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My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

portal.drewdevault.com

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Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#101

Post by rayiner »

mindslight wrote: post #98
brandmeyer wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vote and free speech remain powerful tools for meaningful expression. And they do have an impact. Even if it seems like you're being ignored, each voice really does matter, and policy does change in response. But that policy flows from the civilian political realm. Military leadership doesn't decide which missions to take on. Congress and the President do. The military won't decide the fate of this election, no m…

Voting between candidates that all support ongoing military actions is not meaningful. It's similar to the treasonous NSA - discussing it is simply outside of the mainstream Overton window, primary candidates who dare touch it are branded "unelectable" etc. Speech gets swamped by mass propaganda. I don't see how it's possible to look at say the run up to the Iraq war and think that antiwar had a meaningful voice. Whe…

If there was any political support for changing the approach to the NSA one of the candidates would back it.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#102

Post by benibela »

thedream wrote: post #57
dx87 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A "thin blue line" flag also doesn't fit any of the banned criteria. You guys are basically saying that supporting police and military is only done by republicans.

Imagine a group of programmers unable to tell the difference between "violates the rules" and "hurts my political feelings"... yikes.

They just need to check whether the flag is on the whitelist or the blacklist

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#103

Post by jpttsn »

kettro wrote: post #86
kev009 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since it is less incendiary to discuss, what if someone was wearing a Rastafarian style hat in places marijuana bills were on the ballot, is this a conflict?

Rastafarianism is a religion. I assume religious attire is not restricted.

Is it religious attire if the person wearing it is not religious?

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#104

Post by sjs382 »

kev009 wrote: post #55
mmastrac wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a logo that is more strongly associated with one political party than another, being worn by someone who is presumably armed and in a position of authority. If you cannot see why this is a problem, I don't think I can explain it any more.

Since it is less incendiary to discuss, what if someone was wearing a Rastafarian style hat in places marijuana bills were on the ballot, is this a conflict?

To avoid the religion argument, let's switch it to a shirt with a big marijuana leaf on it.

In that case, yes. Unless the person is a voter in the act of voting.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#105

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

estebank wrote: post #13

As a non-citizen who had a chance to observe how the process works in California, I was struck by how little emphasis is put in the secrecy of the vote. The whole system looks reasonable except for how easy it can be for poll workers to know what you voted for. Beyond that, the system is clearly geared towards increasing participation and enfranchising as many people as possible (a good thing in a democratic system).

> As a non-citizen who had a chance to observe how the process works in California, I was struck by how little emphasis is put in the secrecy of the vote.

Maybe it's because we generally don't expect our votes to be revealed, nor do we expect serious repercussions if they were.

If things change so that either/both of those things stop being true, we'd probably see a push for better anonymity.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#106

Post by tych0 »

CameronNemo wrote: post #65
tych0 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a poll worker in Denver, and the way it was explained to me was: you can't wear anything referencing stuff on the ballot. So for example you can wear a shirt that says "{Black|Blue} Lives Matter" because there's nothing about whose lives matter on the ballot. Same with a MAGA hat. But you can't wear a shirt that says "Vote no on 2A", or "Trump 2020", because those people/issues are on the ballot. Denver != Penn…

You had me until MAGA hat... It is specifically sold by and strongly associated with a campaign. How is that allowed?

No idea, but these are all examples they gave us during our training.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#107

Post by tathougies »

dx87 wrote: post #15

This part seems incorrect: > There are strict laws regulating police and poll workers while the polls are open. Police are not allowed within 100 feet of the polling location, unless they're actively voting or there on official business at the request of the election board. Additionally, anyone working at the polls in an official capacity is not allowed to wear any clothing with political messaging. One of the office…

Glad to see this at the top. Indeed the officer did not violate the law. I believe some state even issued guidance that said slogans like Black Lives Matter or Make America Great Again, were okay. You simply cannot say "Vote Biden" or 'Vote Trump'.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#108

Post by tathougies »

mmastrac wrote: post #28
dx87 wrote: post #15

This part seems incorrect: > There are strict laws regulating police and poll workers while the polls are open. Police are not allowed within 100 feet of the polling location, unless they're actively voting or there on official business at the request of the election board. Additionally, anyone working at the polls in an official capacity is not allowed to wear any clothing with political messaging. One of the office…

It doesn't seem much different than a "thin blue line" flag. I'd feel the same way as Drew in this situation. If you want to wear a flag, wear a flag.

Thankfully though, in America, it's not up to you or Drew to decide what others can or cannot wear. That is subject only to law, which says you can wear slogans and insignia, but not names of candidates.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#109

Post by giantg2 »

ddevault wrote: post #83
brandmeyer wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The military is a political entity Veteran here, served during the contentious 2000 election. The US military very strongly prides itself on being an apolitical entity. There's an important distinction between the electorate having differing opinions about the role and size of the military and the scope of its missions, and the military itself being a political entity.

This is not a universally held belief.

Perhaps those with a contrary belief should review the UMJC, which restricts political statements/actions for military members, even off duty.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#110

Post by zeveb »

ddevault wrote: post #83
brandmeyer wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The military is a political entity Veteran here, served during the contentious 2000 election. The US military very strongly prides itself on being an apolitical entity. There's an important distinction between the electorate having differing opinions about the role and size of the military and the scope of its missions, and the military itself being a political entity.

This is not a universally held belief.

The earth being round is not universally held, either, but it is true. The military is patriotic, yes, as are its members (it is difficult to imagine how they could be effective were they not), but the military tries very, very hard to be apolitical. Yes, individuals in the military have strong political opinions, just like many other individual Americans.

It seems to me that any country at a point where the combination of its flag together with an oath of office, oath of enlistment or commissioning oath is seen as political rather than patriotic cannot be in a good place. It is not too far from that to one where calling for fair and unbiased administration of elections is considered political rather than patriotic.

Thank you for assisting in the election, and thank you for your excellent software projects, but in this case I think that you were incorrect.

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