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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

#161

Post by isleyaardvark »

brandmeyer wrote: post #82
ddevault wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. The military is a political entity, and different voters have different opinions on. It's better to err on the side of caution when acting in an official capacity for the election, especially when your organization (the police) are the subject of ballot measures this year. A tap on the shoulder and a polite comment seem well justified to me, and another poll worker agreed.

> 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.

I agree, and think that not wearing that kind of thing at the polls is appropriate to keep it apolitical.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#162

Post by panzagl »

mindslight wrote: post #128
knaq wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is "impossible to prevent the military from being used for elective wars" because most people disagree with that goal. (according to observed preference, not stated preference) We just tossed out the only president in many decades to refrain from starting a new war, instead choosing one who voted for the Iraq war. The people have spoken, and they want war.

I find the narrative that Trump hasn't started a new war interesting, but not particularly compelling given his actions with Iran and ongoing incitement of civil unrest. > The people have spoken, and they want war I see where you're coming from, as usually I vote third party or abstain to avoid thinking I support one candidate that differs only by an epsilon of cultural preferences. But when one of the choices is res…

So you're saying no one would have died from CoVid-19 if Trump weren't in office? Citation needed.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#163

Post by layoutIfNeeded »

benibela wrote: post #102
thedream wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yikes. It’s called allowlist and denylist...

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#164

Post by mikem170 »

Redoubts wrote: post #93
brandmeyer wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also makes it much easier to directly observe which systems work better and which systems don't. Imagine for a moment that the entire country was using the exact same ballot process in 2000: The punch system that lead to so much ambiguity in FL. Its one thing to look at a system and say in the abstract "this could be much more reliable." Its another entirely to say "Look at states X, Y, and Z: Their process is act…

> Once things calm down, several states are going to improve their processes. I hope so. But the annoying thing about American federalism is that we like to do things 50 different ways, long after the experiment should have been over.

>But the annoying thing about American federalism is that we like to do things 50 different ways

This was how the system was originally designed to work, as specified in the 10th amendment. This is also how the European Union works - a federation of independent states.

That's much better then everyone getting stuck with a federal one-size-fits-all solution that is sub-optimal (or corrupted), which does happen sometimes.

Different states can try different things, and copy what works amongst each other. Once enough states agree on an optimal solution an amendment can be passed forcing any lagging states to the new solution. This could apply to things like civil rights, health care, etc.

For example, before Obama-Care we already had states trying things - Romney-care in Massachusetts guaranteed coverage to all, Vermont was ready to implement a public plan that they had to cancel, NY and California also had significant reforms in the works, etc. Most assuredly the best solutions would have risen to the top and have been copied. But now that can't happen, because for better or worse we are stuck with a contentious law that was passed and is not easy to change. Perhaps the big insurance companies were afraid there profit margins would be reduced, so they negotiated a good deal for themselves with congress? (they get subsidized premiums from the government, and the public gets to pay the deductibles, without the ability to shop, company plans reducing individual choice, etc)

I don't believe it was the intention of our system to allow drastic changes by transitory slim majorities at the federal level. It seems that everyone with an axe to grind would like a federal law (or better yet a Supreme Court case) to force their opinion on the entire country, and that is not right. Our government is an outgrowth of our culture. Tweaks to the system are not going to change what people believe in.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#165

Post by InitialLastName »

m0zg wrote: post #143
DeRock wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not "lucky" at all, this was an orchestrated outcome. Theres 2 components to this: 1. Mail in ballots were heavily partisan. The president made a point to instruct Republican voters to vote in person, and not by mail. And many other correlated factors (eg. COVID and social distancing has also been heavily politicized, influencing whether a voter would vote in person vs mail in). 2. Mail in ballots were delayed. T…

Did this only happen in swing states and VA though? And why does drift happen _well after_ in-person vote is already counted? And do you have data to support your point #1? Because people claim that, but I don't really see any evidence to support the claim.

It's substantially more noticeable in swing states because they're swing states and by definition divided roughly 50/50 on partisan lines (really usually 30/30/30[undecided/independent], but the latter varies from place to place). If a state is more heavily tilted one way than the other, the day-of vote is more likely to be just as representative of that tilt as the mail-in vote, especially if you stop paying attention when the state gets called (which was as soon as polls closed for many of the states whose tendencies were more obvious). To add, urban areas have been more heavily hit by covid (so are more likely to vote by mail) and even the in-person vote count in cities takes longer to count. Even in 2016, IIRC Clinton started to (ultimately unsuccessfully) close the gap in MI and WI later at night as the vote counts from Detroit and Milwaukee trickled in.

edit: to balance parens

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#166

Post by nitrogen »

no-dr-onboard wrote: post #139
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.

For some reason I can't imagine many people utilizing that sort of logic with the transgender flag on a hat.

If you were working as an election official, that would still be a problem.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#167

Post by mindslight »

panzagl wrote: post #162
mindslight wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the narrative that Trump hasn't started a new war interesting, but not particularly compelling given his actions with Iran and ongoing incitement of civil unrest. > The people have spoken, and they want war I see where you're coming from, as usually I vote third party or abstain to avoid thinking I support one candidate that differs only by an epsilon of cultural preferences. But when one of the choices is res…

So you're saying no one would have died from CoVid-19 if Trump weren't in office? Citation needed.

No, but fewer people would have. By contributing to it he's responsible for the entire outcome. It's similar to how two people can both be charged for one instance of murder.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#169

Post by Lewton »

m0zg wrote: post #140
tgb wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was literally predicted ahead of time based off the known demographics of the regions and the time it would take to count the ballots in different counties and the expected differences between in-person and mail-in ballots. It's absolutely misinformation to pretend that this is suspicious and should be investigated. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-pennsylvanias-vote-...

Why is this not happening in non-swing states other than Virginia? And why does Biden's luck improve over time when _only_ mail in ballots are counted?

Because smaller rural districts finish counting early, leaving only the heavily blue urban districts towards the end

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#170

Post by throwaway377383 »

mmastrac wrote: post #34
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.

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.

>It's a logo that is more strongly associated with one political party than another

As long as you'll admit that BLM falls under this same logic, and should similarly be banned, then you're being consistent.

If not, you're being hypocritical.

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