False election claims overwhelm local efforts to push back
By MORGAN LEE
Today
ESTANCIA, N.M. (AP) — Republican county commissioners in this swath of ranching country in New Mexico’s high desert have tried everything they can think of to persuade voters their elections are secure.
They approved hand-counting of ballots from the primary election in their rural county, encouraged the public to observe security testing of ballot machines and tasked their county manager with overseeing those efforts to make sure they ran smoothly. None of that seems enough.
Here and elsewhere, Republicans as well as Democrats are paying a price for former President Donald Trump's relentless complaints and false claims about the 2020 election he lost.
Many Torrance County voters still don’t trust voting machines or election tallies, a conspiracy-fueled lack of faith that persists in rural areas across the U.S. Just weeks before consequential midterm elections, such widespread skepticism suggests that no matter the outcome, many Americans may not accept the results.
“Confidence that that vote is accurately counted and tabulated is not there,” said Ryan Schwebach, a grain farmer who is chairman of the three-member, all-Republican Torrance County Board of County Commissioners.
After a backlash this summer over the county’s certification of its primary results, Schwebach surveyed county residents who don’t attend public meetings. They, too, told him they weren’t sure they could trust election results.
“It’s the overall system that comes into question,” he said. “So how do you challenge that, how do you get your answers?”
The belief that voting machines are being manipulated to sway the outcome of races is being promoted by Trump and his allies, many of whom have been spreading conspiracy theories throughout the country for nearly two years.
The distrust erupted in Torrance County earlier this year, as commissioners were set to certify the results from the state’s June 7 primary. Torrance was among a handful of rural New Mexico counties that considered delaying certification as crowds gave voice to conspiracy theories surrounding voting equipment.
Angry residents denounced the results and the commissioners’ certification at a meeting -- a vote taken after the county elections clerk reported that the local election was secure and accurate. Those in the audience hurled insults at the commissioners, calling them “cowards,” “traitors” and “rubber stamp puppets.”
The commissioners responded to the vitriol by taking several unprecedented steps in an attempt to restore trust in voting and ballot counting.
They ordered an independent recount of primary election results by hand and assigned the county manager to recruit veteran poll workers and volunteers for two days of eye-straining efforts to sort and tally ballot images, with additional recounts. They also had her oversee testing and certification of the county’s vote tabulators.
“I’m kind of pioneering this, and I’m sure I’m not going to be perfect in it, but I can tell you that I’m trying,” said Janice Barela, the county manager overseeing the recount. “How do you know if it’s the hand tally that’s right? How do you know if it’s a tabulator that’s right? … What I’d like to see in all of this is the election process work.”
It’s not clear whether her efforts will satisfy local doubts about the accuracy of elections — or add to them.
Bill Mendenhall, a registered Republican nearing retirement age, said anger still smolders in the community over the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Trump won two-thirds of the vote in Torrance County.
“I don’t think it burns that hot, but it does burn,” said Mendenhall, a correctional officer at the maximum-security Penitentiary of New Mexico. He was tending to a small herd of goats beneath an old windmill on his 18-acre ranch. “Of the people I work with, 90% of them is angry. A lot of people think that Trump was cheated.”
Brady Ness, a 37-year-old manager of a car dealership who grew up on a ranch in Estancia, said he does not trust Dominion Voting Systems machines that are used to tally paper ballots across New Mexico. The machines are a frequent target of conspiracy theories, and Ness hopes to see a transition to hand counting in future elections, though current state law mandates machine tallies.
“Even if they’re Democrats or people I don’t like or get along with, I would trust them over machines,” Ness said.
He recently left the Republican Party amid profound frustration with the state and federal governments, which he says are not serving the needs of the people.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if we didn’t have a general election,” he said. “I think things in this country are falling apart very quickly.”
At the same time, Bill Peifer, a local treasurer for the Democratic Party, warns that not everyone who questions the elections may have the same motive.
“Some of the people casting doubt I think honestly don’t trust the machines,” he said. “And there are others who just want to make a mess.”
The dour outlook in the county of 15,000 has been propelled by the same forces at work in many other states. In New Mexico, doubts about the 2020 election were fueled by a lawsuit from Trump’s campaign and a fake set of electors willing to certify him.
More recently, an assortment of local and out-of-state Trump allies have held forums throughout the state promoting conspiracy theories, including former White House strategist Steve Bannon, MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell and the Republican nominee for secretary of state, Audrey Trujillo.
At the forefront is David Clements, a New Mexico-based former prosecutor and former college professor. At conventions, church gatherings and local forums, he advocates for eliminating electronic election equipment and exonerating many of the defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
At a presentation last month to about 60 people at a public library in Albuquerque, Clements described voting equipment in New Mexico as intentionally vulnerable to fraud and painted many county officials as complicit.
“We’re never going to stop the bleeding unless we get rid of these machines,” he said. “It’s a foundational issue.”
Deep-seated distrust in elections has inspired independent challengers in the November general elections for the seats held by Schwebach and Commissioner Kevin McCall. Both of their opponents have stated that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president.
McCall is seeking re-election while working long hours at his pumpkin farm, which features a haunted house for Halloween and employs more than 400 seasonal workers.
“We care,” he said in a recent interview. “We put Janice on that to be the one sole job, to evaluate and provide trust in the election.”
He expressed exasperation that the efforts do not seem to have paid off so far.
“If they really want to replace me, replace me,” he said. “I’m not doing this for the money.”
The county released results on Thursday from its hand count of primary ballots, showing discrepancies between those tallies and the machine count in June, though not enough to change individual races.
Experts say machine tabulators have been shown to be more accurate than hand counts, which are susceptible to human error. Nevertheless, the results were greeted as vindication by doubters.
“While the numbers are new information, the fact that machines are untrustworthy is not new,” declared Jennette Hunt of Estancia.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,801
GOP voters told to hold onto mail ballots until Election Day
By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY and ALI SWENSON
Today
ATLANTA (AP) — Republican activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump have crafted a plan that, in their telling, will thwart cheating in this year’s midterm elections.
The strategy: Vote in person on Election Day or — for voters who receive a mailed ballot — hold onto it and hand it in at a polling place or election office on Nov. 8.
The plan is based on unfounded conspiracy theories that fraudsters will manipulate voting systems to rig results for Democrats once they have seen how many Republican votes have been returned early. There has been no evidence of any such widespread fraud.
If enough voters are dissuaded from casting ballots early, it could lead to long lines on Election Day and would push back processing of those late-arriving mailed ballots. Those ballots likely would not get counted until the next day or later.
“It just slows everything down,” said Noah Praetz, the former election clerk in Cook County, Illinois, who now advises local election offices on best practices and security. “In many places, if you don’t get mail ballots in hand until Election Day, you are not counting them until after Election Day.”
That hasn’t stopped conspiracy theories that have spread over the last two years, fueled by Trump, allies including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and a crop of Republican candidates seeking office this year. The calls to hold onto ballots until the last minute have grown louder in recent weeks, according to a review of social media accounts by The Associated Press.
“It’s a lot easier to catch any fraud,” Lindell, who has promoted the last-minute voting strategy on podcasts, told the AP in a recent interview. Lindell, through various events, has sought to prove that voting machines were manipulated to favor Biden in 2020.
Trump also has weighed in, saying at a recent rally that voting on Election Day was best because “it’s much harder for them to cheat that way.”
The strategy push by conservatives comes after the use of mailed ballots soared during the 2020 election amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The end of pandemic restrictions, Trump's attacks on mailed ballots and new voting restrictions in some Republican-led states has led to a decline in the use of mailed ballots this year, but it still remains a popular option for many voters.
Experts say a last-minute crush of ballots could end up creating delays that can be used by a bad actor to undermine confidence in the election.
