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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRepublicans In Swing States Were Fixing Vote-By-Mail Systems. Then Trump Tweeted.
(HuffPost) GOP lawmakers were seriously preparing for a flood of absentee ballots until the president signaled that he prefers chaos.
The bill was supposed to be uncontroversial, and at first, it was. Early this year, Michigan advanced a bipartisan measure to let election officials take absentee ballots out of their mailing envelopes but not to unseal the ballots or count them the day before Election Day. It was the kind of small, bureaucratic switch that could make the difference between timely results in this falls presidential election and chaos. And it was moving steadily, with Republican support, through Michigans GOP-led Senate.
Then, President Donald Trump made it clear that he preferred chaos. There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent, he tweeted in May. Since then, the bill has barely budged.
The loss of momentum in Michigan follows a pattern that voting rights advocates say they are seeing in key swing states: As Trump has worked furiously to undermine mail-in voting, rank-and-file Republicans, who were previously serious about adapting elections amid the coronavirus pandemic, have fallen in line to help him.
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Michigan is just one example. In Pennsylvania, Republicans have signaled that they wont agree to speed up absentee ballot counting without also adding new voter restrictions. In Wisconsin, the Republican-controlled state legislature has altogether ignored calls to prepare for a tidal wave of mail-in ballots. All three are swing states that could determine the presidential race. And in all three states, laws bar officials from opening mail-in ballots before Election Day, making it virtually impossible to report accurate results on election night. (Read More)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-mail-in-voting-republicans-swing-states_n_5f52ba3ac5b62b3add407b24
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Thekaspervote
(32,755 posts)PA, WI, and MI with dem govs have dem appointed SOS. Their f..king gop legislators can go right ahead with their nonsense!! We will have the say in the end, and their wont be a thing they can do about it.
FM123
(10,053 posts)My state (Florida) is in a slightly different situation - it is a critical swing state that carries a hefty 29 electoral votes (which is more than MI and WI put together) and our Sec of State and Gov are devout trump worshippers that will do literally anything to stay in his good graces. That being said, I am not ruling out FL just yet....
gulliver
(13,180 posts)It won't work. It only shows he knows he's going to lose.
2naSalit
(86,536 posts)kimbutgar
(21,130 posts)Buckeye_Democrat
(14,853 posts)The story of his life!
I looked up the status of my absentee ballot application a few days ago, and there's been about twice as many Democrats as Republicans who have applied in my county so far. (Dayton OH area.)