Thursday, October 13, 2016

Trump - Empowered Vote Challengers At The Polls ? Bring 'Em On!



According to the Brennan Center for Justice "forty six states have laws that allow private citizens to challenge the eligibility of prospective voters on or before election day."

In effect, as you are ready to enter a polling station, any cockeyed nimrod who somehow doubts your voter bona fides can stop you cold, and demand you produce proof of who you are. When Janice saw the segment on CBS Early Show yesterday morning she was livid: "What kind of nonsense is that? I have to show ID to a bunch of creeps?"

Well, technically, yeah. Of course, it is irrelevant for both of us anyway as we will be filling out our Colorado mail ballots at home. This will be after they arrive in the next week to ten days. (They are to be mailed out by October 17).

Much of the angst about "voter fraud" and especially non-citizens casting ballots in critical states - like Colorado- is fed by lying creeps like Michelle Malkin. She wrote in a recent column (Colorado Springs Gazette, 'It Could All Come Down To Colorado'):  

"Former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler identified nearly 5,000 citizens in Colorado who voted in the 2010 election".

But strangely, although Gessler could  apparently enumerate these " non-citizens" he  appeared unable to have pressed charges. According to the Huffington Post:

"Colorado’s Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler has been on the hunt for voter fraud in the state since he took the office in 2011, claiming non-citizens were illegally voting in Colorado elections. But a new report from The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel shows that, to date, there have been zero prosecutions of Gessler’s suspects.

After originally claiming more than 16,000 non-citizens registered to vote in Colorado in 2011 and that as many as 5,000 of them had actually voted in 2010,, Gessler’s office finally released the names of only 155 people who they thought of as suspects. ....

Many of those people whose citizenship and right to vote were called into question by Gessler were found to be verifiable U.S. citizens, The Associated Press reported. In some counties, like Boulder, of those questioned, only legal U.S. citizens were found."

As Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett put it, quoted in The Boulder Daily Camera :

Local governments and county clerks do a really good job regulating the integrity of elections, and I’ll stand by that record any day of the week. We don’t need state officials sending us on wild goose chases for political reasons.”

So Gessler, like Malkin, is mostly into "wild goose chasing" and stirring up voting fraud hysteria to reinforce the bogus Trump claim that this election is "rigged". This also lends false support to Trumpies just itching to police the polls using voter challenge laws. We saw an earlier iteration of this shtick back in 2012 with the 'True the Vote" nonsense.

Now this is not to say there has NEVER been voter fraud. But the Reeptard Bozos are indicting the wrong side. It is THEIR side that has perpetrated the most infamous incident, in Florida back in 2000.  Greg Palast, author of 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy',  documented how 90,000 and probably more like 150,000 legal black voters were removed from voter lists in Florida, using the ruse that they were convicted felons,  not permitted to vote in that state. Jeb Bush awarded the contract to the firm that submitted the higher bid, Choicepoint.  It then scrubbed from the voter rolls all names that were clearly black (first name Jamail or Kinesha, for instance), that bore an arguable resemblance to a felon’s name.   This remains, along with the electronic scrubbing of D-votes in Ohio in 2004 (using electronic machines),  the two most massive cases of vote fraud.

As to actual voter impersonation fraud, it doesn't even make the "radar".  Specifically, it has been proven to occur only roughly 0.00000013 % of the time see e.g.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/voter-fraud-real-rare/story?id=17213376

The other bogus meme making the rounds is that in places like Colorado, "you have an all mail ballot system that makes it easy to misuse and commit voter fraud". Again, nonsense. Each mail ballot such as we use must be signed and the enabling for such balloting was already validated via use of Colorado ID cards from past elections (before the mail balloting law was passed).  Also, according to state precinct stats, barely 40 percent of ballots are cast by mail. Most people still prefer to show up in person - even braving longish lines - because it makes them feel more like "real voters".

Of course this is hogwash and malarkey. Anyone is a real voter who actually takes the time to complete a ballot. In our state the ballots are typically complex,  laden with special district issues and state referenda. This year the ballots include a raft of local tax issues, local district election spots, school boards etc. as well as assorted amendments,  e.g. Amendment 69 for single payer health care, Amendment 70 to increase the state minimum wage, Amendment 72 to raise cigarette taxes to $2.94 a pack and Proposition 106, the medical aid in dying initiative. Oh, and Amendment 71 to do away with further amendments.

Given the ballot complexity we have opted to fill them out at home then mail them in.

The saddest part of the "voter fraud" and "rigged election" bollocks is how it can erode democracy over time, creating more polarization and animosity toward the process. One woman calling herself "Rhonda", actually stood up at a Mike Pence rally two days ago and declared to the gathered peanut gallery:

"I'm on social media every day, all day. Nonstop, since last June. One of the biggest things I can tell you a lot of us are scared of is this voter fraud. There's a lot of us here saying when we go to vote we're gonna wear red. Our lives depend on this election. Our kids' futures depend on this election. I will tell you just for me, and I don't want this to happen, personally. but if Hillary Clinton gets in, I myself ...I am ready for a revolution. Because we can't have her in!"

Pence, give him credit, did respond in a low voice, 'Oh, don't say that'.

Pence at least had more insight than his running mate and this Reeptard woman. So let her try to summon all her disaffected yahoos to revolution. Within a few heartbeats they will all be brought down with RF radiation "barf guns" that I referenced some 5 years ago, and which are now ready to fire, e.g.


The device, according to The Economist (Oct. 15, 2011,  p. 89, 'Electromagnetic Weapons: Frying Tonight') emits RF radiation that "directly affects the human digestive and nervous system" to trigger violent projectile vomiting. It is estimated that one brief "spray" by such an RF device - say from a helicopter- can subdue  99% of a violently agitating crowd.

This lot - say angered Trumpkins at the election results - can be  reduced to paroxysms of non-stop vomiting within seconds. Unable to raise a whisper, far less a shout, they will have no choice other than to run back home....and away from the radio frequency-blasted  area. The good part is that instead of having to clean blood from the streets the authorities will just have to wash away the vomit.

Hell, the feds won't even have to bring out the Army or special Humvees outfitted with heavy artillery.

The best thing the Trumpies can do if the election doesn't go their way,  is to suck it up, take it like adults and move on. And don't even think of trying to delegitimize HRC via "impeachment" - like for the currently Wikileaks email releases. These merely show that Hillary and crew are the politicians we knew they were. But at least they're not the 'shit for brains' nutso whackjobs that mark Trump and his campaign.

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/eric-boehlert/69339/wounded-trump-retreats-into-the-fringe-media-bunker

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