around a shared vision and mission, rather than ideological extremism.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
[JD Miller]Can you share any news reports about that? I tried finding info about carriers changing ballots, and all I found was one carrier in West Virginia who tampered with some ballot request forms as a joke.We already have evidence of mail carriers working with political operatives to harvest ballots and change them. There is reason for concern.
Kevin, sorry I did not get back to you right away. I was on a roof today and then we had company tonight. I had recently read the articles but could not find them again with the Google search. I had to use Bing. Some say Google is hiding news that would hurt the party they support. Some would say “meh” but who knows. Here are two links- one from the NY Post and the other from the Washington Examiner. Thank you for your patience since it took me so long.
https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/political-insider-explains-voter-fraud-with-mail-in-ballots/
[JD Miller]Getting a response the next day isn’t really a long time to wait. Thanks for the links.Kevin, sorry I did not get back to you right away. I was on a roof today and then we had company tonight. I had recently read the articles but could not find them again with the Google search. I had to use Bing. Some say Google is hiding news that would hurt the party they support. Some would say “meh” but who knows. Here are two links- one from the NY Post and the other from the Washington Examiner. Thank you for your patience since it took me so long.
https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/political-insider-explains-voter-fraud-with-mail-in-ballots/
The articles didn’t mention any postal employees being tried for fraud, or even being arrested, or even being individually accused. All I see is an anonymous tipster making unsupported allegations, and these allegations didn’t even mention union membership as being a factor.
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