If the Republicans Win Tuesday, the Reason Will Be Simple: They Cheated

[DonViejo]

From Georgia to Kansas to even New Hampshire, the GOP has settled on a path to victory. Prevent as many Democrats as they can from voting.

Zachary Roth
11.05.18 4:56 AM ET

Thousands of would-be voters at risk of being disenfranchised by ultra-strict registration rules. A draconian ID law that could keep Native Americans from the polls en masse. New measures targeting voting by college students. A Hispanic-majority city that moved its lone polling place out of town.

As the 2018 campaign nears its end, experts who track voter suppression say this is the worst it’s been in the modern era. In fact, making it harder to vote, especially for racial minorities, now appears to be—with the possible exception of stoking fear over a group of desperate migrants still about 700 miles from the Texas border—the single most important plank of the GOP’s strategy.

Aside from likely giving Republicans an undeserved boost in several key races, the drive to restrict voting has reached a scale that should raise serious questions about the democratic legitimacy of our elections. And alongside the extreme Republican gerrymander—currently the only reason why the party has even an outside shot at holding onto the House—it represents a massive structural obstacle to Democrats ever achieving the power their popular support deserves. In other words, Republicans can only win by rigging the game.

Georgia has grabbed many of the headlines. Secretary of State Brian Kemp reportedly put around 53,000 registrations—70 percent of them from African-Americans—on pending status because of minor discrepancies with the information on state records.

The difference could be as trivial as a misplaced hyphen or a missing middle initial. Those on pending status are supposed to still be able to vote by showing ID, and two late-breaking court rulings softening some of the rules may help. But given the likely level of confusion that’s been kicked up, how it all will play out is anyone’s guess.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/if-the-republicans-win-tuesday-the-reason-will-be-simple-they-cheated?ref=home

[ck4829]

1. K&R

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. we need to make this a nationwide concern

We need to educate people who think this is "just whining" or "politics as usual" or have no idea what's going on. We need to capture state offices -- Secretary of State and legislatures -- to clean out the cheats. This issue should be a concern to every citizen of the nation.

Free and fair elections should be the rallying cry of everyone who is not a fascist.

[Hortensis]

3. Yes. They cheated in many states in 2016 and lost the popular vote

anyway. No way some who failed then haven't joined our majority after 2 years of seeing what the Republicans have become. And we know the number of conservatives who've since fallen away may be small, but, whatever their numbers are, they're real.

[beachbum bob]

4. the price we pay for letting GOP control the process at the state level but I really don't expect

the impact that conspiracy people are


overwhelming numbers makes it too difficult

[honest.abe]

5. and then it means our system of government is doomed.

Voting will become meaningless.

[dembotoz]

6. or we stayed home

[honest.abe]

7. Exit polls would determine if that happened.

[Odoreida]

27. Not really.

There are organized efforts to lie to exit pollsters.

[honest.abe]

34. If there is a massive blue wave tsunami type event..

the exit polls would pick that up even if a few voters lied to the pollsters.

[Snake Plissken]

13. That's what I'm worried about most

There is no reason for Democrats to ever lose an election, but it happens all the time because people can't be bothered to protect the interests of 99% of Americans by voting on Election Day.

[uponit7771]

18. Not this time, LV Models are being blow to all hell and back nation wide with

... easier access to voting etc.

I wont believe the "we stayed home" until there's some definitive polling on it

[watoos]

8. Stop it, stop it, stop it.

A blue tsunami is coming being pushed by karma.

Stop putting negativity into the universe. When we win by huge margins tomorrow we can begin to fix the broken voting systems.

I can't wait for tomorrow to get here.

When you vote, as Jill Winebank said, don't vote straight party ticket. Vote for each Democrat one by one and then review your ballot to see if any votes were flipped.

The tsunami is going to be so huge that it will overcome the rigged system, have faith people. Do you hear the wave? It's coming.

[c-rational]

22. Agreed, good post.

[dembotoz]

35. turn out turn out turn out....we have not won anything yet

[Honeycombe8]

9. YES! Only I prefer "defrauded" us. "Cheat" sounds like cheating at poker. This is more serious. nt

[bdamomma]

10. All the more reason

that record numbers of citizens must get out there, massive amounts I am talking about.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

16. Like someone else said, that is what is sad - that we have to over

vote to win.

[bdamomma]

17. Massive amounts of people have to

VOTE, we did for a President Obama's election we need to do that again but for a more important MID TERM, our democracy depends on it.

[SWBTATTReg]

11. And we need to put in place legislation that can't be endangered by a political party ...

for its own gain or benefit, that would have safeguards and rules to prevent this kind of thing. There is an amendment on the ballot in Missouri that will prevent this sort of thing, redistricting crap, etc. Some of you might be interesting in pushing into law in your jurisdictions, seems to be something we need. Here's a blurb from the league of women voters on this amendment...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sponsors of Missouri Amendment 1—aptly nicknamed Clean Missouri—aims to increase fairness, integrity and transparency in Missouri politics. With the length and complexity of the 2018 midterm ballot, it’s fortunate that this good-government proposal is first on the ballot, because many voters may fall victim to ballot fatigue long before they get to some of the other issues.

What’s in the Clean Missouri amendment? Here’s a plain-English summary published by the perpetually knowledgeable and helpful League of Women Voters of Metropolitan St. Louis.

