• OT OT OT Come Back Jibini. Was: Three Body Problem

    From Titus G@21:1/5 to Bobbie Sellers on Tue Aug 20 16:06:48 2024
    On 20/08/24 09:08, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
    On 8/19/24 01:06, D wrote:

    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024, quadibloc wrote:


    My nickname for quadibloc is FourBricks (in an Otherwise Empty Skull).
    He is the reigning newsgroup loony with absolute faith in USA propaganda
    and a self proclaimed expert on US politics from his padded cell in
    Canada. All the problems in the world are caused by angry young men,
    (not completely white), and will be solved with obedient Vat grown girls
    but that is his story to tell.
    "D" which may stand for Dishonest or Dumb and definitely Definitely
    Right Wing is agreeing with him. Ha, ha, ha.
    They both live in my kill file.
    You, are needlessly wearing out your typing fingers.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Tue Aug 20 13:30:39 2024
    On 8/20/24 08:51, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:08:09 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/19/24 01:06, D wrote:


    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024, quadibloc wrote:

    <snippo>

    necessary public health measures against COVID-19, and he spewed lies

    Trump's mode of converse is to lie and lie again. He knew just
    how bad the crisis of Covid 19 would be and he lied to the American
    Public.

    He did much much worse -- he failed to use the opportunity to rally
    the nation behind him and be swept into office in 2020 by a landslide.

    He won the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton won the
    popular vote.


    Instead, he chose to alienate pretty much every group in the country
    except his base and those traditional Republicans whose party loyalty
    got the better of their judgement.

    Trump just isn't that good a politician. The pandemic was a golden opportunity and he didn't know it.

    He was only a successful businessman on a TV show.
    Apparently the only law he fully understood was the Tax law and
    the way he could use Bankruptcy to escape from paying his debts.

    bliss

    --
    b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Bobbie Sellers on Tue Aug 20 17:45:56 2024
    On 8/20/2024 1:30 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
    On 8/20/24 08:51, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:08:09 -0700, Bobbie Sellers
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/19/24 01:06, D wrote:


    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024, quadibloc wrote:

    <snippo>

    necessary public health measures against COVID-19, and he spewed lies

        Trump's mode of converse is to lie and lie again. He knew just
    how bad the crisis of Covid 19 would be and he lied to the American
    Public.

    He did much much worse -- he failed to use the opportunity to rally
    the nation behind him and be swept into office in 2020 by a landslide.

        He won the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton won the
    popular vote.


    Instead, he chose to alienate pretty much every group in the country
    except his base and those traditional Republicans whose party loyalty
    got the better of their judgement.

    Trump just isn't that good a politician. The pandemic was a golden
    opportunity and he didn't know it.

        He was only a successful businessman on a TV show.
        Apparently the only law he fully understood was the Tax law and
    the way he could use Bankruptcy to escape from paying his debts.

    Successful Con Man, not businessman. Most of his businesses went
    bankrupt or lost money until he sold them.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Wed Aug 21 09:26:32 2024
    On Tue, 20 Aug 2024 13:30:39 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/20/24 08:51, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:08:09 -0700, Bobbie Sellers
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/19/24 01:06, D wrote:


    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024, quadibloc wrote:

    <snippo>

    necessary public health measures against COVID-19, and he spewed lies

    Trump's mode of converse is to lie and lie again. He knew just
    how bad the crisis of Covid 19 would be and he lied to the American
    Public.

    He did much much worse -- he failed to use the opportunity to rally
    the nation behind him and be swept into office in 2020 by a landslide.

    He won the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton won the
    popular vote.

    Not in 2020 he didn't. He was defeated by "massive voter fraud" -- by
    which he meant "a sh*tload of people voted for Biden", "voter fraud"
    meaning "not voting Republican" in Republican-speak.

    If people would just recognize this then
    -- everything they say and do about "suppressing voter fraud" would
    make perfect sense -- they are suppressing people who don't vote
    Republican; and
    -- we wouldn't have to read pathetic articles written in the fond
    belief that they mean what everybody else means by "voter fraud".

    Instead, he chose to alienate pretty much every group in the country
    except his base and those traditional Republicans whose party loyalty
    got the better of their judgement.

    Trump just isn't that good a politician. The pandemic was a golden
    opportunity and he didn't know it.

    He was only a successful businessman on a TV show.
    Apparently the only law he fully understood was the Tax law and
    the way he could use Bankruptcy to escape from paying his debts.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From BCFD 36@21:1/5 to Titus G on Wed Aug 21 11:41:51 2024
    On 8/19/24 21:06, Titus G wrote:
    On 20/08/24 09:08, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
    On 8/19/24 01:06, D wrote:

    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024, quadibloc wrote:


    My nickname for quadibloc is FourBricks (in an Otherwise Empty Skull).
    He is the reigning newsgroup loony with absolute faith in USA propaganda
    and a self proclaimed expert on US politics from his padded cell in
    Canada. All the problems in the world are caused by angry young men,
    (not completely white), and will be solved with obedient Vat grown girls
    but that is his story to tell.
    "D" which may stand for Dishonest or Dumb and definitely Definitely
    Right Wing is agreeing with him. Ha, ha, ha.
    They both live in my kill file.
    You, are needlessly wearing out your typing fingers.


    I think he may have to join Jibni in mine also. I am not entirely sure D
    is a human being, could be a bot. Or maybe a member of a troll farm.
    Either way, he contributes nothing to this group other than to spew
    right wing propaganda.

    --
    ----------------

    Dave Scruggs
    Senior Software Engineer - Lockheed Martin, et. al (mostly Retired)
    Captain - Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
    Board of Directors - Boulder Creek Fire Protection District (What was I thinking?)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Titus G@21:1/5 to William Hyde on Thu Aug 22 17:11:43 2024
    On 22/08/24 09:33, William Hyde wrote:
    Cryptoengineer wrote:
    On 8/20/2024 4:30 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
    snip
    He was only a successful businessman on a TV show. Apparently the
    only law he fully understood was the Tax law and the way he could
    use Bankruptcy to escape from paying his debts.

    We're talking about a man who went bankrupt *running a casino*.

    I don't know, but I didn't think he had been bankrupt personally but
    that companies of his have. I think that he will have profited from
    ownership and bankruptcy of these companies making him a very successful businessman.
    Worse, he was warned.

    An analyst for a bank that was thinking of lending money to build
    this casino concluded that it would not attract enough money to pay
    its debt load.

    When Trump heard of this, he pressured the bank to fire the analyst.
    He was fired, the bank made the loan, and lost money.

    I think Trump would have made money personally or directed money to
    repay favours/create obligations.
    It all sounds like pot boiler fiction but he gets away with it. In one
    court case, Trump's legal representatives claimed that the European bank seeking repayment of millions were at fault for failing to take into
    account Trump's reputation for loan defaulting before approving loans to
    his companies.

    Banks can be quite stupid sometimes, snip

    Trump deals in such large sums that I would suspect corruption before
    stupidity of bank employees or directors.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to Titus G on Thu Aug 22 09:27:27 2024
    On Thu, 22 Aug 2024 17:11:43 +1200, Titus G <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 22/08/24 09:33, William Hyde wrote:
    Cryptoengineer wrote:
    On 8/20/2024 4:30 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
    snip
    He was only a successful businessman on a TV show. Apparently the
    only law he fully understood was the Tax law and the way he could
    use Bankruptcy to escape from paying his debts.

    We're talking about a man who went bankrupt *running a casino*.

    I don't know, but I didn't think he had been bankrupt personally but
    that companies of his have. I think that he will have profited from
    ownership and bankruptcy of these companies making him a very successful >businessman.
    Worse, he was warned.

    An analyst for a bank that was thinking of lending money to build
    this casino concluded that it would not attract enough money to pay
    its debt load.

    When Trump heard of this, he pressured the bank to fire the analyst.
    He was fired, the bank made the loan, and lost money.

    I think Trump would have made money personally or directed money to
    repay favours/create obligations.
    It all sounds like pot boiler fiction but he gets away with it. In one
    court case, Trump's legal representatives claimed that the European bank >seeking repayment of millions were at fault for failing to take into
    account Trump's reputation for loan defaulting before approving loans to
    his companies.

    Banks can be quite stupid sometimes, snip

    Trump deals in such large sums that I would suspect corruption before >stupidity of bank employees or directors.

    If he made a practice of losing money on casinos, I'm surprised the
    Mob didn't take him out years ago.

    Maybe that RICO case in Georgia (if it ever gets going) has some
    justification for the "RICO".
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Titus G@21:1/5 to William Hyde on Fri Aug 23 17:30:15 2024
    On 23/08/24 08:37, William Hyde wrote:
    snip

    Having just reread "The Big Short" I am convinced that there is no limit
    to human stupidity when greed is a factor.


    I have not read that but am aware that the Global Financial Crisis of
    2008 is a euphemism for FRAUD having read Matt Taibbi's version in
    Rolling Stone.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mad Hamish@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Aug 23 16:49:28 2024
    On Thu, 22 Aug 2024 09:27:27 -0700, Paul S Person
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    On Thu, 22 Aug 2024 17:11:43 +1200, Titus G <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 22/08/24 09:33, William Hyde wrote:
    Cryptoengineer wrote:
    On 8/20/2024 4:30 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
    snip
    He was only a successful businessman on a TV show. Apparently the
    only law he fully understood was the Tax law and the way he could
    use Bankruptcy to escape from paying his debts.

    We're talking about a man who went bankrupt *running a casino*.

    I don't know, but I didn't think he had been bankrupt personally but
    that companies of his have. I think that he will have profited from >>ownership and bankruptcy of these companies making him a very successful >>businessman.
    Worse, he was warned.

    An analyst for a bank that was thinking of lending money to build
    this casino concluded that it would not attract enough money to pay
    its debt load.

    When Trump heard of this, he pressured the bank to fire the analyst.
    He was fired, the bank made the loan, and lost money.

    I think Trump would have made money personally or directed money to
    repay favours/create obligations.
    It all sounds like pot boiler fiction but he gets away with it. In one >>court case, Trump's legal representatives claimed that the European bank >>seeking repayment of millions were at fault for failing to take into >>account Trump's reputation for loan defaulting before approving loans to >>his companies.

    Banks can be quite stupid sometimes, snip

    Trump deals in such large sums that I would suspect corruption before >>stupidity of bank employees or directors.

    If he made a practice of losing money on casinos, I'm surprised the
    Mob didn't take him out years ago.

    It's not their money, but they could launder money through them anyway

    Maybe that RICO case in Georgia (if it ever gets going) has some >justification for the "RICO".

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mad Hamish@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Aug 23 16:48:00 2024
    On Tue, 20 Aug 2024 13:30:39 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/20/24 08:51, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:08:09 -0700, Bobbie Sellers
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/19/24 01:06, D wrote:


    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024, quadibloc wrote:

    <snippo>

    necessary public health measures against COVID-19, and he spewed lies

    Trump's mode of converse is to lie and lie again. He knew just
    how bad the crisis of Covid 19 would be and he lied to the American
    Public.

    He did much much worse -- he failed to use the opportunity to rally
    the nation behind him and be swept into office in 2020 by a landslide.

    He won the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton won the
    popular vote.

    Who landed on the moon first in your timeline?
    Because in this one he won the 2016 election against Hilary Clinton
    but lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.


    Instead, he chose to alienate pretty much every group in the country
    except his base and those traditional Republicans whose party loyalty
    got the better of their judgement.

