Election day

Unfortunately those of you who were trying to take advantage of Kyle Ardoin's plan to get you a mail-in ballot may have to mask up and go vote in person anyway.

Orleans Registrar Sandra Wilson tells WDSU that some 4,000 applications for mail-in ballots were discovered July 1 at a New Orleans post office. She didn’t know how long they had been sitting there, but Wilson says postal workers delivered them to her office at City Hall that day.

The registrar’s staff worked overtime to put ballots in the mail to voters whose requests were delayed, Wilson said Thursday.

Mail-in ballots must arrive before 4:30 p.m. Friday to be counted in Saturday’s election, which consists of presidential party primaries, state party contests and a few municipal races.

Voters could request a mail-in ballot as late as July 7 – four days before the election. Even if they received a ballot the next day, it would give the post office just two days to get the ballot to the registrar’s office.

If this is a test run for holding a Presidential election in November, well, there's a lot of work to do between now and then. 

Believe it or not there is a ton of stuff on your ballot Saturday.  You will probably want to brush up. 

If you look at nothing else, please see the Antigravity guide.  They made an effort to survey and research every single OPDEC or DSCC candidate.  I don't know if anyone has done that before. There's a ton of information in their guide.  Do yourself a favor and look through it.  I can't speak for their recommendations, though. My line as always is identify the office seekers you most want to vote AGAINST. Don't fool yourself into thinking you're voting FOR any sort of progress ticking any of these boxes.

Remember also there is a First City Court election on the ballot. This is particularly important because that court handles evictions which are likely to begin piling up as the federal moratorium passes and if Congress really decides not to extend unemployment benefits at the end of the month.

Also there is a zombie Democratic Presidential Primary question on the ballot.  It seems rather unsatisfying at this point but... well.. let's quote from the New Orleans DSA recommendation. 

Many of his supporters were disappointed with (Sen. Bernie) Sanders’ refusal to be aggressive against Joe Biden, and with his capitulation to the will of the moderates in the Democratic party in endorsing Biden without fighting for concessions. He has also not been as strong and supportive a voice for the current movement to defund the police as we would like. While he has tweeted “every police department violating people’s civil rights must be stripped of federal funding” and supported banning tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray on protestors, he also has pushed for better training and more resources for police departments as solutions, rather than the radical shifts in our so-called justice system that are long overdue.

However, it is necessary to contrast Sanders’ response to the national uprising for Black Lives with Joe Biden’s which has been nothing short of shameful. Biden has met the demand to defund police with a proposal to increase police funding by $300 million. Biden’s prescribed solution to the scourge of police violence has been to encourage cops to shoot people “in the leg instead of in the heart.” Add to this Biden’s long and troubling record as a proponent of mass incarceration, his support for American imperialism up to and including support of the Iraq War, his close alliance with the financial industry, and his steadfast refusal to embrace health care for all, and the moral imperative to cast a vote against Joe Biden — even at this late point in the primary calendar — could not be any clearer.

Happy voting. Be safe out there.