Electile Dysfunction (Current students plz look!)

[Apoc]

That's pretty close to the truth. The "will of the people" is being interpreted from a few hundred hardcore leftists that are apparently underemployed because they are the only ones who show up en masse whenever there is public comment. The socialist council member has used her office to enable them, including an illegal march to the mayor's office (federally protected because she was a US Attorney) and is currently in the midst of a recall effort.

[CaptainHenreh]

Any policy change or rule enforcement without significant popular support of the electorate is going to be a cluster and doomed to fail. 

History disagrees with you in very strong terms.

[IntegraJWill]

 YOU may have the privilege of things not changing much no matter the outcomes of November 3, but I and many others understand what's at stake for ourselves and people not like us.

I think it took me a long time to understand this.  Vote, donate, repeat.

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What was a turning point for you changing your mind? I understand I don't have the most solid points, and I have privilege's because I don't have to worry about what will happen to me, but I want to hear what was a cause for a shift in mindset. 

Trust me, I have seen who policies affect. I have gone to the US/Mex border as a republican and sat across from crying women talking about how they did the journey from their terror-stricken lands of Guatemala, El Salvador, etc. I saw this as a mind opening experience to see how much dedication goes into these people in order to come to a country such as ours. I have a lot of respect for those who enter this country the right way, and little respect for those who take advantage of them (Cartel controlling the Texan border, which I'd be glad to talk about) and for those who take the easy way out. Where I volunteered was named the 'Comedor' a food bank / shelter at the Nogales, AZ Port of entry which fed around 100-200 people who need it. You can learn more here about the organization I went with: https://www.kinoborderinitiative.org/ 

I stand as a republican for those immigrants trying to access America. We need to keep our country at a high standard because it will help these people. We can clearly see this in effect when I went into Mexico, then came back into the States. Going into Mexico was just a revolving gate, and coming back to the states was two security checkpoints where passports were checked. Everyone makes mistakes, it's just how you learn from them. I will say Trump makes mistakes and he does not repair his thinking after being exposed, that's a big problem with him in my books.

[.RJ]

What was a turning point for you changing your mind? I understand I don't have the most solid points, and I have privilege's because I don't have to worry about what will happen to me, but I want to hear what was a cause for a shift in mindset.

knowledge, experience, getting out and seeing other places in America and the world, having friends and cycling teammates that didnt grow up here and listening to their experiences. growing up in fairfax county is such a bubble, for better or worse.

i still want to believe in smaller, more efficient gov't, fiscal responsibility, balancing the budget, helping small business work, getting gov't out of our lives and I dont think those things are at odds with social saftey nets and looking after the environment either... but I'm also not sure where all the republicans went, either.

[Tyler.M]

 YOU may have the privilege of things not changing much no matter the outcomes of November 3, but I and many others understand what's at stake for ourselves and people not like us.

I think it took me a long time to understand this.  Vote, donate, repeat.

(paragraph inbound)

I stand as a republican for those immigrants trying to access America. We need to keep our country at a high standard because it will help these people. We can clearly see this in effect when I went into Mexico, then came back into the States. Going into Mexico was just a revolving gate, and coming back to the states was two security checkpoints where passports were checked. Everyone makes mistakes, it's just how you learn from them. I will say Trump makes mistakes and he does not repair his thinking after being exposed, that's a big problem with him in my books.

That's a pretty weak argument and completely against the GOP's current platform.  Illegal immigration is a criminal issue to republicans, not a humanitarian one. 90% of illegal immigration isn't done at the borders anyways, it's by folks over staying visas. That's why the republican's platform for curbing immigration is so laughable to most moderates and liberals; it's ineffective and doesn't go after any of the core issues. If the GOP was really interested in making the country accessible to immigration it wouldn't constantly attempt to increase the bureaucratic loop holes to become a legal resident or citizen.  Honestly, illegal immigration shouldn't even be a polarizing issue, it definitely wasn't in 2008 and before. Democrats and Republicans both had strong rhetoric condemning illegal immigration but then Republicans focused on borders and democrats focused on the cultural issues to resolve these problems. 

Realistically, our immigration issues from Latin America are self-inflicted because of our fucking about with foreign governments and our failed war on drugs, which was a massive GOP initiative (Reagan).  The GOP likes to forget that part and blame Mexico for not controlling the cartels that we basically super-charged the market for. That's why more humanitarian approaches like the DREAMERS Act etc. make sense because we share the burden of a mass migration that in part comes from us acting in bad faith for so long in international affairs.  I don't think illegal immigration is right BUT if given the choice between dodging death or dodging deportation, I'd make the choice to dodge deportation, too.

[HAULN-SS]

Nixon started the war on drugs, and started the DEA, btw. Wrong republican.

[Tyler.M]

Nixon started the war on drugs, and started the DEA, btw. Wrong republican.

Fair, I get it confused because of Nancy and here D.A.R.E stuff

[Apoc]

WA votes exclusively by mail - has for 15 years. Seattle isn't in this county, but it does have the state capital of Olympia (~50k people). Note our state turnout for 2016 general election was ~79%.

[Tyler.M]

I wonder if it's still generally true that when voter participation is high, it generally means democrat turnout has increased. GOP turnout is always pretty high.

[Apoc]

I wonder if it's still generally true that when voter participation is high, it generally means democrat turnout has increased. GOP turnout is always pretty high.

It's generally well established, with data, that liberal voters are disproportionately impacted when access to polls are restricted. This is due to things like being hourly wage earners, not getting time off to vote that day, are young and not active participants in politics, or a general inability to actually get to the polls due to lower access to cars, etc. 

Republicans are the ones trying to make it harder to vote: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the...r-to-vote/

I pass no judgment on intent and you could argue R's merely want to ensure "fair voting" but most studies suggest purposeful disenfranchisement. Unfortunately, 10 seconds of googling didn't get my a study to share.

Even Trump agrees: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020...oronavirus

As an anecdote, WA votes by mail and has consistent participation around 80%. It's also voted blue for president and state government for quite awhile.

[CaptainHenreh]

I was gonna post a Final Countdown on tuesday but let's be real, I don't think we're gonna know who is really supposed to be president on November 4. The mail-in counts, the what feels like now inevitable lawsuits...gonna be...interesting.

[Sijray21]

especially since now 1/3 of the Supreme Court Justices also worked on the Gore v Bush election dispute (Roberts, Kavanaugh, and now Barrett; the last 2 appointed by the litigious Trump) who favored the conservative party.

i just hope it doesn't come down to litigation... i really hope it's not that close.

[JPolen01]

It's interesting that they allowed PA and NC to continue counting mail in ballots after election day. Encouraging at the least.


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[Apoc]

There are combinations of battleground state wins for Biden that all but negate litigation.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/videos/do-yo...ion-night/

Fingers crossed.

[JPolen01]

^^This so much. I think it's very possible at this stage but still not a home run.


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[G.Irish]

In a number of states mail in ballots are counted past election day, it's just that they don't usually change the result. As long as it's postmarked in time and arrives within a set window it's good to go.

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[CaptainHenreh]

it's just that they don't usually change the result.

I think it's safe to say that 2020 is not a typical year.

[Apoc]

I see you used the word usually. Ha!

[Ken]

If it's postmarked in time, it should be counted. This shouldn't even be a question. Works for taxes.

[BLINGMW]

If it's postmarked in time, it should be counted. This shouldn't even be a question. Works for taxes.

There would still have to be some actual deadline on that, we cannot wait around 'till smarch in case some lost letter shows up.