Republican efforts to challenge the voting rules changes and increase election integrity
The topic was a favorite in 2020, and continues to be extremely important. There’s “rigging” – part of which is, of course, the MSM being a propaganda organ for the Democrats. But there’s also the use of lax rules about voting to either ballot harvest or commit outright fraud that almost certainly could not be traced if it occurs.
First, I’d like to link to some older posts of mine (and one article not by me) to refresh your memory on what the GOP tried in 2020 and the opposition they faced, for those who believe they didn’t try at all or certainly didn’t try very hard. There’s this, this, this, and this, as well as this.
I also wrote this in May of 2023:
I see a number of problems that won’t be solved [through legal action]. The first is that, because Democrats tend to control the big cities even in purple states (and some red states), and efforts such as ballot harvesting are easier in urban areas, Democrats have an advantage in that arena. The same is true for lawyers dedicated to election issues; they are far more numerous on the left. And the left has a potent weapon in accusations in court of “racism” and/or “voter suppression” against any efforts to secure the election process.
So, what’s gone on more recently? I haven’t done an exhaustive search, but here are some articles I found in a rather quick one. The first is this, which lists many states and the efforts that have gone on in each one. In summary, however, the article says “rather than filing lawsuits to block alternative voting methods, these suits take aim at what these groups consider dubious rules, such as relaxed instructions for verifying ballot signatures and outdoor ballot drop boxes.”
Another article is this:
According to the Voting Rights Lab, these laws – some expanding rights for voters and others making it more difficult to participate in the election process – are taking place in key battleground states across the U.S. that Democrats and Republicans are targeting in an effort to turn the tide in their favor.
Another list of states follows, summarizing what challenges have been mounted in each.
See also this list.
On the specific topic of poll watchers and observers – which you may recall was a big issue in 2020 – we have this:
The Republican National Committee announced in April that it, along with the Trump campaign, plans to deploy more than 100,000 volunteers and attorneys to serve as poll watchers across battleground states in the 2024 election.
“Every ballot. Every precinct. Every processing center. Every county. Every battleground state. We will be there,” the RNC declared.
Touted as the largest “election integrity program” in the nation’s history, the RNC claimed that poll watchers will ensure that “Democrat tricks from 2020 won’t work this time.”
Well, maybe.
Thanks for the links, Neo. I’m impressed by the determination of Lara Trump and Michael Whatley. They recognize how important this issue of cheating is in the swing states. Their success, I suppose, will be dependent on how much money they can invest in the effort.
That’s why it’s important for them to raise the big bucks.
I read that Musk was going to give money to the cause, but it was later denied. My puny donations won’t go very far, but I’m giving what I can to the RNC because they have pledged to do something to stop the fraud and cheating. It’s sad that elections hive to be watched over so carefully, but that’s where we are.
🙁
The Basic problem is vote by mail. But if we cannot get rid of it, then we must embrace it. I think Republicans have learned that. President Trump is now endorsing early sending in your ballot. Here in California, activist organizations like ReformCalifornia.org are pushing early vote by mail hard. The CAGOP has also sort of endorsed it. ReformCalifornia is also doing ballot harvesting holding “beer, barbecue, and ballots” events in key districts. It’s not going to solve the basic problems with vote by mail but it helps to level the playing field.
Democrat electoral fraud, like the poor, will always be with us. But that doesn’t mean that 2024 will be the same as 2020.
Covid is over. Masking began in April 2020 with its consequent effects on election rules.
During the 2020 election Americans were reeling from Covid, the non-stop false attacks on Trump, not refuted until later, the George Floyd riots and the ascendancy of DEI/Woke.
Dem fraud went to a whole new level for the 2020 election. We got taken by surprise.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, well…
We’re not going to be fooled as in 2020. There will be more eyes and skepticism right from the get-go. As neo notes there have been some Republican efforts. Whether this will be sufficient is another question.
Biden’s margin in 2020 was less than 100,000 votes in the crucial electoral states.
Trump is even stronger this year. Democrats are truly worried. Unless one believes their concern is all a pantomime and Dem fraudsters have got it handled, 2024 is a different story.
