The deepest cuts were driven by COVID and shifts to vote by mail and voting centers. But many states are just cutting while doing little to nothing to expand VBM.
40 of the 45 states that weren't already vote by mail saw cuts, and 35 are not sending mail ballots to everyone.
This was a biiig lift - it took bugging 50 secretaries of state/election boards (and DC!) for their info and comparing it to 2016 and 2012 @No_Little_Plans deserves kudos for doing most of that.
Wanna know what your state did? Wanna see the whole country mapped? We've got all our info here:
All these cuts could lead to longer lines for voters — especially in states that didn't do much to expand mail voting. Not all voters trust mail voting, some for good reason. And voters without access to a car are much less likely to vote if their polling place is far away.
These cuts will disproportionately impact poor, nonwhite and young people. "Closing this many polling places at such a vast scale really does affect voters. Fewer polling places can lead to longer lines, longer wait times, and hurt people," said @LChapmanEsq of @civilrightsorg
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.@realDonaldTrump is running an ad claiming he built "the best" economy in US history and will do so again. That ad uses footage of him at a steel plant that recently laid off hundreds — part of industry-wide layoffs that predate COVID. vice.com/en_us/article/…
U.S. Steel issued layoff warnings to 737 Granite City, Ill. steelworkers in late April. Hundreds were let go. Though the company wouldn't tell me exactly how many, at the time they were planning 2,700 layoffs nationally and warned 6,500 people they could be let go.
"We suffered a lot. We were essential [workers], and had to get rid of some guys," United Steelworkers local president Dan Simmons told me. "It's cost us quite a bit. It’s been a tough year."
.@realDonaldTrump has signaled strongly that he won't concede if he loses this election. I gamed out what could happen next. There are some really alarming scenarios.
The key tipping-point Electoral College states (AZ/MI/PA/WI) all will use heavy vote by mail this election and all but AZ can't start counting ballots 'til election day means long counts expected - and Trump could lead big on election day even in states where he'll lose.
On top of that, mail ballots are a lot more likely to be rejected for technical reasons (missing signatures/envelopes/witness signatures/etc)— and a lot more likely to face litigation over whether they should count post-election.
Happy virtual convention week. I took a look at how this'll be the most visible test so far of whether Dems' virtual campaign can match up in crucial Wisconsin, as their ground game has been moved online while the GOP keeps knocking doors & holding events. vice.com/en_us/article/…
Part of this disparate approach is driven by necessity. WI Dem @JoeZepecki: "For every voter really longing for face to face communication there could be three that are really turned off by the depravity of sending someone out into a community and risking spreading coronavirus."
WisDems chair @benwikler: "“Trump waltzing around like there’s no pandemic underway and Democrats taking every precaution to show we’re not spreading coronavirus — that sets up exactly the right contrast."
Some progressives are still howling #KamalaIsaCop. But many actual police hated her for years because of her refusal to seek the death penalty for a cop-killer. This case will almost certainly come up again now that she's Biden's VP pick. vice.com/en_us/article/…
As has been widely reported, @SenFeinstein called out @KamalaHarris at the officer's funeral. Thousands of cops applauded. Chris Cunnie, a former cop who was sitting near Harris at the funeral and later worked for her, told me the reax to Feinstein's comments "was like a bomb."
But folks seem to forget how much this dogged Harris in subsequent years. Longtime Harris staffer Tim Silard told me that when cops spotted Harris as he rode in SF Pride parades w/ her, “year after year, as the car drove down the parade route they’d turn their backs to her."
As @Bencjacobs catches, @kanyewest's presidential campaign just filed an affidavit confirming my scoop from last week that @realDonaldTrump lawyer Lane Ruhland dropped off his ballot signatures in Wisconsin. This doc is rife with irony.
"People of color have long been marginalized in this country. In seeking to remove Kanye West from the ballot and silence the voices of those who signed to place him, the Complainants are continuing this marginalization simply because Mr. West’s views" aren't Dem
Also argues that Ruhland dropping off the signatures at 5:00:14pm counts as "not later than 5pm."
People were right to freak out about @realDonaldTrump's election tweets - but for less obvious reasons. He's turned mail voting into a partisan issue, and with lots more Dems set to vote by mail and mail ballots more likely to get tossed, a crisis looms. vice.com/en_us/article/…
Polls show Dems are 2x as likely to vote by mail as R's this year. That means Trump could be up considerably on election night before #s swing dramatically in Dems' favor in the days/weeks afterwards. Trump will likely lie, claim fraud. But the bigger threat: disenfranchisement
Usually, mail ballots get tossed at 1%-4% rates depending on the state, but that's not that big a deal since it's usually roughly equal D&R. This year they're gonna be much more heavily Dem — and that rate could double, if things look like they did during this year's primaries.