PA Emergency Declarations Constitutional Amendment Seeks to Deny Pennsylvanians Emergency Relief

On Tuesday, May 18, 2021, the people of Pennsylvania will vote on the Pennsylvania Emergency Declarations Act, which would amend the state’s* constitution to constrain the governor’s ability to declare a state of emergency and effectively handle it in the timely manner necessary in emergencies, if we allow it to pass.

Under the proposed amendment, the Pennsylvanian constitution would be amended so that only the General Assembly can determine the ways in which agencies can provide assistance and funding to people and local communities during and immediately following an emergency through existing law, after the governor issues a state of emergency.

Additionally, the Emergency Declarations Act would set a 21-day deadline on a governor’s state of emergency declaration and require the General Assembly to pass a ‘concurrent resolution’ every 21 days to keep a state of emergency in effect.

If the concurrent resolution – which constitutionally requires two-thirds of the Pennsylvania House and Senate to pass – fails or the General Assembly cannot convene for any reason, including the very matter causing the declaration, the state of emergency ends and can’t be reissued by the governor, if it is the same or “substantially similar” until a current resolution can pass. Pennsylvania law and this amendment don’t define ‘substantially similar.’

“[The constitutional amendment] would hinder our ability to respond quickly, comprehensively and effectively to a disaster emergency by requiring any declaration to be affirmed by concurrent resolution of the legislature every three weeks. This would force partisan politics into the commonwealth’s disaster response efforts and could slow down or halt emergency response when aid is most needed. A disaster response could be hamstrung by lack of action by the legislature (or by the disaster itself, if it were severe enough to stop the legislature from meeting) and the executive branch would have no certainty that disaster response measures put in place would remain past this short, arbitrary deadline.”
– Governor Wolf 

Title 35 gives them the power to declare states of emergency. The governor has had this power in Pennsylvania since at least 1978. I would guess that this power goes further back than this, however. 

“An executive order or proclamation of a state of disaster emergency shall activate the disaster response and recovery aspects of the Commonwealth and local disaster emergency plans applicable to the political subdivision or area in question and shall be authority for the deployment and use of any forces to which the plan or plans apply and for use or distribution of any supplies, equipment and materials and facilities assembled, stockpiled or arranged to be made available pursuant to this part or any other provision of law relating to disaster emergencies.” – 35 Pa. C.S. § 7301 (Emphasis mine).

Additionally, Title 35 gives the governor the authority to authorize the National Guard, a power the General Assembly doesn’t have and cannot give themselves under federal law, among other resources.

One of the main reasons why the governor is given the authority to issue states of emergency with a wide range of tools, is because no emergency is the same. There are infinite possible emergency situations which demand infinite possible responses and a central point to efficiently manage them.

The Emergency Declarations Act will change that, decentralize an emergency response, create confusion among agencies, and limit how Pennsylvania and the agencies can act in your time of need.

An emergency cannot be legislated and shouldn’t be.

The General Assembly can’t pass laws to proactively respond to all emergency situations. They can pass laws reactively, but that would cause delays to you, your community, and others who face real emergencies, in real time.

The passage of this amendment would tie not only the governor’s hands in dealing with emergencies, it would also tie the hands of the General Assembly, the agencies needed in the emergencies, and the federal government. It’d place a heavy burden on the Pennsylvania House and Senate, particularly since there are few current laws governing emergency responses, and the General Assembly hasn’t been working on passing any.

It’s difficult for the General Assembly to pass any concurrent resolution, regardless of its purpose, because politics will always enter their minds.

The Emergency Declarations Act also seeks to give the General Assembly the power to end a governor’s state of emergency after a minimum of 21 days, however, they already have the power to end a governor’s state of emergency at any time:

“The General Assembly by concurrent resolution may terminate a state of disaster emergency at any time,” (Chapter 73, Subchapter A(c), emphasis mine).

The difference between today and what this amendment seeks to do is that this amendment requires the General Assembly to reauthorize a governor’s state of emergency every 21 days (or end it), otherwise it ends, no matter what, where the current law keeps a governor’s state of emergency in effect for 90 days, unless the governor ends it early, or the General Assembly ends it at any time by concurrent resolution.

What if only 60% of the General Assembly agrees that there’s a need for the state of emergency? What if the House and Senate leadership don’t introduce the concurrent resolution or convene the houses to vote?

Most importantly, what happens to you on Day 22 of an emergency?

The governor relies on their cabinet for specialized knowledge of the types of emergencies we face, a resource and knowledge, the General Assembly doesn’t have to determine the true depth of an emergency and how to respond to it.

