Why Do Trump And The GOP Oppose Vote By Mail-- Even During A Deadly Pandemic?

That was a Tweet from Señor Trumpanzee yesterday. It would be paranoid to say he opposes vote by mail because the GOP has put so much effort into being able to rig electronic voting machines. But paranoia doesn't always mean you're wrong, does it? I asked some of the progressive candidates we've been talking with how they felt about Trump's attempts to vilify and block vote by mail proposals. I start with the two progressives in the Kentucky primary that will determine who takes on Trump's most repulsive enabler in the Senate, Mitch McConnell.

Charles Booker, endorsed by Blue America, was the first candidate to respond. "The Republican position against vote-by-mail-- even in the midst of this pandemic-- is galling," he told me. "To force people to choose between their health and exercising the right to vote is horrifying. But it isn't surprising. " But he went on from there:

I'm black, and I'm a Type 1 diabetic--- two groups of people who have been shown to be more likely to die from the coronavirus. Republican leaders who stand against vote-by-mail in this pandemic are telling me I have a choice: participate in our democracy, or drop dead.

In Kentucky, I have long fought for increased access to the ballot box by breaking down barriers to voting. I've sponsored legislation to automatically restore voting rights to people who have completed their sentences for felony convictions; I've supported our Governor as he has made that policy law with an executive order. And I've railed against Republican efforts to suppress the vote, most recently with a photo voter ID bill that our Governor vetoed just days ago. And I have called on our leaders in Washington to support states in implementing vote-by-mail for all 2020 elections.

When I was a little boy, my granddad told me about being forced to guess the number of beans in a jar before he was allowed to vote. That was 30 years ago. I spent a lot of my adult life thinking things had gotten better, and that such blatant voter suppression was in America's past. Now, in 2020, I know better, as the President and Republicans across the country tell people like me that we can vote, but we might die. Our choice.

Moments later, Mike Broihier, who was endorsed by Marianne Williamson yesterday, weighed in as well. Like Charles, Kentucky Democrats know how fast and loose McConnell's GOP plays with election security. "I used to agree with the saying that Democracy isn't a suicide pact, but seeing the lines of Wisconsin voters sent out  en masse during the pandemic by conservative state and US Supreme courts makes me wonder. The right's vision of voter suppression as a path to success was later made clearer in a presidential tweet, when, as usual, President Trump was unable to focus on a single message, even for 280 characters. If he'd just stuck with the canard that mail-in voting is rife with fraud-- it isn't-- he might have successfully dog-whistled his base. But he had to add "...and for whatever reason, (it)doesn't work out well for Republicans. Exactly, if you don't suppress the vote and disenfranchise people the arc of history bends more quickly towards justice and that is what entrenched politicians fear. Trump even previewed this thinking last week, speaking about the House COVID19 relief bill, saying, 'They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.' The take away, for me, is that this is the time to double down on voter registration efforts and grassroots turn-out-the-vote operations. Here in Kentucky in 2019 the work of Indivisible and other organizations flipped several solid red counties and moved the needle far enough to eject a cretinous Republican governor. On the ground, from what I have seen in my campaign, those same people, having tasted their influence, are not resting on their laurels but are ready to continue the fight, mail in ballots or not."

I also spoke to several House candidates who still have primaries coming up against Republican-lite fake Democrats. Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba is running for the Oregon seat occupied by GOP-friendly Blue Dog Kurt Schrader. "It's amazing how easy it is to make Republicans afraid of a thing," he told me soon after Trump's tweet. "Now they are going to be afraid of the mail. What the wealthy puppet masters fear is an actual democracy, where the person who represents the actual people, the person with the better ideas, the person with the proven track record of causing positive change gets elected, rather than the person who has the most wealthy supporters. The great American experiment is collapsing under the weight of all of that wealth. We watched it play out this morning in the democratic primary, no thinking person can imagine that Joe Biden will make a better president, a better leader, a better inspirer to greatness than Bernie Sanders will.  But Joe will kowtow to the rich, Joe will maintain the status quo that is killing our democracy and our very future on this planet.  But he won't tax the rich, by god. He won't stop the fossil fuel industry from continuing this headlong suicide cult they have created and maintained. It is now more critical than ever that we replace every bad senator and congressperson we can with a thinking, progressive champion for the people and the planet."

Boston progressive Brianna Wu is running for a seat occupied by anti-healthcare reactionary Stephen Lynch. Today she asked "What is Trump talking about? The problem is, and continues to be, that even he doesn’t know. What 'voter fraud' is he speaking of? None. Of course he doesn’t support voting by mail. If more people were able to vote, he would lose, and he knows it. And more importantly, it’s sickening that he is more concerned with perpetuating lies for his own political purposes than coordinating a real federal response to COVID-19, which is killing thousands of Americans. We need voting by mail, and we need to save lives."