“It’s an opening for people to begin questioning and stoking mistrust and distrust," said Chris Piper, former commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections.
Discouraging early voting and encouraging voters to hold onto their mailed ballots until Election Day runs counter to efforts by most campaigns. Republican and Democratic candidates alike typically want to have as many ballots in hand as possible heading into Election Day so they can focus their efforts on getting stragglers to the polls and persuading undecided voters.
The dueling approaches have resulted in a confusing array of messages for Republican voters.
In Georgia, a recent online flier by one grassroots group read: “Voting in person and on Election Day is the only way to overwhelm the system.” A conservative group in the state, VoterGA, told its members to “protect” their votes by applying for an absentee ballot early and waiting to deliver it until Election Day.
The chair of the state Republican Party, David Shafer, recently tweeted on the party’s official account: “Voting in-person early is just as safe as voting in-person on Election Day!”
The cross-messaging also is hitting Republican voters in Arizona, which has high-stakes races this year for U.S. Senate, governor and secretary of state. Mail voting has been popular there among voters of both parties for years.
State Sen. Wendy Rogers, a Republican who backed a partisan review of 2020 ballots in Maricopa County, told viewers of One America News Network earlier this month that “we need to vote on the last day, the day of Election Day, so they don’t know how much to cheat by.”
But her party’s top candidates -- who also have embraced false claims about the 2020 election -- have recently tried to counter that strategy.
“If you have a mail-in ballot, I think that you should mail it in. I want people to vote,” Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor, told reporters this month. “And vote whatever way you want to vote, but vote.”
Lake has been among those calling for a rollback in mailed ballots and early voting, favoring instead a single day of in-person voting. Blake Masters, the Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona who also has Trump’s support, said it’s fine to vote by mail if that’s what a voter prefers.
“I want to know results on election night,” Masters told reporters earlier this month. “I’m telling people vote in person, if you can. If not, vote early and return via mail. And let’s know the result.”
It’s unclear whether the messaging for Republicans to hold onto their mailed ballots is having an effect. In two politically important states, the return rate for mailed ballots is slower than in previous elections — although it also could mean voters there remain undecided.
In Georgia, about 23% of mailed ballots have been returned with just over two weeks before Election Day compared to about 35% at about the same time in 2020 and almost 37% in 2018. As of Oct. 19 in Wisconsin, 45% of mailed ballots had been returned compared to 56% in at the same point 2020 and 2018.
Some Democrats also have advocated submitting ballots at the last minute — but based more on a political strategy than claims of fraud.
Pam Keith, an attorney, Democratic activist and former congressional candidate in Florida, said she thinks the predictability that Democrats will vote by mail gives Republicans an early hint at turnout levels. That’s why she is advocating for a surge of ballots at the last minute, catching Republicans off guard.
“By voting early, we are showing our hand,” Keith said. “We show what our turnout number is going to be. And if they know that the overwhelming majority of vote-by-mail ballots are in, then they know what they need to do to win.”
Keith’s advice strayed from that of many Democratic candidates, who have encouraged their supporters to vote early and by mail.
___
Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writers Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
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RICHMOND — State elections officials directed more than 30,000 Northern Virginia voters to the wrong polling place in mailers sent ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, an error they acknowledged Friday and blamed on the private printing company that produced the notices.
Those mistakes follow even more error-riddled effort in Southwest Virginia, where an additional 30,000 voters were affected. Some notices in that part of the state were sent to physical addresses instead of P.O. boxes, then re-sent to the boxes but with the wrong information, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported this week.
And earlier this month, the department disclosed that an unspecified technical glitch had left about 107,000 voter applications in limbo for months.
State elections officials promised that the mistakes will not prevent anyone from voting. Local registrars for Fairfax and Prince William counties will send corrected notices to all affected voters Monday, according to a news release from the department that noted the state will reimburse the localities for that expense.
Pro-Trump Republicans court election volunteers to ‘challenge any vote’ By Patrick Marley, Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger October 25, 2022 at 6:00 ET RACINE, Wis. — The Republican National Committee and its allies say they have staged thousands of training sessions around the country on how to monitor voting and lodge complaints about next month’s midterm elections. In Pennsylvania, party officials have boasted about swelling the ranks of poll watchers to six times the total from 2020. In Michigan, a right-wing group announced it had launched “Operation Overwatch” to hunt down election-related malfeasance, issuing a press release that repeated the warning “We are watching” 10 times. Supporters of former president Donald Trump who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen have summoned a swarm of poll watchers and workers in battleground states to spot potential fraud this year. It is a call to action that could subject voting results around the country to an unprecedented level of suspicion and unfounded doubt. “We’re going to be there and enforce those rules, and we’ll challenge any vote, any ballot, and you’re going to have to live with it, OK?” one-time Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon said on a recent episode of his podcast. “We don’t care if you don’t like it. We don’t care if you’re going to run around and light your hair on fire. That’s the way this is going to roll.”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Pro-Trump Republicans court election volunteers to ‘challenge any vote’ By Patrick Marley, Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger October 25, 2022 at 6:00 ET RACINE, Wis. — The Republican National Committee and its allies say they have staged thousands of training sessions around the country on how to monitor voting and lodge complaints about next month’s midterm elections. In Pennsylvania, party officials have boasted about swelling the ranks of poll watchers to six times the total from 2020. In Michigan, a right-wing group announced it had launched “Operation Overwatch” to hunt down election-related malfeasance, issuing a press release that repeated the warning “We are watching” 10 times. Supporters of former president Donald Trump who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen have summoned a swarm of poll watchers and workers in battleground states to spot potential fraud this year. It is a call to action that could subject voting results around the country to an unprecedented level of suspicion and unfounded doubt. “We’re going to be there and enforce those rules, and we’ll challenge any vote, any ballot, and you’re going to have to live with it, OK?” one-time Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon said on a recent episode of his podcast. “We don’t care if you don’t like it. We don’t care if you’re going to run around and light your hair on fire. That’s the way this is going to roll.”
continues..
Would love to see BLM’ers, the Black Panthers and Antiiiiiiiifa to do the same in predominantly white, repub districts. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?
Judge considers stopping Phoenix ballot drop box watchers
By ANITA SNOW
Yesterday
PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge in Arizona said he hopes to decide by Friday whether to order members of a group to stop monitoring outdoor ballot drop boxes in the Phoenix area in an effort that has sparked allegations of voter intimidation.
The groups Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and Voto Latino asked U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi during a Wednesday hearing to prevent members of Clean Elections USA from gathering within sight of drop boxes in Maricopa County, the state's most populous, and from following voters and taking photos and videos of them and their cars.
The attorney for Clean Elections USA said that such a broad restraining order would be unconstitutional.
Liburdi said he hoped to issue a decision by Friday but could continue to weigh the matter into the weekend.
The League of Women Voters filed a similar suit Tuesday in federal court in Arizona, alleging that Clean Elections USA is intimidating voters.
That suit also alleges that the groups Lions of Liberty and the Yavapai County Preparedness Team, which are associated with the far-right anti-government group Oath Keepers, have undertaken their own effort to watch ballot boxes and film voters in Arizona’s Yavapai County.
Election deniers around the United States have embraced a film that has been discredited called “2000 Mules” that claims that people were paid to travel among drop boxes and stuff them with fraudulent ballots during the 2020 presidential vote.
There’s no evidence for the notion that a network of Democrat-associated ballot “mules” has conspired to collect and deliver ballots to drop boxes, either two year ago or in the upcoming midterm elections.
Amid the complaints from voters who say they have been harassed, Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said this week his office has begun providing security around drop boxes. Sheriff's deputies responded when two masked people carrying guns and wearing bulletproof vests showed up at a drop box in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.
The secretary of state this week said her office has received six cases of potential voter intimidation to the state attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as a threatening email sent to the state elections director.