“It is not feasible to manage a crisis by 253 members of the General Assembly, most, if not all, of whom are not trained in managing emergencies. The premature termination of a disaster emergency will have wide-ranging negative consequences for the Commonwealth.”
– State Senator Carolyn Comitta.

While I was recently reading the comments section of a newspaper in Pennsylvania, I read this purportedly from someone with 12 years of disaster relief experience:

The Pennsylvania Emergency Declarations Amendment wouldn’t just hinder the state and local communities’ abilities to respond to crises, but would seriously impact aid we receive from the federal government. 

Federal law requires the governor to declare an active state of emergency, according to the federal Stafford Act. 

Additionally, federal law requires that the governor detail their emergency plan, including what funding and resources are needed, and what the state has already done to respond to the emergency. 

If there’s no active state of emergency, or the state’s response is lackluster, what the federal government can do for the people of Pennsylvania is in jeopardy and could be denied.

This amendment gives the General Assembly the ability, at least passively, and (hopefully) unintentionally, to refuse to allow us those federal resources that our tax dollars pay for.

There is nothing they can do to get around the federal and state mandates that require active state of emergency declarations, even with the approval of the Emergency Declarations Act.

Voting NO doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t look at our laws and see if things should be changed in state of emergency declarations through the legislative process and public discourse. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t see how Pennsylvania can respond more efficiently to states of emergencies and protect us from overzealous governors, but the Emergency Declarations Act isn’t the answer. 

It won’t solve any challenges that Pennsylvanians face now or in the future. Reality is this amendment will harm us, create another, unnecessary bureaucratic layer, create confusion for everyone involved, while potentially denying us the resources we need in our time of need, and have far-reaching consequences for all of us.

We can’t afford to find out how terrible this amendment is in an emergency and after it’s already passed. Repealing it would be impossible.

Politics have no place in emergencies. The General Assembly currently has the tools they need. They cannot effectively or efficiently manage emergencies either proactively or reactively.

The only way to protect ourselves is to vote NO on the Pennsylvania Emergency Declarations Act on May 18, 2021.

Make sure you’re registered to vote in the May 18th election! More information can be found by clicking here.

If you’re not registered to vote, the deadline to register to vote in the election is May 3rd. You can click here to register.

If you want to vote-by-mail or absentee (legally recognized excuse required), the last day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot is May 11th. You can click here to request either type of ballot or for more information.

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*Pennsylvania is officially a commonwealth. Any usage of “state” should be taken as also meaning commonwealth in this blog post.

Voting Part One: Cancelling the Noise

I remember in the 2004 presidential election. I was away at college and knew the election would be close in my state (or so I thought). My dorm suite mate, and one of his friends needed a ride to the polling place so that they could vote. Despite knowing they were voting for my candidate’s opponent, I offered them a ride.

My belief in their fundamental right to vote overrode the importance of my candidate winning. My belief in American democracy was more important than my personal political ideals.

All of the intentional chaos and confusion being caused in the 2020 presidential election, and the tacit and explicit acceptances of it baffle me.

I worry that you’re feeling exhausted, apathetic, or confused by the chaos around this election, especially with so much hubbub about mail-in voting. Maybe you’re thinking voting isn’t worth the hassle, so you’re not going to.

I’m standing up for American democracy – and you – by writing this three-part series about voting to help you cancel out all the noise out there, so you can focus on making sure you vote; to help dissect the threats and challenges we face in this election; and to talk about the importance of all of us voting by November 3rd.

Those who perpetrate the disinformation about this election, like Donald Trump and Bill Barr, are doing it intentionally and without regard for truth. They want you to be confused, they want you to be exhausted or apathetic, they want you to think your vote won’t matter or won’t be counted. Their mission is for you to not vote (even if you’ll vote for Trump). This isn’t about democrat and republican. This is about American democracy.

Last month, during the 2020 Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama said:

[…] they’re hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter. That’s how they win. […] That’s how a democracy withers, until it’s no democracy at all. We can’t let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Don’t let them take away your democracy. Make a plan right now for how you’re going to get involved and vote.

Your vote is your power. This election is your democracy. The lengths Trump, Barr, and many others are going to to subvert democracy in this election are the complete antitheses of what the United States of America stands for. That’s why this election is so important, and why I’m writing this.

Welcome to Part One: Cancelling the Noise

Many states have expanded voting by mail in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, so that you don’t have to choose between your health and your fundamental right to vote. This expansion has caused a lot of disinformation and made a lot of people uneasy about the security and integrity of the election. While this unease might seem natural, it’s baseless and without merit.