Tom Guild is running for the Oklahoma City seat occupied by another Blue Dog, Kendra Horn, who's even further right than Schrader. He told me that Senor Trumpanzee fights every battle "with a view towards what’s good for him, but not necessarily for most Americans. In the current national emergency, people may literally be risking their lives to go to the polls on election day, so it makes sense to have prudent alternatives, where ordinary Americans can both exercise the right to vote and also remain healthy and alive. Several states have relied mainly or exclusively on mailed ballots for some time now and have not only increased participation, but have had few, if any, reports of fraud or abuse. As in many areas of law and public policy, we may have to bring the current POTUS kicking and screaming into the current century. When it comes to the fundamental right to vote, while maintaining the health and safety of voters, mailed ballots are a promising way to protect and preserve both. Come on Mr. President, don’t lead from behind!"

Arizona progressive Eva Putzova is also taking on a reactionary Blue Dog, Tom O'Halleran, this one an "ex"-Republican legislator with a horrifying conservative record. O'Halleran may not recognize what a liar Trump is, but Eva sure does. "There is no voter fraud connected to mail-in ballots or in-person voting anywhere in the country," she told me, "and numerous studies show that. Trump, and his Republican enablers, want to suppress the vote generally, and with youth and people of color in particular. Trump himself said high levels of voting hurt Republicans. So, DEMOCRACY hurts Republicans according to the leader of the Republican Party. We need to carry on the fight to expand democracy and the right to vote at every level in this country. This is the fight of our lifetime. If we lose, and voting becomes a privilege rather than a right, we will live in a quasi-fascist society where rights are not inherent but accrue only to those favored few. I will oppose such an outcome with every breath in my body."

Queens progressive Shaniyat Chowdhury-- replying to Trump's lies-- summed it up for virtually all the candidates Blue America has endorsed: "Voter fraud is when you work with Cambridge Analytics to manipulate emotions of voters without their knowledge. He should know all about it. We should be able to vote without any suppression. It’s a guaranteed right but also a privilege that many tax paying Americans do not have."

Republican Criminal Behavior-- From North Carolina To Kansas

Have you been wondering how much Mark Harris paid professional Republican Party vote thief Leslie McCrae Dowless to steal the 2018 election for him? It was over half a million dollars, probably a lot over half a million dollars. How slimy is Harris? Watch the sickening video above that he released yesterday through Twitter.

He refers to his scheme to steal the Republican primary from Mark Pittenger and then the general from Blue Dog Dan McCready as "alleged irregularities." He wants to let everyone know that he and his campaign "are cooperating fully with the state Board of Elections investigation." Is he really? What's the alternative? Seeking asylum in Paraguay, which still has a sentimental soft-spot for fascists? And it got sleazier: "I trust the process that's underway, just as I've always trusted the decisions of the voters." That's why he paid Dowless to collect absentee ballots and destroy them?

Here are my favorite lines, which I hope are played for a jury one day very soon:

I trust that this investigation will be full and complete, examining any alleged irregularities that could have benefited either party in this election or in past election cycles. The integrity of our electoral process is the heart of our democracy. And we must protect it.

Though I was absolutely unaware of any wrong-doing that will not prevent me from cooperating with this investigation. I'm hopeful that this process will ultimately result in the certification of my election to Congress before the next House session begins. However, if this investigation finds proof of illegal activity on either side, to such a level that it could have changed the outcome of the election then I would wholeheartedly support a new election to insure all voters have confidence in the results.

Two things I want to say about this. First is that he used "either side" twice when no one is accusing McCready or Pittenger of anything other than being victims of Harris' criminal conspiracy. And, second that it doesn't matter if Harris' crooked employees told ten votes ten thousand votes, he should be banned from participating in any elections and should be tried for a n extremely serious crime and, hopefully, spend the rest of his life in prison.

This is all part of what we've been talking about-- the undermining of democracy by the Republican Party, whether that means state legislators in Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina trying to invalidate their losses in lame duck sessions, Trump and his repulsive family working with the Russians to steal the 2016 presidential election, or characters like Harris hiring a known felon-- Dowless-- to steal ballots from minority voters.

Funny, just as I was finishing up on this post, a McClatchy report popped up on my screen about more GOP criminal behavior, this time by Kanas Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins. She's retiring but hasn’t left Congress yet, and has "already launched a new lobbying firm," which is absolutely illegal.

Jenkins’ term in the U.S. House doesn’t officially end until the first week of January and she still faces major votes on the farm bill, homeland security budget and other legislation. But her new business, LJ Strategies, LLC, has already registered with the state of Kansas.

Ethics watchdogs say the situation makes a mockery of the rules restricting lawmakers from working as lobbyists until they’ve been out of office for at least one year.