    Trump just isn't that good a politician. The pandemic was a golden
    opportunity and he didn't know it.

    He was only a successful businessman on a TV show.

    He was fairly successful in NY real estate (a pretty well protected
    business if you have enough capital) and he's had some success running
    country clubs and hotels.
    Of course in both those cases there's strong stenches of fraud
    He pretty much failed outside of those areas

    Apparently the only law he fully understood was the Tax law and
    the way he could use Bankruptcy to escape from paying his debts.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From BCFD 36@21:1/5 to Mad Hamish on Fri Aug 23 01:08:02 2024
    On 8/22/24 23:48, Mad Hamish wrote:

    [stuff deleted]

    He won the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton won the
    popular vote.

    Who landed on the moon first in your timeline?
    Because in this one he won the 2016 election against Hilary Clinton
    but lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

    The first statement was completely true. In 2016 Hillary won the popular
    vote, but scum bucket won the Electoral College. In 2020 Biden won the
    popular vote by an even larger margin than Hillary and the Electoral
    College.

    At this point, the Electoral College is the only vote that counts in the
    race for President/Vice President.

    And Jules Verne landed on the moon first. Everyone knows that.

    [more stuff deleted for brevity]

    --
    ----------------

    Dave Scruggs
    Senior Software Engineer - Lockheed Martin, et. al (mostly Retired)
    Captain - Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
    Board of Directors - Boulder Creek Fire Protection District (What was I thinking?)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Scott Lurndal@21:1/5 to Mad Hamish on Fri Aug 23 13:37:40 2024
    Mad Hamish <[email protected]> writes:
    On Tue, 20 Aug 2024 13:30:39 -0700, Bobbie Sellers ><[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/20/24 08:51, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:08:09 -0700, Bobbie Sellers
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/19/24 01:06, D wrote:


    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024, quadibloc wrote:

    <snippo>

    necessary public health measures against COVID-19, and he spewed lies >>>>
    Trump's mode of converse is to lie and lie again. He knew just
    how bad the crisis of Covid 19 would be and he lied to the American
    Public.

    He did much much worse -- he failed to use the opportunity to rally
    the nation behind him and be swept into office in 2020 by a landslide.

    He won the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton won the
    popular vote.

    Who landed on the moon first in your timeline?
    Because in this one he won the 2016 election against Hilary Clinton
    but lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

    While that is true, it is also true that in 2016 the orange clown
    lost the popular vote - he only won due to the electoral college.

    In 2020 he lost both the popular vote and the electoral college.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Mad Hamish on Fri Aug 23 07:50:05 2024
    On 8/22/2024 11:48 PM, Mad Hamish wrote:
    On Tue, 20 Aug 2024 13:30:39 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/20/24 08:51, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:08:09 -0700, Bobbie Sellers
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/19/24 01:06, D wrote:


    On Mon, 19 Aug 2024, quadibloc wrote:

    <snippo>

    necessary public health measures against COVID-19, and he spewed lies >>>>
    Trump's mode of converse is to lie and lie again. He knew just
    how bad the crisis of Covid 19 would be and he lied to the American
    Public.

    He did much much worse -- he failed to use the opportunity to rally
    the nation behind him and be swept into office in 2020 by a landslide.

    He won the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton won the
    popular vote.

    Who landed on the moon first in your timeline?
    Because in this one he won the 2016 election against Hilary Clinton
    but lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

    As he said, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote while Trump won the
    electoral college vote in the 2016 election.


    Instead, he chose to alienate pretty much every group in the country
    except his base and those traditional Republicans whose party loyalty
    got the better of their judgement.

    Trump just isn't that good a politician. The pandemic was a golden
    opportunity and he didn't know it.

    He was only a successful businessman on a TV show.

    He was fairly successful in NY real estate (a pretty well protected
    business if you have enough capital) and he's had some success running country clubs and hotels.
    Of course in both those cases there's strong stenches of fraud
    He pretty much failed outside of those areas

    The recent public documents Trump had to release show that basically
    only his golf courses make money. Everything else essentially breaks
    even or loses money.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to Titus G on Fri Aug 23 08:50:20 2024
    On Fri, 23 Aug 2024 17:30:15 +1200, Titus G <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 23/08/24 08:37, William Hyde wrote:
    snip

    Having just reread "The Big Short" I am convinced that there is no limit
    to human stupidity when greed is a factor.


    I have not read that but am aware that the Global Financial Crisis of
    2008 is a euphemism for FRAUD having read Matt Taibbi's version in
    Rolling Stone.

    I watched the film and, while a docudrama is not something I actually
    enjoy, I must admit that it was most informative.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Aug 23 08:58:01 2024
    On Fri, 23 Aug 2024 01:08:02 -0700, BCFD 36 <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/22/24 23:48, Mad Hamish wrote:

    [stuff deleted]

    He won the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton won the
    popular vote.

    Who landed on the moon first in your timeline?
    Because in this one he won the 2016 election against Hilary Clinton
    but lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

    The first statement was completely true. In 2016 Hillary won the popular >vote, but scum bucket won the Electoral College. In 2020 Biden won the >popular vote by an even larger margin than Hillary and the Electoral >College.

    Hiller "won" the popular vote only by a plurality. To actually /win/ a
    race based on the popular vote she would have had to get a majority.

    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a
    runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the
    votes.

    [1] If you are wondering "when", since Jan 6 is pending, the answer I
    would suggest is: everything would move back two months. The election
    would be in September. The runoff, if needed, would be in November.
    The Party Convention and Primary dates would have to be adjusted as
    well.

    At this point, the Electoral College is the only vote that counts in the >race for President/Vice President.

    That's been true since the beginning of the United States of America
    (as opposed, IIRC, to the earlier confederation).

    And Jules Verne landed on the moon first. Everyone knows that.

    Well, Beford & Cavor did, anyway.

    [more stuff deleted for brevity]
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From BCFD 36@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Sat Aug 24 12:37:21 2024
    On 8/23/24 08:58, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Fri, 23 Aug 2024 01:08:02 -0700, BCFD 36 <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/22/24 23:48, Mad Hamish wrote:

    [stuff deleted]

    He won the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton won the
    popular vote.

    Who landed on the moon first in your timeline?
    Because in this one he won the 2016 election against Hilary Clinton
    but lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

    The first statement was completely true. In 2016 Hillary won the popular
    vote, but scum bucket won the Electoral College. In 2020 Biden won the
    popular vote by an even larger margin than Hillary and the Electoral
    College.

    Hiller "won" the popular vote only by a plurality. To actually /win/ a
    race based on the popular vote she would have had to get a majority.

    I don't believe this is true in most cases. For example, take a race for Governor of just about any state. Democrat candidate get 48%. Republican candidate gets 47%. Greens get 3%. The remaining 2% gets split among
    many fringe parties. The Democrat candidate will now be the Governor and
    there won't be a run off.

    This was true in Kansas, Nevada, and Oregon in the 2022 elections. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_gubernatorial_elections
    for the actual info.

    However, in the Primary elections, many parties require that a candidate
    get a majority before being declared as the party's candidate.


    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a
    runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the
    votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be
    wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    [1] If you are wondering "when", since Jan 6 is pending, the answer I
    would suggest is: everything would move back two months. The election
    would be in September. The runoff, if needed, would be in November.
    The Party Convention and Primary dates would have to be adjusted as
    well.

    At this point, the Electoral College is the only vote that counts in the
    race for President/Vice President.

    That's been true since the beginning of the United States of America
    (as opposed, IIRC, to the earlier confederation).

    And Jules Verne landed on the moon first. Everyone knows that.

    Well, Beford & Cavor did, anyway.

    [more stuff deleted for brevity]

    --
    ----------------

    Dave Scruggs
    Senior Software Engineer - Lockheed Martin, et. al (mostly Retired)
    Captain - Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
    Board of Directors - Boulder Creek Fire Protection District (What was I thinking?)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jay E. Morris@21:1/5 to All on Sat Aug 24 16:48:32 2024
    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a
    runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the
    votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to Jay E. Morris on Sat Aug 24 21:16:02 2024
    On 8/24/24 14:48, Jay E. Morris wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a
    runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the
    votes.

    We do not have runoff in General Elections only in Primary
    Elections in San Francisco at least. In the USA generally I believe.


    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would
    be wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    The Ranked choice system is barely working at City Levels
    and is very confusing to a great many people and the way it is
    scored seems somewhat strange to me.

    I would not like to see this at a State Level or even a

    congressional election much less nationally. We recently

     had a tie at a county or state legislature level. This would

     have divided the vote of the one party against the candidate

    of the other party but fortunately the elder of the tied candidates

    yielded to youth.

    If more democracy is desired in government we should
    start at the state level by instituting the right of the people
    to do vexatious state laws by referendum. Jerry Brown was twice
    able to convince the people of the state to raise taxes for
    the benefits and protections that could afford (Fires and
    Quake response).

        We have an nasty law foisted upon the people
    supposedly for the benefit of the aged which limits the tax
    revenue from property but the real big winners were companies
    owning property on which the tax could not be increased to
    pay for funded services, like streets and Schools. We have
    streets in very bad condition many years later and school
    teachers having to spend their own remuneration for supplies.
    There is a anti-tax movement which has been effectual
    regarding maintaining this bad law. One Howard Jarvis
    was the original leader but I think he may not be active
    any longer.

    bliss

    --
    b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Jay E. Morris on Sat Aug 24 22:33:01 2024
    On 8/24/2024 2:48 PM, Jay E. Morris wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a
    runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the
    votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would
    be wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    And how exactly is that going to work with the Electoral College?

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Aug 25 08:33:13 2024
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a
    runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the
    votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be
    wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ...
    prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to
    prohibit it.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Aug 25 08:37:40 2024
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 12:37:21 -0700, BCFD 36 <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/23/24 08:58, Paul S Person wrote:

    <snippo>

    I don't believe this is true in most cases. For example, take a race for >Governor of just about any state. Democrat candidate get 48%. Republican >candidate gets 47%. Greens get 3%. The remaining 2% gets split among
    many fringe parties. The Democrat candidate will now be the Governor and >there won't be a run off.

    This was true in Kansas, Nevada, and Oregon in the 2022 elections. See >https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_gubernatorial_elections
    for the actual info.

    However, in the Primary elections, many parties require that a candidate
    get a majority before being declared as the party's candidate.

    It appears I was unduly influenced by Georgia's Senatorial elections
    in 2022 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_Senate_election_in_Georgia>.

    Thanks for the correction.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Robert Woodward on Sun Aug 25 09:57:51 2024
    In article <[email protected]>,
    Robert Woodward <[email protected]> wrote:

    In article <vaefm9$1p7ki$[email protected]>,
    Dimensional Traveler <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:48 PM, Jay E. Morris wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a >>> runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would
    be wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    And how exactly is that going to work with the Electoral College?

    The ranked voting system would work by state, thus requiring no change
    to the Electoral College. Thus, for example in 2016, if Wisconsin,
    Michigan, and Pennsylvania had ranked voting, Hillary Clinton would had
    won those states if she was the 2nd choice for most of the voters in
    those states who had voted for Jill Stein (Green party).

    Eep, posted too soon - she would had needed about half the Gary Johnson (Libertarian party) as well.

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. �-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Dimensional Traveler on Sun Aug 25 09:53:46 2024
    In article <vaefm9$1p7ki$[email protected]>,
    Dimensional Traveler <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:48 PM, Jay E. Morris wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a
    runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would
    be wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    And how exactly is that going to work with the Electoral College?

