State of elections since 2020

josevolution

Out of My Mind and Time said:

Ha! Fail

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? 

Halifax2TheMax

Out of My Mind and Time said:

Ha! Fail

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?

Ignorance is bliss, eh?

josevolution

https://apple.news/A0D3M-fMFTmuCOdwdBojgug

Musk is a giant scumbag! 

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-wisconsin-milwaukee-legislature-bd65d2450e3cdcf21b43fc187dfc2ab3

 

2022 Midterm elections Wisconsin Milwaukee Government and politics

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.

---

EXPLAINING THE ELECTIONS

Why do election experts oppose hand-counting ballots?

EXPLAINER: How can the AP call races right as polls close?

EXPLAINER: Threats to US election security grow more complex

Misinformation and the midterm elections: What to expect

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.

___

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.

TJ25487

Halifax2TheMax said:

mickeyrat said:

gift article....

https://wapo.st/3zd6i72  

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. 

TJ25487

josevolution said:

https://apple.news/A0D3M-fMFTmuCOdwdBojgug

Musk is a giant scumbag! 

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. 

I think you labeled the wrong guy a scumbag! 

josevolution

TJ25487 said:

josevolution said:

https://apple.news/A0D3M-fMFTmuCOdwdBojgug

Musk is a giant scumbag! 

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. 

I think you labeled the wrong guy a scumbag! 

No I’m right on target! 

Halifax2TheMax

TJ25487 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mickeyrat said:

gift article....

https://wapo.st/3zd6i72  

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. 

Did it fall? Like Seattle?

Indifference

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/opinion/oregon-governor-race.html

Going to be an interesting Tuesday.

TJ25487

Indifference said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/opinion/oregon-governor-race.html

Going to be an interesting Tuesday.

"If Oregon Turns Red Who's Fault Will It Be?"

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? 

The Juggler

TJ25487 said:

Indifference said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/opinion/oregon-governor-race.html

Going to be an interesting Tuesday.

"If Oregon Turns Red Who's Fault Will It Be?"

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. 

Halifax2TheMax

The Juggler said:

TJ25487 said:

Indifference said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/opinion/oregon-governor-race.html

Going to be an interesting Tuesday.

"If Oregon Turns Red Who's Fault Will It Be?"

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. 

But he loves “the gays” and “the blacks.”

josevolution

TJ25487 said:

Indifference said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/opinion/oregon-governor-race.html

Going to be an interesting Tuesday.

"If Oregon Turns Red Who's Fault Will It Be?"

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 

brianlux

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."

josevolution

brianlux said:

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! 

brianlux

josevolution said:

brianlux said:

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.

Bentleyspop

josevolution said:

brianlux said:

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.

Halifax2TheMax

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.

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.

Continues...............

Republicans tried to restrict this Pennsylvania ballot drop box. Meet the voters who use it. - The Washington Post

Halifax2TheMax

And so it begins.

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 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/

mickeyrat

https://youtu.be/Y0LA7Ff2hgs