First, some business.
Sometimes I think, “Elon Musk would not drive Twitter into a brick wall.” Other times I think, “OMG Elon Musk is driving Twitter into a brick wall.” I have therefore opened accounts at Mastodon and Counter Social:
- Counter Social = @Teri_Kanefield
- Mastodon= @Teri_Kanefield@mstdn.social
If you’re trying to decide which to join, it seems to me that Mastodon is the one most likely to take off. The downside is that it isn’t easy to learn. It will definitely take me a while to figure it out.
Updates on the major DOJ criminal investigations
I updated my DOJ investigations FAQ page. Updates are in red.
Derivative Use Immunity
A few weeks ago, Kash Patel, the guy who said that Trump declassified all the documents and that he was there when Trump did it, was called to testify before a grand jury. He took the Fifth Amendment. The DOJ has now given him derivative use immunity. Here is what that means:
Use immunity is solid immunity for anything Patel says truthfully, but it is not blanket immunity from prosecution.
It immunizes Patel for his statements, which therefore means he can’t take the 5th because he is not being compelled to be a witness against himself. The prosecution can still build a case against him from evidence entirely walled off from his statements. It’s hard to do, but possible. If he commits perjury, he loses his immunity and can be prosecuted for his statements.
This is a sign that the prosecutors are not interested in indicting Patel. They want his truthful testimony. They’re going after someone else and that someone can only be Trump.
It’s also a sign that the DOJ wants to flush out Trump’s bogus “declassified” defense now.
(A lot of headlines are making it sound like Patel entered a cooperation deal, or he got blanket immunity. This isn’t a “deal.” It was forced on him. On the other hand, the smartest thing he can do at this point is to cooperate.)
On Thursday, Kash Patel testified again before the grand jury. Of course, we don’t know what he said, but we can assume he didn’t take the Fifth.
How can anyone believe he will tell the truth?
Right now, it’s likely that the DOJ has no interest in prosecuting him. If he lies, they probably will prosecute him. Lying would therefore be colossally stupid. If he lies, he can be prosecuted for lying (perjury) but more importantly, lying before the grand jury would make it easier to indict him as a part of the entire conspiracy, including obstruction.
The Pesky First Amendment
This is from a reader:
If you have time, please explain: 1) Why is there no enforceable law against politicians who tell dangerous lies… like claiming opponents kidnap children and drink their blood? 2) Or lying and pretending election malfeasance? 3) Lawlessness begets lawlessness, correct?
The First Amendment protects lies. Allowing the government to punish lies would not go well. The problem is how to distinguish between a mistake, an inaccuracy, and a lie. Even Biden gets things wrong. Of course, there are times when lying is a crime; for example, perjury and fraud, but allowing the executive branch to punish members of the legislative branch for lying would make it legal for a president to imprison political rivals. The president simply needs to find a way to construe the elected official’s statements as a lie. Fortunately, the First Amendment prevents this.
Reflections on the 2022 Midterms
If you believe the polls, the Democrats are heading for a major loss. If you believe people like Simon Rosenberg, there may be a red wave, but so far there are no signs of it because Democrats are outperforming polls and outperforming 2018 in early voting:
Happy Friday everybody!
What I'm seeing:
– Ds continue to overperform in polls/early vote in the Senate battlegrounds
– Early vote remains very encouraging for Ds
– Marist polls another problem for red wave narrative
– It's close election, we need to close strong everyone! pic.twitter.com/X9MrBmb9UT— Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) November 4, 2022
Conventional wisdom is that the party in power loses in the midterms. Common sense (or perhaps wishful thinking) tells me that this is not a normal midterm: Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the public is fully aware of the insurrection and Republican efforts to overturn the last election, Liz Cheney is campaigning for a Democrat, and changing demographics in the US favor Democrats.
From journalist Marisa Kabas:
Before the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, voters under the age of 25 accounted for 21% of new voter registrants nationally, according to stats from TargetSmart. But since then, overall their share rose to 26%, and an astounding 31% since the beginning of October. Data from the nonpartisan Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University confirms the same trends. “The surge in youth registration has been driven by young women,” says Bonier, who was compelled to dig into the voter registration data after the surprising outcomes in the N.Y. 19 special congressional election and the Kansas state primary over the summer.
