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Thanks @LewisBrahm. I was just testing to make sure you’re paying attention here.
Suspect Wyoming is an extreme example. Not sure if any agriculture even grows there. At least California produces veggies, fruit and some world class wine. Surely, modifications might be made to how Senate seats are apportioned and votes allocated. Still, I think my larger point that states should vote independently rather than some nationally orchestrated approach is a valid one.
Let me add one point that occurred to me later. States can’t print money the way the Fed can or engage in deficit spending to the tune of trillions of dollars the way the President and Congress do. So, next time Trump shouts & spouts about those “irresponsible” Democratic states, just remember that.
After the 911 attacks and anthrax scare a good number of mail box drop boxes have been removed as snail mail volumes began to decline. It use to be years back there were three mail boxes close to my house and depending on my direction of travel would determine which box I'd use. Now, all three of the drop boxes are gone and were removed under Democrat Presidents even before President Trump took office.
From my perspective the removal of many of the mail drop boxes took place under the Dems. And, what are the Dems now doing? They are blaming Trump for stuff that took place when a Democrat President controlled the White House.
This is nothing more than another socialist liberal Democrat bark.
Under Bush, they decreased from 365K (360K in 2001) to 205K in 2008. Notable is the removal between 2007 (351K) and 2008 (205K) of 42% of all boxes.
Under Obama, the number decreased from 205K to 157K. Notable is that nearly all of this occurred between 2012 (202K) and 2013 (160K). 21%, percentage-wise, half as many as under Bush. In raw numbers, a bit over 1/4 as many boxes removed.
Now I don't think that the parties of these three presidents had anything to do with the additions (Clinton) or removals (Bush, Obama) of boxes. But since you wrote that your local perspective was that three letter boxes were removed under "Democrat Presidents", I grouped changes by administration.
Between 2014 and 2018 inclusive, the number of boxes was steady at 157K. No statistics for 2019. According to an Aug 14, 2020 Snopes page, "Kim Frum, the senior public relations representative for the Postal Service, told us there are about 142,000 blue steel collection boxes currently in operation across the United States."
That's a 10% reduction so far - this is a snapshot in the middle of a wave of removals. At best, these current removals indicate that the Trump/DeJoy USPS is unable to adjust on its own to changing circumstances (an anticipated spike in demand). At worst, the timing may be more than coincidence.
The query I used was: Administrations (2): United States of America Items (2): Select 7.3: Number of letter-boxes Format (2): Select years 1992, 1993, ..., 2018
A friend in Arizona received 3 different mail-in ballots (all addressed to his home) with different names. He called to report the mistake and was told "those must have gone out by mistaken and be to the home's prior owners." Nice try... This is a new home and address. He and his wife are the only two to have ever lived there. After being told that he heard crickets and was hung up on.
Had your friend completed and submitted all three ballots, their signatures would have been verified to those on record. Since all three ballots have the same address, they would have been easily rounded up by local enforcement to be arrested.
Tamper Evident Envelopes and Ballot Tracking: In Arizona, counties utilize tamper evident envelopes for mailed ballots and voters can verify whether their ballot-by-mail has been sent to them and whether it has been received and accepted by the county after it has been mailed back.
Security of Ballot Drop-Off Locations and Drop-Boxes: Ballot drop-off locations and drop-boxes must comply with security requirements and procedures outlined in the Elections Procedures Manual.
Signature Verification: Every ballot-by-mail is authenticated through a rigorous signature verification process conduct by trained election officials. The voter is contacted if the signature on the ballot-by-mail affidavit is inconsistent with the signature in the voter’s registration record.
Criminal Penalties for Misconduct: Arizona law imposes severe criminal penalties for ballot tampering, vote buying, or discarding someone else’s ballot.
Nothing worse when applying for a job having to disclose you were arrested for mail-ballot fraud.
Every senior member of the Republican party knows this mail sabotage is about voter suppression, not fraud, and I suspect much of the base does too. It is evident that it is much harder to vote in person in congested and often impoverished minority communities where lines to vote can last for many hours. So mail-in voting is a viable solution. I miss the days when Republicans were more transparently racist instead of these ludicrous coded rationales to prevent non-Caucasians from voting.
