People will be going to jail for this:
NC-9 scandal: More than a thousand absentee ballots possibly destroyed https://t.co/PDoeOEL1q2 @DrewGriffinCNN reports @TheLeadCNN
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 6, 2018
"The case for election fraud [in North Carolina] appears to be strong … it's a slew of evidence."
*Signed voter affidavits
*Ballot harvester admission
*History of shady activity
*Weird absentee vote pattern
*Absentee partisanship makes no sensehttps://t.co/S7PgP9SOC8— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 5, 2018
Reminder, as Flynn will testify, the first enthusiastic and accurate flipper can get a damn good deal.
Open thread.
Corner Stone
Hmmm…in NC? Wait to see it.
Corner Stone
The D’s need their own version of Brooks Brother’s Riots in NC, WI and MI.
TenguPhule
DOJ says “whut?”
Corner Stone
From the relatively small amount of coverage I have consumed, this seems to be the key to this election fraud.
seaninclt
Ah my district. So, so much to be proud of.
Timurid
@Corner Stone:
“Steel-toed Redwings Riot” has a nice ring to it…
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
I’m so glad “election fraud” is being used instead of “voter fraud”.
Mandalay
Let’s use a black woman in Texas who voted when she didn’t realize that she was ineligible as a benchmark: 5 years in the slammer!
Soooooooo, if some nice, white Republicans destroyed several hundred ballots: they didn’t realize it was wrong, so a stern speech from the judge, and promises to not get caught when they do it again, should make everything go away. Seems about right.
rikyrah
This story is tailor made for a good local reporter.
JWL
“Reminder, as Flynn will testify, the first enthusiastic and accurate flipper can get a damn good deal”.
Ben Stone and Jack McCoy taught me that years ago.
Patricia Kayden
With all that’s going on, this country doesn’t feel like a democracy. This has got to change. When people vote and their votes aren’t counted, this is not a democracy. And what’s going on in MI, WI and OH is beyond outrageous. Republicans in those states have nullified the will of the voters.
NotMax
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Gvg
Earlier on in the story, they indicated this fraud went back to the primary, and this crook beat a different GOP candidate, with the same kind of suspicious absentee ballot pattern. I think I remember that the defeated GOP guy was the incumbent too. My impression is they needed to redo the election and possibly the primary. If the primary guy is convicted, I would assume he can’t run. If it was an incumbent, the Republicans might not close ranks with him.
The actual fraudster was a campaign worker. The candidate apparently offered a bonus if he won. The key will be proving he knew what he hired.
The latest seems to indicate the campaign guy has done it for several elections over the years which IMO means the candidate probably did know. I don’t know if this might lead to other past elections being questioned? Can that even happen? What remedies are available in the law?
Ken
@Corner Stone: It might happen. As I understand it, some of this was Republican-on-Republican during the primaries, and they might want to stop that before it gets out of hand.
Corner Stone
@Ken: The R winner is a pastor! No way he could have done anything wrong.
Mnemosyne
@Gvg:
Yeah, that’s the wild card in this — the fraud seems to have begun with the primary where the Republican incumbent was beaten by the guy who then proceeded to cheat in the general election, too. If he had only cheated the Democrat, the NC Republican Party would close ranks immediately, but the fact that he cheated their guy, too, means they may actually be willing to let justice take its course since they can easily repudiate him as “not our guy.”
Matt McIrvin
Yeah, I bet they’ll put some of those elderly black Democrats who handed over their ballots in jail by the time it’s over.
SiubhanDuinne
Oh pls, oh pls, oh pls, oh pls, oh pls….
oatler.
General Sherman was way too merciful.
Mary G
@rikyrah: It was broken entirely by a reporter for a local TV station, Joe Bruno. He obtained all the original voter affadavits and published the testimony. I’m sure the state would have certified this without all the attention:
One of his co-workers found that the fraud extended to more than one county:
trnc
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Amen. NPR did a reasonably good story on it tonight, except for the fact that they called it voter fraud.
tobie
Sorry if this is a stupid question but would NC voters have been protected from this kind of election fraud if the Supreme Court hadn’t gutted the VRA and the pre clearance requirements? If so, we should be screaming this from the rafters. HR1 cannot be introduced and passed fast enough.
