absentee ballots "destroyed" in firebomb: violation of Board of Elections

[mainer]

If completed absentee ballots were housed in the GOP's headquarters, that could be a violation of North Carolina's State Board of Election's rules.
If true, the GOP is in big trouble.

This is so significant, I think it calls for a thread of its own.

When asked if the GOP could have been collecting completed absentee voter ballots, Tracy Ream, the Director of North Carolina's Orange County Board of Elections told The New Civil Rights Movement via telephone Monday, "they cannot do that." She cited the State Board of Elections rules.

Once complete, the absentee ballot "must be returned to the county board of elections no later than 5:00 p.m. on the date of the election," the State Board of Elections website reads. "The envelope may be mailed or delivered in person to the board of elections’ office. Only the voter or the voter's near relative (spouse, brother, sister, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, mother-in-law, father-in-law, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, stepparent, stepchild or qualified legal guardian) may deliver an absentee ballot in person."

Ream told NCRM it "does not make sense" that the GOP office would be collecting completed absentee ballots, and said her office has not sent the Republican Party blank absentee ballots.

"No one would be collecting" absentee ballots, Ream told NCRM. Asked if she could imagine a scenario where the GOP could be collecting completed ballots, Ream said: "I really can't."

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/_why_is_the_gop_claiming_completed_absentee_ballots_may_have_been_in_their_nc_hq_that_was_firebombed

[Zoonart]

1. As I suspected

I have been arguing this on other threads.There it is.

[kimbutgar]

2. Or could they have bogus absentee ballots that were meant to pad the election?

There is a voting ballot fraud type of smell to this story.

[workinclasszero]

3. Projection..

Accuse your opponents of the very thing you are doing, vote fraud in this case.

The republicans are masters at this tactic and it looks like they are well under way.

[George II]

57. Wonder how Giuliani feels about that? He thinks dead people only vote for Democrats.

[volstork]

16. But, but, but republicans

are OPPOSED to voter fraud, right???

[Crash2Parties]

59. Well, it's not fraud when THEY do it...

[beachbum bob]

4. I believe this violates NC voting law... big-time

[yardwork]

5. Investigation needed.

[toddwv]

6. It's possible that the Director meant voter registration forms

It's pretty tight but in NC, the registration cutoff is 25 days prior to the election.

I can't think of any legal scenario where they would have absentee ballots in their possession.

[R Merm]

21. No the deadline was the 14th

I was doing Voter Registration in NC for Clinton and we are past the deadline.

[Motley13]

7. That is rigging the election

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. I bet it's just BS to fit into their victim whine.

[ToxMarz]

12. My thought too, add a personal disenfranchisement grievance for voters on top of property damage

Fits the election is going to be stolen mantra. Someone didn't think and thought it sounded good.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

43. They're more the purple with rage guy who just hit their own thumb with a hammer.

[Raine1967]

11. I have tweeted the author of the NBC piece as well as the woman quoted:

.@timstelloh was @emalineweeks statement re: possible completed ballots destroyed a misquote or misspoke? http://nbcnews.to/2ef0Fi4 #NCGOP

https://twitter.com/raine1967

[mainer]

13. GOP-ers just added another BS charge: postal worker destroying ballots!

It's exploding right now on Twitter.

Some jokester named @randygdub tweeted:

"I love working at the post office in Columbus, OH and ripping up absentee ballots that vote for Trump."

(Like you would tweet about committing a federal offense.)

Now the story is all over the conservative twitter/blogosphere, saying it proves "the vote is rigged" because some anonymous guy claims to be destroying Trump ballots.

(The USPS has stated: "we have no evidence this person is actually a postal worker.&quot

Now other jokesters have joined the fun, tweeting about all the ways they are destroying Trump ballots. (My favorite is the legion of termites being sent in.)

For the whole hilarious story: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/46487_Gateway_Pundit_Drudge_Report_Scott_Baio_Beclown_Selves_Fall_for_Trolls_Story_of_Destroying_Absentee_Ballots

Trolling Trumpsters is fun and too darn easy.

