The feds' plot to mess with Cascadia elections
Here in Cascadia and across the US, the feds have put in place new rules to solve a problem that doesn't exist: fraud in vote-by-mail.
US president Donald Trump is facing deep unpopularity in recent polls, and as a result he's using the US post office to sow chaos in the mid-term elections. Here in Cascadia and across the US, the feds have put in place new rules to solve a problem that doesn't exist: fraud in vote-by-mail. The rules, which require states to turn over their voter rolls or face the prospect of the postal service refusing to mail out ballots, have been put in place just weeks before ballots are scheduled to be sent out. A US supreme court ruling gave a tentative OK to the plan, but a federal judge today – according to a Bluesky post by Oregon attorney general Dan Rayfield – ordered a halt to the plan until the supreme court rules on it.
In addition to Oregon, Washington has also filed a lawsuit and recently secretary of state Steve Hobbs and Washington AG Nick Brown attacked a reported federal investigation into voting fraud in nine states, including Washington. There is no evidence widespread fraud exists – Washington State Standard reports that there have been exactly five confirmed case of voter fraud in Washington among the 90 million ballots cast from 2008 to 2025.
As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie said in recent video, Trump's plot is designed to sow chaos and doubt about the outcome of the election.
And there are also deeper problems. As the Trump regime has eviscerated the US postal service (as it has USAID, the US Forest Service, the CDC, etc.) mail has simply become slower and more unreliable. KUOW reports that a record numbers of ballots in Washington mailed to ballot offices didn't make it before the deadline, even though many were mailed well ahead of the deadline. The worst rates were in rural Mason and Stevens county, and rates of too-late ballots more than doubled in Yakima, Okanogan, and Franklin counties.
Thurston county (which includes Olympia) reports it's seen an unprecedented number of ballots arrive in the mail after the primary election deadline, and ballots were continuing to arrive as late as Sept 3. Thurston county now recommends voters drop their ballots in ballot boxes instead.
I had a related incident a few years ago during the recall election for Seattle city council member Kshama Sawant. I always drop my ballot in a drop box but during that particular election I was extremely busy, so put it in a mailbox several weeks before the deadline. After checking online on election day, I found the ballot never arrived.
Look, vote by mail is great, and has helped Washington and Oregon increase voter turnout dramatically for decades. But without a reliable post office, it's best that voters turn to ballot drop boxes instead. Indeed, a majority of voters in Washington already do that. Data from the state of Washington show that about 67% of King county voters use drop boxes in the general election and about 70% in the primary election.
So, as the mid-terms approach, it's probably best to find your nearest drop box and put your completed ballot there. Indeed, King County is working on installing nine more drop boxes, bringing their total to 100 before the general election in November.
What's clear is that the Trump regime doesn't like democracy, and will work persistently to fuck around with free and fair elections. Indeed, the global organization Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) – because of the Trump regimes attacks on democratic norms – no longer considers the US a liberal democracy.
That's why I've argued Cascadia needs to make plans now to leave the US, and the organization I've founded, Cascadia Democratic Action, is working on a road map toward a separation initiative in 2028 and what comes after.
Meddling in elections is a direct attack on the US constitutional system of government, and this needs to be said loudly and frequently so it's not normalized. It's yet another reason Oregon and Washington need to seriously consider peaceful secession. That's the radical but radical solution to fascism creeping into Cascadia.
Andrew Engelson
Thanks for reading. Have a good Labor Day weekend. And as always, keep loving and keep fighting. --Andy
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