We saw the failure of one attempted solution to fraud here in Arizona. The Democrat Sec State, which supervises elections, was the D candidate for Governor in 2022. The R candidate emphasized voting Election Day. On Election Day guess what happened ? The voting machines in R districts all malfunctioned! What a mystery ! No explanation has been forthcoming and the former Sec State is now Governor.
Unfortunately, I live in Michigan, and the Democrats have engineered a “permanent steal” of elections in this state. Anyone can mail in ballots, with absolutely no verification of who mailed those ballots. And folks can register to vote the same day as an election (hmmm, I wonder how many fake IDs they will use to vote multiple times?). After Trump had the election stolen from him in 2020, part of it was because when they were counting the votes in Wayne County, Michigan (think Detroit), Trump was ahead in the count, but then the Democrats FORCIBLY removed the Republican poll watchers from observing the vote counting. And then when the Republican poll watchers were allowed back in, suddenly Biden is leading in the state-wide vote! But the Democrats said “there is no proof of cheating, because nobody actually saw any cheating!” The Democrats also waited until all other counties in Michigan had reported their votes, so the Wayne County Dems would know how many “extra” votes they had to add so they could win.
So, I have had a standing offer for those sorts who don’t believe there was any cheating in the 2020 election. I make them this wager, my house against their house, or at least my vehicle versus their vehicle, as the stakes. I tell them that we will play one hand of straight, draw poker, winner take all. I also tell them that I get to play by “Democrat rules” however. That is to say, that if they show a winning poker hand, they will be FORCIBLY removed from the room for a minute, and when they are let back into the room, they will see that suddenly I now have the winning poker hand! And if they cry and say I cheated, I will tell them, “By your own rules, if you didn’t actually see any cheating, then there wasn’t any cheating!” I would then tell them to hand over the title to their house or car.
In may seem strange, but none of those lefties will take me up on my wager.
In the Old West, if someone was caught cheating at cards, they usually got shot. That was a good system, and we need to bring it back for election cheats! Seriously.
Trump was ahead in the count, but then the Democrats FORCIBLY removed the Republican poll watchers from observing the vote counting. And then when the Republican poll watchers were allowed back in, suddenly Biden is leading in the state-wide vote!
Rusty:
Quite so.
I argue that it’s going to be harder to pull that off so easily after we saw it blatantly four years ago.
And if Trump’s margins are higher than 2020, it will be even harder.
Election fraud is not new. Lyndon Johnson won his 1948 Texas Senate Democrat primary by 48 votes. Much later in 1977, a reporter interviewed an election judge who said he certified enough false votes to give Johnson the election. Fraud was rampant in Democrat run Texas. I recall reading that politicians knew the first to report results lost because it would give the opposition a target for how many false votes to manufacture.
Yes, the bigger the margin the harder is to steal.
Here is the article about the Texas judge.
https://apnews.com/article/lbj-stolen-election-box-13-mangan-c818e478ec509c65585d3094bda69f96
I’ve said this before; and, as far as I can tell, nothing much has changed. If this all seems obvious, then apologies for the heavy-handedness. Feel free to skip ahead and read someone else’s comment.
1. The pandemic greatly expanded LEGAL ballot harvesting, mail-in ballots, early voting, and streetside ballot boxes.
2. In close elections, Democrats can use these legal means to manipulate vote totals in a small number of big cities in critical states that they dominate. No amount of poll-watching can significantly affect this.
3. Despite these advantages, if it looks like the Democratic candidate is going to lose, then Democrats will resort to illegal means to push their candidate ahead. After the election, Republicans can cry all they want. No Presidential election will ever be overturned, unless the cheating is outrageously brazen. Even then, I’m not convinced that Democrats wouldn’t resort to the outrageously brazen. They’d enjoy rubbing it in the faces of the deplorables. Who knows, maybe the response would be violent. Many people would be rounded up and imprisoned. New laws, abridging the first-amendment rights of the deplorables, would then be passed.
