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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt is maddening to us when all the stories about WI and 2016 pop up one whole year later
It is maddening to us when all the stories about WI and 2016 pop up one whole year later. We fought and screamed for years about this. We even put boots on the ground and had a recall election. Where we received NO National Help. Obama promised to march with us in his boots, but when the time came, shied away saying, It was not his place to interfere in a state matter. Why do you think Walker keeps winning? They lie cheat and steal and in 2016 just did it BIGGER. The impact of Wisconsin’s voter ID law received almost no attention. When it did, it was often dismissive. Two days after the election, Talking Points Memo ran a piece by University of California-Irvine law professor Rick Hasen under the headline “Democrats Blame ‘Voter Suppression’ for Clinton Loss at Their Peril.” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said it was “a load of crap” to claim that the voter ID law had led to lower turnout. When Clinton, in an interview with New York magazine, said her loss was “aided and abetted by the suppression of the vote, particularly in Wisconsin,” the Washington Examiner responded, “Hillary Clinton Blames Voter Suppression for Losing a State She Didn’t Visit Once During the Election.” As the months went on, pundits on the right and left turned Clinton’s loss into a case study for her campaign’s incompetence and the Democratic Party’s broader abandonment of the white working class. Voter suppression efforts were practically ignored, when they weren’t mocked.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a13059059/hillary-wisconsin/?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_news&date=102117
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Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)and now we are hearing about machines being compromised,well,rest assure CNN or Comcast Media sure as hell are not going to touch this. They gave their favored Corporate Candidate few Publicity and they want their pound of flesh in the form of Tax Cuts.
kerry-is-my-prez
(8,133 posts)
JHan
(10,173 posts)You don't need to hack machines.
And with gerrymandering, the game is rigged in your favor long as you win a census year.
You would think that the one thing that could unite the squabbling Democratic factions is a strong effort to rescue the franchise from its avowed enemies. That, of course, would require some people to give up on the idea that HRC was absolutely the evilest evil that ever evil-ed. I make that a 50-50 shot at best.
sigh.
questionseverything
(9,654 posts)TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)either/or.
JHan
(10,173 posts)but not impressed with the conspiracy theories when the focus should be on the thing staring us in the face: Voter Suppression.
The Republicans know what to do at this point - Just suppress the vote.
Instead of chasing conspiracy theories, we should be banging the drum about threats to the voting franchise and republic efforts to limit that franchise.
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)since there is no evidence either way, largely due to the fact that the public does not have access to the evidence that would be need to verify the accuracy of the vote totals. a lot of us think this is a huge problem, in and of itself.
JHan
(10,173 posts)My argument is about priorities.
There IS evidence of Voter Suppression.
The things we should be alarmed about are: Voter Suppression (after the VRA was gutted) and Gerrymandering.
It's a question of where to devote one's energy and develop strategies to counter suppression effort.... A great way is talking about it, making it a national issue. I'd rather that than engage in unsubstantiated and or circumstantial "evidence" about the hacking of machines.
It's a tall order to claim that the integrity of the voting process is weak, given all the checks and balances. If you start claiming that votes are always rigged, without strong evidence, voters will wonder what the point of voting is - leading to further suppression because they lose faith in the integrity of the electoral process.
This is not a smart strategy.
questionseverything
(9,654 posts)he said " we gotta beat em so bad there is no doubt" and he created a citizen army to count themselves, the o team knew their precincts, that is what every dem candidate needs to do
at def con the machines were hacked in minutes..so we know it is possible
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029733199
dhs admitted no one ever checked machines or ballots
i agree they cheat in many ways and all need to be addressed but to ignore the obvious , that vote counting is non transparent is a mistake
rainin
(3,011 posts)if the opponent can rig the machine? It seems like both might be important?
Read my posts again please. (Also read http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/voter-suppression-wisconsin-election-2016/)
it doesn't do any good to only address what goes into the machines, if the machines can be hacked and tallies be changed. You have to have a multi-pronged approach.
TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)people here gain a false sense of security from the existence of paper receipts of some sort; these receipts are worthless 99.9% of the time, because it is next to impossible for a losing dem candidate to get a comprehensive, statewide hand recount, in time to stop the election results from being certified, and the cheating, losing candidate declared as the winner. as they say, possession is 9/10 of the law, and once the results are certified it would be virtually impossible to have them reversed, no matter what kind of evidence came to light later. we need all paper ballots, all hand-counted, the first time, all the time.
delisen
(6,043 posts)The first question to ask is whose responsibility is to secure the voting in a state-that everyone who is a citizen and wants to vote gets to vote, and that the votes are counted accurately.
The second question to ask is whose responsibility is it within the political parties to make sure that the voting in a state is secure.
We know that propaganda is playing a role in what is written about our elections-so we can't put our faith in opinions, even from supposed experts-because they may be forming their opinions based upon false information.
Wisconsin is one of several pivotal states and if people-even on DU put aside personal prejudices for or against candidates and actually study and share facts about the voting in Wisconsin from 2008 forward I believe we can begin to make a difference.
JHan
(10,173 posts)Eye opening. ( And depressing)
Check the repeat if you can, if you missed it..
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)and the entire MSM switched from live reporting to reciting from a script which had little to do with fact on the ground, namely, "Hillary just wasn't likeable enough." That was effectively the explanation offered for a wholescale rewriting of the previous month's news. That and Comey and later Putin, neither of whom I think had much to do with the final outcome.
tech3149
(4,452 posts)Everyone concerned about election integrity has been screaming about these problems and more all these years.
The Democratic party stood back and said "we can't risk diminishing the faith in our electoral system"
Well guess what? When half the eligible voting population doesn't bother to vote, you probably already lost that battle.
It is truly sad that people only seem to be interested in election integrity when some specious specter of foreign interference can be played to deflect from systemic aversion to self examination.