Boots & Sabers

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Owen

Everything but tech support.
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1829, 14 Mar 20

Closing Down Representative Government

I wondered if we would see something like this.

Georgia election officials postponed the state’s presidential primary election scheduled for March 24 due to concerns of over the coronavirus, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Saturday.

Election officials are moving the primary to May 19. Early voting for the primary will resume again shortly before the new voting date.

“Events are moving rapidly and my highest priority is protecting the health of our poll workers, their families, and the community at large,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told the Journal-Constitution.

On Friday Louisiana became the first state to postpone their primary due to concerns over the virus, pushing their primary from April 4 primary to June 20.

One of my biggest worries about coronovirus is that it will be used to push out a bunch of really bad policies. Paid sick leave mandates, universal healthcare, closing schools, online voting, etc.

In the back of my mind, I started wondering if some in government might use this as an opportunity to shut out the pubic completely in some cases. They are already shutting down public hearings, large public gatherings, and government buildings. They are already dictating policy and law by executive fiat instead of a legislative process at the federal and state levels. Now they are postponing elections. Do they cancel them and just leave the incumbents in place? I know it seems like a stretch, but we are already allowing our government to do things that are unprecedented except in time of war. People act strange in a crisis and bad people will use that fear as an opportunity to get their way. Such things are not unprecedented in the history of the human experience.

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1829, 14 March 2020

24 Comments

  1. jjf

    Whew, thought for a second you were becoming a Never Trump-er.  Good thing we don’t have to worry about him developing any authoritarian / fiat / election delay urges, right?

  2. steveegg

    Delaying elections isn’t entirely without precedent.  For example, Sept. 11, 2001 was the mayoral primary day in New York City, and that was pushed back to Sept. 25.

    The postponed elections affect only the presidential primaries and local offices in the two states, though in Georgia, only some offices had (special) elections scheduled.  The Louisiana delay was bipartisan in nature, agreed to by both the Democrat governor and Republican secretary of state.

    That said, the rescheduling plans both have issues that NYC didn’t have, mostly because Giuliani’s attempt to use other emergency powers to stay in office an extra 3 months failed.  Louisiana’s nearly-three-month delay in both the primary originally scheduled for next month and the general originally scheduled for early May gives local officials that much more time in office.  Georgia’s plan to reschedule the presidential primaries at this late date to the date of the rest of the partisan primaries potentially opens the door to double-counting the ballots of those who already voted.

  3. Jason

    >Weird.  It’s like other people are worried about Trump, too

    Congrats, you actually found something more boring and bland than your posts.

  4. dad29

    more boring and bland

    No. Even more silly and estrogen-powered.

  5. steveegg

    As for the federal questions, The New York Times has some bad news for authoritarians.  To wit, a change in the voting dates (both for the general election and in the Electoral College) requires Congressional action and is subject to the Constitutionally-mandated end-of-term, though the states have pretty much a free hand in procedures, particularly if they act before the process begins.

  6. jjf

    Dad29, careful, your misogyny is showing again.

    Why can’t anyone speak Trump’s name in this context?  It’s like Owen was avoiding it on purpose.

  7. Jason

    IL guv just closed all restaurants for dine in for two weeks minimum… I’m sure Evers will follow suit.

  8. Mar

    Jason, he also closed the bars. That might cause riots.

  9. Le Roi du Nord

    And so did the R governor of OH.

  10. Mar

    So, both are idiots.

  11. Le Roi du Nord

    How so, mar? Be specific. And factual.

  12. Mar

    Well, Le Roi, you’re an expert on being an idiot, so you tell me why they are being smart.
    But why are they limiting it to bars and restaurants? Why not grocery stores, factories, distribution centers, airports, bus stations, office buildings, call centers, paper pushers in large police and fire departments and other places where more than 50 people gather.
    Meanwhile Gov Egghead just banned groups of 50 or more. Another moron heard from.

  13. Le Roi du Nord

    Since you didn’t, can’t, or won’t answer I’ll leave you to your name calling and misplaced anger..

  14. Mar

    See, once again Le Roi, you lose an argument and you just pretend the person wrote nothing.
    But since you are a bit slow, I will write this slowly.
    Why are they singling out bars and restaurants when they allow other businesses to operate?
    Answer that please. And be factual and be specific.

  15. Le Roi du Nord

    Like I lost an argument to the guy that called an All-Star first baseman a murderer.  Keep digging fella.

  16. Mar

    Wow, you keeping pointing out 1 mistake I made.
    That’s really how pathetic you have become.
    But I guess when you cannot answer a simple question, I guess that’s all you can do.
    Just pathetic.

  17. Le Roi du Nord

    m:

    You are a walking, talking mistake.  You have made several in this thread alone, yet keep digging that hole deeper..

  18. Le Roi du Nord

    Well mar, your guy trump is out there praising the actions of the governors.  So you should take up your claim of “idiot” with him.

  19. jjf

    And to think it was only a week ago that the virus was a hoax.

  20. Mar

    The scare is a hoax, jjf, especially compared to other communicable diseases.
    It’s a herd mentality operating now.

  21. jjf

    Mar, you want to bet a Dilly Bar, too, as Kevin did, that by the end of this, someone you know will have died of it?

  22. Le Roi du Nord

    Yes mar, the same herd mentality that hoards ammunition. Those folks can put their 1000 rolls of Charmin on the shelf next to the 10000 rounds of 5.56 and 22LR.

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