Corrupt Government
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Title: Rigged elections? GOP does it best.
Source:
PennLive
URL Source: http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/201 ... tml#incart_most-commented_news
Published: Oct 26, 2016
Author: Cynthia Tucker
Post Date: 2016-10-26 07:52:16 by Willie Green
Keywords: None
Views: 6636
Comments: 34
As if he hadn't already broken just about every rule of conventional politics (and common decency), Donald Trump decided at the last debate to plow through a guardrail of American democracy that has stood since the Civil War. In the final face-to-face encounter with Hillary Clinton, he refused to pledge to accept the results of the election. Though audience members gasped at that display of utter contempt for the U.S. Constitution, it shouldn't have come as a surprise. Trump has claimed for some time that the election is "rigged" against him. As his poll numbers keep sinking, his claims of fraud and illegitimacy keep rising. At every rally, he warns his supporters that a vast conspiracy comprising Clinton allies, the news media and numerous unnamed co-conspirators has been working assiduously to keep him from his rightful place in the Oval Office. Here's the irony: There are, indeed, some shenanigans undermining the electoral process, some nefarious machinations meant to skew the vote. But this chicanery isn't aimed at defeating Trump; rather, the strategy is being carried out by GOP politicians and operatives who, for the most part, want to see him elected. In other words, the only widespread "rigging" that has taken place over the last decade has been conducted by the Republican Party, which has made a concerted effort to suppress the vote among the poor, the young and the elderly -- all constituencies that tend to support Democrats. Having given up on enlarging their tent to attract more voters, the GOP has settled on a strategy of blocking the franchise for those whom it cannot win over. This is a decades-old effort that goes back at least as far as the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But Republicans took to it in earnest over the last decade, when it became clear that demographic changes would make it difficult for the GOP to continue as a major party, given its history of alienating black Americans and other ethnic minorities. The strategy of instituting photo ID laws gained currency in the early 2000s, when GOP operatives in states such as South Dakota wielded it as a weapon to suppress the votes of Native Americans. Republicans were disappointed in the re-election of Democrat Tim Johnson, who won his 2002 race for the U.S. Senate by just 524 votes -- with a huge turnout on reservations. The lesson was this: Shaving off just a few hundred votes could boost the prospects of GOP challengers. Requiring photo IDs worked because it seemed legitimate: Republican proponents claimed that they were only trying to protect the integrity of the ballot, to ensure against voter fraud. Never mind that voter fraud is very rare; the sort of in-person fraud that photo IDs would prevent is virtually non-existent. Still, the idea had a superficial appeal. Middle-class voters take driver's licenses for granted; they find it hard to imagine that a significant portion of the population -- voters who are disproportionately black or brown -- doesn't own cars. They also find it hard to fathom the difficulty that the impoverished have in trying to obtain a government-sponsored ID. Even federal courts became convinced that voter ID laws were necessary to crack down on fraud. Though he has since expressed regret for that decision, then-Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority ruling that endorsed Indiana's strict voter ID law in 2005. When Republican governors and legislators gained power in the 2010 elections, they took to voter ID laws with alacrity. According to New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, in the last six years, nearly half the states passed laws making it more difficult to cast a ballot. And GOP strategists were conscientious about aiming those laws at the voters most likely to support Democrats. In Texas, for example, student IDs from universities are not acceptable at the polls, but concealed gun permits are acceptable. (A federal court has ordered modifications to Texas' law.) Guess which group is more likely to vote for Republicans? So if Trump is looking for evidence of rigged elections, it's easy enough to find. He's just looking in the wrong direction.
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#2. To: Willie Green (#0)
It is rigid and has been for some time. Thats how Obama beat Romney. Its how demoncrats win elections. Its nothing to have hundreds of thousands or even million of dead people come out of their graves and vote in all the key areas to secure a win for progressives. I find it bothersome that just the thought of voter fraud to harm demoncrats is a federal offense but out right fraud against any other party is just crazy talk because the system is so secure and watched over! The right is going to have to get over its self-righteousness and start cheating like the progressives or die off!
