We have tens of millions out of work since February and Trump & Co. don’t seem to give an F.
If Trump thinks the USPS is the opposition or is helpful to the opposition yes, he’ll try to shut it down. He doesn’t care about the consequences to anyone but himself.
I’m sorry - haven’t you heard about the “the mailbox down the corner” removals in some areas?
I’m planning to vote in person. I can’t be sure my vote will count otherwise. Of course, that’s a problem for many other people. Also a problem in areas where polling places are being eliminated but since I’m in a red state I expect mine will still be there. I do hope there is not just one party on the ticket.
I don’t think the folks currently in power and clinging to it like barnacles care about rural people, either - as long as they can make sure their guy gets more electoral votes than the other guy they don’t care who gets hurt, much less inconvenienced. It’s all acceptable sacrifices.
No, but they do care about votes. And because of down ticket races, you could possibly see representatives and senators start to break away if Trump is going to cost them their own seats.
There was a local election in my old town that had much higher than expected turnout, and they ran out of ballots! They finally rounded some up at the courthouse; Xeroxing them wasn’t feasible.
That’s cool. I’m a poll worker. At our state’s primary on Tuesday*, we ran out of the little “voter number slips” the voter brings from the check-in (poll book) table to the ballot distribution table. We had to use a batch in a font right out of the FDR era.
*There were essentially no contested races, yet our district had about 25% turnout (about half via absentee)…despite all the COVID fears. November is gonna be HUGE! In an ideal world, that would be a great thing. In these circumstances, though — poll worker shortages, post office shenanigans — it will likely be a huge mess. Still, it’s beautiful that people are so eager to vote.
[Edit: this is in response to Senegoid’s suggestion of finding out whether there’s a drop-off spot in the area.]
checks the entirety of Canada nope. I can drop my ballot off at the US Consolate, but they just put them in the post for me. And even if I were willing to make the 2400-mile round trip, the border’s closed.
During a furlough the post office is not closed because it’s essential (delivery of medications, bills, and payments). It’s considered an essential service.
It is impossible to close a federal service for 2-3 weeks of civil servants, unless there’s a furlough and furlough’s don’t apply to USPS.
When people start lining up in the hospital because they’re dying from their meds not arriving , or collapsing at lines at the pharmacy for meds, or even hospitals lose orders of medications, it would be a cold psychopath of a republican who will would watch their dying parents and children and still vote for him
The problem is the “adults” I’m referring to are dedicated totalitarians eager to rule the country with an iron fist. Or are at best mighty opportunists intending to insert their claws into the deep corruption gravy train so deeply it’ll be decades to get them out.
Think some combo of the siloviki and the oligarchs in Russia today. Or more like as they were in 2005. An unseemly battle between raw lust for continent-scale money and raw lust for continent-scale police power.
The senators from my state are already complaing about the mail slowdown for exactly that reason.
I still stand by my prediction of a Postal Service shutdown, but they may try to finesse it by just shutting down post offices in Democratic-heavy neighborhoods of swing states.
The RW media will spin it so the Democrats are the cause of any shutdowns. It’ll take convoluted reasoning, but they’ll manage.
I’d argue there are two populations of R politicians here. The ones who style themselves mini-Trumps as @amarinth suggests, and the far more numerous more typical Rs who fear the Trumpist base as @Exapno_Mapcase says.
Assuming Trump loses in Nov how the Rs ever tame (or harness) that horde is a mystery to me.
If the rest of our system could support a 3rd party I could totally see the right splitting into a traditional small fiscally-sound government plus active DOD party and a frothing RW authoritarian racists party.
SInce our system can’t support a 3rd party, what will square this circle? Hellifino.
Find out if there will be a drop box at your polling place on election day. Where I live, there are. You can fill out your ballot in the convenience of your home (that is, assuming you’re able to obtain your ballot via the US Mail in time in the first place), then hand-carry it to the polling place on election day (or earlier if your polls are open earlier) and drop it off there in person.
BTW: I saw an item somewhere today, that the USPS says it will suspend removing any more corner mailboxes until after the election. The surge of popular outrage got to them!
Already happening! NBC News reports:
“An all-out war over mail voting has erupted in courts across the U.S. Here’s what’s at stake.”
ETA: The plaintiffs in these cases, BTW, are both Republican and Trump campaign officials who are trying to stifle mail-in voting in various ways, and various voting rights groups who are trying to increase and facilitate mail-in voting.
And what does a “real, legitimate” drop-off box look like? I’m expecting:
In some seemingly official location, like at a polling place, or your county election office (not a party headquarters office!), or City Hall, or such-like.
Secure-looking box, looks tamper-proof, bolted to the floor, whatever you think “secure” looks like.
Under supervision, like poll workers at a polling place to keep an eye on it, or under constant video surveillance.
Although, the drop-off boxes I’ve seen (at the actual polling place and at the County Recorder’s office, where I’ve seen them in the past) are just cardboard boxes with a slot in the top, but they have somebody there watching them.
The perspective I was speaking from is as one of the supposed “adults” of the republican party who are the totalitarians and opportunists of whom you speak.