COVID-19 STAY-IN-PLACE: WEEK 16?!

PREFACE
Here we all are. People going stir crazy, protesting wearing masks in public places, protesting civil rights (George Floyd murder, police brutality, murder by police of black people, Black Lives Matter...), people calling for de-funding the police (diverting funds to other community services that have been slashed and now the police have to do them), and a spike in COVID-19 cases since "phase 1" re-opening of the states.

STORY
WTF?! Each new day brings unimagined horror. Our leadership is "off the grid" insane.

Gassing citizen's exercising their right to assemble, so #45 can stroll across to the damaged church he never attends and hold up a BIBLE?! The police that stood by and were yelled at and spit on by white "I've got the right not to wear a mask," GUN TOTING!, protesters...stood fast in front of the state capital! didn't fire teargas (pepper bombs...whatever), didn't fire rubber bullets into the crowd. A crowd that was an untrained militia carrying assault rifles to the capital. Nothing?

But peaceful, non-combative protesters, mostly of color, marching to protest the way police treats POC! are gassed by police, and shot at with rubber bullets, arrested, beaten, along with REPORTERS! with no regard for public safety. I understand that police have the responsibility to maintain order...but a PEACEFUL protest doesn't require teargas! or tasers! or urban assault vehicles!

And now, to address the "phase 1" re-opening!! TOO SOON! Everybody said TOO SOON! But the orange toddler claims the economy is more important than the lives of the elderly. What's 200,000 dead compared to a profit margin?! If you order everyone to re-open, then everyone has to go back to work...no more UE benefits to pay out (that is if you GOT benefits at all! Florida is not on the ball when it comes to Unemployment benefits.). People started going out to clubs, bars, and bar/restaurants WITHOUT MASKS! and then some with masks. Code enforcement closed them down. Daily infection rates went up to ALL NEW HIGHS, breaking records each consecutive day! There was NEVER A FLATTENED CURVE!

CONCLUSION
I had been working again after not working for two months. I do vendor work, going into stores (which are not as crowded as they were pre-COVID) and wearing my mask, washing my hands after each location. I visited (34) 7-Elevens over three weeks, with one week break before the last week. I cancelled the last 6 locations because of the spike in cases. It doesn't look like I will be getting back to work before the end of the year or longer. It doesn't look like the leadership, nor the citizens, are exercising good judgement or good sense. I think I'll wait for a TRULY FLATTENED CURVE before I venture out to work among the masses again.

I really don't know what to expect from day to day. It's exhausting. I'm depressed most of the time. I'm not sleeping right. It's a million degrees outside in the daytime, so...no going out anyway. Things are shutting down again, so...no going out. I need to work on stuff here, at home. My garden. Fitting in some exercise. Reading! Yeah, right. There is no "getting back to normal" ever again. There is only THE NEW NORMAL. What is happening now. What will be "normal" going forward. What will keep us safe, healthy, and alive. FUCK THE TRUMP VIRUS! We will survive! And come November, send in the military and ESCORT HIM OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE! Better days are coming!

AND THE RECOUNT GOES ON

PREFACE
I can't imagine the stress level at the County Elections office. There are protesters, Florida officials, and observers from both political parties vying for "their right to see every ballot counted" and to give opinions over ANY available media. #45 is leading the pack in misinformation and misdirection. There are not enough people to do this monumental job, but they persevere despite accusations that are hurled at them everyday this is not resolved.

STORY
The people doing the recounting are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to get these ballots recounted, AND validate mail-in absentee ballots and PROVISIONAL ballots cast on election day. These are VOLUNTEERS! doing all this additional work. Would you volunteer to be stuck in a room, feeding page after page of ballots into a machine? only to end up losing all of them because the machine overheated!! These machines are made to work one or two days, every two years, for 12 hours. It's like running a Hyundai in the INDY 500! Somewhere around lap 300, it's gonna breakdown.

So Brenda Snipes has announced that the recount of cast ballots (and initial count of absentee ballots) will be done by 3 p.m. Thursday. So what then? If the count is still within the parameters of a "very close" race between the governor's race and the senator's race (and the AG, for that matter), it will trigger a MANUAL HAND COUNT of all acceptable ballots.

Acceptable Ballots. That is something that is VERY controversial as there has been advantages put in place by Republicans (specifically Rick Scott) that may be enough to tip in their favor. Florida has an "EXACT SIGNATURE MATCH" law in regards to absentee ballots. As I stated in my previous posts, your signature changes naturally over the years. Some parts of it always stay the same, but those parts are NOT ALL THE SAME PARTS for everyone. As a pollworker, I had to validate the signature on the voter's ID matching it to the signature they signed on the signature-pad on election day. As the voter, you can't see how your signature appears as you sign. The "pen" is not a regular pen. The area you are signing is not a familiar signing surface. So we look for similar "parts" of the signature to match, but NOT AN EXACT MATCH!

