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“We recommend that jurisdictions immediately communicate and advise voters to request ballots at the earliest point allowable but no later than 15 days prior to election date,” the Postal Service told Fox News in a statement.

Currently, seven states and the District of Columbia are set to send all or most registered voters a mail-in ballot for the 2020 election and 35 more will allow all voters to cast a mail ballot without an excuse beyond fear of COVID-19, according to a Washington Post analysis.

While eight states are set to send mail ballot applications to all or most voters, election officials and experts have previously told Insider that with less than 100 days to go before the election, voters should request their ballots as soon as possible to reduce the strain on local election officials and increase the chances of their ballot arriving on time.

Voters can already request their November mail ballots in 45 states, according to voter education and assistance nonprofit VoteAmerica, and officials are encouraging voters to do so as soon as they can, preferably weeks in advance.

Currently, 32 states require mail ballots to arrive the day of the election (or the day before) while 18 states and the District of Columbia allow ballots that arrive after election day to count if they are postmarked by the day of the election or the day before, according to VoteAmerica.

The Washington Post has reported that the agency’s new postmaster general has issued new guidance instructed mail carriers to prioritize delivery of commercial packages over regular mail. Mail carriers are now instructed leave mail that doesn’t get delivered on their routes at a distribution center to be delivered the next day instead of taking overtime, a move that could severely impede timely delivery of mail including voters’ ballots.

Even though nearly half of states allow voters to request mail ballots within a week of the election, both election officials and the USPS recommend that voters plan for at least a 14-day round trip for their ballot to arrive at their home and make it back to their elections office in order to be counted.

Last year, as part of its commitment to work with Indian Tribes and ensure their access to communications networks, the Federal Communications Commission adopted the “2.5 GHz Rural Tribal Priority Window.”  

This priority window of time allows rural Tribes to apply for free spectrum that they can use to provide wireless broadband service for their communities. It’s essential, as 36% of Tribal households – about 628,000 households nationwide – don’t have access to broadband at standard speeds. (In comparison, the same is true for only 8% of non-Tribal households.)

But despite the promise of this opportunity for Tribal communities, Tribes have faced significant hurdles to finishing their applications on time due to the COVID-19 crisis. And these obstacles are further aggravated by the lack of broadband access, basic telephone service, and reliable electric power on many Tribal lands. That’s why we’re calling on Congress to make sure the FCC extends this deadline until February 1, 2021.

Tribes deserve better. Extending the Rural Tribal Window is one small way Congress and the FCC can fulfill their commitment to Tribes. Doing so is the first step to addressing the inequities of this underserved population: It will give Tribes an actual chance to secure broadband access for their communities.

Christopher David, a 53-year-old disabled Navy veteran, was so angry at the sight of federal officers sweeping up protesters in the last few nights on the streets of Portland, Oregon, that he decided to go and talk to them about it.

The city resident, who served more than eight years with the US Navy, got on a public bus on Saturday and headed to a protest in front of the city courthouse in the hope he could ask them some questions.

“I was enraged simply because I did not think they were taking their oath of office seriously or they were compromising their oath of office,” Mr David told The Independent. “So I actually went down because I wanted to talk to them about it.”

His advances were rebuffed, however, and he was the victim of a brutal attack that was caught on video and went viral on Sunday.

In the video, first shared by a reporter from the Portland Tribune, Mr David is seen taking a series of baton blows from a federal agent, without reacting to any of them, before he is finally forced back by pepper spray to the face.

“I stood my ground at that point and just stayed there … I did nothing provocative. They just started whaling on me with batons, and I let them,” Mr David said.

“I probably could’ve taken a lot more baton blows if they had not sprayed pepper spray all over my eyes,” he added.

The use of federal agents to quell protests in Portland has drawn heavy criticism from local and national leaders. Federal officers from the US Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security‘s Federal Protective Service have been deployed to Portland on orders from the Trump administration.

Their mandate was to protect federal buildings, but they have been accused of driving unmarked cars and seizing people from the street in recent days in the city, which has seen nightly protests for racial justice since the police killing of George Floyd.