Think of this: If Trump led the United States against COVID-19 at the outset of the pandemic, rather than ‘liking to play it down,’ then we wouldn’t have to expand mail-in/absentee voting, because it’d be under control, and we’d be able to vote in person on November 3rd. Then again, Trump would just cry the election will be rigged with in-person voting, like he did in 2016 and 2018, and Bill Barr would limp beside him saying, “yes, master.”

We’d probably also have the majority of our 200,000 loved ones still with us too.

One of my biggest worries is that people who may want to vote by mail are reluctant, because they’ve conflated the two distinctly different ideas of voter fraud and mail-in ballots together. You don’t want to feel associated with, or be accused by others of voter fraud, so you won’t vote at all. Voter fraud and mail-in ballots are separate issues, so you should not feel any concern with voting by mail yourself. Voter fraud is not a serious concern in American elections, period.

Benjamin Ginsberg, an election lawyer who was President George W. Bush’s campaign attorney in the 2000 Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case regarding the Florida Recount, and has almost 40 years of experience recently wrote, “The truth is that after decades of looking for illegal voting, there’s no proof of widespread fraud. At most, there are isolated incidents […]. Elections are not rigged. Absentee ballots use the same process as mail-in ballots – different states use different labels for the same process.”

If you’re worried your mail-in/absentee ballot will get caught up in some ring to rig the election, it will not. Voting by mail isn’t a new concept. Every state has some form of it, and the security measures these states have to ensure the security of mail-in ballots already exist and are well-tested. The only difference this time around is that more people will be doing it.

If you’re genuinely concerned about the security of voting by mail, you can personally deliver your mail-in/absentee ballot to your election office yourself. Or, remember that you still have the option to vote in-person instead.

I’ll discuss more about the controversy surrounding mail-in voting, and why it’s much ado about nothing in part two, which I will publish soon. And with that out of the way, I’ll get off my soap box… for now, and give you tips to help you seamlessly vote by November 3rd.

Register to Vote. There are deadlines to register to vote, which vary by state. Deadlines are coming fast, so, if you want to register to vote, you need to make sure you’re doing that now. Vote.org can steer you in the right direction on registering to vote.

Check Your Voter Registration. If you haven’t voted in a while, or your information may have changed since you last voted, you want to make sure you get that updated, because voter logs are regularly purged. For instance, Georgia potentially wrongly purged 200,000 voters just this year. Vote.org can also assist you with getting the information to check your registration and ensure it’s up-to-date.

Once you’ve registered to vote and made sure your voter registration is up-to-date, decide if you want to vote in person or by mail, and how you will do it.

For instance, if you decide to vote in-person, you may be able to vote early, so you don’t have to wait in long lines on election day, and can reduce your exposure to COVID-19. Otherwise, you can vote in-person on November 3rd.

Mail-in/absentee voting. If you plan to vote by mail, unless you live and are registered to vote in one of nine states/localities (Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington (state), or Washington, D. C.), you need to request a mail-in/absentee ballot. There are deadlines for doing so, which varies by state, so it is imperative that you apply for one as soon as possible.

If you live in Indiana, New York, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Texas, you will need an excuse for a mail-in/absentee ballot, and will want to verify if you qualify.

“Where Americans Can Vote by Mail in the 2020 Elections” by Juliette Love, Matt Stevens, and Lazaro Gamio – New York Times.

Vote.org has a list of laws governing mail-in/absentee voting by state, and how to request a ballot in your state.

A lot of people will be voting by mail for the first time in this election, and though it seems like it should be easy enough, over 550,000 mail-in ballots were rejected in the 2020 primaries due to technicalities, which is concerning for the general election. This will be especially important in swing states, where elections can be decided by less than 50,000 votes (like in Pennsylvania – 44,292, Wisconsin – 22,748, and Michigan – 10,704 in 2016).

So, if you’re planning to vote by mail, you want to ensure you follow the directions on the ballot, complete all required information on the ballot, sign in all the required locations, make sure your signatures match, put the ballot in the required envelopes, and get it back to your election office quickly.

If your state provides you with a “security envelope,” ensure you put your ballot in that envelope prior to putting it in the return envelope to send it back. If you don’t this, your ballot WILL NOT count. This is especially important if you’re voting by mail in PENNSYLVANIA. Some campaign officials are concerned up to 100,000 mail-in/absentee ballots could be rejected just because of a naked ballot, so this step is extraordinarily important.

Though voting by mail should be easy, and the ballots are usually pretty straight forward, it might not be a bad idea to look at a sample mail-in ballot in your state, if you can, or see if any reputable news agencies or organizations in your state have any assistance, like Philadelphia Magazine has for Pennsylvania voters.

