Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Colorado shows how to deal with election denying election officials: Tina Peters, guilty



Tina Peters was sentenced to 9 years. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/03/trump-election-conspiracist-tina-peters-sentenced.html


 From my Substack posting of 8/13/24:

There has been a great deal of hand-wringing about MAGA replacing local election clerks with election deniers in a plot, hardly secret, to throw the 2024 presidential elections into chaos and even violence if Donald Trump appears to have lost the election. Here is what it took in Colorado to successfully prosecute a county clerk who tinkered with election computers. Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters found guilty in election computer breach (denverpost.com)

The 2024 version of MAGA plans to overturn the election is to place election deniers and Trump loyalists in swing states in local election board officials. The plot, well underway now, would have MAGA election officials in swing states refuse to certify results on some pretext of fraud, though they do not have the power to make that determination if the Constitution empowering them contains “shall relay results.” Shall means it is an administrative duty that they are required to perform.


The state Attorney General removed Tina Peters from election administration functions earlier. That is how we did it in Colorado and how it could be done in the MAGA-targeted scheme elsewhere. The fight has moved to Georgia, where the state elections board claims they have the power to refuse to relay the results, contrary to the “shall” provision in their state constitution. This is an attempt to get around the “shall,” and no doubt will result in court actions. In the meantime, the Tina Peters case gives the blueprint for how to deal with election deniers who do not abide by the rules, and it may serve as a warning to the MAGA wannabe certification deniers at the local and county levels.

MAGA replaced my own county clerk in Colorado in an election squeaker two years ago with one suspected of being an election denier. The state GOP party chair election denier, Dave Williams, was recently defeated in his primary bid for Congess and there is an earnest attempt to oust him as GOP chair. Judge allows Colorado Republicans to meet to remove Dave Williams (denverpost.com).     Update 8/24/24 Colorado Republican Party members vote to oust chairman Dave Williams (msn.com)

Georgia county election boards could refuse to certify results under new rule : NPR

Election certification under threat - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (citizensforethics.org)

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Colorado, an epicenter of the conflict between election deniers and established voting systems.

Jeff Crank defeats Dave Williams, the Colorado GOP chair, in congressional primary • Colorado Newsline

Colorado GOP picks election denier Dave Williams to lead party into 2024 (axios.com)

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Kamala Harris takes the offiense on immigration. There is more she needs to do.Updated 9/4/24

Update 9/4/24: (Also reproduced as a separate posting)  Fear and loathing of all immigrants is key to Trump's campaign. However, it is based on factual BS.  The facts on the immigrant crime wave? There is not one. Trump sabotaged the only bipartisan bill to address it this past winter. Biden used what executive powers he had and the result was the lowest illegal crossing in 3 years. Catch and release is down 65%. We would have been on our way to even lower figures without Trump's wrecking the bill..  The executive orders Biden utilized face court challenges, but for now it has been effective and is still in effect. In addition, Mexico has cracked down on migrants, too.  Trump's campaign of fear and hatred of immigrants causing crime is debunked by statistics, ignored by  Trump's MAGA.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/border-crossings-us-mexico-border-june-2024

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/26/border-crossings-drop-biden-policy-00165055          

Immigrants, as a whole, are less likely to commit violent crimes. https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1237103158/immigrants-are-less-likely-to-commit-crimes-than-us-born-americans-studies-find

Illegal immigrants are not more likely to commit violent crimes: in fact, the opposite is true: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/debunking-myth-migrant-crime-wave

Will Biden's executive order survive a legal challenge? "Biden's proclamation leans on Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that lets a president limit entry of specific migrants if it is "detrimental" to national interest. Trump used the same provisions with his 2017 banning of people from Muslim-majority countries and a later policy barring asylum seekers that was ultimately struck down by courts. Biden administration officials insist the new proposal is very different, but that will likely do little to prevent expected lawsuits to stop it. The American Civil Liberties Union vowed to challenge the order in court. "It was illegal when Trump did it, and it is no less illegal now," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the organization's Immigrants’ Rights Project. "   https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/04/texas-mexico-border-biden-immigration-asylum-poliBiden's exec order faces legal challengescy/

A humane approach to immigration policy is the bi-partisan bill Trump killed because he wanted the issue to still be hot as he campaigns. There is also a possibility to contrast policies that may have a broader appeal to those who indeed want the border crisis to be handled, but not with the cruelty of Trump's plan.  What the bi-partisan bill lacks is Trump's plan to use the US Army to break up families with mixed status (an estimated 6.7 million families) and deport 20K total without documents, putting them in concentration camps waiting for deportation. 