The U.S. attorney's office in Arizona said it is also keeping an eye on cases alleging voter intimidation and vowed to prosecute those who violate federal law.
Federal officials said local police officers would be the “front line in efforts to ensure that all qualified voters are able to exercise their right to vote free of intimidation or other election abuses.”
“We will vigorously safeguard all Arizonans’ rights to freely and lawfully cast their ballot during the election,” the office said Wednesday. “As the several election threat-related cases pending federal felony charges from alleged criminal activity arising out of our State show, acts which cross the line will not go unaddressed.”
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is calling on voters to report any intimidation immediately to police and file a complaint with his office.
“Regardless of intent, this type of misguided behavior is contrary to both the laws and values of our state,” said Brnovich, a Republican.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Screw that I’m def confronting anyone who might be at my polling place wearing masks and tactical gear!
Ha! LOL. Nobody's afraid of potheads
Real tough guy, this one. Why’s he concealing his identity? Could have just worn a hood and cape but I suppose that would have interfered with all of his necessary/required tactical gear? Maybe he’s Taliban? Regardless, you know that all of those BLM’ers and Antiiiiiiiiiiifa ballot box stuffers are so mean. ‘Murica, baby!
Who's the pic of? This the guy that beat up Paul P. last night? Or is this the pic of the guy that went after Brett K?
I guess you don’t watch any news? Maricopa county look it up? How would you like if liberals were sitting on lawn chairs watching you vote? Would you smile to the camera or would you be bothered?
Milwaukee elections worker fired over false ballot requests
By HARM VENHUIZEN
Today
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A top Milwaukee elections official has been fired after sending falsely obtained military absentee ballots to the home of a Republican state lawmaker who has been an outspoken critic of how the 2020 election was administered, the city's mayor said Thursday.
Kimberly Zapata, deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, requested military ballots for fictitious voters from clerks in nearby municipalities using the state's MyVote Wisconsin website, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said just days before the midterm election.
“This has every appearance of being an egregious, blatant violation of trust, and this matter is now in the hands of law enforcement,” said Johnson.
As part of her job, Zapata oversaw the counting of absentee ballots in Milwaukee. The mayor said the city is investigating whether she might have committed any other offenses.
The ballots were sent to the home of Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who chairs the Assembly elections committee and has voiced support for overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state and promoted conspiracy theories about the same. Earlier this week, Brandtjen's office said she had received three ballots for military voters she believed to be fictitious. Brandtjen said then she thought someone was trying to show how easy it is to get military ballots in Wisconsin.
The announcement comes five days ahead of Election Day in a cycle where officials are increasingly concerned about threats from within their own organizations. In battleground states such as Wisconsin, elections officials are seeing record partisan poll worker nominations that could put skeptics on the front lines of the voting process.
Zapata's motive for allegedly obtaining and sending the ballots wasn't immediately clear. She did not immediately respond to messages left Thursday at phone numbers believed to be hers. Michael Maistelman, an attorney for Zapata, declined to comment.
But her boss, commission Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg, said she thought Zapata was intent on illustrating a vulnerability in the system. She said Zapata had, to her knowledge, never before violated work policies or procedures.
Zapata's alleged actions echo those of a Racine man who requested and received absentee ballots in the names of lawmakers and local officials in July. That man, Harry Wait, said he wanted to expose vulnerabilities in the state's elections system. He has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of election fraud and two felony counts of identity theft — charges that could land him in prison for up to 13 years.
Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said his office was reviewing allegations against Zapata and that he expects charges to be filed “in the coming days.”
In Wisconsin, military voters are not required to register to vote, meaning they don’t need to provide a photo ID to request an absentee ballot.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission and local elections officials who send out and collect ballots have a number of safeguards in place to catch fraudulent absentee ballot requests. The elections commission staff monitors the statewide voter registration system for indications of unauthorized requests. The MyVote website also requires a person requesting a ballot to verify that they are the person asking for it, along with a warning about potential penalties for committing fraud.
Zapata was fired immediately after the city was made aware that she might have been responsible, and she no longer has access to city computer networks or offices, the mayor said.
Zapata had worked for the elections commission for seven years and with the city of Milwaukee for nearly 10 years, according to Claire Woodall-Vogg, the elections commission's executive director. She declined to comment on why Zapata might have requested the ballots.
Brandtjen said the episode vindicates the concerns she has raised about elections despite criticism from “the liberal media” and Republicans “who don't have the backbone to take on the issues.”
President Joe Biden defeated Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, an outcome that has withstood two partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firm’s review and numerous state and federal lawsuits. Even a Republican-ordered review that drew bipartisan criticism did not turn up evidence of widespread fraud that would change the outcome of the election before the investigator was fired.
In August, after Wait's actions came to light, the election commission notified voters whose absentee ballot requests for the primary went to a mailing address different from the one on file to alert them of potential fraud.
___
Harm Venhuizen is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Venhuizen on Twitter.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Pro-Trump Republicans court election volunteers to ‘challenge any vote’ By Patrick Marley, Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger October 25, 2022 at 6:00 ET RACINE, Wis. — The Republican National Committee and its allies say they have staged thousands of training sessions around the country on how to monitor voting and lodge complaints about next month’s midterm elections. In Pennsylvania, party officials have boasted about swelling the ranks of poll watchers to six times the total from 2020. In Michigan, a right-wing group announced it had launched “Operation Overwatch” to hunt down election-related malfeasance, issuing a press release that repeated the warning “We are watching” 10 times. Supporters of former president Donald Trump who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen have summoned a swarm of poll watchers and workers in battleground states to spot potential fraud this year. It is a call to action that could subject voting results around the country to an unprecedented level of suspicion and unfounded doubt. “We’re going to be there and enforce those rules, and we’ll challenge any vote, any ballot, and you’re going to have to live with it, OK?” one-time Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon said on a recent episode of his podcast. “We don’t care if you don’t like it. We don’t care if you’re going to run around and light your hair on fire. That’s the way this is going to roll.”
continues..
Would love to see BLM’ers, the Black Panthers and Antiiiiiiiifa to do the same in predominantly white, repub districts. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?
Have you been to Portland lately? You might very well see it if they take time off from rioting and looting.
How dare he insinuate that Paul Pelosi is nefarious. Paul has a stellar track record which includes killing his brother due to his reckless driving, almost killing another driver recently while drunk driving and let's throw in a bunch of insider trading with his wife Nancy.
How dare he insinuate that Paul Pelosi is nefarious. Paul has a stellar track record which includes killing his brother due to his reckless driving, almost killing another driver recently while drunk driving and let's throw in a bunch of insider trading with his wife Nancy.
Pro-Trump Republicans court election volunteers to ‘challenge any vote’ By Patrick Marley, Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger October 25, 2022 at 6:00 ET RACINE, Wis. — The Republican National Committee and its allies say they have staged thousands of training sessions around the country on how to monitor voting and lodge complaints about next month’s midterm elections. In Pennsylvania, party officials have boasted about swelling the ranks of poll watchers to six times the total from 2020. In Michigan, a right-wing group announced it had launched “Operation Overwatch” to hunt down election-related malfeasance, issuing a press release that repeated the warning “We are watching” 10 times. Supporters of former president Donald Trump who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen have summoned a swarm of poll watchers and workers in battleground states to spot potential fraud this year. It is a call to action that could subject voting results around the country to an unprecedented level of suspicion and unfounded doubt. “We’re going to be there and enforce those rules, and we’ll challenge any vote, any ballot, and you’re going to have to live with it, OK?” one-time Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon said on a recent episode of his podcast. “We don’t care if you don’t like it. We don’t care if you’re going to run around and light your hair on fire. That’s the way this is going to roll.”
continues..
Would love to see BLM’ers, the Black Panthers and Antiiiiiiiifa to do the same in predominantly white, repub districts. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?
