Our mob-boss-channeling President attributes any losses he experiences to various nefarious plots against him–that poll was rigged, that data has been tampered with…and especially, he couldn’t have lost that 2020 election fair and square, it must have been “rigged.” His inability to grow up has infected the MAGA cult, which is now busy deconstructing things they very obviously don’t understand.
Just as there are perfectly reasonable efforts to improve government efficiency–efforts that don’t require destroying the village in order to save it–there are deficiencies (mostly unintentional) in election administration that operate to disenfranchise voters and skew election results. Here in Indiana, where Republicans rule and don’t worry a lot about the consequences of what they’re doing, those sloppy irregularities can significantly affect close elections.
That was in all likelihood the case in the contest between Tiffany Stoner and Becky Cash for Indiana House District 25–a race Stoner lost by 64 votes our of several thousands cast. I don’t understand why the Democrats didn’t demand a recount, given the extensive evidence of irregularities the party uncovered in the two weeks following the election.
A Democratic compendium of those irregularities included the following:
Approximately 280 absentee mail-in ballots were rejected across Hendricks County. The clerk’s office never gave a definitive and accurate number despite several requests.
An unknown number of absentee ballots were sent to voters without the required security initials from the clerk’s office. After the error was discovered, the clerk knowingly chose not to inform voters that their ballots would be rejected due to the office’s mistake. Consequently, any completed and returned ballots were not counted, and the affected voters remain unaware of this issue.
Voting machines were left unattended at polling locations overnight, raising concerns about their security. One machine was powered off and its votes were not even tallied until the following day, while another was found to be broken and went unused.
The county clerk’s office rejected dozens of absentee ballots, citing signature mismatches. However, signatures can vary due to changes in style, age, illness, or disability. Notices were sent via the postal service to affected voters on November 7th, requiring them to submit a signed affidavit by 12 noon on November 13th. This left voters with very little time to address the issue and resolve the rejection.
The county election board rejected a military ballot, claiming the signature did not match the one on file. This decision denied an active-duty service member, currently defending our freedoms, their vote. Moreover, they were not provided the legally required notice or opportunity to correct the issue.
Mistakes occurred in voter registration and the transfer of registrations between government agencies. For instance, the BMV failed to include a voter’s signature in one case. In other instances, voters who registered through the Secretary of State’s portal discovered their registrations were never processed. One voter with an Indianapolis address, but residing in Hendricks County was forced to vote provisionally after their registration was erroneously sent to Marion County.
Inspectors weren’t present at any early voting site. This is required by statute on election day and most counties employ these same secure practices in early voting. One description we received from a poll-worker said, “everyone and no one was in charge.” We even discovered an instance where a librarian gave the keys to the room where voting machines were secured to a poll worker without confirming their identification.
These errors very obviously disenfranchised some number of voters. (You might expect the party of “election integrity” to care, but you’d be wrong. It’s not about integrity; it’s all about winning.) Whether these lapses in competent administration would have changed the outcome of that election is unknown, but the mere number of errors certainly should affect voters’–and candidates’– confidence in the system.
In the wake of the election, several Democrats have called for the creation of a nonpartisan voter protection organization. In stark contrast to the typical GOP whining about the “unfairness” of losses and unfounded accusations of “rigging,” that proposal sounds…what’s that word…adult.
In fact, looking into the documented irregularities of the Hendricks County vote prompted me to contemplate the differences between Democrats and MAGA Republicans that are demonstrated by their responses to election losses. It occurred to me that America’s political polarization isn’t between the informed and uninformed, or the educated and uneducated–striking as those divisions are.
It’s between grown ups and children throwing tantrums.
“An unknown number of absentee ballots were sent to voters without the required security initials from the clerk’s office. After the error was discovered, the clerk knowingly chose not to inform voters that their ballots would be rejected due to the office’s mistake. Consequently, any completed and returned ballots were not counted, and the affected voters remain unaware of this issue.”
It is up to each voter to check for those initials; it is plainly stated on every Absentee Ballot and the first thing I look for before looking at the list of candidates. Due to political conditions in this state, do you simply take the word of one person that it was an “office mistake”? Due to political conditions in this state I tend to believe it was deliberate, knowing many voters do not check instructions but simply fill in their chosen ovals. Just as it is the election staff to check signatures they needed to notify those who received ballots with no initials; was that oversite a mistake or deliberate non-action on Democratic ballots only?
Contemplating the differences between Democratic and MAGA Republican responses to election losses; I did not see the accusations, demands for recounts, whining, crying, pissing and moaning from Democrats that are still coming from MAGA Republicans about their 2020 loss. I totally blame the Democratic party’s lack of ability to unite behind our progressive President Joe Biden…or their Kamala Harris replacement…but continued casting blame on President Joe’s age and blaming Kamala for losing the election which did not have full Democratic backing for either.
