I mod a worryingly growing list of communities. Ask away if you have any questions or issues with any of the communities.

I also run the hobby and nerd interest website scratch-that.org.

  • 647 Posts
  • 252 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 15th, 2023

help-circle































  • I know, I know we are on lemmy, where all judges are wrong and evil, but this actually seems pretty cut and dry.

    Act No. 320 of 1937 (“Pennsylvania Election Code”). Section 1306-D:

    (a) General rule.–At any time after receiving an official mail-in ballot, but on or before eight o’clock P.M. the day of the primary or election, the mail-in elector shall, in secret, proceed to mark the ballot only in black lead pencil, indelible pencil or blue, black or blue-black ink, in fountain pen or ball point pen, and then fold the ballot, enclose and securely seal the same in the envelope on which is printed, stamped or endorsed “Official Election Ballot.” This envelope shall then be placed in the second one, on which is printed the form of declaration of the elector, and the address of the elector’s county board of election and the local election district of the elector. The elector shall then fill out, date and sign the declaration printed on such envelope.

    Abridged:

    At any time after receiving an official mail-in ballot, but on or before eight o’clock P.M. the day of the primary or election the mail-in elector shall […] then fill out, date and sign the declaration printed on such envelope.

    The “correct date” is any date before or on the day of the election, according to the code. A judge reads and interprets the written law, and this seems like a simple read.

    The counter argument to the apparently unanimous reading of the law by all parties presented in court hinged on: "Pennsylvania’s constitution, which says that elections in the state ‘shall be free and equal’ " making the law itself unconstitutional, which I’m not surprised wasn’t very persuasive. Ballot envelopes without written dates were presumably treated equally (as opposed to being treated differently based on the vote cast) and the state didn’t interfere with the ability to fill out the date. The rules were laid down and everyone who followed them had their vote counted equally.

    I can already hear people in the comments screaming about how they don’t like it. The standards for the mail-in ballots have been there since 1937 and nobody had a problem with them until right this moment when it looked like letting them slide might flip a close election. If you still don’t like them, pressure the legislature, not the judges. There’s not a ton of wiggle room in how to read the code.






  • ‘Screamers’ is a 1995 scifi movie starring Peter Weller. There’s just something about the vibe of this movie that really draws me in. If you like sort of bleak mid budget scifi this is a good one.

    ‘Hell Comes To Frogtown’, a 1988 movie starring Rowdy Roddy Piper. A post apocalypse where there are frog people and Piper is playing a Mad Max type. It’s an absurd fever dream of a movie. ‘Big Trouble In Little China’ energy.

    ‘Soldier’ from 1998 starring Kurt Russell. This is like a forgotten Kurt Russell movie. It’s not particularly deep, but it’s a good popcorn movie to watch a simple plot of a super soldier taking out evil super soldiers.

    ‘The Spy Who Came In From The Cold’ is a 1965 movie. About, of course, a spy. An agent sent not East Germany during the Cold War. It’s not the normal action oriented James Bond kind of spy movie. It’s a lot talkier, and I find it kind of depressing. So if you like that sort of thing, there it is.

    ‘Observe And Report’ is a Seth Rogan movie about being a mall security guard. It is nothing like the awful ‘Paul Blart’ movies, which everyone assumes when I mention it in real life. This movie is more like Death To Smoochie in its dark comedy sensibilities.


  • I’m getting us over a needed benchmark this week, doing a handoff meeting to somebody, and then coming back in December to jointly work on it with them. At that point all the work should be done and it should be more of giving them a tour of the thing. Everyone knows this is a terrible situation. A lot of things went wrong to get us here.

    Edit: Having a coffee right now after fixing an automation thing from another company which attaches to our robot. The guy that company sent was “I dunno what’s wrong with it.” I just want to sit next to my cat, paint minis, and watch Stargate.