Trump 5: Coming up trumps

[Destiny]

I'm not gonna lie - there's NOTHING that would keep me from voting for Hillary at this point, because I'm so terrified of the unstable trump at the helm. Hillary is imperfect, sure, but I don't think she's gonna start a nuclear war.

[Fascinated]

1 minute ago, apple1 said:

Yes, voting booths are private. (See my other post...)

Sorry, I did miss that post. 

[church_of_dog]

Just now, Fascinated said:

Do you have private voting booths, though?  What's the point if it isn't private?  That seems very wrong!

Yes, of course how a person votes is private -- but apparently WHETHER they have voted is not.  I don't understand it.

 

2 minutes ago, Destiny said:

It should be. Not in the least because I'm in a deep red area in a deep red county, and I actually fear reprisals when trump loses California in November. There have already been threats on our town facebook forum to come over and "take care of" Hillary supporters. I vote offsite at prevoting, but still, my party affiliation (which is whatever decline to state is called these days) is no one's business but my own and whoever I decide to share it with.

I'm in the same position in terms of being in a deep red area -- the (assumed) difference from your area being that I'm somewhere so small that we all pretty much know each other, and that does go a long way in preventing political dissension among community members.  I also choose not to be too blatant in my expression of my opinions, and thus don't create any unnecessary divisiveness.

On the other hand, part of what prompted me to start volunteering as a pollworker in the first place, was the idea of making it openly known (the pollworkers and OUR party affiliations are printed in the newspaper) that someone whose party affiliation is a color (that would be me) exists here.  I don't know how to explain it -- I would expect to be challenged by folks if I put a Jill Stein yard sign up, but having my name with "Green" next to it printed in the paper and seen to be doing a civic "duty" by being a pollworker, isn't a problem at all.  Maybe it's the difference between doing and talking about?  Or something just feels hostile to me to put up yard signs that are in such opposition to the general attitude here, but quietly having my G and then stepping up to volunteer doesn't seem to irritate anyone.  (Actually, I suspect that no one reads the list in the paper anyway, and they just know me as "the lady from the library who also works at the polling booth, who is probably a liberal but who doesn't get too loud about it")

31 minutes ago, sawasdee said:

@church_of_dogSo are you saying that as I go into the booth the observers know if I am a registered Democrat or Republican?

Oops, I missed this question, sorry!  Yes, if someone really cared to look (and knew your name to look you up on the roster), I'm pretty dang sure the roster lists party affiliation!  I will double check this election to be sure, but that's how I recall it.  But the roster is posted well within the 100 feet where no electioneering is permitted, so they couldn't do anything with that information as you approach the polling place anyway.  I suppose they could use it for exit polling, if they wanted to ask questions that differed depending on the person's affiliation?  I don't really know the rules about exit polling, and we are waaayyyy too small to have anyone care about that anyway (tiny red population in a large blue state -- other than local elections I don't think anyone here expects their vote to sway anything).

[AuntK]

I just volunteered to be a Trump pollwatcher on some trump Facebook page!  ;-)  I'm in Florida. Don't know if they will check me out, but if you can and if you live in Pennsylvania, you might want to think about it. That is where they are targeting the polls! My FB page might give me AWAY as a Hillary supporter with a vagina, but thankfully they can't see FJ!

[church_of_dog]

14 minutes ago, church_of_dog said:

Yes, of course how a person votes is private -- but apparently WHETHER they have voted is not.  I don't understand it.

I should add to my response to @Fascinated about the privacy of the actual voting booth -- that I have been surprised at many of the locals who seem to me to be the epitome of a conservative, and then when I see their name on the roster, they are registered Democrat.  It's encouraging to me that at least some people are actually willing to buck the trend (in this community at least) and I presume they have reasons for their choice.  Of course I have no idea how those folks actually vote, but it's been enlightening just to see that what feels on the street like a homogenous Republican community actually includes lots of people registered as various other parties.

