As previously noted, Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant defeated the December 7 recall that tried to remove her from office. Part of her strategy was to set up “pop-up voting booths” throughout her district. In Washington, any registered voter is free to print his or her own postal ballot and use it. The “pop-up voting booths” enabled persons to use the computer provided at the site to print their own ballot. The volunteers merely had to remain neutral while they interacted with the voter. See this story.
Recalls for entire legis bodies in simple PR system — TV/TM to elect each member.
ie put total pressure on to expel monsters.
That’s about the stupidest method of voting I have ever heard. Other countries witness that and think Americans are too retarded and lazy to walk or mail their ballot in. Whats next? Put wheels on voting machines and push them to everyone’s house? Maybe put cardboard mini ballots with bubble gum to make it easier. Democrats want to make it easier to vote and cheat because their voters are lazy and ignorant. Bette Midler was wrong at calling West Virginians names. That’s the Democrats she was referring too. I hate seeing lazy voters being coddled too. The pussies.
Amazon makes shopping really easy and the founders of Amazon have been rewarded by becoming extremely wealthy. What’s wrong with making things more convenient for people? Life is frequently a hassle and ideas to smooth things should be celebrated, not criticized.
This comment of mine should not be taken to mean that Amazon doesn’t have some monopolistic tendencies. I can criticize some things about Amazon but I still appreciate how much good it has done, especially for people who have trouble walking and getting out, due to old age or disability or pain.
No surprise Richard Winger supports voter fraud.
No surprise that the authoritarian far-right views any means to make voting more accessible as “fraud” or “laziness”. This isn’t the late 18th century anymore. Every adult citizen should have the right to vote (and perhaps 16-17 year olds too since they’re allowed to work and have their paychecks taxed), and the process should be as accessible as possible.
Joshua supports fraud. Voting multiple times, dead people voting, illegals voting, who cares right?
I’d rather a voter actually know what they’re voting for or have some knowledge base about the ramifications of their vote (like the candidate’s issue positions) rather than have a far left activist tell them how to vote.
If anything the voting age should be pushed up to 25 or more. The brain isn’t even fully developed until 25 at least.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164708
@richard winger… Have you heard of conflict of interest? Seriously ballot stations bar you from wearing clothing or signage with any candidate or endorsement or campaigning within 150 feet. It is to keep elections from giving the appearance of bias or partisanship. Now you think this is appropriate that a campaign official, organizer, voter or paid staff is collecting votes? What can go wrong? If MAGA supporters did this in a black neighborhood you would never hear the end of it.
No wonder Seattle is such a communist hell hole. This “voting” system is completely insane. It sounds like something out of North Korea.
Voting should be made much, much harder. The safeguards which kept undesirable voters away from the polls in the 18th and 19th centuries should all be brought back. The immigration law changes of 1965 must be repealed, and anyone who is here only as a result of those should be stripped of citizenship or residency and deported along with the illegals.
And yes, the voting age should be raised. 21 was, roughly, an average midlife point in 1789, perhaps the equivalent of age 40 today. Most men were married with several children and gainfully employed heads of households at age 21 back then. Today that’s the exception rather than the rule at 21.
BINGO!
The newspaper story says the people running the pop-up stations obey the laws about neutrality and not doing anything to show favoritism. Also the common no-politics zone is almost every state is 100 feet, not 150 feet. When a state uses all-postal voting (which Washington state has been doing for quite a while) it is inevitable that voters voting at home will often be influenced by whoever lives with them, a spouse, or perhaps visiting close friends. So it seems to me the pop-up places are more politically neutral than the normal way of voting in Washington state.
As everyone here knows, newspapers never lie or get anything wrong. And of course they’re omniscient and omnipresent, so they would know if any of the people running pop up stations ever do anything to show favoritism or not. However, thanks for pointing out one of the many problems with all mail voting.
…as opposed to all male voting, which would be an actual improvement.
You actually believe that article? Reporters lie all the time. Look at CNN.
Richard Winger makes some very good points and I can go along with making voting easier; but, my big concern is the more avenues allowed for more and easier voting the more possibilities of fraud and delays in vote counting. I mean, what’s wrong with good ole fashioned voting machines and absentee voting only? That should cover all the bases.
To echo “Another Person” response to Mr. Winger, there are very clearly limitations on conduct within so many feet if polling places that are unenforceable for these pop-up polling places. So either the pop-up stations are going to get more heavily regulated or all the polling place limitations have to disappear to have consistency.
Imagine the next presidential election in Washington State, one side will use this heavily, become a scandal, and change in law occurs.
Congress will probably vote not to accept their electoral votes, which is probably a good thing. That will give them the proper incentive to make their voting in person, election day only, with a valid current state drivers license or state ID and voter registration. The only possible acceptable excuse I can see is for active duty military personnel stationed out of state or overseas. No excuses, no early voting, no mail voting, or any other nonsense. Any state that can’t follow such simple rules should have to fix them first before having their electoral votes accepted.