Regarding Senator Chuck Shumar and other Democrats who voted with MAGA Republicans rather than allow a government shutdown; I didn’t like their choice but I understood it then and understand it now. A government shutdown on top of Musk’s (illegal) firing of tens of thousands of government employees would have been a major step forward to Trump’s full takeover and collapse of United States government and put the United States in full accord with Putin and all other dictator leaders globally.
If Putin’s and Trump’s ceasefire and takeover of Ukraine without Ukraine’s President Zelensky having a vote isn’t “Rigging” what is? Democrats need to stop cowering behind their minority position and begin taking action with their constituents when they are in session and and when they are at home among their much needed voters. They need to be seeking out Republicans who are now seeing what their election of Trump has brought about for all Americans.
Democrats have given up. The widespread dissatisfaction with republicans should be a motivation, but they seem to be staring at their shoelaces. Where are the young, energetic, bright democrats willing to lead the party?
daleb,
Those “young, energetic, bright democrats willing to lead the party” are all there; they simply have been restrained by the old, inflexible, not going to retire party leaders who gave up on the future a long time ago.
daleb and Theresa Bowers; yes, those old white men are still in charge of the future of those “young, energetic, bright democrats willing to lead the party” and of what little future we old, tired of their belief their old age is still workable but President Joe Biden’s was not and refuse to let go of control of their failing party. They are “Rigging” the system to fail and are so far successful at aiding and abetting the enemies of democracy, Rule of Law and upholding the Constitution of the United States of America.
JoAnn, could you please be more clear. What are you trying to convey here?
I disagree with JoAnn’s assessment of the turncoat Schumer who flip-flopped within 48 hours due to several phone calls from the megabanks that own him and keep him in place within the Senate. It had nothing to do with strategy — it had everything to do with monied interests.
The Democrats are confined within the corrupt system run by the oligarchy. Do you think the oligarchy is worried about LGBT issues or DEI? Did you see how quick they complied with Trump to keep the golden goose laying eggs?
A real opposition party would be coordinating massive strikes across the spectrum. Why aren’t workers at Amazon, Tesla, Meta, Railroad, Teachers, etc. coordinating their efforts to stay home for a week to cripple the economy in response to Trump/Vance/Musk? Why aren’t civil servants across the country refusing to show up for work to show unity to the attacks from Musk and DOGE?
Don’t make excuses for them — hold them accountable.
It’s the same thing for our lousy media. Instead of holding Trump accountable, they all acqueised by getting rid of reporters Trump didn’t like. Why?
Because they are controlled by the entertainment oligarchy and management is driven by advertisement base.
All these systems of opposition to the oligarchy are NOT really opposing forces. They are part of the oligarchy. Randi Weingarten is paid six-figures to head the teachers union and does nothing. Biden and Pelosi (Warren Buffett puppets) told the railroad union not to strike and they didn’t. These were Democratic leadership stopping a worker’s strike because the unions have all been taken in and controlled by the oligarchy.
If you don’t believe me, take a look at the presidents we’ve installed around the globe. Melei in Argentina. Bolsonara in Brazil. We’ve financed color revolutions in Romania, Georgia, Ukraine, Kosovo, Venezuela, etc. All are pro-western capitalism/IMF puppets. They are systematically, via disaster capitalism, privatizing governments and selling them off to BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street.
If Trump’s actions don’t generate a major upheaval by real leftists, it’s not going to happen. It will NOT happen from the uniparty version of the Democratic Party. And don’t forget, the uniparty and the oligarchy control the surveillance/police state. When an upheaval does come, watch what happens. 😉
As I said in what was meant to be sarcasm the other day, you really can trust the Democrats (old and young) to shoot themselves in the foot at every opportunity. I really like some of the younger dems. That’s why I was horrified by their tictoc video. They can’t dance!
In that same little rant, I said you could trust Orange Jesus to do whatever benefits him. A shutdown would really be the beginning of the end of this American experiment. He currently controls the Executive and Legislative branches of government. He’s getting closer to blowing off the Court.
With only those employees deemed essential, he can just continue to operate as a bare bones government. That would be sweet music to his handlers. Public pressure would be quieted by subsequent arrests and before you know it the Wayback machine would drop us in Berlin in 1938.
Everything Republicans touch dies. Democracy is at risk because of a variety of events that led up to today’s MAGA idiocy. If one reads the unvarnished history of the Bush clan, one would find that adhering to the rules is quaint, not necessary when WINNING is all that matters. The weaponization of political campaign lexicon and verbiage, the demonization of opponents and the bald-faced lying injected into political campaigns is more than just human nature. It’s the definition of succumbing to primitive instincts and ignorance over educated (at any level) and organized societal necessities.
