Texas governor limits election drop boxes to one per county in sprawling state

We had 3 choices...$1000, $1200 and $1400. They were out of the $1400 so we bought the $1200 and spent our surplus on the movie.

 

I remember those giant projection panel tvs costing at least 3k in the late 80s.

Gotta look up how big the screen size was but I think it was less than 50"...

P.S. my mom still has the half working Betamax that's older than me. Now I know why...

 

What the **** are you talking about?

 

I hear ya baller.

We had one of big as ones pretty early as well, this was before 82, I was the only one who could record on it.

 

It's rare, but if Biden wins it will be time to take these unqualified dip$hit asslickers out...

What is judicial impeachment?

Impeachment is a process by which the political branches of government – usually the legislature – can remove judges from office. Because the impeachment power lies primarily in the hands of politicians, it is at times threatened for partisan reasons, but the impeachment and removal of judges is in fact rare and usually limited to grave ethical or criminal misconduct such as perjury, fraud, or conflicts of interest.

How does the impeachment process work?

Federal and state constitutions provide different mechanisms for impeachment of judges, but impeachment is generally a two-step process.

With respect to federal judges, under Article I of the United States Constitution, the House of Representatives has the power to impeach, and the Senate the power to hold a trial to determine whether removal is appropriate. The House can impeach a judge with a simple majority vote. However, a judge may only be removed from office following a trial and a vote to convict by a two-thirds majority of the Senate.

Brennan Center Info

 

trump appointed judges help republicans suppress voting...

 

This is in CA and not TX but shows other shenaningans around ballot boxes. The CA GOP are saying they won't stop doing this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/us/politics/california-gop-drop-boxes.html

California Republican Party Admits It Placed Misleading Ballot Boxes Around State
Government officials say the receptacles are illegal and could lead to voter fraud, but the party says it will continue the practice.

By Glenn Thrush and Jennifer Medina

• Oct. 12, 2020

The California Republican Party has admitted responsibility for placing more than 50 deceptively labeled “official” drop boxes for mail-in ballots in Los Angeles, Fresno and Orange Counties — an action that state officials said was illegal and could lead to voter fraud.

The dark gray metal boxes have been popping up over the past two weeks near churches, gun shops and Republican Party offices, mostly in conservative areas of a deep-blue state, affixed with a white paper label identifying them as either an “Official Ballot Drop off Box” or a “Ballot Drop Box.”

To the average voter, they are virtually indistinguishable from drop-off sites sanctioned by the state, which are governed by strict regulations intended to prevent the partisan manipulation of ballots.

The actions of the largely marginalized state party come at a moment when Republicans and Democrats are engaged in a bitter national struggle over voting rights, with President Trump’s allies accusing Democrats in Minnesota and elsewhere of undermining the integrity of the electoral process by expanding absentee voting and other measures to increase ballot access.

On Monday, California’s secretary of state, Alex Padilla, and Attorney General Xavier Becerra sent a cease-and-desist order to the state- and county-level Republican parties, ordering them to remove the boxes. They also urged voters who might have unknowingly dropped off their ballots in the receptacles to sign up with the state’s voter tracking website to ensure their vote is counted.

“Misleading voters is wrong regardless of who is doing it,” Mr. Padilla said in a conference call with reporters, adding that the boxes “are not permitted by state law.”

Mr. Becerra called the boxes “fake,” adding that it was “illegal to tamper with a citizen’s vote.” He warned that anyone “engaging in this activity” could be subject to criminal prosecution or civil action.

Hector Barajas, a spokesman for the California Republican Party, said the party would continue to distribute the boxes, without adding any label identifying them explicitly as Republican ballot drops.

Mr. Barajas — who disclosed that Republicans were responsible for the boxes only after being bombarded by questions by reporters on Monday — said the party’s actions were legal because state law did not restrict “ballot harvesting,” a practice that allows a third party to collect voters’ completed ballots.

Mr. Trump and his supporters have decried the practice as corrupt when Democrats have been accused of collecting bundles of ballots, which is legal in 26 states but subject to verification requirements.

“There is nothing in any of the laws or regulations cited in that advisory that indicate private organization drop boxes are not permitted,” said Mr. Barajas, who blamed Democrats for blocking anti-harvesting legislation.

“The way Democrats wrote the law, if we wanted to use a Santa bag, we could,” he said. “A locked heavy box seems a lot safer,” Mr. Barajas said.

Mr. Padilla dismissed that claim, telling reporters that the boxes were not covered by legal protections, because they were intended to “mislead voters and erode the public trust.”

State officials have not alleged that operatives from either party have engaged in the selective harvesting of ballots placed in the illegal boxes. The ballots will be counted if they are received, even if they do not have a third-party signature typically required for collected mail-in votes, Mr. Padilla said.

Republican officials purchased about 100 of the boxes in recent weeks in an attempt to boost turnout, especially in competitive down-ballot races, as party leaders fret about Mr. Trump’s drag on other Republicans, an operative with direct knowledge of the effort said.