[mainer]

14. Join the fun! Others try to drive the Trumpsters insane:

More "postal workers" "confess" how they destroy Trump ballots.


cash 4 doubloons ‏@waenc 23m23 minutes ago
@imshanaf @CassandraRules USPS outreach here. it is legal for USPS employees to destroy ballots. it is encouraged.

Nathan Amouir ‏@Fallen_star85 8h8 hours ago
@imshanaf @CassandraRules @USPS stop snitching God!!! Cant wait till Hillary Wins Gulag for you !


Hieronymus Bone ‏@ShwahWahWah 9h9 hours ago
@imshanaf @USPS it's not illegal if they get the dogs along their mail route to eat them.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

26. Ummmm... wouldnt ballots be in envelopes? right to privacy when voting and all that? So how

would anyone know which are Trumps and which not?

[mainer]

31. Yeah. They really are that stupid.

I'm waiting for a joke tweet about how postal workers have special "x-ray" machines to see which ballots are for Hillary and which are for Trump so they know which ones to destroy. They'd believe that, too.

[riversedge]

48. The "postal worker" later said it was a joke.

[uncle ray]

58. the writing in crayon would be a sure giveway.

[Scarsdale]

69. My dog ate it

In this case "My pussy ate it" would fit better.

[Retrograde]

15. Pre-emptive excuse for losing NC?

"We won North Carolina fair and square, but those durn Demmycrats burned down our nice little HQ where we stored all the absentee ballots which would have shown Donald Trump won."

I hope that the arsonist is caught and turns out to be a Tea Partier and/or Trump supporter.

[tblue37]

27. Probably a zealous alt-righter. nt

[Ohioblue22]

17. Ashley Todd is that you again?

[sinkingfeeling]

19. So, see, the RNC is trying to help Trump. With election fraud

[barbtries]

20. who said there were completed absentee ballots in the HQ?

anyone? heaven knows i would never trust my ballot with basically any republican.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Who? Republican Party official, as reported by NBC

North Carolina Republican Party spokeswoman Emily Weeks told NBC News that the office is totally unusable and that materials inside, possibly including completed absentee ballots, may have been destroyed.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nc-republican-office-firebombed-nazi-gopers-threatened-graffiti-n667316

[snooper2]

30. And more than likely she probably used the wrong term or doesn't know what she is talking about

[LeftInTX]

39. She said they were sample ballots

https://twitter.com/emalineweeks/status/788099360340873216

[mainer]

45. Yeah, right. The whole conservative world was outraged about "completed ballots"

and then they realized that was illegal, and now it's just "sample ballots." Emily Weeks looks like a liar now.

[barbtries]

42. oops

that made me laugh out loud. i'm convinced that it was republicans who did this.

[Rex]

60. Me too.

[barbtries]

64. now that i've learned that democrats were targeted as well,

i'm thinking it may have been some 3rd party assholes. but i still want to know where james o'keefe was.

[Rex]

71. Me too!

Was just talking about that asshole. Evidently he has spliced some more footage together and is pretending it is the real deal.

Has he never heard of Peter and the Wolf?

[lillypaddle]

22. They are too stupid

to understand that this is illegal (if true)?

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

23. Question - the quote sez the ballots must be returned by5 pm day

of election AND, that anyone can mail them (the near-relative clause applies to delivering ballot in person).

So, where is the crime here if they're collected and kept in office prior to mailing? Sincere question - I really want to know my facts before engaging with my R sibs.

[atreides1]

28. Only the voter or the voter's near relative, may deliver an absentee ballot in person.

Once complete, the absentee ballot "must be returned to the county board of elections no later than 5:00 p.m. on the date of the election," the State Board of Elections website reads. "The envelope may be mailed or delivered in person to the board of elections’ office. Only the voter or the voter's near relative (spouse, brother, sister, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, mother-in-law, father-in-law, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, stepparent, stepchild or qualified legal guardian) may deliver an absentee ballot in person."

Ream told NCRM it "does not make sense" that the GOP office would be collecting completed absentee ballots, and said her office has not sent the Republican Party blank absentee ballots.

"No one would be collecting" absentee ballots, Ream told NCRM. Asked if she could imagine a scenario where the GOP could be collecting completed ballots, Ream said: "I really can't."

