2024 USA Election: Wishin' and Hopin'

[Fitzcarraldo]

"Addressing conservative LGBTQ+ supporters at the sold-out fundraiser, Melania Trump said money raised that night -- more than $1 million, according to organizers -- would go toward an effort to deploy resources to key swing states in educating voters about conservative LGBTQ+ causes and delivering pro-Trump messages among gay and lesbian communities, said Bill White, one of the co-hosts and a longtime friend of Donald Trump."
Melania Trump announces initiative to woo gay voters during fundraiser, organizer says - ABC News (go.com)

Hmmm..conserve what? I am under the impression a second Trump term would take away the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans. Or is this the first scene in a messy divorce?

I didn't hear from Dozing Don, 'I approve this message'.

He'll gladly accept money from anyone foolish enough to give it to him.

[Stavros]

Something puzzles me about the US election system. Am I right in thinking that a ballot paper is a single sheet of paper with all of the candidates standing for election for multiple posts: that is: President, Senator, Congressional Representative, Attorney General and other public offices?

If so, when Trump says votes for him were flipped for Biden, doesn't this mean all the other votes were also flipped? I don't understand the technology here. One voter may choose Biden over Trump, but the Republican Senator over the Democrat. Or vice versa with Trump and a Democrat. How can each ballot paper be flipped to ensure one name on the sheet is changed, but none of, or any of the others?

I have also been told that many voters just choose one party for all of the available offices, rather than choose each one as they prefer.

I don't know so I am asking for clarification. In the UK we separate ballot papers: last week I had two ballot papers: one for a local council seat, the other for the region's Police and Crime Commissioner and each one had its own colour: yellow and green. I don't understand why in the US you cannot have a separate ballot paper for the Presidential vote, and give them their own colour if people are confused.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Voting varies by state and by county within the state. In my county, we use paper ballots and we fill in our votes for individual candidates with a pen, and the ballot is then run through a scanner. There is no straight-ticket option on my county's ballots.

Trump's nonsense is self-centered, as always. He doesn't care about any other offices. He's claiming votes for president were flipped via computer, and also that ballot boxes were stuffed with phony ballots including votes for Biden.

[Stavros]

Voting varies by state and by county within the state. In my county, we use paper ballots and we fill in our votes for individual candidates with a pen, and the ballot is then run through a scanner. There is no straight-ticket option on my county's ballots.

Trump's nonsense is self-centered, as always. He doesn't care about any other offices. He's claiming votes for president were flipped via computer, and also that ballot boxes were stuffed with phony ballots including votes for Biden.

Thanks. I once read some ballot papers are very large and they can be inserted into a machine, like a casino fruit machine, and you can select 'All' and pull a level or do something else for some votes, don't know if that is what happens or how it works.

Why a scanner? Here the ballot papers are taken to the count, and manually separated into piles, but that is possible when there is only one office up for grabs. I was an election organizer for the Labour Party many many years ago and sat across from the staff as they put the ballot papers on separate piles -for, against, and spoiled (usually an X in the space between the candidate names, sometimes abusive words). Once counted the candidates can then inspect the votes and ask for recounts or for the spoiled ballot to be awarded to them, eg if the X is half in half out of their box.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Thanks. I once read some ballot papers are very large and they can be inserted into a machine, like a casino fruit machine, and you can select 'All' and pull a level or do something else for some votes, don't know if that is what happens or how it works.

Why a scanner? Here the ballot papers are taken to the count, and manually separated into piles, but that is possible when there is only one office up for grabs. I was an election organizer for the Labour Party many many years ago and sat across from the staff as they put the ballot papers on separate piles -for, against, and spoiled (usually an X in the space between the candidate names, sometimes abusive words). Once counted the candidates can then inspect the votes and ask for recounts or for the spoiled ballot to be awarded to them, eg if the X is half in half out of their box.

Scanner gives them a quick computer tally, but there is a paper backup if a manual recount is required. It's supposedly the best method. Some places are all electronic.

I remember in the '70s going with my mother to vote, and in that case it was a large machine where you moved individual toggles to select candidates, and then you pulled a lever to register the whole ballot.

[Stavros]

"Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation that allows more options to challenge election results while also restricting the options for voting.The Republican governor signed bills into law that expand the opportunities to challenge a voter's eligibility, makes scanned ballots publicly available online, reduces the number of voting machines and requires election workers to be U.S. citizens...
...Senate Bill 189 establishes new "probable cause" criteria to allow residents to challenge voter qualifications, including evidence a person has died, voted in another election, obtained a homestead exemption on their taxes or registered to vote from a non-residential address.
They may also be removed from the voter rolls within 45 days of an election, which seems to violate the 90-day limit set by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993."
'A gift to MAGA election deniers': Critics fume at new Georgia voting law (msn.com)

Although, historically and up to the present, the primary aim has been to stop Black people voting, by removing them from the roll, and making sure polling stations in Black majority areas are closed on polling day for 'Health and Safety' reasons. But these proposals could also be used by Democrats in Republican areas, not least because most election fraud that did take place in 2020 was by pro-Trump voters. The potential for an election to be challenged by both sides and in every County would delay a final tally of the vote, or even make it impossible.

But - "makes scanned ballots publicly available online" -all of them? What happened to the law on privacy? Will the Bill pass before November?

Time to take the election process away from partisan State government, and create a Federal Election Commission that does it all: set the boundaries, organize the elections, and so on.

[Stavros]

The numbers don't lie: Trump's share of the vote in his own party is lower than it was in 2020 -this suggests to me there is no way he can win the popular vote, and that he can only win the Electoral College through some form of manipulation in swing states or through the sort of mechanisms noted in the Georgia Bill above.

"Nikki Haley’s “zombie campaign” has picked up more 20 per cent of the vote in Indiana’s Republican primary, in a warning sign for Donald Trump."
Unexpected warning sign for Trump in Indiana GOP primary (yahoo.com)

[Stavros]

"Republicans floated as possible running mates include Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Tim Scott of South Carolina and J.D. Vance of Ohio, as well as Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — even after Noem was pilloried for describing in a new book how she killed her aggressive hunting dog. None of them is seen as a likely vessel for winning over Haley’s staunchest fans."
Republicans Urge Trump To Pick Running Mate Who Can Win Nikki Haley Voters (yahoo.com)

Anyone else in the frame in the Veepstakes? Could it be someone who is not and has not been in public office?