Kentucky and NY Primaries Today

[Milchshake]

It will be interesting to watch these delayed primaries today. There's a lot of non-presidential races that are happening.
Mail-in voting is probably best during the Covid-19 crisis.
But for unprepared states, are extended voting and some mail-in voting acceptable alternatives to canceling the vote?

While national voices claim 'voter suppression,' Kentucky on pace for record voter turnout
While national Democrats, athletes and celebrities are saying Kentucky’s rescheduled primary is an attempt at voter suppression, the Bluegrass State is on its way to a possible record turnout in Tuesday’s primary election.

Kentucky received high marks months ago when Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams agreed to allow registered voters to mail in absentee ballots to avoid in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the plan, Kentuckians have also been allowed to vote in-person since June 15, a week ahead of the new primary date.

“If the governor and I are both suppressors, we’re doing a terrible job because we’ve got the highest turnout we’ve ever seen — and that’s the bottom line,” Adams told The Courier Journal on Monday.

Critics of Kentucky’s plan have ranged in the past few days from NBA star LeBron James to former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Adams said as of Saturday, nearly 1 million Kentuckians — 973,807 — have either requested an absentee ballot or voted early before Tuesday’s primary. As of Monday morning, county clerks across the state had received nearly 443,000 of those ballots back in the mail.

The high-water mark for a Kentucky primary election came in 2008, when 922,456 residents voted.

Lotta folks out there not just making themselves look like idiots. But the bigger story is the heightened voter enthusiasm.

[zorkuus]

But the bigger story is the heightened voter enthusiasm.

"Fever polling locations will fix that" -Moscow Mitch

[Flarelaine]

"Fever polling locations will fix that" -Moscow Mitch

Was "fever" intentional or a misspelling?

[zorkuus]

Was "fever" intentional or a misspelling?

I'd like to say it was intentional but I may be just having a heat stroke.

[kaid]

It will be interesting to watch these delayed primaries today. There's a lot of non-presidential races that are happening.
Mail-in voting is probably best during the Covid-19 crisis.
But for unprepared states, are extended voting and some mail-in voting acceptable alternatives to canceling the vote?

While national voices claim 'voter suppression,' Kentucky on pace for record voter turnout
While national Democrats, athletes and celebrities are saying Kentucky’s rescheduled primary is an attempt at voter suppression, the Bluegrass State is on its way to a possible record turnout in Tuesday’s primary election.

Kentucky received high marks months ago when Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams agreed to allow registered voters to mail in absentee ballots to avoid in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the plan, Kentuckians have also been allowed to vote in-person since June 15, a week ahead of the new primary date.

“If the governor and I are both suppressors, we’re doing a terrible job because we’ve got the highest turnout we’ve ever seen — and that’s the bottom line,” Adams told The Courier Journal on Monday.

Critics of Kentucky’s plan have ranged in the past few days from NBA star LeBron James to former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Adams said as of Saturday, nearly 1 million Kentuckians — 973,807 — have either requested an absentee ballot or voted early before Tuesday’s primary. As of Monday morning, county clerks across the state had received nearly 443,000 of those ballots back in the mail.

The high-water mark for a Kentucky primary election came in 2008, when 922,456 residents voted.

Lotta folks out there not just making themselves look like idiots. But the bigger story is the heightened voter enthusiasm.

When you have one polling place for 600k people that is voter suppression that people deal with all the headachs and jump through hoops to still vote does not mean that suppression is not happening it just means people are so pissed off they are wading through the quagmire anyway.

[Ivanstone]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics...-lebron-james/

"Louisville’s Jefferson County (pop. 767,000) chose a single polling place"

Seems reasonable!

[zorkuus]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics...-lebron-james/

"Louisville’s Jefferson County (pop. 767,000) chose a single polling place"

Seems reasonable!

Nice banana republic you have there.

[Ivanstone]

Nice banana republic you have there.

Having a Dem governor is a good start to fixing your problems but you gotta be ready to crush the other side at all levels.

[zorkuus]

Having a Dem governor is a good start to fixing your problems but you gotta be ready to crush the other side at all levels.

I'm not so sure VOTING is the solution to a rigged voting system. If you manage to beat the odds once, they will just rig it in some other manner the next time.