Harris  needed to revive flagging Hispanic support of Democrats (Trump 46%; Biden was 40%) that was a reverse of past statistics and the left flank of Democrats uneasy with even the bi-partisan bill Trump killed. The first step is to attack Trump for killing the bi-partisan bill. which Harris just did. With illegal border crossings now equal to Trump's data as he left office, the Democrats have highlighted that update.  Harris has gained significant approval by Hispanics, but there is still more to do. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/03/2024/kamala-harris-poll-hispanic-voters-climate-healthcare The next could be to paint the Trump approach based on racism, hate, cruelty, and fear, while the bipartisan bill approach is both humane and effective. With many in the Latino community also resenting the flood of migrants at the border, the humane plan of Harris might have some appeal. Harris is following the old bit of wisdom: the best defense is a great offense. However, she still needs to reverse the loss of Hispanic voters...https://thehill.com/homenews/4801766-kamala-harris-donald-trump-border  

Update 8/9/2024 (The amount of misinformation coming from Trump and his MAGA camp about immigration is in such volume, it is difficult to keep up. There was a comprehensive whistle blowing on a recent Trump ad hyping fear and hatred of immigrants that is worthy of keeping it pinned for future reference.  It was from my favorite fact checker FactCheck.org, non-partisan, non-profit.   https://www.factcheck.org/2024/08/trump-tv-ad-repeats-false-border-czar-illegal-immigration-claims/

(On Venezuelan elections, drama still unfolding, there is an example of how difficult it is to unseat an autocrat. Maduro has just provided a how to overturn an election course.  Elements of his attempts are can be attempted here, particularly with the MAGA emphasis in controlling the count at the very local election office, usually the County Clerk level...or in a county election board. Maduro is stealing Venezuela's election and the U.S. seems powerless to do anything about it (msnbc.com), It is happening in the US as well.  the recent Georgia GOP legislature just gave the County Clerk the power to make decisions about what they would certify contrary to their own state constitution which says they shall just forward results to the state.  Who controls the count at the local level in Colorado is central to the federal prosecution of a county clerk Tima Peters who gave an unauthorized partisan activist codes to the voting machine tabulators. Here case is going to trial this month.)      

From an earlier Muftic Forum blog post: "46% of Latinos support Trump and 40% Biden via a recent NY Times poll. Perhaps those figures also include immigrants from Cuba and Venezuela who seem eager to substitute a Trump dictatorship for the ones they had fled. Latinos of all kinds make up 15% of the US vote. All migrants, documented or not, will be impacted. Every traffic stop or encounter or a nosy neighbor "turning them in" will cause anyone who looks "Mexican" to be "showing their papers" if they are documented. If they are not, they will be sent first to concentration camps and then deported. 16.7 million families have both documented and undocumented members in them, and all would be at risk if Trump/Vance won."

Trump is all about cruelty. Trump's putting undocumented residents in concentration camps as part of his draconian plan to deport 20 thousand from the US, wrecking many families with mixed documented/undocumented members with its cruelty. He tried to paint Kamala Harris as a failed immigration czar, but Harris quickly struck back from a rally platform on 7/30/24 in Atlanta and followed it up with an attack ad...turning the issue back on Trump for killing the bill...and "talk not walking the talk", not caring about immigration, but only himself.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-other-big-shift-in-the-presidential-race/ar-AA1oNm9v?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=2a9d137f33bb45f69834150e005f55c3&ei=15     
Both crime and border crossing data in this site

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Trump: the wannabe and almost dictator


Whatever happened to a country founded for "we the people" to pursue life, liberty, and happiness when a tyrant rules with fear and revenge and schemes to overturn the rule of the will of the people? Nowhere has that turned out well or peacefully as the suppressed and oppressed majority struggles for a chance to pursue their happiness and freedom. Forty more days until the inauguration of Joe Biden cannot come soon enough.