Your signature may have become MORE illegible/scribbled as you've aged, or you may have purposefully or unintentionally changed it; by leaving off the dot over an 'I', or making the final mark sweep up for Feng Shui, or illness has your hand shaking, or your eyesight is failing, or you stopped using your middle name/initial, etc.... There may be many reasons that your signature has changed since you last signed a Voter's Registration form, THE OFFICIAL SIGNATURE to which the Dept of Elections is comparing your mail-in ballot. MANY signatures will fail! so your vote won't count! Military service personnel, citizens traveling for pleasure, and officials/businesspersons out of the country on business, may have any/all absentee ballots disapproved because their signature does not match EXACTLY to the signature the Dept of Elections has on file. The could be 10s of 1000s, enough to sway the election to either candidate.

CONCLUSION
Before you believe what you read in social media or the news, think about all those people working day and night to ensure the freedom of every vote to being counted. The United States is not a dictatorship. It is not a Communist regime. It does not have a puppet government. The United States is a republic, of the people, for the people, and by the people. They are human beings, doing a thankless job, to insure a right and just election. Neither party will be happy with the outcome, if it goes against them. I would like to see it come down to a runoff. Take it to the people one, more, time! (NOTE: I'd like to know how Dade county finished their recount. What was overlooked, or invalidated as a matter of course?)

WORKING THE ELECTION POLLS (part 2)

PREFACE
In Part 1 of this post, I explained what goes into the training and the actual experience of working the voting polling place. As a pollworker, you have to go through training for every election, even if you just went through it for the primary, you have to go through it again for the general election. The training is (4 hrs) and covers every position needed on election day. You may be asked to fill in for something you didn't want to do but must do because someone didn't show up! There is a written manual that you need to have with you on the day, just in case.

STORY
Now for 2018. Training for 4 hours in the early spring for the primaries. After working the Primary election at a different polling site, and only having to serve 120 or so voters, it was a lot more lull than activity. I was handing out ballots as a Ballot Inspector this time as we had a much smaller staff (6) and all positions had to be filled.

I volunteered to do this to be an EVID operator. Verifying identity by photo and signature of each voter for which I processed a voting pass. The voting pass is then taken to the table where the ballots are given in exchange for the voting pass. Special circumstances are if the voter doesn't come up on the EVID as being registered, they can request a provisional ballot which is reconciled after the election day. Address (and name) changes can be done on election day and the voter can vote if they are in that precinct, or they are sent to the correct precinct. Everyone in line to vote by 7 p.m. is allowed to vote, even after the polls are officially closed.  A security guard and/or police officer is posted at the end of the line at 7 p.m. No one arriving after 7 p.m. (7:01 or 7:02) is allowed to join the line, nor to vote if there is no line. Some people take this news as harsh, but it is the law.

This general election we processed about 1000 voters. For a mid-term election, that is remarkable. The last general election in 2016, we processed about 800, in the same precinct, at the same polling site. The fact there was 14 days of early voting and mail-in ballots, that was a better than expected turnout. We were once again cut off from the news of the day, observed by poll watchers (stationed near the voting area by both major political parties, to watch the process), and visited several times by Poll Inspectors from Broward County.

We were coming to the close of another election day. Two men came in and sat at the table next to the voting booths entrance. They were recording with their cellphones. The Clerk went over to tell them they were not permitted in that area during voting hours, nor were they allowed to shoot video. They said they were waiting for the posting of the totals tapes. The Clerk said they could wait away from the voting area or outside. They left.

As we were processing the closing of the polls, breaking down the voting booths, the tables, packing up everything, and the VST operators and workers were clearing the VST machines of the cast ballots and placing them into the secure bags for transport, someone noticed those two men outside taking video through the windows. What would be the motivation for that?! (Remember, we had been cut off from all news reports.) The Clerk asked them to stop. They didn't. The pollworkers had not given consent to be filmed! Securing the ballots is not something open to the public normally. The Clerk went outside to emphatically ask them to stop filming. I helped obscure their view of the process. They were not official County Inspectors. We had nothing to hide but we also did not want our faces on some video on social media or podcast without our permission. The police were called, reports filled out, and they finally left. We were concerned that we might be followed home or harassed when we left the premises. There is a limit to invasion of privacy.

CONCLUSION
Once home, I found out how close the election was between the two candidates for senator and governor. I now understand why obscure "news" people would want to find some impropriety in the voting process that they might exploit for their own gain. It was still obnoxious and unnecessary. There was no impropriety. No mistakes (unless human error or machine error caused them). Procedures were followed. Inspectors inspected. Poll watchers watched. And now we wait for the results, whatever they may be. It looks like automatic recounts will ensue because of the closeness of the votes. Our democracy in action!