Comments
Suspect Wyoming is an extreme example. Not sure if any agriculture even grows there. At least California produces veggies, fruit and some world class wine. Surely, modifications might be made to how Senate seats are apportioned and votes allocated. Still, I think my larger point that states should vote independently rather than some nationally orchestrated approach is a valid one.
Let me add one point that occurred to me later. States can’t print money the way the Fed can or engage in deficit spending to the tune of trillions of dollars the way the President and Congress do. So, next time Trump shouts & spouts about those “irresponsible” Democratic states, just remember that.
“Wabash Cannonball“?
After the 911 attacks and anthrax scare a good number of mail box drop boxes have been removed as snail mail volumes began to decline. It use to be years back there were three mail boxes close to my house and depending on my direction of travel would determine which box I'd use. Now, all three of the drop boxes are gone and were removed under Democrat Presidents even before President Trump took office.
From my perspective the removal of many of the mail drop boxes took place under the Dems. And, what are the Dems now doing? They are blaming Trump for stuff that took place when a Democrat President controlled the White House.
This is nothing more than another socialist liberal Democrat bark.
https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/mail-collection-boxes.pdf
Under Bush, they decreased from 365K (360K in 2001) to 205K in 2008. Notable is the removal between 2007 (351K) and 2008 (205K) of 42% of all boxes.
Under Obama, the number decreased from 205K to 157K. Notable is that nearly all of this occurred between 2012 (202K) and 2013 (160K). 21%, percentage-wise, half as many as under Bush. In raw numbers, a bit over 1/4 as many boxes removed.
Now I don't think that the parties of these three presidents had anything to do with the additions (Clinton) or removals (Bush, Obama) of boxes. But since you wrote that your local perspective was that three letter boxes were removed under "Democrat Presidents", I grouped changes by administration.
Between 2014 and 2018 inclusive, the number of boxes was steady at 157K. No statistics for 2019. According to an Aug 14, 2020 Snopes page, "Kim Frum, the senior public relations representative for the Postal Service, told us there are about 142,000 blue steel collection boxes currently in operation across the United States."
That's a 10% reduction so far - this is a snapshot in the middle of a wave of removals. At best, these current removals indicate that the Trump/DeJoy USPS is unable to adjust on its own to changing circumstances (an anticipated spike in demand). At worst, the timing may be more than coincidence.
Yearly statistics are from Universal Postal Union's Postal Statistics. That's the same source as cited by the USPS itself in the USPS page I linked to above.
http://pls.upu.int/pls/ap/ssp_report.main2020?p_language=AN&p_choice=BROWSE
The query I used was:
Administrations (2): United States of America
Items (2): Select 7.3: Number of letter-boxes
Format (2): Select years 1992, 1993, ..., 2018
A friend in Arizona received 3 different mail-in ballots (all addressed to his home) with different names. He called to report the mistake and was told "those must have gone out by mistaken and be to the home's prior owners." Nice try... This is a new home and address. He and his wife are the only two to have ever lived there. After being told that he heard crickets and was hung up on.
From https://azsos.gov/votebymail:
Tamper Evident Envelopes and Ballot Tracking: In Arizona, counties utilize tamper evident envelopes for mailed ballots and voters can verify whether their ballot-by-mail has been sent to them and whether it has been received and accepted by the county after it has been mailed back.
Security of Ballot Drop-Off Locations and Drop-Boxes: Ballot drop-off locations and drop-boxes must comply with security requirements and procedures outlined in the Elections Procedures Manual.
Signature Verification: Every ballot-by-mail is authenticated through a rigorous signature verification process conduct by trained election officials. The voter is contacted if the signature on the ballot-by-mail affidavit is inconsistent with the signature in the voter’s registration record.
Criminal Penalties for Misconduct: Arizona law imposes severe criminal penalties for ballot tampering, vote buying, or discarding someone else’s ballot.
Nothing worse when applying for a job having to disclose you were arrested for mail-ballot fraud.