“This is an egregious abuse of the revolving door,” said Craig Holman, the lobbyist for Public Citizen, a group which advocates for stricter ethics rules.


“I suspect she’s being coached as to how to dance around the law, but it certainly violates the spirit of the revolving door law itself,” he said.

And, Holman warned, “She’s opened herself up to being bought.”

Jenkins and her firm should be banned from lobbying Congress in perpetuity and she should be banned from entering the Capitol from the moment next month that her term expires. Conservative lawmakers seem to believe that laws are written for "the little people," not for them.

You know what that Harris video reminded me of? That great clip 60 Minutes clip that shows John Boehner's reaction when he was caught red-handed giving out tobacco industry checks on the floor of the House. Like Harris Boehner seemed offended by his own behavior. "it's a practice," he told 60 Minutes, "that's gone on here for a long time that we're trying to stop... It's a bad practice," he said indignantly [about his own behavior]. "We ought to stop this. This is just not something that ought to happen." Watch:

NC-09-- It Appears That Neo-Fascist Candidate Mark Harris Stole The Primary From Robert Pittenger And Then The General Election From Dan McCready

Paul Ryan was whining Thursday about how the Republicans had only lost 26 seats when he went to bed on election night and wha wha now they’re down 40. So something’s wrong. Yeah, it’s called counting all the votes and conservatives hate the very concept. Well, there may be 41 soon. Seems there’s a little problem along the southern tier of North Carolina-- the 9th district-- where, ostensibly, it looked like far right extremist Mark Harris defeated Blue Dog Dan McCready by 905 votes. Or maybe not. Tuesday the state board of election unanimously refused to certify the results. And late last night Amy Gardner and Kirk Ros reported for the Washington Post that state election officials had no plans to certify them at their meeting today either. In fact, they wrote, “mounting evidence of voter fraud… could indefinitely delay the certification of a winner, as state election officials investigate whether hundreds of absentee ballots were illegally cast or destroyed. The board is collecting sworn statements from voters in rural Bladen and Robeson counties, near the South Carolina border, who described people coming to their doors and urging them to hand over their absentee ballots, sometimes without filling them out. Others described receiving absentee ballots by mail that they had not requested. It is illegal to take someone else’s ballot and turn it in.”

The Charlotte Observer’s editorial board seems stunned and embarrassed— and demanding to know what happened.

We know that board members twice voted 9-0 not to certify the 9th District results. That means the board, which consists of Democrats and Republicans, was overwhelmingly persuaded of the seriousness of [Robeson County Democrat Joshua] Malcolm’s concerns.

We know that Elections board spokesman Patrick Gannon told the Associated Press Wednesday that the board is investigating “irregularities” involving absentee ballots in Bladen County, which Harris won by 1,557 votes. We also know that Bladen has what can charitably be described as a colorful political history of alleged arson and fraud.

We know that Malcolm’s move Tuesday was a surprise. Neither campaign knew Malcolm’s complaint was coming, which indicates that it likely doesn’t involve an election day complaint of fraud, at least not one significant enough to cause McCready to call for an investigation before conceding this razor-thin result.


Malcolm’s comments Tuesday also seem to indicate that the issues troubling him are ongoing. “I am not going to turn a blind eye to what took place to the best of my understanding which has been ongoing for a number of years that has repeatedly been referred to the United States attorney and the district attorneys for them to take action and clean it up,” he said. “And in my opinion those things have not taken place.”

Update, 11/28, 6:30 pm: Two sources tell the editorial board that the issue specifically involves a person who allegedly gained access to absentee ballots, perhaps through voters who request them from the county or state. The ballots were filled out for Harris. This individual was suspected of similar fraud in 2016, sources said, but investigators didn’t find enough to prosecute. The number of ballots involved in the 2018 race, however, wouldn’t be enough to swing the outcome to McCready, sources said.

Complicating this even further is that when Harris ousted a more mainstream conservative incumbent, Robert Pittenger, in the GOP primary there seems to have been the same monkey business in play. WFAE reported yesterday that ‘an elections law expert says Bladen County's results for the 9th district GOP primary also deserve attention, calling them unusual.’”

In May, Harris narrowly upset incumbent Robert Pittenger in the Republican primary by 828 votes.

Harris' win was powered, in part, by a surge of absentee-by-mail ballots from Bladen County, according to data from the N.C. Board of Elections. In the May primary, 22 percent of the votes cast in Bladen County in the Harris-Pittenger race were cast by absentee-by-mail, and Harris was the overwhelming winner of those ballots.

Harris won 96 percent of the 456 absentee-by-mail votes in Bladen, but won only 62 percent of all other votes in the county, according to state Board of Elections records.