Rule by force and fear usually happens in dictatorships. If Trump has had his way, this would have happened this year in the USA as he planned and hoped, Fortunately for American democracy, Trump and his compatriots will not have another four years to consolidate his power to govern by the rule of Trump instead of the rule of law.

The whistleblower who called the Governor a liar about the extent of the Coronavirus in Florida and came with proof was treated like a suspected drug dealer, with cops in search of evidence of wrongdoing with guns drawn on the whistleblower and her children. Whatever happened to whistleblower protections? Not in Florida...and the message to future whistleblowers with that governor in office, how dare you blow the whistle? Or what about gun brandishing or torch-bearing objectors to a secretary of state in Michigan or their legislators or plan to kill the governor try to terrify elected officials to vote their way because per Trump's such violent threatening actors were patriots and "fine people"?. Or just ask Col. Vindman how that works, too, who blew the whistle on Trump's Ukraine arms for dirt on Biden scheme and it ended his army career. With Trump in office, it happened this year in the USA.

After Trump's cohorts filed court case after court case to get the vote overturned because of alleged fraud (and with no evidence) or other alleged vote count infractions, they were laughed out of court. The Supreme Court on December 8 without dissent rejected the GOP bid to throw out Pennsylvania's mail-in ballots. That was the last court hail mary as Trump's challenges to certification timed out. December 8 was the deadline for certifications. Earlier, a desperate Trump had picked up the phone and called GOP governors and legislators in key states in vain, asking them to ignore the certified vote count and the law to which they were sworn to uphold, and just declare Trump the winner even if 12,000 to 150,000 more voted for Biden. This kind of pressure happens in dictatorships where favors are expected to be returned and loyalty to the dear leader is more important than the law. It did not happen this time in the USA.

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Tyrannical Trump's last stand and democracy is winning

Updated ;11/28/20

Published in the Winter Park Times December 4, 2020 https://winterparktimes.com/opinion/columnists/hats-off-to-those-that-stood-by-the-law/

Updated 12/10/20

Updated: 12/1l/20:Supreme Court rejected the suit Friday afternoon. Democracy wins again and the GOP is no longer grand: just the anti-democracy party.  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rejects-texas-effort-overturn-election-fatal-blow-trump-    His coup by federal court failed.  He claims to have more tricks up his sleeve to overturn the election and pursue his autocratic dreams. 

In their desperate attempt to stay in power, Donald, Trump and his enablers tried to trash the very definitions of a successful democracy, the faith in the vote of the people, a peaceful transfer of power to a new administration, and the rule of law, instead of the rule of a person. This was Trump's last stand. Finally, Trump was forced by public opinion polls and some in his own party to permit the transition to the Biden administration to proceed, but he did it without admitting the election loss. Judges upheld the rule of law, the vote of the people expressing their will survived to determine the winner, and the transition to the new administration remains peaceful.. The bottom line is democracy is winning. Democracy's survival was a near miss. Exit polls showed Biden voters had public policy issues and abhorrence of Trump's racism on their minds. Even if voters were not motivated by the significance of the difference between rule by the people and rule by a tyrant, the effect was the same. Democracy persisted.

Trump, instead of admitting defeat acknowledged the loss in a backhanded way. He hints at making plans to run again in 2024 and keep control of party discipline with his tyrannical tools of fear, loathing by tweets,, and threats of primary any GOP member of Congress who dare steps out of the loyalty to Trump line. Biden mostly ignored the Trump whoop de doo, kept acting presidential and announcing his cabinet nominees and staff.

The post-November 3 drama played out, but not as Trump supporters had hoped. The Trump strategy was to choose pro-Trump electors instead of Biden electors contrary to the public vote. The plan was activated soon after the November 3 vote..Trump's scheme to overturn the vote and keep himself in power was hardly a secret. Months before election day, Trump had laid the groundwork to claim fraud, that if he lost, it was because Democrats rigged the election. Now that he lost, he tried to rig the vote outcome to self fulfill his prophecy.

