Part One: Scott Braddock, the Voice of Texas, The Editor of the Quorum Report and the Dean of the Austin Press Corps
topics:
– President Trump visits West Texas while two Republicans who were scheduled to be with him in Midland-Odessa were diagnosed with Covid-19 . Louie Gomert, Texas Rep, did not go with him, having been positive just before the flight.
– In a dramatic reversal, the state now says Texas schools that are closed by local health orders will not get full funding
– New Texas GOP chairman Allen West already clashing with Gov. Abbott over his mandatory mask order and other issues
– While most Republicans want to keep confederate monuments, a handful of GOP Texas Congressmen voted with Democrats just this past week to remove them at the capitol in DC. What’s up with that?
Republicans in Texas are not concerned about Biden winning, but about Trump losing.
The Texas House is in play, and may end up with a Democratic majority.
The Texas economy has declined due to losses in the energy industry.
Most of the state revenue comes from sales tax, and there is a shortfall of $5 Billion. However, more people are moving to Texas (approximately 1000/day) mostly into the suburbs, which are increasingly favoring Biden 58-63% .
Tesla has announced a new gigafactory for the Austin area, which will likely increase the suburban vote there.
Texas Republicans have been using mail balloting for years, and have developed an expertise. They are not afraid of mail votes, as Trump seems to be.
Part Two:
We speak with Ryan McCarthy, a reporter for ProPublica, about how the US Postal Service is steadily getting worse. This decline raises the question whether the Postal Service can handle a nationwide mail-in election, which may be the only way to allow everyone to exercise their sacred right to vote without risking their health or even their life.
Postal delays and mistakes have marred primary voting on numerous occasions. After years of budget cuts and plant closures in USPS, mail delivery has slowed so much that ballot deadlines in many states are no longer realistic. So how can we get our country ready to hold a presidential election in less than five months, even in the event that COVID-19 makes it unsafe for many people to vote in-person at polling places?
We discuss one possible solution, which has been used by some of the states that already rely on vote-by-mail for most of their elections: We could use the public’s familiarity (and comfort) with the Postal Service’s mailboxes – and familiarity with their locations – the State voting officials can erect a second box for voters to deposit their ballots before the polls close. (The second boxes could be specially marked, perhaps painted a different color, so people can tell which box is for mail and which is for votes. The public has previously gained experience with dual deposit boxes when the USPS had a specially-marked set of mailboxes for ExpressMail.)
This way, our elections would not be hampered by delays or mistakes if ballots were sent through regular USPS mail. The entire voting transaction would take place between the voters and the state voting officials (SoS, ballot clerks, etc.) We would not have to rely on any third-party middle-person USPS management and employees) to ensure that voters can fully participate in elections without risking their health. (It’s the state’s duty, not USPS’s.)
Voting by mail doesn’t require a lot of technology or extra learning for elderly voters (e.g.). Just erect a set of special mail dropoff boxes, right next to the regular USPS mailboxes. We all know where and how to drop our mail into the regular mailboxes. All we need to do at election time is to drop our absentee ballot in a different colored box located right next to the regular mailbox. And, in fact, this kind of second mailbox has been used by many of the states that have been relying on vote-by-mail for years.