Remember that you DO NOT have to send your mail-in/absentee ballot back through the mail (I’ll discuss the USPS in part two). You can return your ballot in person to your local election office on or before election day, or polling place (usually only on election day).

Further, some states, such as Pennsylvania allow you to come to your local election office and complete your mail-in ballot right there before election day.

*** If you do not receive your mail-in ballot by election day OR you think you won’t be able to return it before the election deadline, your state may allow you to vote in-person on election day. In Pennsylvania, you’re able to vote in-person at your polling place on election day using a provisional ballot. Check your state’s laws to find out if they offer something similar, to ensure you can vote! If you can find your polling place here. ***

If voting by mail just isn’t your thing, or you have concerns, then you can vote in-person on November 3rd (or earlier)!

In-person voting. If you plan to vote in person, verify your polling place, and the hours they’ll be open on November 3rd. Check out Vote.org’s Polling Place Locator to find yours. States have different voter ID laws, so make sure you know your state’s Voter ID requirements, and bring your appropriate ID.

Keep in mind that you may have to spend hours in line on election day, which states do purposefully to dissuade people from voting. Though, many states are shorthanded, because of COVID-19, and poll workers, who tend to be elderly, and are concerned with exposure, so that is also causing longer lines at polling places.

If you won’t have time to spend a few hours at your polling place on election day, or you want to minimize your exposure to COVID-19, but still vote in-person, your state may allow you to vote early in person.

On the good chance that you’ll have to wait in line, be prepared to social distance as best as you can, wear a mask, and consider bringing a couple extra masks, so that if someone else forgot theirs, you can give them one. They will be appreciative.

Whether you legally vote by mail or in person, your vote will count. Your vote will matter.

One last note. Consider being a poll worker. Due to COVID-19, there’s a shortage of people to be poll workers for in-person voting on election day. If you might have that day free, and wouldn’t mind helping run a polling place, consider being one for a day! Some states, like Pennsylvania, pay (rates vary by county), so it could be an easy way to make some extra cash!

Voter fraud is not a serious issue, nor will mail-in ballots lead to widespread fraud, in the 2020 presidential election. It’s a scare tactic and an intentional strategy to suppress your power.

Whether voting by mail or voting in person, we have obstacles to overcome. We have to make sure we are all registered to vote, our voter registrations are up-to-date, if we’re voting by mail to request our ballots and get them back to our election offices ASAP, know our polling place and voter ID laws, if we’re voting in person, and we need to make sure we all vote by November 3rd. None of that other noise matters.

Voting rights pioneer, Rep. John Lewis wrote in his posthumous op-ed, “Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”

We must live on John Lewis’s legacy to preserve and protect our American democracy by voting by November 3rd.

As much as Donald Trump and his sycophants would love you to believe otherwise, you are not committing voter fraud by exercising your fundamental right to vote. Preserve democracy. You have the power. Vote.

Last Updated: Sept 25, 2020

My Story: 2010 National Coming Out Day

Happy National Coming Out Day 2020!

On National Coming Out Day in 2010, I posted My Story on Facebook and whatever personal blog I had at the time (I think it was LiveJournal…maybe).

I came out to my closest friends in 2008 and my family in 2009. I consider 2010 as the moment when I finally started living as an openly gay man after I published this.

Back then, I just expected my friends to be supportive and congratulatory. Instead, others found it inspiring; two friends came out to me, and strangers were motivated by it.

So, in all of its awkward, unedited glory, here is My Story:

Harvey Milk once said, “Should a bullet enter my brain, let the bullet destroy every closet door in this country.”  I’ve attempted to live by Harvey Milk’s words since I heard them several years ago.  Today marks National Coming Out Day for the gay community; not just in America, but across the globe.  With recent events, I realized now is a pivotal moment in our history to finally make that pronouncement.  On my 25th birthday, in 2008 I came out to most of my friends.  In 2009, I came out to my parents and sister and in 2010 I am coming out to the rest of you.  I am gay.

For those that are just finding out now that may feel hurt I didn’t tell you sooner; I am truly sorry.  For some of you, I found it hard to find the words to say.  For others, I didn’t feel it was necessary to point it out.

The road to discovering and accepting my sexuality was not an easy one. In American society we are raised to believe heterosexual relationships are the only natural and accepted ”lifestyle” and homosexuality is evil, wrong and unnatural. Science has proven that statement to be untrue.

I began noticing myself to be different from my other classmates when I was around 14. As the boys started showing interest in the girls and the girls in the boys, I couldn’t help but to sit back and think of the boys. I remember trying to ignore my impulses and try to mask my orientation. I was able to fairly well for many years, but my feelings towards the same sex only grew more intense as the years went by.