It isn’t hard to guess that these young women are registering to vote in large numbers because of the abortion issue, which is why Biden keeps repeating that if we give him a Democratic House and two more Democratic Senators, he’ll codify Roe v. Wade.
The Blame Game
If the Democrats win, I will breathe a collective sigh of relief. If the Democrats lose, there will be finger-pointing and blaming.
Some people will blame the Democratic Party for not being better at messaging. (I talked about that last week.) Others will blame the media for adopting the Republican framing of issues. (This assumes, perhaps correctly, that most voters have only a superficial understanding of the issues.) Others will blame Merrick Garland, which makes no sense, particularly in the absence of evidence that voters care about prosecuting Trump as an issue. (Roe v. Wade is much more of a concern to most voters.) Nobody even seems to care that the Trump Org. is under criminal indictment.
My theory of course is that (1) authoritarian methods are effective and (2) authoritarianism has a wider appeal than most people realize. In an increasingly complex world, simple explanations are easy to grasp and satisfying and we are currently in a disinformation disruption that is enabling the rise of authoritarianism globally. The close election in Brazil (close to half of Brazilians prefer to keep Bolsonaro in power) demonstrates to me the appeal of autocracy.
Either way, win or lose, the task moving forward is to get more people engaged.
Teri, you’re always telling us to get involved. Tell us what you do.
Okay, why not? I volunteered about 30 hours over the past two weeks, so I’ll tell some of my stories.
How I Became A Voter Protection Lawyer
I’ve been volunteering on campaigns since 1980 when I did phone banking for Jimmy Carter. One memorable day, I called voters in Hallsville, Missouri. 1980 was when the parties were shifting platforms. The Democratic Party, the party of the former Confederacy, was embracing civil rights, while the Party of Lincoln was moving toward right-wing extremism and winking at racists. I had conversations like this:
Me: What is your political affiliation?
Resident of Hallsville Missouri (a man): I’m a Democrat. My daddy was a Democrat and my granddaddy was a Democrat. You can’t get elected dog catcher in this town if you’re not a Democrat.
Me: Who will you be voting for, for president?
Him: Ronald Reagan.
Me: You do realize that Reagan is a Republican and Carter is a Democrat, right?
Him: [laughs] I’m not voting for your candidate.
Not long afterward, I sat in my college dormitory room and cried when the map turned red. I’ve volunteered on campaigns regularly since.
How I Became a Voter Protection Volunteer Lawyer
In 2016, I received an email: The Clinton campaign was looking for lawyers willing to go to Nevada to monitor polling places during early voting and the general election. My job was to watch what was happening and report anything irregular to the lawyers who sat in what’s known as a “boiler room.” The boiler room lawyers solved whatever problems they could, and escalated issues requiring legal action to the litigation team.
In 2018, my husband Andy and I went to Nevada to monitor polling places for the midterms.
Our adventure
Each party was allowed to have one insider observer. Outside observers could only talk to voters more than 100 feet from the door.
Andy was stationed outside a polling place, watching, and I was inside. So there I was, wearing business casual (I looked like a lawyer but not too much like a lawyer) when the Republican observer sat down next to me, wearing a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, jeans, and a red plaid shirt. (No kidding).
He said, “What side are you on?”
Me (as innocently as I could manage): “Aren’t we all on the same side? The side of American democracy?”
He wasn’t amused. “I think you’re one of those California lawyers coming over here butting into our elections.”
I couldn’t lie even if I had wanted to. Our car had California license plates.
He left the polling place. Soon afterward, the sheriff arrived to follow up on a report that Andy was violating the law by talking to voters within 100 feet of the polling place. Andy did not (and would not) break the law. Andy talked to the sheriff, who talked to the polling place manager, who told the Sherrif that no, Andy was following rules.
I called the boiler room and told them what happened. They were planning to send us to a different polling location anyway. So we went to the next polling place (after a brief stop at Starbucks) and took our places, me inside, Andy outside.
Then guess who showed up. Yup, the cowboy. He’d evidently followed us. I called the boiler room and told them it was getting a little creepy. They moved us to a different polling place. He followed us there, too.
So the boiler room folks came up with a plan. They gave us driving directions. The idea was to fake him out. He’d think we were moving on to the nearest polling place, but at the last moment, we would switch lanes, get off the highway at a particular exit and swing around and get on a different highway. If we did it right, he wouldn’t be able to follow us. We would then go to a polling place in the next county.
