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314
Appeals Court Rules USPS Will Suffer 'Irreparable Harm' if Prevented From Blocking Ballots (www.ibtimes.co.uk)
submitted 1 day ago by spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to c/news@lemmy.world
41 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

On Friday, a three‑judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously paused a lower‑court injunction that had temporarily blocked the USPS from finalising and enforcing the new ballot‑delivery rule.

The rule would permit the Postal Service to withhold delivery of mail‑in and absentee ballots where state officials decline to send certain voter data to federal authorities. In practice, that sets up a confrontation between states determined to guard sensitive voter information and a federal agency now claiming it cannot guarantee accurate ballot delivery without it.

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[–] GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Its not the job of USPS to determine whether a ballot is valid or not. That's the job of the election officials. Any ballot sent and not delivered should lead to criminal punishment. The job of the USPS is to deliver the ballot. They dont verify the validity of any other letter or package sent, the ballots should be no different.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago

A panel of 3 judges disagree, just like 3 S.C. justices believe the Constitution is unconstitutional.

[–] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Crucially, the court accepted the USPS's warning that delaying the policy would inflict lasting damage. Once the November vote has come and gone, the judges wrote, 'there can be no do over', adopting the agency's argument that it would be locked into an election cycle under rules it believes are inadequate.

What about the lasting damage to legitimate voters who won't be able to vote in the election? That seems far more certain and relevant than any potential damage the USPS might suffer. I'm not even sure I understand what damage that would be.

[–] settxy@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

I believe the 'harm' here is that the USPS isn't allowed to set internal policies for how to operate. Such as the USPS being allowed to set policies on what they can/can't mail. This might mean that their rules around refusing to ship some items (e.g. explosives, hazmat, air bags, mercury, etc.) might be blocked as that's not an 'illegal' substance or whatever.

To be clear, I don't agree with this ruling, since I think this blocks a state's ability to operate their elections as they see fit. There's also no reason to block the mail as it's not dangerous or illegal. So, I think the court missed the mark here.

[–] brianary@lemmy.zip 37 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Washington state is fully mail-in. In recent years, MAGA terrorists have started setting drop boxes on fire here. If mail becomes unreliable, I expect that to accelerate. This is a hot war.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Put the drop boxes outside firehouses.

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Or in police stations.

[–] TBi@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

That might not be a safe spot…

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Absolutely not.

[–] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

The one in my WA state town is at the front door of our police station

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 61 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So suddenly it's going to cause harm? What about the last 30 elections. They were able to deliver the ballots just fine for decades then this year is just too much. The courts, the senate, the president is destroying this nation.

[–] lemmylump@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (3 children)

It's all thanks to the heritage foundation. How their headquarters in DC hasn't been surrounded by protest and cameras doxxing the people behind the scenes idk.

Edit

Correcting stupid autocorrect

[–] halferect@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You may not see it but that does happen, pretty much every day, is it on the news? Nope. They had to come up with a exit strategy because people were attacking cars leaving the building.

[–] lemmylump@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

Excellent.

[–] HasturInYellow@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

We can all get together as a nation and drone strike that mother fucker into oblivion. We each get one drone, with like 5 lbs of explosives. Easy peasy. We all hit it the same day. They literally cannot stop us all.

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

doxxing the people behind the science

There is no science. It's all self-serving lies.

[–] lemmylump@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

Autocorrect mistake it should read scenes.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 135 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Trump's corruption of U.S. courts is complete.

[–] Astronut@lemmy.zip 40 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

M afia

A sshole

G uts

A merica!

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 21 points 1 day ago

One of these failures is a Biden appointee. What a joke. I bet they were patting themselves on the back for demonstrating how open minded they were.

[–] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 103 points 1 day ago

the court accepted the USPS's warning that delaying the policy would inflict lasting damage.

allow it to refuse delivery of ballot materials in states that do not share detailed, eligible voter lists with the federal government.

What in the actual fuck, what "lasting damage" would be done by delivering the fucking ballots to people who should be getting them. Tell me.

the judges wrote, 'there can be no do over', adopting the agency's argument that it would be locked into an election cycle under rules it believes are inadequate.

"If we don't let the government purge voter roles by crying "fraud!" to everyone who voted democrat, then we could potentially have a free and fair election!"

District Judge Indira Talwani concluded the directive trampled on states' constitutional authority to run their own elections

Where are all those boot-licking states rights advocates? oh wait, they're too busy prostrating themselves within the cult of a literal fascist child rapist.

[–] plz1@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Many town halls have drop boxes for mail/absentee ballots. Skip USPS if you think they may screw with ballots.

[–] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 5 points 23 hours ago

You're looking at the wrong side of the issue. There are several states (mine included) where mail delivery is the primary method of distributing ballots to voters. If the USPS refuses to deliver them, then those states need to scramble to get ballots distributed another way. This will assuredly reduce voter turnout.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This implies that town hall is reachable for the voter. Whereas the USPS is required to serve every address.

Big difference in how this makes voting accessible to all eligible voters.

