Should the margin of victory for either side end up being one state again, we’re going to need to hose down the streets. Fast.
PPP polls over the weekend found:
-In Ohio 62% of Republicans think Democrats will engage in voter fraud to make sure that Barack Obama wins. 50% of the Democrats think that the GOP will engage in voter fraud to ensure a Romney victory.
-In Florida 60% of Republicans think Democrats will engage in voter fraud to make sure that Barack Obama wins. 55% of the Democrats think that the GOP will engage in voter fraud to ensure a Romney victory.
-In North Carolina 69% of Republicans think Democrats will engage in voter fraud to make sure that Barack Obama wins. 51% of the Democrats think that the GOP will engage in voter fraud to ensure a Romney victory.
Also, a preemptive “fuck Nino Scalia” is in order.
Sophist
The Democrats are kind of backed up by the fact that Republicans HAVE been committing vote registration fraud in Florida, and have been attempting voter suppression in Ohio.
Arm The Homeless
I wish a muthafucka would!
My NRA lifetime member roommate has already planned a trip into the woods with his equally nutty friend to avoid the marauding bands of color’d folks. Ironically, he is leaving me with his dog and most of his guns.
Culture of Truth
Someone Mention Scalia?
Oct. 16 (UPI)- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia received a parking ticket in Philadelphia while parked outside of a private club.
A picture taken outside the Union League of Philadelphia Monday shows Scalia’s official car parked with a Philadelphia Parking Authority ticket on its windshield, despite having a Philadelphia official police business placard displayed on its dashboard, the Constitution Daily blog reported Tuesday.
Bruce S
Why do we trust them more than they trust us? Especially when the only significant, systematic documented voter (registration) fraud and attempts at vote suppression this election season has been GOP? And the culprit is still heavily involved in organized GOP efforts.
I think “the mind of the beholder” comes into play here…they think we’re just like them.
Lavocat
Only 15 more days for a Hoocoodanode It October Surprise!
I’ll bet it involves Republicans, massive voter fraud, and collusion on an unprecendented level. With the Koch Brothers’ fingerprints all over it.
RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Is there a debate tonight or something? I’ve been out of the country and my US news is 7 days old.
ETA: My internets here are a trickle. I’ll never take broadband for granted again as long as I live.
Cluttered Mind
I don’t think there’s any chance of the GOP using voter fraud to steal the election. Election fraud, voter intimidation, rigged voting machines, illegal disenfranchisement, manipulation of less capable seniors, on the other hand….well they’ve all been used before and they’ll all be used again.
Culture of Truth
Why do we trust them more than they trust us?
Because much of their identity is built around fear of the other. If they were not this way, their party and much of our political discourse would be different. In other words, this is who they are. See also, paranoid strain in politics, confederate and red states.
Patricia Kayden
All that those polls show is that Dems and Repubs don’t trust each other. Not surprising given the polarization. I guess we’ll have lawsuits in swing states if the election is too close (and God forbid, everything comes down to one state).
Linda Featheringill
Kay mentioned having all kinds of poll watchers active on election day.
I suppose that if someone is truly concerned about confrontations, they could vote early.
handy
Now why would they think that precious?
To add, clearly this is a BOTH-SIDES-DO-IT nothingburger. Move along.
Linda Featheringill
@RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Yes.
Cluttered Mind
@Bruce S: The problem is that liberals sometimes don’t like admitting that their opponents are irredeemable monsters, despite it being painfully obvious. It’s a lot more mentally pleasing to say “Oh they’re good people that I just have some disagreements with” than to admit to yourself that they literally hate you and want you and everyone who thinks like you to die.
LanceThruster
FTFY
Another Halocene Human
@Cluttered Mind: You nailed it.
We need to have a universal suffrage movement in this country. What happened is that we did it all piecemeal and there’s this lingering suspicion about the whole business.
EVERY PERSON VOTES
EVERY VOTE IS COUNTED
Paper ballots, inked hands, multiple observers during tally time, seals, inventory, etc.
Time to bring in UN observers and schedule the perp walks for certain county and city officials throughout this land who have been stuffing the ballot boxes (or changing values in Access) for too long.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Axiom #1: US politics is the continuation of civil war by other means.
Axiom #2: Not stretching other means as far as you can go is for Losers. If you lost, it’s because you didn’t push your other means far enough into unexplored territory.
You can do interesting proofs using just these two axioms.
Jonathan
@Cluttered Mind:
Exactly what I think to, no fraud, just intimidation and disenfranchisement, all in the name of “vote integrity”. Something tells me that “both sides” won’t be doing it either. It’s so depressing.