[Destiny]

19 minutes ago, church_of_dog said:

I'm in the same position in terms of being in a deep red area -- the (assumed) difference from your area being that I'm somewhere so small that we all pretty much know each other, and that does go a long way in preventing political dissension among community members.  I also choose not to be too blatant in my expression of my opinions, and thus don't create any unnecessary divisiveness.

Tiny town here too. Everyone knows everyone, but it's also a blue collar, very poor community, where there is a lot of anger and too many guns. There have already been threats of violence, and some minor stuff, and it's just scary to be both an out "scary pagan", and a closet Hillary supporter here.

I'm just fucking done with this fucking election. I want the cheeto faced shitgibbon to go back to Page Six where he belongs, and to stop being worried about someone vandalising my house or car or shooting me because I think he's a fuckwit.

[Fascinated]

Thanks for the explanation, @church_of_dog. That IS encouraging!  I do hope this is one election when people don't necessarily vote for their party, but for the candidate. (I know, pretty obvious!)

[RoseWilder]

A relative of mine just posted an article on Facebook from a former beauty pageant contestant who said that Donald Trump was a perfect gentleman around her. 

It's repulsive to see people defending Trump, but the completely lack of logic they're using in their defenses is just too much for me. I just don't know how to respond to people who are both offensive and mind-numbingly stupid. 

So according to their "logic", if a person rapes one person but interacts with other people that they don't rape, then the rape never happened. Or if you murder just one person, but pass 100 other people that day and don't murder them, then POOF the murder never happened. 

I'm going to either have to unfriend some people or start taking blood pressure medicine before visiting Facebook from now on. 

[church_of_dog]

2 minutes ago, Destiny said:

Tiny town here too. Everyone knows everyone, but it's also a blue collar, very poor community, where there is a lot of anger and too many guns. There have already been threats of violence, and some minor stuff, and it's just scary to be both an out "scary pagan", and a closet Hillary supporter here.

I understand.  It's a fine line and no one wants to feel they can't be themselves in their own community!  My county is poor and full of guns too, but thankfully there's not much violence (except domestic violence, sad to say, but that is different from what you're referring to).  My community is an odd mix of poor and varying stages of not-poor, but all very down to earth and there seems to be a cohesion of "people who love this place" that manages to override politics as well as social class/wealth.  We do have some local issues that actively divide the community and I've chosen to mostly keep my opinions on those things to myself, but I don't think those splits follow political lines.

It's actually pretty amazing -- I know one person/couple who might be Pagan (stereotype based on her style of dress) but she is well respected in the community and her husband has been a higher-up in the school system (recently retired, but my point is that they don't seem to receive any malice or disrespect due to their beliefs or presentation).  I can also think of several gay couples and gay singles, who are not secret about their orientation, but also not pushy/flashy/in your face, and I've not heard of anyone being hassled about that either, even though I'm fairly sure that the typical right-winger here claims to take issue with homosexuality (ok, I'm stereotyping wildly here, but I think my general takes are valid).  There just seems to be a sense of "let's just focus on how much we all love this place instead of on whatever our differences are" -- no small part of why I love it here!

NB:  ask me about this community cohesion again on Nov. 9th -- hope I'm not singing a different tune then!

[AuntK]

I can't help but think that some people even though registered Republican and maybe claimed to be Trump supporters just cannot vote for him once they get in the booth. I think of John McCain, who, I believe, truly loves this country, even though he has shown questionable judgment at times.  I somehow believe he won't just waste his vote like he has said with a write -in, I'm thinking he might cross party lines. At least if he truly loves his country. . .

[RoseWilder]

The Arizona Republic recently endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, making it the first endorsement of a Democrat in the paper's history. In response, they received death threats, threats to burn the paper down, threats to the reporters families, etc.  

