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Topic: Has everyone voted?  (Read 3607 times)

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Has everyone voted?
« on: November 05, 2018, 02:38:38 PM »

I completely left it until the last minute, then found out I didn't actually have a ballot!  It was just a big thick guide.  I remembered that I told them not to mail me a ballot for mid term elections because those weren't important before Trumpaggedon.

Anyway, I emailed the office in Arizona and they sent me some pdfs of ballots that I could email or fax back to them.

Done! 

What about you guys?


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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2018, 03:20:10 PM »
Yup, and I got an email that my ballot was received.  I have to mail mine the old fashioned way.   ;D


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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2018, 03:24:04 PM »
Faxing my ballot in today!! Tomorrow shall be quite an interesting one...
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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2018, 03:28:22 PM »
In Texas, or at least Montgomery County, getting registered was a real pain, and then to vote, the completed ballot paper had to be placed in a sealed envelope in another envelope and then mailed in, but the envelopes had to be addressed on the envelope in typed print. I don’t know if my printer can take envelopes to have addresses printed on them so I did the next best thing and created a printed label which I put on the envelope. (This is how I address Christmas card envelopes so I already have labels and a Word template available). However I just can’t get over the belief that since the typed address is not actually printed on the envelope that the ballot paper will just be discarded anyway. It’s the Texas way, they have various ways to make it very difficult for the groups they don’t like to vote. I won’t attempt to vote again.
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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2018, 04:24:52 PM »
We emailed our ballots last week... tomorrow will be interesting.
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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2018, 04:56:37 PM »
I'm another Texas voter, and as durhamlad has already said, it's a pain in the a$$. If you're an overseas voter you have to request a ballot at the beginning of each election year even if you're already registered. I still didn't get one this year, so I printed one off, filled it in and sent it in a regular envelope. I have no confidence it will be counted, but Travis County (where Austin is) is a tiny island of Democrats in a sea of Republicans, so maybe there's a chance.


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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #6 on: November 05, 2018, 07:37:05 PM »
Mailed it in early October, and got an email confirmation. Fingers crossed that sanity prevails tomorrow.
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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2018, 07:46:29 PM »
Done! I sent mine in about a month ago. Hillsborough county in Florida never sends a confirmation email so I always wonder if they got it... At least they always send me a ballot!

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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #8 on: November 05, 2018, 09:20:37 PM »
Hi,

I can't vote as I'm not American, but a quick question;

In laymans terms, what's the significance of the 'midterms'? Also, although I used to work with a guy who studied at Degree level of USA politics and he explained to me back in 2001 the gist of things, I've forgotton most of it! So, if support for Donald Chump wanes in these midterms, could he possibly lose the presidency? or would it be that he'd be weakened and have to remain in office?

I'm just REALLY hoping that support does decrease for him and that it's the beginning of him finally disappearing from the US presidency!

Cheers, DtM, West London & Slough UK!


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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #9 on: November 05, 2018, 09:32:02 PM »
In laymans terms, what's the significance of the 'midterms'?

The president's term is 4 years. In Congress, Senators' (upper chamber) terms are 6 years, and representatives' (lower chamber) terms are 2 years. So at the 2 year point of a president's term - the midterm - there are elections for some senators (their elections are staggered so about 1/3 of them are up for election every 2 years) and all the representatives.

So, if support for Donald Chump wanes in these midterms, could he possibly lose the presidency? or would it be that he'd be weakened and have to remain in office?

If the Democratic Party were to win a majority in both the Senate (upper) and House of Representatives (lower), they could definitely block a lot of what Trump wanted to accomplish, although he could still do some things by executive action.

As for losing the presidency, it becomes more possible if the Democrats take control of Congress. They could investigate Trump's business dealings, campaign contacts with Russians, and whatever else they felt like.

Impeaching him and removing him from office would still be pretty unlikely, but not outside the realm of possibility like they are now.


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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #10 on: November 05, 2018, 09:51:17 PM »
Hi,

I can't vote as I'm not American, but a quick question;

In laymans terms, what's the significance of the 'midterms'? Also, although I used to work with a guy who studied at Degree level of USA politics and he explained to me back in 2001 the gist of things, I've forgotton most of it! So, if support for Donald Chump wanes in these midterms, could he possibly lose the presidency? or would it be that he'd be weakened and have to remain in office?

I'm just REALLY hoping that support does decrease for him and that it's the beginning of him finally disappearing from the US presidency!

Cheers, DtM, West London & Slough UK!

To add to the answer you received, the mid-terms in 2010 meant that Democrats lost their majority in the House and only had a slim majority in the Senate. President Obama still got re-elected in 2012 but not a single Republican in the House ever voted to pass a bill he supported so nothing significant ever got passed after 2010. realistically this is all the Democrats  can hope for if they win a majority this week. Impeachment would require a good majority in the Senate as well as the House, but I think they would prefer that Trump was neutered for 2 years then voted out in 2020.
Dual USC/UKC living in the UK since May 2016


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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #11 on: November 05, 2018, 09:59:06 PM »
Dennis - A very basic US Civics 101 here. There are three branches of Federal Government. They are supposed to "check and balance" each other so no one segment runs amok in a mad power-grab. (ahem. Let's not go there right now.)