Jonathan
@Jonathan:
Also too, I bet most of the poll respondents don’t really understand what voter fraud is. I’m sure the republican’s are convinced that there will be actual voter fraud, but the democrat respondents are probably thinking more along the line of intimidation and such, and perhaps poll-worker misconduct, but not really “fraud”.
karen marie
@Sophist: Don’t forget Arizona!
Violet
@Jonathan:
If only the Black Panthers would show up at predominately white polling places. That could be fun.
sparrow
@Bruce S: Projection. Amoral cheaters assume everyone else is an amoral cheater, too.
Spaghetti Lee
This is actually really sad.
Villago Delenda Est
The evidence indicates (those nasty facts with liberal biases again!) that Rethugs are projecting their own behavior on to Democrats.
Chris
just leaving this here, with the concept of Projection being relevant…
LanceThruster
@Jonathan:
I consider any and all of these tactics to fall into the “fraud” category because it is meant to discourage and deceive the voter. Current examples that come to mind are the state notifications about voter ID rules (online, mail-out, and voice messages) and early voting dates and polling locations information meant to look official (or sometimes even are!) but are completely false with a clear intent to complicate things for one party or demographic only.
These creeps can all DIAF as far as I’m concerned.
Chris
thedailydolt.com/2012/10/10/former-bain-employees-own-voting-machine-company-used-in-swing-states/
The Other Chuck
The Republicans have a very simple definition of fraud: when any Democrat wins.
PeakVT
Here’s a “gotcha” that’s likely to come up in tonight’s debate, or in the weeks ahead: battery maker A123 files for bankruptcy.
NR
@The Other Chuck: Time for some more bipartisanship!
General Stuck
Just got back from early voting, wondering what I’d found there from the usual suspect right wing numskulls up to their usual nonsense..
Went smooth, as usual in this deep blue county, though since I always leave my reading glasses behind, I asked the clerk to just show me where the straight ticket circle for democrat was, and she sighed and said, ‘our governor got rid of it”/ That would be republican governor Susan Martinez. So I had to squint and circle all the dem circles with no problemo. Since there was no yellow dogs running for office this cycle, it weren’t no trouble.
PreservedKillick
@PeakVT:
Absolutely certain Romney will bring it up.
Absolutely certain that it’s an easy winner for Obama.
(“Of the XXX projects, we’ve had three go down the tubes – that’s a far better win percentage than you ever had at Bain, isn’t it, Mitt old Boy?”)
JGabriel
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PPP via Zandar @ Top:
You know what I find fascinating here?
State level voter fraud typically requires the the efforts, or at least the compliance in looking the other way, of the local state governments.
Yet each of those states is governed by a Republican-controlled legislature, and two of the three have a Republican governor. (Only NC has a Dem. Gov.)
So who the hell do these crazy ass GOPers think is gonna steal the elections in their respective states for the Democrats?
I think the Dem. fears of Republican election fraud have far better grounding in reality here, particularly given the experiences in FL in 2000 and OH in 2004.
.
The Bearded Blogger
O/T
Dinesh D’Souza, social conservative and philanderer (tautology, I know), looks like a brown Mr Bean:
dailykos.com/story/2012/10/16/1145334/-Dinesh-D-Souza-take-hiatus-to-spend-time-with-more-families
PeakVT
@JGabriel: Elections are stolen from the inside. But the Republicans have managed to convince large numbers of Americans that the opposite is true.
The Bearded Blogger
@Patricia Kayden: Whatever happens, it will be used to de-legitimize Obama’s second term. To them, a legitimately elect democratic president is an oxymoron, and a black president is nonsense.
@JGabriel: Your arguments are grounded in logic and reason. Therefore, republicans are inmune to them. Voter fraud because of acorn and soros, that’s why.
SatanicPanic
@JGabriel: You’re assuming they’ve done any critical thinking as opposed to “DEMONCRAPS BAD! ALWAYS BAD!”
JGabriel
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Patricia Kayden:
This year, I wouldn’t be surprised if Republicans try to challenge the election even if they lose in as many as two-four states.
.
kindness
No more Brooks Brothers Riots. I will drop my non-violent pretense and start real shit if it comes to that again.
8 years of bush43 was too much to tolerate the same bunch of idiots again.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Bruce S: Dems are pretty fucking stupid about a lot of shit and this would be one of those issues.
@Cluttered Mind: Said better than I did.