He tried every lawyer's trick in the trade. and Rudy Guiliani and his attorneys filed lawsuit after lawsuit, demanding recounts and audits. The out of step Trump lawyers soldiered on to execute their predetermined strategy made obsolete by the unexpected Nov. 3 vote totals. Trump's plot to thwart the vote against him might have been more likely to have succeeded if the size and scope of Trump's defeat had not been so large and spread across such a large number of states, albeit with thin margins in many. He needed to flip 40 electors. It is also darn near impossible to make a case before a judge without any evidence of widespread fraud and demand that thousands of votes should be thrown in the trash. Trump's lawyers failed. The reason: no such evidence has yet been found that would stand up in court.

At the sweat dripping press conference on November 19 held at Republican headquarters in Washington DC, the president's attorney Rudy Guiliani's with his backup cadre of lawyers laid out their purpose to "overturn the vote'". This was in spite of the over 6 million margins with which Biden won the popular vote. and the 306 electoral. votes. Trump's attorney/fixer Rudy Giuliani's strategy of filing lawsuits failed to produce any evidence of widespread fraud and could not stop state certifications of Biden's win in key states, including Pennsylvania and Michigan. Their state laws gave state legislatures no option but to approve the elector slate that reflected the state's certified popular vote winner. Challenges and recounts in Wisconsin continue, but their ten electoral votes are not enough to overturn the electoral college count. Both Pennsylvania, federal appellate, and State Supreme courts ruled against Trump's cases and motions. Next? Supreme Court? Still not enough electoral college votes to overturn the election if they win there.

Even after states like Pennsylvania certified the vote, the tilting at windmills continued as Guiliani and Trump continued their Don Quixote act, keeping up the charade that Trump won by a landslide. They claim the vote against them was because of fraud, and they " have affidavits to prove it." Of course, if they did, they would have presented them in court to provide the evidence they needed to win a case. . Their batting average in courts was zero. If they had come into court with the affidavits in hand, they would have had to swear to the truth and jeopardize their law licenses if they lied. That is in itself evidence the "affidavits" were pumped up hot air to keep the Trump supporter morale inflated. Nonetheless, Trump's attorneys continued making claims after judges ruled. They filed appeals, demanded recounts, and audits, and opined on friendly Trump media while Trump's cohorts continued fundraising to cover campaign debt and lawyer fees.

Trump's team also directed their bully fire at the certification officials and schmoozed them in the White House. Trump summoned the Michigan GOP members of their state legislature to the White House on November 20 in order to persuade them. It takes guts to be brave and to tell a tyrant president no, especially one who governs by fear of a tweet or threatens a primary next election cycle. Hats off to the legislators and certifiers who stood by the law. More despicable acts were death threats that are the modus operandi of the violent Trump supporters who disagree with any secretary of state or election official Just ask the Secretary of State of Georgia what that is like..and he is a Republican. Or ask the Michigan governor and state officials, too, whose plots to kill them were thwarted by the FBI. The last state to certify the vote outcome? December 1. By December 8 per Federal law, governors must sign and provide the names of electors... The electoral college vote takes place on December 14.

On December 1, Bill Barr, Attorney General and Trump Loyalist reported the DOJ could not find evidence of widespread fraud in an interview with the Associated Press.

Wisconsin Federal Court Shames Trump, GOP, & Kraken With Dismissal (bipartisanreport.com)

.https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-elections-william-barr-b1f1488796c9a98c4b1a9061a6c7f49d

‘Voters, not lawyers, choose the president’: Appeals court shoots down Trump suit in Pennsylvania (msn.com)

Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit against mail ballots with prejudice in another defeat for Trump (msn.com)

Trump Election Fraud Allegations Disgraceful Endgame to 2020 Reelection Effort | National Review

This Election Result Won’t Be Overturned - WSJ

Fact check: Biden won popular, Electoral College votes in several battleground states (msn.com) Fact checking Guiliani et al.

