Make no mistake. The Postmaster General actually stated, in testimony before a Congressional hearing that he will not deliver mailed ballots to the election offices if ordered by Trump, court orders be damned. There is really no way to real time consistently monitor postal facilities to see if the ballots are being held up inside the postal facilities. The blue states must take a very proactive stance on this. They need to approach postal workers and recruit them as eyes on the ground to watch for ballots not being returned to election centers. They should be prepared to get search warrants to enter Post Offices for undelivered ballots.
"the system is designed to fail, because if barcode scanners fail to read just one ballot envelope in a batch of tens of thousands, the entire batch would be rejected and sent back to the state to fix."
And depending on the state it's likely that the fix is in. The end result will be the Fulvous Fuckwad was correct (shocking, I know) that the elections are rigged -- just opposite of what he meant. This will be especially true if any election deniers running for governor or secretary of state win -- oh, the humanity!
-----
"if the Court is stupid enough to let Trump’s [sic] plan go into effect, the Postal Service’s new IT systems won’t be up to the job"
* "[when] the [the Roberts Court of Tamed Curs] is stupid enough to let [the Cheater-in-Chief's] plan go into effect, the Postal Service’s new IT systems won’t be up to the job" FIFY
* There is an effective method already also available to bypass the moronic rule in 29 states and DC:
> "◾ Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia explicitly permit drop boxes in statute:
◾ State laws required drop boxes in 15 states, permitted them in 14 states, and prohibited them in 11 states. Laws in 10 states did not mention drop boxes.
◾ Of the 10 states that did not mention drop boxes in state law, eight had at least some jurisdictions using drop boxes as of January 2026, while two did not.
◾ Twenty-six states had laws or administrative rules requiring certain security measures for drop boxes." [having security requirements in place kinda makes fraud considerably more difficult, no?] https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_drop_box_laws_by_state
-----
"If you’re able to vote in person, we’d recommend you do so."
Or at the least if you live in a state/district that has drop boxes, then go that route (which is the way my spouse and I cast our ballots, with the county elections commission notifying us by email that our ballot was received and counted).
Isn’t this a federal take-over of what are supposed to be State-run elections? I wonder from which supreme butthole this decision will be pooped forth?
This is a bit like asking stagehands to design your show. Sure, you might get lucky; a lot of talented designers and content people are also stagehands.
But our primary work is unloading a finished show from trucks, carrying it some distance, and then assembling it and making it perform. Then we do the reverse and you split.
A lot of the people I work with would, with the best of intentions, make your show look like shit. It would be a shit show.
A lot of people may not know stagehands. I do. And you are correct in all particulars.
The key to my success with stagehands has always been to get those who can, work with their brain as well as their brawn. Some can't and that's fine; there's plenty of brawn work to do.
But I try to get everyone together right at the top of the call, spread out the plans, and describe the destination and when we gotta be there. That tells the brain-workers on the call what we might want to pull some shortcuts on and what has to be perfect.
I'm not going to tell them how to do what they do every day. But I will tell them where we have to end up and by when. I really rely on a good steward and good department leads.
I get along great with stagehands and couldn't be a good TD without good stagehands, whichever part of it they're individually good at.
Why would Trump focus on mail in voting? A few reasons. One, the US post office is one of the only places he (the feds) can mess with voting, given that states control the voting process. Two is that 37% of Democrats but only 24% of Republicans voted by mail in 2024 (MIT voter project). So screwing with the mail in ballot process (indiscriminately) hurts Dems more than Republicans. Three is that he can (discriminately) mess with mail in ballots by zip code. It is easy to identify blue vs red zip codes, and block/delay Dem ballots from blue zip codes.
Yep, it's an axiom in IT consulting that a systems project can have two features from a list of three; fast, cheap and good.
Clearly, by trying to set a non-slippable date for go-live, fast was one of the two dimensions chosen. So either cheap or good are out the window. Yeah, that was a deliberate choice.