    The ranked voting system would work by state, thus requiring no change
    to the Electoral College. Thus, for example in 2016, if Wisconsin,
    Michigan, and Pennsylvania had ranked voting, Hillary Clinton would had
    won those states if she was the 2nd choice for most of the voters in
    those states who had voted for Jill Stein (Green party).

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. —-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Sun Aug 25 10:21:11 2024
    On 8/25/24 08:33, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a
    runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be
    wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ... prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to prohibit it.

    I here in San Francisco find it borderline but maybe I just
    do not clearly understand the way it is scored here in city elections
    with some positions contested among many candidates.
    In Alaska I bet they are more conservative than San Francisco
    and find this innovative system too radical for their taste.

    But since this is San Francisco radical is on the menu.

    bliss

    --
    b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris Buckley@21:1/5 to Cryptoengineer on Sun Aug 25 19:16:49 2024
    On 2024-08-25, Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 3:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    ...
    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be
    wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.

    Why? Lots of countries have elections with multiple rounds. France just
    had one.

    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly
    won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Chris

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Aug 25 21:14:32 2024
    Paul S Person <[email protected]d> wrote:
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ... >prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to >prohibit it.

    It's been used for the Hugos for a long time, and I think it's a good idea
    when you have a large number of candidates each of which is unlikely to
    obtain a majority. But, it only works if people understand how the system works and when putting "none of the above" in the rank can be useful.

    One of the big deals with the ranked system is that it's very favorable to minority parties compared with a winner-takes-all system, and I think that
    is a thing that has the major parties strongly against it.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Bobbie Sellers on Sun Aug 25 17:27:15 2024
    On 8/25/2024 10:21 AM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
    On 8/25/24 08:33, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a >>>>> runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>>>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ...
    prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to
    prohibit it.

        I here in San Francisco find it borderline but maybe I just
    do not clearly understand the way it is scored here in city elections
    with some positions contested among many candidates.
        In Alaska I bet they are more conservative than San Francisco
    and find this innovative system too radical for their taste.

    Alaska did give us Sarah Palin....

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Gary R. Schmidt@21:1/5 to Chris Buckley on Mon Aug 26 17:57:45 2024
    On 26/08/2024 05:16, Chris Buckley wrote:
    On 2024-08-25, Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 3:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    ...
    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be
    wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.

    Why? Lots of countries have elections with multiple rounds. France just
    had one.

    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an indeterminate calendar for schools.


    Do it on a Saturday, when schools are closed, as are many, but not all, businesses.

    And if you allow early- and postal-voting, the problem just goes away.

    Cheers,
    Gary B-)

    P.S. Yes, yes, I know the USA chose Tuesday to restrict the number of
    actual voters.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Aug 26 08:49:36 2024
    On Sun, 25 Aug 2024 17:39:22 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a >>>>> runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>>>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ...
    prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to
    prohibit it.


    It worked very well in London, Ontario and while some of my best friends >live in London, I don't think that on the whole the population is much >smarter than average.

    The conservative provincial government then forbid it, offering as usual
    no actual reason.

    Joke was on them, though, because the old system delivered us a very
    left wing Toronto mayor, while ranked voting would have let in a >conservative (the conservative vote total was higher, but split).

    Only if the second choices were all the /other/ conservative.

    And though I personally prefer the mayor we have, it is clear that in
    this election the will of the people was not reflected in the result.

    Actually, I think it was. If the people had /wanted/ a conservative,
    only one would have been running.

    If you want to, just vote for the candidate of your choice, leave the
    rest blank. Or rank them 1,2,3. I don't see how that's hard.

    I'm not in Alaska and I don't know if/when we will try it here.

    And wasn't there a primary somewhere where "None of the Above" won?
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Aug 26 08:45:26 2024
    On Sun, 25 Aug 2024 10:21:11 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/25/24 08:33, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a >>>>> runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>>>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ...
    prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to
    prohibit it.

    I here in San Francisco find it borderline but maybe I just
    do not clearly understand the way it is scored here in city elections
    with some positions contested among many candidates.
    In Alaska I bet they are more conservative than San Francisco
    and find this innovative system too radical for their taste.

    But since this is San Francisco radical is on the menu.

    IIRC, it may have had more to do with how long it took to get a
    result. Perhaps they felt ... embarassed.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to Chris Buckley on Mon Aug 26 09:00:03 2024
    On 25 Aug 2024 19:16:49 GMT, Chris Buckley <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 2024-08-25, Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 3:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    ...
    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.

    Why? Lots of countries have elections with multiple rounds. France just
    had one.

    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly >won't allow a quick second round.

    Which is why I suggested moving things back /two/ months.

    And did you really mean to suggest that French elections are somehow
    less secure than ours?

    The French, to be sure, are very strange: a few years ago, one of
    their traffic officers gave a ticket to a Muslim woman because her
    veil covered her nose (not her eyes) and so prevented her from seeing
    well enough to drive.

    I have, of course, long been aware that the French are famous for
    talking through their noses, but this is the only time I have heard
    that they see through them as well.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an >indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Locally, schools tend to close whenever it snows. If they can do it
    for snow, they can do it for elections. It's not tough to have an
    indeterminate calendar for schools at all.

    Of course, an all-mail system (with minimal physical places for voting
    [1]) elminates the problem of schools being polling places.

    [1] One per county, I think. These are for people who need assistance,
    and people who decide to register and vote on voting day itself
    (those, of course, cast provisional ballots which are counted once
    their registration is validated).
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Aug 26 09:01:42 2024
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 17:57:45 +1000, "Gary R. Schmidt"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 26/08/2024 05:16, Chris Buckley wrote:
    On 2024-08-25, Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 3:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    ...
    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.

    Why? Lots of countries have elections with multiple rounds. France just
    had one.

    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly
    won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an
    indeterminate calendar for schools.


    Do it on a Saturday, when schools are closed, as are many, but not all, >businesses.

    Actually, back when we had them, my polling place was a car
    dealership, not a school.

    And if you allow early- and postal-voting, the problem just goes away.

    P.S. Yes, yes, I know the USA chose Tuesday to restrict the number of >actual voters.

    Sounds ... Republican to me.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Gary R. Schmidt on Mon Aug 26 10:01:40 2024
    In article <[email protected]>,
    "Gary R. Schmidt" <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 26/08/2024 05:16, Chris Buckley wrote:
    On 2024-08-25, Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 3:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    ...
    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.

    Why? Lots of countries have elections with multiple rounds. France just
    had one.

    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an indeterminate calendar for schools.


    Do it on a Saturday, when schools are closed, as are many, but not all, businesses.

    And if you allow early- and postal-voting, the problem just goes away.

    Cheers,
    Gary B-)

    P.S. Yes, yes, I know the USA chose Tuesday to restrict the number of
    actual voters.

    It was adapted in 1845 to match the lifestyle of a mostly agrarian
    society (after harvest, 1 day of travel to polling place, doesn't
    interfere with Sunday).

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. —-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Mon Aug 26 10:01:43 2024
    On 8/26/24 08:45, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sun, 25 Aug 2024 10:21:11 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/25/24 08:33, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a >>>>>> runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>>>>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ...
    prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to
    prohibit it.

    I here in San Francisco find it borderline but maybe I just
    do not clearly understand the way it is scored here in city elections
    with some positions contested among many candidates.
    In Alaska I bet they are more conservative than San Francisco
    and find this innovative system too radical for their taste.

    But since this is San Francisco radical is on the menu.

    IIRC, it may have had more to do with how long it took to get a
    result. Perhaps they felt ... embarassed.

    Our tie in a not San Francisco county took recounts and
    it seemed like months to resolve and it still was a tie. As I
    mentioned the elder candidate yeilded to the younger.

    bliss
    --
    b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Mon Aug 26 10:02:00 2024
    On 8/26/24 08:45, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sun, 25 Aug 2024 10:21:11 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/25/24 08:33, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a >>>>>> runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>>>>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ...
    prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to
    prohibit it.

    I here in San Francisco find it borderline but maybe I just
    do not clearly understand the way it is scored here in city elections
    with some positions contested among many candidates.
    In Alaska I bet they are more conservative than San Francisco
    and find this innovative system too radical for their taste.

    But since this is San Francisco radical is on the menu.

    IIRC, it may have had more to do with how long it took to get a
    result. Perhaps they felt ... embarassed.


    --
    b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris Buckley@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Mon Aug 26 21:09:17 2024
    On 2024-08-26, Paul S Person <[email protected]d> wrote:
    On 25 Aug 2024 19:16:49 GMT, Chris Buckley <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 2024-08-25, Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 3:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    ...
    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.

    Why? Lots of countries have elections with multiple rounds. France just
    had one.

    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly >>won't allow a quick second round.

    Which is why I suggested moving things back /two/ months.

    And did you really mean to suggest that French elections are somehow
    less secure than ours?

    French elections are *much* simpler than ours. Except in unusual circumstances, a voter in France: goes to their designated polling
    place on voting day, presents their official photo id, and casts one
    or two votes. No early voting. No mail voting (deemed too subject to
    fraud). No drop boxes. No online voting (except overseas). No
    provisional voting. No absentee voting, though you can go through the
    legal system and designate a friend to vote in person for you (no way
    for you to verify they voted the way you wanted). Very few voting
    machines; most places are completely manual which works because
    everything is right there in one place in front of the counters.

    Probably the big difference is that the French do not have to deal
    with the complexity of our ballots. They cast a couple of votes at
    most normally. I think there were over 20 votes in my last ballot.
    Ensuring a completely correct ballot form takes time.

    The French, to be sure, are very strange: a few years ago, one of
    their traffic officers gave a ticket to a Muslim woman because her
    veil covered her nose (not her eyes) and so prevented her from seeing
    well enough to drive.

    I have, of course, long been aware that the French are famous for
    talking through their noses, but this is the only time I have heard
    that they see through them as well.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before >>this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an >>indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Locally, schools tend to close whenever it snows. If they can do it
    for snow, they can do it for elections. It's not tough to have an indeterminate calendar for schools at all.

    Baloney. School districts would not give up their snow days for an election; they are too precious. I lived in upstate New York and had to go to school
    on spring break holidays to make up for too many bad weather days. The school calendar would need to be extended by a day (unless global warming gets rid
    of snow days!)

    Of course, an all-mail system (with minimal physical places for voting
    [1]) elminates the problem of schools being polling places.

    It's not clear your two months would be enough then, depending on
    what elections had two phases (just Presidential might be doable).

    [1] One per county, I think. These are for people who need assistance,
    and people who decide to register and vote on voting day itself
    (those, of course, cast provisional ballots which are counted once
    their registration is validated).

    Chris

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to William Hyde on Mon Aug 26 17:59:41 2024
    On 8/26/2024 10:50 AM, William Hyde wrote:
    Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sun, 25 Aug 2024 17:39:22 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have
    seen a
    runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50%
    of the
    votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it
    would be
    wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ...
    prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to >>>> prohibit it.


    It worked very well in London, Ontario and while some of my best friends >>> live in London, I don't think that on the whole the population is much
    smarter than average.

    The conservative provincial government then forbid it, offering as usual >>> no actual reason.

    Joke was on them, though, because the old system delivered us a very
    left wing Toronto mayor, while ranked voting would have let in a
    conservative (the conservative vote total was higher, but split).

    Only if the second choices were all the /other/ conservative.

    The conservatives were all much of a muchness barring one former chief
    of police.  I can't see people selecting the current, very left mayor as
    a second choice.  Perhaps her liberal rival would be a choice for those
    who oppose having a police chief as mayor.