Gerry Cohen, an elections law expert who was a state legislative attorney for more than 30 years, said the absentee-by-mail votes from Bladen are "unusual."

"Clearly there is something going on in Bladen County," he said. "It's the only county in the state with an organized, street-level vote-by-mail operation. And there is nothing necessarily wrong with that."

He said it's not illegal to help people request absentee by mail ballots, but someone can't collect the ballots, a process known as harvesting.

At 22 percent, Bladen County easily had the highest percentage of absentee-by-mail ballots in the district. Mecklenburg County was the next highest at only 1.6 percent.

Here are the percentages from the other counties in the 9th Congressional District: Union (.07 percent); Anson (0 percent); Scotland (1.5 percent); Robeson (1.1 percent); Cumberland (.08 percent); Richmond (.02 percent).

After reviewing the data, Cohen said there were a large number of absentee-by-mail ballots in the primary that were requested but never returned. Cohen says one possibility is that a third party promised to mail them for voters but failed to do so.

Is The GOP Trying To Rig The Elections In Wisconsin Again?

What kind of mentally deranged parents think a philandering, lying bigoted pig like Trump would make a good role model for their children? Republicans. In a new Quinnipiac poll released yesterday, we saw that the vast majority of Americans agree that Trump is not a good role model for children. Republicans disagree. Just before the Washington Post broke the story about how the White House asked to borrow Van Gogh's Landscape With Snow from the Guggenheim but were offered an 18-karat gold toilet by Maurizio Cattelan instead, the poll came out affirming that because 90% of Americans say it's important that a president be a good role model for children and that Trumpanzee isn't. 67% gave Trump a thumbs down and only a pathetic 29% said he would be a good role model. 72% of Republicans say he is a good role model. Sick!

Trump does not provide the U.S. with moral leadership, American voters say 63 - 33 percent. Again, there is virtually no gender gap as all listed groups, except Republicans and white voters with no college degree, say by wide margins the president does not provide moral leadership. Republicans say 80 - 16 percent he does provide moral leadership and white voters with no college degree are divided 47 - 47 percent.

"For President Donald Trump, it's a troubling trifecta: Stagnant approval numbers, low grades on most character traits and the reality that if parents are looking for someone their kids should emulate, that person is not residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

"Only 27 percent of American voters say they are proud to have Donald Trump as president, while 53 percent say they are embarrassed - a 2-1 negative."

American voters disapprove 58 - 36 percent of the job Trump is doing, marking 12 months of negative scores and seven months since his approval rating hit 40 percent.

The only groups approving of Trump are Republicans, 86 - 9 percent, and white voters with no college degree, 50 - 42 percent. White men are divided as 47 percent approve and 49 percent disapprove.

Trump's grades on most character traits remain negative as voters say:

• 60 - 35 percent that he is not honest;
• 59 - 38 percent that he does not have good leadership skills;
• 57 - 40 percent that he does not care about average Americans;
• 65 - 30 percent that he is not level-headed;
• 61 - 36 percent that he is a strong person;
• 54 - 40 percent that he is intelligent;
• 61 - 34 percent that he does not share their values.

Apparently he is a role model for the Wisconsin Republican Party, which has been trying to get away with the same crap he pulls. Yesterday our old friend, state Senator Chris Larsen reported on Governor Scott Walker's 7th and last "State of the State" speech. He pointed out that "Walker and his legislative cronies have been in charge of Wisconsin for the last seven years. During that time, they have chosen to ignore the needs and wishes of hardworking Wisconsinites."

Scott Walker has chosen to divide our state, vilify the poor, attack teachers, slash funding for our schools, and drag Wisconsin behind the rest of the nation in job growth. He's raised spending levels to the highest in our state's history while delivering the largest corporate giveaway in the history of our nation, virtually eliminated taxes for giant corporations and the rich, and he is still claiming that there isn't enough money to restore the funds to our children's education or give workers a raise.  ...Last night, Governor Walker:

• Spoke about the Foxconn corporate giveaway without mentioning the ever growing $4.5 billion price tag our Wisconsin neighbors will be left to pay for decades
• Touted the record number of Wisconsinites that now have health insurance (thank you, Obama!) but failed to mention that he has cost Wisconsinites nearly $700 million by not fully expanding Medicaid
• Neglected to mention the atrocities committed against youth at Lincoln Hills and his administrations failure to act under his leadership
• Neglected to mention our natural resources once, despite dismantling long cherished environmental and conservation protections
• Failed to mention his over $1 billion in cuts to our neighborhood schools that has jeopardized our children' future.

What Chris didn't mention is how the state Republicans continue working feverishly to rig the state's elections in their favor. The state Senate made a big move on Tuesday, voting along party lines to remove the state’s top election and ethics officials in the sunup to the midterms. The two ousted officials are Ethics Administrator Brian Bell and Elections Administrator Michael Haas.