I was raised in a house that believed in God, but we never spoke about it or went to church. My freshman year of high school, I joined the Fellowship of Christian Athletes with a few other friends. I served on the leadership team my sophomore year. My interest in FCA sparked a religious interest for my family. Soon after I joined, we began looking for a church home.

During this time, while I served on the leadership team, I developed a very conservative outlook on religion. I believed homosexuality to be an abomination. This began an inner battle within myself over my natural feelings and what I had been taught growing up. As the fight grew, I confided in a close friend. I told her I had feelings for men, but I was going to seek treatment. I was researching ex-gay ministries to help cure me. A few months later, I chose to accept myself. Although I believe today it was my interpretation and own insecurities, back then I didn’t feel she was supportive of my decision and I quickly retreated back in the closet claiming it all to be a big joke. I didn’t come back out to her until 2008; 8 years later.

When I was 20, I was still trying to suppress my orientation and pray the gay away. I moved to Springfield in 2004 and joined Campus Crusade for Christ. In January of 2005 Cru took a trip to Denver, CO for the Denver Christmas Conference.  I shared a hotel room with several other guys. I couldn’t help but to peek when they would be changing. I felt guilty, disgusting and wrong for doing so. One of the last days of the conference, a speaker came to speak about how he was gay and changed his life through God. He was “happily” married to a woman and had children. I was very interested in hearing his sermon, but decided to go up in the mountains of Colorado instead.  Looking back, it was probably a good thing as it would have confused me even more than what I already was.

Another four years would pass before I would really come to grips with and face my sexual identity. A friend of mine had recently come out and started dating another girl. That year her birthday was at the gay club in town.  When I got there I was mortified; drag queens, dance music, men kissing other men, women kissing women, “ugh!” I thought. I was highly uncomfortable.  At the end of the night, a guy who would become a dear and very supportive friend of mine came up to me, put his hands on my shoulders and said, “I know you’re straight, but you’re adorable.” His remark stuck with me. I soon realized I was 24 years old and I’d been battling for 10 years. It was about damn time for me to live my life for me and not for how society wanted me to live it.

Throughout my struggles I never had the support of people that could relate to me. With my friend coming out, I finally did. I could finally talk to someone about how I was feeling and they’d understand.  Being friends with her helped give me the ability to meet other gay people and create a support line.  Although I have extremely supportive straight friends, they couldn’t quite understand the battles going on within me.  I am very grateful for the friends I do have, and thank them for being so supportive.

Besides coming out to my parents, the hardest path on my road to acceptance was reconciling my Christian faith and my sexual orientation.  Through my voyage of finding the “truth,” I began questioning God.  How could He create me as I am and yet the majority of His “people” condemn me to Hell, when it’s not even their place to do so?  The God I believed in was a God that loved people regardless of who they loved.  I guess people forget the underlying theme throughout the New Testament is love, acceptance and tolerance.  It was Jesus that came up to a group of people about to stone a gypsie and said, “He who is sinless should cast the first stone.”  One of my favorite TV shows, Queer as Folk, has a quote that I like to carry around with me, “… He created you in his image.  At least that’s what I’ve always been taught.  And since God is love, and God doesn’t make mistakes, then you must be exactly the way he wants you to be.  And that goes for every person, every planet, every mountain, every grain of sand, every song, every tear…..  and every faggot.  We’re all his.  He loves us all.”

With the recent rash of gay teen suicides, Kathy Griffin does a great job of summing up who plants the seeds in these bullies’ minds to believe what they are doing is right; “…they weren’t born with it, the politicians, so-called religious leaders and pundits who have made careers out of saying being gay is wrong, or immoral or that gays are somehow less than all have blood on their hands.”  People have the right to their own religions and their own beliefs.  I’m not trying to change anyone, but people need to realize when we talk about how wrong being gay is, we are teaching our children they are less than others.  For those children that may grow up and realize they are gay, it only confuses them even more, they internalize their emotions more and feel they have no where to turn to.  Mom and Dad are supposed to be our protectors, but how can they be when they say my feelings are an abomination.  I remember when my dad’s friend came out several years before I started accepting myself, my parents sat me down and said, “it’s OK to be gay, we just hope you’re not.”  Do you think that helped me?  Of course not.  It made me even more terrified and confused.  Luckily I was older, but for those that aren’t, it’s hard to comprehend.  They may feel suicide is the only avenue open to them.  People need to put their opinions aside and accept their children, their parents, their friends, teachers, pastors, etc. for who they are, even if they differ.  If we all did this, we’d see a reduction in teen suicides.

