U.S. Politics

[mjmooney]

14 minutes ago, bickster said:

Oh dear Rudy...!

Guliani getting sued by Dominion Voting Systems for making false election claims. They are seeking $1.3 Billion in damages

Karma's a bitch. 

[sidcow]

25 minutes ago, bickster said:

Oh dear Rudy...!

Guliani getting sued by Dominion Voting Systems for making false election claims. They are seeking $1.3 Billion in damages

Quite right too. Let's hope justice prevails and they win as well. 

It surely ought to be easy enough to prove shouldn't it? 

They were all complaining about not being able to have their day in court to prove it so no doubt they should be looking forward to it and presenting all of their rock solid evidence and no way offering to settle out of court! 

Dominion should refuse out of court settlement out of principle if off as they need to nail this for future elections. 

Edited January 25, 2021 by sidcow

[bickster]

One for the trivia fiends like @mjmooney

The current 3rd in the line of succession to the US President has been in no less than 5 Batman Movies

Quote

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and the longest-serving member of the current Senate, is a Batman aficionado who's turned his fandom into philanthropy. He's even used the comics to forward his legislative agenda.

Now President pro tempore of the Senate, Leahy is third in the presidential line of succession. Though it's unlikely he'll ever have to serve as President, his high-profile position shines a brighter light on his colorful resume -- which includes multiple appearances in the "Batman" films.

CNN

[villakram]

3 hours ago, bickster said:

Oh dear Rudy...!

Guliani getting sued by Dominion Voting Systems for making false election claims. They are seeking $1.3 Billion in damages

Discovery will be fun, but unfortunately so judge dependent over here.

[villakram]

Meanwhile, some corporation and unions fun, courtesy of Amazon and fighter for the small guy Jeff  Bezos. Lot's of confused messaging here.

"The world’s largest online retailer said that a mail election raised the risk of fraud and the coercion of workers. It also said the process would depress turnout, arguing that as many as 29% of its more than 5,800 employees eligible to vote wouldn’t do so or would return incorrectly completed ballots." 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-22/amazon-requests-in-person-union-vote-in-covid-plagued-alabama

[jimmygreaves]

Voting should be mandatory.

[villakram]

12 minutes ago, jimmygreaves said:

Voting should be mandatory.

Compelled behavior. Anything else you'd like to force people to do?

[jimmygreaves]

1 minute ago, villakram said:

Compelled behavior. Anything else you'd like to force people to do?

Hmmm.... like, I dunno, a law?

[sidcow]

2 hours ago, villakram said:

Discovery will be fun, but unfortunately so judge dependent over here.

What, Judges have the power to suppress evidence laid before them? 

[Davkaus]

Is there any evidence for postal voting depressing voter numbers, other than in the case of a lunatic incumbent telling people not to use it?

Is there any evidence for postal voting leading to more incorrectly filled in ballots than in person voting?

Is there any evidence for the idea that people voting by post would be more compelled to vote in a certain way by coercion, more so than, say, the vote literally taking place in the car park of the company you work for, who the vote directly effects? I can only assume Amazon means that it would "raise the risk of our coercion not working". 

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, villakram said:

Compelled behavior. Anything else you'd like to force people to do?

Yep. Pay their taxes. 

[LondonLax]

Voting is compulsory in Australia. It works pretty well in a pragmatic sense. I understand people might have ideological views about it though. 

[chrisp65]

Voting can be compulsory when / where something along the lines of ‘none of the above’ is on the ballot.

 

[bickster]

1 minute ago, chrisp65 said:

Voting can be compulsory when / where something along the lines of ‘none of the above’ is on the ballot.

 

And if None of the above wins, new election with brand new candidates

[sne]

2 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

Voting is compulsory in Australia. It works pretty well in a pragmatic sense. I understand people might have ideological views about it though. 

Be fun if they tried to implement that in the US via a referendum. 100 million MAGA's would angrily go out and vote against any government law making it mandatory to vote  

Seriously thou I don't think making it mandatory would work in the US. Or in Sweden for that matter.

[chrisp65]

4 minutes ago, bickster said:

And if None of the above wins, new election with brand new candidates

Yep, because there’s also the obvious risk that the equivalent of ‘boaty mcboatface’ could win.

Turn out in the modern era is under 70%, you have the potential for all those compelled to vote to all vote for a protest or wrecking candidate. Which is fine, as long as everyone realises that can happen from the get go.

Edited January 25, 2021 by chrisp65
Auto correct auto correcting my correction of auto correct

[LondonLax]

Not voting results in a fine of about £20 so it’s not a great penalty if you don’t do it.

An advantage of compulsory voting is that you don’t have to ‘turn out your base’ by pandering to them. Everyone is going to be voting anyway so your goal as a candidate is to capture as much of the general public as possible. Also there are no demographics who ‘don’t vote‘ (like the youth are often accused of). 

[Davkaus]

I honestly can't decide where I land on compulsory voting. It just feels wrong, but I an see how it'd be a good nudge towards engaging people who think "what's the point, it's just one vote".

With exceptions if you have a genuine reason you just couldn't vote, and the option for none of the above, I'm not sure it's such a bad thing.

[LondonLax]

12 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

Yep, because there’s also the obvious risk that the equivalent of ‘boaty mcboatface’ could win.

Turn out in the modern era is under 70%, you have the potential for all those compelled to vote to all vote for a protest or wrecking candidate. Which is fine, as long as everyone realises that can happen from the get go.

I might be being naive but I feel like the Australian electorate are more politically educated than places where voting is not compulsory. Every person in Australia has been voting in one election or another almost every year of their lives since they were 18 and are pretty clued up on the process. There isn’t a big chunk of the population who have never engaged in the political process and would vote for Boaty McBoatface if suddenly forced to engage.

[Davkaus]

This interested me:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/world/australia/compulsory-voting.html

Quote

The dirty work of democracy is often compared to the making of sausages, but Australians almost take that maxim literally — turning Election Day into a countrywide barbecue, in which the grilling of hot dogs is optional but voting is compulsory.

More than 96 percent of eligible Australians are enrolled to vote. Of those, more than 90 percent typically turn out to cast ballots for a federal election, far more than the 55 percent of eligible Americans who participated in the 2016 presidential election.

Australians are induced to vote with both sticks and carrots. Shirkers can be fined up to nearly 80 Australian dollars if they fail to show at the polls. But voting, which always takes place on a Saturday, is also made easy and efficient, and is often accompanied by a community barbecue that includes eating what locals affectionately call “democracy sausages.”

Go to the poll booth, draw a cock and balls, enjoy a hotdog. My kind of Saturday.

Edited January 25, 2021 by Davkaus