Tag: voting by mail

More than 500,000 mail ballots were rejected in the primaries. That could make the difference in battleground states this fall.

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More than 534,000 mail ballots were rejected during primaries across 23 states this year — nearly a quarter in key battlegrounds for the fall — illustrating how missed delivery deadlines, inadvertent mistakes and uneven enforcement of the rules could disenfranchise voters and affect the outcome of the presidential election.

The rates of rejection, which in some states exceeded those of other recent elections, could make a difference in the fall if the White House contest is decided by a close margin, as it was in 2016, when Donald Trump won Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by roughly 80,000 votes.

This year, according to a tally by The Washington Post, election officials in those three states tossed out more than 60,480 ballots just during primaries, which saw significantly lower voter turnout than what is expected in the general election. The rejection figures include ballots that arrived too late to be counted or were invalidated for another reason, including voter error. Continue reading.

NOTE: If you’re interested in finding out of how to vote by mail absentee in Minnesota, visit the Minnesota of Secretary of State’s website for specifics.

Minnesota GOP Promoting Voting by Mail

Minnesota Republicans are on record with being concerned about people voting by mail. Now, the Minnesota GOP is sending out ballot applications. It seems to us that there is no consistency with this kind of behavior unless they only want specific people to vote safely. If it’s fraudulent for people to vote by mail, wouldn’t be fraudulent for Republicans to do so?

Postal Service overhauls leadership as Democrats press for investigation of mail delays

Washington Post logoLawmakers want the inspector general to examine Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s cost-cutting measures and investments

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s mail service, displacing the two top executives overseeing day-to-day operations, according to a reorganization memo released Friday. The shake-up came as congressional Democrats called for an investigation of DeJoy and the cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery and ensnared ballots in recent primary elections.

Twenty-three postal executives were reassigned or displaced, the new organizational chart shows. Analysts say the structure centralizes power around DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major ally of President Trump, and de-emphasizes decades of institutional postal knowledge. All told, 33 staffers included in the old postal hierarchy either kept their jobs or were reassigned in the restructuring, with five more staffers joining the leadership from other roles.

The reshuffling threatens to heighten tensions between postal officials and lawmakers, who are troubled by delivery delays — the Postal Service banned employees from working overtime and making extra trips to deliver mail — and wary of the Trump administration’s influence on the Postal Service as the coronavirus pandemic rages and November’s election draws near. Continue reading.

Pandemic sparks partisan brawl over voting by mail

The Hill logoThe coronavirus outbreak has ignited a partisan battle over whether the U.S. should enact measures to make it easier to vote by mail in the fall election.

After a legal wrangle, Wisconsin controversially went forward with its primary election on Tuesday during what is likely to be one of the worst weeks of the pandemic, raising thorny questions about whether people were putting their health and lives on the line by leaving their homes to vote.

Some are warning that Wisconsin could be a harbinger for things to come on Nov. 4 if the coronavirus lingers or kicks back up in the fall, putting poll workers and voters at risk. Continue reading.