It worked. We lost him. I think that qualifies as an actual car chase even though (of course) we never broke the speed limit. It was my first car chase, and I hope my last.
Georgia Democrats
In 2018, I met the director of voter protection in Georgia and told her I’d be happy to do volunteer work. She gave me the job of updating the Georgia Democrats’ Election Law Handbook. At the end of that task, I knew quite a bit about Georgia election law. She invited me into the boiler room during the primaries and the 2020 general election. I was also asked to join the Georgia voter protection committee.
Over the past year, I also put in dozens of hours of volunteer work for 866-Our-Vote.
This cycle, I’m back in the Georgia Democrats Boiler Room, putting in 12 – 18 hours during early voting. I’ll be in their boiler room all day Tuesday.
During the 2020 primaries, if you recall, just about everything went wrong in Georgia. The Democrats ended up filing several lawsuits and the newspapers carried the stories of Georgia’s election meltdown. This time around, things are much smoother, so at times the job is almost boring. This is why I always say that being an election worker is an important job. Good poll workers make it easier to vote. There will be fewer problems at the polls and the lawyers in the boiler rooms won’t have as much to do.
As a general rule, it’s good when you don’t need lawyers.
On the other hand, bad poll workers often create problems or contribute to problems, giving headaches to the lawyers in boiler rooms.
So if you can, be a poll worker. You’ll be a genuine American hero. It’s hard work with long hours and not much pay. If you need other ideas, see my list.
And now for some dog content
To relieve our pre-election anxiety, we went to the beach. JJ relieves his anxiety by running as fast as he can up to the big dogs, growling or barking to show them who is boss, and then running back to us as fast as he can:
Looks like Counter Social is Apple only. Mastodon might take off, or it might not. It still seems that if enough people stay with Twitter for free using lists, nothing really changes.
It looks like Mastodon has lists, which is helpful.
I’m on Counter Social on Android.
It also looks like threading is possible on Mastodon
Counter Social is on Android, too.
I really appreciate all your hard work to keep us informed and help us understand in practical, grounded ways what we can actually do to help our democracy. It was because of your list of suggestions months ago that I decided to get engaged by writing GOTV letters through Vote Forward. I ended up sending 900 letters last week to 10 states! I loved doing this, met great people, and channeled a whole lot of anxiety into productive action. With all the Twitter turmoil this week, I’ve been reflecting on just how much I appreciate the people I’ve met there and how much they’ve helped me navigate these times, whether politics or COVID. Plus all the silly pet photos for comic relief! 🙂 Thanks for everything you’re doing!
Teri, if the MAGA people are only about 30-40% of the electorate, after all the negative actions and promised worse to come, how can we be electing more republicans to the take over the House ?
There are a lot of Republicans who are not “MAGA” people. Some tend to be low engagement voters who say things like, “California taxes are too high so Democrats are bad and besides, there are too many regulations. Get government off our backs.” Then they vote Republican.
I knew someone who moved from California to South Carolina because she wanted to be a landlord and California has too many laws protecting tenants so “Democrats Bad. Republicans Good.”
Humans are really good at compartmentalizing and managing cognitive dissonance. Someone whose identity and portfolio are based on low taxes and less regulation is highly motivated to suppress and ignore current mainstream Republican Party positions on hammer-weilding gay lovers and massive widespread undetectable voter fraud. They believe these obsessions are irrelevant to them and their interests, so will happily ignore them and vote their private interests, secure in the knowledge none of that noise will affect them.
Thank you for all you do.
Just thank you…
Thanks for sharing your personal experiences, which I found to be very moving.
And I love how JJ goes speeding over to the other dogs, gets close, and says, “mmmmm, nevermind.”
I keep getting an access forbidden notice on my Pixel 6 Android.
I appreciate your column and regularly share it with family and friends. Thank you, also, for all your time spent helping keep our elections safe & secure. This year I volunteered to be a poll worker and have seen firsthand how well elections are run in our area. Wish everyone had the time to commit to doing so. Great training, great security. Everyone, please vote.
