Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

By Christopher Harper

As the 2024 election campaign begins in earnest this month, I am troubled that the rustlings of another COVID coup may be starting.

Just up the road from my home in Muncy, the vast University of Pittsburgh Medical Center recently required that masks be worn in all of its facilities throughout the state. UPMC employs 92,000 people and operates 40 hospitals with more than 8,000 licensed beds and 800 clinical locations, including outpatient sites and doctors’ offices.

At the same time, the media have picked up their reporting on COVID-19 and other winter diseases, leaving me with the uneasy feeling that various forces will turn the 2024 election by mail into a reality.

Remember all the changes in election laws in 2020 to make voting easier by mail, including extended voting periods and ballot collections by friends and family?

Most of those “democratic” laws remain in effect, making it much easier for Democrats to win. In 2020, 43% of all voters did so by mail versus 23% in 2016.

The laws also allowed for what has become known as “ballot harvesting,” or allowing someone other than the actual voter to submit ballots.
As America First notes in an analysis of current election laws, “Ballot harvesting is a ripe opportunity for individuals and organizations to cheat in elections. Allowing ballot harvesting is a mistake. States should prioritize transparency and accountability by banning the practice.”
Here are a few of the alarming facts uncovered in the America First analysis:
· Nine states allow a family member to submit a ballot instead of a voter, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
· Thirty-one states allow the voter to choose someone to submit the ballot in his or her place, although some states have set limits on who can collect the ballots or how many they are allowed to collect.
· Thirteen states say nothing about ballot collection, which allows unfettered ballot harvesting.

It’s essential to remove the changes made in 2020 to reestablish the integrity of elections.

At the state level, America First suggests that people support policies that:
· Eliminate drop boxes for mail-in ballots.
· Prohibit a person from returning more than two mail-in ballots and limit who can return a ballot to a familial relationship.
· Eliminate mass mailing of unsolicited mail-in ballots.
· Require an affidavit for mail-in ballot applications that affirms the voter cannot vote on Election Day and affirms eligibility under defined state law.
· Require a witness signature for mail-in ballots.
· Reform the mail-in ballot process by requiring the matching driver’s license number or last four digits of a social security number on absentee applications and inside the envelope of a returned ballot.

Implementing these measures is crucial to prevent another COVID coup, particularly as organizations and the media start taking control of the message.

By Christopher Harper

The great migration from high-tax states to low or no-tax states continues virtually unabated, with the prospect of nearly a dozen House seats moving from places like California to Texas and Florida.

The U.S. Census reported recently that the U.S. population increased by 1.6 million between July 2022 and July 2023, with states in the South accounting for about 1.4 million of the growth. Leading the boom were Texas (473,453), Florida (365,205), Georgia (116,077), South Carolina (90,600), and Tennessee (77,512). 

Driving their growth was migration from other states. Overall, California lost the most residents to other states (-338,371), followed by New York (-216,778), Illinois (-83,839), New Jersey (-44,666), Massachusetts (-39,149), and Maryland (-30,905).

An interesting natural experiment has been the state of Washington, which gained tens of thousands of people each year in the last decade. But since enacting a 7% capital-gains tax on higher earners in 2021, Washington has been losing residents to other states at an accelerating pace—a total of 15,276 this past year.

A significant problem for Democratic-run states is that their affluent residents are leading the exodus., resulting, for example, in the drop of California’s tax revenue over the last five months to $24.5 billion below projections. Also, California’s corporate tax revenue is running about 50% below forecast, no doubt partly because businesses have shrunk their operations in the state. 

As a result, The Wall Street Journal estimates that California, New York, Illinois, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Oregon would lose a combined 12 House seats in the 2030 reapportionment, which is as many as Florida, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Utah, and Idaho would collectively gain.

But the migration may not mean more Republicans get elected.

For example, retired California public employees are flocking to Idaho with their pension funds and have gained control of at least one town near Boise. The Los Angeles Times reported recently that the city of Eagle, Idaho, has seen an influx of retired cops and firefighters moving to their town, with many identifying as conservative but having rankled longtime conservatives in the locale. 

In Colorado, a recent documentary, “Rocky Mountain Heist,” focuses on how the state transitioned from red to blue, mainly because of the influx of outsiders from California and other liberal locales. 

When my wife and I decided to move from Philadelphia, we considered Idaho, where I was born and got my first newspaper job. Alas, the concerns of those in Eagle were the same as when we saw the results of recent elections. 

I spent my early years in Denver and still have a strong feeling toward the place. Again, however, the times have indeed changed for Colorado!

Even though migration may seem a good development, it’s essential to determine whether the people moving into conservative states share the same principles for effective government. 

Never forget this:

While there are various things you can do that can affect when you die, there is no thing you can do to to affect IF you die.

Remember this and live your life this year accordingly.