4. I haven’t done the arithmetic required to define what constitutes a “close” election, but it wouldn’t be hard to do. Just look up census data for Democrats’ big city neighborhoods. How many people live there? What if all of them vote Democratic? Add that to “downstate” Democratic votes that may be both legitimate and legal. Can the rest of the state put together enough Republican votes to win?
5. What can be done? In the wake of the pandemic, many of the new election laws passed by Democrats were at the state level. They were also successful at electing Democrats as Secretaries of State. Republicans need to do the political groundwork necessary to elect new Secretaries of State, and to repeal the Covid electoral reforms. It’s easy to identify the first group of states to target. If it’s so obvious, why has so little been done? Where I live, It’s become clear that most Republican Party leaders don’t want to rock the boat. They’re happy with things the way they are. Let the Democrats run the government, as long as there’s “bipartisan” support for revenue streams to the most influential Republican constituents. It’s the classic RINO/Chamber of Commerce strategy. Of course, the Republican Party has recently become more populist, more attuned to working people, but Trump is just the beginning of that trend. How long will it take to change the Party? If that change happens, will it be too late? Even after rejecting the mistaken comfort of defeatism, I think there’s good reason to be pessimistic.
Agreed, there is no way Trump can win. No matter how many votes he receives, enough mail in ballots will be produced in the largest cities of the three key states (PA, MI, WI) in the days after the election to beat him soundly.
Agreed, there is no way Trump can win.
Seebag:
Not agreed.
I went through the links and I didn’t find much there that was reassuring; either little news or bad news about the three critical states.
The three critical states are WI, MI, PA. If all three of these those go for Harris she wins, as none of her other 270 are competitive for Trump. So what do these links say about these states?
Washington Examiner reports a small win in MI, “the judge ruled that election officials can continue using most current signature matching guidelines but cannot apply a “presumption of validity” standard…but the ruling does still allow most of Michigan’s mail-in voting procedures to remain largely intact for the 2024 election. The judge acknowledged that a voter’s signature could change one time due to age or disability or if it was made in haste or written on an uneven surface.” Also reports a lawsuit to weaken PA elections further by requiring ballots to be counted even if they don’t have a handwritten date. It is out of date on WI, the challenge to drop boxes was lost in July and the Wisconsin Supreme Court court reinstated their broad use.
USA Today mentions only Wisconsin of the three, and it’s about when and how they have to notify when they can close a polling place. Wisconsin, as I stated above, just switched to unattended drop boxes and allowing online voting for people who pinky swear they need to do that.
Brennan Center mentions only Wisconsin of the three, a proposed improvement in Wisconsin’s elections that was vetoed by the governor, so of course that one doesn’t help.
Savannah Now’s is about Georgia only. Trump can’t win without GA but having GA still requires him to get one of WI, PA, MI, so no help at that link…
I won’t be shocked if we see 180 million votes in the country if the Marxists decide to overwhelm Trump votes.
The brennan center is an architect of the mail in vote gannett is a facilitator of same so interested parties
#1 Viral Video – Can I Break 50 With President Donald Trump?
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2024/07/1-viral-video-can-i-break-50-with.html
Niketas,
” …as none of her other 270 are competitive for Trump. ” I’m not quite ready to call those states that comprise the 270 for Harris. I think if the GOP puts the time and money to many of them, they could be very competitive, and would require the DNC to spend significant resources in states that haven’t been loseable since Reagan and where they have therefore been able to be left to coast to victory.
The rest of your comment seems perfectly reasonable: the GOP has made some efforts to reduce the rigging but it appears to be too little, too late; and they may be missing the threat in the battleground states that they are currently leading.
Gonna be an interesting autumn.
Niketas Choniates has pointed us to the 270towin website, which allows one to game the electoral counts by state, starting from current polling.
https://www.270towin.com/
According to 270towin, Republicans are already at 266 electoral votes. Only 4 more votes to win!
By this accounting Trump does not need to win Niketas’s blue wall fraud states, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Just taking Nevada would suffice and Nevada is in the toss-up category.
What’s your bet that Trump will finish stronger than he is now against Kamala or any other Democrats?
Too big to rig is real.
I like your optimism, huxley. There’s so much at stake.