    Voting (1) Conservative, (2) Conservative (3) Conservative would have
    been likely.

    As one such candidate was head and shoulders above the others. It's hard
    to imagine she wouldn't have been one of the three choices.

    And though I personally prefer the mayor we have, it is clear that in
    this election the will of the people was not reflected in the result.

    Actually, I think it was. If the people had /wanted/ a conservative,
    only one would have been running.

    I don't see how  the people's desires have any effect here.  Anyone can
    run for office.

    We have no power over those who run, except to vote against them.  I,
    for example, was very annoyed that there were two left wing candidates,
    of which one had absolutely no chance.  But I had no ability to dissuade
    him from running.

    There is a reason to run for mayor despite having no chance of winning,
    and that is as a beginning of the next election, or the one after.  So ambitious people will always be running, preventing a one-on-one match between the two dominant candidates (if indeed there are such).

    A majority voted for conservative candidates, a minority for liberal/
    left candidates but the minority prevailed.  I think that is a bad
    thing, and can be avoided for the most part by a simple change to the
    ballot (ranked ballots do not avoid all problems, naturally).

    In this case the whole thing is of little consequence.  In other cases, though, it could be more serious.


    If you want to, just vote for the candidate of your choice, leave the
    rest blank.  Or rank them 1,2,3.  I don't see how that's hard.

    I'm not in Alaska and I don't know if/when we will try it here.

    And wasn't there a primary somewhere where "None of the Above" won?

    Once I realized that in some states people can vote in the primary of
    the other party (Nixon encouraged republicans to vote in democratic
    primaries for McGovern), I lost all confidence in the primary system.

    Mind you, our method of selecting potential members of parliament is
    even worse.

    It helps, slightly, to remember that the US Founding Fathers didn't want political parties and our electoral system wasn't built for them.
    Political parties just kind of condensed out of the air and forced their
    way in.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jay E. Morris@21:1/5 to Chris Buckley on Mon Aug 26 20:03:20 2024
    On 8/25/2024 2:16 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Here, southwest Texas, I don't know of a polling place that's in a
    school. Churches, fire stations, city hall, county courthouse but no
    schools.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Jay E. Morris on Mon Aug 26 21:59:03 2024
    In article <vaj8ko$2lkvo$[email protected]>,
    "Jay E. Morris" <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/25/2024 2:16 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Here, southwest Texas, I don't know of a polling place that's in a
    school. Churches, fire stations, city hall, county courthouse but no
    schools.

    I have a vague recollection of my father voting at a church (in 1956?).
    As for me in the past 50 years, I have voted at two different schools
    and a building that I think was a senior center (each many times). I
    can't remember what the first two polling locations were.

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. —-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to Jay E. Morris on Mon Aug 26 22:53:43 2024
    On 8/26/24 18:03, Jay E. Morris wrote:
    On 8/25/2024 2:16 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
    Many things would have to change here.  Security procedures require
    months of preparation now.  The voting/tallying period is now approaching >> a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots.  It certainly
    won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places.  It's tough to have an
    indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Here, southwest Texas, I don't know of a polling place that's in a
    school. Churches, fire stations, city hall, county courthouse but no
    schools.

    In San Francisco we use any space available, the lobby of a big building may have space or a closed store.(too many of those around).But
    I vote at home then carry my ballot to a collection box. I used to drop
    it at City Hall but that is very tiring(for me) and for many years now I
    have voted at home and hand carried my ballot to a collection box. With
    DeJoy trying to put the Post Office out of business I would not entrust
    it to the US Mail.

    bliss

    --
    b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris Buckley@21:1/5 to Jay E. Morris on Tue Aug 27 12:02:20 2024
    On 2024-08-27, Jay E. Morris <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/25/2024 2:16 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly
    won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an
    indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Here, southwest Texas, I don't know of a polling place that's in a
    school. Churches, fire stations, city hall, county courthouse but no
    schools.

    My guess is that schools are either heavily used or never used,
    depending on the size/setup of the school districts. It's hard to
    close just a few of a school district's schools. Here, they all close
    for major elections; ~150 out of the county's ~200 polling places are
    in schools (211 schools in the school district.)

    Chris

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Aug 27 08:56:34 2024
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 13:50:10 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sun, 25 Aug 2024 17:39:22 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a >>>>>>> runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>>>>>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ...
    prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to >>>> prohibit it.


    It worked very well in London, Ontario and while some of my best friends >>> live in London, I don't think that on the whole the population is much
    smarter than average.

    The conservative provincial government then forbid it, offering as usual >>> no actual reason.

    Joke was on them, though, because the old system delivered us a very
    left wing Toronto mayor, while ranked voting would have let in a
    conservative (the conservative vote total was higher, but split).

    Only if the second choices were all the /other/ conservative.

    The conservatives were all much of a muchness barring one former chief
    of police. I can't see people selecting the current, very left mayor as
    a second choice. Perhaps her liberal rival would be a choice for those
    who oppose having a police chief as mayor.

    Voting (1) Conservative, (2) Conservative (3) Conservative would have
    been likely.

    As one such candidate was head and shoulders above the others. It's hard
    to imagine she wouldn't have been one of the three choices.

    And though I personally prefer the mayor we have, it is clear that in
    this election the will of the people was not reflected in the result.

    Actually, I think it was. If the people had /wanted/ a conservative,
    only one would have been running.

    I don't see how the people's desires have any effect here. Anyone can
    run for office.

    We have no power over those who run, except to vote against them. I,
    for example, was very annoyed that there were two left wing candidates,
    of which one had absolutely no chance. But I had no ability to dissuade
    him from running.

    There is a reason to run for mayor despite having no chance of winning,
    and that is as a beginning of the next election, or the one after. So >ambitious people will always be running, preventing a one-on-one match >between the two dominant candidates (if indeed there are such).

    A majority voted for conservative candidates, a minority for
    liberal/left candidates but the minority prevailed. I think that is a
    bad thing, and can be avoided for the most part by a simple change to
    the ballot (ranked ballots do not avoid all problems, naturally).

    In this case the whole thing is of little consequence. In other cases, >though, it could be more serious.


    If you want to, just vote for the candidate of your choice, leave the
    rest blank. Or rank them 1,2,3. I don't see how that's hard.

    I'm not in Alaska and I don't know if/when we will try it here.

    And wasn't there a primary somewhere where "None of the Above" won?

    Once I realized that in some states people can vote in the primary of
    the other party (Nixon encouraged republicans to vote in democratic >primaries for McGovern), I lost all confidence in the primary system.

    Our Presidential Primary (way back last Spring) did not do that. You
    had to declare your party affiliation and vote only in that Party's
    part of the ballot. Mine went straight to the recycle bin.

    Our current general primary is the one big zoo type: anybody can run,
    their Party is only a "preference" (and not required), our Party (if
    any) is not declared, and the top two face each other in November. In
    my area, we have been known to have a choice between two Democrats in
    November. We are rather tilted here in regards to politics.

    But before that, we had the sort of thing we had last spring for
    President. That was after the Supreme Court declared that the sort of
    Primary you are describing (which was then in effect) was, if not unconstitutional, at least illegal. They subsequently approved our
    current format.

    And, anyway, a lot the time the Primary is just window dressing. The
    actual decisions are made by the Party, either local for local
    offices, or in (State) convention assembled for State offices and for
    who the delegates to the National Convention are to vote for.

    Mind you, our method of selecting potential members of parliament is
    even worse.

    IIRC, Wells (or maybe a contemporary) describes an election in a small
    town which, because Parliament had lowered the property qualification,
    for the first time had one (1) voter! This was very exciting!

    He was wined. He was dined. And, when he voted, he cast his two votes
    in public, with all his friends and neighbors watching, openly.

    I'm sure things have improved a bit since then.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Aug 27 08:43:39 2024
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 10:01:43 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/26/24 08:45, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sun, 25 Aug 2024 10:21:11 -0700, Bobbie Sellers
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/25/24 08:33, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a >>>>>>> runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>>>>>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ...
    prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to >>>> prohibit it.

    I here in San Francisco find it borderline but maybe I just
    do not clearly understand the way it is scored here in city elections
    with some positions contested among many candidates.
    In Alaska I bet they are more conservative than San Francisco
    and find this innovative system too radical for their taste.

    But since this is San Francisco radical is on the menu.

    IIRC, it may have had more to do with how long it took to get a
    result. Perhaps they felt ... embarassed.

    Our tie in a not San Francisco county took recounts and
    it seemed like months to resolve and it still was a tie. As I
    mentioned the elder candidate yeilded to the younger.

    IIRC, tossing a coin is the traditional remedy.

    At least, after pistols at dawn was ruled out.

    But whatever works.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Aug 27 08:58:25 2024
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 10:01:40 -0700, Robert Woodward
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    In article <[email protected]>,
    "Gary R. Schmidt" <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 26/08/2024 05:16, Chris Buckley wrote:
    On 2024-08-25, Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 3:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    ...
    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >> >>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.

    Why? Lots of countries have elections with multiple rounds. France just >> >> had one.

    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching >> > a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly >> > won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an
    indeterminate calendar for schools.


    Do it on a Saturday, when schools are closed, as are many, but not all,
    businesses.

    And if you allow early- and postal-voting, the problem just goes away.

    Cheers,
    Gary B-)

    P.S. Yes, yes, I know the USA chose Tuesday to restrict the number of
    actual voters.

    It was adapted in 1845 to match the lifestyle of a mostly agrarian
    society (after harvest, 1 day of travel to polling place, doesn't
    interfere with Sunday).

    Now, /that/ makes sense.

    IIRC, the school year was also affected by the needs of agriculture.

    Well, until some areas decided to steal August from their kids.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to Chris Buckley on Tue Aug 27 09:09:37 2024
    On 26 Aug 2024 21:09:17 GMT, Chris Buckley <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 2024-08-26, Paul S Person <[email protected]d> wrote:
    On 25 Aug 2024 19:16:49 GMT, Chris Buckley <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 2024-08-25, Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 3:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    ...
    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.

    Why? Lots of countries have elections with multiple rounds. France just >>>> had one.

    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require >>>months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching >>>a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly >>>won't allow a quick second round.

    Which is why I suggested moving things back /two/ months.

    And did you really mean to suggest that French elections are somehow
    less secure than ours?

    French elections are *much* simpler than ours. Except in unusual >circumstances, a voter in France: goes to their designated polling
    place on voting day, presents their official photo id, and casts one
    or two votes. No early voting. No mail voting (deemed too subject to >fraud). No drop boxes. No online voting (except overseas). No
    provisional voting. No absentee voting, though you can go through the
    legal system and designate a friend to vote in person for you (no way
    for you to verify they voted the way you wanted). Very few voting
    machines; most places are completely manual which works because
    everything is right there in one place in front of the counters.

    Probably the big difference is that the French do not have to deal
    with the complexity of our ballots. They cast a couple of votes at
    most normally. I think there were over 20 votes in my last ballot.
    Ensuring a completely correct ballot form takes time.

    The French, to be sure, are very strange: a few years ago, one of
    their traffic officers gave a ticket to a Muslim woman because her
    veil covered her nose (not her eyes) and so prevented her from seeing
    well enough to drive.

    I have, of course, long been aware that the French are famous for
    talking through their noses, but this is the only time I have heard
    that they see through them as well.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before >>>this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an >>>indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Locally, schools tend to close whenever it snows. If they can do it
    for snow, they can do it for elections. It's not tough to have an
    indeterminate calendar for schools at all.