Mastodon has some definite cons. First, you don’t know who’s operating the server that you’re on. You don’t know anything about that individuals background or technical setup. You don’t know anything about their ability to scale for growth on the server. There’s nothing to stop an individual admin from restricting your posts or cutting you off entirely.You don’t know anything about security or what kind of policies they have for data privacy. I think over time as the network matures that you’ll see reputable corporations or technology providers move in and start operating servers through this network that have better security reliability and likely different featuresbut for right now it’s pretty much the wild West. These aren’t reasons not to sign up but you do it with your eyes open. Servers with the larger user base are probably the least risky.
I will be observing with New Georgia Prroject. I am hopeful that there will be nothing to report.
Hi Teri,
First of all, thank you for all that you do and for the dog content. Secondly, I am a voter, and I am quite concerned about whether insurrectionists are prosecuted. I also care mightily that the Trump Org. is under criminal indictment. We need a return to the rule of law and order in this country. I know I am not alone. I’ve been working and interacting with many groups of people since Trump was first elected. We will see what happens Tuesday, but I know people have stepped out of their comfort zone and worked to preserve democracy.
I signed up to be a poll worker after reading one of your posts explaining why it was important, thanks for the information about the importance of this role. So far I have been to a two hour training session, watched several training videos, and met some of my fellow poll workers. Our election judge is knowledgeable and serious about running fair elections. I have learned so much about the election process and look forward to Election Day. Thanks again.
It is an adjustment for sure but it seems Mastodon is indeed taking off, this info is from a post emptywheel boosted there yesterday:
5,964,279 accounts
+5,248 in the last hour
+70,531 in the last day
+237,372 in the last week
With journalist setting up @journa.host I’ve almost completely transferred to Mastodon. So happy to see Teri there as well!!!
I enjoyed reading your volunteer experiences throughout the different campaigns. Thank you so much for all you’re doing and for your excellent posts–you inspired me to get involved in this election, and taking action has definitely helped reduce my anxiety. Let’s all do what we can between now and Tuesday!
I applaud the work you are doing and hugely appreciate your informative blog posts. I am much more engaged today in the political process that I ever have been in my life (I’m 63.) In the last six months I’ve written 100’s of postcards for Indivisible and Reclaim Our Vote. I considered being a poll worker but due to covid (and elderly parents I help care for) I did not do that this year. I see that in my future though.
Looks like Counter Social is Apple only. Mastodon might take off, or it might not. It still seems that if enough people stay with Twitter for free using lists, writing truthfully, nothing really changes.
Thanks Teri for all that you do! Lots of people still don’t understand how much time investigations take especially considering the breadth of Jan6 criminality! Oh and JJ is such a tease! I’m hopeful that the younger generation is going to carry the Democrats over the line in this election.
That’s a positive. Still, having a zillion different platforms just dilutes everything. Twitter is well-established. Even if Musk messes with it, as long as the positive tools remain, it can be used to spread factual information based on reality rather than a dangerous fictional narrative. And once something positive is out there, it’s possible that somebody who really needs to see it does, even by accident. With every new platform, it takes a lot of time to build networks.
I don’t know yet because I haven’t tried it, but from what I’ve been reading, it’s harder to find the people you want to follow on Mastodon. That means that reach is more limited.
If the reason for being on social media is to try to inform and educate, wouldn’t the widest possible audience be a plus? Then again, in your case, this website is a powerful statement with tons of valuable information.
Also, I accidentally resubmitted my first comment this morning from my iPad – it looked like it hadn’t sent. Sorry about that, but it doesn’t look like I can delete it. If you can, that would be great.
I didn’t mean that NO voters are concerned. I meant that this is not one of the issues that voters as a whole are interested in. For Democrats, abortion and keeping social security are much more pressing issues. There is no evidence that the prosecutions would change the election. If anything, prosecuting Trump might make it more likely for his base to come out and vote.
Me too. Boring is good.
Good to know! The site I saw seemed like it was only in the Apple universe, but it could be just that specific app.
I know several people who have moved out of California because they felt taxes were too high. Many are still staunch Republicans across the board, but a few although having been Republican before couldn’t stomach the cruelty after 2016 and started voting Democratic. I don’t know if they changed their registration or not though.
It often comes down to a person’s core beliefs, and if they have certain issues that push them one way or the other above all others. Choice is a big one, but so is the economy. So much hinges on whether a voter believes the narratives they are being fed, or seeks out facts to support their positions.
“If you believe people like Simon Rosenberg, there may be a red wave,”
I think you mean a blue wave, don’t you? One favoring the Democrats?