They had installed about half of them by the time Mr. Padilla and other state officials took notice over the weekend.

State officials quickly ordered an investigation into the boxes, and Mr. Padilla sent a memo to county elections officials urging them to investigate the unauthorized boxes in order to “guarantee the security and chain of custody of vote-by-mail” ballots placed in them.

In his memo, he reminded local officials that creating an illegal polling site was a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.

Mr. Padilla’s office received a report on Saturday that a metal box with a misleading sign suggesting that it was an official site to drop off mail-in ballots had been placed in front of the Freedom’s Way Baptist Church in Castaic, northwest of Los Angeles.

And last week, a supporter of a Republican congressional candidate in Orange County, Michelle Steel, posted a picture of himself on Twitter dropping off a ballot at one of the party’s boxes.

In the post, Jordan Tygh, a regional field director for the California Republican Party, flashes a thumbs-up over the caption, “Doing my part and voting early,” according to The Orange County Register, which first reported on the use of the boxes.

The post has since been deleted.

 

I'm sad to say you were right @RayRay10: https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...51869c-0d4d-11eb-8a35-237ef1eb2ef7_story.html

This is nothing more than pure voter suppression, without even a fig leaf to hide the fact that it is totally at odds with the Fifth's very own recent precedent. The silver lining at least seems to be that the voters are out in force today, more so than at any time in early voting that I can remember.

 

Democrats always play too nice.

This is election tampering imo. They should arrest all of them and charge them. Let them go and defend themselves in a court system dominated by liberal judges.

 

Excellent. Cuts down on fraud and ups security for the ballots. A win for American citizens.

 

Don't forget promoting herd immunity!

 

That's right. Trump being the fraud, and getting people to vote in person to oust Dear "Leader".

I'm afraid the grift is over. Start thinking about who you want to run in 2024.

 

Texas has seen the highest voter turnout among youth voters across the U.S. as Democrats are seeking to win the state for the first time in over 40 years.

According to new data released by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, at least 493,314 early votes or absentee ballots have been cast in Texas among residents between the ages of 18 and 29.

"As of October 21, more than 3 million young people (ages 18–29) have already voted early or absentee in the 2020 elections, including more than 2 million in 14 key states that may well decide the presidency and control of the United States Senate," Tufts researchers wrote with their analysis.

The researchers also note that "early votes by youth in Texas are likely much higher," as data is only available for 23 counties in the state, which accounts for 65 percent of the state's population.

Following Texas is Florida, which has seen at least 257,720 youth votes cast and North Carolina, where 204,986 youth residents have cast ballots.

Among other states that the research has complied early and absentee youth voting from, there have been 178,496 youth votes in Virginia; 170,282 in Georgia; 145,201 in Michigan; 117,644 in Minnesota; 114,760 in Pennsylvania; 111,559 in Colorado; 99,049 in Arizona; 92,923 in Ohio; 46,750 in Iowa; 19,561 in Maine and 17,124 in Montana.

 

In an ominous sign for the GOP’s future viability in the Electoral College, young voters in light-red Sun Belt states are veryDemocratic, with those in Texas and Georgia backing Biden over Trump by roughly 20 points. In South Carolina, meanwhile, young voters lean blue by 13. Across this year’s most hotly contested battlegrounds — Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — Biden’s lead among young voters never dips below 18 percentage points.

Reams of survey data confirm Trump’s unpopularity with young adults.

According to the latest Harvard Youth Poll, 60 percent of likely voters under 30 support Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, compared to just 27 percent for Trump. In a new Politico/Morning Consult poll of voters between 18 and 23, the results are similarly lopsided: 51 percent for Biden vs. 25 percent for Trump. An NBC News analysis of responses from 2,000 voters underscores the poor regard in which Trump is held: “Among the youngest cohort, Gen Z, 59 percent view the president negatively, compared to just 27 percent who view him positively. That’s a net negative rating of minus-32 points.”

 

It’s relevant.

GOP in CA increases the number of unofficial ballot collection boxes to increase turnout in areas that tend to vote R, I would assume, while GOP in TX limit the number of official ballot collection boxes to 1 per county which impact areas that have more % of D.

From these two very different approaches, you can see that the GOP isn’t about security.

 

how stupid and lazy do you have to be to leave your ballot in an unattended box out in the open?

 

I have to be honest. I find this disappointing. I know you probably don’t care, particularly since we likely agree on little re 2020 election politics. I thought even trump supporters would find Abbott’s one box per county to be one bridge too far. The price for unwavering support of trump is high, and the bill includes your morals, ethics and humanity.

Even if you don’t care about any of the foregoing, consider lastly the strategy. Will the votes suppressed outweigh the increased voter turnout resulting from voter anger and outrage? I’m sure trump world had made the calculus and concluded the incremental anger doesn’t move the needle because it’s already so high. And I suppose that’s probably right.