Saturday, August 15, 2020

Trump urges his voters to commit fraud:

Updated from an 8/15/post: September 4, 2020  Remember that old joke about Chicago? Vote early and vote often? That is illegal in many states.  If you try that in Colorado, only your in-person ballot will be counted; your mail-in vote will not be counted.. The President has just urged voters to vote twice, by mail and in-person in order to test the system. https://www.reuters.com/…/trump-says-people-in-north-caroli…In some states, that is illegal. It is in North Carolina. The question is if these wilful lawbreakers try it is not that they can vote twice, it is will their vote be counted twice. In Colorado, if you vote by mail and then show up to vote again in person, you can do it, but the mail-in vote will not be counted. If there is a gap in the timing between the time the mail-in ballot is received and not yet marked off in the information the polling judge receives it, it will be caught. However, in Colorado that has had mail-in voting where every registered voter gets a ballot in the mail since 2013, in-person voting on election day has dwindled to 3-4% percentage because mail-in voting is so convenient even before COVID. Thanks to the miracle of computerized voter registration and the ability to check off quickly if a person already voted, that is the essential question. Besides, those who are concerned their mail-in vote did not make it in time or there is some hanky panky, they can trace their mail-in ballot online just as they can also trace the status of their UPS shipment. and nearly all states have this service. Trump, as usual, is displaying his ignorance or hoping voters are ignorant so he can manipulate them by spreading ignorance. .The second backup is the ability in Colorado to compare signatures at the time the voter registered vs the signatures at the time the ballot is cast either at a polling place or by mail and if there is a question, a bi-partisan group will make the judgment call.

I served as an election commissioner in Denver for over 7 years as part of my duty as Clerk and Recorder..1983-91. We used the old New York lever machines that left a paper trail and in every step of the process, both a Democrat and a Republican double-checked each other. Computers were a new thing then, but we rejected them because they could have been easily hacked.,.thinking that maybe someday they would be more secure. They are not in 2020, at least in tallying the vote. I am satisfied that having signatures checked by both D and R officials, running election registration against Social Security data files to discover who is still alive, is as reassuring as you can get. They do that in Colorado. That Russians were able to hack into election systems in all 50 states in 2016 is troubling...but having actual mail-in ballots in hand for scrutiny after the elections is as foolproof as you can get. There will always be crooked fools who try, but if the system set up as it has been for years in Colorado leaves an evidence trail in actual ballots, then that is the best evidence there is if an election result is challenged. That is the best deterrent to election fraud there is. https://www.5280.com/…/no-fraud-isnt-rampant-in-colorados-…/ Why? Systems are in place, per this article.

https://www.denverpost.com/…/colorado-denver-mail-votin…/For Colorado deadlines, registration, ID requirements, vote by mail or dropoff; https://www.sos.state.co.us/pu…/elections/electionInfo.html…. Early in person voting in Colorado begins October 19. www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/main.html "Review your voter record to make sure your information is up to date. October 9 - Counties will begin mailing ballots for the November 3 rd General Election. October 26 - deadline to register to vote or update your registration and still receive a ballot in the mail. In Colorado, you can register to vote and vote in person up to 7 PM on Election Day. 

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/26/biden-supporters-in-states-where-it-is-hardest-to-vote-by-mail-are-most-concerned-about-voting-this-fall/ft_2020-08-26_votebymail_04a/
What is revealing is that Russia and Trump are on the same page, using the same propaganda line to delegitimize the election in advance by claiming mail-in votes are a fraud. The purpose could be to give Trump some sort of an argument in case he lost the electoral vote to claim he did not lose the election, the election was rigged, and all mail-in ballots are fraudulent. He already has declared in advance if he loses, the election was rigged, and he has publicly expressed desires to be president for life.. What then? What if he tries to stay in power and refuses to leave the Oval Office by Inauguration Day.  The Joint Chiefs have made it clear the active military will not be used for domestic political purposes as Trump tried to get them to do in Lafayette Park, or, it is assumed, they would refuse to march Trump out of the White House if Trump refuses to vacate it. in the same way, other dictators seized power elsewhere. What then happens: the mother of all constitutional crises, court orders, the Supreme Court,  US Martials follow the court ruling and escort Trump out,.. While all of this gets resolved,. Nancy Pelosi, third in line, will assume the presidency temporarily., Worst-case scenario: some long gun-armed right-wing terrorist groups start an armed civil war in defense of Trump. and people die.  Take your pick.pick.
Trump's refusal in advance to say he will honor the outcome of the election and that"the only way he will lose the election is if the election is rigged"  would be ironic if it were not so scary. The irony is not lost since he is the one trying to rig this election by voter suppression tactics aimed at assumed anti-Trump minority voters, by using administrative measures, intimidating in-person voters, and sabotaging the ability US postal service to process mail in a timely way, including mail-in ballots.  The postal service's new head ceased doing more to curtail prompt delivery but left the automatic sorters disconnected, the corner post office boxes still gone,  and overtime limited. 


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