WTF Community

WTF - Get Out the Vote - Voter resources 2020 & Obstacles

General Discussion
#1

Wanted to source a bunch of Voter Resources here…It is GO TIME - we can pool our combined knowledge in one place.

:ballot_box: How To Vote In The 2020 Election In Every State . Everything you need to know about mail-in and early in-person voting in every state in the age of COVID-19, including the first day you can cast your ballot in the 2020 election. (FiveThirtyEight / NBC News / Wall Street Journal)

Some Groups to Support

DCCC https://redtoblue.dccc.org/

Michelle Obama’s http://www.whenweallvote.org

Stacey Abrams https://fairfight.com

The Lincoln Project https://lincolnproject.us

Indivisible https://indivisible.org/

Vote Save America https://www.votesaveamerica.com/

Send out Postcards

Postcardstovoters.org Democrat supported campaigns

@anon95374541 Saw that you had put up vote.org and wanted to consolidate information from @matt brilliant recaps

Adding to this 9.8.20 (from my friend)

Election poll worker volunteers are needed. Anyone in the nation to get connected to their local election board and volunteer at Work Elections. Please forward www.workelections.comand encourage friends and family who are comfortable volunteering on election day, Tuesday, Nov 3rd…think college-age and swing states (WI, MI, PA, NC, FL, AZ, plus NV, NH, GA, TX, OH, MN). Poll worker volunteers are needed everywhere, and for many locations a volunteer can be 16+ while others require the volunteer to be 18+.

Consider donating now to these 501©3 groups that fight to ensure an accessible and fair election. They are savvy organizations, and dollars donated to them today (vs. next month or when we wake up Nov 4th) are crucial to supporting infrastructure ahead of the 2020 election and the fight that will come after election day:

Voter Registration:

Vote.org simplifies political engagement using technology.

The Voter Participation Center seeks to increase voter registration among unmarried women, people of color, and young people.

https://votefwd.org/ write to swing states

Reversing Voter Suppression:

ACLU Voting Rights Project works with affiliates and litigation to advocate policies that make voting easier.

Fair Fight. Stacey Abrams’ effort to address mismanagement and irregularities in Georgia’s vote, and her documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy premieres Sept 18th on Amazon Prime.

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights since 1965, advancing and protecting the right to vote including recent work to stop Trump cutting short time for the 2020 Census.

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Mobilizing the WTF community
🗳 2020 General Election - Trump vs Biden
#2

Yeah no worries, I just needed to jump start that news thread and thought I’d put voter information up top. Love this for reference!

Check out Adopt a state from Vote Save America for volunteer opportunities

And Nevada Dems are looking for some phone bank volunteers

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#3

That is some smart negotiations on the players/NBA part - you let their arenas be made into voting areas, and we will play. Good news.

The agreement comes after players went on strike earlier this week to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday. The strike started Wednesday when the Milwaukee Bucks sat out their playoff game with the Orlando Magic, a stance matched over the course of this week by all of the teams remaining in the NBA playoffs and the entire Women’s National Basketball Association, as well as multiple Major League Baseball and National Hockey League teams.

The heads of the NBA and NBPA said in their joint statement Friday that players, coaches and team governors met Thursday to discuss ways to advance civic engagement and social justice. The parties agreed to resume playoff games on Saturday if the league established a social justice commission, opened its arenas for voting locations and promoted civic engagement through advertising space.

“These commitments follow months of close collaboration around designing a safe and healthy environment to restart the NBA season, providing a platform to promote social justice, as well as creating an NBA Foundation focused on economic empowerment in the Black community,” NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in their statement.

A number of professional sports teams signed an agreement earlier this month to use their arenas as “super center” polling locations where anyone in a jurisdiction could vote, even if it isn’t their usual polling place. Four NBA teams — the Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Wizards — signed on to that agreement earlier in August.

Efforts to bolster voting have been a major rallying point in the lead-up to Election Day as the coronavirus pandemic disrupts what are normally considered safe ways to vote. An unprecedented number of voters are expected to mail in their ballots, but the U.S. Postal Service raised alarms earlier this month that election mail may not be able to get to the correct authorities based on current state deadlines.

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#4

Where it may be easier to vote by mail, and for whom. The issues with the Vote by Mail in terms of timing, and security makes voting in person perhaps more essential. But looks like many more BIden voters hope to Vote By Mail.

