Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Block The Vote - 2020 Edition

The Republican National Committee and other Republican groups are suing the state of California for attempting to expand mail-in voting for the November elections this year.  If Donald Trump weren't pushing the idea that mail-in voting - which he's taken advantage of in the past - is a bad thing, this suit would be utterly ridiculous.  But its utterly serious.
The courts are likely to side with California for expanding voting by mail, since several other states use it already, and Trump won't be able to stop any state from going forward with such plans.  Thanks to his efforts to make voting by mail look susceptible to voter fraud - despite the fact that the charge itself is a fraud - none of that matters.  If he gets enough people to suspect voting by mail as illegitimate, then he could successfully claim that the election was rigged should he lose to Joe Biden in the fall based on more mail-in ballots thanks to the COVID-19 crisis.  And spreading the idea that mail-in voting is fundamentally flawed might discourage some people from voting by mail or, because of the pandemic, voting altogether.  He wants to get people to doubt the process and get people to believe that the process only works if he manages to get re-elected.
This isn't utterly serious, it's utterly dangerous.  Mail-in-voting activists have felt under siege and de-legitimatized by Trump's antics and his efforts to discredit the electoral system.  Now is not the time for them to knuckle under.  Mail-in balloting may not have the same solemnity as showing up to vote in person, but it's an important part of expanding the franchise.  Hopefully, voting by mail can be upheld in the near future.  Assuming, of course, that the United States Postal Service is around by November.   

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