# NEW Stupid Republican Idea of the Day (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 22, 2020, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140 "2020-06-22T07:01:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 64
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1266 "2020-10-12T21:16:56Z")
So if they aren’t official, can people take them and put them in the dump? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1267 "2020-10-12T21:19:27Z")
Oh, you know what? I take that back. Rereading the comment it sounds like he’s saying _planning_ a terrorist attack shouldn’t be a crime and people should only be arrested after the fact. Scum. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1268 "2020-10-12T21:28:18Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Mike Lee, who is positive for covid, showed up at the SCOTUS hearings in person today sans mask. And Lindsay Graham asked Barrett to remove her mask before testifying. OK, so you’re saying there’s a chance that Barrett will be confirmed and then bring covid into the Court’s chambers, possibly infecting the lot of them? Maybe Biden won’t have to add any justices, just fill the ensuing vacancies. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1269 "2020-10-12T21:31:24Z")
Just to keep following this story: > **[California orders GOP to remove unofficial ballot boxes](https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-fresno-elections-california-santa-ana-be803bfe99f5eb35e17a6ee56315deb0)** > > SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California's chief elections official on Monday ordered Republicans to remove unofficial ballot drop boxes from churches, gun shops and other locations and Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned those behind the “vote... ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1270 "2020-10-12T21:42:29Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Wouldn’t those places (GOP headquarters, gun shops, Baptist church) tend to vote Republican? If the Republicans were trying some shennanigans, wouldn’t it make more sense to put the unofficial boxes in places where more “Demoncrats” would vote? By putting them where the Republicans are, they’re, in effect, throwing out Republican votes! You put the unofficial boxes outside of, say, Planned Parenthood clinics, you’re going to draw more from the leftist crowd, and you’d be throwing away votes for Biden instead of Trump! I don’t understand either what they were ostensibly claiming to be doing here, or what they were actually planning to do. Can anyone explain? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1271 "2020-10-12T21:44:07Z")
From the article, > [@](#): > > Ballots will be turned in to county election officials, which was always the plan, said Fred Vanderhoof, chair of the Fresno Republican Party. And, of course, the State Election Commission is going to throw all of them out because there was no chain of custody, right? Or is law and order only applicable in select cases? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1272 "2020-10-12T21:45:14Z")
> [@gonzoron](#): > > OK, so you’re saying there’s a chance that Barrett will be confirmed and then bring covid into the Court’s chambers, possibly infecting the lot of them? Unfortunately, Barrett caught the virus earlier in the year, and is probably now immune. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1273 "2020-10-12T21:51:18Z")
Unless they are being placed on official Republican property, they are no longer owned by the Republican Party-they are _abandoned_ by the Republican Party. Pick them up and take them to the dump. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1274 "2020-10-12T21:52:54Z")
Even if they are on Republican property, they were not handled by the official Registrar, and therefore the chain of custody cannot be verified, and they’ll have to be thrown out. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1275 "2020-10-12T21:57:13Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > the chain of custody cannot be verified So what did this mean in the article linked above? A Republican’s mouth was moving, so I assume he was lying, but is there some fig leaf of truth behind this at all? > Barajas said the state’s law governing so-called ballot harvesting allows an organization to collect and return groups of ballots. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1276 "2020-10-12T21:58:40Z")
I’ve changed my mind-I think they would make excellent receptacles for bags of dog shit. I would even give Republicans credit for keeping our parks and sidewalks clean. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1277 "2020-10-12T21:59:00Z")
From the article linked to before, > [@](#): > > County registrars are charged with making sure every box follows strict state guidelines for security, including making sure they can’t be tampered with and tracing the chain of custody of all ballots. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1278 "2020-10-12T22:03:00Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Wouldn’t those places (GOP headquarters, gun shops, Baptist church) tend to vote Republican? If the Republicans were trying some shennanigans, wouldn’t it make more sense to put the unofficial boxes in places where more “Demoncrats” would vote? By putting them where the Republicans are, they’re, in effect, throwing out Republican votes! You put the unofficial boxes outside of, say, Planned Parenthood clinics, you’re going to draw more from the leftist crowd, and you’d be throwing away votes for Biden instead of Trump! The goal is to sow confusion and lack of confidence in the results. A week after the election, you pop up and say “see, here are a bunch of Republican ballots that were never counted. How many more weren’t counted? we’ll never know. \_\_\_\_\_\_ illegitimately won the election.” Had they not been caught red handed, it’s likely those ballots would have been planted so that they were found near a post office or a local Democratic Party headquarters. The GOP is actively trying to destroy democracy. (Or so it seems. I’m willing to entertain another explanation for what they’re doing. Republicans? Anyone?) