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My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

portal.drewdevault.com

201–210 of 358 posts

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#201
post #183
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 combina…

> political rather than patriotic Unfortunately patriotism itself is highly political; the ultimate question of "my country, right or wrong" results in some people noticing that it is in fact wrong in some cases. Do they not teach Clausewitz in the US military? "War is the continuation of politics by other means". Every shot fired in anger is a political act. Not the politics of the person firing it, but those direct…

> Not the politics of the person firing it, but those directing the fire.

... you're almost there... and yet ...

> It is possible to try to be non-partisan, but an apolitical military is an oxymoron. > > The US military is the guarantor of a host of political lines across the world; supporting South Korea or Taiwan or Israel or Germany or Bosnia is a political act.

At the direction of the duly elected civilian leadership.

> You can't sign up and then disclaim responsibility for the political results of following orders "apolitically". The last people who tried that got shot at Nuremberg.

This isn't considered a matter of politics. Its a matter of honor and lawfulness.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#202
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…

Given the other responses, consider it a gray area at best. And for something fundamental to the integrity of elections, I'd say it's best to err on the side of not having any possible appearance of impropriety.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#203
post #187
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you seriously suggesting the "thin blue line" or "back the blue" flags are not political messaging? Lots of folks with different backgrounds and beliefs "support police and military"; however, the bootlick flags are closely tied to just one party.

The people wearing it made it political. You see them exclusively at trump rallies. For similar reason wearing a red hat now became a political statement. In Poland for example now wearing something with a thunderbolt or 8 asterisks is sign that you support current protests. In France wearing yellow vests. Those things constantly change and at specific time it can be political. It's all about context and if you're vo…

The people wearing it made it political

I think the message that police are all that keeps society from descending into violent chaos is inherently political.

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/06/08/the-short-frau...

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#204
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your party affiliation is a matter of public record, and you're not required to vote for your party. Not really a big deal IMO. Any attempt by the election workers to suppress your vote based on your answer would be trivially detected by a number of security checks.

> Your party affiliation is a matter of public record, and you're not required to vote for your party. Not really a big deal IMO Can I have affiliation for 'no party' ? Or better yet, never answer the question so the answer is NULL ?

Typically the question is part of the voter registration form. But there's a "no affiliation" option.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing a thing that's "not a good look (according to Spivak)" != a violation of the stated rules Being perceived as "an asshole (according to Spivak)" != a violation of the stated rules Thanks for demonstrating my point so clearly ;]

What's clear from this thread is that there are a hundred ways to clearly support a candidate that don't break the rules. If you agree with the intention behind the rules don't try to undermine them. If you don't support the ban on electioneering, then be open about it and try to change the policy.

"The intention behind the rules" is a thing that lives in your imagination. It cannot be quantified. That's the point of having written rules.

Expecting that poll workers will read and adhere to The Rules as stated isn't some wild fantasy. It's literally what they signed up to do. It's foundational to the idea of an election having any legitimacy at all.

It does not require taking a position on "the ban on electioneering", just a position against poll worker vigilantism (virtue-lantism?).

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#207
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MAGA hats wouldn’t be allowed (in California) since they’re official campaign merchandise and part of that campaign’s branding. Source: am an SF election inspector. That said, it’s all up to the specifics of state law.

You just publicly admitted to breaking California state election code. The California Secretary of State specifically outlined that MAGA slogans and clothing were acceptable at polling places.[0] [0] https://abc7.com/politics/ca-rules-allow-maga-hats-but-no-me...

You caught me! I was actually employed by George Soros and Hillary Clinton to infiltrate the election process, send Trump voters home, and win the whole thing for Biden.

1. We're all volunteers. And human.

2. I've asked precisely zero people wearing MAGA hats to remove them. So much for your crack legal theory about violations of California election law.

3. The one time I've asked someone to remove campaign material in the several years I've done this was when someone was, unluckily and completely by accident, throwing a Biden victory party literally right next door to the polling place.

Kindly go troll elsewhere.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#208
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Online voting seems like such a simpler approach. It is! Until you try to secure it. Then it isn't.

And even if you do secure it, if Joe McCitizen can't understand it, it does you no good.

There are plenty of things that people do online without really understanding how it works, but they still do it.

Online voting could be done securely over the network and could be authenticated with a certificate associated with one's voter registration that's anonymized in a way that doesn't reveal any information about the voter other than whether they have already voted.

Also, it can be an option in addition to voting in person or by mail (like you can do now with taxes).

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have an optional secret ballot in all the votes. So does oregon who was doing vote by mail before it was cool...

Oregon has one of the worst voter-registration online systems in the country however, a date of birth + residency will give access to party registration of the individual, alongside some other information I believe.

That’s true of most states.

Re: My experience as a poll worker in Pennsylvania

#210

Another POV: https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/11/06/a-pro-bono-lawyer-for...

The Daily Signal is published by the highly partisan Heritage Foundation and this person's account does not appear to be substantiated by any other evidence. The person who witnessed the events he relayed may be a lawyer, but he is not an election lawyer and also not from PA, so his specific knowledge of their rules and regulations may be lacking.

Assuming the person making these claims accurately relayed his observations, what he saw sounds just as likely to be workers setting up & testing the machines for proper functionality.

Of course, there's a chance that's not the case, and something else was going on. But lacking evidence to the contrary, this account seems explainable by something other than election fraud.

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