    Baloney. School districts would not give up their snow days for an election; >they are too precious. I lived in upstate New York and had to go to school
    on spring break holidays to make up for too many bad weather days. The school >calendar would need to be extended by a day (unless global warming gets rid >of snow days!)

    I never said they would give up their snow days.

    What I /did/ say is that it is /not/ tough to have an ideterminate
    calandar for schools, as shown by the very /existence/ of snow days.

    Of course, an all-mail system (with minimal physical places for voting
    [1]) elminates the problem of schools being polling places.

    It's not clear your two months would be enough then, depending on
    what elections had two phases (just Presidential might be doable).

    The only "problem" is reprinting the ballots to include only the races
    in question with /only two candidates in each race/. And, BTW, most
    States and Counties have computers to produce their ballots, so you
    can forget about how long that would take. It would take about two
    seconds to identify the affected races and determining the two
    candidates, and maybe another second to format the ballots. The
    printing, after the result has been checked for accuracy (as I believe
    a few counties in States whose Republicans-in-Charge played the
    gerrymander game a bit too hard have found out), would, of course,
    take a bit longer, depending on how that is done.

    OK, "two seconds" may not be entirely realistic. But it wouldn't take
    very long at all. All the data needed, after all, is already there and
    need merely be explored. Two months (for mail-in) should be plenty of
    time. For actual polling places, one month should be enough. The
    contract signed by the poll workers would, of course, have to obligate
    them to attend if such an election became necessary.

    [1] One per county, I think. These are for people who need assistance,
    and people who decide to register and vote on voting day itself
    (those, of course, cast provisional ballots which are counted once
    their registration is validated).
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Aug 27 09:19:28 2024
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 22:53:43 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/26/24 18:03, Jay E. Morris wrote:
    On 8/25/2024 2:16 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
    Many things would have to change here.� Security procedures require
    months of preparation now.� The voting/tallying period is now approaching >>> a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots.� It certainly >>> won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places.� It's tough to have an
    indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Here, southwest Texas, I don't know of a polling place that's in a
    school. Churches, fire stations, city hall, county courthouse but no
    schools.

    In San Francisco we use any space available, the lobby of a big
    building may have space or a closed store.(too many of those around).But
    I vote at home then carry my ballot to a collection box. I used to drop
    it at City Hall but that is very tiring(for me) and for many years now I >have voted at home and hand carried my ballot to a collection box. With >DeJoy trying to put the Post Office out of business I would not entrust
    it to the US Mail.

    Dubious as I am of DeJoy, I must report this:

    every month I mail two checks out on the 1st
    one is to a local charity (in Seattle, WA)
    one is to an international charity (in Washington, DC)
    in March 2024, the local check cleared on the 7th and the
    international check cleared on the 11th
    in August 2024, they both cleared on the 8th

    So I would say that there has been some improvement recently.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Tue Aug 27 18:11:27 2024
    On 8/27/2024 9:19 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 22:53:43 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/26/24 18:03, Jay E. Morris wrote:
    On 8/25/2024 2:16 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
    Many things would have to change here.  Security procedures require
    months of preparation now.  The voting/tallying period is now approaching >>>> a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots.  It certainly >>>> won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before >>>> this year due to schools being polling places.  It's tough to have an >>>> indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Here, southwest Texas, I don't know of a polling place that's in a
    school. Churches, fire stations, city hall, county courthouse but no
    schools.

    In San Francisco we use any space available, the lobby of a big
    building may have space or a closed store.(too many of those around).But
    I vote at home then carry my ballot to a collection box. I used to drop
    it at City Hall but that is very tiring(for me) and for many years now I
    have voted at home and hand carried my ballot to a collection box. With
    DeJoy trying to put the Post Office out of business I would not entrust
    it to the US Mail.

    Dubious as I am of DeJoy, I must report this:

    every month I mail two checks out on the 1st
    one is to a local charity (in Seattle, WA)
    one is to an international charity (in Washington, DC)
    in March 2024, the local check cleared on the 7th and the
    international check cleared on the 11th
    in August 2024, they both cleared on the 8th

    So I would say that there has been some improvement recently.

    They have momentarily given up on privatizing the USPS.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jay E. Morris@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Tue Aug 27 21:00:11 2024
    On 8/27/2024 11:19 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
    Dubious as I am of DeJoy, I must report this:

    every month I mail two checks out on the 1st
    one is to a local charity (in Seattle, WA)
    one is to an international charity (in Washington, DC)
    in March 2024, the local check cleared on the 7th and the
    international check cleared on the 11th
    in August 2024, they both cleared on the 8th

    So I would say that there has been some improvement recently.

    USPS said in a statement issued on August 22 that it is holding a
    pre-filing conference to discuss "plans to improve mail processing and transportation" across the country. While some customers will see
    improved delivery times—specifically those that live within 50 miles of
    its largest processing facilities, others who live more rurally won't be
    so lucky.

    "Depending on location, time and distance, expected time to deliver will increase for some ZIP code pairs," the release reads. Exactly how many
    zip codes could be affected is not reported. Newsweek has contacted the
    USPS for clarification via email.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mad Hamish@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Wed Aug 28 22:44:11 2024
    On Sun, 25 Aug 2024 08:33:13 -0700, Paul S Person
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    On Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:48:32 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/24/2024 2:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    IOW, if it were the popular vote that counted, 2016 would have seen a
    runoff election [1] exactly two choices: Hillary and Trump. The
    expectation being that one or the other would get more that 50% of the >>>> votes.

    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be
    wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.


    Which is why some are advocating for a ranked voting system.

    Which the citizens of Alaska, IIRC, will shortly be voting on ... >prohibiting, having had actual experience with it.

    It must be pretty stinky to get enough people to sign an initiative to >prohibit it.

    Australia uses preferential voting for all state and federal elections
    It works pretty reasonably

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mad Hamish@21:1/5 to Chris Buckley on Wed Aug 28 22:45:58 2024
    On 25 Aug 2024 19:16:49 GMT, Chris Buckley <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 2024-08-25, Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 3:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    ...
    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be
    wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.

    Why? Lots of countries have elections with multiple rounds. France just
    had one.

    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly >won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an >indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Voting on Saturdays works in Australia

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Jay E. Morris on Wed Aug 28 07:47:32 2024
    On 8/27/2024 7:00 PM, Jay E. Morris wrote:
    On 8/27/2024 11:19 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
    Dubious as I am of DeJoy, I must report this:

    every month I mail two checks out on the 1st
    one is to a local charity (in Seattle, WA)
    one is to an international charity (in Washington, DC)
    in March 2024, the local check cleared on the 7th and the
    international check cleared on the 11th
    in August 2024, they both cleared on the 8th

    So I would say that there has been some improvement recently.

    USPS said in a statement issued on August 22 that it is holding a pre-
    filing conference to discuss "plans to improve mail processing and transportation" across the country. While some customers will see
    improved delivery times—specifically those that live within 50 miles of
    its largest processing facilities, others who live more rurally won't be
    so lucky.

    "Depending on location, time and distance, expected time to deliver will increase for some ZIP code pairs," the release reads. Exactly how many
    zip codes could be affected is not reported. Newsweek has contacted the
    USPS for clarification via email.

    Other articles on this indicate it will be the "deep" rural areas that
    have longer delivery windows.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Mad Hamish on Wed Aug 28 07:49:05 2024
    On 8/28/2024 5:45 AM, Mad Hamish wrote:
    On 25 Aug 2024 19:16:49 GMT, Chris Buckley <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 2024-08-25, Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 8/24/2024 3:37 PM, BCFD 36 wrote:
    ...
    Only if that is how the election laws were written. I think it would be >>>> wildly impractical to hold multiple national elections.

    Why? Lots of countries have elections with multiple rounds. France just
    had one.

    Many things would have to change here. Security procedures require
    months of preparation now. The voting/tallying period is now approaching
    a month between early voting and delivery of mail ballots. It certainly
    won't allow a quick second round.

    Locally, all schools are closed on election day and even the day before
    this year due to schools being polling places. It's tough to have an
    indeterminate calendar for schools.

    Voting on Saturdays works in Australia

    But that way the wealthy can't force the workers to not vote by not
    letting them have time off from work to vote!

    :P

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Wed Aug 28 08:46:51 2024
    On Wed, 28 Aug 2024 07:47:32 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/27/2024 7:00 PM, Jay E. Morris wrote:
    On 8/27/2024 11:19 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
    Dubious as I am of DeJoy, I must report this:

    every month I mail two checks out on the 1st
    one is to a local charity (in Seattle, WA)
    one is to an international charity (in Washington, DC)
    in March 2024, the local check cleared on the 7th and the
    international check cleared on the 11th
    in August 2024, they both cleared on the 8th

    So I would say that there has been some improvement recently.

    USPS said in a statement issued on August 22 that it is holding a pre-
    filing conference to discuss "plans to improve mail processing and
    transportation" across the country. While some customers will see
    improved delivery times�specifically those that live within 50 miles of
    its largest processing facilities, others who live more rurally won't be
    so lucky.

    "Depending on location, time and distance, expected time to deliver will
    increase for some ZIP code pairs," the release reads. Exactly how many
    zip codes could be affected is not reported. Newsweek has contacted the
    USPS for clarification via email.

    Other articles on this indicate it will be the "deep" rural areas that
    have longer delivery windows.

    Looks like the Republicans might want to talk to their guy DeJoy about
    the importance of Rural Free Delivery to their voters.

    DeJoy /might/ turn out to be another case of a Republican who actually
    knows his business doing better than someone who mostly has good
    intentions. Kind of like the Surgeon General in the initial AIDS
    crisis, who was very Republican and very insistant on clearly saying
    what needed to be said.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Wed Aug 28 08:43:21 2024
    On Tue, 27 Aug 2024 21:00:11 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/27/2024 11:19 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
    Dubious as I am of DeJoy, I must report this:

    every month I mail two checks out on the 1st
    one is to a local charity (in Seattle, WA)
    one is to an international charity (in Washington, DC)
    in March 2024, the local check cleared on the 7th and the
    international check cleared on the 11th
    in August 2024, they both cleared on the 8th

    So I would say that there has been some improvement recently.

    USPS said in a statement issued on August 22 that it is holding a
    pre-filing conference to discuss "plans to improve mail processing and >transportation" across the country. While some customers will see
    improved delivery times�specifically those that live within 50 miles of
    its largest processing facilities, others who live more rurally won't be
    so lucky.

    So, things might get even better here.

    "Depending on location, time and distance, expected time to deliver will >increase for some ZIP code pairs," the release reads. Exactly how many
    zip codes could be affected is not reported. Newsweek has contacted the
    USPS for clarification via email.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Wed Aug 28 18:23:09 2024
    On 8/28/2024 8:46 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Wed, 28 Aug 2024 07:47:32 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 8/27/2024 7:00 PM, Jay E. Morris wrote:
    On 8/27/2024 11:19 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
    Dubious as I am of DeJoy, I must report this:

    every month I mail two checks out on the 1st
    one is to a local charity (in Seattle, WA)
    one is to an international charity (in Washington, DC)
    in March 2024, the local check cleared on the 7th and the
    international check cleared on the 11th
    in August 2024, they both cleared on the 8th

    So I would say that there has been some improvement recently.

    USPS said in a statement issued on August 22 that it is holding a pre-
    filing conference to discuss "plans to improve mail processing and
    transportation" across the country. While some customers will see
    improved delivery times—specifically those that live within 50 miles of >>> its largest processing facilities, others who live more rurally won't be >>> so lucky.

