Chatter And Banter - Politics In North America

Discussion in 'News & Politics' started by Laks09, Sep 18, 2018.

  1. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    12,481
    Likes Received:
    30,224
    Trophy Points:
    540
    Gender:
    Female
    I was enthusiastic in the 2018 midterm election about participating more than voting. Had the grand notion that every little bit counts. So, I signed up and went through volunteer training. Some of the things I learnt in the training, put me off. Wrote a snippet about it: Dear America, If My Vote Is Precious

    Now, frankly the main reason for me to vote and vote after researching most of the issues on the ballot is that I feel responsible for my children having to most likely live in this country for the rest of their lives with the skin color they have.
     
    Laks09 likes this.
  2. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    6,682
    Likes Received:
    11,157
    Trophy Points:
    440
    Gender:
    Female
    Californian:facepalm:

    Deep in the heart of deep red Texas, in its reddest county we do the following:
    Take time to vote.

    Go to the polling location.

    Get accousted by enthusiastic poll greeters, there is a competition there last few days I believe(more than five in one group). Candidates also show up here before we get to the line. This guy came up to me a few years ago and told me he worked for both parties - turned out he was a republican.

    Stand in line, depending on the day it may or may not be crowded. This time I was in and out in 10 mins.

    Show our ID - has to be one from a valid list of IDs(I always take my passport in my purse, just in case)
    ID is checked against a voter list,
    Some of us are turned back and asked to go to the County Election office because something is amiss. I always check out voter roll names online to ensure we are still there. Sometimes names magically disappear.

    And only then we get a privileged card.

    We stand in another line for a machine. Sometimes at this point there are many machines and there isn’t much of a line.

    We got physically push the card into the slot machine. The machine pulls up a computerized ballot. We then proceeded to vote. We think it’s over but it’s NOT.

    The ballot is then printed out for us.

    Then we go put it into another machine
    and get the I VOTED sticker.

    If someone thinks that the printed ballot is an acknowledgement and takes it with them then their vote isn’t complete.

    Right now my county is trying to track down 750 people who took the printed ballots home. We’ve been making calls to all people who have voted in our precinct to make sure everyone put their ballots in the machine.

    Poll workers are sitting in packed chairs next to each other and many aren’t wearing masks or practicing any social distancing. I got to touch that screen touched by god knows how many before me. I also got to use a pen(forgot to take my pen and q-tip for the touch screen).


    We don’t get mail in ballots unless it’s an earth shattering situation. Covid isn’t considered an earth shattering emergency. People with certain pre existing condition can request a mail in ballot.

    I stood in line for four hours one election because I went on Election Day(never again).

    It was in the news recently.
    We have a button that lets us choose all Dems or all Rep candidates and we can avoid the painstaking process of making a rudimentary touch screen pick each candidate. I always have problems with the touch screen. I picked Biden and it highlighted Trump.
    Third party and Independents were doomed here. At least now everyone sees their name.

    All propositions have to be voted on individually.


    California :facepalm: The other extreme :sconf::sconf:. From your experience, I now know that the opposite of what happens here(voter suppression) is also not a good thing.
    I would rename that post - dear Blue America or something along those lines. Voter suppression is very real here. People are taking their mailed ballots back and surrendering it to vote in person - the ones with pre existing ailments - just because of voter suppression.

    I won’t even go into gerrymandering. Sri’s district is in the shape of a strip thanks to gerrymandering. Why can’t districts be square or rectangular - because then Republicans can’t keep Texas completely Red. They can’t really win even in Red states without cheating.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2020
    Rihana and MalStrom like this.
  3. MalStrom

    MalStrom IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    4,191
    Likes Received:
    7,009
    Trophy Points:
    408
    Gender:
    Female
    Laks, didn’t your genius of a governor allow only one ballot drop box for a very populated county? :confundio1:
    Almost makes you wonder what they are afraid of.
    Computerized voting sounds so modern. We still fill out old fashioned paper ballots even in the polling place. Our county executive has been relentlessly pushing mail-in voting due to the pandemic and our regular poll places have been sharply curtailed. I do miss standing in line on Election Day and voting in person.
     