Mr David detailed how the federal officers streamed out of the courthouse building Saturday night and immediately started “pushing people down in the intersection”.

“It was just chaos,” Mr David said about the moment. “That is when I wanted to walk over to them and talk to them because they were not adhering to their oath of office.”

if you haven’t heard, tr*mp is refusing to help the postal service financially during this pandemic (and beyond) in an effort to starve it of funds/resources and kill it off so it can be privatized. also:

obviously this is not great, as tons of us rely on the USPS for all kinds of different reasons, and the privatization of this essential service would have a dramatic effect on the entire nation. namely: voting by mail would become nonexistent (❗️), and the cost of shipping mail and goods will change astronomically.

if this sounds terrible to you (and if you live in the us, then it should!), then text USPS to 50409 to sign the petition and instantly send a signed letter to your senators and representatives. it’s fast, easy, and it’s action that you can take right now.

the letter urges your senators to make the financial support of the USPS a priority, and outlines why the USPS is an essential service in our country that must be defended. here’s my letter:

don’t want to use the text service/send an electronic letter? mail a paper letter to your senator’s office.

you can also call your senators and house representatives at (202)224-3121 and urge them to support the USPS financially.

you can also buy a roll of stamps right now to help financially support the USPS on an individual level!

in conclusion: please take a minute to help support the USPS in any way you can. this is an important issue that affects all of us here in the US.

it would be AWESOME if you could reblog this & spread it, or if you’d rather not reblog this post, then i encourage you to make your own post on the social media of your choice and share with your friends.

The American Postal Workers Union has a good explainer on this, as well as Last Week Tonight. Even before Trump’s DRASTIC directive to screw over USPS, a 2006 law from the Bush administration and Republican-led Congress has basically slowly led to the US postal service’s decline, and this is a final nail in the coffin.

The TLDR is that that 2006 law required the USPS to pre-fund postal workers health care benefits for 75 years, which meant they had to have money for employees who weren’t even BORN yet.

Here is more on this issue:

Also, the issue with Trump’s latest target at the USPS isn’t just refusing coronavirus aid. His new appointee to lead it is now purposely handing down directives to restrict employee overtime and late delivery trips so that mail delays start to pile up. The guiding slogan was “every piece, every day.” Now it’s “get in, get out.” Just like Betsy Devos forcing schools to reopen, this will destroy trust in these systems, force reliance on private companies, which is exactly what Trump and the businesspeople he appoints want a) as capitalists and b) to surpress people further as they become more reliant on worse and more expensive services.

Contact your senators! Just send them a quick email telling them to get their butts in gear! pass S. 2965

NATIVE AMERICANS ARE GOING MISSING

NATIVE AMERICANS ARE GOING MISSING

NATIVE AMERICANS ARE GOING MISSING

NATIVE AMERICANS ARE GOING MISSING

Florida’s ex-felons have a right to vote under both the state and federal constitutions. In 2018, a supermajority of residents approved a constitutional amendment that abolished a Jim Crow–era law permanently disenfranchising convicted felons. GOP lawmakers promptly sabotaged this amendment by passing a law that compelled formerly incarcerated people to pay all fines and fees associated with their sentence. Florida imposes a mind-boggling array of fees on defendants to fund its criminal justice system, and the new law would disenfranchise almost a million of the roughly 1.4 million voters who were poised to regain their voting rights.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle sharply limited the law’s scope in May. Hinkle found that the measure abridged the right to vote on the basis of wealth in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, and that it amounted to a tax on the ballot in violation of the 24th Amendment. Just as critically, over an eight-day trial, Hinkle exposed a secret that Republicans tried desperately to hide: The state has no idea how much ex-felons actually owe. It has kept few records of court debt, and those records that do exist are often inscrutable. As the judge explained:

A group of well-trained, highly educated individuals—a professor specializing in this field with a team of doctoral candidates from a major research university—made diligent efforts over a long period to obtain [court debt] information on 153 randomly selected felons. They found that information was often unavailable over the internet or by telephone and that, remarkably, there were inconsistencies in the available information for all but 3 of the 153 individuals.