We as a society are opening the door to the anti-gay bullies.  For the people that believe in God, you should be showing love and acceptance for the person, not condemnations.  Who wants to be a part of a group that has to justify themselves everytime they go to church and why you’re just as much as a Christian as the next person?  Who wants to belong in a group claiming to be inclusive, and yet tells a gay person they’re going to Hell if they don’t change their ways?  I know I don’t.  This is a continuing struggle for me, and I really can’t wait to do more research into the matter because I really believe the majority of people have it wrong.  My life is between God and I, not you, God and I.

I’m asking those that do believe in God, and may believe homosexuality to be wrong, to really watch what you say, especially around children.  It’s fine if you don’t want to accept or tolerate the lifestyle, that’s your problem, but tolerate and accept the person and teach your children to do the same.  I’m sure that’s what your God would want.

Through the nearly 13 years of my struggles, I am finally coming full circle and I have accepted myself.  I’m a much happier person and I hope my story has inspired some, given others more understanding and challenges others to think.

Happy National Coming Out Day 2020

Voting Part Two: Comprehensive Overview of “Voter Fraud”

Voting Part One: Cancelling the Noise

As we enter the final stretch of the 2020 presidential election, there have been concerns related to the integrity and security of the election, both legitimate and illegitimate.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the expansion of mail-in/absentee voting. Most Americans are pleased with this, because contracting COVID-19 while voting in person is a legitimate concern.

Donald Trump excoriates mail-in/absentee voting, and openly admits he’s actively undermining the United States Postal Service, which will play an integral role in the election, under the guise that he’s defending the integrity of the election.

As we’ll explore in greater detail below, voter fraud is statistically insignificant, so voters cannot let Trump’s rhetoric dissuade them from voting by mail or from voting at all. However, as a brief sidebar, if you’re able to vote in person, either early or on election day, that is a better choice than mail-in/absentee voting.

Trump is the undisputed underdog. He’s a historically unpopular president with his approval ratings plateauing in the low-to-mid 40s and high disapproval rates, rarely dropping below 50 percent. Trump’s chances of winning reelection are dwindling.

His strategy allows him to rig the election under the guise of defending election integrity – thrusting the election results into chaos, and making voters feel helpless and overwhelmed.

He frequently says the only way he can lose the election is if it’s rigged by the Democrats, and that his followers need to “remember that,” despite polls consistently showing Trump is behind.

He demands getting a rid of “the ballots.” He’s said he wants to seat the ninth Supreme Court justice nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, before the election, to stop the “scam” concocted by the “democrats,” and have the courts throw the election in his favor, no matter the true outcome.

If Trump can stop mail-in ballots from being counted, or at least create the illusion that he can, he improves his reelection odds, because Democrats are more likely to vote by mail than Trump followers.

Trump’s radical base of loyalists propagate his disinformation, intimidate, and persuade unsuspecting naive voters to believe them for the sole purposes of disenfranchisement, chaos, and division.

So, should you be concerned about widespread voter fraud impacting this election? No. Just take it from these guys.

So, let’s see why we should trust these Trump officials.

Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington have had universal mail-in voting for many elections. If widespread fraud occurred through mail-in/absentee voting, we’d see it here. Unsurprisingly, we don’t. The amount of fraud in these states is statistically insignificant. 

Many of the secretaries of state invited Trump and his administration to view their processes, yet he never acknowledged their requests. Likely, because it doesn’t fit his false narrative. 

In a recent federal ruling in Montana, the court ruled, “[…] Montana has a long history of absentee voting by as many as 73% of its electorate vote by mail. […] Thus, there is no record of election fraud in Montana’s recent history, and it is highly unlikely that fraud will occur during the November 3, 2020 general election” (p. 4).

Trump was ordered to produce evidence of voter fraud for discovery in a federal lawsuit against mail-in/absentee voting in Pennsylvania.

[Know your rights: Voting Rights]

Just the other day, Christopher Wray, director of the FBI, said there’s no evidence to suggest a concerted effort to rig the election, and such a coordinated attempt would be extremely difficult to pull off.

The intelligence community echoes this, stating there is a lack of evidence indicating foreign adversaries will send in “millions and millions” of counterfeit ballots.

Despite being one of his most ardent assailants against mail-in/absentee voting, Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr recently stated to the House Judiciary Committee and Wolf Blitzer on CNN that he has no reason to believe the election will be rigged, or that mail-in voting will lead to widespread fraud. He frames his stance against mail-in/absentee ballots as being “common sense” and “logical.” Logic requires facts, none of which he has.