As Tyrus (the black giant and home-spun philosopher on Fox) says, “It boils down to MAGA voters versus never Trumpers.” The election lies in the hands of the few who are not in those two categories. It’s re ally difficult to figure out what they will do.
I have noticed a trend here in WA, which may or may not be meaningful. WA is deep blue. You would expect the Democrat candidate for governor (Bob Ferguson – AG for the last 12 years) to be running on doing more of what Jay Inslee, (the present, outgoing governor) did. Inslee was soft on crime, big on climate change issues, and more taxes. But no, Ferguson is running on a platform of cracking down on crime, reducing inflation, and improving education, especially programs to create more skilled workers. He sounds like a Republican. My conclusion is that he’s running away from Inslee and the usual Democrat policies because his polling shows that people are fed up, even here.
IMO, Harris and ? will run on more of the same – open borders, more taxes, soft on crime, and a weak, ambivalent foreign policy. Maybe enough LIVs are feed up with that crap all over the country. Let us hope.
In the meantime, we can VOTE, and if we can afford it, give some money to a candidate we like.
huxley on July 28, 2024 at 2:36 pm said:
Niketas Choniates has pointed us to the 270towin website, which allows one to game the electoral counts by state, starting from current polling.
https://www.270towin.com/
According to 270towin, Republicans are already at 266 electoral votes. Only 4 more votes to win!
_______________________________________________________
huxley:
Despite my pessimism, I look for good news where I can find it.
Unfortunately, 270towin doesn’t have it, and I’m not sure where you found your numbers. The site has an interactive “make-your-own-map” feature. Were you playing around with that? Or am I looking at the wrong screen?
What I see:
Republicans (Trump): 251
Democrats (Harris): 226
Toss-up states: WI, MI, PA, AZ, NV
Worse yet, Georgia(16) and North Carolina(16) are categorized as “leans Republican.” For me, that category is vulnerable to Democrats’ special ballot collection and counting methods.
Help me out here. Am I missing something?
@huxley:According to 270towin, Republicans are already at 266 electoral votes.
When I click your link I see 251, still needing MI, PA, WI. I’m just using the “2024 Consensus” default. Have you got some other scenario selected?
Too big to rig is real.
Could be another Red Wave in the offing. If I knew for certain I’d be retiring on my election bets.
Just taking Nevada would suffice and Nevada is in the toss-up category.
I found only a few that showed the Republicans already at 266 or above. They all required one of MI, WI, PA in order to reach 270 and they all gave Trump NV already to get the count that high.
@J. J. In the meantime, we can VOTE, and if we can afford it, give some money to a candidate we like.
In addition to these things, it might be the better part of wisdom to use this time to prepare a backup plan for yourself and your family if the Fortification holds up. Or the street violence we’ll see if it doesn’t, for that matter. The Left is always allowed to riot.
Be concerned. Very, very, concerned.
Niketas,
Here’s some of the reason why I think Michigan is in play, and there is an upper limit of malfeasance in the most blue areas of the state.
In 2016, Detroit voted 95% to 3% for Hillary Clinton with a total votes cast for Hillary of 280,000. This created an uproar at the time as The Detroit News reported:
Dems fixed the problem in 2020. Joe still won with 95% of the vote but the vote total in Detroit for Joe was 233,908 or nearly 50,000 fewer votes. This suggest to me there is an upper limit, at least in Detroit. Will they move on to other counties and precincts? There may or may not be the same enthusiasm for committing voter fraud at the levels necessary to overcome the increased enthusiasm for Trump or the lack of enthusiasm for Kamala.
Then there is the political problem facing auto workers in Detroit and surrounding areas. The UAW leadership endorsed Biden, but his administrations EV mandate is going to cost Michigan lots of already dwindling jobs.
Add to that the state Republicans have already signaled they will help voters get their ballots to the drop boxes. This is a sticky proposition. Ballot harvesting is illegal– and though it’s likely Dems have/will use that strategy– it will be the Reps that get prosecuted if they get caught.