The paper has written a moving, beautiful response to the threats: 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/2016/10/16/publisher-response-to-threats-after-republic-endorsement-clinton-trump/92058964/

The article in it's entirety is fantastic and I highly recommend reading it, but here's a little preview: 

Quote

To the anonymous caller who invoked the name of Don Bolles — he’s theRepublic reporter who was assassinated by a car bomb 40 years ago — and threatened that more of our reporters would be blown up because of the endorsement, I give you Kimberly. She is the young woman who answered the phone when you called. She sat in my office and calmly told three Phoenix police detectives what you had said. She told them that later, she walked to church and prayed for you. Prayed for patience, for forgiveness. Kimberly knows free speech requires compassion.

To those who said we should be shut down, burned down, who said they hoped we would cease to exist under a new presidential administration, I give you Nicole. She is our editor who directs the news staff, independent of our endorsements. After your threats, Nicole put on her press badge and walked with her reporters and photographers into the latest Donald Trump rally in Prescott Valley, Ariz. She stood as Trump encouraged his followers to heckle and boo and bully journalists. Then she came back to the newsroom to ensure our coverage was fair. Nicole knows free speech requires an open debate.

To those of you who have said that someone who disagrees with you deserves to be punished, I give you Phil. Our editorial page editor is a lifelong Republican, a conservative and a patriot. He was an early voice of reason, arguing calmly that Donald Trump didn't represent the values of the party he loves. Phil understands that free speech sometimes requires bravery.

Also, what the fuck is wrong with Trump supporters that they feel the need to threaten someone's life, their business and their families because someone disagrees with them. 

 

 

[47of74]

If this isn't a reason to vote for Mrs. Clinton, I don't know what is;

money.cnn.com/2016/10/16/media/donald-trump-snl/index.html

Quote

Donald Trump thinks that even "Saturday Night Live" is part of a media conspiracy to bring down his presidential candidacy.

Saturday night, SNL opened with a mocking reenactment of the second presidential debate. The parody included the moderators taking shots, a kung fu style greeting between Trump and Hillary Clinton and an ode to town hall questioner -- and 15-minute celebrity -- Ken Bone.

But the biggest laughs came from Alec Baldwin's portrayal of a stalking, lewd, deceptive Trump. The live SNL audience was cracking up, but apparently the real Trump wasn't.

In a tweet, the Republican nominee said that Baldwin's portrayal "stinks." He also called on NBC to end its "boring and unfunny" show. And he said that SNL was trying to rig the election against him.

Why does Trump make me think of this dude?

 

 

[Fascinated]

Sorry to tell you, Orange Ferreted Shitfucker, but SNL and Alec Baldwin have your asshattery down to perfection. During the debate all I could think about was how would I survive the five day wait for SNL's take. What a fucking loser. 

[VelociRapture]

1 hour ago, church_of_dog said:

Huh.  I thought it was at least statewide that this happens.  I know we get three copies of the indexes, and the two that are inside the building with us get marked with each new voter, and then the one hanging outside gets updated or rotated every hour -- them's the rules as we were told!  None of us seem to understand the rationale though.  Fortunately I think it's rare that any of our voters notice it or bother to do more than glance at it as they walk in.  I think most people assume that their party affiliation is, if not private, at least not paraded around in public on election day, and the whether-or-not a specific person has voted yet seems to me like it ought to be private as well (IMO).  This election might be a perfect example of people deciding not to vote* and not needing everyone to have access to that information.

* I encourage everyone to vote, though, because all the propositions and local elections do matter.  Leave the problematic race empty if you are compelled to, but please still show up to vote for all the others...

Definitely weird. My state has nothing like that. We have reps for both parties present and they check your name off their lists as the non-partisan volunteer does the same thing for the town records. But nothing is posted publicly in that manner at actual polling locations.

1 hour ago, Destiny said:

It should be. Not in the least because I'm in a deep red area in a deep red county, and I actually fear reprisals when trump loses California in November. There have already been threats on our town facebook forum to come over and "take care of" Hillary supporters. I vote offsite at prevoting, but still, my party affiliation (which is whatever decline to state is called these days) is no one's business but my own and whoever I decide to share it with.