Republicans simply lack the intellectual acumen to do any of that, so they convince the similarly handicapped voters to do their bidding. Rigged. Unfair. Republicans are experts at it.
The sheer number of mistakes listed and the fact that the Hendricks County Clerk was not required to remedy those issues is deplorable. Can elected county officers in Indiana be fired via impeachment? Maybe the entire staff at that office needs to also be fired.
In 2022 while running for the office he now holds, our current Secretary of State made Marion County and Hendricks County news headlines for prior illegal voting. He had also been fired twice from jobs in Pence’s administration. The point is: he made it clear to the republican party that he was willing to break laws in order to be elected to a powerful Indiana state office and to also be willing to spread Trump’s lies to help him get reelected. Those two major character flaws seem to be republican party requirements. Here is a link to one of the stories about Diego Morales: https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/james-briggs/2022/11/03/diego-morales-indiana-secretary-of-state-candidate-may-have-voted-illegally/69612691007/#
He and his Hungarian wife made news this week at the republican reception for Victor Orbhan. Here is a link for a story about this: https://pro.stateaffairs.com/in/news/indiana-hungary-diego-morales-wife
If you google Indiana Secretary of State and Victor Orbhan several more stories will show up.
Theresa; my error was in the erroneous term “upholding” which should have been are NOT upholding the Constitution. The old white men Democrats still sitting in Congress must work with the old white men Republicans sitting across the aisle who have allowed their young, energetic, not too bright Republicans, known as MAGAs, to lead their party but do not agree with their words or their actions. Those old white men Democrats are sitting on their laurels while the MAGAs are lurching ahead with Trump’s DOGE leader doing all of the demolition work. Even Musk has been smart enough to load DOGE staff with college students who are young, energetic and all brighter than the MAGAs.
Todd; the Democrats are going to have to work with the Republicans who have spoken against what is going on. President Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope” was based on his hope and the hope of many Americans of both parties in this nation coming together at the bargaining table to work together to resolve our problems. They have long passed disagreeing on issues and are now bitter enemies with the fate of the nation lost in their pissing contest. We know NOT what went on between Schumer and the megabanks (IF that is who the calls were between) any more than we know or will ever know what went on between Trump and Putin in their conversations regarding the fate of Ukraine.
I remembered a quote I heard on TV recently which I jotted down, had to find it because it applies today. We all probably have Republican family members, former friends and neighbors we were close to but no longer associate with; the opposing members of Congress must find a way to work together if we are to save this nation. We must find a way to work together to bring family member, former friends and neighbors up to our level and not let them drag us down to their level. People ridiculed Michelle Obama’s comment, “When they go low, we go high.” That is what she was talking about.
The quote I remembered; “I will not let any man drag me down so low that I will hate him.” Booker T. Washington
No one can do everything but every one can do something. Hope to see a big turnout tonight.
Sorry, but I stop reading as soon as someone quotes the Obamas. Barack was great at making speeches, but our financial oligarchy owned him. I still can’t believe he was given the mandate to implement universal healthcare coverage and break up the banking cartel, and he did NOTHING. That’s why he gets paid $500,000 annually for one speech at a Goldman Sachs luncheon. He served them well.
Quick three points today –
1) I have never believed Republican “justifications” for most of their “good for the country” ideas. They are either based on false premises (e.g. the private sector always does thing better than the government) or plain lies.
2) Signature matching is completely bogus. Matching is in the eyes of the beholder, and even an AI comparison would fail. If I sign three documents in a row, I doubt that any of the signatures would match. Actually, I’m certain they wouldn’t.
3) I was/am ticked off at Schumer. It is my opinion that this was the only leverage that the Democrats had, and that more people will need to see the full disruptive effect of Trumpism to have a critical mass get mad.
BUT
Think of this – during a shutdown, Trump declares all courts and all non-Trump appointees as non-critical and they are all barred from the workplace. Trump designates all of the DOGE baby techno-nazis as critical, giving them time to attack all computer systems that they have yet to reach and to rifle through and destroy or steal any documentation they want. The few remaining real civil servants won’t be there to stop them, and neither will the courts.
Maybe, with or without knowing it, Schumer did the right thing.
A small
thing, but somehow satisfying:
When leaving a message for Senator Banks, I ended by asking him to stop using the word “ woke”( for anything) I said It makes him sound like an 11 year old. Anytime it is used it reminds me of my school days where kids would accuse each other of having”cooties”.