Have you been to Portland lately? You might very well see it if they take time off from rioting and looting.
Well it won't be your guys fault so you can take solace in that. You did your level best to let criminals out of jail, make law enforcement a thankless job that nobody wants, illegally open the border, let men play in women's sports and give little kids sex changes so don't feel like it was your fault.
Some people just don't think as smart as you I guess?
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The Juggler
Behind that bush over there. Posts: 47,298
Well it won't be your guys fault so you can take solace in that. You did your level best to let criminals out of jail, make law enforcement a thankless job that nobody wants, illegally open the border, let men play in women's sports and give little kids sex changes so don't feel like it was your fault.
Some people just don't think as smart as you I guess?
lol...republican dark money super pacs work has paid off, I see. Lol...you are a walking embodiment of every nonsensical political ad on television right now.
Well it won't be your guys fault so you can take solace in that. You did your level best to let criminals out of jail, make law enforcement a thankless job that nobody wants, illegally open the border, let men play in women's sports and give little kids sex changes so don't feel like it was your fault.
Some people just don't think as smart as you I guess?
lol...republican dark money super pacs work has paid off, I see. Lol...you are a walking embodiment of every nonsensical political ad on television right now.
Well it won't be your guys fault so you can take solace in that. You did your level best to let criminals out of jail, make law enforcement a thankless job that nobody wants, illegally open the border, let men play in women's sports and give little kids sex changes so don't feel like it was your fault.
Some people just don't think as smart as you I guess?
Wait so your twin post here too 🤣🤣🤣 you guys are mucho Loco
jesus greets me looks just like me ....
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brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,731
I was reminiscing today about how when 45 was elected I was so angry said that anyone here who voted for T could go f*ck themselves. I was lucky I didn't get banned here and knew what I did was totally in the wrong (even though my feelings were totally understandable), so I banned myself from all PJ forums for 6 months.
So now with the midterm election upon us, I have no idea how much of this country will turn red and succumb to the lure of insane MAGA thinking. But this much I know- I will not tell anyone here to go f*ck themselves because I won't need to. No, I will tell them they will unwittingly have done that to themselves and are too stupid to realize it. Not that Dems have done everything right and not made some bad choices. They have fucked up at times too, you bet. But most Democrats didn't stop being Americans, they did not turn away from democracy, they did not side with insane Putin, they didn't opt to become authoritarian fascist idiots. They didn't become insurrectionists or side with sedition. They didn't have total disregard for the planet that sustains us all. They didn't hate women and do what they could to take away a woman's right to her own body. They didn't hate people with a different sexual or gender orientation to their own. And they didn't throw all their support to a small minority of people who don't give a shit about anybody but themselves. And by throwing their support to those people and siding with authoritarian rule and by making jokes about a man who was brutalized by a mad man with a hammer and by not caring about people who are not just like them and by not caring for the very planet that sustains us, they will have fucked themselves.
I will tell them, "Brilliant move MAGA people. Good luck with your dead democracy and dying plant. You fucked up."
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
I was reminiscing today about how when 45 was elected I was so angry said that anyone here who voted for T could go f*ck themselves. I was lucky I didn't get banned here and knew what I did was totally in the wrong (even though my feelings were totally understandable), so I banned myself from all PJ forums for 6 months.
So now with the midterm election upon us, I have no idea how much of this country will turn red and succumb to the lure of insane MAGA thinking. But this much I know- I will not tell anyone here to go f*ck themselves because I won't need to. No, I will tell them they will unwittingly have done that to themselves and are too stupid to realize it. Not that Dems have done everything right and not made some bad choices. They have fucked up at times too, you bet. But most Democrats didn't stop being Americans, they did not turn away from democracy, they did not side with insane Putin, they didn't opt to become authoritarian fascist idiots. They didn't become insurrectionists or side with sedition. They didn't have total disregard for the planet that sustains us all. They didn't hate women and do what they could to take away a woman's right to her own body. They didn't hate people with a different sexual or gender orientation to their own. And they didn't throw all their support to a small minority of people who don't give a shit about anybody but themselves. And by throwing their support to those people and siding with authoritarian rule and by making jokes about a man who was brutalized by a mad man with a hammer and by not caring about people who are not just like them and by not caring for the very planet that sustains us, they will have fucked themselves.
I will tell them, "Brilliant move MAGA people. Good luck with your dead democracy and dying plant. You fucked up."
All good points! They just don’t give two craps that things could get really bad if our democracy tumble’s!
jesus greets me looks just like me ....
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brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,731
I was reminiscing today about how when 45 was elected I was so angry said that anyone here who voted for T could go f*ck themselves. I was lucky I didn't get banned here and knew what I did was totally in the wrong (even though my feelings were totally understandable), so I banned myself from all PJ forums for 6 months.
So now with the midterm election upon us, I have no idea how much of this country will turn red and succumb to the lure of insane MAGA thinking. But this much I know- I will not tell anyone here to go f*ck themselves because I won't need to. No, I will tell them they will unwittingly have done that to themselves and are too stupid to realize it. Not that Dems have done everything right and not made some bad choices. They have fucked up at times too, you bet. But most Democrats didn't stop being Americans, they did not turn away from democracy, they did not side with insane Putin, they didn't opt to become authoritarian fascist idiots. They didn't become insurrectionists or side with sedition. They didn't have total disregard for the planet that sustains us all. They didn't hate women and do what they could to take away a woman's right to her own body. They didn't hate people with a different sexual or gender orientation to their own. And they didn't throw all their support to a small minority of people who don't give a shit about anybody but themselves. And by throwing their support to those people and siding with authoritarian rule and by making jokes about a man who was brutalized by a mad man with a hammer and by not caring about people who are not just like them and by not caring for the very planet that sustains us, they will have fucked themselves.
I will tell them, "Brilliant move MAGA people. Good luck with your dead democracy and dying plant. You fucked up."
All good points! They just don’t give two craps that things could get really bad if our democracy tumble’s!
Exactly! It's the epitome of short sighted thinking. And then they will be the first to complain and whine when they find out too late that having selfish idiots running the show leads to everything gone to shit.
I just hope the polls are wrong. I hope democrats come out in droves and maintain the edge that still believes democracy is better than authoritarian rule.
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
I was reminiscing today about how when 45 was elected I was so angry said that anyone here who voted for T could go f*ck themselves. I was lucky I didn't get banned here and knew what I did was totally in the wrong (even though my feelings were totally understandable), so I banned myself from all PJ forums for 6 months.
So now with the midterm election upon us, I have no idea how much of this country will turn red and succumb to the lure of insane MAGA thinking. But this much I know- I will not tell anyone here to go f*ck themselves because I won't need to. No, I will tell them they will unwittingly have done that to themselves and are too stupid to realize it. Not that Dems have done everything right and not made some bad choices. They have fucked up at times too, you bet. But most Democrats didn't stop being Americans, they did not turn away from democracy, they did not side with insane Putin, they didn't opt to become authoritarian fascist idiots. They didn't become insurrectionists or side with sedition. They didn't have total disregard for the planet that sustains us all. They didn't hate women and do what they could to take away a woman's right to her own body. They didn't hate people with a different sexual or gender orientation to their own. And they didn't throw all their support to a small minority of people who don't give a shit about anybody but themselves. And by throwing their support to those people and siding with authoritarian rule and by making jokes about a man who was brutalized by a mad man with a hammer and by not caring about people who are not just like them and by not caring for the very planet that sustains us, they will have fucked themselves.
I will tell them, "Brilliant move MAGA people. Good luck with your dead democracy and dying plant. You fucked up."
All good points! They just don’t give two craps that things could get really bad if our democracy tumble’s!
