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Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 9:05 am
by BackInTex
Bob78164 wrote:The difference between electioneering at the polling place and electioneering at the voter's home is that at home, the voter can tell the candidate's surrogate to just go away. But if a voter is willing to allow someone else tell him or her how to vote, that's the voter's right.
Your inability to think through a situation is surprising.

Situation 1: Electioneering at a polling place.

Candidates or operatives ask voters for support at the entrance to the polling place. At the polling place are other voters, poll workers, and others. It is a public place. Also, when the voter goes into the voting booth, the vote cast is unseen and thus a private transaction.

Situation 2: Electioneering at a person's place of residence

Voter may or may not be alone, but it is not a public place. Candidate or operatives ask voter for support and to vote a certain way. The amount of coercion is unseen by the public and can be "an offer the voter can't refuse". The ballot is completed not in a private booth beyond the eyes of the candidate or operative (vote harvester) so the "terms of the offer" are certainly on the mind of the voter.


This is why I am concerned with vote "harvesting".

Also, votes harvested from voters may or may not be from voters who are registered but incapacitated mentally. My mother in law would be a prime example of this. She is a registered voter but has dementia and can not make her own decisions. She did not vote in the 2018 election (our choice) though we could have "harvested" her vote.

Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 10:40 am
by Bob78164
BackInTex wrote:
Bob78164 wrote:The difference between electioneering at the polling place and electioneering at the voter's home is that at home, the voter can tell the candidate's surrogate to just go away. But if a voter is willing to allow someone else tell him or her how to vote, that's the voter's right.
Your inability to think through a situation is surprising.

Situation 1: Electioneering at a polling place.

Candidates or operatives ask voters for support at the entrance to the polling place. At the polling place are other voters, poll workers, and others. It is a public place. Also, when the voter goes into the voting booth, the vote cast is unseen and thus a private transaction.

Situation 2: Electioneering at a person's place of residence

Voter may or may not be alone, but it is not a public place. Candidate or operatives ask voter for support and to vote a certain way. The amount of coercion is unseen by the public and can be "an offer the voter can't refuse". The ballot is completed not in a private booth beyond the eyes of the candidate or operative (vote harvester) so the "terms of the offer" are certainly on the mind of the voter.


This is why I am concerned with vote "harvesting".

Also, votes harvested from voters may or may not be from voters who are registered but incapacitated mentally. My mother in law would be a prime example of this. She is a registered voter but has dementia and can not make her own decisions. She did not vote in the 2018 election (our choice) though we could have "harvested" her vote.
You're talking about going into someone's home to coerce a vote they do not want to give. Do you really think something like that would stay out of the headlines? After the thugs you're hypothesizing leave, the voter would tell someone, and once word started to get out, then as we've seen in many similar situations, the incidents would come pouring out of the woodwork. And the competing candidates would have plenty of incentive to bring it to light.

There's no word of this happening for a simple reason -- it's not happening. What is happening is that people who might not otherwise have gotten their votes submitted instead got to exercise their franchise. And when lots of people vote, Democrats win. Which is exactly why it's the policy of the Republican Party to suppress and discourage voting in any way it can get away with. --Bob

Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 10:49 am
by Bob78164
I just keep wondering, now that we have a real live honest-to-goodness vote fraud scandal that may in fact have swung an election, where the hell are all the Republicans who used to care so passionately about defending the integrity of our elections from the imaginary threat of voter impersonation? --Bob

Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 12:01 pm
by silverscreenselect
Bob78164 wrote:I just keep wondering, now that we have a real live honest-to-goodness vote fraud scandal that may in fact have swung an election, where the hell are all the Republicans who used to care so passionately about defending the integrity of our elections from the imaginary threat of voter impersonation? --Bob
Speaking of real live honest-to-goodness vote fraud:
Two employees of the Suffolk County Board of Elections, as well as an East Hampton Independence Party leader, were charged Tuesday with forging signatures on nominating petitions, in some cases with the names of dead people, District Attorney Timothy Sini said. The former chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Party is expected to face similar charges in court Wednesday.

An affidavit from Robert Maloney, an investigator with Sini’s office, said Mann and Dickerson submitted Green Party nominating petitions to the Board of Elections in July that contained forged signatures, including, in one case, the signature of a person who died in 2014. Mann and Dickerson hoped to get Republican candidates listed under the Green Party on the Nov. 6 ballot to boost GOP chances of victory in last month’s election, Sini said.

