Progressives Every Day: Absentee Ballots and Massachusetts Mudslinging
Unveiling version 2.0
Welcome to a Thursday night edition of Progressives Everywhere!
This is going to be a relatively breezy issue because I spent most of my day locked in my secret laboratory (living room) working on version 2.0 of AbsenteeBallots.info. Thanks to the amazing technological and design prowess of a Progressives Everywhere member named Jim, the voter guide site now looks about a zillion times better. I’m publicly unveiling it later tonight but wanted to give you the heads up first.
Elections and Voting Rights
Wisconsin: As the Trump campaign wages war against absentee balloting and drop boxes across swing states, cities in Wisconsin are expanding their use for the general election.
In Milwaukee, there will be 15 drop boxes for the general election, up threefold from the five used in the primary, while Madison will have 14 of them.
This is absolutely crucial because the USPS is taking a sledgehammer (literally) to seven mail sorting machines in Milwaukee and three in Madison.
Ohio: The number of drop boxes in Milwaukee should give you an idea of just how crazy it is that Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRosa is only permitting one drop box in all of Cleveland.
A number of organizations, including the state chapters of the League of Women Voters and NAACP, filed suit in a US District Court today over the one drop box per county rule.
This is the second lawsuit filed over the matter this week, following on the heels of a suit filed on Tuesday by the state Democratic Party.
Massachusetts: The mud and special interest cash are flying in the final days of the MA-01 Congressional primary between Alex Morse and Rep. Richard Neal.
A push poll targeting voters in the region has been smearing Morse with false accusations while Facebook ads are also spreading homophobic smears against the progressive challenger.
A Super PAC deceptively called American Working Families just dropped another $500,000 against Morse.
American Working Families exists only to help Neal. Look at these numbers. And who is their biggest single donor this cycle? This guy.
On the bright side, Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement just came out with this on behalf of Morse:
North Carolina: As Aaron Kleinman at Give Smart laid out last night (and I’ve mentioned over and over again!), North Carolina is one of our best flip opportunities this year.
Here’s a good analysis of how the state that elected Jesse Helms to the Senate over and over again has moved towards Democrats over the last decade. Key excerpt:
“As the 2018 midterms demonstrated, the GOP is going to have a tough time in 2020 if they continue to hemorrhage votes from suburban areas. In 2008, the state’s 9th Congressional District, which then centered on suburban neighborhoods in south Charlotte, was reflexively red at all levels of government — Republicans have since seen serious slippage in the area. It’s a good bet that Biden’s campaign will rely heavily on these voters.”
Georgia: A state investigation into the utter disaster that was the in-person primary election turned up some pretty disturbing numbers.
Look what happens when you don’t invest in government infrastructure:
“Over 140,000 Fulton voters requested absentee ballots for the primary, and lawyers for the county said more than 80,000 applications were sent via email, overloading an email system that delivered each application received to 20 inboxes.”
“The county also had issues printing the applications, which had to be manually entered into the state's system. Voters sent in requests with varying file formats that were sometimes unreadable, and along the way an untold number of applications were either never entered or severely delayed in being processed.”
We should also note that Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger bought voting machines that didn’t work and then didn’t train people on them, so much of the blame for the primary fiasco falls on them, too.
Michigan: Jacob Wohl, a twerpy little shit who should be in jail, has a new scheme: Racist robocalls to voters in Detroit.
Listen to this shit:
Just remember that cops are mowing down innocent Black people on the street while Jacob Wohl gets to traipse around the country, inflicting dopey terror on people of color.
And In Other News…
Florida: A court ruled again in favor of teachers in Florida who sued the state over mandating schools open for in-person education over the advice of medical experts.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is quite clearly determined to kill as many people as possible, was a co-defendant alongside Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran.
Nearly three-quarters of a million school kids returned to classrooms on Wednesday.
About half of the state’s 2.8 million kids were opted into in-person education by their parents.
It’s unclear if the ruling will make a difference, as many districts plan on opening by Monday.
Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties were exempted from the opening mandate and started the year with distance education. It’s still unclear when they will reopen, though it may be somewhat soon.
New York: This is a lot of fun and you should watch it instead of Trump tonight:
Wait, before you go!
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