Okay, the mail-in ballot is filled out and ready to hand in. Now all I have to do is physically take it to the elections bureau — given his past performance, it’s pretty obvious our honored President will try again to block mail-in voting.
I’ve voted “absentee” (a misnomer: mail-in is what we’re talkin’ about here) for many years, in every election — ever since the time our honored Republican leaders moved our voting site out of the neighborhood and into an area that is so unsafe that I would not get out of my car there. Just a week or ten days before that election, two little girls playing in front of their apartment house were killed when they got in the line of fire between two warring drug gangs — about a block down the street from that voting place.
Lovely Phoenix.
Another year our conniving leaders moved the voting places in majority black and Latino districts to the outer borders of those districts, where they were difficult to find and for many residents required a long drive. Funny how low the turn-out was, eh?
We’re told that at any time between now and November 3rd, we can hand in our ballots down at the voting bureau. But…WHERE IS IT? No clue in the voting materials. To get to a page that looks like it MIGHT provide the address, you have to jump through one of those annoying “identify the fire hydrants in these impossibly fuzzy photos” hoop-jump. I had to go through that trick THREE TIMES to find a page that provided an address, but whether that’s a place where you can drop off a ballot is ambiguous. You can drop them off at any voting place on November 3, but that entails a) finding the place and b) standing in line till the cows come home.
No joke. We have had Presidential elections here where the wait time was four to five hours! Again, this is an attempt to block Democratic voters, since a large proportion of Arizona Dems are working-class, and most minimum-wage and service jobs and jobs in the trades will dock workers’ pay for the hours they’re absent. You shouldn’t have to pay half a day’s wages for the privilege of voting. And you may be sure the local Republicans know most minimum-wage citizens can’t afford to pay any such thing.
Normally I would just drop the ballot in the mail. But the risk that the wannabe dictator in the White House and the toady he put in charge of the Post Office will interfere with delivery of these things is simply too high to chance it. Dollars to donuts, any ballot you drop into a PO mail box will end up in the trash.
The elections bureau is in downtown Phoenix, in an area of difficult to navigate one-way streets and extravagantly expensive parking. Even though their website gives an address, nowhere is it made clear whether this is the place to deliver a mail-in ballot in person. They provide a phone number, so I’ll have to call that in the morning and then sit around for 20 minutes or so listening to some endless recorded blab-a-thon.
To gild that lily, I’m getting a sore throat.
Presumably coming down with the Dread Disease — which, I’m told, because of a budding underlying condition, will very likely carry me off.
Before I go, though, I want to help carry Mr. Trump off his would-be throne.
This is a test.
In San Diego, we can drop our ballots off at our county or city libraries. The branches not yet open have people outside to let you put your ballot in the official registrar of voters box.
I don’t trust the mail this year. And this year, our votes are too important to trust it.
That would be nice. Hereabouts it’s a rare day a library is open. The city discovered it doesn’t really have to fund those things… I don’t trust the mail either, but decided to chance it rather than drive halfway to Timbuktu only to find nothing there. Two separate websites supposedly list where drop-off ballot boxes are…and interestingly, those sites don’t jibe. So….how can I count the ways I don’t trust THAT? Driving your ballot downtown to the registrar’s office entails navigating a complicated mess of one-way streets, and having to pay to park your car so you can walk in and find this supposed drop-box. I don’t carry cash with me and even if I had money to stuff into a parking meter, am not interested in paying for the privilege of handing in my ballot.
Your comments aren’t showing? Is this intentional or do I have a problem?
Something’s wrong with the template. Our guru is in the process of updating it. I hope.
Meanwhile, here in blue California, the California Republican Party is setting up fake drop off ballot boxes in Democratic-heavy counties, slapping “official election ballot box” stickers on them, and hoping people will think they are real.
How many of THOSE ballots do you think will make it to be counted?
The State officials have issued cease and desist orders and said they are to be removed – but the Republicans are refusing to remove them.
Whether they are removed or not – they’ve accomplished their goals. People who dropped their ballots off in those boxes – may or may not have their vote counted. People who just heard about this, are going to be suspicious of ALL ballot boxes – and be disinclined to use them, meaning they now either have to trust the post office, or find a way to vote in person or drop off their ballot in person.
Plus – the Republican’s mantra of “voter fraud is rampant with all these mail in ballots” – well they now have CONCRETE evidence – “just look – ANYONE can put out a ballot box and collect votes – the system is RIGGED I TELL YOU”