Furthermore, Florida has no intention to figure out how much ex-felons owe. As I wrote in May:

In theory, the Division of Elections screens all voter registrations for felony convictions and, now, unpaid fines and fees. But a state budget analysis found that the division would require at least 21 extra employees to screen the flood of applicants in light of Amendment 4. And the Legislature provided it with zero. As a result, there is currently a backlog of about 85,000 pending voter registrations from newly eligible Floridians. [Director of the Division of Elections Maria Matthews] estimated that her office would need 1,491 days to get through the backlog. If her entire staff worked weekends and holidays, then, it might be finished in time for the 2024 election.

Soldier Vanessa Guillen Disappeared From Fort Hood Army Base in April. Here’s What You Need To Know About the Case

Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old U.S. soldier, last seen on April 22 in a parking lot on the Fort Hood Army Base in central Texas.

Her car keys, barracks room key, identification card and wallet were later found in the armory room where she had been working earlier in the day. Her phone has yes to be found

Three weeks before her disappearance, Vanessa Guillen told her mother that she was being sexually harassed and followed by an Army sergeant, but was afraid to report him, according to the Guillen family who made a website to coordinate their search. Guillen did not disclose the name of the alleged perpetrator to her mother.

Remains were found a few feet from a pile of a burn mound that was searched June 20. Concrete had been poured over the remains, and subsequent rainstorms allowed the grave to settle into natural-looking terrain. 

Identity of the remains have not been confirmed.

2 suspects were in custody one of the suspects died by suicide Wednesday morning when confronted by investigators in Killeen.

Texas Rangers have arrested the estranged wife of a former Fort Hood soldier in connection with the disappearance 

3 other remains were found at that army base including Gregory Morales, Brandon Rosecrans &  Zach Partin

 Krysta Martinez, a former Fort Hood soldier who started the “Where is Vanessa” hashtag and who also filed complaints of sexual harassment at the base died in a Car Accident 

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Calls for Justice for Aurora’s Violinist Elijah McClain Grow

Elijah McClain was a kind and gentle 23 year old who worked as a massage therapist in Aurora, CO. On his lunch breaks from work, Elijah would go to the animal shelters and play violin for the animals because he thought that they were lonely in their cages and thought that the music would calm them. 

In August 2019, Elijah went to the gas station to buy some iced tea for himself and his cousins. Because he suffered from anemia he would often wear a ski/ runner mask over his face to stay warm. On his way home, the Aurora Police department were called to reports of a “suspicious man.” 

(Warning: for violent description) Elijah was apprehended by a group of three cops, despite committing NO crime and being unarmed. A struggle occurred, and he was held in a very dangerous carotid hold around his neck while he cried for help, cried out that he couldn’t breathe, cried out that he was nonviolent and couldn’t even kill a fly, and was repeatedly throwing up. Elijah weighed a mere 140 pounds. You can hear on the audio footage, an officer instructing another to move their body camera out of view.

While 3 Aurora Police Dept officers violently restrained him they called Aurora Fire Dept, who injected him with ketamine (a powerful drug used to tranquilize horses or in surgeries by a trained anesthesiologist and illegal to be administered by anyone else) even though he was already cuffed and calm.

He went into cardiac arrest , slipped into a coma, and his family was advised to take him off life support 6 days later.

The cops were transferred to another department but never received charges. 

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP:

DONATE 

Click this Link to call these Representatives and DEMAND JUSTICE!!

Especially call these numbers:

Call CO Governor Jared Polis (303) 866 2471

Call Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman (303) 739 7015

Call District Attorney Dave Young (303) 659 7720

Source / Police Video (Trigger warning) 

#WAKEUP

The boy is autistic

The boy and his father were in a truck

The father stopped the vehicle and raised his arms to show he was unarmed

ONE OF THE ARRESTED OFFICERS WAS ACTIVELY STALKING THE FATHER’S FIANCE

They are trying to claim self defense AND claim they didn’t know there was a child in the truck

They fired “no less than 18 rounds” into the truck

The father was hit but still alive. The boy ended up being shot in the head multiple times.