If there are no sanctions or contempt rulings for completely ignoring a court order, why would the Postal Service, DOJ, or any other fascist arm of this regime bother to comply to any extent?
Lock Them Up! Lock Them Up! The whole Board of Governors, along with the Postmaster General! File a class action lawsuit against the Supreme Court on 14th Amendment Grounds, take them into custody at Rikers Island, and keep them there until after the election. Lock Them Up!
I posted just last week asking how this was going to be implemented because I have a modicum of understanding of how the post office works. I mentioned that there was nothing in the mechanical process of mail sorting that would all bar codes to be scanned, so they would have to have the mail carriers scan and pull. Now, it sounds like the bar codes were never actually intended to be used as described. Pulling all of the envelopes because one doesn't scan is absolute bureaucratic bullshit.
In 1989 a business associate and I stayed in Fairbanks Alaska until September 1st, because the weather was holding up, but like clockwork it became less pleasant on September 1st. Good times, because we were driving back down to the lower 48.
It's primary day in Massachusetts. Ballot was mailed and received weeks ago. And good thing, because it's been raining all day and my walker doesn't like the rain.
If you vote by mail, fill it out and return it in person to voting sites or the Registrar of Voters office.
Yeah, but don't they just put them in the mail, though?
Make no mistake. The Postmaster General actually stated, in testimony before a Congressional hearing that he will not deliver mailed ballots to the election offices if ordered by Trump, court orders be damned. There is really no way to real time consistently monitor postal facilities to see if the ballots are being held up inside the postal facilities. The blue states must take a very proactive stance on this. They need to approach postal workers and recruit them as eyes on the ground to watch for ballots not being returned to election centers. They should be prepared to get search warrants to enter Post Offices for undelivered ballots.
"the system is designed to fail, because if barcode scanners fail to read just one ballot envelope in a batch of tens of thousands, the entire batch would be rejected and sent back to the state to fix."
And depending on the state it's likely that the fix is in. The end result will be the Fulvous Fuckwad was correct (shocking, I know) that the elections are rigged -- just opposite of what he meant. This will be especially true if any election deniers running for governor or secretary of state win -- oh, the humanity!
-----
"if the Court is stupid enough to let Trump’s [sic] plan go into effect, the Postal Service’s new IT systems won’t be up to the job"
* "[when] the [the Roberts Court of Tamed Curs] is stupid enough to let [the Cheater-in-Chief's] plan go into effect, the Postal Service’s new IT systems won’t be up to the job" FIFY
* There is an effective method already also available to bypass the moronic rule in 29 states and DC:
> "◾ Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia explicitly permit drop boxes in statute:
◾ Eleven states explicitly prohibit drop boxes, or list approved methods of ballot return that do not include drop boxes, in statute:" https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-9-ballot-drop-box-laws (see map for which are which, but as you'd expect the eleven are blood red states)
--and--
> "As of January 2026:
◾ State laws required drop boxes in 15 states, permitted them in 14 states, and prohibited them in 11 states. Laws in 10 states did not mention drop boxes.
◾ Of the 10 states that did not mention drop boxes in state law, eight had at least some jurisdictions using drop boxes as of January 2026, while two did not.
◾ Twenty-six states had laws or administrative rules requiring certain security measures for drop boxes." [having security requirements in place kinda makes fraud considerably more difficult, no?] https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_drop_box_laws_by_state
-----
"If you’re able to vote in person, we’d recommend you do so."
Or at the least if you live in a state/district that has drop boxes, then go that route (which is the way my spouse and I cast our ballots, with the county elections commission notifying us by email that our ballot was received and counted).
fnord
The lines in Fulton County will be longer than at Six Flags, and no water allowable. Someone’s gonna die on National TV.
No water allowed. WTF.
The Italian Dolomites, viewed from a hiking shelter (Photo-Backroads Tours):
https://substack.com/profile/157455618-wobbly/note/c-327596732?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2lqtj6
Isn’t this a federal take-over of what are supposed to be State-run elections? I wonder from which supreme butthole this decision will be pooped forth?