Haas’ removal comes just weeks before a Feb. 20 primary in the state and a little under three months before the first day when candidates can begin circulating petitions for the 2018 fall election. As Wisconsin’s chief election official, Haas is responsible for administering those elections, ensuring compliance with federal law and overseeing investigation and enforcement of the state’s election code. He is also charged with overseeing the state’s election equipment, a role with increased importance this year because Wisconsin was one of 21 states targeted by Russian hackers ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Mark Thomsen, a Democrat and the election commission’s chairman, noted during a meeting Wednesday that Haas was the only person in the agency with the required clearance to work with the Department of Homeland Security to secure the state’s election system.

...Meanwhile, the members of the state’s ethics commission unanimously picked Bell to serve as their administrator in 2016. The six-member panel is charged with overseeing the state’s campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws. An investigation by the ethics commission into Bell found there was “not a scintilla of evidence” he was partisan in his duties at the Government Accountability Board. Earlier this month, Bell said he left the board because it was too partisan.

...Chris Ott, the executive director of the Wisconsin ACLU, said the timing of Haas’ dismissal was suspicious and said the sudden push to oust the officials was out of the blue.

“The Wisconsin Senate’s vote yesterday along party lines to try ousting the head of our Elections Commission looks like political interference in a nonpartisan agency that helps and protects Wisconsin voters, just a few weeks before important statewide elections start,” he said in a statement.

Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, called the vote not to confirm Haas and Bell “one of the most grotesque abuses of power that has occurred in Wisconsin in its history.”

“No evidence, no charges, no specific examples of misconduct, nothing. Just secret agreement among the members of the majority party in the State Senate to get rid of them both, right before important elections, and replace them, presumably, with sycophants and pawns that the Republicans will dictate what they decide and what the result of their work on elections and ethics will be,” Heck said in a statement.

Disenfranchising America-- What Is Obama Going To Do About It? BONUS: The Gay Agenda Revealed

It's not exactly news-- at least not to anyone who reads DWT-- but Friday, President Obama accused the Republicans of undermining democracy by pushing disenfranchisement legislation in several states where they have managed to win control. He came right out and accused them of reacting to a fake problem with a blatantly political tactic. That's pretty heavy stuff coming from a POTUS. And, at least in my book, that makes him obligated to do something about it. If he wants to acknowledge that the GOP is "trying to rig the elections by making it harder for older people, women, minorities and the impoverished to cast ballots," it's his constitutional duty to put a stop to it. "The real voter fraud," he said in a speech to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network in NYC, "is people who try to deny our rights by making bogus arguments about voter fraud.“ Peter Baker covered the speech for the NY Times

“The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act became law nearly five decades ago,” Mr. Obama said in a hotel ballroom filled with cheering supporters, most of them African-American. “Across the country, Republicans have led efforts to pass laws making it harder, not easier, for people to vote.”

Speaking a day after a conference in Texas commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, Mr. Obama linked the issue to the movement that helped pave the way for him to become the nation’s first black president.

“America did not stand up and did not march and did not sacrifice to gain the right to vote for themselves and for others only to see it denied to their kids and their grandchildren,” he said.

Republicans in some swing states have advanced new laws that go beyond the voter identification requirements of recent years. Among other things, state lawmakers are pushing measures to limit the time polls are open and to cut back early voting, particularly weekend balloting that makes it easier for lower-income voters to participate. Other measures would eliminate same-day registration, make it more difficult to cast provisional ballots or curb the mailing of absentee ballots.

Over the last 15 months, at least nine states have enacted voting changes making it harder to cast ballots. A federal judge last month upheld laws in Arizona and Kansas requiring proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate or a passport, leading other states to explore following suit.

Sponsors of such laws have said they are trying to prevent voter fraud and argue that Democrats overstate the impact of common-sense measures in a crass and transparent effort to rile up their most fervent political supporters.

…Mr. Obama said nothing about a compromise idea presented to him in Texas this week by Andrew Young, the civil rights leader and former United Nations ambassador. Mr. Young proposed bridging the divide over ballot security by putting photographs on Social Security cards, which are issued to all citizens.

Former President Bill Clinton embraced the idea, but the White House did not. “We haven’t had a chance to review it,” said Jay Carney, the president’s press secretary.

The focus on voting rights came in the same week when Mr. Obama and other Democrats highlighted efforts to combat pay inequality for women, another critical constituency in the fall campaign. The president continues to promote an increase in the minimum wage, an issue popular with core Democratic voters, as well as some Republicans.

