Okay, I'm curious again...I think it was @Xzi who mentioned somewhere "mail in voting" is the same thing as "absentee voting", which would be pretty embarrassing for Trump if that was true, because he loathes the first and thinks the second is fine.
And after some google-fu, I gotta say that @Xzi is mostly right. This page explains the difference, but I can barely summarize their conclusion any further:
dumb controversial remarks have at least a political, malicious and/or divisive narrative. I can name (plenty of) examples, but that's not the point. What I'm getting at: this makes no sense for republicans either.
TL;DR news is often a good source of inspiration (IMHO, of course), but this piece is great even to their standards. Not only does it neatly packages the conflicting information and debunks Trumps lies, but also points out that veterans and elderly are both groups often voting by mail AND voting republicans. In other words: he's actively busy sabotaging his own re-election.
The weird thing is that this goes beyond his usual "controversy of the week". Suing Nevada for making it easier for everyone to vote...really? All a judge (apparently) has to do is point out that their neighboring state Utah has done it for centuries without a hitch and dismiss the entire case (and that's even before the arguments "it's been done since the civil war" and "there's a pandemic out there" make it to the table).
Oh, and of course I cannot not mention Trump's suggestion to ignore the constitution and delay the election. That obviously hinges on the idea that "mail in voting is bad" is accepted, which is a common staple. Worse: his own petty argument against it ("we might not know the results of the election on election day itself") is countered by the fact that he replaced the US postal service direction, resulting in more delays on letters being delivered.
Now...as a European, I'm very well aware that me setting up this poll and framing it like this (assuming you read this rant before casting your vote) might rub you the wrong way. I'm sorry about that, but I really want to know how US residents are seeing their election chances(1). Hence this poll. With a "I'm not from the US so my opinion's really irrelevant" option.
Thanks for voting.
(1): in case anyone's curious - and the umpteenth Belgian attempt at forming a government since last year fail - I'll make a blog or even a thread about what'll happen then. But for the moment, we Belgians aren't summoned to cast our votes anytime soon.
And after some google-fu, I gotta say that @Xzi is mostly right. This page explains the difference, but I can barely summarize their conclusion any further:
- An absentee ballot is generally used in every state to refer to a ballot filled out by a voter who cannot, for various reasons, physically make it to a voting location on Election Day.
- A mail-in ballot is used more broadly to refer to ballots sent through the mail, including in all-mail voting states and some forms of absentee voting.
TL;DR news is often a good source of inspiration (IMHO, of course), but this piece is great even to their standards. Not only does it neatly packages the conflicting information and debunks Trumps lies, but also points out that veterans and elderly are both groups often voting by mail AND voting republicans. In other words: he's actively busy sabotaging his own re-election.
The weird thing is that this goes beyond his usual "controversy of the week". Suing Nevada for making it easier for everyone to vote...really? All a judge (apparently) has to do is point out that their neighboring state Utah has done it for centuries without a hitch and dismiss the entire case (and that's even before the arguments "it's been done since the civil war" and "there's a pandemic out there" make it to the table).
Oh, and of course I cannot not mention Trump's suggestion to ignore the constitution and delay the election. That obviously hinges on the idea that "mail in voting is bad" is accepted, which is a common staple. Worse: his own petty argument against it ("we might not know the results of the election on election day itself") is countered by the fact that he replaced the US postal service direction, resulting in more delays on letters being delivered.
Now...as a European, I'm very well aware that me setting up this poll and framing it like this (assuming you read this rant before casting your vote) might rub you the wrong way. I'm sorry about that, but I really want to know how US residents are seeing their election chances(1). Hence this poll. With a "I'm not from the US so my opinion's really irrelevant" option.
Thanks for voting.
(1): in case anyone's curious - and the umpteenth Belgian attempt at forming a government since last year fail - I'll make a blog or even a thread about what'll happen then. But for the moment, we Belgians aren't summoned to cast our votes anytime soon.
Last edited by Taleweaver,