Prove it. "hundreds of thousands" "even million(s) of dead people come out of their graves and vote " Please just provide proof. Or admit that you made that up.....
"hundreds of thousands" "even million(s) of dead people come out of their graves and vote " Please just provide proof. Or admit that you made that up..... by Tyler Durden For years the political elites, backed by funding from George Soros, have fought common sense voter ID laws as blatant attempts of racist right wingers to suppress the votes of minority and low-income citizens. These same people tirelessly argue that there is no evidence of voter fraud despite the mountain of facts that keeps piling up the contrary. The latest evidence comes from Indiana, where CBS points out that the state's voter registration database, like many others around the country, are "riddled with errors" including 1,000s of duplicate registrations and dead voters. TargetSmart conducted a review of the state voter file maintained by Republican Secretary of State Connie Lawson’s office on behalf of Patriot Majority, a voter registration group with deep ties to the Democratic Party that says it was trying to register black voters in Indiana. Patriot Majority has been the focal point of a state police probe of possible voter fraud. The group said the discovery of numerous problems in the voter database does not necessarily mean this was the result of fraud. TargetSmart said it also found 837,000 voters with out-of-date addresses when compared to the United States Postal Service address database, or roughly one-in-five of all Indiana registered voters. The review found 4,556 duplicate registrations, 3,000 records without dates of birth and 31 records of registered voters who are too young to cast a ballot. More than 2,500 people on the rolls were listed over the age of 110. Meanwhile, Christian Adams, former Voting Section Attorney at the US Department of Justice under George Bush, recently highlighted on Fox News the inexplicable reluctance of politicians to clean up the voter roles. As we've noted before, according to research conducted by the Pew Center in 2012, the capacity for voter fraud across the U.S. is substantial with nearly 2mm dead people found to be registered and nearly 3mm people registered in multiple states. But something tells us, no matter how many of these types of situations emerge over and over, that U.S. citizens, and common sense for that matter, will never prevail in the war against George Soros and the simple political narrative that voter I.D. laws and other practical solutions are somehow racist and/or disenfranchise low-income voters.
Where is the proof that "hundreds of thousands" or Million(s) of dead people actually voted? Where is the evidence that even one dead person voted, and that one vote changed the outcome of a national or state election? It is quite a leap from poor voter registration database management, to rampant voter fraud. This is an empty claim, repeated by Mr. Trump and many others who refuse to consider the facts. https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Voter-Fraud-Lorraine-Minnite/dp/0801448484
Where is your proof that the election has actually been held?
Non Sequitur - but I'll play: https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2012- certificates/pdfs/vote-ohio.pdf
#20. To: Jameson (#16)
And I thought you were talking about this election cycle. Election in the past may have been honest, but this time they are getting the full Clinton.
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#7. To: Justified (#2)
Its nothing to have hundreds of thousands or even million of dead people come out of their graves and vote in all the key areas to secure a win....
#9. To: Jameson, Justified (#7)
Prove it.
Indiana Voter Database "Riddled With Errors" Including 1,000s Of Dead Voters And Duplicate Registrations
Oct 26, 2016 11:58 AM A data analysis firm hired by a voter registration group said on Tuesday that Indiana’s voter database is riddled with errors, including thousands of people over the age of 110 who would likely be deceased but are still on the registration list.
"Dead people are voting and it’s something this administration does not want to do anything about. They must like it. They must like who they are voting for… Now we have four million, four million Steve, ineligible and dead voters on American voter rolls according to the Pew Charitable Trust."
#11. To: nolu chan (#9)
Approximately 24 million—one of every eight—voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate More than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as voters Approximately 2.75 million people have registrations in more than one state
#15. To: Jameson (#11)
Where is the proof that "hundreds of thousands" or Million(s) of dead people actually voted?
#16. To: nolu chan (#15)
Where is your proof that the election has actually been held?
Replies to Comment # 16. https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2012- certificates/pdfs/vote-ohio.pdf
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