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1279 "2020-10-12T22:04:58Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I don’t understand either what they were ostensibly claiming to be doing here, or what they were actually planning to do. Can anyone explain? [I think they’re updating the article](https://www.ocregister.com/2020/10/11/unofficial-ballot-drop-boxes-popping-up-throughout-the-state-worry-elections-officials/). It now includes a couple of paragraphs further down: > [@](#): > > The California Republican Party did not respond to requests for comment about the boxes by deadline. But they’ve been defending the practice in replies on Twitter, alleging the process was made legal under a 2016 law that allows California voters to designate a person to return their ballot for them. The GOP calls the practice “ballot harvesting” and blames it for losses to the Democrats in OC and other places in 2018. > > But state officials clarified that using an unauthorized vote-by-mail drop box would not meet the requirements of the 2016 law. No designated “person” would be signing for the ballots as required by state law. So, the 'Pubs are claiming these boxes are where people can designate the Republican Party to collect and return their ballot; State officials are saying “Nope. No specific individual is signing for them, so not official.” ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1280 "2020-10-12T22:07:25Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > The goal is to sow confusion and lack of confidence in the results. This. It’s the only Republican game plan at this point; Destroy democracy. They are actively doing this now. They know they can’t win the election, so they are choosing to try to burn down the country instead. Openly. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1281 "2020-10-12T22:26:49Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > That said, I strongly suspect he was defending militia members not involved in the plot, essentially trying to argue that the article unfairly painted all militia members with a broad brush. That was my take on his comment. And he’s wrong. All militia members are dangerous. The very fact that we call them a militia does them too many favors. Why are a bunch of white guys with guns a militia, but a bunch of black guys with guns a gang? And the militia itself, historically, was never really something that had a permanent and self-determining existence, and it certainly isn’t in the modern era. Whatever you think about second amendment rights, private militias that make independent decisions about when they’re going to go into action are not constitutionally authorized. In fact, the “well regulated” part of the second amendment was precisely about state control and training and supervision; it didn’t simply mean “These guys know how to march in order and shoot straight.” The founders never thought of militias as vigilantes who got to set their own rules about how and when to go into action. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1282 "2020-10-12T22:43:53Z")
This is why I took my ballot directly to the Board of Elections in my county and handed it in. Plus, I got a lollipop! ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1283 "2020-10-12T22:58:15Z")
Is there anything in the GOP’s reasoning that wouldn’t also apply to me as an individual if I wanted to create a ballot box and place it somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1284 "2020-10-12T23:08:46Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Wouldn’t those places (GOP headquarters, gun shops, Baptist church) tend to vote Republican? If the Republicans were trying some shennanigans, wouldn’t it make more sense to put the unofficial boxes in places where more “Demoncrats” would vote? By putting them where the Republicans are, they’re, in effect, throwing out Republican votes! You put the unofficial boxes outside of, say, Planned Parenthood clinics, you’re going to draw more from the leftist crowd, and you’d be throwing away votes for Biden instead of Trump! > [@amarinth](#): > > The goal is to sow confusion and lack of confidence in the results. > > A week after the election, you pop up and say “see, here are a bunch of Republican ballots that were never counted. How many more weren’t counted? we’ll never know. \_\_\_\_\_\_ illegitimately won the election.” Had they not been caught red handed, it’s likely those ballots would have been planted so that they were found near a post office or a local Democratic Party headquarters. > > The GOP is actively trying to destroy democracy. (Or so it seems. I’m willing to entertain another explanation for what they’re doing. Republicans? Anyone?) This would have been my response, exactly. The goal is to create an appearance of voter fraud committed by Democrats, so as to bring a challenge in court and thereby attempt to “win” a seat in an election that they would otherwise likely lose in a fair election. The ballot-harvesting BS is just the fig leaf they are using because they got caught. IMHO, of course. > [@Catamount](#): > > This is why I took my ballot directly to the Board of Elections in my county and handed it in. Plus, I got a lollipop! I’m so glad you got a lollipop! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/1285 "2020-10-12T23:22:00Z")
These chuds are terrorists. “Vanilla ISIS,” read one tweet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140.md?page=63) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140.md?page=65)