So they will have to have a more robust “get out the vote” campaign this time around.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/12/records-many-votes-detroits-precincts/95363314/
Michigan is winnable, IMO.
BrianE
+1
Are there any local Republicans or party organizations that we can donate to help the GOTV effort?
Brian E on July 28, 2024 at 6:57 pm said:
“Add to that the state Republicans have already signaled they will help voters get their ballots to the drop boxes. This is a sticky proposition. Ballot harvesting is illegal– and though it’s likely Dems have/will use that strategy– it will be the Reps that get prosecuted if they get caught.”
_______________________________________________
Brian E :
https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_harvesting_%28ballot_collection%29_laws_by_state#Michigan
Ballotpedia describes the Michigan state law that LIMITS ballot harvesting.
Advocates for this law claim that it makes ballot harvesting illegal; but early voting, mail-in voting, and drop boxes render the law unenforceable, unless it’s brazenly flouted. And, as you said, unless the law is broken by Republicans. Democrats will be given free rein.
Having said that, I agree that “there is an upper limit of malfeasance,” but that’s a high bar to overcome. I also agree that Michigan is winnable; I just think it’s unlikely. There’s still a while to go before the last day of the election. Will the malfeasance margin be cleared?
@ huxley > “What’s your bet that Trump will finish stronger than he is now against Kamala or any other Democrats?”
If he keeps this up, the betting-on-politics sites are going to be wild!
https://notthebee.com/article/donald-trump-says-that-he-will-continue-to-hold-outdoor-rallies-despite-reports-that-the-secret-service-asked-him-to-stop-best-of-all-hes-returning-to-butler-pa
(See the post for screenshots of Trump’s statements)
I certainly hope the USSS does their job right this time; it would be really hard for the agency to escape accusations of collusion if they don’t, but (I’m really sad to say this) the Democrats may think they can shrug that off if they manage to get rid of Trump for good.
Tip: martyrs are never gone for good!
“Or the street violence we’ll see if it doesn’t, for that matter. The Left is always allowed to riot.” – Niketas C.
After the riots of 2020, I’ve already made preparations. Cameras, lights, a security system, and ammo, plenty of ammo. Have also let the local cops know that I support them. They’re a pretty good small town police force. Not understaffed like Seattle and Tacoma.
I hope Trump and his staff will be prepared to deal with the violence because it’s almost certain to happen in certain areas. 🙁
Google search: assassination attempt on
Google’s Autocomplete function then lists truman, president truman, reagan, ronald reagan, lenin, franklin roosevelt, andrew johnson, fdr, seward, john paul ii, but no trump or donald trump.
Someone is on ‘Da Ball to have caught it that fast…
Is there any other large city in America where the Democrat candidate gets 95% of the vote? Hillary received 95% in 2016 to Trump’s 3% and Biden received 95% to Trump’s 5% in 2020.
Even Washington DC only voted for Biden by a 92.1% to 5.4% for Trump. Bronx county seems almost bipartisan with only 83% for Biden to 15% for Trump.
@ Karmi > I took the test and you are correct about auto-complete on Google.
However, when I selected “assassination attempt on president” they did have a few stories about Trump, UNDER the general histories of attempts on all presidents.
Actually, there have been a tremendous number of failed attempts, most of which I had not known about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_assassination_attempts_and_plots
Robert Kennedy is on this list, which is alphabetical by surname.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinated_American_politicians
That list also included Joseph Smith jr, the Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because he was a candidate for president before being murdered for religious-political reasons.
Trump is unique for being on the lists of former presidents and presidential candidates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith_1844_presidential_campaign
“The campaign of Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith and his vice presidential running mate, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints First Presidency first counselor Sidney Rigdon, took place in 1844. The United States presidential election of that year was scheduled for November 1 to December 4, but Smith was killed in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27. Smith was the first Latter Day Saint to seek the presidency, and the first American presidential candidate to be assassinated.[1]
…
In his campaign platform, Smith proposed to gradually end slavery, to reduce the size of Congress, to re-establish a national bank, to annex Texas, California, and Oregon, to reform prisons, and to authorize the federal government to protect the liberties of Latter Day Saints and other minorities.”