NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: NJ Lt. Governor invites voters to submit invalid email ballots (Lauren Weinstein)
The policy options to handle this case are far from good.
I and my wife drove through CT, NY, and NJ to PA this past friday and yesterday (Sunday). We were forced to first find, and then stand for more than an hour, in one of the gas lines that are barely under control there. Restaurants off the highways in small towns were mostly out of power, or unable to reach credit card verification services. Provisions were short - menus were improvised out of the ingredients on hand.
This coupled with the fact that many of the hardest hit areas are the poorest areas suggest that reliable polling (even by email) is unworkable by any means.
If credit card validation via telecom is not working in many areas, people are in houses without power or heat or light, how valid will polls in these very populous states be?
I think folks who are not affected (our happy Silicon Valley and LA left coasters) do not understand what the situation really is like for the *voters*. Not the governments or the press. Throw in superconservative Republican lawyers ready to set fire to the entire election process if their candidate does not win, and a Supreme Court that appears to support only "Corporate Persons", and we have the making of a serious problem.
If I were a voter in mid-NJ and the election were to be "held without me", I might seriously decide to march on the capitols to demand a new election - no matter who wins or what party I was intending to vote for.
Very easy steps to a Constitutional. level crisis.
Of course, that's unbelievable. However, it's probably more likely than you think.
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