    "Depending on location, time and distance, expected time to deliver will >>> increase for some ZIP code pairs," the release reads. Exactly how many
    zip codes could be affected is not reported. Newsweek has contacted the
    USPS for clarification via email.

    Other articles on this indicate it will be the "deep" rural areas that
    have longer delivery windows.

    Looks like the Republicans might want to talk to their guy DeJoy about
    the importance of Rural Free Delivery to their voters.

    Their rural voters are not as important as the profits from privatizing
    the USPS that would go to their campaign funds. The now deep structural problems with the USPS are the result of earlier efforts at
    privatization and especially with the current "Republican" party I
    really can't see them making serious efforts to undo those.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Aug 31 23:46:28 2024
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 22:53:43 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    In San Francisco we use any space available, the lobby of a big
    building may have space or a closed store.(too many of those around).But
    I vote at home then carry my ballot to a collection box. I used to drop
    it at City Hall but that is very tiring(for me) and for many years now I
    have voted at home and hand carried my ballot to a collection box. With
    DeJoy trying to put the Post Office out of business I would not entrust
    it to the US Mail.

    I wouldn't trust my ballot to anything other than a certified election official. I once used a mail-in ballot but was nervous about it.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Aug 31 23:36:50 2024
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 13:50:10 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Once I realized that in some states people can vote in the primary of
    the other party (Nixon encouraged republicans to vote in democratic
    primaries for McGovern), I lost all confidence in the primary system.

    Mind you, our method of selecting potential members of parliament is
    even worse.

    How so? In Canada you actually have to join the party of your choice
    in order to vote in what in the US would be a primary.

    In my own case while a party member I voted for a candidate I will not
    be voting for in the general election.

    This may sound strange but the party I support is busy choosing
    candidates for the next federal election since we have a minority
    government in parliament and that creates an incentive for parties to
    nominate their local candidates early. Unfortunately for me Canada redistributes its seat boundaries every 10 years and in our area I
    live 3 blocks east of the new riding boundary - so when the election
    comes, I'll be voting in the neighboring boundary.

    I expect a Canadian to understand how this could happen (but
    realistically many Americans may be confused as hell). I'm annoyed (as
    my neighborhood has been in the same riding since before I was born
    but that's how the redistribution process (which happens every 10
    years 2 or 3 years after the decennial census) works.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Aug 31 23:50:18 2024
    On Tue, 27 Aug 2024 08:43:39 -0700, Paul S Person
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    Our tie in a not San Francisco county took recounts and
    it seemed like months to resolve and it still was a tie. As I
    mentioned the elder candidate yeilded to the younger.

    We've never had a tie vote in our area but a couple of elections ago
    the school board chairman was convicted for DUI and decided to run for re-election anyhow. He lost by ONE vote and chose to waive his right
    to seek a recount (which he was legally entitled to do when the margin
    of victory was under 1% of the votes cast)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Aug 31 23:44:58 2024
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 20:03:20 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Here, southwest Texas, I don't know of a polling place that's in a
    school. Churches, fire stations, city hall, county courthouse but no
    schools.

    In Canada polling places used to be commonly in elementary school
    gymnasiums. In 2020-2021 most schools said no to the electoral
    authorities ("we've got to protect our kids!") with the result that in
    our 2021 provincial election most polling places were in church halls
    or vacant storefronts in shopping malls.

    2020-2021 was of course during a fairly high level of the pandemic
    which is not going to be the situation in our provincial election
    (November 2024) or federal election (probably October 2025 if Justin
    Trudeau gets to decide, earlier if his de-facto coalition breaks up
    before October 2025 which is the statutory required date)

    Unlike the US Canada doesn't have fixed election dates though in
    recent years the winner names the next election date which everyone
    knows could be sooner if he loses a confidence vote in the House of
    Commons.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Aug 31 23:55:09 2024
    On Wed, 28 Aug 2024 07:49:05 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Voting on Saturdays works in Australia

    But that way the wealthy can't force the workers to not vote by not
    letting them have time off from work to vote!

    In Canada employers are required to give their employees 4 clear hours
    to vote. That DOESN'T mean 4 hours off work - for instance if
    somebody's shift is 10-6 and voting is 8-8 they get 8-12 as their
    voting time (or could go 6-8pm after work) so get paid time off for
    10-12 am. Obviously afternoon shift or graveyard shift workers are out
    of luck since THEIR "4 clear hours" are not during their working
    hours.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Sep 1 13:19:33 2024
    In article <[email protected]>,
    The Horny Goat <[email protected]> wrote:
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 20:03:20 -0500, "Jay E. Morris"
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Here, southwest Texas, I don't know of a polling place that's in a
    school. Churches, fire stations, city hall, county courthouse but no >>schools.

    In Canada polling places used to be commonly in elementary school
    gymnasiums. In 2020-2021 most schools said no to the electoral
    authorities ("we've got to protect our kids!") with the result that in
    our 2021 provincial election most polling places were in church halls
    or vacant storefronts in shopping malls.

    Until the most recent by-election, I'd never worked a polling place
    in a school. It was mostly churches. In 2021 it was a fire hall, which
    had the odd consequence that my day started with me dragging a body
    out of the polling area. It was a training dummy but it would have
    blocked traffic. As it was, there wasn't room for all of the necessary
    stations with the mandated spacing, so I spent the whole day doing
    covid tracing for cranky rustics* at a table outside.

    The by-election was ... interesting because the school in question is controlled access. The DRO really didn't want to have to station someone
    by the front door and it took a lot of arguing to convince him that
    the auditorium fire door was not a workable alternative. The step was knee-high, which would have made it unworkable for anyone with
    a mobility issue....

    * Who spent the whole day bitching about what a waste of skin their
    current MP was... before re-electing him in a landslide.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to All on Sun Sep 1 08:02:41 2024
    On Sat, 31 Aug 2024 23:50:18 -0700, The Horny Goat <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On Tue, 27 Aug 2024 08:43:39 -0700, Paul S Person ><[email protected]d> wrote:

    Our tie in a not San Francisco county took recounts and
    it seemed like months to resolve and it still was a tie. As I
    mentioned the elder candidate yeilded to the younger.

    We've never had a tie vote in our area but a couple of elections ago
    the school board chairman was convicted for DUI and decided to run for >re-election anyhow. He lost by ONE vote and chose to waive his right
    to seek a recount (which he was legally entitled to do when the margin
    of victory was under 1% of the votes cast)

    IIRC, possibly for closer races than a mere 1%, a recount can be
    mandatory. At least in Washington State.

    After a certain point, again IIRC, a recount is always possible if the
    Party or candidate wanting it is willing to pay for it.

    Somewhere in between it may well be an option that does not have to be
    paid for.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to All on Sun Sep 1 08:08:37 2024
    On Sat, 31 Aug 2024 23:36:50 -0700, The Horny Goat <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 13:50:10 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Once I realized that in some states people can vote in the primary of
    the other party (Nixon encouraged republicans to vote in democratic >>primaries for McGovern), I lost all confidence in the primary system.

    Mind you, our method of selecting potential members of parliament is
    even worse.

    How so? In Canada you actually have to join the party of your choice
    in order to vote in what in the US would be a primary.

    In my own case while a party member I voted for a candidate I will not
    be voting for in the general election.

    This may sound strange but the party I support is busy choosing
    candidates for the next federal election since we have a minority
    government in parliament and that creates an incentive for parties to >nominate their local candidates early. Unfortunately for me Canada >redistributes its seat boundaries every 10 years and in our area I
    live 3 blocks east of the new riding boundary - so when the election
    comes, I'll be voting in the neighboring boundary.

    I expect a Canadian to understand how this could happen (but
    realistically many Americans may be confused as hell). I'm annoyed (as
    my neighborhood has been in the same riding since before I was born
    but that's how the redistribution process (which happens every 10
    years 2 or 3 years after the decennial census) works.

    We do much the same in the USA.

    The effects of the 2020 Census on elections are still being felt --
    nay, in some cases, still being /litigated/. Which may not change
    things this year, but which means that the /next/ election may, in
    some States, use different boundaries. Since that will be in 2026,
    more than half-way to the next Census, this is getting embarassing.

    And there's already been at least one instance of the newest new
    change not making it down far enough to prevent some voters from
    voting in the /wrong/ district (Congressional or Legislative,
    depending on the level).

    Imagine if you found yourself voting for the same person anyway
    because the change hadn't filtered down far enough to affect your
    ballot.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to All on Sun Sep 1 08:11:29 2024
    On Sat, 31 Aug 2024 23:46:28 -0700, The Horny Goat <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 22:53:43 -0700, Bobbie Sellers ><[email protected]> wrote:

    In San Francisco we use any space available, the lobby of a big >>building may have space or a closed store.(too many of those around).But
    I vote at home then carry my ballot to a collection box. I used to drop >>it at City Hall but that is very tiring(for me) and for many years now I >>have voted at home and hand carried my ballot to a collection box. With >>DeJoy trying to put the Post Office out of business I would not entrust
    it to the US Mail.

    I wouldn't trust my ballot to anything other than a certified election >official. I once used a mail-in ballot but was nervous about it.

    The only problems I have had with the USPS and elections is when they
    decide that distributing the Voter Pamphlets is optional. It's not.
    And, IIRC, they get /paid/ to do it.

    Mail in, mail back, get email confirming receipt, get email confirming
    will be counted (ie, signature passed inspection). A simple process.

    Republicans hate it because it lets just anyone (who qualifies) vote.
    They think only people who vote Republican should be allowed to vote.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to The Horny Goat on Sun Sep 1 10:01:06 2024
    On 8/31/2024 11:46 PM, The Horny Goat wrote:
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 22:53:43 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    In San Francisco we use any space available, the lobby of a big
    building may have space or a closed store.(too many of those around).But
    I vote at home then carry my ballot to a collection box. I used to drop
    it at City Hall but that is very tiring(for me) and for many years now I
    have voted at home and hand carried my ballot to a collection box. With
    DeJoy trying to put the Post Office out of business I would not entrust
    it to the US Mail.

    I wouldn't trust my ballot to anything other than a certified election official. I once used a mail-in ballot but was nervous about it.

    Since I currently work for one of the county government offices in the
    county government center and they have ballot drop-off boxes there
    that's how I vote.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to All on Mon Sep 2 08:48:22 2024
    On Sun, 1 Sep 2024 19:21:01 -0400, William Hyde <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    The Horny Goat wrote:
    On Mon, 26 Aug 2024 13:50:10 -0400, William Hyde
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    Once I realized that in some states people can vote in the primary of
    the other party (Nixon encouraged republicans to vote in democratic
    primaries for McGovern), I lost all confidence in the primary system.

    Mind you, our method of selecting potential members of parliament is
    even worse.

    How so? In Canada you actually have to join the party of your choice
    in order to vote in what in the US would be a primary.

    Or, for $10 and a bottle of cheap booze you can agree to become a paid >member of some party or other, go to a nomination meeting, vote as >requested, then go back to the street to enjoy your booze.

    Or, you can be bused in by a German crook to vote for delegates who will >vote for his preferred bought and paid for party leader.

    Or, you can be a foreign student drafted by officials of your country to >vote for the candidate of your choice in a nomination meeting, despite
    not being a citizen.

    Or, not being a citizen, you can run for MPP, be elected, and become a >cabinet member in a government dedicated to destroying the country.

    All of this has been in the news. Some recently.

