The nation cannot tolerate a chaotic Election Day

[Zorro]

AMID PROTESTS and coronavirus lockdowns, it is urgent that the nation not lose focus on another urgent priority: ensuring that everyone can vote safely in the fall. Last Tuesday was the busiest Election Day since the coronavirus lockdown began, and it drove home the reality that the nation’s compounding crises could prevent many from exercising their right to vote. Every state and county elections director must prepare now to avoid that unacceptable outcome.

Tuesday’s voting went smoothly in some areas. Iowa notched turnout that set a record for a June primary, handling a massive uptick in absentee voting, in part because the state’s Republican secretary of state ignored President Trump’s groundless warnings against expanding mail-in balloting. Pennsylvania elections officials, too, reported no major problems statewide.

Yet things were far from perfect in and around Philadelphia, where long lines, confusion about ballot drop-off locations and missing absentee ballots marred voting. Judges had to extend deadlines for returning mail-in ballots in places where elections officials failed to deliver absentee ballots in time. And, though thousands of mail-in ballots are yet to be tallied, Pennsylvania’s turnout seems to have been low. What were manageable problems on Tuesday could turn into disasters in a high-turnout general election.

Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, tension between the community and the police compounded the vote-deterring effects of the coronavirus, as black residents in one neighborhood felt threatened about voting at a polling place in a building that also contains a police station. Every seemingly small decision election officials make about November, such as which polling places to keep open, can have magnified effects in a time of overlapping crises.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-nation-cannot-tolerate-a-chaotic-election-day/2020/06/07/ec050276-a69e-11ea-b473-04905b1af82b_story.html

[BamaRefugee]

1. Well "the nation" is gonna get one so we gotta deal with it.

[lark]

2. It's time to "gird our loins" and do what we absolutely have to do - VOTE BLUE!

Yes, it's likely to be really ugly and I think it's likely there will be violence. I do expect red state to close most precincts in blue cities just to suppress Democratic voices and I do expect rednecks showing up with guns to those long lines and I do expect violence. If it's possible to stay away and vote - do it! Vote early, it's the safest way to vote and the easiest if you have to leave your house. In FL, they don't do strict signature matching on the early votes and any rejections are on the spot and you know it. With mailed in votes in FL, which has strict signature matching for these, any rejected voters arent notified, even though the state lies about it. Mail in voting is not good for Democrats in this state but early voting is excellent. If your state doesn''t use the voter suppression tactic of signature matching, then it is the best way, done from your home. For those states that will allow neither, and the number of those could be increasing a lot as red states get fearful, we must be prepared to walk on our knees through glass to vote. Have a plan to be in line for up to 8 hours, bring any needed supplies - raincoat & hat, chair, water, food, book, sun screen, umbrella and VOTE.

It will take a #BLUETSUNAMI to win with Russia interfering on drumpfs' behalf and with all the repug voter suppression schemes & violence.