Over the last 38 years, The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has only found about 1,296 cases of voter fraud in their election fraud database that dates back to 1982.

Regardless of the overwhelming evidence against Trump, his administration continues to push disinformation, dissuade voters from voting, foment division, and distract with chaos. He wants to energize his base so they can do his “dirty work” on the ground, while provoking fear in those opposed to him – all at the expense of election integrity. This is Trump’s strategy.

Vote. Make a plan, stay motivated, and ignore all the noise coming out of his administration, no matter what Trump or his apologists say or threaten. My third and final part of this series will be about why it’s so important to vote in 2020.

Trump’s voter fraud rhetoric isn’t surprising. He falsely ran on that platform in 2016 and mentioned it in 2018. In 2018, Trump dismantled the President Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which he established in 2017, because he was frustrated and bored when no significant fraud was found.

Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) September 24, 2020

If a large portion of votes being cast this year wouldn’t be by mail, Donald Trump would be ardently screaming about in-person voter fraud. In fact, he’s becoming more vocal about this very thing, and probably will continue to do so, as we get closer to November 3rd.

In a recent interview with Sean Hannity, Trump mentioned how he’d have law enforcement working the polls, and on numerous occasions, he’s “urged” his fans to become unofficial “poll watchers,” to “look around,” and “investigate all the stealing and fraud that’s going on,” especially in predominately Black communities.

His followers are already starting to intimidate voters. In Virginia, Trump followers stood outside an early polling station disrupting the process, holding Trump signs and chanting.

Should you feel intimidated while voting, you can call the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-687-8683 or 1-888-839-8682 (en Español).

Trump encourages his followers to vote twice, to “test the system.” Bill Barr told CNN that he didn’t know voting twice was in and of itself voter fraud.

He and Barr trump up baseless “evidence” of voter fraud, like in Philadelphia and Luzerne County in Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Ginsberg, a GOP elections lawyer with nearly four decades of experience, and represented George W. Bush in the 2000 Florida Recount Supreme Court Case wrote a scathing op-ed in the Washington Post about Trump and the GOP’s claims of voter fraud:

“The lack of evidence [of voter fraud] renders these claims unsustainable. The truth is that after decades of looking for illegal voting, there’s no proof of widespread fraud. […] The president’s words make his and the other Republican Party’s rhetoric look less like sincere concern – and more like transactional hypocrisy to prove an electoral advantage.”

So, if he actually cares about election integrity, why would Trump be doing this? Why would his campaign simultaneously encourage people to vote by mail? And why would he tweet about voting by mail in Arizona today?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1313902347416895489?s=20

Ginsburg exposes Trump’s nefarious plot, getting right to the crux of what’s really afoot here: Trump is rigging the election. Trump is trying to suppress and disenfranchise your vote.

Make no mistake about it, the American voters will decide the election; legitimately, freely, and fairly. So, vote; plan; do whatever you have to do to make sure your voice is heard in one of the most consequential elections in modern American history.

[PolitiFact: “The President’s Trumped-Up Claims of Voter Fraud“]

Trump, Barr, and his followers act like they’re not the incumbent administration. They seem to think they bear no responsibility for ensuring a free and fair election.

This election isn’t a surprise; it didn’t just randomly pop up out of nowhere. We’ve known it’s coming for decades.

After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in/absentee ballots that are postmarked on or before the election can still be accepted until November 6th, my U.S. Senator, Pat Toomey lamented against it, claiming the ruling was outrageous and political. Yet he’s done nothing to increase security in the election, if he truly believed there was a serious issue. Which again, there is not.

If Billy Bob down the street is submitting fraudulent mail-in/absentee ballots, it has no bearing on my legal mail-in/absentee ballot. So, the logic that I should have to go vote in person, because of Billy Bob is illogical.

It’s not my responsibility, as an American citizen, to risk my health, my loved one’s health, or anyone else’s health, because someone else might commit voter fraud.

Call me crazy, but if Trump took COVID-19 seriously from the start, which is the reason why vote-by-mail was expanded in the first place, then maybe we’d be able to vote in person. But we can’t, because of his administration’s failures.

Trump expressed “concern” that the USPS doesn’t have the infrastructure to withstand the massive increase in mail-in/absentee ballots.

The democratically controlled House of Representatives passed a bill in May (HEROES Act), which would have injected $25 billion dollars into the USPS to strengthen its infrastructure.

The House passed another $25 billion dollar bill in August, after Americans complained about delays in mail delivery caused by operational changes, the revelation that a mega Trump and GOP donor was appointed the new Post Master General, and Trump threatening to veto the bills, because “then they can’t have their mail-in ballots.”