Thank you for these posts- they help demystify the American electoral & legal systems to this Canadian, sitting here freaking out…Positive vibes southwards for Tuesday
He says there may be a red wave, but so far there are no signs of it because Democrats are outperforming polls and outperforming 2018 in early voting:
I am a first-time poll worker in Colorado, and many of those who were in my training class were also first-timers. Colorado has a superb system, and numerous people that went through training with me said that just going through training brought a comfort level with election privacy and security that every Colorado voter should have. One election watcher said she signed up because she was hearing too many people say the elections were rigged, and now she can say, “I was there. I know how it works. It’s not rigged.”
I register voters, update their registrations, and print out ballots, even for those who got a ballot through the mail and don’t trust the process of using that ballot. (The mail-in ballot is invalidated just as soon as a ballot is printed in a polling station.)
It’s boring as hell most of the time because we sit in a room for 8 hours without access to any electronic devices. We processed fewer than 30 voters yesterday. Friday it was less than 10. More than 90% of Colorado voters use the numerous monitored drop boxes or USPS. However, Colorado still opens more and more polling stations as the election approaches to ensure that voting and registering to vote is as simple as possible. Election Day is at least a 12-hour day for election workers, regardless of voter numbers.
Everyone has been pleasant, and yesterday we witnessed two brand new citizens get their first ever ballots to vote. We also had a family that escorted their daughter who had justed turned 18 — they made a celebratory visit to the polling station and our staff helped take family pictures (but outside the polling station because cameras aren’t allowed inside). So, it’s really worth the personal time IMO.
I got selected for this work because I signed up when I participated in the Democratic Party caucus process for the first time ever. Teri is one of the reasons I joined the caucuses. However, I know now that anyone can contact the Elections Office and volunteer to assist in election activities; in Colorado you can even indicate in your voter registration that you are interested.
I trust the process in Colorado. If you don’t trust the process in your state, your participation will either give you a comfort level or evidence. Both outcomes are worth the effort.
I probably will do this again in 2024. I just hope there’s an opportunity for election work after that.
These are legitimate concerns. It’s important to vet the server operator as carefully as possible. At the very least it might make sense to choose a server that requires you to apply for an account (and thus vets *you*) rather than a server that simply accepts everyone who signs up.
It’s one of the most bizarre elections I can recall: 1) new Roe voters, 2) huge increase in young people, no doubt due to efforts by David Hogg et. al. (the Parkland FL mass shooting survivor), 3) reports of Republicans creating phony polls (favoring them – of course). Because our best instruments say it’s a tie (despite these contra-indications), it’s going to depend on who shows up. That said, polls measure “likely voters”, and I suspect the 2 cohorts I mentioned may be skipped over by the polls, but I wouldn’t bet the ranch on it.
Thanks for teasing out the inside baseball of Kash Patel for us civilians, and for your stories about working the polls.
I watched Andrew Weissman (MSNBC), and he was very encouraged by the fact that Garland hired a prosecutor who is now (or was, not sure) involved in a case relating to a low-level federal employee keeping secret documents at home (seriously, and said employee is toast). Hire a dog that knows the trail.
Absolutely NOT TRUE! I have never had apple so I would know.
Counter.Social is FABULOUS! I’ve been there since april.
They are again under a DOS attack. Try later. Its a great platform.
Thank you Teri–really appreciated this post–especially the poll worker stories.
“it seems to me that Mastodon is the one most likely to take off”
Yes! Counter social seems pretty dead. Much more liveliness on Mastodon.
“The First Amendment protects lies. Allowing the government to punish lies would not go well.”
IANAL, but every now and then I get on a soapbox and say several things:
1) non-natural persons are created by laws and regulations
2) those laws and regulations can be made to state plainly that such persons may not knowingly mislead under pain of fines and/or dissolution, depending on severity.
As a non-lawyer, I am not seeing this conflicting with the first amendment. If a non-natural person violates the terms of its very existence, then consequences seem appropriate.
SO: what am I missing? 🙂 No lawyer has ever given me a rational response. 🙁
“If the Democrats win, I will breathe a collective sigh of relief. If the Democrats lose, there will be finger-pointing and blaming.”
I’ll breathe a sigh of relief, too, but I only breathe for myself. 🙂
Anyway, some encouraging news (showing decreasing R interest and increasing D), from MSNBC:
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1589306447422435329
(the thread is interesting!)
