Arizona voters file lawsuit after ballots disqualified for using ‘Sharpies’ that poll workers handed out
A group called the Public Interest Legal Foundation has filed a lawsuit on behalf of voters who claimed their ballots were not counted because they used Sharpies which were given to them by poll workers. Here is more:
Arizona voters who claim their ballots were canceled because they were asked to use Sharpie markers to fill them out have filed a lawsuit demanding their ballots be restored.
A lawsuit filed on Wednesday by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is requesting restoration of ballots for voters who were told to fill out their ballots using Sharpie markers but subsequently had those ballots canceled.
Specifically, the lawsuit details the case of Maricopa County, Arizon, resident Laurie Aguilera, who was given a Sharpie market to fill out her ballot on election day. State officials have previously warned against felt tip writing utensils for filling out ballots.
I am not sure why felt tip pens are not acceptable in the first place–here in New Hampshire we have always used Sharpies until this year where due to COVID-19 concerns every voter was given their own pen–but if that is the law then why are poll workers handing them out in the first place? Here is more still:
The lawsuit states that Aguilera was alarmed when the ink of the Sharpie started to bleed onto the other side of her ballot but, despite that, was told to feed her ballot through the counting machine. The ballot, the lawsuit states, was not accepted and eventually canceled by the poll worker.
“These voters were denied the right to vote. Arizona election officials allegedly were part of the problem, and denial of the right to vote should not occur because of failures in the process of casting a ballot,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a statement.
It is hard to argue with that statement; these people were allegedly given the Sharpies they used to vote and–while part of the problem lies in their not knowing or not questioning the rules–while we do not know if something nefarious was going on here there are questions regarding who is allowed to be a poll worker. How did the poll workers not understand the rules? How was it that after the first couple of ballots were disqualified there was no communication between workers to stop the error from continuing?
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
The Election Day open thread is below this post because I did not expect to write anything tonight. However the following story caught my eye this morning and I fell it needs to be mentioned.
As the drum beats and we march slowly but steadily towards totalitarianism, and as we allow the Governors to take away our rights under the guise of protection, the last vestiges of freedom are being fought for in the court system.
The courts have been spotty when it comes to how much power a Governor is allowed to usurp during a “crisis” such as COVID-19, there have been some wins and some loses. The most recent case was a win for a restaurant owner in Pennsylvania over fines which were imposed on the business for having the audacity of trying to make a living while the Governor is trying to become all-powerful.
Some State Governors have been more fragrant in the violations of our rights than other States have been and one of the worst has been Gavin Newsom of California. Gavin Newsom has been using emergency powers under the “California Emergency Services Act” to trample on his subjects and their rights. But there is a bit of good news coming out of the State as a Judge has ruled that Gavin Newsom overstepped his bounds and can no longer use that act to create law. Here is more:
Sutter County Superior Court Judge Sarah Heckman barred Newsom from making new coronavirus laws that use the “California Emergency Services Act [which] amends, alters, or changes existing statutory law or makes new statutory law or legislative policy.”
The decision Monday afternoon was a pointed reminder to Newsom that there’s such a thing as a legislature, whose job, after all, is to make laws. It forbade him from exercising, as my colleague over at RedState Jennifer Van Laar characterized, “one-man rule.”
That assessment was echoed by California State Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, who said, “the judge has ruled in our case against Gavin Newsom. We won. The Judge found good cause to issue a permanent injunction restraining the Governor from issuing further unconstitutional orders.”
Chalk up another win for the good guys in the fight for liberty and freedom.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Electioneering open thread
I will stop
I will stop at nothing
Say the right things
When electioneering
I trust I can rely on your vote
When I go forwards, you go backwards
And somewhere we will meet
When I go forwards, you go backwards
And somewhere we will meet
Ha, ha, ha Riot shields
Voodoo economics
It’s life, it’s life
It’s just business
Cattle prods and the I.M.F.
I trust I can rely on your vote
When I go forwards, you go backwards
And somewhere we will meet
When I go forwards, you go backwards
And somewhere we will meet
How about we turn to Joe Biden tonight for a little comic relief? I always find it silly when politicians are campaigning in a State and they go for the cheap pop by naming a local sports team or a local event as if they are one of the little people and they are really into whatever it is they are mentioning. But they all do it and it is part of the game, however if you are going to do it you have to make sure you have the details correct or you come off looking like a poser. (Like when John Kerry was in Philadelphia and he ordered a cheese steak with Swiss cheese, or when he pretended to be a hunter in Ohio and thought it would be endearing to talk like a redneck. “Can I get me a hunting license here?)
Joe Biden today was campaigning in Philadelphia earlier today and he mentioned to the “crowd” that he was happy to be a defacto Senator from Pennsylvania because his wife is from the State, but then he went on to mention he even wore his Eagles jacket to the event. The problem? He was wearing a Delaware Blue Hens jacket.
Whoop!
Sunday, November 1st open thread: ‘I’m Bored’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates and you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right.
