I love dogs and people. I want living creatures to thrive. I love to cook, and share the food, but ya gotta get in line in front of the dog.
View all posts by ali redford
5 thoughts on “Less Than 2 Weeks!”
Just looked at the map for New England, and it is packed with protest sites; I’ll be there in spirit but sadly not in person. I seem to have married a man who thinks the sun never sets on Trump, so I will be cheering from the cheap seats, very loudly.
There will be other ways to support the day, Judy. At least a few are very discreet and not costly. I think we’ll hear more about that in a few days. Good thoughts and energy into the universe also help, and I know they appreciate it!
I will have other obligations that day. There is an election on Wisconsin on 7 March, and there is a seat on the state supreme court with a liberal candidate facing a hardline rightist. Early voting runs from 24 March to 5 April, and I am scheduled to work for the those two weeks and on election day, when I will be in charge of running a polling location.
There is another consideration involved. When there are conflicts between protesters and Hair Füror’s thugs, people tend to get arrested en masse (and shot) for no reason. Unfortunately, state laws are very strict regarding entanglements with the law and ability to work on an election. I am currently in my 21st year as an election worker and my 7th as a Chief Inspector of Elections. An arrest, even for a misdemeanor as trivial as disorderly conduct, could end up with the election board having no choice but firing me. Although I am in complete sympathy with the protests, I do not want to jeopardize my years of service¹ to the election board. I consider this work to be at least as important, if not moreso, than being a face in the crowd.
I just spent three days at work preparing forms for a special voting initiative. SVDs (Special Voting Deputies) will take these ballots to nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Milwaukee for people who are unable to travel to a polling location and may need help reading or filling out their ballots. I personally initialed and checked 1,335 ballots and envelopes, matched them to lists of voters who applied for assistance, and packed them into secure bags for transport to the voters’ locations. Distribution started yesterday on the 16th and will continue throughout this week. Later this week I will attend a 2½ hour briefing for chief inspectors in preparation for election day, then the fun begins. I am wondering what will happen if any MAGAts try to disrupt the voting this year².
¹ In all honesty, I applied to become a poll worker just to make a bit of extra money that wouldn’t exceed my Social Security disability income limits. Later on, I got caught up with the whole civic duty and responsibility thing and got promoted to Chief Inspector and working on other aspects of the process.
² As many of you may be aware, there has been talk of ICE agents monitoring polling locations in violation of USC Chapter 18, Section 592 (prohibiting armed troops at polls), Section 593 (prohibiting interference in voting by armed forces members) and Section 595 (prohibiting interference by administrative employees of federal, state and local governments). There have also been calls for MAGAts posing as “election observers” to loiter outside voting sites to check voters’ IDs, which is a violation of Chapter 18, Section 594 (prohibiting intimidation of voters). You can do a search on these sections of the United States Codes for the details.
E.A., your service is plenty, I believe. And it accomplishes at least as much as showing up at a demo. I understand about local laws and statutes regarding elections personnel. Here in my state they are all volunteer, and still may not associate with anything that could be construed as political (these days, everything.)
So, thank you for your service. These days, it’s very brave to do what you do.
Scottie's Playtime 
Just looked at the map for New England, and it is packed with protest sites; I’ll be there in spirit but sadly not in person. I seem to have married a man who thinks the sun never sets on Trump, so I will be cheering from the cheap seats, very loudly.
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There will be other ways to support the day, Judy. At least a few are very discreet and not costly. I think we’ll hear more about that in a few days. Good thoughts and energy into the universe also help, and I know they appreciate it!
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I will have other obligations that day. There is an election on Wisconsin on 7 March, and there is a seat on the state supreme court with a liberal candidate facing a hardline rightist. Early voting runs from 24 March to 5 April, and I am scheduled to work for the those two weeks and on election day, when I will be in charge of running a polling location.
There is another consideration involved. When there are conflicts between protesters and Hair Füror’s thugs, people tend to get arrested en masse (and shot) for no reason. Unfortunately, state laws are very strict regarding entanglements with the law and ability to work on an election. I am currently in my 21st year as an election worker and my 7th as a Chief Inspector of Elections. An arrest, even for a misdemeanor as trivial as disorderly conduct, could end up with the election board having no choice but firing me. Although I am in complete sympathy with the protests, I do not want to jeopardize my years of service¹ to the election board. I consider this work to be at least as important, if not moreso, than being a face in the crowd.
I just spent three days at work preparing forms for a special voting initiative. SVDs (Special Voting Deputies) will take these ballots to nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Milwaukee for people who are unable to travel to a polling location and may need help reading or filling out their ballots. I personally initialed and checked 1,335 ballots and envelopes, matched them to lists of voters who applied for assistance, and packed them into secure bags for transport to the voters’ locations. Distribution started yesterday on the 16th and will continue throughout this week. Later this week I will attend a 2½ hour briefing for chief inspectors in preparation for election day, then the fun begins. I am wondering what will happen if any MAGAts try to disrupt the voting this year².
¹ In all honesty, I applied to become a poll worker just to make a bit of extra money that wouldn’t exceed my Social Security disability income limits. Later on, I got caught up with the whole civic duty and responsibility thing and got promoted to Chief Inspector and working on other aspects of the process.
² As many of you may be aware, there has been talk of ICE agents monitoring polling locations in violation of USC Chapter 18, Section 592 (prohibiting armed troops at polls), Section 593 (prohibiting interference in voting by armed forces members) and Section 595 (prohibiting interference by administrative employees of federal, state and local governments). There have also been calls for MAGAts posing as “election observers” to loiter outside voting sites to check voters’ IDs, which is a violation of Chapter 18, Section 594 (prohibiting intimidation of voters). You can do a search on these sections of the United States Codes for the details.
LikeLiked by 2 people
E.A., your service is plenty, I believe. And it accomplishes at least as much as showing up at a demo. I understand about local laws and statutes regarding elections personnel. Here in my state they are all volunteer, and still may not associate with anything that could be construed as political (these days, everything.)
So, thank you for your service. These days, it’s very brave to do what you do.
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Good share Ali.
Don’t give the odious crew a minute’s peace.
Roger
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