Amendment 1 would do the following:
•Reduce campaign contribution limits to $2,500 for state Senate candidates and to $2,000 for state House candidates.
•Eliminate almost all lobbyist gifts to members of the General Assembly
•Require that all legislative records be open to the public, including committee reports, correspondence and electronic communications, and allow taping of all meetings open to the public.
•Require politicians to wait two years after leaving office before becoming paid lobbyists.
•Ensure that neither political party receives an unfair advantage when new legislative district maps are drawn after each census—also known as “gerrymandering.”
•An independent demographer would draw maps that would then be reviewed by a citizen commission that must hold public meetings. Currently, politicians draw the maps to protect incumbents and their parties.

[Eyeball_Kid]

20. If passed, it will be too good to be true. n/t

[SWBTATTReg]

24. That's why we (the citizens) put this on the ballot via a voter initiative (petitions) so the...

legislators couldn't mess w/ this ... too many times the repug controlled legislators bypassed the voters and clearly put party before state. This needs to be done across the whole country. I think it would go a long way towards cleaning up our elections and since the repugs won't do, we'll do. They can't outnumber us by numbers so voter driven initiatives are the things that are making it into law in MO.

[Botany]

12. New Yorker: News Desk How Voting-Machine Errors Reflect a Wider Crisis for American Democracy

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-voting-machine-errors-reflect-a-wider-crisis-for-american-democracy

[Laura PourMeADrink]

14. Even if they don't win they probably still cheated.

[dlk]

15. We Already Know the Republicans Will Cheat to Win

The only question is how far are they willing to go to hang onto power? We’ll know soon enough.

[bdamomma]

19. so if that is the case

what will be our plan b? but the numbers of people who are voting don't lie. Just bring back paper ballots.

[usaf-vet]

21. I am a retired computer consultant and network administrator.

There has NEVER been a question in my mind about stolen elections. Since the 2000 SCOTUS appointed president there are example after examples of stolen elections.

Computers have made it harder to detect. Privately owned election voting equipment has made it even harder to prove.

We as a country NEED to put in place a secure voting system that we can all trust. One man one vote is the foundation of a fair system.

Voter suppression has to be eliminated nationwide.

Citizens United (aka We Buy Elections) has to be reversed.


GET OUT AND VOTE

[c-rational]

23. Bingo, well said.

[watoos]

26. Meh, when we take back power

we can go back to paper ballots, maybe even purple ink bottles. Of course the system is rigged and tomorrow is going to be the first step in unrigging it.

By the bye, privately owned voting machines aren't harder to prove they are rigged, they are impossible to prove. No voting machines are ever independently audited, the owners always claim their software is proprietary, you know, 1+1=3.

[usaf-vet]

29. I totally agree. Point "watoos"

That is not a bug it's a feature!

[Botany]

33. The history of the #s of "glitches" that have ALL helped Trump tell the story of machine cheating

In 2008 a precinct in Harlem and one in Bedford Stuyvesant recorded 0 votes for
Obama in the New York primary.

In 2010 an unknown, unemployed, man with no office, no campaign phone #, no ads,
no web site, and under criminal investigation "won" the democratic primary for US senate
in South Carolina.

The 2015 race for governor in KY had the democratic A.G. or Sec. of State was 6 points up
going into the election but lost by 9 points.

Walker's win in his recall race in Wisconsin.

Russ Finegold was at 90% + to win back his senate seat but lost in 2016.

In 2004 in Ohio some precincts in Miami county had 99.7% turn outs.

and I could go on and on.

Simple statistics should show if "the errors" were really random but every time they seem
to help the republicans.

[Texin]

25. Well hell. They're "cheating openly and flagrantly right before everyone's eyes!

Purging voters off the rolls if their name is faintly Latin or within primarily black precincts, closing polling locations in locales where voters must walk to access them, or rely on limited public transportation, enacting arcane rules-laws to require yet more ID, such as physical addresses, etc. They've gerrymandered until we're blue in the face, but they are doing everything and anything to keep their fragile white minority rule in place in perpetuity. They've just about succeeded, and I fully believe they will not be deterred from doing anything in their power to prevent the Dems from being successful. I just hope the numbers are so overwhelmingly with the Dems that they can't cheat and "win" this cycle. If they do, this country is done for. Put a pin in it.

[watoos]

31. The times they are a chang'in.

Let's fix the mess. New districts will be drawn in 2020, that blue tsunami is huge enough to stretch that far. We haven't even heard from Mueller yet.

That last CNN poll that shows Dems up 13% over Repugs in a generic ballot is a huge number, big enough to overcome the rigged machines and gerrymandering.

I only put positive thoughts into the universe, it helps the karma behind the blue tsunami.

I can't wait to vote tomorrow.

Wednesday morning headlines; Trump gets trounced.

He will never run in 2020.

[elmac]

28. Since Nixons treason

repugs have been cheating to get elected for decades. Nixon's deal with S. Vietnam to chuck peace talks, Reagans deal with Iran over hostages and weapons, Bush 2's fake unnecessary war, tRump working with the Russians, and add to all of that, voter suppression, and other dirty tricks.

[still_one]

30. That is why winning enough key state elections can undo this voting disenfranchisement

[mudstump]

32. Note to democrats....

Don't concede anything right away and if the election looks fishy... fight like hell by any and all means necessary to make sure every single vote was counted.

[Firestorm49]

36. You're absolutely right.

In any close race, gerrymandering and voter suppression will be the keys to a Dem. The question is, how much of a point cushion have they built in.