Here is Iggy Pop performing “I’m Bored” on a television show in 1979, enjoy:
I guess that HIPAA laws are no longer valid. At least not in New York, where visitors are going to be required to show a negative COVID-19 test result before entering the State. Once in the State you must then undergo a mandatory three day house arrest followed by a second negative test before you are allowed to proceed to your business in the State. Or you can simply undergo a fourteen day house arrest upon entering New York if you just happen to have that much time. Here is more:
The newly unveiled quarantine policy will do away with the current Tri-State Travel Advisory list, and now mandates that anyone visiting the state must test negative or quarantine for 14 days with the exception of residents from contiguous states New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
“There will be no quarantine list, there will be no metrics,” Cuomo said. “If you are coming into New York within three days you must have tested negative. Once you arrive in New York, you must quarantine for three days and can take a test on the fourth day.”
Travelers must also have proof that they tested negative upon arrival, and must quarantine for three days.
Is this even feasible? Are they going to set up roadblock on every road which enters New York to pull over travelers with out of State plates?
Show me your papers…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Second Hunter Biden laptop was seized by the DEA
Things just keep on getting worse and worse for the progeny of the former Vice-President, and for the former Vice-President himself by proxy. We already know the FBI has been looking into Hunter Biden for several months and have had his laptop in custody since December of last year, well now it is being reported that the DEA had seized a second Hunter Biden laptop back in February during a raid. Here is more:
Sources told NBC News that the device belonging to the 50-year-old son of former Vice President Joe Biden, who is now a presidential candidate, was taken into custody by the DEA in February while executing a search warrant in the Massachusetts office of a psychiatrist who was accused of professional misconduct.
That former celebrity psychiatrist, Keith Ablow, saw his license suspended after he faced allegations of sexually exploiting patients and illegally diverting prescription drugs. Ablow has denied the allegations and has not been charged with any crime.
The report from NBC on Friday said Hunter Biden was not a target of the search or the investigation, and his lawyer got the laptop back. It remains unclear why the device was there in the first place.
Okay, so Hunter Biden was not the target of the investigation which led to the seizure of his laptop and he eventually got it back but there has to be more to this story than we are being led to believe. Who leaves their laptop at their psychiatrist’s office and does not go back to get it right away? What was the laptop really doing there? What are the chances that one person has two laptops seized in separate events? Of course it just so happens that the psychiatrist is a little shady and is under investigation himself…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Joe Biden to mobilize ‘trunalimunumaprzure’
I do not think I am going out on a limb to state that Donald Trump is not the most eloquent speaker in the world. However–with the exception of “covfefe”–he generally does use words. The same cannot always be said about Joe Biden, he has a tendency to lose his train of thought and talk around in circles in front of his campaign “crowds” or to break out into gibberish.
The latter was true earlier today in Pennsylvania when the former Vice-President promised to mobilize “trunalimunumaprzure.” Here it is:
Your guess is as good as mine, I think he starts to say “true” and then something about “international pressure” but I have no idea what he actually was trying to say because he did not bother to slow down and repeat himself in an intelligible manner. Perhaps it made sense to him…
This could also be the sign of a serious medical condition.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Joe Biden once called for jailing oil executives
Joe Biden is denying that he ever said he wanted to ban fracking and technically he is somewhat right, he said he wanted to eliminate fracking. See the difference? Yeah, neither do I. But anyway, while he is coming under fire for these comments it is about to get worse for the wannabe President because he is on record as saying he would jail fossil fuel executives. Here is more:
“Number two, holding them liable for what they have done,” the former vice president said of fossil fuel executives, “particularly in those cases where your underserved neighborhoods and – you know the deal, okay. And by the way, when they don’t want to deliver, put them in jail. I’m not joking about this.”
Notice he made sure everybody understood he was not using hyperbole when he stated emphatically that he was not joking. And Joe Biden does not really fall outside the mainstream of the Democratic party on this, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders also support this idea.
This is today’s Democratic party, if you hold a contradictory position they would like to see you jailed so that you cannot oppose them. And yet Donald Trump is the tyrant…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Judge rules South Carolina absentee ballot signatures do not have to match signatures on file
A judge in South Carolina has just ruled that absentee ballots which have signatures which do no match the signatures the State has on record must still be counted when previously they had been disqualified. Here is more:
A federal judge in South Carolina ruled Tuesday that the state can’t reject absentee ballots because of a signature mismatch, and ordered officials to reprocess all ballots previously thrown out because of signature-related issues.
U.S. District Judge Richard Mark Gergel found that the state lacked a consistent process for matching signatures on voters’ ballots and that some South Carolina counties were disqualifying ballots based on signature problems without authorization.
“Here, absentee ballots, which meet all statutory requirements under South Carolina law, may nonetheless be disqualified on the basis of a subjective judgment that the voter’s signature does not match some sample relied upon by county election officials,” Gergel wrote. “Moreover, a number of the counties conducting signature matching procedures have no or ill-defined procedures for providing affected voters timely notice of a signature mismatch determination or a timely procedure for challenging that determination.”
The ruling goes on to say that if counties in the State still wish to verify a ballot is actually signed by the person whose name is on it the county must submit a plan to the court for approval to ensure any ballots in question can be contested by the voter. That is all very well and good of course, however the ruling comes down one week before the election. Which means there will not be time for a county to get its plan approved by the court in time for the election. All ballots will therefor be counted, including those which are should not be counted for being counterfeit.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
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