Iñaki Longa

🌲 Seattle 🇪🇸 settled in 🇺🇸🚶‍♂️🚆 Urbanism & Mobility 🏞️ 💪 Hiking & Health 💻 📊 Tech & Data Science 🎓📚 GaTech OMSA student #BeKind

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

Seattle has seen a 90% rise in traffic deaths over the past decade—spiking in 2020, the year SPD largely stopped enforcing traffic laws.

Citations dropped from 27,953 in 2019 to just 5,487 in 2024 (-80%).

Drivers know there’s no enforcement—and drive like it.

It’s time to bring back traffic enforcement.

@MayorofSeattle @Sara4Council @SeattlePD

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@alledegedly_me lol this is how I feel about AI in general?!

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@SteveZizek @newstouse USPS is able to deliver in time close to 100% of the votes by election night if they are postmarked somewhere inside the US one week before election night. In my (purely anecdotal) experience First Class mail taking over a week to arrive is an oddity.

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@PhilSustainable @bouquets44 duh it's Laguna Beach..

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

The reason I don't like "arrive one week before election day" is because that's a variable, moving criteria that will depend on your location and USPS's daily operations. I think we need something objective that you cannot argue with, hence why the postmarking one week before election day seems like a better idea.

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

I would tweak that and say that mail-in ballots must be *postmarked* somewhere in the US one week before Election Day.

That gives USPS the time to deliver First Class mail by Election Day in 99%+ of cases. Certainly enough to avoid the sh*tshow we are witnessing.

If truly something major happens (e.g., NC Hurricanes in 2024) that prevents USPS from delivering in time, that seems fair game as long as postmarking happened in time.

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the meaning of 'Election Day" (affecting mail-in votes) this month.

I can't imagine that this CA sh*tshow weeks (days?) before the ruling won't have some impact in the Justices ruling that enough is enough....

[Jacob Soboroff @jacobsoboroff]

here we go again with the Trump stolen election bullshit. here's why California takes up to 30 days to certify election results.

👏 so 👏 the 👏 results 👏 are 👏 fair 👏 and 👏 accurate 👏

https://t.co/RYAQrPTkrs

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@will_m1399 For (2), the baffling part is how defending this has become a culture-war issue. Every person I see rationalizing a multi-day (or multi-week) vote count and gaslighting everyone else into believing it's perfectly normal seems to be from the lefty progressive faction...

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@KevinKileyCA Sadly it's not just CA (WA state is somewhat similar, it took about aweek to get a result for the mayoral race last year), but yes this is inefficient, avoidable and unnecessary.

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

- Fares should absolutely be enforced and there should be consequences for failure to do so. BART in the Bay Area is showing the benefits of making fare dodging *a bit* harder.
- That article you shared is an embarrassment (but not a surprise) to Metro and King County.

- But the requirement to make farebox recovery pay for bus service is neither efficient (it's good for society if fewer people drive -> less pollution, less congestion, etc.) nor fair. By that measure car owners should pay for almost all of the car infrastructure -and before someone says "but gas taxes", no, they don't cover the entirety of road construction/maintenance, it's not even close.-

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@gaganbiyani Funnily enough this also sums up how we run bus services in the US.

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

"Other countries count tens of millions of votes in hours, not weeks. They aren't using magic. They simply make different tradeoffs. They rely more on technology, set stricter deadlines, tolerate fewer exceptions, and accept that no system can perfectly accommodate every conceivable scenario."

Funnily enough this also sums up how we run bus services in the US.

[Gagan Biyani 🏛 @gaganbiyani]

What's more crazy is this is how the system is designed.

California INTENTIONALLY does not count ballots for weeks. And I think it explains the state's broader dysfunction.

Basically, California's voting rules are designed to maximize accessibility at all costs. ALL costs.

Ballots can arrive after Election Day. Signatures can be fixed if they are unclear. Provisional ballots get individually reviewed. Every edge case gets its own process.

And California doesn't trust technology or automation to solve these problems. Signatures are manually reviewed. Voters are contacted when issues arise. Humans review and re-review exceptions. The system is designed around minimizing the chance that a single valid ballot gets rejected.

Other countries count tens of millions of votes in hours, not weeks. They aren't using magic. They simply make different tradeoffs. They rely more on technology, set stricter deadlines, tolerate fewer exceptions, and accept that no system can perfectly accommodate every conceivable scenario.

California makes the opposite choice.

And it's the same philosophy that shows up in housing, infrastructure, permitting, schools, and government generally: endless process, endless exceptions, and worse results.

[Gagan Biyani 🏛 @gaganbiyani]

What's more crazy is this is how the system is designed.

California INTENTIONALLY does not count ballots for weeks. And I think it explains the state's broader dysfunction.

Basically, California's voting rules are designed to maximize accessibility at all costs. ALL costs.

Ballots can arrive after Election Day. Signatures can be fixed if they are unclear. Provisional ballots get individually reviewed. Every edge case gets its own process.

And California doesn't trust technology or automation to solve these problems. Signatures are manually reviewed. Voters are contacted when issues arise. Humans review and re-review exceptions. The system is designed around minimizing the chance that a single valid ballot gets rejected.

Other countries count tens of millions of votes in hours, not weeks. They aren't using magic. They simply make different tradeoffs. They rely more on technology, set stricter deadlines, tolerate fewer exceptions, and accept that no system can perfectly accommodate every conceivable scenario.

California makes the opposite choice.

And it's the same philosophy that shows up in housing, infrastructure, permitting, schools, and government generally: endless process, endless exceptions, and worse results.

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@MStanton2001 @RobKPF @Notwokenow The Supreme Court is expected to rule on this later this month and put an end to this anyway! : )

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@mglagldecervan1 @mentesuprema_ A mí también me parece que seguir estas posturas a rajatabla es pegarse un tiro en el pie uno mismo.

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@horpeyemie05 I like the look, but the problem is that it looks this way for 2-3 days before it starts looking pretty awful..

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@beauti_animals Venice, Italy

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

I struggle to disagree with this.

[Ron DeSantis @RonDeSantis]

Florida processes more than 10 million votes in a matter of hours.

California takes days — or sometimes even weeks — to count the votes.

It’s pathetic — and it’s corrosive to our civic culture.

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@MStanton2001 @RobKPF @Notwokenow Every other western country has results on election night except for us. This is a choice, and it hurts trust in the system.

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

In many countries, mail-in ballots must be postmarked by a deadline several days before Election Day (for example, a week prior). That means the vast majority of votes are already in the system by election night, and any ballots arriving afterward have only a marginal impact on the final count.

That would be a fair compromise. And if you miss the mail-in deadline, then you can go vote in person.

[Iñaki Longa @InakiLonga]

@MarshackPoker @RobKPF @Notwokenow The Supreme Court is expected to rule on this later this month, your tweet is not going to age well.