The point is to minimize the number of votes and make it as difficult as possible. Republicans know that if everyone voted they would never hold office again. So they make it as hard as possible for people who wouldn't vote for them to vote at all.

Make no mistake, RFKs war on Adderall is absolutely a part of it. Unmedicated ADHD makes handling the nonstop responsibility of adulthood real tough and things like "remember to drop off the ballot at town hall" are exactly the type of thing that falls off the radar.

[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 63 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Their goal is to send this to SCOTUS, who its kind of a coin flip as to whether they'll side with the fascists.

This country is falling apart.

[–] justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io 28 points 1 day ago

Pretty sure that the goal is to have the election before scotus gets to the case.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 3 points 1 day ago

who its kind of a coin flip as to whether they’ll side with the fascists.

They always side with fascists, they just someone do it gradually and in less obvious ways. Even when they "deny" Trump a win they always do it in a way that advances fascist agenda a little bit. Their decisions open the way for other set of lawsuits that will reach them eventually. When those do they will advance fascist agent a little bit farther.

[–] MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

This country is functioning as intended

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

this one would end up at sc(R)otus regardless of lower courts' actions.

[–] blitzen@lemmy.ca 33 points 1 day ago

How many negatives can a title contain? I honestly cannot tell if the ruling is a good or bad thing.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

After the elections international observers will say that there was interference and they cannot consider them "free". Some countries will declare that US can no longer be considered full democracy. Nothing more will happen.

[–] yucandu@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

We all already know that, but they're our biggest trading partner and we can't change that overnight. They also have the world's biggest military, and pissing them off or just passively letting them destabilize in general is going to be very bad for everyone on earth, and I'm saying that in full knowledge of how bad America has already been for everyone on earth. It can still get worse.

[–] stylusmobilus@aussie.zone 9 points 1 day ago

The sooner they get a peaceful national strike underway, the easier this will be.

[–] dance_ninja@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In their opinion, the appellate judges said the USPS had made a 'strong showing that they will likely succeed' on key legal arguments, including that the challenge to the rule was 'neither constitutionally nor prudentially ripe for review.' Put more plainly, the panel signalled that opponents of the policy might be suing too early, before the rule has actually gone into effect and produced concrete harms that courts traditionally require.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 23 points 1 day ago

And we already know they don't change elections after they're done, even if the district itself is illegal (and was known to be illegal by all parties before the election).

The legal system really has been showing itself to be a farce recently. If you time your crime's completion well, it's not a crime in any meaningful way.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I honestly don't know why the GOP are attacking mail-in ballots. I would guess the majority of mail-in ballot users are established older adults, a demographic that usually leans more red. If the GOP is successful in stopping mail-in ballots, won't a higher percentage of their own voters be blocked from voting for the GOP?

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

It's not about actually stopping mail-in ballots. It's about gaining an advantage in other ways. If they lose in the courts, they will claim that mail-in ballots were illegitimate in areas where Dems won. If they win, they will say that Republican areas don't have the funds to change their voting method away from mail-in votes, so they get a reprieve. Also if they win, they hope to get access to voter lists in Dem areas to throw out votes.

As far as who votes by mail, that is a wash. In some states, EVERYONE votes by mail. Those states are both Republican and Democrat. In other states, the people who vote by mail can be anyone from old people, people who can't take off work, college kids who can't get back to their state to vote, military members, expats who live overseas, etc.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

First, republicans will still vote by mail, just like Trump himself does. Democrats think that they will somehow be embarrassed by the hypocrisy. Republicans don't care. They know it's just a tactic.

The point of all this anti mail-in ballots rhetoric is to give them control over the votes. It's just another reason they can use to discard some of them. They will have 0 issues applying some rules to votes from Democratic areas and ignoring those rules in Republican districts. It's hard for them to insert themselves in the vote counting process of in-person votes in Democratic districts and manipulate the results. With mail-in votes it's possible. This is what they are doing.

[–] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Mail-in ballots are their own paper trail. Not only can they not be fucked with, they can be used to demonstrate electronic fuckery in the rest of the same election.

Every mail-in ballot (and early vote) is much harder to account for and manipulate when it comes to fucking an election as a whole. And they've been doing this since electronic voting was a thing. If you haven't yet, you should definitely read Vanity Fair's The Path to Florida which is a dissection of the Bush v. Gore fight in Florida. Be sure to note the negative 16,000 votes in Volusia County.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

I honestly don't know why the GOP are attacking mail-in ballots.

It looks like it's more-or-less a wash in historical data:

https://politicalscience.byu.edu/2020/08/28/do-republicans-or-democrats-benefit-from-mail-in-voting-it-turns-out-neither-three-decades-of-voting-history-reveals-vote-by-mail-does-not-give-either-party-an-edge/

Do Republicans or Democrats benefit from mail-in voting? It turns out, neither: Three decades of voting history reveals vote-by-mail does not give either party an edge

You might be able to intimidate voters or pull some other stunts locally that you cna't do remotely.

[–] TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago

My county has drop boxes. I love me some drop boxes.