Just 31% of Biden supporters who live in states where excuses are required to vote absentee (and where concerns about COVID-19 are not acceptable as an excuse) expect it will be easy to vote this fall. The share of Biden supporters who say voting will be easy for them personally rises to 39% among those living in states where any voter can request a mail ballot (either for any reason or because of COVID-19 concerns) and to 45% among those living in states that will be mailing ballots to all registered voters as an alternative to in-person voting. Among Biden voters living in the handful of states that conduct their elections entirely by mail, nearly six-in-ten (57%) say voting will be easy.

Trump supporters’ views do not vary significantly across states with different voting laws (there was an insufficient sample for analysis of Trump voters in states that vote entirely by mail).

Supporters of both major candidates living in states where mail voting will be made widely available to all voters are more likely than those living in other states to report that they would prefer to vote by mail this year. Still, Biden supporters are much more likely than Trump supporters to want to vote by mail this year, even when taking their own state’s policies into account.

And it will be harder to get the black vote circumstantially…here’s how it breaks down.

For example, 58% of Biden supporters say they would prefer to vote by mail in November, but Biden voters who are Black are much less likely than other Biden voters to say this – just 38% express a preference for mail voting (33% say they would prefer to vote in person on Election Day and 25% prefer to vote early in person). By comparison, clear majorities of White (65%) and Hispanic (58%) Biden voters say they would prefer to vote by mail.

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#5

SmartSelect_20200830-203058_Twitter
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Ari Berman - author Give Us the Ballot. And MotherJones

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#6

Hey now…that is the spirit. What a patriotic gesture. :us:

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Old Navy to pay employees to work polls on Election Day | Miami Herald

Old Navy employees can get paid for working on Election Day — but they don’t have to be in stores.

The company announced Tuesday that it will pay its store employees to work the polls Nov. 3.

“The brand is tapping into its vast service-minded associate base, with 50,000 field employees in more than 1,000 store locations in the U.S., encouraging them to apply to serve in their communities, and giving them the means to do so,” a news release said.

@anon95374541 @MissJava. - can you plz move to VOTE - thx!

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Day 1321
#7

For voters living outside the country, https://www.votefromabroad.org/ is customized with updated registration and voting info for every jurisdiction in the country. You can request that your ballot be emailed to you–49 states will do so. There is also information on the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, a back-up ballot you can use for the federal races if you are concerned that your state ballot won’t get back in time to be counted. The Help Desk is staffed by volunteers who can help with almost any voter registration tangle.

Votefromabroad.org is a non-partisan voter registration portal operated by Democrats Abroad, the arm of the Democratic Party representing Americans overseas (https://www.democratsabroad.org/). (It’s considered one of the 57 state entities that make up the Party, along with the 50 states, the 5 territories, and Washingtong, D.C.) Estimates place the number of citizens with the right to vote living outside the U.S. at about 9 million. Democrats Abroad is working very hard to make sure they vote!

If you know anyone living outside the country, send them to VFA. And let them know that Democrats Abroad has just confirmed that ALL of the states that do not allow ballot return by email WILL accept ballots from overseas by courier (though some of them for this year, only). (Even those that do not accept ballots by courier from within the States.)

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#8

Obstacle - Having the President encourage voters to vote twice. Bonkers.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested that people in North Carolina should vote twice in the November election, once by mail and once in person, escalating his attempts to cast confusion and doubt on the validity of the results.

“So let them send it in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote,” Trump said when asked whether he has confidence in the mail-in system in North Carolina, a battleground state.

“If it’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote. So that’s the way it is. And that’s what they should do,” he said.
NBC says
Dropbox - Screen Shot 2020-09-02 at 8.28.54 PM.png - Simplify your life

Raw Story says

Yes, let’s use Colorado for example - Sen Cory Gardner won that state with mail-in voting.
Was that a problem then?

And Barr knows nothing…

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#9

Straight up lies…from AG Barr who is making spurious claims about misuse of ballots, and it is greatly exaggerated according to a Texas voter fraud investigation.

WTFery

In his latest warning about the dangers of mass mail-in voting, Attorney General William P. Barr pointed to a case in Texas that he said highlighted the risk of fraud.

