The irregularities in North Carolina voting are being called “voter fraud” (here’s one example from a good media outlet), but as far as I can tell, they’re not. It sounds like some group of persons was collecting mail-in ballots, or sending mail-in ballots to people who had never requested them. In other words, someone between the voter and the ballot collected it and apparently voted it Republican. That’s election fraud – the voters didn’t perpetrate it.
It may seem like a small distinction, but it’s important because the way that the GOP markets “voter fraud” is some person or persons going to different precincts and voting multiple times. That doesn’t happen, and if it did, it would be incredibly expensive and inefficient. Fucking the system by faking ballots and sending them in, or tampering with election machines, is far more likely. Yet little or no effort is made to secure that part of the voting chain, because better ballot and machine security isn’t going to keep Democrats from voting.
In a few weeks when the dust has settled in North Carolina, look for Fox and the rest of the usual suspects justifying more bullshit ID legislation on the backs of this event.
(The only time I’ve ever seen an election irregularity was many years ago when a volunteer collecting absentee ballots from the elderly was overly suggestive about how they should vote. When another campaign worker found out, he was immediately reported and ejected from the campaign. I was doing the same job, and old and frail people often asked me how to vote when I gathered their ballot. It was a tight election and the temptation was there.)
Mike in DC
It will get worse before it gets better. We may need a constitutional amendment guaranteeing voting rights when all is said and done.
West of the Cascades
It’s all psychological projection with the GOP fuckers.
OzarkHillbilly
Quelle surprised.
Kay
John Roberts, World’s Smartest Lawyer, said that efforts to suppress AA voting and political power were over. O.V.E.R.
That was the ump’s call, mistermix. What is the public’s lived reality in the face of that judicial brilliance?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Based on a comment from a thread below, TBogg’s “Your Mumia sweatshirt isn’t going to get you into heaven anymore” received almost universally negative feedback on Twitter after he reposted a while back in September.
Many users said it was embarrassing, stupid, etc. That bloggers from the early 2000s were losers, they couldn’t believe that it was behind a paywall now because it’s so poorly written, and that it must be sad to live in a world where nothing can ever improve.
I was blown away with how many negative responses it got. I was expecting some of that, but not the bulk. I guess a certain segment of the left really hasn’t learned anything in two years.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Kay:
They didn’t have “standing” because black.
Kay
I know this may go without saying but the Right’s 30 year project to suppress AA voting is an effort to deny AA’s political power.
That’s what our esteemed justices were up to with that shit decision. It’s an incumbent protection racket. They do not want you or yours to have any political power, because if you get it they will lose their jobs.
Don’t miss how self-serving it is, the members of the club intervening to protect the other members. By any means necessary.
rikyrah
@Kay:
TELL IT, KAY
rikyrah
@Kay:
They honestly resent that AA’s don’t follow the shiny objects, and that, at best, all they can pull away is 10% with their shiny objects.
They resent that we see, free and clear, what they are all about and vote accordingly.
Kay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
John Roberts, in his infinite wisdom, overruled the entire civil rights movement. Because they don’t know what they need. He does.
Nothing arrogant about that. No sir. That’s really the work of an extremely humble servant. A lot of our current problems could have been avoided by less coddling of our elites. It takes a village and that particular village seems to have dropped the ball. They’re creating arrogant. privileged assholes. They need a course correction.
Betty Cracker
Thank you — it IS an important distinction, and I have no doubt whatsoever that this ELECTION fraud will be used to sell more VOTER fraud prevention bullshit, which is really about keeping nonwhites, poor people and young folks from voting. Oh, and while we’re on the topic of voter fraud bullshit, let us savor once again Fraud King Kris Kobach’s loss to a Democrat in the Kansas gubernatorial race. Kansas!
Gin & Tonic
Funny thing, here in deep-blue RI, the legislature (lower house is D-62, R-12) enacted a voter ID law a few years back. A friend was then a legislator, and he explained that the incumbent AA’s in the lege were strongly supportive (maybe instrumental) in that because they were afraid of the increasing power of the Hispanics, and wanted to make it harder for them to vote, assuming they’d be committing fraud.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I don’t know this but my guts says you’;re in greater peril than you;ve been in 50 years, because AA political leaders are gonna win one of these southern states, and soon. That’s real and the powers that be know it’s real. The clamping down will begin in earnest. It’s a real threat.