[Milchshake]

Was 2 weeks of early voting at the location enough to allow for reasonable levels of social distancing?

[Belize]

The real litmus test will be wether or not absentee ballots are mailed and counted properly.

IF mail-in ballots are honored and handled properly (unlike some other states *coughGeorgiacough*) then reduced polling places should not be an issue.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a good look, but hopefully Beshear will keep an eye out to make sure everything foes well.

[kaid]

I'm not so sure VOTING is the solution to a rigged voting system. If you manage to beat the odds once, they will just rig it in some other manner the next time.

Well clearly the GOP think you voting matters or they would not be pulling out all stops to prevent it.

[zorkuus]

Well clearly the GOP think you voting matters or they would not be pulling out all stops to prevent it.

Doesn't matter. If you "beat them", it will not stop them from rigging it again next time. The problem is systematic and voting only serves as a temporary bandaid (assuming you even win).

[kaid]

Doesn't matter. If you "beat them", it will not stop them from rigging it again next time. The problem is systematic and voting only serves as a temporary bandaid (assuming you even win).

If voting didn't matter then they would not bother spending so much time and energy suppressing it. There is a census year coming up so the best time to rock the vote is this year turn as many state seats dem as possible and it could set the tone for a decade.

[Omega10]

Doesn't matter. If you "beat them", it will not stop them from rigging it again next time. The problem is systematic and voting only serves as a temporary bandaid (assuming you even win).

I agree with what you said here

It's why I'm not ruling out the idea of 4 more years for Trump.

[zorkuus]

If voting didn't matter

Winning or losing matters. Voting is just a tool to that goal. There are other tools, and they are using them... succesfully. How's that voting working out for you?

[cubby]

Doesn't matter. If you "beat them", it will not stop them from rigging it again next time. The problem is systematic and voting only serves as a temporary bandaid (assuming you even win).

Not if you win SecState. At least in KY you can reverse some previous suppressive moves. Booker/McGrath/Biden might be enough to bring out the voters to change in Nov - although IIRC both Gov and SecState are up in 2022....

[Thekri]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics...-lebron-james/

"Louisville’s Jefferson County (pop. 767,000) chose a single polling place"

Seems reasonable!

It does seem bad, but when you look into it, it isn't as bad as it has been in places like Georgia or Texas. They do seem to really be trying here. That one polling place is open for a full week, not one day, that is pretty huge, it lets people who want to vote in person go on weekends or whenever they can. It is also a massive convention center, with plenty of room, parking, and voting booths. Being a convention center, it is also convenient to public transit. Yes, it isn't ideal, but given the current circumstances with the pandemic, it is at least somewhat reasonable. They also dramatically expanded mail in voting.

This is why polling place numbers shouldn't be the only metric looked at. Yes, more is better, but Kentucky seems to have done a pretty good job of expanding mail and early voting to address the situation. Most voters should be able to accommodate one or the other.

[cubby]

It does seem bad, but when you look into it, it isn't as bad as it has been in places like Georgia or Texas. They do seem to really be trying here. That one polling place is open for a full week, not one day, that is pretty huge, it lets people who want to vote in person go on weekends or whenever they can. It is also a massive convention center, with plenty of room, parking, and voting booths. Being a convention center, it is also convenient to public transit. Yes, it isn't ideal, but given the current circumstances with the pandemic, it is at least somewhat reasonable. They also dramatically expanded mail in voting.

This is why polling place numbers shouldn't be the only metric looked at. Yes, more is better, but Kentucky seems to have done a pretty good job of expanding mail and early voting to address the situation. Most voters should be able to accommodate one or the other.

Now that is interesting. At first blush, it seems horrific - one polling place for 700k people is the definition of ridiculous. But then you read the above, and it makes a lot of sense.

Open a full week, including weekends.
Fucking HUGE - so, what, hundreds can vote at the same time.
Convenient to mass transit - very key.

Um, so, go Kentucky?

[Ivanstone]

This is why polling place numbers shouldn't be the only metric looked at. Yes, more is better, but Kentucky seems to have done a pretty good job of expanding mail and early voting to address the situation. Most voters should be able to accommodate one or the other.

Texas uses a system with reduced locations but some larger locations that can be used for multiple districts. Its not working out all that great.