“Elections that have been held with mail have found substantial fraud and coercion,” Barr told CNN on Wednesday. “For example, we indicted someone in Texas, 1,700 ballots collected, he — from people who could vote, he made them out and voted for the person he wanted to. Okay?”

Federal prosecutors brought no such indictment. And while a Justice Department spokeswoman said Barr was referring to a local prosecution involving suspected mail-in voting fraud in a city council election, the assistant district attorney on that case said Barr’s description doesn’t match the facts.

“That’s not what happened at all,” said Andy Chatham, who is now in private practice.

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#10

It’s his thing…T suggests “vote twice” - “Sign your mail-in ballot, ok, and send it and then you have to follow it. And if by election day your ballot is not tabulated and counted, then go and vote…” his twisted messaging. In Latrobe, PA

Horror

video

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#11

Good start…

RALEIGH (AP) — Mail balloting in the presidential election is set to begin Friday as North Carolina starts sending out more than 600,000 ballots to voters — responding to a massive spike in requests that has played out across the country as voters look for a safer way to cast ballots during the pandemic.

The 618,000 ballots requested in the initial wave in North Carolina were more than 16 times the number the state sent out at the same time four years ago. The requests came overwhelmingly from Democratic and independent voters, a reflection of a new partisan divide over mail voting.

Can you please put under Vote please? THanks @anon95374541 @MissJava

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#12

Just wanted to give this on it’s own entry…since it is directed at utilizing social media platforms and a DIY approach for the current generation and on…

We harness the incredible power of micro-influencers on Social Media to turn Viewers into Voters .

Behavioral science data shows that messages are more likely to motivate behavior change if those messages are delivered by a trusted role model or influencer, shared amongst peers and emotive rather than instructive.

We work with micro-influencers who have an established following on social media. Each micro-influencer has a niche, whether it be music, travel, pets, food, make-up, or fashion. Together we craft authentic voting messages that are integrated into each influencer’s site. Every message is accompanied by a link to our voter tools, so users can easily and immediately register to vote, get a mail-in ballot, or find their polling place.

Can you add this to the Voter Resources area please? Thanks @anon95374541 and @MissJava

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#13

Watched an interview with Sue Gordon, who was under Dan Coates at DNI and when he left, she did as well. She has some pointers re: election safety and what to think about what we are reading and hearing.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you believe our election infrastructure, where you go to vote, how you go to vote, that it is adequately protected?

SUE GORDON: Yeah, I am really proud of the work both the government has done to organize efforts not only at the federal level, but all the way down to state and local to protect the physical infrastructure around voting. And companies have leapt into the fray to-- to try and protect the infrastructure. So I would never say that it is impenetrable because we have this glorious, open nation that has lots of endpoints. But I think we are far better than we were in '18–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, and we know there was Russian-- and we know there was Russian malware installed in election systems in Florida.

SUE GORDON: Yeah, what we’re talking about more is the systems around the elections, not the election infrastructure itself. So I think-- I think our infrastructure is as well protected as it’s ever been, even though we can do better on that front. But, remember, half of it is influence, and when we look at the information that is being amplified and the misinformation that is going through our social media, we probably have more work to do on that front to ensure that inauthentic messaging that would sow divisions is more protected. So, we have more work to do there. But-- but as far as the infrastructure itself, even though, it can never be a hundred percent, we’re in pretty good stead on that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: What do you mean by that? How do people at home protect themselves from being manipulated by what you’re describing?

SUE GORDON: Okay. So two ways I would say is for every individual, stop forwarding, sending messages that you don’t know the origin. We know that on everything from COVID to mail fraud, our adversaries are amplifying putting messages and that look authentic. And if citizens just keep sending that out we’re doing a pretty good job. So stop amplifying messages and forwarding message that you don’t know their origin. And the second is start being some critic-- doing some critical thinking when you receive information and if it’s someone telling you what to think or that you can’t believe then do some research on your own. And cybersecurity across the board. Pay attention to cyber hygiene. It will save a lot of heartache.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you said Twitter is of concern to you in particular and social media. Sue Gordon, it is great to get your insight. We’re going to have to leave it there for time today–

SUE GORDON: Thanks, Margaret.

Can you put this under VOTING …Obstacles please? Thanks @anon95374541 @MissJava

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#14

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Green Party presidential ticket from state ballots, allowing state and local election officials to resume preparations for Nov. 3 and begin mailing ballots to voters.
…

The latest decision is another blow to the third-party ticket and a win for Democrats, who worried that the Green Party could siphon votes from presidential nominee Joe Biden in the key battleground state.