Ironically-- because it really was never a top priority for Obama or his circle-- the one group that has made the most headway during his term and a half is the LGBT community. But many bigoted Republicans are not accepting those advances either. Huckabee is hoping to use his anti-gay fanaticism as a tool to win the Republican nomination for president. And many of the severely elderly in GOP power positions still have attitudes about gay people that are more relevant to the 1950s than to this century. In fact-- since it's a weekend-- I thought I'd clue everyone in to the LGBT community's plan of how the combat Republican bigotry against marriage equality. Brace yourself:

Republican Vote Rigging... Helpful To Marcy Kaptur Too?

I have to admit I don't get all that worked up over the fact that the GOP Establishment has been stealing the nomination for Romney in state after state. But I should be worked up-- and not only because they're likely to also tamper with election results in November's general election when it will matter more. It's all part of the Republican Party War Against Democracy. Rachel gets into it a bit in the video above-- not the vote rigging, but the barriers the GOP is putting up to keep poor people and students and others likely to vote for Democrats from voting. At the same time, the BradBlog is looking at the vote rigging. And the part that did get me most interested was the vote rigging that seems to have played a role in depriving Dennis Kucinich of a seat in Congress.

It started with a venal Republican state legislature gerrymandering his district in such a way that he was forced into a primary with Democratic colleague Marcy Kaptur, who was given a larger share of the new district. Brad was astounded by the results in Lucas County (Toledo), where Kucinich only won 3.7% of the vote. Is that even possible? Sure it is-- when voting is done on easily hackable Diebold machines that offer no verification whatsoever. And, as Brad warns, "Some 20 to 30% of voters across the nation will still be forced-- shamefully, even after all that we now know about these oft-failed, easily-hacked machines-- to cast their ballots on the very same and other similarly 100% unverifiable voting systems on Election Day during the 2012 Presidential Election."


Here's a 10 page document, evidence of algorithm vote flipping in GOP primary elections, much of it in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. I spoke to a Member of Congress about it, mostly because of my concern that if Republicans can do it now-- and it's rare that anyone ever gets punished for it-- they'll do it in November as well. He responded with an article by Robert Kennedy, Jr, for Rolling Stone (impossible to access there, so here's a link to the article preserved by Common Dreams). Here's the part that deals with Lucas County:

Blackwell authorized only one investigation of registration errors after the election-- in Toledo-- but the report by his own inspectors offers a disturbing snapshot of the malfeasance and incompetence that plagued the entire state. The top elections official in Toledo was a partisan in the Blackwell mold: Bernadette Noe, who chaired both the county board of elections and the county Republican Party. The GOP post was previously held by her husband, Tom Noe, who currently faces felony charges for embezzling state funds and illegally laundering $45,400 of his own money through intermediaries to the Bush campaign.

State inspectors who investigated the elections operation in Toledo discovered "areas of grave concern." With less than a month to go before the election, Bernadette Noe and her board had yet to process 20,000 voter registration cards. Board officials arbitrarily decided that mail-in cards (mostly from the Republican suburbs) would be processed first, while registrations dropped off at the board's office (the fruit of intensive Democratic registration drives in the city) would be processed last. When a grass-roots group called Project Vote delivered a batch of nearly 10,000 cards just before the October 4th deadline, an elections official casually remarked, "We may not get to them." The same official then instructed employees to date-stamp an entire box containing thousands of forms, rather than marking each individual card, as required by law.) When the box was opened, officials had no way of confirming that the forms were filed prior to the deadline-- an error, state inspectors concluded, that could have disenfranchised "several thousand" voters from Democratic strongholds.

The most troubling incident uncovered by the investigation was Noe's decision to allow Republican partisans behind the counter in the board of elections office to make photocopies of postcards sent to confirm voter registrations-- records that could have been used in the GOP's caging efforts. On their second day in the office, the operatives were caught by an elections official tampering with the documents. Investigators slammed the elections board for "a series of egregious blunders"' that caused "the destruction, mutilation and damage of public records."

On Election Day, Noe sent a team of Republican volunteers to the county warehouse where blank ballots were kept out in the open, "with no security measures in place." The state's assistant director of elections, who just happened to be observing the ballot distribution, demanded they leave. The GOP operatives refused and ultimately had to be turned away by police.

In April 2005, Noe and the entire Board of Elections were forced to resign. But once again, the damage was done. At a "Victory 2004" rally held in Toledo four days before the election, President Bush himself singled out a pair of "grass-roots" activists for special praise: "I want to thank my friends Bernadette Noe and Tom Noe for their leadership in Lucas County."

The very basis of right-wing politics-- greed and selfishness-- makes it impossible to separate conservatism and corruption. Historically, they have always been bound at the hip and today there is virtually no difference between corruption and conservatism. They are, in effect, the same. (Take a look at the wikipedia page for the above-mentioned GOP Lucas County Chairman, Tom Noe, if you'd like to see the way the Republican Party has turned itself into a criminal operation. Or, better yet, spend an hour going through the DWT archives from 2005, when we were looking into how the Republicans managed to steal the 2004 election for Bush-- mostly in Ohio.