Amos Goodman, who resigned last week as the chairman of the East Hampton Republican Party, submitted nominating petitions for three races that contained at least 43 forgeries, Sini said, including the signature of a person who died in 2017. Goodman, 35, of East Hampton, is expected to surrender Wednesday with his attorney at the district attorney’s office in Hauppauge.
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suf ... 1.24231657

Re: NC 9

Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2018 12:15 am
by SportsFan68
Harvesting is a big concern in all-mail-in states like Colorado. Here, you can turn in a maximum of 10 ballots (besides your own) inside signed and sealed envelopes. I turned in one this year.

If you need help filling out your ballot because of a disability such as limited vision, you can go to a Voter Service and Polling Center (VSPC) where you can vote using voice prompts and a keypad. Lots of people go to the polls in my county because they like the voting experience, and not just older folks. I dropped by to check with our poll watcher, and most of the in-person voters (my guess) were in the 30-50 range.

The Democratic party, at the State party's urging, had poll watchers at all three VSPCs. They rounded up three Democratic attorneys with election experience, and all reported the same experience -- a smooth, well-run operation. I watch this stuff on television about voter suppression and fraud in other states and it makes me crazy. I give a lot of the credit to outgoing Secretary of State Republican Wayne Williams, and I hope his successor follows his lead in achieving what I believe is the best run system in the country. We have people from New York and Washington, DC coming out to review our system. I wish it were Georgia and Florida. Oh well.

Re: NC 9

Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2018 10:19 am
by Bob Juch
Thinkprogress wrote:The suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina have been the epicenter of an unfolding investigation into potential election fraud committed on behalf of — and funded by — Republicans running in statewide and federal elections in the 9th district.

Much of the focus has been on Bladen County, where Soil and Water Conservation District vice chair Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. reportedly paid multiple people to illegally collect voters’ absentee ballots and deliver them to him, rather than the local board of elections.

But an analysis of absentee ballots cast in neighboring Robeson County suggests that the effort to interfere with the midterm election was more extensive than previously thought.

According to CNN, four people in Robeson County are listed as witnesses on dozens of absentee ballots. One individual’s name appeared on at least 57 ballot envelopes, a whopping nine percent of all absentee ballots cast in the county. A second woman signed 28 other envelopes in Robeson county, as well as 42 others in Bladen county. She is also the daughter of Dowless’s ex-wife.

On Thursday afternoon, Democratic candidate Dan McCready announced he was withdrawing his concession and blasted his Republican opponent for obfuscating and trying to pressure the state board of elections to certify the results.

“I didn’t serve overseas in the Marines to come home to North Carolina and watch a criminal, bankrolled by my opponent, take away people’s very right to vote,” he said in a widely shared Tweet.

Re: NC 9

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 2:54 pm
by Bob78164
But wait, there’s more! Evidence is emerging that early votes in Bladen County were tallied before Election Day, which isn’t supposed to happen, and that the prematurely tabulated information was available to people who weren’t election judges. The MacReady campaign has denied having that information; the Harris campaign, so far, has been silent. The North Carolina Republican Party has said that if this allegation is true it should result in a new election. —Bob

Re: NC 9

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 3:11 pm
by silverscreenselect
Bob78164 wrote:But wait, there’s more! Evidence is emerging that early votes in Bladen County were tallied before Election Day, which isn’t supposed to happen, and that the prematurely tabulated information was available to people who weren’t election judges. The MacReady campaign has denied having that information; the Harris campaign, so far, has been silent. The North Carolina Republican Party has said that if this allegation is true it should result in a new election. —Bob
If there is a new election, there's a question of whether it would be a re-do of the general election with just the two candidates, or a special election from scratch, which would have a primary followed by a general election. Under that scenario, the Republicans could run Rob Pittenger again, who would probably fare better in the general election than Harris.