Can you put this under WTF - Get out the VOTE? Thx. @anon95374541 @MissJava

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#15

Here’s something that is useful for Getting out the Vote - Thx. @anon95374541 and @MissJava for putting it there please. :grin:

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#16

Looks like this is a win for Michigan…!!!

Can we put it under WTF - Vote plz? @anon95374541 @MissJava thx.

If someone posts something there I don’t have to ask you…or where do these breakthroughs go? So important.

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#17

New slogan? Lol :laughing:

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#18

Yes the Washington Post is calling for this - Get an Election Board to closely monitor the votes. T has already muddied (propaganda polluted) the waters, and with all the fear mongering and misinformation, we need some steady hands and eyeballs on what is going on in the ballot tallying. Of course they are calling on ex-Presidents - GW Bush (who greatly benefited from a Supreme Court vote regarding a challenge to his actual vote count) and Obama, plus others who could be there and be observers.

What could we possibly lose??? It’s too horrifying…

Calling in the cavalry now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-trying-to-cast-doubt-on-an-election-he-might-lose/2020/09/17/9ff3ed02-f919-11ea-89e3-4b9efa36dc64_story.html?hpid=hp_save-opinions-float-right-4-0_opinion-card-a-right%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

Opinion by Editorial Board

PRESIDENT TRUMP tweeted Thursday that the presidential election results “may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED” because of the “new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots.” “RIGGED ELECTION in waiting,” he exclaimed in another tweet.

This is not the first time Mr. Trump has cast doubt on the legitimacy of a vote that polls indicate he is likely to lose, and it will not be the last. Rather than internalizing the notion that the coming election is likely to be fraudulent — which experts adamantly insist is not the case — Americans must take every such utterance as more evidence of the president’s underlying goal: to discredit and deny their choice, if they are to eject Mr. Trump from the White House. Typically, it doesn’t pay to be distracted by every outlandish presidential tweet. But Mr. Trump’s repeated insistence that he can lose only if there is fraud must be called out for what it is: un-American, antidemocratic hogwash.

Mr. Trump is spinning his fiction around one fact: Because of the covid-19 pandemic, more people than usual will vote by mail this year. Polls show that Democrats are more likely to do so than Republicans, so Mr. Trump might appear to be ahead in the count on election night in some key states. Then it will probably take days to count absentee ballots. The president will no doubt allege fraud as his lead diminishes or disappears.

He may be abetted by powerful Republicans who have aided his nefarious effort already. Attorney General William P. Barr has repeatedly speculated — without evidence, he admitted — that foreign governments might print up masses of fraudulent ballots. In an interview published in the Chicago Tribune last week, Mr. Barr warned of widespread “selling and buying votes.”

“Someone will say the president just won Nevada. ‘Oh, wait a minute! We just discovered 100,000 ballots! Every vote will be counted!’ Yeah, but we don’t know where these freaking votes came from,” Mr. Barr said. In the same interview in which he sought to discredit the mail-in balloting that several states use exclusively and have for years without major incident, Mr. Barr accused “liberals” of “creating an incendiary situation where there will be loss of confidence in the vote.”

“Our democracy’s enemies, foreign and domestic, want us to concede in advance that our voting systems are faulty or fraudulent,” Daniel Coats, Mr. Trump’s former director of national intelligence, wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Thursday. “No American, and certainly no American leader, should want such an outcome. Total destruction and sowing salt in the earth of American democracy is a catastrophe well beyond simple defeat and a poison for generations,” he wrote. No need to name the leader he had in mind.

Mr. Coats then endorsed an idea we proposed previously: “a supremely high-level bipartisan and nonpartisan commission to oversee the election” that would monitor voting and vote counting and “confirm for the public that the laws and regulations governing them have been scrupulously and expeditiously followed — or that violations have been exposed and dealt with.”

Congress should empanel an election commission. If it does not, senior statesmen should form one on their own. Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama would be natural leaders for such a panel. And Americans should understand that there is nothing untoward if many people vote by mail — and if the result of their voting is not confirmed on election night.

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#19

A big win for Wisconsin voters with their absentee ballots - they need to be postmarked by Nov 3rd and will be counted as long as they arrive by Nov 9th.