YouTube ad I personally saw

The USPS is merely a vehicle for delivering mail-in/absentee ballots. It wouldn’t have a way to stop fraudulent ballots from being stopped and legitimate ballots being delivered.

Trump’s position presumes that 100% of the ballots will be fraudulent, which is – of course – absurd, and only goes to show this has nothing to do with an existential outside threat to the election.

Mail-in/absentee voting is not a new concept. It’s been around for decades, and every state already has security measures put in place, including allowing people to track their ballot through the process online. The only difference this year is that there will be more of it.

Three federal judges recently ruled that the changes at the USPS would likely be detrimental to the election, and changes already made needed to be reversed. One judge even went as far to say it was a “politically motivated attack.”

Trump’s attacks have nothing to do with voter fraud, and have everything to do with his unquenchable thirst for Putin-esque authoritarianism and his compulsive need for his narcissistic ego to be stroked.

We must band together, overwhelmingly repudiate Trump, and evict him out of where he never should have been in the first place. He is the greatest threat to our nation right now. 

Get into good trouble – necessary trouble, and don’t let anyone take away your power or your democracy. Vote like your life and our nation depend on it, because they do.

Do you have any questions or concerns relating to the security and integrity of the 2020 Presidential election? Comment below, or find me on Twitter.

Voting Part One: Cancelling the Noise

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION AND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

“They found fraud in Pennsylvania a few days ago.” No. It was an administrative error, and was caught. Seven of the military mail-in/absentee ballots were “naked ballots,” meaning they didn’t have the necessary security envelope, which is required to be counted. Trump is specifically fighting to ensure these types of ballots don’t count. The Department of Justice released a press release, which is being widely criticized for politicization, and running contrary to DOJ policy.

Election officials have already stated this wasn’t a fraud issue.

“But what about those 1,700 ballots in Texas?” Nope. It had nothing to do with voter fraud through mail-in voting, and it occurred in 2018. Barr was given incorrect information. A political consultant allegedly concocted a scheme to scam candidates. Election officials were aware of the scheme ahead of time, and stopped it.

“The special election in Patterson, NJ?” Some ballots were found stuffed in two mailboxes, and election officials were notified in a timely manner. Most of the ballots that were rejected were due to technical issues, not fraud.

Two candidates for a local election brought in mail-in ballots for other people, which is against state law, but is not voter fraud, and is election fraud. However, in both instances, the election offices were aware of it, and able to safeguard it. A judge did rule for a new election. This was a local special election, not a state or national election.

If anything, these cases prove the security measures put in place to prevent voter fraud are working.

Remember, things like this will happen, but on a very small scale. It will be magnified by Trump and Barr to undermine the integrity of the election.

“I know! The 100,000 ballots in New York with errors!” That’s not voter fraud, and the error was fixed.

“Mail-in voting and absentee voting are two different things.” This is misleading. 

Some states use the terms ‘mail-in ballots,’ and ‘absentee ballots’ interchangeably. Some only refer to it as “mail-in” and some only refer to it as “absentee.” Pennsylvania uses both mail-in voting, which does not require an excuse to vote-by-mail, and absentee voting, which requires an excuse. 

In the end, whether they’re called “absentee” or “mail-in,” the ballots are processed and counted under the same security measures that states already have for this sort of voting.

“They’re going to send people ‘unsolicited’ ballots.” This is misleading. In the 2020 election, nine states/territories will have universal mail-in voting, which means every registered voter will receive a ballot in the mail without applying for one. Unsolicited, by virtue implies, ‘not asked for.’

Ballots will not be sent to people who are not registered to vote. They will be sent to people who are registered to vote, ergo they asked for the ballots when they registered, regardless of the year they registered, and they likely know the law of their state when they register. 

If they don’t want to vote, they’re free to not return it. 

“What about Philadelphia turning “poll watchers” away at an election office?” Poll watchers must be certified by the party and in the state in which they will be poll watchers. At the time of this event, Republicans had not certified anyone to be a poll watcher. A person cannot just show up and deem themselves one. They must go through the legal process.

“My cat got a mail-in/absentee ballot.” Why did you register your cat to vote? 

“I received two ballots,” “I received a ballot for someone else,” etc.  Cool. That happens sometimes, but rarely. If you return both of your ballots completed, or complete the ballot for someone else, the security system election officials have in place will flag the ballots, and you’ll likely be charged with election fraud, which is a felony. Mail-in voting isn’t a new concept, and security measures are in place. The only difference is more people will be doing it this year. 

“I received a ballot for someone who has died.” This can happen sometimes. If the ballot is returned, the election office will reject the ballot due to the person being dead in their system.