Re: NC 9

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 3:16 pm
by Bob78164
silverscreenselect wrote:
Bob78164 wrote:But wait, there’s more! Evidence is emerging that early votes in Bladen County were tallied before Election Day, which isn’t supposed to happen, and that the prematurely tabulated information was available to people who weren’t election judges. The MacReady campaign has denied having that information; the Harris campaign, so far, has been silent. The North Carolina Republican Party has said that if this allegation is true it should result in a new election. —Bob
If there is a new election, there's a question of whether it would be a re-do of the general election with just the two candidates, or a special election from scratch, which would have a primary followed by a general election. Under that scenario, the Republicans could run Rob Pittenger again, who would probably fare better in the general election than Harris.
I have read that under North Carolina law, if the Board of Elections requires a new election, it must be a replay of the general election with no opportunity for the parties to change their nominees. —Bob

Re: NC 9

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:18 am
by Bob78164
It looks like the same shenanigans occurred in the race for Sheriff of Columbus County, which was decided by 37 votes. --Bob

Re: NC 9

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 5:02 pm
by Bob78164
The reconstituted Board of Elections voted unanimously to hold a new election, after Mark Harris withdrew his defense of the existing results. Thanks to a recent change enacted by the North Carolina Legislature, there will be a new primary followed by a new general election. --Bob

Re: NC 9

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 5:49 pm
by silverscreenselect
Bob78164 wrote:The reconstituted Board of Elections voted unanimously to hold a new election, after Mark Harris withdrew his defense of the existing results. Thanks to a recent change enacted by the North Carolina Legislature, there will be a new primary followed by a new general election. --Bob
Harris' defense fell apart when his son, an assistant US attorney, testified that he had warned his father about not using Dowless before the election.

Re: NC 9

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 6:31 pm
by Ritterskoop
Travis' photo of the candidate yesterday tells the story (before the video starts, it's the frozen image at the top of the story):

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/ ... 92265.html

Re: NC 9

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 2:47 pm
by jarnon
Republican Mark Harris will not run in North Carolina House special election after fraud probe

Best wishes for Harris's return to good health. I admire his son for his honest, heartfelt testimony.

Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 11:41 am
by silverscreenselect
McCrae Dowless indicted on seven counts: three counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, and two counts of illegal possession of absentee ballots. These are all state charges. Four others were also charged.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/ ... 64674.html

Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 12:07 pm
by flockofseagulls104
Quote from bored liberals:
There is no evidence for voter fraud
Caveat: Not unless it's done by repubs.

Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 12:38 pm
by earendel
flockofseagulls104 wrote:Quote from bored liberals:
There is no evidence for voter fraud
Caveat: Not unless it's done by repubs.
Not to stir the pot, but I believe that there is no evidence for widespread voter fraud. There are obviously cases of voter fraud.

Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 1:02 pm
by silverscreenselect
flockofseagulls104 wrote:Quote from bored liberals:
There is no evidence for voter fraud
Caveat: Not unless it's done by repubs.
Republicans assert without proof that there's widespread evidence of fraud by voters or potential voters.

Democrats provide proof that there's fraud by Republican operatives on voters to destroy or alter votes that have been cast.

Big difference.

Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 2:35 pm
by flockofseagulls104
silverscreenselect wrote:
flockofseagulls104 wrote:Quote from bored liberals:
There is no evidence for voter fraud
Caveat: Not unless it's done by repubs.
Republicans assert without proof that there's widespread evidence of fraud by voters or potential voters.

Democrats provide proof that there's fraud by Republican operatives on voters to destroy or alter votes that have been cast.

Big difference.
California has apparently made what this guy did legal. And you are telling me that dems haven't done anything? As Michael Corleone said to Kaye: "Now who's being naive?"

Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 2:55 pm
by Bob78164
flockofseagulls104 wrote:
silverscreenselect wrote:
flockofseagulls104 wrote:Quote from bored liberals:



Caveat: Not unless it's done by repubs.
Republicans assert without proof that there's widespread evidence of fraud by voters or potential voters.

Democrats provide proof that there's fraud by Republican operatives on voters to destroy or alter votes that have been cast.

Big difference.
California has apparently made what this guy did legal. And you are telling me that dems haven't done anything? As Michael Corleone said to Kaye: "Now who's being naive?"
If both sides know it's legal, then I don't see a problem. What makes it a problem in North Carolina is that the Democratic candidate followed the rules in force for that election but the Republican candidate did not. That gave the Republican candidate a big unfair advantage. To make it worse, there's some pretty powerful evidence that the guy collected blank ballots that he filled out later, and failed to turn in some of the ballots that he did collect. That's illegal everywhere. And if you claim that's happening in California, you'd damn well better have "a blue dress" to back up that claim. --Bob

Re: NC 9

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 2:56 pm
by silverscreenselect
flockofseagulls104 wrote: And you are telling me that dems haven't done anything?
Apparently, whether it's illegal voting or illegal vote harvesting or any election fraud, the Democrats are so good at it that they can do it all the time without leaving any evidence, but the one time those poor Republicans tried the same thing, they got caught.