RandySF
RandySF's JournalTX-07: Houston Chronicle endorses Lizzie Fletcher for reelection.
Although a political novice, Fletcher, 45, hit the ground running in her first term, authoring a bill to cut federal red tape and speed disaster recovery funding that was much needed in the Houston area.
The measure passed the House with just seven votes against as Fletcher teamed with Fort Bend Republican Rep. Pete Olson and even pulled in conservative North Carolina Republican Mark Meadows as a co-sponsor. Meadows is now President Donald Trump’s chief of staff.
Fletcher also smartly sought spots on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, where she is chair of the energy subcommittee. Other panels might be more glamorous or attention-grabbing but they are not as crucial to the interests of the region NASA calls home and where the oil and gas industry and the Houston Ship Channel mean jobs, commerce and development.
While some members of the progressive wing of her party have grabbed headlines, Fletcher has made her mark through hard work and coalition building.
“I don’t know how many other people,” Fletcher told the editorial board, “have been endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with a 100 percent rating from the AFL-CIO.”
That is an approach and an attitude the voters should reward on Nov. 3.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Editorial-We-recommend-Lizzie-Fletcher-for-U-S-15606711.php
Record number of women running for NY Legislature
ALBANY — The number of women running for the state Legislature has hit an all-time high, shattering the record set just two years ago.
A total of 119 women are slated to be on the ballot with the backing of a major party for one of the 213 legislative seats. That’s up from 105 in 2018, a figure that easily surpassed the previous record of 91 set in 2006.
Republicans made some gains toward gender balance. A total of 31 of the 151 GOP candidates are women, up from 26 in the last election.
But as was the case two years ago, Democrats drove the unprecedented spike. Of the party's 199 legislative candidates, 88 are women. That’s up from 80 in 2016 and only 45 as recently as 2012.
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/09/23/record-number-of-women-running-for-legislature-1317999
Florida Democrats take wide lead in mail ballot requests
Florida Democrats are building a substantial lead in mail-in ballot requests for November’s presidential election even as their registration advantage shrinks, but questions remain about whether that will be a boon for Joe Biden as he tries to wrest the nation’s largest swing state from President Donald Trump.
The Florida Secretary of State’s office shows that 2.4 million Democrats have requested mail-in ballots compared with 1.6 million Republicans — a 767,000 request advantage as the coronavirus pandemic makes some voters leery of entering a polling place. It’s also a sharp change from 2016 when requests — and returned mail-in ballots — were evenly split. Trump narrowly won Florida over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and statewide elections are notoriously tight.
However, Republicans have gained some ground in voter registration. Both parties have about 5 million registered Floridians. Democrats have a 183,000-member advantage, down from 330,000 four years ago.
With its 29 electoral votes, Florida is crucial to both candidates but especially so for Trump, who moved his official residence to his Palm Beach estate Mar-a-Lago from New York last year. A Florida loss would make it nearly impossible for Trump to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to retain the White House.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/370990-fla-dems-vbm
The start of early voting in Philly was riddled with technical issues
The much-anticipated debut of early voting got off to a rocky start in Philadelphia on Tuesday, as technical issues left voters frustrated and confused while they waited in line, unable to cast their ballots.
Philadelphia opened the first seven of 15 satellite elections offices, where voters can request, receive, fill out, and submit a mail ballot in one stop.
“It’s a mail-in vote without having to use the mail,” Lisa Deeley, chair of the Philadelphia Board of City Commissioners, said at a morning news conference outside the Liacouras Center at Temple University, where one of the new offices is located. The others are in public schools.
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/philadelphia-pennsylvania-early-voting-offices-open-20200929.html#loaded
Nearly 80% of Bexar County voters plan to vote early or by mail in November, poll finds
Most voters in Bexar County plan to take advantage of the early voting period, according to a new Bexar Facts-KSAT-San Antonio Report poll released Tuesday.
In the survey of more than 600 registered Bexar County voters, 59% said they plan to vote in-person before the day of the election. Only 21% of registered voters said they will vote in person on the day of the election, while 17% said they plan to vote by mail.
But, if the poll is correct, the percentage of mail-in voters would be much higher than in past elections. For example, in 2016 only 6.4% of votes were cast by mail in Bexar County. Now, according to the poll, 17% of likely voters say they plan to vote by mail.
https://www.ksat.com/vote-2020/2020/09/30/nearly-80-of-bexar-county-voters-plan-to-vote-early-or-by-mail-in-november-poll-finds/
Early voting in Chicago begins Thursday
CHICAGO - Early voting in Chicago starts on Thursday.
Officials say over the next two weeks, if you live in Chicago and want to register and vote, a Loop super site at the corner of Lake and Clark is where you can do it.
“We are prepared and given the large turnout expected, we want you to be prepared also,” said Marisel Hernandez, Chicago Board of Elections Chairwoman.
On the heels of a heated debate, and amid a contentious election season and coronavirus concerns, Thursday marks the first day of in-person, early voting in Chicago.