They, the QtRUmplicans don't care about authoritarian rule. As long as the libs are owned and anyone not an old wealthy white male who claims to be "christian" is removed from 'murica.
Nothing to see here folks, nothing at all. All legitimate and on the up and up, trying to protect against voter fraud. Pro cop and pro military. Sure. Oh yea, your vote matters. Sure.
Lawsuit seeks to block counting of military ballots in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin lawmaker who has been a frequent promoter of false election claims is suing to prevent the immediate counting of military ballots in her state after she received three ballots under fake names.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday, was brought by a veterans group and three individuals, including Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R), the chairwoman of the State Assembly’s elections committee.
Last week, Brandtjen received three military ballots under fictitious names that were allegedly sent to her by Kimberly Zapata, a Milwaukee election official. Election officials have criticized Brandtjen for spreading false claims about the system, and Zapata later told prosecutors she was trying to alert Brandtjen about an actual weakness in the state’s voting system that should be addressed.
Unlike most states, Wisconsin allows military members to cast ballots without registering to vote or providing proof of residency. Military ballots make up a tiny fraction of votes in Wisconsin — about 1,400 so far for Tuesday’s election.
Brandtjen and the others are using the incident to argue that military ballots should not be counted unless election officials can show they complied with a state law requiring them to maintain lists of all eligible military voters.
Brandtjen’s attorney, Erick Kaardal of the conservative Thomas More Society, said state officials have handled elections in a way that is “conducive to vote fraud.”
Will Attig, director of the Union Veterans Council, expressed alarm at the attempt to prevent counting military ballots.
“These are service members defending our country that have the right to vote and their means to vote is by mail,” he said. “We’ve got what to me appears to be an orchestrated plan by election deniers who do not truly support our democracy.”
Republicans sued to restrict this drop box. Meet the voters using it.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — In the political battleground of Lehigh County, a legal group linked to Donald Trump sued to slash the hours of the only around-the-clock ballot drop box, arguing someone could stuff it with fake votes. Vigilantes pledged online to protect it. Election clerks received anonymous letters: “STOP THE ELECTION FRAUD.”
But on this November evening, there are no citizen guards or sneaky fraudsters at the Lehigh County Government Center ballot drop box, just a janitor wiping the glass windows. Leaves skittering across the sidewalk. A husky sniffing grass.
“The rhetoric flying around out there does not match the reality,” said Geoff Brace, the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners chair, a registered Democrat. Investigations nationwide have found no evidence of voter fraud that could have swayed an election, and the same is true here. “It is just a convenience for people,” said Timothy Benyo, the local elections director, a registered Republican. “It is not a fraud factory.”
Ballot boxes were not always controversial. When the Republican-controlled legislature approved broad mail voting in 2019, the top Republican in the Pennsylvania Senate called it “the most significant modernization of our election’s code in decades.” Drop-off voting skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic, particularly among Democrats, as Americans sought to avoid crowded polling sites.
Yet ahead of the 2020 election, President Donald Trump and right-wing activists claimed without evidence that early voting is rife with cheating, and Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania pushed to tighten the rules. There are five drop boxes now open in Lehigh County. Signs at the 24-hour voting slot at the Government Center warn that depositing the ballot of anyone else without special permission is illegal.
In the lawsuit a county judge threw out last month, the America First Legal Foundation, led by Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Trump and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, cited an investigation by the district attorney that found 288 instances of people dropping off more than one ballot ahead of the November 2021 election.
Most of the offenders slipped in two, and no one carried more than six. Authorities declined to pursue any charges. “There is no scary ‘ballot harvesting’ with dump trucks full of extra ballots,” said Benyo, the election official. “These are regular people.”
For eight hours over two evenings this week, The Washington Post watched people place their votes in this historically moderate slice of Pennsylvania framed by Appalachian Mountain ridges. They were Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Some had split tickets. No one wanted to deal with the hassle of Election Day lines. Here are five of their stories.
Republicans sue to disqualify thousands of mail ballots in swing states
The lawsuits coincide with a systemic effort by GOP leaders to persuade voters to cast ballots in person, not absentee
Republican officials and candidates in at least three battleground states are pushing to disqualify thousands of mail ballots after urging their own supporters to vote on Election Day, in what critics are calling a concerted attempt at partisan voter suppression.
In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court has agreed with the Republican National Committee that election officials should not count ballots on which the voter neglected to put a date on the outer envelope — even in cases when the ballots arrive before Election Day. Thousands of ballots have been set aside as a result, enough to swing a close race.
In Michigan, Kristina Karamo, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, sued the top election official in Detroit last month, seeking to toss absentee ballots not cast in person with an ID, even though that runs contrary to state requirements. When asked in a recent court hearing, Karamo’s lawyer declined to say why the suit targets Detroit, a heavily Democratic, majority-Black city, and not the entire state.
And in Wisconsin, Republicans won a court ruling that will prevent some mail ballots from being counted when the required witness address is not complete.
Over the past two years, Republicans have waged a sustained campaign against alleged voter fraud. Experts say the litigation — which could significantly affect Tuesday’s vote — represents a parallel strategy of suing to disqualify mail ballots based on technicalities. While the rejections may have some basis in state law, experts say they appear to go against a principle, enshrined in federal law, of not disenfranchising voters for minor errors.
The suitscoincide with a systematic attempt by Republicans — led by former president Donald Trump — to persuade GOP voters to cast their ballots only on Election Day. Critics argue that the overall purpose is to separateRepublicans and Democrats by method of voting and then to use lawsuits to void mail ballots that are disproportionately Democratic.
“They’re looking for every advantage they can get, and they’ve calculated that this is a way that they can win more seats,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, a nonpartisan democracy advocacy organization. “Research has shown that absentee ballots are more likely to be discarded if they are voted by young people and people of color, which are not generally seen as the Republican base.”
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ESTANCIA, N.M. (AP) — Republican county commissioners in this swath of ranching country in New Mexico’s high desert have tried everything they can think of to persuade voters their elections are secure.
They approved hand-counting of ballots from the primary election in their rural county, encouraged the public to observe security testing of ballot machines and tasked their county manager with overseeing those efforts to make sure they ran smoothly. None of that seems enough.
Here and elsewhere, Republicans as well as Democrats are paying a price for former President Donald Trump's relentless complaints and false claims about the 2020 election he lost.
Many Torrance County voters still don’t trust voting machines or election tallies, a conspiracy-fueled lack of faith that persists in rural areas across the U.S. Just weeks before consequential midterm elections, such widespread skepticism suggests that no matter the outcome, many Americans may not accept the results.
“Confidence that that vote is accurately counted and tabulated is not there,” said Ryan Schwebach, a grain farmer who is chairman of the three-member, all-Republican Torrance County Board of County Commissioners.
After a backlash this summer over the county’s certification of its primary results, Schwebach surveyed county residents who don’t attend public meetings. They, too, told him they weren’t sure they could trust election results.
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“It’s the overall system that comes into question,” he said. “So how do you challenge that, how do you get your answers?”
The belief that voting machines are being manipulated to sway the outcome of races is being promoted by Trump and his allies, many of whom have been spreading conspiracy theories throughout the country for nearly two years.
Their messages have penetrated deeply into the Republican Party, despite no evidence of manipulation or widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. That finding has been supported by multiple reviews in battleground states, by judges who have rejected dozens of court cases, by Trump’s own Department of Justice and top officials in his administration.
The distrust erupted in Torrance County earlier this year, as commissioners were set to certify the results from the state’s June 7 primary. Torrance was among a handful of rural New Mexico counties that considered delaying certification as crowds gave voice to conspiracy theories surrounding voting equipment.
Angry residents denounced the results and the commissioners’ certification at a meeting -- a vote taken after the county elections clerk reported that the local election was secure and accurate. Those in the audience hurled insults at the commissioners, calling them “cowards,” “traitors” and “rubber stamp puppets.”