    Nobody should be allowed to vote in a nomination meeting who is not

    (a) A citizen

    (b) A paid member of the party for at least a year.

    That wouldn't eliminate all the abuses but it is easily implemented and >would render the system less laughably corruptible.

    But our major parties don't want it. It would handicap their ability to >impose preferred candidates on us.

    On those rare occasions when I think about this topic, for the last
    several times, my preferred solution to the Primary Problem is:

    1) Any Party that wants a Primary (preferential or one that actually
    chooses the candidate) can have one by providing the relevant State
    official:
    a) a Ballot list containing the offices and candidates to be
    voted on; and
    b) a Party Member List containing the names and addresses of
    all those to whom a ballot is to be mailed.
    2) The State would pay for administering the Primary so that, under
    the ancient principle "he who pays the piper calls the tune" the State
    can control how it is done. [1]
    3) An individual who is a member of more than one Party may receive
    and may vote on a Primary from each of those parties.

    This will eliminate using the Primaries as a recruiting scheme for new
    members.

    [1] Depending on the laws passed by the Legislature, this could
    include ensuring that only registered voters are actually sent
    ballots. Then again, those laws might require that the lists be used
    as-is, since a Party can surely enroll a non-registered-voter if it
    wishes to. States with two-tier registrations (State vs Federal) may
    have special requirements here. Citizenship may also vary a bit,
    depending on what the laws actually say. Other requirements (not being
    a convicted felon, for example) may apply as well.

    I am divided on the citizenship issue: one the one hand, it makes a
    great deal of sense to exclude non-citizens; on the other hand, we
    claim to have /universal/ suffrage. If we limit it to citizens, what
    is to stop us from limiting it to Men? Or WASPs? Or landowners? And
    some very local issues might not unreasonably include non-citizens who
    live in the area affected.

    But, for some reason, these thoughts only surface once every two years
    or so.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Sep 3 13:00:23 2024
    On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 08:02:41 -0700, Paul S Person
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    We've never had a tie vote in our area but a couple of elections ago
    the school board chairman was convicted for DUI and decided to run for >>re-election anyhow. He lost by ONE vote and chose to waive his right
    to seek a recount (which he was legally entitled to do when the margin
    of victory was under 1% of the votes cast)

    IIRC, possibly for closer races than a mere 1%, a recount can be
    mandatory. At least in Washington State.

    After a certain point, again IIRC, a recount is always possible if the
    Party or candidate wanting it is willing to pay for it.

    Somewhere in between it may well be an option that does not have to be
    paid for.

    Your version sounds familiar - in the case of the DUI school board
    chair who lost by one vote they were gearing up to do that when he
    told them not to. No third candidate was all that close. (It was a
    first past the post vote where the top 4 candidates were elected with
    about 10 candidates overall - 3 were close - he was #5 by one vote)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Sep 3 13:06:30 2024
    On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 08:08:37 -0700, Paul S Person
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    I expect a Canadian to understand how this could happen (but
    realistically many Americans may be confused as hell). I'm annoyed (as
    my neighborhood has been in the same riding since before I was born
    but that's how the redistribution process (which happens every 10
    years 2 or 3 years after the decennial census) works.

    We do much the same in the USA.

    The Canadian census was instituted after the US census and chose years
    ending in 1 rather than the US census which is in years ending in 0.
    Typically the electoral commission doesn't get their recommendations
    in till the 4 year with a year given for public input before adoption
    in year 5 then all federal elections are run on the new boundaries.
    Provincial elections (which are done with a separate commission) are
    around the same time.

    Many of us were livid with the new federal divisions as the old
    boundary was the midpoint of a local (small) river whereas the new
    boundary is down the center of "Mountain Highway" which despite the
    name is a major N-S road right down the middle of the largest
    neighborhood of the municipality (and is a mile or so W of the old
    boundary). At the west side of the division, they also gave up on a
    river as the boundary and put it down a major thoroughfare but not as
    major as the one I live 3 blocks E of. (E.g. in the new riding as
    opposed to having been in the same riding for 50+ years)

    The effects of the 2020 Census on elections are still being felt --
    nay, in some cases, still being /litigated/. Which may not change
    things this year, but which means that the /next/ election may, in
    some States, use different boundaries. Since that will be in 2026,
    more than half-way to the next Census, this is getting embarassing.

    And there's already been at least one instance of the newest new
    change not making it down far enough to prevent some voters from
    voting in the /wrong/ district (Congressional or Legislative,
    depending on the level).

    Imagine if you found yourself voting for the same person anyway
    because the change hadn't filtered down far enough to affect your
    ballot.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Sep 3 13:18:30 2024
    On Sun, 1 Sep 2024 10:01:06 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    I wouldn't trust my ballot to anything other than a certified election
    official. I once used a mail-in ballot but was nervous about it.

    Since I currently work for one of the county government offices in the
    county government center and they have ballot drop-off boxes there
    that's how I vote.

    When I was scrutineering several elections ago that's how I voted as
    well though Canadian voting stations in towns are normally 12 or so
    ballot boxes to a voting station and 'drop-off' boxes other than those
    attached to a voting station aren't allowed.

    The ONLY mail in ballots are ballots cast at a non-standard voting
    station such as hospitals or in my daughter's case a Canadian embassy
    abroad (she lived in London, UK at the time)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to All on Tue Sep 3 13:21:36 2024
    On Sun, 1 Sep 2024 19:21:01 -0400, William Hyde <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    Or, you can be a foreign student drafted by officials of your country to
    vote for the candidate of your choice in a nomination meeting, despite
    not being a citizen.

    In Vancouver this is a problem mostly involving students from the
    Peoples Republic of China and to a lesser extent India. The political
    parties don't police their nomination meetings nearly as closely as
    the actual election.

    (To our US friends: there are no primaries as such and candidates are
    elected solely by paid up party members - which can be purchased when
    you check in to the meeting and requires simple photo ID which says
    nothing about citizenship)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Sep 3 13:15:54 2024
    On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 08:11:29 -0700, Paul S Person
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    In San Francisco we use any space available, the lobby of a big >>>building may have space or a closed store.(too many of those around).But >>>I vote at home then carry my ballot to a collection box. I used to drop >>>it at City Hall but that is very tiring(for me) and for many years now I >>>have voted at home and hand carried my ballot to a collection box. With >>>DeJoy trying to put the Post Office out of business I would not entrust >>>it to the US Mail.

    I wouldn't trust my ballot to anything other than a certified election >>official. I once used a mail-in ballot but was nervous about it.

    The only problems I have had with the USPS and elections is when they
    decide that distributing the Voter Pamphlets is optional. It's not.
    And, IIRC, they get /paid/ to do it.

    Around here, the local equivalent is the single document related to
    the election you are allowed to bring into the voting station. They
    don't check to see if you have put check marks next to candidates'
    names.

    The last election we had was during the peak of the pandemic where the
    main change was that instead of folding your ballot and handing it to
    the poll clerk who popped it into the box; during the pandemic the
    poll clerk was behind a plexiglass shield and you were required to
    fold your ballot and when the clerk said OK (meaning you'd folded it
    properly) stuck it through the slot of the box which was chained to
    the table but was outside the plexiglass screen.

    As always we lined up to vote and the line was longer than usual
    though mostly because we were standing 6-10 feet apart in the line.

    Mail in, mail back, get email confirming receipt, get email confirming
    will be counted (ie, signature passed inspection). A simple process.

    Republicans hate it because it lets just anyone (who qualifies) vote.
    They think only people who vote Republican should be allowed to vote.

    I would have thought it was mostly (a) to ensure only citizens voted
    and (b) that nobody attempted to vote twice (though in a recent
    election there was a scandal concerning one group of immigrants who
    professed not to speak English but were caught going from station to
    station voting multiple times - we're talking about a team of about
    20-30 individuals who were though to have voted 15-20 times each)

    On my last election I voted then asked the poll clerk how many people
    were on the list from my address. He wouldn't tell me until after I
    voted then told me the answer after I had told him that my wife had
    died since the election before that and wanted to ensure she was off
    the list which she was.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to All on Wed Sep 4 09:11:17 2024
    On Tue, 03 Sep 2024 13:15:54 -0700, The Horny Goat <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 08:11:29 -0700, Paul S Person ><[email protected]d> wrote:

    In San Francisco we use any space available, the lobby of a big >>>>building may have space or a closed store.(too many of those around).But >>>>I vote at home then carry my ballot to a collection box. I used to drop >>>>it at City Hall but that is very tiring(for me) and for many years now I >>>>have voted at home and hand carried my ballot to a collection box. With >>>>DeJoy trying to put the Post Office out of business I would not entrust >>>>it to the US Mail.

    I wouldn't trust my ballot to anything other than a certified election >>>official. I once used a mail-in ballot but was nervous about it.

    The only problems I have had with the USPS and elections is when they >>decide that distributing the Voter Pamphlets is optional. It's not.
    And, IIRC, they get /paid/ to do it.

    Around here, the local equivalent is the single document related to
    the election you are allowed to bring into the voting station. They
    don't check to see if you have put check marks next to candidates'
    names.

    The last election we had was during the peak of the pandemic where the
    main change was that instead of folding your ballot and handing it to
    the poll clerk who popped it into the box; during the pandemic the
    poll clerk was behind a plexiglass shield and you were required to
    fold your ballot and when the clerk said OK (meaning you'd folded it >properly) stuck it through the slot of the box which was chained to
    the table but was outside the plexiglass screen.

    As always we lined up to vote and the line was longer than usual
    though mostly because we were standing 6-10 feet apart in the line.

    Mail in, mail back, get email confirming receipt, get email confirming
    will be counted (ie, signature passed inspection). A simple process.

    Republicans hate it because it lets just anyone (who qualifies) vote.
    They think only people who vote Republican should be allowed to vote.

    I would have thought it was mostly (a) to ensure only citizens voted
    and (b) that nobody attempted to vote twice (though in a recent
    election there was a scandal concerning one group of immigrants who
    professed not to speak English but were caught going from station to
    station voting multiple times - we're talking about a team of about
    20-30 individuals who were though to have voted 15-20 times each)

    That's the sort of excuse Republicans use, but the fact is that
    citizenship (and other qualifiers) are checked when the voter
    /registers/, the list is updated for change of address and things like
    becoming a felon, the ballot is mailed to the address-of-record and
    cannot be forwarded; the ballot is mailed to the voter specifically
    and that is who had better be signing the envelope; and the signature
    is checked when the ballot is received. The real reason is that given
    above.

    And they know it works because, in States where both traditional
    voting and mail voting occur, it is common for the initial returns to
    favor the Republicans and then the vast deluge of mailed-in ballots
    are counted and, sometimes, things change drastically.

    But, just as it never occurred to them that reversing Roe v Wade might
    cost them white female suburban votes, so it also never occurs to them
    that a lot of their voters are older and so more likely to vote by
    mail in States where in-person voting is the norm. So the harder they
    make it to vote by mail, the more of their own voters they impede.

    The cases of actual voter fraud are very few and mostly consist of
    someone voting a deceased housemate's ballot. Although both 2016 and
    2020 produced at least one MAGA voter who voted twice, in one case
    because Trump had convinced her that her vote wouldn't be counted.

    There was, of course, one Congressional District back East in 20 or 24
    (I forget which) where the fraud perpetrated by a /Republican/
    political operative was deemed so bad that the entire election, from
    Primary to the one that counted, had to be redone. I'm not going to
    say that this is the first (and so only) time this has happened, but
    it is not something that happens very often.