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/early-voting-in-chicago-begins-thursday
Biden team encourages early voting with new USPS Snapchat campaign
On Wednesday, the Biden for President team will release a new Snapchat lens encouraging supporters to vote early in key swing states ahead of the US presidential election.
The Biden team will be the first campaign to employ Snapchat’s Marker technology. If users decide to use the lens in selfie mode, they will be covered in aviators and Biden-Harris merchandise, including a T-shirt, hat, and button. Once users flip the camera, they’re directed to aim it at a United States Postal Service logo. The logo could be on a mailer or a nearby mailbox. Once the USPS logo is scanned, fireworks go off with the message “Vote Early for Biden-Harris.”
As of last week, the Biden campaign is spending significantly more money on Snapchat compared to President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, according to the progressive digital advertising firm Acronym. The Biden campaign spent nearly $740,000 on the platform whereas Trump’s team has spent only around $41,000. The new Snapchat lens is part of the Biden team’s ongoing paid media efforts and will be targeted to 18- to 34-year-olds in swing states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Iowa, and Georgia. The lens will also be geo-targeted around mail drop box and post office locations around the country.
In May, the Biden campaign rolled out its first Snapchat lens that put users in Biden-style aviator sunglasses. In the following months, the campaign has launched several new online organizing efforts like partnering with the celebrity video-sharing platform Cameo for fundraising and offering in-game Biden-Harris yard signs and merch in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/30/21495336/biden-harris-campaign-snapchat-logo-usps-early-voting
Arnold Schwarzenegger pitches in $250K to help Texans vote safely during COVID
Tens of thousands of Texas voters in one of the regions hardest-hit by COVID-19 will safely be able to cast ballots, thanks to an unlikely source: The Terminator.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor and last Republican governor of California, is sending $250,000 through a foundation he runs to Cameron County on the Texas border to help that area open up supercenter polling sites that will assure people have enough social distancing to safely vote in the fall elections.
“We all have to do as much as we can so people can vote,” Schwarzenegger said after dialing into the Cameron County Commissioner’s Court meeting on Tuesday via ZOOM. “We have to give the people the opportunity to do that.”
The money is a huge boost for the county, said Remi Garza, the Cameron County elections administrator.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Arnold-Schwarzenegger-Texas-vote-covid-terminator-15609572.php
LA County Nears Goal Of Recruiting 17k Election Workers, And Young People Are Stepping Up
As the largest voting jurisdiction in the country, Los Angeles County needs an army of election workers to run voting sites and process ballots for 5.4 million registered voters.
For the general election, the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder's Office estimates it will enlist 16,700 workers, mostly to operate vote centers during the 11-day period when Angelenos can cast a ballot in-person. The first centers will begin to open Oct. 24, but the majority will be available during the following weekend, through Election Day.
As of last week, the county had recruited roughly 15,000 election workers. "Those [people] have applied ... have engaged in training, have been contacted to engage in training, and have been provided training options," said L.A. County Registrar-Recorder spokesman Mike Sanchez. The goal is to finish the hiring process by Oct. 16, he added. "We are extremely grateful for the strong community response."
Poll workers in L.A. County receive a stipend of $100 per day and $80 for mandatory training days.
There's been a surge of interest this year in the usually un-sexy job of election administration. The spectre of a contagious virus, protests for racial justice and a tumultuous 2020 campaign season inspired many civic-minded groups to launch efforts to draft young people to become poll workers.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1002
Wisconsin GOP wants Bucks, Brewers players, racing sausages banned from polling sites
As concerns over voter suppression mount around the upcoming elections, Republican party officials in Wisconsin have set Milwaukee Bucks and Brewers players and racing sausage mascots in their sights.
The state’s party chairman Andrew Hitt sent a warning on Wednesday to the Milwaukee Election Commission against allowing athletes and mascots to appear at early voting events planned at local stadiums.
Miller Park is the Brewers home stadium. The Bucks play at Fiserv Forum. Both will serve as early voting sites as stadiums across the country are being used to expand voting access during the COVID-19 crisis. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the racing sausage mascots appeared at a voter registration event on Sept. 22.
Hitt didn’t express concern about players and mascots advocating for a particular candidate, but cited a state law defining illegal electioneering as “any activity which is intended to influence voting at an election,” according to the Associated Press.
https://au.sports.yahoo.com/wisconsin-gop-wants-bucks-brewers-players-racing-sausages-away-from-polling-sites-203755271.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGvuWAZRe6xwNVdQH2IPMCf3JNrDkcLfGUt99WaouGKzmMPjB0efTHJGow0HPr_zv1Zug0tEtkwdjvCGwK5NRb3JHrX5abYfPWH052Ij0Sa9qW5MiHjXa4oazWK8R_ngfbjVcxqmzqU7N2yOcgLkCs_bOKIsFAYL2BBcFTBaQNPb
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