The commissioners responded to the vitriol by taking several unprecedented steps in an attempt to restore trust in voting and ballot counting.
They ordered an independent recount of primary election results by hand and assigned the county manager to recruit veteran poll workers and volunteers for two days of eye-straining efforts to sort and tally ballot images, with additional recounts. They also had her oversee testing and certification of the county’s vote tabulators.
“I’m kind of pioneering this, and I’m sure I’m not going to be perfect in it, but I can tell you that I’m trying,” said Janice Barela, the county manager overseeing the recount. “How do you know if it’s the hand tally that’s right? How do you know if it’s a tabulator that’s right? … What I’d like to see in all of this is the election process work.”
It’s not clear whether her efforts will satisfy local doubts about the accuracy of elections — or add to them.
Bill Mendenhall, a registered Republican nearing retirement age, said anger still smolders in the community over the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Trump won two-thirds of the vote in Torrance County.
“I don’t think it burns that hot, but it does burn,” said Mendenhall, a correctional officer at the maximum-security Penitentiary of New Mexico. He was tending to a small herd of goats beneath an old windmill on his 18-acre ranch. “Of the people I work with, 90% of them is angry. A lot of people think that Trump was cheated.”
Brady Ness, a 37-year-old manager of a car dealership who grew up on a ranch in Estancia, said he does not trust Dominion Voting Systems machines that are used to tally paper ballots across New Mexico. The machines are a frequent target of conspiracy theories, and Ness hopes to see a transition to hand counting in future elections, though current state law mandates machine tallies.
“Even if they’re Democrats or people I don’t like or get along with, I would trust them over machines,” Ness said.
He recently left the Republican Party amid profound frustration with the state and federal governments, which he says are not serving the needs of the people.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if we didn’t have a general election,” he said. “I think things in this country are falling apart very quickly.”
At the same time, Bill Peifer, a local treasurer for the Democratic Party, warns that not everyone who questions the elections may have the same motive.
“Some of the people casting doubt I think honestly don’t trust the machines,” he said. “And there are others who just want to make a mess.”
The dour outlook in the county of 15,000 has been propelled by the same forces at work in many other states. In New Mexico, doubts about the 2020 election were fueled by a lawsuit from Trump’s campaign and a fake set of electors willing to certify him.
More recently, an assortment of local and out-of-state Trump allies have held forums throughout the state promoting conspiracy theories, including former White House strategist Steve Bannon, MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell and the Republican nominee for secretary of state, Audrey Trujillo.
At the forefront is David Clements, a New Mexico-based former prosecutor and former college professor. At conventions, church gatherings and local forums, he advocates for eliminating electronic election equipment and exonerating many of the defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
At a presentation last month to about 60 people at a public library in Albuquerque, Clements described voting equipment in New Mexico as intentionally vulnerable to fraud and painted many county officials as complicit.
“We’re never going to stop the bleeding unless we get rid of these machines,” he said. “It’s a foundational issue.”
Deep-seated distrust in elections has inspired independent challengers in the November general elections for the seats held by Schwebach and Commissioner Kevin McCall. Both of their opponents have stated that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president.
McCall is seeking re-election while working long hours at his pumpkin farm, which features a haunted house for Halloween and employs more than 400 seasonal workers.
“We care,” he said in a recent interview. “We put Janice on that to be the one sole job, to evaluate and provide trust in the election.”
He expressed exasperation that the efforts do not seem to have paid off so far.
“If they really want to replace me, replace me,” he said. “I’m not doing this for the money.”
The county released results on Thursday from its hand count of primary ballots, showing discrepancies between those tallies and the machine count in June, though not enough to change individual races.
Experts say machine tabulators have been shown to be more accurate than hand counts, which are susceptible to human error. Nevertheless, the results were greeted as vindication by doubters.
“While the numbers are new information, the fact that machines are untrustworthy is not new,” declared Jennette Hunt of Estancia.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections'> https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections'> https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics
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ATLANTA (AP) — Republican activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump have crafted a plan that, in their telling, will thwart cheating in this year’s midterm elections.
The strategy: Vote in person on Election Day or — for voters who receive a mailed ballot — hold onto it and hand it in at a polling place or election office on Nov. 8.
The plan is based on unfounded conspiracy theories that fraudsters will manipulate voting systems to rig results for Democrats once they have seen how many Republican votes have been returned early. There has been no evidence of any such widespread fraud.
If enough voters are dissuaded from casting ballots early, it could lead to long lines on Election Day and would push back processing of those late-arriving mailed ballots. Those ballots likely would not get counted until the next day or later.
“It just slows everything down,” said Noah Praetz, the former election clerk in Cook County, Illinois, who now advises local election offices on best practices and security. “In many places, if you don’t get mail ballots in hand until Election Day, you are not counting them until after Election Day.”
There is no evidence of widespread fraud, cheating or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 election. Exhaustive reviews in the states disputed by Trump upheld Democrat Joe Biden’s win, and legal challenges pursued by the former president and his allies were rejected by numerous judges, including ones appointed by Republicans.
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That hasn’t stopped conspiracy theories that have spread over the last two years, fueled by Trump, allies including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and a crop of Republican candidates seeking office this year. The calls to hold onto ballots until the last minute have grown louder in recent weeks, according to a review of social media accounts by The Associated Press.
“It’s a lot easier to catch any fraud,” Lindell, who has promoted the last-minute voting strategy on podcasts, told the AP in a recent interview. Lindell, through various events, has sought to prove that voting machines were manipulated to favor Biden in 2020.
Trump also has weighed in, saying at a recent rally that voting on Election Day was best because “it’s much harder for them to cheat that way.”
The strategy push by conservatives comes after the use of mailed ballots soared during the 2020 election amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The end of pandemic restrictions, Trump's attacks on mailed ballots and new voting restrictions in some Republican-led states has led to a decline in the use of mailed ballots this year, but it still remains a popular option for many voters.
Experts say a last-minute crush of ballots could end up creating delays that can be used by a bad actor to undermine confidence in the election.
“It’s an opening for people to begin questioning and stoking mistrust and distrust," said Chris Piper, former commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections.
Discouraging early voting and encouraging voters to hold onto their mailed ballots until Election Day runs counter to efforts by most campaigns. Republican and Democratic candidates alike typically want to have as many ballots in hand as possible heading into Election Day so they can focus their efforts on getting stragglers to the polls and persuading undecided voters.
The dueling approaches have resulted in a confusing array of messages for Republican voters.
In Georgia, a recent online flier by one grassroots group read: “Voting in person and on Election Day is the only way to overwhelm the system.” A conservative group in the state, VoterGA, told its members to “protect” their votes by applying for an absentee ballot early and waiting to deliver it until Election Day.
The chair of the state Republican Party, David Shafer, recently tweeted on the party’s official account: “Voting in-person early is just as safe as voting in-person on Election Day!”
The cross-messaging also is hitting Republican voters in Arizona, which has high-stakes races this year for U.S. Senate, governor and secretary of state. Mail voting has been popular there among voters of both parties for years.
State Sen. Wendy Rogers, a Republican who backed a partisan review of 2020 ballots in Maricopa County, told viewers of One America News Network earlier this month that “we need to vote on the last day, the day of Election Day, so they don’t know how much to cheat by.”
But her party’s top candidates -- who also have embraced false claims about the 2020 election -- have recently tried to counter that strategy.
“If you have a mail-in ballot, I think that you should mail it in. I want people to vote,” Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor, told reporters this month. “And vote whatever way you want to vote, but vote.”
Lake has been among those calling for a rollback in mailed ballots and early voting, favoring instead a single day of in-person voting. Blake Masters, the Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona who also has Trump’s support, said it’s fine to vote by mail if that’s what a voter prefers.