The committee to recall Kshama Sawant was very well-organized, and it had the personpower to report any violations of the law, but it didn’t find any instances in which the law had been violated.
ANY pictures of a KS pop-up booth ???
esp with KS name to be seen ???
pop-up booths to be REQUIRED in a Devil City RED commie bill ???
Of course, if they never turned themselves in and a newspaper says they never broke the law, that must mean it’s true and it never, ever happened. Right?
The Worker’s Party of Korea is very well organized, and it has the personpower to report any violations of law by its election workers. It hasn’t found any instances where it violated election laws. The People’s Daily also reports that the elections were held in an exemplary Democratic fashion, with a 100% or higher voter turnout in every iminiban. It condemns the lousy capitalist dogs in the South, and their American puppeteers, for the voter suppression there, which keeps many workers away from the polls in sham elections controlled by the capitalist bosses.
https://www.nknews.org/2014/03/the-weird-weird-world-of-north-korean-elections/
My deepest apologies to the Dear Leader for incorrectly translating inminban. I will now happily transfer myself for my new work assignment in an area which can’t be discussed for reasons of national security.
@RW,
The picture in the article showed a pop up stand with posters about the right-wing recall effort. One of the workers was holding a poster. Both workers posed for the picture with their arm raised in a fist.
@richard winger were the Kshama Sawant “pop up” election sites equitable. You know if MAGA set up “pop up” sites in MAGA friendly neighborhoods then the otherside would complain about not being equitable and evenly disbursed. A partisan type “pop up” election site is supposed to maintain election integrity but you and I know this is a sham. This kind of nonsense happens in emerging democracies and tyrannical countries. It seems your mask just came off. Sad. Your site seemed to have some objectivity.
Sawant won by less than 350 votes. I wonder how many “pop up” site votes were delivered for Sawant. I suspect more than 350. It must have been the difference. The fix is in. But yeah “lEtS mAkE vOtInG eAsIeR”…
Total farce. What do you call a place on the other side of the curve from an emerging democracy – submerging democracy? They are openly campaigning with posters and “conversations” before and after voting. Then they supposedly become neutral election officials for a minute while printing and processing the vote, then turn right back to campaign mode. What if more than one voter in different stages of voting are at the booth at the same time, are they campaigning with some while being neutral with others? Are they trying to call over people to get them to stop and vote as they pass by? This may not quite be the full blown North Korean system yet, but it’s definitely a step towards it.
Imagine being someone who wants to vote for the recall – how comfortable would you feel stopping at one of those booths to vote? They may just know where you live and how you voted. Are these the same people who smash store windows and loot during riots, now running these “pop up voting locations”? They just might be, and how would you know? Sure, you could still print off your ballot at home, but these pop ups clearly give one side an advantage. It should tell you something about the climate of intimidation and fear that no one on the other side would have felt safe setting up “pop up voting locations.”
Actually, the newspaper doesn’t even say they never broke the law. It says that the campaign said they never broke the law, and that there were multiple complaints. The visual evidence and any lick of common sense suggest that they broke the law routinely. But it’s more important that they themselves say they never broke the law.
What else might they have done, or do in future campaigns? Go door to door repeatedly to check to see why people who hadn’t voted yet hadn’t done so, and helpfully suggest they should come right down to the printing station and get that taken care of? Maybe already have it printed out and offer to have them fill it out right then and offer to deliver it for them?
If a recall supporter showed up at one of these Communist voting sites, I’m sure the communist volunteers would totally count the vote and not throw it in the trash.
Throwing it in the trash is one thing to be worried about, but being harassed at home (they’ll know where you live), getting doxed, being harassed online once doxed… there’s any number of reasons why recall supporters may have felt uncomfortable or intimidated about stopping by a booth like that. Since they’re just as likely to be inconvenienced in case they misplaced their ballot, forgot to turn it in, etc, as those opposed to the recall, the existence of voting locations staffed by obviously partisan volunteers provide a clear edge to one side in the election. Mail voting is one thing, and Mr. Winger is correct to point out that friends and family members can have an undue influence, but it’s at least an area where both sides may have the same kind of sway. Openly partisan voting locations, and all from one side, clearly tilts the election. I don’t see how that would not be obvious to anyone and everyone.
You can believe terrorist antifa and BLM were manning those stations that day.
It’s likely that only one side had these booths because the other side was justifiably worried about physical attacks. In other words, they were terrorized of/by the leftist scum terrorists.
Vladimir Putin would smile over this. He could learn a few things about American democracy. It would lead Vladimir to blush and say “you trust me, no? What can go wrong?” :/
Maybe more like Xi Jinping?
Seattle is fugucked hard and is going down down down down.
Truth!