Will McCain Win After All?

They're working on it everywhere... hard.

Video the Vote

Can McCain Still "Win?"

Sure... just watch:



And it isn't just Rove. It's an across the board Republican Party strategy. People who interfere with voting rights should be tried for treason and, if found guilty, be subject to the death penalty. A few dead Republican creeps and it won't keep happening. And, yes, it's that important. Watch how they're trying to cover up their own voter fraud by demonizing ACORN:

THE REPUBLICAN PLAN TO STEAL THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION-- IN CALIFORNIA

If you think the Bush Regime came into power in 2000, and retained it in 2004, fair and square this post probably isn't for you. (That said, I doubt this particular blog is.) Over the course of the last few weeks Californians have been made aware that a shadowy right wing figure, a very wealthy shadowy right wing figure, as a matter of fact, is putting together an assault on the California's ability to deliver its 55 electoral votes to the Democratic nominee for president. Like all but two small states, California awards its treasure trove of electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis.

The kinds of policies one must espouse to win the approval of the Republican base of backward neo-Confederate bigots and paranoid Know Nothings precludes any realistic chance of someone who could win the Republican nomination also winning a majority of votes in a progressive and enlightened state like California. However, California has it's pockets of backwardness too. How else could you account for a congressional delegation that includes some of the most reactionary and corrupt members anywhere-- like Gary Miller, Ken Calvert, Jerry Lewis, John Doolittle, Buck McKeon, Kevin McCarthy, John Campbell, George Radanovich, Devin Nunes, Wally Herger, Dan Lungren, Darrell Issa, David Dreier, Elton Gallegly, and Duncan Hunter?

The Republican proposal mandates awarding presidential electoral votes based on the contests in each district. I think a better idea would just be to get rid of the purposely anti-democratic electoral college entirely. If Delaware, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and a handful of states few people live in nix that, I could even go along with this GOP proposal-- as soon as it's adopted by Texas, Florida and Georgia. But the Republican plan is not meant to reform our electoral system and make it fairer. It's simply intended to try a power grab for the radical right that dominates the national GOP. They expect to use it to shave 20 electoral votes off the Democratic total. Take a look at electoral California by congressional district. These are the results of the 2004 election, showing the congressional district number, the percentage of votes Kerry got, the percentage of votes cast by the ignorant and deluded or by willful fascists for Bush and the name of the district's congressmember:

1- 59.7% 38.4% - THOMPSON
2- 36.6% 62.0% - HERGER
3- 40.8% 58.2% - LUNGREN
4- 37.4% 61.3% - DOOLITTLE
5- 61.1% 37.9% - MATSUI
6- 70.3% 28.1% - WOOLSEY
7- 67.1% 31.8%- MILLER
8- 84.2% 14.0% - PELOSI
9- 85.9% 12.6% - LEE
10- 58.5% 40.4% - TAUSCHER
11- 45.3% 53.9% - McNERNEY
12- 71.5% 27.2% - LANTOS
13- 70.9% 28.0% - STARK
14- 68.3% 30.1% - ESHOO
15- 62.9% 35.9% - HONDA
16- 63.4% 35.5% - LOFGREN
17- 65.6% 33.0% - FARR
18- 49.3% 49.6%- CARDOZA
19- 37.9% 61.1% - RADANOVICH
20- 50.6% 48.5% - COSTA
21- 33.7% 65.4% - NUNES
22- 31.0% 67.9% - McCARTHY
23- 58.3% 40.3% - CAPPS
24- 43.1% 55.7% - GALLEGLY
25- 39.9% 58.8% - McKEON
26- 43.7% 55.1% - DREIER
27- 59.3% 39.3% - SHERMAN
28- 71.0% 27.9% - BERMAN
29- 61.2% 37.4% - SCHIFF
30- 66.1% 32.8% - WAXMAN
31- 76.9% 21.6% - BECERRA
32- 62.3% 36.6% - SOLIS
33- 82.8% 15.9% - WATSON (aka- Howie's district)
34- 68.8% 29.8% - ROYBAL-ALLARD
35- 79.0% 20.0% - WATERS
36- 59.0% 39.6% - HARMAN
37- 73.5% 25.2% - MILLENDER-McDONALD (RIP)
38- 65.3% 33.6% - NAPOLITANO
39- 58.5% 40.3% - LINDA SANCHEZ
40- 38.4% 60.2% - ROYCE
41- 36.9% 61.8% - LEWIS
42- 36.9% 62.0% - MILLER
43- 58.1% 40.7% - BACA
44- 39.9% 59.0% - CALVERT
45- 43.1% 56.0% - BONO
46- 41.6% 56.9% - ROHRABACHER
47- 48.6% 50.0% - LORETTA SANCHEZ
48- 40.4% 58.3% - CAMPBELL
49- 36.5% 62.5% - ISSA
50- 43.9% 55.2% - BILBRAY
51- 53.4% 45.7% - FILNER
52- 37.7% 61.4% - HUNTER
53- 61.2% 37.6% - DAVIS