“I want to know results on election night,” Masters told reporters earlier this month. “I’m telling people vote in person, if you can. If not, vote early and return via mail. And let’s know the result.”
It’s unclear whether the messaging for Republicans to hold onto their mailed ballots is having an effect. In two politically important states, the return rate for mailed ballots is slower than in previous elections — although it also could mean voters there remain undecided.
In Georgia, about 23% of mailed ballots have been returned with just over two weeks before Election Day compared to about 35% at about the same time in 2020 and almost 37% in 2018. As of Oct. 19 in Wisconsin, 45% of mailed ballots had been returned compared to 56% in at the same point 2020 and 2018.
Some Democrats also have advocated submitting ballots at the last minute — but based more on a political strategy than claims of fraud.
Pam Keith, an attorney, Democratic activist and former congressional candidate in Florida, said she thinks the predictability that Democrats will vote by mail gives Republicans an early hint at turnout levels. That’s why she is advocating for a surge of ballots at the last minute, catching Republicans off guard.
“By voting early, we are showing our hand,” Keith said. “We show what our turnout number is going to be. And if they know that the overwhelming majority of vote-by-mail ballots are in, then they know what they need to do to win.”
Keith’s advice strayed from that of many Democratic candidates, who have encouraged their supporters to vote early and by mail.
___
Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writers Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections.
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RICHMOND — State elections officials directed more than 30,000 Northern Virginia voters to the wrong polling place in mailers sent ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, an error they acknowledged Friday and blamed on the private printing company that produced the notices.
Those mistakes follow even more error-riddled effort in Southwest Virginia, where an additional 30,000 voters were affected. Some notices in that part of the state were sent to physical addresses instead of P.O. boxes, then re-sent to the boxes but with the wrong information, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported this week.
And earlier this month, the department disclosed that an unspecified technical glitch had left about 107,000 voter applications in limbo for months.
IT issues stall voter-records processing for 107,000 in Virginia
State elections officials promised that the mistakes will not prevent anyone from voting. Local registrars for Fairfax and Prince William counties will send corrected notices to all affected voters Monday, according to a news release from the department that noted the state will reimburse the localities for that expense.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/21/youngkin-virginia-midterms-election/
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
By Patrick Marley, Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger
October 25, 2022 at 6:00 ET
RACINE, Wis. — The Republican National Committee and its allies say they have staged thousands of training sessions around the country on how to monitor voting and lodge complaints about next month’s midterm elections. In Pennsylvania, party officials have boasted about swelling the ranks of poll watchers to six times the total from 2020. In Michigan, a right-wing group announced it had launched “Operation Overwatch” to hunt down election-related malfeasance, issuing a press release that repeated the warning “We are watching” 10 times.
Supporters of former president Donald Trump who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen have summoned a swarm of poll watchers and workers in battleground states to spot potential fraud this year. It is a call to action that could subject voting results around the country to an unprecedented level of suspicion and unfounded doubt.
“We’re going to be there and enforce those rules, and we’ll challenge any vote, any ballot, and you’re going to have to live with it, OK?” one-time Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon said on a recent episode of his podcast. “We don’t care if you don’t like it. We don’t care if you’re going to run around and light your hair on fire. That’s the way this is going to roll.”
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge in Arizona said he hopes to decide by Friday whether to order members of a group to stop monitoring outdoor ballot drop boxes in the Phoenix area in an effort that has sparked allegations of voter intimidation.
The groups Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and Voto Latino asked U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi during a Wednesday hearing to prevent members of Clean Elections USA from gathering within sight of drop boxes in Maricopa County, the state's most populous, and from following voters and taking photos and videos of them and their cars.
The attorney for Clean Elections USA said that such a broad restraining order would be unconstitutional.
Liburdi said he hoped to issue a decision by Friday but could continue to weigh the matter into the weekend.
The League of Women Voters filed a similar suit Tuesday in federal court in Arizona, alleging that Clean Elections USA is intimidating voters.
That suit also alleges that the groups Lions of Liberty and the Yavapai County Preparedness Team, which are associated with the far-right anti-government group Oath Keepers, have undertaken their own effort to watch ballot boxes and film voters in Arizona’s Yavapai County.
2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS
Fetterman's rocky debate raises anxiety among Democrats
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Election deniers around the United States have embraced a film that has been discredited called “2000 Mules” that claims that people were paid to travel among drop boxes and stuff them with fraudulent ballots during the 2020 presidential vote.
There’s no evidence for the notion that a network of Democrat-associated ballot “mules” has conspired to collect and deliver ballots to drop boxes, either two year ago or in the upcoming midterm elections.
Amid the complaints from voters who say they have been harassed, Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said this week his office has begun providing security around drop boxes. Sheriff's deputies responded when two masked people carrying guns and wearing bulletproof vests showed up at a drop box in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa.
The secretary of state this week said her office has received six cases of potential voter intimidation to the state attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as a threatening email sent to the state elections director.
The U.S. attorney's office in Arizona said it is also keeping an eye on cases alleging voter intimidation and vowed to prosecute those who violate federal law.
Federal officials said local police officers would be the “front line in efforts to ensure that all qualified voters are able to exercise their right to vote free of intimidation or other election abuses.”
“We will vigorously safeguard all Arizonans’ rights to freely and lawfully cast their ballot during the election,” the office said Wednesday. “As the several election threat-related cases pending federal felony charges from alleged criminal activity arising out of our State show, acts which cross the line will not go unaddressed.”
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is calling on voters to report any intimidation immediately to police and file a complaint with his office.
“Regardless of intent, this type of misguided behavior is contrary to both the laws and values of our state,” said Brnovich, a Republican.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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Who's the pic of? This the guy that beat up Paul P. last night? Or is this the pic of the guy that went after Brett K?
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A top Milwaukee elections official has been fired after sending falsely obtained military absentee ballots to the home of a Republican state lawmaker who has been an outspoken critic of how the 2020 election was administered, the city's mayor said Thursday.
Kimberly Zapata, deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, requested military ballots for fictitious voters from clerks in nearby municipalities using the state's MyVote Wisconsin website, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said just days before the midterm election.
“This has every appearance of being an egregious, blatant violation of trust, and this matter is now in the hands of law enforcement,” said Johnson.
As part of her job, Zapata oversaw the counting of absentee ballots in Milwaukee. The mayor said the city is investigating whether she might have committed any other offenses.
The ballots were sent to the home of Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who chairs the Assembly elections committee and has voiced support for overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state and promoted conspiracy theories about the same. Earlier this week, Brandtjen's office said she had received three ballots for military voters she believed to be fictitious. Brandtjen said then she thought someone was trying to show how easy it is to get military ballots in Wisconsin.
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The announcement comes five days ahead of Election Day in a cycle where officials are increasingly concerned about threats from within their own organizations. In battleground states such as Wisconsin, elections officials are seeing record partisan poll worker nominations that could put skeptics on the front lines of the voting process.
Zapata's motive for allegedly obtaining and sending the ballots wasn't immediately clear. She did not immediately respond to messages left Thursday at phone numbers believed to be hers. Michael Maistelman, an attorney for Zapata, declined to comment.
But her boss, commission Executive Director Claire Woodall-Vogg, said she thought Zapata was intent on illustrating a vulnerability in the system. She said Zapata had, to her knowledge, never before violated work policies or procedures.
Zapata's alleged actions echo those of a Racine man who requested and received absentee ballots in the names of lawmakers and local officials in July. That man, Harry Wait, said he wanted to expose vulnerabilities in the state's elections system. He has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of election fraud and two felony counts of identity theft — charges that could land him in prison for up to 13 years.
Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said his office was reviewing allegations against Zapata and that he expects charges to be filed “in the coming days.”