I'm pretty sure party affiliation is public record. I know when you lookup whether someone is registered here (Connecticut) it will also list the party you registered with. You do have to enter the person's first name, last nane, town they live in, and their date of birth in order to lookup that up though.

1 hour ago, church_of_dog said:

Yes, of course how a person votes is private -- but apparently WHETHER they have voted is not.  I don't understand it.

I believe it's public record so the political parties have access to them. That way they know who to target with mailings and campaign materials - they don't want to waste time and effort on people who aren't likely to vote.

[Scribber]

42 minutes ago, AuntK said:

I can't help but think that some people even though registered Republican and maybe claimed to be Trump supporters just cannot vote for him once they get in the booth. I think of John McCain, who, I believe, truly loves this country, even though he has shown questionable judgment at times.  I somehow believe he won't just waste his vote like he has said with a write -in, I'm thinking he might cross party lines. At least if he truly loves his country. . .

I have a feeling quite a few Republicans will do this. (Assuming that they actually think it through.) I think that a lot of people are smarter than "throwing away" their vote and know that Trump is truly dangerous, and that Hillary won't be dangerous on that level. Especially people like John McCain and Paul Ryan - I don't agree with them in any way at all - but I think they do truly love America and I think that they also know that Hillary isn't the evil devil that they've all made her out to be. 

I am hopeful that enough of the idiot Trump supporters are as stupid as they seem and believe him that the media is lying and he's actually ahead in the polls, so they just stay home. 

[47of74]

1 hour ago, VelociRapture said:

I'm pretty sure party affiliation is public record. I know when you lookup whether someone is registered here (Connecticut) it will also list the party you registered with. You do have to enter the person's first name, last nane, town they live in, and their date of birth in order to lookup that up though.

Even if party affiliation was not public record I DGAF if people know whether I'm a Democrat or not.  It's who I am and the local Republicans who don't like it can kiss the ring.  And I'm talking about ones that are worn on a person's finger either.

Does it make me a bad person if I hope that some day in the not too distant future we get to see a similar photo of Agent Orange on the internetz? 

[Cleopatra7]

1 hour ago, Fascinated said:

Sorry to tell you, Orange Ferreted Shitfucker, but SNL and Alec Baldwin have your asshattery down to perfection. During the debate all I could think about was how would I survive the five day wait for SNL's take. What a fucking loser. 

Trump is like the Scientology version of a candidate, threatening to sue anyone who hurts his feelings. Can you imagine what the wingnut reaction would be if Obama or Hillary were even a fraction as thin-skinned as Trump is? They'd be using it as a sign of how women and minorities lack the constitution for public office.

[PennySycamore]

I just read on Daily Kos that Democrats started a GoFundMe to rebuild the firebombed GOP office in NC and exceeded their fundraising goal in 4 hours.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/16/1583344/-Democrats-start-Go-Fund-Me-for-NC-GOP-Campaign-office

[HarryPotterFan]

8 hours ago, Howl said:

Hillary has had a target on her back for many years.  As I've mentioned previously, extremely well funded groups like Judicial Watch have been propagating lies about the Clintons for years.   And yes, when right wing media says it enough, it becomes an echo chamber.  Hillary Clinton is an incredibly powerful and intelligent woman and also very shrewd -- characteristics which do not endear her to the far right, who seemingly prefer Sarah Palin types. 

 

Can't have an intelligent woman who refuses to take shit from anyone in charge, that's a threat to their mysoginistic "values."

[Bethella]

3 hours ago, sawasdee said:

I really do not understand how it works in the US. In the UK, you turn up with the card you have been mailed to show that you can vote, go in, vote, and IF YOU WISH, answer the folks outside who ask which way you voted. We do not register with a party for voting - I was a Labour  Party member for years, but no one at the poll knew that. The privacy of your vote is sacrosanct - the Chartists started fighting for it in 1848!

@sawasdee Voting in the US varies by state. @church_of_dog was talking about California.

