Progressives Every Day: Mail Mess and a Voting Twist in Florida
Progressives Every Day: Mail Mess and a Voting Twist in Florida
Postmaster General needs to surrender
Welcome to a busy Friday night edition of Progressives Everywhere!
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Elections and Voting Rights
National: I never expected to spend so much time writing about the postal service, but I will say that I’m pretty proud of the fact that we’ve been on the absentee ballot and mail delivery from the start. In fact, I’m working on a project that will hopefully be a widely used resource for people looking to vote absentee; if I can get it up this weekend, I’ll debut it in the Sunday newsletter. If not, it’ll be next week.
By now, you’ve probably heard about at least one of the many disconcerting and/or fascistic mail-related stunts that dominated today’s headlines. There have been a number of new developments over the last few hours, so here’s a rundown of the drama:
The USPS, now run by Trump booster and shipping magnate Louis DeJoy, has removed more than 500 mail sorting machines (according to the Washington Post, it’s a whopping 671!) from postal facilities across the country. Should the USPS successfully remove all of the machines it’s targeting, it will slow mail delivery even more than it’s already been slowed by budget cuts, the end of overtime, and new USPS policy. The postal service, surprise surprise, is lying about their justifications, saying that mail has slowed down (which isn’t the case at all! It’s a pandemic!).
As you might imagine, more machines are being removed from urban areas in swing states:
Meanwhile, trucks have been spotted around the country just straight-up picking up and removing mail collection boxes in cities across the country.
Democratic leaders screamed, grandstanded on Twitter, and sent sternly worded non-binding letters about the sabotage. Thankfully, Elizabeth Warren last week sent a letter to the USPS’s inspector general demanding an investigation into both DeJoy’s destruction of the mail service and his vast holdings in both postal service contractors and competitors.
Tonight, CNN reports that the IG is indeed investigating the many issues at the USPS — whether that’ll matter remains to be seen.
DeJoy has caved to the outrage over the box removal, putting that on pause for now:
There were new developments in the case of the Ohio Secretary of State’s unilateral, unjustified decision to limit ballot drop boxes to just one per county. This thread gives a good rundown of the situation.
Massachusetts: Two big updates on the homophobic hit job on Holyoke Mayor and Massachusetts Congressional candidate Alex Morse today:
The Mass Democratic Party not only knew about the letter that UMass College Democrats were going to send, they fully encouraged it.
Morse wrote this classy letter of apology anyway:
Florida: Here’s a weird wrinkle in the case of the Florida Jim Crow poll tax law (the lead sponsor of which just resigned to be the state’s Chief Information Officer, a role he basically shaped for himself).
The state is now quietly telling the formerly incarcerated people who should be able to register to vote with no issues at all to consult the Florida Division of Elections to help them determine how much they owe in fines and fees. If that can’t be determined, they can register to vote. If they’ve paid off the amount dictated in their sentence, they’re able to register, as well.
This is somewhat similar to what a federal judge ordered before a higher court overturned that decision, but there’s one big difference: There’s no deadline for on the Division of Elections’ response to would-be voters, which means they could very well run out the clock and render it all irrelevant.
National: This is disconcerting — Democrats are trailing big-time in fundraising for legislative candidates:
Democratic state legislature candidates were outraised in 15 of 18 target seats in Texas, where they hope to break the GOP’s total control of state government. In Florida, Democrats raised just 30% of what Republicans raised in 23 targeted statehouse races, according to an analysis by Forward Majority, a progressive group focused on state races.
I will be profiling a candidate from North Carolina this Sunday but will also include links to fundraisers in Texas, where some of my favorite candidates are located.
COVID-19 and Related Drama
Georgia: The state is quickly becoming the epicenter of COVID-19.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is doing such a terrible job at managing the coronavirus, even Trump’s task force is calling him out for it. Their recommendations were sent in a report that the Atlanta Constitution-Journal obtained and reported on last night:
The task force “strongly recommends” Georgia adopt a statewide mandate that citizens wear masks, joining a chorus of public health officials, Democrats and others who have warned that Gov. Brian Kemp’s refusal to order face coverings has plunged the state into deeper crisis and will prolong recovery.
“Current mitigation efforts are not having a sufficient impact,” the report said.
Georgia also needs to ramp up testing and contact tracing statewide, the report said, and testing and infection control measures need to be expanded in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
Chastened, Kemp will allow some cities to mandate masks when he signs a new executive order tomorrow.
Pennsylvania: You tend to find the biggest sociopaths and true fringe lunatics in state legislatures. Republican Rep. Jim Cox, who represents an area around Reading, definitely qualifies.
“It’s not the government’s responsibility to keep people safe,” Cox said earlier this week. “It’s not the government’s responsibility to tell me to wear a mask, and to tell me where to go and how far to stand away from somebody.”
To be clear, he’s very much wrong! He’s running against a teacher named Kelly McDonough, who seems pretty great.
National: People who recover from COVID-19 are kinda sorta immune for three months, but not really?
A CDC spokesperson said the guidance is "based on the latest science about COVID-19 showing that people can continue to test positive for up to 3 months after diagnosis and not be infectious to others."
Yet "this science does not imply a person is immune to reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the 3 months following infection. The latest data simply suggests that retesting someone in the 3 months following initial infection is not necessary unless that person is exhibiting the symptoms of COVID-19 and the symptoms cannot be associated with another illness," the CDC statement said.
It’s a reminder of just how little we still know because it’s so new. Yikes.
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