In this post, I suggested that folks such as Erick Erickson, as well as Associate Justice Brett “Way Too Sloppy” Kavanaugh, who think that Election Day is a fine day to stop collecting and counting mail-in ballots, are impairing voters who choose to – or must – use mail for sending ballots, whether it’s because they’re overseas, such as serving military, or facing daunting circumstances: weather, or more malicious circumstances, which slow or stop the mail.
Steve Benen has a post that reinforces my point, as he rounds up several debates that, if they had occurred as planned, would have been too late for voters to trust in mail delivery. Here’s one example:
But perhaps even more dramatic was a debate in Georgia this week, in which Jon Ossoff (D) humiliated incumbent Sen. David Perdue (R) — more than once. The two were scheduled to meet again for another debate last night, but that didn’t happen. …
“Last night” being October 29th, and we here in Minnesota have been warned that, as of last night, do not try to mail your ballots – they will arrive late and not be counted. (Hint, hint!)
Similar remarks apply to the Senate contests in Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, and Alabama, at least – and that’s only Senate races. What about debates of House candidates, gubernatorial, hell even city council spots?
Look: These arrogant claims that voters should make up their minds and mail in their ballots early disregard the independent voter who, in a normal election, may in fact still be making up their minds. Sure, this election is not normal – this is the only election, in my lifetime, that I can think of that turns on morality and not issues – but that should not matter. Rules should be made for the general case, and in the general case American Independents have a long history of repeatedly changing their minds.
And that’s a good thing.
So impairing a class of voters, for any reason whatsoever, is not tolerable. Kavanaugh and Erickson should immediately retract their opinions and apologize. This is a real injustice, and they should be ashamed of the position they advanced.