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#20

It bears repeating and referencing when voting starts, when ballots will be considered valid (if they can be accepted past the Nov 3rd date) and what the interval is between mailing-in ballots
if you plan on using USPS or dropping them off at the polling station.

I am aware of a LOT of ramping up for getting Poll workers, and while it might not be considered a healthy choice for many, there are those who may want to check these resources out below.

If you know of anyone who is willing and able to go to the Polls to work, please refer to this website:

Encourage friends and family who are comfortable volunteering on election day in swing states (WI, MI, PA, NC, FL, AZ and NV, NH, GA, TX, OH, MN) Many locations workers can be 16+ and others 18+

You can take action from home or in person by serving as a nonpartisan Election Protection volunteer.

National Poll Worker Recruitment Day | U.S. Election Assistance Commission

Established by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, National Poll Worker Recruitment Day is a day of action with the goal of encouraging potential poll workers to sign up to Help America Vote in 2020

Voting Early in Person

Starting in September, voters can visit a polling location or cast their absentee ballot in person in states that allow one or both methods. For many states, early voting rules vary by county, so check with local officials for details.

When in-person voting starts
Sept. 9 Alabama
Sept. 18 Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming
Sept. 21 Vermont
Sept. 22 Missouri
Sept. 24 Illinois and Michigan
Oct. 2 Connecticut
Oct. 5 California, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nebraska and South Carolina
Oct. 6 Indiana and Ohio
Oct. 7 Arizona
Oct. 10 New Hampshire
Oct. 12 Georgia
Oct. 13 Kentucky and Texas
Oct. 14 Kansas, Rhode Island and Tennessee
Oct. 15 North Carolina
Oct. 16 Washington
Oct. 17 Massachusetts, Nevada and New Mexico
Oct. 19 Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado , Idaho and North Dakota
Oct. 20 Hawaii, Louisiana, Utah and Wisconsin
Oct. 21 West Virginia
Oct. 24 Florida, Mississippi and New York
Oct. 26 Maryland
Oct. 27 District of Columbia
Oct. 29 Oklahoma

Notes: Pennsylvania did not make ballots available on Sept. 14 as expected. It’s unclear when ballots will sent out. New Jersey traditionally offers early voting, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, the state will be mailing ballots to all registered voters and making drop boxes avaialble. The only option to vote in person in New Jersey is on Election Day.

Voting by Mail

A majority of Americans will be eligible to vote by mail. Although many states have deadlines to request mail ballots less than two weeks before Election Day, the Postal Service recommends that voters request them by Oct. 19 to ensure that ballots are returned on time. Check with your county officials for more details.

Deadline to request a ballot
Oct. 9 Kentucky
Oct. 13 Rhode Island
Oct. 20 Maryland and New Mexico
Oct. 21 Missouri
Oct. 22 Indiana
Oct. 23 Arizona, Idaho, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia
Oct. 24 Alaska, Florida and Iowa
Oct. 27 Arkansas, Kansas, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee
Oct. 28 Massachusetts and West Virginia
Oct. 29 Alabama, Illinois, Maine and Wisconsin
Oct. 30 Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan and South Carolina
Oct. 31 Ohio
Nov. 2 Connecticut, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana , New Hampshire, South Dakota and Wyoming

When ballots must be postmarked
Nov. 2 Alabama, Iowa, North Dakota, Ohio and Utah
Nov. 3 Alaska, California, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin

When ballots must be received

The Postal Service recommends that voters allow seven days for a ballot to be returned via mail. If the state requires a ballot to arrive less than seven days after its postmark deadline, voters are advised to send it earlier.
Nov. 2 Louisiana and Vermont
Nov. 3 Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming
Nov. 4 Texas
Nov. 6 Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia
Nov. 9 Iowa, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin
Nov. 10 Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey , New York and Utah
Nov. 13 Alaska, District of Columbia, Maryland and Ohio
Nov. 17 California
Nov. 18 Illinois
Nov. 23 Washington

Notes: In Vermont, mail ballots must be returned to the town clerk’s office before the close of business the day before the election, or to the polling place by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Some counties in Utah will accept mail ballots up to Nov. 17. Mississippi and North Dakota do not have deadlines for requesting mail ballots. Because of an ongoing lawsuit, the deadlines to request and return a ballot in Wisconsin are subject to change.

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