#VoteByMail - A word or two or three about the reliability of absentee ballots, via Wisconsin's recent very negative experience; Friends don't let friends vote for #JenniferGottlieb

Over the weekend I shared this interesting news about voting by mail with about 175 or so politics-centric friends and collegues in South Florida and Tallahassee via email, and a different version of that to the folks on the local #HollywoodFL #NextDoor website, which I'm now contributing a considered thought or two more often than I have in the past.

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This Reality Check re the reliability of absentee ballots comes via a tweet last week by veteran U.S. politics and elections expert Amy Walter, the National Editor of The Cook Political Report and a weekly guest on The PBS NewsHour, who also hosts one of the best political podcasts around.
It's called, logically enough, "Politics with Amy Walter" https://www.npr.org/podcasts/675388201/politics-with-amy-walter
Twitter: @amyewalter https://twitter.com/amyewalter/with_replies
Read her columns at: https://cookpolitical.com/about/staff/amy-walter/analysis

This bit of news also serves as a real counter-intuitive slap in the face to most of the U.S. TV network correspondents reporting recently on the Wisconsin primary, who focused mostly on the effect of #COVID19 on election turnout and public engagement, NOT on the very bad blood between the Republican-majority Wisconsin state legislature and the Democratic governor, Tony Evers

The Wisconsin elections had also figured in a recent decision where the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court's decision to grant six extra days for absentee ballots to be received in Wisconsin's statewide balloting.

https://twitter.com/amyewalter/status/1281930223819333638
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “The U.S. Postal Service has identified hundreds of absentee ballots for the April election that never made it to voters or couldn't be counted because of postmark problems, a new report says.“ https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/10/wisconsin-absentee-ballots-didnt-get-counted-because-late-delivery-misdelivery-and-bad-postmarks-pos/5417084002/


I incorporated Amy's catch of this Journal Sentinel article last week after seeing an interesting tweet by Anthony Man of the Sun Sentinel about the number of election ballots being requested by Broward voters for the upcoming August 18th election, some of which will soon be making their way to friends who are smart enough to be up north in places not nearly as hot, humid, and muggy as Hollywood and Hallandale Beach in the summer.

That election includes lots of races for offices in Broward that in my opinion ought to be appearing on the November ballot, like the Broward School Board races.
More on that last point soon!

@RedBroward @BrittanyWallman @Susannah_Bryan @crespogram @CGreenbarg #Wisconsin's experience with #AbsenteeBallot in April was NOT a positive one.
And they follow instructions infinitely better than #Broward's army of distracted voters. https://t.co/vqVL2bYicS
H/T @amyewalter

— HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) July 12, 2020

Speaking of elections and how they are run and who runs them, re #JenniferGottlieb.
Friends don't let friends vote for #JenniferGottlieb.

Candidate for Broward elections supervisor wants to make it easier to vote by mail by automatically sending ballots to every registered voter in the county.
Just one problem: It's not allowed by Florida law.https://t.co/bdZVui3INg

— Anthony Man (@browardpolitics) July 6, 2020

@CGreenbarg To the surprise of nobody, esp. you + I, who've seen it SO MANY times B4 in-person, res ipsa loquitur, Jen-Jen = a dum-dum.

Just like B4, in 2012, she'll refuse to answer questions fm #Broward public abt her competency + #ethics. https://t.co/5pqb9wNLCp @politicofl pic.twitter.com/0zF8M9AbPx

— HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) July 7, 2020

#amnesia 🙄🤨
MT @browardpolitics 9 years ago: #Broward SOE candidate @Gottlieb4SOE resigned fm #Broward #SchoolBoard she led, was engulfed in turmoil. #FL Grand Jury reported widespread mismanagement + corruption.

Gottlieb now: "I was never indicted." 🤥https://t.co/zhs8N9uZED

— HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) July 7, 2020

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2/ .@60Minutes Overtime - What you need to know about Voting by Mail. The Wisconsin example.https://t.co/HgDO4x5qfM #VoteByMail #AbsenteeBallot

— HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) July 17, 2020

For the most recent info re #VoteBymail: https://twitter.com/hashtag/votebymail?f=live

Dave 

David B. Smith 

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/ 

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/ 

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

Travel Massive: https://travelmassive.com/dbsmith

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog   

I'm very psyched -and greatly relieved!- by the selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential nominee; Integrity, optimism and a tenacious work-ethic are Ryan's hallmarks

Prosperity Project video: The Crisis. Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, outlines the debt crisis we face. Uploaded April 5, 2011.

http://youtu.be/O-QEENKN_9Y

His future plans made clearer, Marco Rubio and his family and friends can now finally breathe again and have a little more personal space, a more normal life, though this necessarily means that many of the most ardently pro-amnesty immigrant groups, and their allies in the news media, will now have to get off their summer diet of anti-Rubio remarks and anecdotes for new agitprop pieces attacking Rubio for being, well, part of the norm, and not one of their puppets.

