{"id":3837,"date":"2020-11-16T16:50:42","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T16:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3837"},"modified":"2020-11-16T16:50:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T16:50:42","slug":"efforts-to-limit-ballot-drop-off-boxes-are-cynical-electoral-gamesmanship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3837","title":{"rendered":"Efforts To Limit Ballot Drop-Off Boxes Are Cynical Electoral Gamesmanship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“On Election Day, there will be literally hundreds of polling places<\/a> open in Harris County, Texas\u2014which makes sense because more than 4.7 million people live in the county that includes Houston, America’s fourth-largest city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But voters who requested absentee ballots will have to either put them in the mail or return them to a single location<\/a>: a parking lot outside the Houston Texans’ NRG Stadium. That’s because Republican officials in Texas\u2014like in Ohio<\/a> and elsewhere\u2014have ordered counties to have no more than one ballot dropoff location.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“it’s difficult to look at the available data regarding absentee balloting for the 2020 election and conclude that these Republican-backed efforts are anything other than a cynical ploy to salvage an election that could get ugly for the GOP<\/a>. In states that track the party affiliation of voters who requested absentee ballots, the numbers are overwhelmingly tipped towards Democrats. But requested ballots mean nothing until they are returned\u2014and therefore any barriers erected to reduce the number of ballots returned is likely to help Republicans.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In close states, every little bit could matter.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

” Until a court says otherwise (and perhaps even then, depending on appeals rulings) all of this is legal. But it’s also ugly, cynical, and corrosive to the legitimacy of elections.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Efforts To Limit Ballot Drop-Off Boxes Are Cynical Electoral Gamesmanship<\/a><\/blockquote>