This is a bit like asking stagehands to design your show. Sure, you might get lucky; a lot of talented designers and content people are also stagehands.
But our primary work is unloading a finished show from trucks, carrying it some distance, and then assembling it and making it perform. Then we do the reverse and you split.
A lot of the people I work with would, with the best of intentions, make your show look like shit. It would be a shit show.
A lot of people may not know stagehands. I do. And you are correct in all particulars.
The key to my success with stagehands has always been to get those who can, work with their brain as well as their brawn. Some can't and that's fine; there's plenty of brawn work to do.
But I try to get everyone together right at the top of the call, spread out the plans, and describe the destination and when we gotta be there. That tells the brain-workers on the call what we might want to pull some shortcuts on and what has to be perfect.
I'm not going to tell them how to do what they do every day. But I will tell them where we have to end up and by when. I really rely on a good steward and good department leads.
I get along great with stagehands and couldn't be a good TD without good stagehands, whichever part of it they're individually good at.
Why would Trump focus on mail in voting? A few reasons. One, the US post office is one of the only places he (the feds) can mess with voting, given that states control the voting process. Two is that 37% of Democrats but only 24% of Republicans voted by mail in 2024 (MIT voter project). So screwing with the mail in ballot process (indiscriminately) hurts Dems more than Republicans. Three is that he can (discriminately) mess with mail in ballots by zip code. It is easy to identify blue vs red zip codes, and block/delay Dem ballots from blue zip codes.
I smell Stephen Miller behind all of this…
The same assholes who had a go at voting machines because PAPER BALLOTS are the only trustworthy ones! Technology bad!!! are supporting this shit…
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
It’s voting they hate.
It’s Dems voting they hate.
Call out the National Guard, and have them deliver the mail, and collect the ballots.
Yep, it's an axiom in IT consulting that a systems project can have two features from a list of three; fast, cheap and good.
Clearly, by trying to set a non-slippable date for go-live, fast was one of the two dimensions chosen. So either cheap or good are out the window. Yeah, that was a deliberate choice.
Now I'm worried. I kept defining 'vote by mail' as just that. But if my information booklet and ballot defines *vote by mail* we're all fucked.
If there are no sanctions or contempt rulings for completely ignoring a court order, why would the Postal Service, DOJ, or any other fascist arm of this regime bother to comply to any extent?
Maybe I should worry, but I don't since if it can happen to blue, it can happen to red.
Lock Them Up! Lock Them Up! The whole Board of Governors, along with the Postmaster General! File a class action lawsuit against the Supreme Court on 14th Amendment Grounds, take them into custody at Rikers Island, and keep them there until after the election. Lock Them Up!
I posted just last week asking how this was going to be implemented because I have a modicum of understanding of how the post office works. I mentioned that there was nothing in the mechanical process of mail sorting that would all bar codes to be scanned, so they would have to have the mail carriers scan and pull. Now, it sounds like the bar codes were never actually intended to be used as described. Pulling all of the envelopes because one doesn't scan is absolute bureaucratic bullshit.
uuuuugh, everywonk
an actually chilly rainy day, like the calendar figured out we're in September nao and decided to act fast
good thing yrrrr
smoking lamp is lit
In 1989 a business associate and I stayed in Fairbanks Alaska until September 1st, because the weather was holding up, but like clockwork it became less pleasant on September 1st. Good times, because we were driving back down to the lower 48.
Before they paved the Alcan! How badly cracked was your windshield at the end of the trip?
It's primary day in Massachusetts. Ballot was mailed and received weeks ago. And good thing, because it's been raining all day and my walker doesn't like the rain.
Put ours in the fire station drop box awhile ago and they were accepted 8/14/26.
I've been getting postcards from Richie Neal every few days. Today I finally got one from Jeromie Whalen. Well, good luck Jeromie!