This will also mean the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times can finally wake-up from their long summer slumber and sleepwalking, 86 their Marco Rubio Veep infatuation, smell the Cuban coffee, get out of their air conditioned offices, and get moving on transforming their heretofore lame and going-thru-the-motions 2012 presidential and Florida election coverage, so much of which has been just plain pitiful the past year in the view of not just myself but friends of mine who work at national news organizations, who are rightly puzzled and chagrined at what passes for news coverage in the two largest markets of the fourth-largest state in the country.

Romney's choice of optimistic, hard-working and media-genic Jack Kemp acolyte Paul Ryan also means that we can count on Debbie Wasserman Schultz going into full ZEALOT mode in the coming week, as she once again abandons her constituents in Broward to play the role of attack dog as she criss-crosses the country, only venturing into safe Dem districts.

Yes, we can count on seeing a steady stream of photographs of her predictable nonsensical threats before older voters and rich Democratic donors, her odd facial expressions and hairstyles will produce photographs which will, in some cases, will, no doubt, prove priceless.
His Midwestern friendliness and amiability will continue to stand out in sharp contrast to her shrill, know-it-all, govt. as savior nostrums, and her patronizing glares.

As you newcomers to the blog can see, below, I've already been a strong supporter of Paul Ryan and his economic prescription... and have been waiting patiently to see when and if I should share some of the knowledge here about Ryan, a man whom a week ago, 99% of South Florida's reporters couldn't have told you anything about other than that he was from Wisconsin. 

Here's one of the sources for information that THEY and you can trust: the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com/

See my previous blog post, with video, on Congressman Paul Ryan and his budget prowess of April 8, 2011 titled, Michael Barone on Paul Ryan's AEI speech taking on his budget critics: "Ryan Steals March on Obama as Fiscal Crisis Looms"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/michael-barone-on-paul-ryans-aei-speech.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: House Budget Press <HBCPress@mail.house.gov>
Date: Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Subject: Ryan and Sessions: ‘Unprecedented 1,200 Days’ Since Senate Democrats Passed A Budget
To:

PRESS RELEASES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAugust 10, 2012 PERMALINK	CONTACT: William Allison (Ryan) 202-226-6100 Stephen Miller, Andrew Logan (Sessions) 202-228-0575
Ryan and Sessions: ‘Unprecedented 1,200 Days’ Since Senate Democrats Passed A Budget
WASHINGTON – House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions of Alabama issued the following joint statement marking the 1,200th day since Senate Democrats have last adopted a budget: “Tomorrow marks another disappointing record for the United States Senate: Senate Majority Leader Reid and his Democrat conference will have gone an unprecedented 1,200 days without adopting a budget plan as required by law. Not only have they failed to adopt a budget, but with America under threat of financial calamity, they have refused to even present a plan for public scrutiny. Last year, Majority Leader Reid said it would be ‘foolish’ to do a budget and the legally required Budget Committee mark-up was cancelled. No plan from his conference has seen the light of day. He refuses to disclose who he plans to tax and how he plans to spend taxpayers’ money. “This year, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad committed to bringing forth a budget plan and conducting a mark-up, and was shut down by the Majority Leader. Once again, the conference put forward no proposal and offered nothing on the Senate floor. The Senate Majority did not offer up a single plan or even cast a vote in support of a single plan. By contrast, House Republicans laid out and adopted a credible, responsible plan that avoids this looming debt crisis with spending cuts and pro-growth tax reform while preserving the safety net. "Never before has our nation needed a budget and a long-term financial plan as badly as it needs one now. The Congressional Budget Office stated this week that the federal government is on track to run another trillion-dollar deficit this year and our debt will continue to explode with this continued lack of leadership. In addition to huge deficits, we face a $4 trillion tax increase at the end of this year and a sequester that Defense Secretary Panetta said will ‘do catastrophic damage to the military.’ Responsible and moral leadership requires the Senate to meet its legal obligation to pass a budget and to begin to address the fiscal crisis that is fast approaching our nation.”
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