“Not long afterward, I sat in my college dormitory room and cried when the map turned red. I’ve volunteered on campaigns regularly since.”
Thank you for not getting discouraged. I’m older than you and 2016 was my first time. R’s became the party-before-country party by 1968, but I still voted on candidate qualifications until Newt Gingrich made the “before-country” part explicit and blatant. Anyway, thank you.
“It was my first car chase, and I hope my last.” — I’ve had two :-O , but off topic.
“As a general rule, it’s good when you don’t need lawyers.” !!!
And now, this: https://twitter.com/bruckorb/status/1589003324111876096/photo/1
A bunch of them have moved here to east TN. I was a first-time poll worker for our August primaries and had folks from CA and NY come through. A retail cashier mention that they “escaped” CA to resettle here and we have newcomers to our street from Wisconsin and Michigan. It’s driven up our real estate prices, and while those of us who already own a home are enjoying (?) a bump in equity, it’s knocking many locals out of the market.
The influx of out-of-state residents appears to be motivated by ideological and financial factors.
I really hate to see our country self-segregating like this. It certainly won’t help with the division. But I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about relocating to an area more in line with my politics. But for the foreseeable future, I think I’ll stay put and do what I can here.
I have held from the get-go that Biden’s lousy ‘approval’ numbers have been greatky influenced by ‘progressive’ democrats who ‘disapprove’ only because they’re frustrated at lack of indictments, delay in Biden speaking out about fascism, etc. Those ‘disapprove’ folks will NEVER vote for GOP; the question is, will they show up to vote blue?
Like Janet E, I am a first time poll worked in Colorado. Going through the training gave me confidence and assurance that Colorado’s elections will be free of fraud. I’m at the University of Colorado, Boulder, polling center and we’ve been fairly busy (except for yesterday when there was a football game.) I’m also a mentor on a high school-level robotics team and have been blogging to them about my experiences. Two 18 yo’s voted; one sub-18 yo volunteered to be Student Election Judge.
On Election Day, we will have 40 poll workers in our CU polling center and expect between 1,000 and 1,500 voters.
And Teri – thank you for all the effort you put into this blog. It is an oasis of rationality and learning.
P.S. If I get too long winded, just say something & I’ll edit it down. 🙂
Thank you so much for your blog here!
Regards, Bruce
Have any ideas for how a house-bound person can be useful/helpful? For 2018 election I offered to make phone calls for a candidate here in MA, but it was told it is illegal for the lists to be used off-site of official campaign offices. Person I s/w didn’t know of any way a house-bound person could volunteer. Occurred to me just now, you might know some or have ideas. Thanks. Also, putting the updates in Red was so helpful–muchos gracias for taking YOUR time to make that easier for readers. Lastly, for me, not only is the your entire blog shebang valuable for lots of reasons–the ways you have/do organize & archive it make it extra-ordinarily ‘user-friendly’, and that is a BIG DEAL for lots of peeps. It means when I encourage someone to visit your site, it will be easy for them to access the topic we were discussing, etc. & for them to pass it on to someone else. JJ He could be in the Olympics, I think➡️in that Sprinter category–even w/those much-shorter legs, I bet he’d be a winner.
Thank you for posting what it’s like in that kine of detail. I especiallyappreciate, “If you don’t trust the process in your state, your participation will either give you a comfort level or evidence. Both outcomes are worth the effort.” makes soooo much common sense & spelling it out like that is a fantastic pithy gem. Great for bumper sticker–better yet–Billboard messaging.
FIRST-TIME POLL-WORKER WORK: Out of respect and sympathy for Wandrea Moss and Ruby Freeman (the two January 6th Committee poll workers who described the abuse they suffered in the 2020 election), I just completed a 12-day stint as an Early Voter poll worker in Travis Country, Texas.
As someone else notes in these comments, if you work the polls either (A) you’ll be amazed at how secure the system is, or (B) you’ll have some evidence to support a contrary theory. We’ve seen a number of instances of “Big Lie” adherents now discovering Point A.
____________________
As a poll worker, I noted the few, various citizens who expected to sneak incorrectly through the system. Their embarrassment when their little ploys were caught, helped everybody see just how safe and secure our system is. At least, here in Texas.