A Ghost To Most
@tobie:
Facts don’t matter to fascists.
VOR
Obligatory relevant quote: “It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” – Joseph Stalin
Republicans are drawing inspiration from the best sources. They are using The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984 as instruction manuals and Stalin as an electoral mentor.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I’m OK with the notion of capital punishment for all co-conspirators in this scheme.
Let them scream their love for Jesus and white America from the gurney as they meet their deserved end.
Mary G
Republicans in Pennsylvania say “hold my beer”
Obdurodon
So there are more ballots involved here than in all the ineligible-voter fraud *ever* of the sort that Republicans have used to rationalize their vote-suppressing BS, but does anyone think they’ll show any shame or shut up about it? As IF. That would require a degree of self-awareness somewhat above that of the average flatworm.
PsiFighter37
@Mary G: PA Dems have got to find a way to un-fuck the district lines in the state legislature…the GOP has been running the show there for way, way, WAY too long.
Shana
@Gvg: To be fair, many campaign managers and possibly other staffers frequently get bonuses if their candidate wins.
Doesn’t excuse all the other stuff, but the bonus in and of itself doesn’t mean that much.
glory b
And just to add special sauce, PA repubs pay the Green party enough to get on the ballot.
Redshift
@Obdurodon: The response from the NC GOP, from what I’ve heard, was to introduce a new voter ID bill.
But in general, they’re not going to shut up because they already know full well that the voter ID crusade isn’t about voter fraud. We know because they keep designing bills to make it harder for Democrats to get the specified ID.
Brendan in NC
@tobie: Definitely, maybe!! Long answer – VRA had mainly been used with regard to redistricting issues. Normally, this type of thing might not apply. However, NC is embroiled in lawsuits, regarding gerrymandering; and the Republican led legislature has continued to put forth replacement maps that do not fix the issue. They might have needed to be redrawn. I’ve seen a map drawn by an independent committee that looked perfect – 5R, 5D, and 3 tossup districts. Which means the Republican majority won’t go for it.
Procopius
Ah, hope springs eternal in the human breast. I suppose it’s a good thing. Otherwise the species would die out.
Procopius
@Corner Stone: I would say the key is the affidavits which reporters and newspapers have been gathering. Dozens of them so far, and potentially hundreds. Including from people who were paid for picking up unsealed ballots, who are themselves in jeopardy because what they did was illegal. “I didn’t know it was illegal because he’s been doing this for years,” one of them said. I hope they all get immunity for testifying. I don’t know anything about the District Attorney there and haven’t seen any reporting on that aspect of it.
Procopius
@oatler.: I don’t think Gen. Sherman was too merciful, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Abe was. Every official in the Confederate States of America and every soldier in their armies, was guilty of treason (as defined in Article III of the Constitution). They should at least have tried and convicted Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, General Robert E. Lee and every other flag officer in the military. Lincoln could have granted amnesty, but the fact of their treason should have been carved in stone. The military officers at that level were all oath-breakers, too, although that’s not a civil crime in our country. They had all sworn to defend the Constitution before they waged war against it.
Procopius
@Gvg: Interestingly, one women who was paid $100 to collect ballots, said, “I didn’t know it was illegal. He’s been doing this for many years.” They got themselves a can of worms there. The truly astonishing thing, the election commission voted unanimously to withhold certification. That means there are Republicans left in this country who are honest enough to recoil from this dreck.
Uncle Cosmo
@Procopius: “That means there are Republicans left in this country who are honest enough to recoil from this dreck.”
Um, no, it only means that their own ox was gored when Rev. Fuckhead ratfucked the GOP incumbent in exactly the same fashion in the primary. As pointed out by Mnem in #16 supra,
Just Chuck
You know damn well these antics weren’t confined to a single election in a single state. I hope this comes out in the investigation.