1) The Supreme Court - Rules on legalities and interprets the Constitution and Case Law (including criminal appeals). Once appointed, the Judges have jobs for life. Thus, it's important who is in power at the time a vacancy comes up on the Court, as once they are seated as Judges, they are the final word and have the job for a very long time (usually). So the powers that be at the time of that vacancy try to pack the court with judges who, shall we say, share a similar outlook as regards the interpretation of the law.

2) The Legislative Branch ("The Congress") consists of two bodies, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Each State gets two Senators. The House is done by population count - each state gets a number of seats based on proportional representation based on the every-ten-years Federal National Census. The Congress, collectively, is tasked with passing laws.  IMPORTANT BIT -  The size of a state's total congressional delegation determines the size of its representation in the U.S. Electoral College. It is actually the College who elects the Pres/Vice Pres. (No, the USA is not a direct democracy. By the numbers, Hillary Clinton had more popular votes in the last presidential election, but the game was well played and Trump won states that had more electoral college members, so he was elected president with fewer popular votes than the loser. It has happened before.)

3) The Executive Branch is headed by the President. It is supposed to handle the actual running of the country (more or less).  It is his job to take the mandates of the Congress and make them work. He has veto power over bills passed by Congress, but his veto can be overridden if enough of Congress votes to do so. The Pres/Vice Pres are elected to four year terms. (Two term limit.) While the Pres has some power to issue Executive Orders  to manage operations of the federal government (and that have the force of law), those Orders can be reviewed and negated by the Supreme Court.

Mid-term elections happen between the every-four year elections when the Pres/VPres spots are up for grabs.  All 435 members of the House of Representatives are up for election every two years. Members of the Senate serve staggered six-year terms, so 1/3 of the Senate is up for grabs at the mid-term election.

The USA has, for all realistic purposes, only two viable political parties - Democrats and Republicans. Once Upon A Time Democrats were thought of as the party of the common people, and the Republicans were the party of big business. How true that still is, or ever was, is open to debate. But I digress....

"The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers. However, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills. The House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before an impeached person can be forcibly removed from office." Only the Congress has the power to declare war. It hasn't done so since the Pearl Harbor attack launched us into WWII. (The other military campaigns, like Korea, Vietnam, Iran/Iraq/Afghanistan? Long story. But they were not officially "wars" as such.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_war_by_the_United_States )

Bottom Line - IF you have a Republican president like, say, Trump, and a majority of the members of the Congress are of the same political party, the Pres can pretty much get whatever he wants done. The opposing party won't have enough votes to stop him. They might be able to get it pulled into review by the Supreme Court. But if the sitting pres has packed the Court, well, the outcome is unclear.

If, say, the Democrats take control (a majority of seats were voted for by the  public to Democratic candidates) in the House/Senate, they can keep Trump from having legislation  passed. It can be proposed by a Republican, but the Democrats can block it.  Trump would then have to negotiate, either directly or through Republican member of Congress, deals to get what he wanted. Which might be nigh well impossible. Or he'd have to agree to something near and dear to the Democrats in return for their lack of obstruction of something near and dear to him/the Republicans.

Also, as someone else has said, if you get a big enough number of the opposing party into the Congress, impeachment can potentially be the result if there are grounds for doing so.:

"The U.S. Constitution provides impeachment as the method for removing the president, vice president, federal judges, and other federal officials from office. The impeachment process begins in the House of Representatives and follows these steps:

    The House Judiciary Committee holds hearings and, if necessary, prepares articles of impeachment. These are the charges against the official.
    If a majority of the committee votes to approve the articles, the whole House debates and votes on them.
    If a majority of the House votes to impeach the official on any article, then the official must then stand trial in the Senate.
   
 For the official to be removed from office, two-thirds of the Senate must vote to convict the official. Upon conviction, the official is automatically removed from office and, if the Senate so decides, may be forbidden from holding governmental office again. The impeachment process is political in nature, not criminal. Congress has no power to impose criminal penalties on impeached officials. But criminal courts may try and punish officials if they have committed crimes. The Constitution sets specific grounds for impeachment. They are “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.” To be impeached and removed from office, the House and Senate must find that the official committed one of these acts."  http://www.crf-usa.org/impeachment/high-crimes-and-misdemeanors.html
« Last Edit: November 05, 2018, 10:11:24 PM by Nan D. »


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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2018, 08:27:30 AM »
Done! My completed ballot has been in Hillsborough County, Florida since mid-October. Just waiting on the rest of the country to catch up. ;)
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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2018, 08:30:42 AM »
Dennis, I think the most crucial bit is, like Nan said, about the balance of power between the three branches of government.  Right now, the Republicans control all three, and Congress is not doing it's constitutional duty to serve as a check on the President.  That's the reason why Trump has not been tried for the many impeachable acts he has committed.  And the reason Trump was able to install a completely unsuitable candidate on the Supreme Court.  If the Supreme Court stops doing it's job to check the power of the executive, then all is lost.

The importance comes from the fact that the very foundations of our democracy are broken, and these elections are the only way it will be fixed for the foreseeable future.  It is almost literally a referendum on whether we should continue to live in a democracy.


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Re: Has everyone voted?
« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2018, 08:36:21 AM »
Done! My completed ballot has been in Hillsborough County, Florida since mid-October. Just waiting on the rest of the country to catch up. ;)
Mine is Hillsborough as well. I've never received a confirmation email. Have you?

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