In razor close election, military ballots tossed (Virginia)

[icymist]

STAFFORD, VA (WUSA9) - With control of Virginia's House of Delegates hanging in the balance, Democrats and many veterans are furious that scores of military ballots have been tossed aside.

The Electoral Board in Stafford County is refusing to count the votes from troops overseas and around the country -- even though they could make a difference in the razor-close race for District 28.

Bob Thomas, the Republican who is 84 votes ahead of Democrat Joshua Cole, says the ballots arrived at the Electoral Board on Wednesday, the day after Election Day.

But House Democratic leaders say the county registrar simply failed to pick up the ballots from the post office box, where they had arrived on Tuesday.

http://www.wusa9.com/news/politics/elections/in-razor-close-election-military-ballots-tossed/490942366

[DFW]

1. Pay attention to who is doing the tossing

[Hortensis]

6. Surprise!? 99.99% of the time conservatives. I was reading

about when Jimmy Carter first ran for the state senate here in Georgia. A state power boss who thought centrist Carter was too liberal sent his people to the primary polls to watch and threaten. He himself pulled the ballots of an elderly couple who defied him out of the box, threatened to burn their house down if they tried anything like that again, and then put in 6 to replace them. Although only 333 ballots had been issued, 420 were counted and of course the political machine's incumbent "won." (Carter won in the end.)

This was way before demographic changes nationally convinced conservatives they could only win by stealing elections, but they'd already long faced that reality in Georgia, of course, where a third of the electorate was black.

[DFW]

8. Not conservatives--just Republicans

These people are no more conservative than they are Tibetian Buddhist monks.

Conservative means taking a measured, cautious approach to things, risk averse. Think twice before speaking once. These people are dishonest radical control freaks who don't care who they run over as long as they can drive at any speed they like.

Republican, NOT conservative (except when speaking Republicanese or Foxese).

[Hortensis]

9. Sorry, DFW, but not correct. 1. I used the word conservatives

deliberately because Carter's race was a Democratic primary.

2. Conservative is a basic personality type, a genetic hard wiring of the brain. We KNOW that now. Liberal is the other basic genetic orientation. They both lead people to certain political attitudes, regardless of party label. The Democratic Party still has conservative members, mostof whom reliably vote Republican in every presidential race. But of course not all conservatives support what the GOP is doing.

Political scientists and conservative intellectuals do agree 100% with you that the (official) traditional political conservatism of the GOP, as intellectuals attempted to define it in the mid 20th century, has been effectively destroyed, or at least quashed. "Valuing and conserving what has been proven to be good" was very much in the way of the Koch types running their show these days, so one of their first steps to turning that party into their weapon was to destroy it.

The GOP was especially vulnerable because, unlike liberalism, conservatism has no deep intellectual roots. It's mostly a reaction, that voice in the belly W was proud to claim he listened to.

(Scientists have actually discovered that conservatives process information by running it through an emotional center first, before sending it on for "fact checking." Liberals the other direction. The former was no doubt a very desirable characteristic when approach of a sabertooth was first suspected, but maybe less desirable for the electorate of a democracy?)

[DFW]

11. I get all that, but in English the two aren't opposites

I am quite conservative, myself--same woman for the last 43 years, same employer for the last 42 years, risk-averse, cautious, averse to debts, no addictive drugs (not even nicotine, alcohol or religion), and raised two children who now are out in the world supporting themselves.

On the other hand, I believe in equal rights for all, voting rights for all, health care for all, preserving the environment with any and all drastic action needed (and that's a lot at this point), keeping religion out of education and government, etc.--classic liberal stances. The only things I am against liberalizing are gun ownership laws, which I think are too liberal already--they need to be tightened.

Where "conservatism" equals Republicanism, I agree--no intellectual roots at all, deep or otherwise. Literacy is a dirty word to them, since if you read enough, you might learn that the crap you heard on Fox Noise was nothing but a string of lies. Nothing scares a Republican more than that.

[Hortensis]

13. There are a lot of good conservatives out there. And far more

who aren't but want to be. I didn't mention, of course, that personality characteristics range in strength from very mild to extreme, but they do, nor that environment plays a very strong role in this as in everything else.

Realities that entirely explain the typical story of a friend who "changed" from apolitical in the 1970s, mostly seeming to agree with liberal friends in a liberal town, to an implacably hostile trumpster after moving to Arizona in the new century.

In any case, a first step to fixing this current disaster is to understand its roots. Anyone who recognizes the basic personality characteristics of conservatives and liberals can no longer be confused or fooled outright by labels. And just as important, they won't be so subject to a hostility that refuses to understand the viewpoints of others and inadvertently propagates lies based on those labels.

[yuiyoshida]

2. Well who joins the military these days?

Not rich young white men... so its all people of color or women, or Low Income white men... so why should they bother to count when they know, there are few Republicans hidden in the troops.

[Takket]

3. Isn't it the postmark date, not the delivery date, that matters?

[Lee-Lee]

5. Thats what I was thinking, but it looks like not in VA

Last edited Mon Nov 13, 2017, 09:53 AM - Edit history (1)

I just looked it up, and it says they must be received at the Board of Elections office by 7:00pm Election Day and mailing date does not matter.

In this case it sounds like a board of elections employee was negligent and failed to do their job properly, causing absentee voters to be disenfranchised.

I am sure there is case law somewhere that says when a letter is considered “delivered” for legal purposes, but I imagine these ballots were probably sent certified so that would imply delivery happens when they are signed for most likely.

[spooky3]

10. Did you mean VA rather than CA?

[Lee-Lee]

14. I did, thanks for catching that

[stuffmatters]

4. Ga (Dem) Gov should shut down this crime, also charge that Regisrar w election fraud

The Registrar's intention to get the votes discarded by not picking them up at the Post Office on time is clear, deliberate election tampering.
Gov MacAuliffe is no ingenue to election fraud, he surely recognizes this for what it is. He's a popular Gov in Va and he'd also be
demanding that Soldiers votes get counted. He needs to stop this crime before the R's destroy those absentee ballots.

[Madam45for2923]

7. and why?

[Baitball Blogger]

12. Gee, I remember how military ballots were given extended time in Florida

back in the Bush v Gore era.

What happened, Republicans? I thought you liked veterans. Weren't you sure they were a guaranteed Republican vote? What happened?

[Yonnie3]

15. This story is quite different that the ones I have read. Nothing has been tossed.

For instance several reports say the ballots were picked up at 6:30 pm on Tuesday. There are two Democrats on the board who are involved in the decisions.

see https://www.democraticunderground.com/10814569 in the Virginia group

Nothing has been tossed . The board is holding everything pending a decision.

see https://www.democraticunderground.com/10814566