Bill Clinton is famous for many things. Having sex with women who are not his wife, for example. Allegedly having sex with underage girls, ala Epstein. Having a wife who made it her mission to suppress the bimbo eruptions (see, women Bill slept with who were not his wife). Having more friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who have committed “suicide” than any other President (and or human being) in recorded history. None of this is in the Clinton Presidential Library of course, nor are the scores of other things for which he and his wife are arguably infamous, but one rises above. The definition of the word “is.”
It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the—if he—if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement. … Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.
Cigars and fellatio aside, Mr. Clinton did not have ‘sex’ with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was impeached for perjury but not thrown from office as a matter of professional courtesy by Senators who may or may not have dallied with staff with or without their permission. Me, Biden, of course, having latter been reasonably accused of finger raping his Democrat staffer, Tara Reade, to no one’s interest but a few bloggers and some ABC outlet in Australia.
An awfully long introduction to the idea that words mean something to get to the point. The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Watson v. RNC. Mississippi allows the counting of ballots received after election day, a practice no other voting entity, be it a contest, government, or organization permits. It isn’t just Mississippi, but the RNC seemed to have thought they might actually arrive at a reasonable outcome in this instance.
Watson v. RNC, … deals with a challenge to a Mississippi law authorizing absentee ballots to be accepted up to five days after Election Day so long as they are postmarked before or on the day of the contest. Mississippi appealed to the high court after the 5th Circuit Court determined that the state statute is preempted by federal laws designating an official Election Day.
You can read through the questions and answers at the link, but the gist is this. What does Day, in Election Day mean? See also ‘By,’ “election official”, “government official”, and so on. As written, the Mississippi law fails to satisfy the idea that Congress intended Election Day to be the day elections were decided, not a moment in time by which some unknown quantity of ballots might still appear and be considered valid.
Alito underscored how America doesn’t “have Election Day anymore,” but “election month or … election months.” He also probed Stewart on whether it would be “legitimate” for the Supreme Court to take into account “Congress’s passage of the Election Day statutes for the purpose of combatting fraud or the appearance of fraud,” noting how “some of the briefs have argued that confidence in election outcomes can be seriously undermined if the apparent outcome of the election … on the day after the polls close is radically flipped by the acceptance later of a big stash … of ballots that flip the election.”
Day has to mean Day; “The 24-hour period during which the earth completes one rotation on its axis, traditionally measured from midnight to midnight.”
In this instance, it would be the first Tuesday in November of every even-numbered year, where one might also ask what Tuesday, Even, and November mean if Day is not, in fact, what we think it is.
The Liberal Justice reportedly had no such concerns, but being in the minority (whatever that means) does not appear to be of much concern, given that many other justices are “skeptical” about allowing ballots after election day, regardless of whether they are postmarked by election day.
I expect the court to rule against accepting any ballot received after Election Day, because Congress never made an exception for that, nor for postmarks. Chain of custody matters. You can no more rely on a neighbor than a postal worker to ensure your ballot is in transit to arrive in the hands of an official poll worker on election day.
I think your right to vote includes a responsibility as citizens to ensure that your vote can be counted on election day. If you don’t trust your neighbor, the mailman, or the Dem campaign workers who stole it, or the ballot harvester who gave you some clean syringes, or a pack of smokes, and a Yoohoo to ensure it arrives to be counted on the Day we vote to elect candidates, that’s your fault, and your problem, not anyone else’s.
We’ve been casting perfectly legal absentee votes forever, and they have to be in the hands of people with enough time to get them there by election day.
Indifference, ignorance, or lack of planning is not a protected right, especially when allowing late arriving “votes” to be counted clearly undermines election integrity and outcomes.
Day means Day, and I think we will have a decision in June that forces more than a few states to drop the bad habit of accepting any ballots after a federal election day.
I’m not saying they won’t still try to do it or get away with it. Cheating in elections is a problem that even Democrats acknowledge when they lose, which makes you wonder if they only know that because they cheated too, just not as well.