Winning state races will scare the shit out of them- governors have real power and they can build a bench. Abrams and Gillum were a wake-up call and the Right will be on the warpath now. They aren’t gonna give up the solid south without a fight.
Mike in NC
Is there some group (like ALEC) behind efforts by Republican legislatures to strip powers away from incoming Democratic governors? This happened a couple of years ago here in NC and is now happening in WI and MI, apparently.
rikyrah
Trump’s emoluments headache is poised to get a whole lot worse
12/04/18 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
The U.S. Constitution includes a once-obscure provision known as the “Emoluments Clause.” As regular readers know, the law is pretty straightforward: U.S. officials are prohibited from receiving payments from foreign governments. Traditionally, this hasn’t been much of a problem for sitting American presidents – but with Donald Trump things are a little different.
After all, this president has refused to divest from his private-sector enterprises, which means he continues to personally profit from businesses that receive payments from foreign governments.
The problem isn’t theoretical: Saudi Arabia, for example, spent roughly $270,000 at Trump’s Washington hotel during one of the country’s lobbying campaigns last year. Some of that money directly benefited the president.
This legally dubious dynamic has been the target of multiple lawsuits, one of which is poised to become even more interesting. The Associated Press reported late yesterday:
…………………………………
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Nononooooo, you are trapped on the Democratic plantation by blindness to the forces of freedom.
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: I have a difficult time convincing friends who don’t follow politics closely but have liberal instincts and vote for Democrats that requiring voter ID is a form of voter suppression. They see it as common sense to have to show an official ID before voting. If you point out the hardships involved, they’ll acknowledge it but say that voting is important, so people need to make the effort.
ruemara
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: They don’t like what they see in the mirrors. That’s all.
@Betty Cracker: Ask them are they willing to donate money & time to help people get ID. I have charities they can work with if they are democrats who think ID is a good thing.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Do they also think that DACA recipients and other undocumented immigrants and long term visa holders should just become citizens like their great great grandparents did?
Paul T
When do Republicans start pushing for a National ID Card that you have to carry everywhere? The one with your citizenship specifics and voter ID and special chip to prevent fraud? When I bring this solution to my conservative friends they literally freak out.
Steve in the ATL
@Gin & Tonic: reminds me of an old joke about boxing ability being inversely related to social standing of the boxer’s race (the set up was much better and les clinical than that). Punchline was “for every black champion boxer, there’s a Puerto Rican guy ready to kick his ass!”
Apply to voting rights at your leisure.
Betty Cracker
@ruemara: I refer them to VoteRiders.org.
@schrodingers_cat: No. My guess is 95% of their political views match mine, and they agree that GOP claims about rampant voter fraud are bullshit, but they disagree on the ID question. I’d love to see polling on this issue to find out how widespread that view is.
Steve in the ATL
@Betty Cracker: I got that from my hardcore liberal daughter the other day. I explained to her the difference between rights and privileges, and also that getting a drivers license or passport is easy for people like us but other people can’t afford to take time off from work to spend hours at the DMV and many can’t afford even the modest fees.
Then I took away her car and stopped paying her tuition so she could feel some empathy for them!
rikyrah
@Kay:
The thing is…neither will we.
Abrams and Gillum were a wake-up call on our side too…that we can actually get positions….that our votes count. …in all sorts of races.
p.a.
@Gin & Tonic: Pretty sure it was an ALEC-written law that the RI
DemsDums ran with.Betty Cracker
@Steve in the ATL: That’ll teach her! ;)
Steve in the ATL
@Kay: @rikyrah: I was shocked that Abrams did that well. Thrilled, but shocked. We need to ensure that likely D voters are allowed to vote next time.
Elizabelle
WaPost breaking news:
Good. Huge chance that Harris was not legitimately elected. Fix it. And penalize those who perpetrated this.
TenguPhule
@Mike in DC:
What do you mean may?
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Republicans are the root of all evil.
Quaker in a Basement
It’s voter impersonation, the kind of fraud that some think is performed by putting on hats.