    On my last election I voted then asked the poll clerk how many people
    were on the list from my address. He wouldn't tell me until after I
    voted then told me the answer after I had told him that my wife had
    died since the election before that and wanted to ensure she was off
    the list which she was.

    As to the multiple votes -- when we had polling places, we had to go
    to /our/ polling place because only voters on the books for the
    precincts voting there could vote there. So that would have been
    possible only if they had been /registered/ in different precincts,
    one for each polling place they used. Which, depending on their level
    of sophistication and determination, might be a bit difficult. This
    could be viewed as a disadvantage of in-person voting not tied to a
    single specific location for each voter.

    Note that the all-mail system essentially restricts each voter to a
    single location -- that person's home (or accomodation address for
    homeless voters), at least insofar as receiving the ballot goes.

    Every system can be gamed. But the only Party known to have moved
    illegal immigrants around is the Republican Party (Texas and Florida).
    Note to vote, of course, but still ... they did bus/fly them from one
    city to another.
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From BCFD 36@21:1/5 to The Horny Goat on Thu Sep 5 10:42:37 2024
    On 9/3/24 13:15, The Horny Goat wrote:
    On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 08:11:29 -0700, Paul S Person
    [stuff deleted]

    I would have thought it was mostly (a) to ensure only citizens voted
    and (b) that nobody attempted to vote twice (though in a recent
    election there was a scandal concerning one group of immigrants who
    professed not to speak English but were caught going from station to
    station voting multiple times - we're talking about a team of about
    20-30 individuals who were though to have voted 15-20 times each)


    I would be very interested to know where this happened.

    --
    ----------------

    Dave Scruggs
    Senior Software Engineer - Lockheed Martin, et. al (mostly Retired)
    Captain - Boulder Creek Fire (Retired)
    Board of Directors - Boulder Creek Fire Protection District (What was I thinking?)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to All on Thu Sep 5 19:53:45 2024
    On 9/5/24 10:42, BCFD 36 wrote:
    On 9/3/24 13:15, The Horny Goat wrote:
    On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 08:11:29 -0700, Paul S Person
    [stuff deleted]

    I would have thought it was mostly (a) to ensure only citizens voted
    and (b) that nobody attempted to vote twice (though in a recent
    election there was a scandal concerning one group of immigrants who
    professed not to speak English but were caught going from station to
    station voting multiple times - we're talking about a team of about
    20-30 individuals who were though to have voted 15-20 times each)


    I would be very interested to know where this happened.

    Another rumor put out by the loser in 2000.
    So far the only voters doing things illegally have
    been Native Born White American Republicans.

    bliss

    --
    b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul S Person@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Sep 6 09:38:49 2024
    On Thu, 5 Sep 2024 19:53:45 -0700, Bobbie Sellers <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 9/5/24 10:42, BCFD 36 wrote:
    On 9/3/24 13:15, The Horny Goat wrote:
    On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 08:11:29 -0700, Paul S Person
    [stuff deleted]

    I would have thought it was mostly (a) to ensure only citizens voted
    and (b) that nobody attempted to vote twice (though in a recent
    election there was a scandal concerning one group of immigrants who
    professed not to speak English but were caught going from station to
    station voting multiple times - we're talking about a team of about
    20-30 individuals who were though to have voted 15-20 times each)


    I would be very interested to know where this happened.

    Another rumor put out by the loser in 2000.
    So far the only voters doing things illegally have
    been Native Born White American Republicans.

    I don't think that's entirely fair.

    I think one of the "sister acts" (surviving sister voted for both
    herself and her deceased sister) involved votes for Democrats.

    But these minor problems were not only caught but did not influence
    the elections they occurred in. IOW, nobody won or lost by 1 vote.

    It is, however, true that all the spectacular stuff (forcing a House
    District election to be completely redone, alternate Elector slates
    done so incompetently that those on them are liable to trial, ballots
    so confusing that votes for the Republican candidate actually went to
    a thrid party candidate in Florida in 2000, etc, etc) was done by
    Republicans. Since, say, 2000 or so anyway.

    If we go back far enough -- trust me on this -- /no/ political party
    can escape a history of really dubious election-related behavior.
    Think "rotten boroughs". Think "Tammany Hall".

    One question is: what would happen if a State refused to certify its
    results and so submitted /no/ valid Electoral ballots? Would the total
    needed to win be reduced? Or would it go to the House to decide?
    --
    "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
    Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
    Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Fri Sep 6 10:16:27 2024
    In article <[email protected]>,
    Paul S Person <[email protected]d> wrote:



    It is, however, true that all the spectacular stuff (forcing a House
    District election to be completely redone, alternate Elector slates
    done so incompetently that those on them are liable to trial, ballots
    so confusing that votes for the Republican candidate actually went to
    a thrid party candidate in Florida in 2000, etc, etc) was done by Republicans. Since, say, 2000 or so anyway.


    IIRC, the problem in at least one county was that the voters who were
    trying to vote for Gore (Democrat) were so confused by the ballot (this
    was in a majority Democrat county) that they voted for a 3rd party
    candidate instead.

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. -------------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris Buckley@21:1/5 to Paul S Person on Fri Sep 6 22:39:02 2024
    On 2024-09-06, Paul S Person <[email protected]d> wrote:
    On Thu, 5 Sep 2024 19:53:45 -0700, Bobbie Sellers
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 9/5/24 10:42, BCFD 36 wrote:
    On 9/3/24 13:15, The Horny Goat wrote:
    On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 08:11:29 -0700, Paul S Person
    [stuff deleted]

    I would have thought it was mostly (a) to ensure only citizens voted
    and (b) that nobody attempted to vote twice (though in a recent
    election there was a scandal concerning one group of immigrants who
    professed not to speak English but were caught going from station to
    station voting multiple times - we're talking about a team of about
    20-30 individuals who were though to have voted 15-20 times each)


    I would be very interested to know where this happened.

    Another rumor put out by the loser in 2000.
    So far the only voters doing things illegally have
    been Native Born White American Republicans.

    I don't think that's entirely fair.

    I think one of the "sister acts" (surviving sister voted for both
    herself and her deceased sister) involved votes for Democrats.

    But these minor problems were not only caught but did not influence
    the elections they occurred in. IOW, nobody won or lost by 1 vote.

    It is, however, true that all the spectacular stuff (forcing a House
    District election to be completely redone, alternate Elector slates
    done so incompetently that those on them are liable to trial, ballots
    so confusing that votes for the Republican candidate actually went to
    a thrid party candidate in Florida in 2000, etc, etc) was done by Republicans. Since, say, 2000 or so anyway.

    Really? I suppose given your own definition of spectacular...
    Here's a couple easily found just in Democratic primaries:

    The results of the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut Democratic
    mayoral primary election, which was held on September 12, 2023,
    were overturned due to absentee ballot fraud in an election where
    only 251 votes separated the winner (Joseph Ganim) and the loser
    (John Gomes). Superior Court Judge William Clark ordered that a new
    primary election between Ganim (the party-endorsed candidate) and
    Gomes (the challenger) should be held because an unusually large
    number of absentee ballots that were counted had been illegally
    placed in drop boxes by two unauthorized ballot distributors who
    were Ganim supporters: Wanda Geter-Pataky (a Democratic Town
    Committee member and the Leader of Voting District 136) and Eneida
    Martinez (a candidate for City Council). The court determined that
    videos of Geter-Pataky and Martinez illegally dropping off stacks
    of votes into various drop boxes “provided evidence of ballot
    harvesting, in violation of state law.” Geter-Pataky made 10 drops
    either directly or indirectly, and Martinez made 5 separate drops
    of multiple ballots. The court also found “the volume of ballots
    mishandled is such it calls the result of the primary election in
    serious doubt and unable to determine the legitimate result of the
    primary.”

    Judge Jeff Weill overturned the results of the June 2020 First Ward
    Alderman Democratic primary election in Aberdeen, Mississippi, due
    to absentee ballot fraud, and has ordered a new election. Nicholas
    Holliday was declared the winner of the June primary by a margin of
    37 votes over Robert Devaull. After Devaull filed a lawsuit
    challenging the results of the race, the Monroe County District
    court found that 66 of the 84 absentee ballots cast should not have
    been counted because they were not valid. A notary, Dallas Jones,
    was arrested for election fraud for notarizing ballots without
    watching voters sign ballots or checking their identification. In
    addition to the absentee ballot fraud, the court found evidence of
    intimidation at the polls by various public officials, including
    Mayor Maurice Howard, candidate Holliday, and Aberdeen Police Chief
    Henry Randle, which constituted violations of anti-electioneering
    rules at polling places.

    Locally, we had the duly anointed Democratic Congressional candidate,
    Wendy Rosen, who had to withdraw after she was found guilty of voting
    in both Maryland and Florida for two presidential elections. (I agree,
    not a spectacular effect, but a rather spectacular sense of
    privilege.)

    Chris

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Sep 15 13:09:23 2024
    On Wed, 04 Sep 2024 09:11:17 -0700, Paul S Person
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    But, just as it never occurred to them that reversing Roe v Wade might
    cost them white female suburban votes, so it also never occurs to them
    that a lot of their voters are older and so more likely to vote by
    mail in States where in-person voting is the norm. So the harder they
    make it to vote by mail, the more of their own voters they impede.

    The cases of actual voter fraud are very few and mostly consist of
    someone voting a deceased housemate's ballot. Although both 2016 and
    2020 produced at least one MAGA voter who voted twice, in one case
    because Trump had convinced her that her vote wouldn't be counted.

    I think I mentioned here that following my wife's passing in 2022 I
    asked the poll clerk how many voters were listed at my address. They
    wouldn't tell me so I gave her full name and asked if she was listed
    on the list and was told no.

    Told them the main reason why I had asked is that I had had to file
    her tax return and knew that Canada Revenue cooperates with the
    electoral commission in sharing information. (Not that paying one's
    taxes proves one's citizenship - or even one's name. I once got on the
    list TWICE by checking the box and when I went to vote cast my ballot
    then said "I can guarantee that other fellow at my address won't be
    voting today" Them: "How can you possibly know THAT?" Me: (producing
    my driver's licence which shows both names and said "because I just
    voted and don't plan on voting a second time. Now in all seriousness,
    can you pass this information on so I'm not on the list twice next
    time?" They did and next time I was only there once)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Sep 15 13:09:46 2024
    On Thu, 5 Sep 2024 10:42:37 -0700, BCFD 36 <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 9/3/24 13:15, The Horny Goat wrote:
    On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 08:11:29 -0700, Paul S Person
    [stuff deleted]

    I would have thought it was mostly (a) to ensure only citizens voted
    and (b) that nobody attempted to vote twice (though in a recent
    election there was a scandal concerning one group of immigrants who
    professed not to speak English but were caught going from station to
    station voting multiple times - we're talking about a team of about
    20-30 individuals who were though to have voted 15-20 times each)


    I would be very interested to know where this happened.

    Richmond, BC, Canada

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to All on Sun Sep 15 13:11:10 2024
    On Thu, 5 Sep 2024 18:20:47 -0400, William Hyde <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    People within the conservative party engaged in voter suppression on a
    large scale in 2011 and successfully stonewalled the investigation to
    the point that only one person was tried and convicted. In the same
    election the liberal candidate in the riding south of me filed suit >claiming that 181 illegal votes had been cast. A judge threw out 79 but
    the supreme court in a 4-3 decision let the election stand even though
    thew winning margin was 26.

    Given how one registers for the vote in Canada it would be relatively
    easy to get a non-citizen who had filed taxes onto the voters' list.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)