    Laks09 likes this.
  4. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    6,682
    Likes Received:
    11,157
    Trophy Points:
    440
    Gender:
    Female
    Yes. One drop location per county. I didn’t think it was too bad because the number of voters going the mail in route is fairly small but yes in some counties it would have been nice to have additional locations.
     
  5. Minion

    Minion Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,244
    Likes Received:
    944
    Trophy Points:
    208
    Gender:
    Male
  6. Hopikrishnan

    Hopikrishnan Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,258
    Likes Received:
    1,325
    Trophy Points:
    283
    Gender:
    Male
    Why do (many) Indian-Americans like Trump, and would vote for him ? <-- this is surprising to some; but not all. There are a lot of reasons. He hugged NaMo, could be one. He also had/has a foreign bank account for local business/personal-use purposes. Just like many I-A's do. The I-A's also fund lobbying efforts to bring America (i.e., USA) to the Residency-Taxation rule, rather than Citizenship-Taxation method we currently follow.

    When foreign resident US-citizens pay taxes to the country where they live, the taxes they pay may become tax-credits on their US-Tax-Return filings, if the country where they live has a bilateral tax treaty with USA (and India does). Many naturalized US citizens who had returned to India (on OCI visa) to live out their lives, use such tax-credits in their annual US Tax return filings.

    When the mainstream media yells that Trump paid $180K to China and only $750 to USA in some year, they do not mention that the tax paid to China (for the locally resident Trump Inc.) is a tax credit on the US Tax Return. USA is the only G-20 country that requires a Tax Return Filing from non-resident Citizens (and companies), such as those who live in India on their OCI visa status. Many of these foreign resident I-A's may vote a straight GOP ticket, because it makes sense to vote-your-self-interest. And many who reside in the USA can see the annual FATCA hassles, and go with GOP, the party which holds out the carrot for removal of these problems, and go back to the happy days.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2020
    Laks09 likes this.
  7. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    6,682
    Likes Received:
    11,157
    Trophy Points:
    440
    Gender:
    Female
    We were this. I thought moving back would end this but for various reasons we still file in India and claim it in the US. Dual taxation isn’t fun. But all of the people who went with us and are still connected have send in there ballots - some to battle ground PA/FL. All have converted to Dems in the recent years. I don’t think this small group of people will make a significant impact in anyway.

    When we used to mail in our ballots from India we were under the impression our mail in ballots would be counted only if there wasn’t a clear winner. Otherwise they didn’t matter as much as people voting in the US(even mailing in). No memory where that came from. Must be from one of the forums.
     
  8. chanchitra

    chanchitra Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,197
    Likes Received:
    1,442
    Trophy Points:
    283
    Gender:
    Female
  9. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

    Messages:
    6,682
    Likes Received:
    11,157
    Trophy Points:
    440
    Gender:
    Female
    I wasn’t thrilled with Biden’s performance yesterday, tbh. Hopefully this debate won’t matter since Trump has revealed who he is in the past four years.
     
  10. Hopikrishnan

    Hopikrishnan Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,258
    Likes Received:
    1,325
    Trophy Points:
    283
    Gender:
    Male
    There are no major substantial differences between GOP and the Democrats. Perhaps the latter is a more civil version of the other. When it comes to policies, the famous Obama quote "we all play between the 40 yard lines" would apply. After all, both teams are funded by the same outfits.

    Healthcare Access, and Healthcare Insurance is so abysmal in the country. Both Biden and Trump were together in declaring that they are opposed to "socialized" medicine. One may google "how healthcare insurance kills Americans" and read the hundreds of analyses and stories on the internet. Corona virus deaths are much less in comparison. Who needs the annual harassment of seniors to choose a new medicare advantage plan ? And this always comes up during the influenza season.

    Congressman Grayson (Florida) pointed out the best medicine on the floor of the House. Perhaps the GOP's harangue on the right to bear arms is the quick-fix medicine in the healthcare system of the Nation. :rage::BangHead:
    And the democrats would have you suffer a thousand cuts before the exit.



    Over the Trump years there was more grist for the TV shows:



     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2020
    Thoughtful likes this.

Share This Page