I'm a poll worker in Michigan and we don't have access to the voter's registered party much less post it publicly. During our presidential primary elections the voter does have to specify which party's ballot they want, but using this year as an example a democrat could request a republican ballot to vote against Trump. In our state primary the voter has to pick a party to vote within although they're on the same ballot so no one knows which party they picked. We had a lot of people get upset with us about being limited to a single party during the primaries this year.

I have to say I'm worried about working this election. We always have the police on-call in case of issues but the presidential primary in March was the first time I'm aware of that we actually had to call them. Two friends came in together to vote, one got a democratic ballot, the other a republican ballot- they ended up getting into a fist fight over it.

[MarblesMom]

I live in South Dakota, previously in California, and I can tell you about my SHOCK at having to show ID here to vote.    When they asked for ID here, I almost made a fuss. Seemed like a violation of privacy, as they then said "Marge, get her the **** form.  She's a ****."  

Like in a town of 250, everyone wouldn't already know! The election ladies then talked about other voters/citizens/neighbors WHILE I WAS VOTING.  At the primary, I asked from the booth if we had a write in option and they told me what a shame it was we didn't.   I also thought that was inappropriate.

God only knows what they said once I left.

I don't think there will be any dead voters going to the polls here.  The living barely have a chance.

In CA, we just told them our names, they seemed to believe us (we might have had to sign a book) and then off to vote.

[Bethella]

15 minutes ago, MarblesMom said:

I live in South Dakota, previously in California, and I can tell you about my SHOCK at having to show ID here to vote.    When they asked for ID here, I almost made a fuss. Seemed like a violation of privacy, as they then said "Marge, get her the **** form.  She's a ****."  

In CA, we just told them our names, they seemed to believe us (we might have had to sign a book) and then off to vote.

Michigan has a voter ID law, if you have an ID you are required to show it, if you don't have one you can fill out an affidavit that you are who you claim to be but if you have one and refuse to show it you can't vote. We scan the IDs to pull up the correct voter registration, it leads to a lot fewer mistakes where someone votes in the wrong precinct. In the old days when they had to compare the voter's signature on the poll book to the the signature from their registration a lot of mistakes would happen.

I'm not getting in to the issues with the states that require ID, no matter what or who prevent people from getting IDs. At least our law has an out for people without a valid ID. We also accept multiple types of ID (drivers license, military, passport, tribal...)

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

This business of the polling people knowing and/or posting the party affiliation informationis seriously weirding me out!  WTF?  I get the concept of having only registered party members voting in the primaries, but beyond that it shouldn't be anybody business but their own. In most normal election cycles, people will usually vote for the candidate of their registered party, but it was my understanding that they are technically free to vote for whomever they choose on election night.  And that vote would be kept private, because of the same reasons I make kids in the class close their eyes to vote on what game we will play for gym class-if they can see what the others are doing, they don't always follow their own convictions.

Here (Canada) you can belong to a particular party if you wish, or belong to none.  On election day you take your elections card, which does not have any party affiliation information on it, and your ID to prove you are you, to the voting place in your riding.  There are procedures to deal with people with no ID or no voter registration card, so, generally, if you are eligible to vote, you can.

 They will check you off the list of voters (to make sure you don't come back later and go again) and hand you the ballot.  You go behind a cardboard screen, check it off,  fold it up and then hand it in to the voting officer who rips off a tear strip on the bottom (I believe they later tally these strips against the number of ballots in the box to make sure the box wasn't stuffed ahead of time) Then they let you stick the folded ballot into the ballot box. At no time does anyone see your ballot or know what your party affiliation might be.  If you want to tell the exit polls anything, you can, but it's not required. 

I cannot get my head around walking up to a polling booth with my party affiliation posted for all to see. It's one thing if I choose to put up a sign in my yard, but that would be by choice.   

 

 

[JMarie]

Wow!  That's all I can say!

 

[JMarie]

And then there's this (it's so easy to find stupid stuff about Trump!!):