The Bearded Blogger
@JGabriel: I kind of expect a column by William Krystol calling for a do-over so that “voters can make a more informed decision” or some such bullshit
The Bearded Blogger
@kindness: you’ll kill them with kindness, eh? I think democrats in general, and hte Obama team in particular, have learned the lesson from that particular shit stain on american history, and are prepared for it,
The Bearded Blogger
@Forum Transmitted Disease: Many republican voters are nice people, though deluded as fuck. A lot of republican voters, and all republican operatives are either hateful scum or dangerous sociopaths or both.
MikeJ
@Bruce S:
Totebaggers are morons. Appearing to be above the fray and declining to actually say out loud that republicans are doing something wrong is more important than anything to them.
JGabriel
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Jonathan:
I can’t speak for other Democrats, but when I think of Republican election fraud, I think of all those things plus whole scale election fraud via manipulated ballot machines and corrupt vote-counting. Furthermore, intimidation by Republican lawyers and other GOP observers throwing a bad faith hissy fit to enforce made-up election laws (or just slow the vote) falls within the purview of “fraud” in many states.
.
Cluttered Mind
@The Bearded Blogger: I don’t honestly care whether it’s stupid or evil motivating the votes, I and everyone/everything I care about will be just as screwed by them either way.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@PreservedKillick: “I’m certainly glad Republicans weren’t in charge of funding the internet, or none of you would be liveblogging this tonight.”
Hill Dweller
Willard has hit 50% in both the Gallup and PPP/SEIU polls. We are the dumbest country in recorded human history.
JGabriel
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Hill Dweller:
As a Russian friend once told me, the world sees America as Americans see Texas.
After I thought about it for a moment, I realized it was dismayingly true.
.
jharp
That clinches it. 60% to 70% of Republicans are morons.
I wasn’t too far off. I thought it would be about 80%.
Hill Dweller
@JGabriel: The scariest part is, as Charlie Pierce said, the loop is almost closed. At some point that support isn’t coming back to our side.
I can’t believe a f’n plutocrat, who made his millions at the expense of working people, is this close to becoming President.
It feels like Bizarro World.
NR
@Hill Dweller: The reason that this happened is that the party that was supposed to oppose the crazies, instead dedicated itself to compromising with them. And Obama was no exception. After two disastrous Bush terms, the Republican brand was trash and the country was hungry for strong leadership in a new direction. Instead, Obama made the resurrection of the GOP his mission in life, co-opting and endorsing their policies, and bragging about how many of their ideas he’d included in his legislation.
And now he is reaping what he has sown. Problem is, we’re all reaping it, too.
RedKitten
And the sad thing is that if Romney DOES win, and completely fucks over 99% of the country, there will STILL be half the population that will think that it would have been so much worse under an Obama second term…
Is our America learning?
No.
No, it’s not.
Shall I prepare the spare room?
ruemara
@NR: Once again, go fuck yourself.
SFAW
@ruemara:
I was kinda expecting you to tell him/her/it to – since Obama is so awfulawfulawful – go kill himself
Paula
@SFAW:
But all he wants is pie …
ruemara
@SFAW: He waste away trying to find that micron length dick of his. My hands will still be clean.
SFAW
@ruemara:
Now, now, let’s not do the ad hominem thing.
FlipYrWhig
@NR: You are a motherfucking imbecile.
Clockwork
@NR:
Obama ran basically on a national unity platform, brought Republicans into his cabinet, and even took up conservatives policies to accomplish liberal ends in the name of progress.
And what happened? Conservatives walked away from their own ideas and decided to call him names reserved for histories worst people. The media spent 3 of the 4 years playing he said, she said, and then just when you thought the media was gonna call it like they see it they decided to try to make this a horse race against an unprecedented liar one month before the election. Lastly a big chunk of liberals decided to play perpetual monday morning President instead of work like crazy to get him elected.
The truth is Obama is the President we needed but don’t deserve. I see that now.
Splitting Image
@jharp:
The correct figure is 73%. Remember that 27% of them are crazy.
LanceThruster
@JGabriel:
Every time I hear of Russia and Texas in the same sentence, I think of this classic SCTV bit called —
What Fits into Mother Russia? where they show Texas being dwarfed by Russia and laugh a hearty Russian laugh..
karen marie
@FlipYrWhig: How so? I think it’s a valid point.
SFAW
@Splitting Image:
Not to split
imageshairs, I think the 27 percent figure applies to the general populace, not the Rethugs-only. Which means that, if Rethugs make up 38 percent of the electorate, that – lessee, divide by nine, carry the 2, multiply by pi, took the log of the difference, cancel out the Lagrangian … OK – about 70 percent of them are crazy.Gracie
In Georgia, 100% of votes will be subjected to 0% of a paper trail, making it 100% likely that the conservative candidate will win.
Howz mai mafs?