[PunksMom]

24. How crazy that the trump lovers

feel they have to go this far, sabotaging themselves, & then blaming the Dems. They are so desperate, & out of control. I have imagined Trump in office, doing this very thing, when he doesn't get his way, so so dangerous...I shudder to think. Ugh

[NurseJackie]

29. At worst, some staffer forgot and left their elderly parent' absentee ballots on the desk.

But I still think they're lying about the whole thing.

[BainsBane]

35. Unless what they had were absentee ballot request forms

rather than the ballots themselves. Campaigns do collect those.

[LisaL]

40. Forms are supposed to be send to the board of election, not to party HQ.

[BainsBane]

41. Campaigns can collect absentee ballot request forms

Unless NC has some law saying they can't. I was doing that for the Clinton campaign this weekend. Those are not the ballots, just forms requesting voters be mailed ballots.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

44. Whoever claimed they had absentee ballots is pulling a Ralph Cramden, "Habida habida" right now.

[Orrex]

36. NC GOP also reports that the dog ate its homework

It was here a minute ago, honest!

[AllyCat]

52. Hah!!

[left-of-center2012]

46. Voter fraud, Trump style n/t

[mainer]

47. Hilarious how they're backtracking -- after spreading it all over the interwebs

They got caught making stuff up (or did they?), realized that what they claimed was illegal, and uh oh. Gotta deny it now.

These people can't pull off a scam to save their lives.

[BigDemVoter]

49. I had read that ballots were there, and I wondered WHY???

Why would those Republican clowns have ballots at their headquarters unless they were BLANK ballots to rig the election?

[progree]

50. RULES? WHAT RULES? Har har har

Start at about 1:10

[Buckeye_Democrat]

51. Was that a written statement or did some Republican misspeak in NC?

I wouldn't put anything past Republicans trying to rig an election -- e.g., throwing out absentee ballots that don't support them.

However, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt unless the source(s) were repeatedly (and stupidly) making that statement, thus reducing the likelihood of someone misspeaking.

[underthematrix]

53. I read an article where it said that absentee ballots

is most at risk for election fraud

[CherokeeDem]

54. Let me tell you a little trick the GOP did in Florida....

A Democratic state rep told me that it was widely known that Cuban Republicans in Little Havana would visit a home where the voter was going to vote by absentee ballot. This was especially effective during primaries. They would direct the person to check the box for the top elections, president or governor, then tell them they didn't have to vote for anyone else, one vote would take care of it. They would not seal the envelope but close it for the voter to sign across the seal, then leave with the ballot in hand, telling them they would mail it.

Once in the car... the person would fill out the remainder of the ballot with the candidates the GOP wanted and seal the ballot.

Tricky....

[DallasNE]

55. But, But, But

Those ballots were cast by dead democrats and were going to be turned over to authorities the next day as examples of voter fraud by the Democrats. Instead Hillary Clinton destroyed criminal evidence. Lock her up!

(Sarcasm alert)

[George II]

56. They were complaining yesterday of "voter suppression" (used other words) as a casualty....

....of the burned ballots. Now it seems those ballots shouldn't have been there?

Uh oh, maybe they were there so they could sort out the Democratic votes?

[CarrieLynne]

61. perhaps "rigged" is just another projection

[diane in sf]

62. This-is-why-a-political-office-would-have-a-bunch-of-completed-absentee-ballots

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/17/1583672/-This-is-why-a-political-office-would-have-a-bunch-of-completed-absentee-ballots

[Madam45for2923]

67. WoW! That sounds awful!

Really ought to be investigated! Thanks for posting link.

I posted this article here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512518660

and here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028237770

[Chimichurri]

63. Kick

[avebury]

65. Makes you wonder

In just how many states are they doing this in?

[Madam45for2923]

66. This need to be investigated further!

Big time!

[lark]

68. He's accusing the dems of what he and his party are actively doing,

trying to steal the election. Repugs by illegal ballots and him through voter intimidation and riots and Russian help. MN perfected this and now NC caught. HRC should talk about that.

[ffr]

70. Fishy. How many other field offices are "collected completed ballots?"