In Wisconsin, military voters are not required to register to vote, meaning they don’t need to provide a photo ID to request an absentee ballot.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission and local elections officials who send out and collect ballots have a number of safeguards in place to catch fraudulent absentee ballot requests. The elections commission staff monitors the statewide voter registration system for indications of unauthorized requests. The MyVote website also requires a person requesting a ballot to verify that they are the person asking for it, along with a warning about potential penalties for committing fraud.
Zapata was fired immediately after the city was made aware that she might have been responsible, and she no longer has access to city computer networks or offices, the mayor said.
Zapata had worked for the elections commission for seven years and with the city of Milwaukee for nearly 10 years, according to Claire Woodall-Vogg, the elections commission's executive director. She declined to comment on why Zapata might have requested the ballots.
Brandtjen said the episode vindicates the concerns she has raised about elections despite criticism from “the liberal media” and Republicans “who don't have the backbone to take on the issues.”
President Joe Biden defeated Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, an outcome that has withstood two partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firm’s review and numerous state and federal lawsuits. Even a Republican-ordered review that drew bipartisan criticism did not turn up evidence of widespread fraud that would change the outcome of the election before the investigator was fired.
In August, after Wait's actions came to light, the election commission notified voters whose absentee ballot requests for the primary went to a mailing address different from the one on file to alert them of potential fraud.
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Harm Venhuizen is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Venhuizen on Twitter.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I think you labeled the wrong guy a scumbag!
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SHOW COUNT: (149) 1990's=3, 2000's=53, 2010/20's=89, US=109, CAN=15, Europe=19 ,New Zealand=2, Australia=2
Mexico=1, Colombia=1
Upcoming: Sacramento, Vegas x2, Manchester, London, Chicago x2, NYC x2, Fenway x2, Aucklandx2, Gold Coast, Melbournex2
Well it won't be your guys fault so you can take solace in that. You did your level best to let criminals out of jail, make law enforcement a thankless job that nobody wants, illegally open the border, let men play in women's sports and give little kids sex changes so don't feel like it was your fault.
Some people just don't think as smart as you I guess?
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And by throwing their support to those people and siding with authoritarian rule and by making jokes about a man who was brutalized by a mad man with a hammer and by not caring about people who are not just like them and by not caring for the very planet that sustains us, they will have fucked themselves.
Lawsuit seeks to block counting of military ballots in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin lawmaker who has been a frequent promoter of false election claims is suing to prevent the immediate counting of military ballots in her state after she received three ballots under fake names.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday, was brought by a veterans group and three individuals, including Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R), the chairwoman of the State Assembly’s elections committee.
Last week, Brandtjen received three military ballots under fictitious names that were allegedly sent to her by Kimberly Zapata, a Milwaukee election official. Election officials have criticized Brandtjen for spreading false claims about the system, and Zapata later told prosecutors she was trying to alert Brandtjen about an actual weakness in the state’s voting system that should be addressed.
Days later Zapata was fired and charged with a felony and three misdemeanors.
Unlike most states, Wisconsin allows military members to cast ballots without registering to vote or providing proof of residency. Military ballots make up a tiny fraction of votes in Wisconsin — about 1,400 so far for Tuesday’s election.
Brandtjen and the others are using the incident to argue that military ballots should not be counted unless election officials can show they complied with a state law requiring them to maintain lists of all eligible military voters.
Brandtjen’s attorney, Erick Kaardal of the conservative Thomas More Society, said state officials have handled elections in a way that is “conducive to vote fraud.”
Will Attig, director of the Union Veterans Council, expressed alarm at the attempt to prevent counting military ballots.
“These are service members defending our country that have the right to vote and their means to vote is by mail,” he said. “We’ve got what to me appears to be an orchestrated plan by election deniers who do not truly support our democracy.”
Republicans sued to restrict this drop box. Meet the voters using it.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — In the political battleground of Lehigh County, a legal group linked to Donald Trump sued to slash the hours of the only around-the-clock ballot drop box, arguing someone could stuff it with fake votes. Vigilantes pledged online to protect it. Election clerks received anonymous letters: “STOP THE ELECTION FRAUD.”
But on this November evening, there are no citizen guards or sneaky fraudsters at the Lehigh County Government Center ballot drop box, just a janitor wiping the glass windows. Leaves skittering across the sidewalk. A husky sniffing grass.
“The rhetoric flying around out there does not match the reality,” said Geoff Brace, the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners chair, a registered Democrat. Investigations nationwide have found no evidence of voter fraud that could have swayed an election, and the same is true here. “It is just a convenience for people,” said Timothy Benyo, the local elections director, a registered Republican. “It is not a fraud factory.”
Ballot boxes were not always controversial. When the Republican-controlled legislature approved broad mail voting in 2019, the top Republican in the Pennsylvania Senate called it “the most significant modernization of our election’s code in decades.” Drop-off voting skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic, particularly among Democrats, as Americans sought to avoid crowded polling sites.
Yet ahead of the 2020 election, President Donald Trump and right-wing activists claimed without evidence that early voting is rife with cheating, and Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania pushed to tighten the rules. There are five drop boxes now open in Lehigh County. Signs at the 24-hour voting slot at the Government Center warn that depositing the ballot of anyone else without special permission is illegal.
In the lawsuit a county judge threw out last month, the America First Legal Foundation, led by Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Trump and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, cited an investigation by the district attorney that found 288 instances of people dropping off more than one ballot ahead of the November 2021 election.
Most of the offenders slipped in two, and no one carried more than six. Authorities declined to pursue any charges. “There is no scary ‘ballot harvesting’ with dump trucks full of extra ballots,” said Benyo, the election official. “These are regular people.”
For eight hours over two evenings this week, The Washington Post watched people place their votes in this historically moderate slice of Pennsylvania framed by Appalachian Mountain ridges. They were Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Some had split tickets. No one wanted to deal with the hassle of Election Day lines. Here are five of their stories.
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Republicans tried to restrict this Pennsylvania ballot drop box. Meet the voters who use it. - The Washington Post
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Republicans sue to disqualify thousands of mail ballots in swing states
The lawsuits coincide with a systemic effort by GOP leaders to persuade voters to cast ballots in person, not absentee
In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court has agreed with the Republican National Committee that election officials should not count ballots on which the voter neglected to put a date on the outer envelope — even in cases when the ballots arrive before Election Day. Thousands of ballots have been set aside as a result, enough to swing a close race.
In Michigan, Kristina Karamo, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, sued the top election official in Detroit last month, seeking to toss absentee ballots not cast in person with an ID, even though that runs contrary to state requirements. When asked in a recent court hearing, Karamo’s lawyer declined to say why the suit targets Detroit, a heavily Democratic, majority-Black city, and not the entire state.
And in Wisconsin, Republicans won a court ruling that will prevent some mail ballots from being counted when the required witness address is not complete.
Over the past two years, Republicans have waged a sustained campaign against alleged voter fraud. Experts say the litigation — which could significantly affect Tuesday’s vote — represents a parallel strategy of suing to disqualify mail ballots based on technicalities. While the rejections may have some basis in state law, experts say they appear to go against a principle, enshrined in federal law, of not disenfranchising voters for minor errors.
The suits coincide with a systematic attempt by Republicans — led by former president Donald Trump — to persuade GOP voters to cast their ballots only on Election Day. Critics argue that the overall purpose is to separate Republicans and Democrats by method of voting and then to use lawsuits to void mail ballots that are disproportionately Democratic.
“They’re looking for every advantage they can get, and they’ve calculated that this is a way that they can win more seats,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, a nonpartisan democracy advocacy organization. “Research has shown that absentee ballots are more likely to be discarded if they are voted by young people and people of color, which are not generally seen as the Republican base.”
Continues………
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/07/gop-sues-reject-mail-ballots/
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14