The Republicans could never win California, but they could possibly win 22 votes, more than the entire state of Ohio! According to our pals at the Courage Campaign "The
lawyers for the Republican Party that have filed this initiative will pay $1.5 million or more to put this on the ballot. That's right, they'll buy signatures. Then, they'll get money from every right wing conservative corporation and person in the country to advertise and try to buy votes by confusing people with manipulative ads-- you know the ones that say up is down and black is white. They're already claiming this initiative will bring "fairness" and "democracy" to California. Give me a break.
Karl Rove may be leaving the White House but his tactics are alive and well in California. But we can stop them by pledging to oppose this right-wing power grab today."

As surely as the Republicans stole the election of 2000 in Florida and 2004 in Ohio, they plan to steal 2008 in California, That Courage Campaign link above is a place where you can get involved in stopping them. It's worth the effort. Or do you want another 4 or 8 years of Bush-like rule?


ANOTHER FAR BETTER PLAN TO ELECT PRESIDENTS

David Dayen has the full story at Calitics. Essentially, there are now two competing propositions, the Republican one that would be ridiculously unfair to impose on California without similar legislation in the rest of the country, and now a Democratic (and democratic) one that actually calls for electing presidents through the popular vote. Long overdue.

WHAT'S WITH NORTH CAROLINA CONGRESSLOON PATRICK McHENRY AND THE... BOYS?

McNutcase out looking for more roommates

In the past I've talked a lot about what a right wing extremist and a clown North Carolina's goofy little congressman Patrick McHenry is. I've never mentioned the considerable rumors about him being another hypocritical Republican closet queen. (OMG! The latest on that. These Republicans! I am truly shocked the way they carry on!)

Last week The Hill hinted something was up in a story ostensibly about bachelors, "A Spouse, Who Needs It?" The bookend bachelors are both from North Carolina, the oldest bachelor congressman being Republican Howard Coble, 76, and the youngest being McNutcase, now 32 (although he still has the social maturity of a precocious 15 year old).

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, those who wed face an uphill battle: The divorce rate is holding steady at about half of all unions.  

“If you have lots of people who are in this situation themselves, they’re going to have a different orientation,” Habbel said.
 
“Nowadays most people don’t bat an eye” when it comes to a candidate who is divorced, he said. “Newt Gingrich certainly did catch some flak for how he handled his relationships, but generally speaking, social trends have made it more acceptable and less of a stigma [to be divorced],” Habbel said.  

That growing sense of acceptance could also be true for gay members. There are two openly gay members in the 110th Congress, Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.). Baldwin is in a domestic partnership; Frank ranks among the spouseless camp. And while two out of 435 is hardly a significant sliver of Congress as  a whole, that number could well be higher, assuming there are some members who have not yet talked publicly about their sexual orientation...

But singles in Congress who would like to find that special someone need not despair. Members who enter the House single don’t always stay that way. In 2003, Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) married his girlfriend, Betsy, after six years as a House bachelor.  

Of course, it might be convenient to just start looking inside the House chamber for love.

With Foley, Schrock, and Kolbe all gone from the House, McNutcase will either have to cross over to the Senate side where there are still plenty of gay Republican blades from South Carolina, Kentucky and Idaho or else look elsewhere for love.  In fact, it looks like he has (been looking elsewhere). Mike Rogers has the whole sordid story-- with documentation-- at blogActive

The short version: McNutcase has had hot and cold running boys living in his home-- God knows how many!!!-- and voting in multiple locations. One of McNutcase's boys, Lay, was just indicted-- by a Republican prosecutor. But there were so many young men living at McNutcase's house that he was either running a vote-scamming operation-- which looks certain-- or a male brothel, hardly a stretch for this rabid hypocrite, the GOP point man on defending Mark Foley when he was caught with the meat in his mouth last year. Good thing the GOP is so serious about going after voter fraud. I expect they'll make McHenry resign from all his committees first thing Monday. Right?


UPDATE: OH GOLLY, MISSY MOLLY

People in North Carolina really don't like their tiny weeny little congress...person.


UPDATE: McNUTCASE MAKES THE BIG-TIME

Itsy-bitsy teeny-weenie Patti McHenry (R-NC) makes it to the top of the Countdown: The World's Worst Person.