____________________
Saddest to me, by far, were the elderly women who, as they cast their ballots and waited for the “Your ballot has been counted” message, leaned close to my ear, to say they hoped their ballot would be counted right this time, and not like 2020. They seemed close to tears. To sow such doubt in such good-hearted, but easily-misled citizens is sad.
____________________
(A number of voters commented on the costly, time-consuming, and visibly unnecessary extra steps foisted on American voters by the Republicans. And this was in a Republican-leaning precinct!)
Next election, I will personally work on encouraging Republicans and other disbelievers, to step up to work the polls. (You’ll note how many actual Republican, actual-poll workers, spoke out against the Trump-led, Republican “Big Lie” fraud.)
I wish I could articulate this better. I’m worn out from the past twelve days of consecutive work, as we were open even on the weekends. Moments of encouragement came our way from many.
But from the other side (such as people who wanted “receipts” for voting, as if such could prove anything) made it a dark and distasteful experience: we workers said nought about politics, even as we served pro-GOP, pro-Conspiracy citizens. May this GOP-led Darkness end soon.
Regards,
(($; -)}™
Gozo
Thank you for sharing your experience as a poll worker. And thank you for volunteering to do the work.
I have been working to GOV in my community. At one point a police car stopped me and as I waved my brochures to assure him I was not some trouble maker or thief, I got the distinct impression he would have liked to have had an excuse to send me packing.
These times are fraught.
I volunteered as a poll worker for the first time for the 2020 Presidential election, when there was a call for younger people to volunteer to help keep the traditionally older poll workers safe from covid. I was very nervous but we had great training and an experienced Chief and Assistant Chief at my polling place. It helped that I only had to walk down the block too. It was a long day but very rewarding, doing my little part for democracy. I’ve volunteered twice more, a primary and the 2019 general (I’m in one of those weird off year states), and it was very rewarding. I’m working again this week for the 2022 midterms and I’m a bit nervous again, mostly because there’s this (very slight) chance of right-wing violence and hooliganism. But, democracy is not a spectator sport and we all have a role to play. So, it’ll be a big coffee and a couple of silly paperbacks to pass any down time while the people speak!
I understand the difference between authoritarian & Democratic societies. And the initial preference for an authoritarian government but when people figure out the truth, how can they continue to prefer that way of living? The people need to look at Hungary, Iran, Libya. How is life there? Do they want life here to resemble that? I believe most would change their minds.
“to ensure that voting and registering to vote is as simple as possible”
also to allow voters to spoil their VBM ballots or deal with other the-dog-ate-it problems.
Does your blog software allow for “+1”-ing posts? 🙂
Amen. [Consider this to be my one-word acknowledgment, or “Like.”]
And thanks, of course, to our host, Teri Kanefield, who brings us these fine, weekly articulations of what’s actually behind all this horrifically “fraught” Darkness.
I wonder if you seen Greg Palast’s film called Vigilante. You have today and I believe tomorrow to watch if for free. It is about voter supression in Georgia, which he has written about often. He also explains how Kemp actually came from a well to do family and not some humble beginnings. Every one should watch this. https://www.gregpalast.com/vigilantefilm/
Thanks. I haven’t seen it.
Thank you so much for all of your hard work, for sharing your personal experiences as an involved citizen, and for the dog content (perfect way to bring a close to all of the heavy lifting of the pieces). I came across an interesting article on Twitter by Molly Jong-Fast (Nov. 7th issue of Vanity Fair), and I found her description of Mastodon to be worth sharing here: “I am not enjoying watching Musk break his new plaything, but I will stay on Twitter until there’s a real alternative. I’m testing out Mastodon, which is confusing, sort of like an online IKEA kit with the special wrenches missing. But internet people need a place to exist, so maybe Mastodon will be my new home, or at least my new Örfjäll chair.”
I’m loving Mastodon. I’m working all day today, but as soon as I can I plan to do my own Mastodon post.
Teri. I have a question that does not pertain to messaging platforms and maybe on the outside of the mid-terms but, my question; if the gerrymandering maps in Ohio have been held unconstitutional and illegal, how is it that our votes cast this November (and beyond) could be considered legal? How is this different than “mass voter fraud” other than that there has been none?
The party that has drawn the maps and been subsequently refuted, ran out the clock for the mid-terms and a judge let the original map stand. How is that legal? Or how can our votes count?