CNN’s Tapper Shreds GOP For Enabling Trump as He Foments Post-Election Threats: ‘Did You Not Know Who This Man Was?’ (msn.com)

\

 

_____________________________________

The following Yahoo op ed lays out exactly how Trumpism nearly wiped out democracy and came too close to installing authoritarian rule. There are reforms which could protect us from that again. The op ed expresses thisclearly...and it is worth serious consideration. Op-Ed: To stamp out Trumpism, the U.S. needs to deal with these six things (yahoo.com)

______________________________________________________________________________________

Trump's attempt to get Michigan's lawmakers to send Trump electors to the Electoral College failed. Meeting with him in the White House on 11/20, they gave him a lesson on the process and "found no reason" yet of fraud or the vote total would change. In short, they told him "no" as a group in a diplomatic way but left the door open to keep on looking for fraud as if recounts and audits would find the 20,000 frauds. On November 23, Michigan's certification board certified the election and Biden won. End of that Michigan vote-stealing strategy. Georgia's GOP Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger 11/20 certified the Biden win in their state and stood bravely on principle in spite of death threats and White House pressure. He said "no", though he was a proud supporter of Trump., while saying "Numbers don't lie" . Monday, 11/23 was Pennsylvania's certification day but some counties were not finished and the votes they possessed were not enough to make a difference. Two other court challenges elsewhere would not change the vote outcome in their states. A Pennsylvania district court judge threw out the Trump case in a "scathing ruling" on November 21..On November 23, the Penn state Supreme Court rejected Trump's suit to not count certain absentee ballots. The last lawsuit pending was tossed out by the judge in Arizona. In their illogic, they are asking only votes for one candidate for one office, except that the votes for GOP statewide down-ballot candidates would be thrown out, too. The Republican statewide candidates often did better than Trump did and even picked up House seats and kept control of state governments as before Nov.3. . In their racist bent, some Trumpsters are only asking for recounts in counties where there are many African Americans. who overwhelmingly supported Biden, earning a civil rights lawsuit from the NAACP.. 

The fallout, however, will not end. There will always be hard-core Trumpists who will "believe "they was robbed",, will keep on looking. and believing this to justify their anti-democracy extremism. They will continue the search for their leader, a wannabe autocrat/dictator who could rule by fear and iron fist on their behalf, and no one else's, and the rule of laws and the Constitution be damned. He is beginning to spin his tales of election fraud so that his Trumpists will believe he won. Note that the tales he tells has not been brought to court so no one has to swear to the truth. So far every court case his lawyers have brought has been laughed out of court for lack of evidence (they dared not have to swear to tell the truth about their "evidence" or they would have been disbarred.. The Pennsylvania Federal district judge called their legal case a "Frankenstein". However, if he lies to the devoted followers who have swallowed every other lie he has told, he may hold onto enough of them and may have terrorized GOP politicians, we may yet have to deal with him for a few years more. .

The Certification of the 2020 US Election Results is on Schedule. Here's a Timeline. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/19/politics/giuliani-trump-legal-team-press-briefing-fact-check/index.html

Vote certification deadlines in states facing legal challenges from Trump, GOP - The Washington Post

Pennsylvania Judge Halts Further Vote Certification Steps (2) (bloomberglaw.com)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-campaign-tries-to-throw-out-votes-in-wisconsin-recount-11606327239



At Least 4 Pennsylvania Counties To Miss Certification Deadline : NPR

Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejects Trump campaign's effort to block counting certain absentee ballots - CNNPolitics

Federal judge rejects Trump campaign's Pa. lawsuit with prejudice, saying it lacks factual proof - ABC News (go.com)



Georgia certifies election results, making Biden victory official - ABC News (go.com)

  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/21/trump-campaign-lawsuit-challenging-election-pennsylvania-dismissed/6360749002/


Judge tosses last election lawsuit in Arizona | TheHill

Michigan Lawmakers Tell Trump They See No Reason State’s Election Results Would Change - WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-lawyers-promise-to-step-up-fight-to-overturn-election-results-11605828073

Georgia secretary of state: I'm a proud Trump supporter but numbers don't lie - CNN Video

Wisconsin officials: Trump observers obstructing recount (yahoo.com)

BACKGROUND 11/19
.. . It appears that the GOP pre-planned moves were based on a theory that the electoral count be would be dependent on a single state, as it did in Bush v Gore in Florida and there needed to flip only one or two states that voted for Biden substituting them with Trump electors. Should the resulting suit land in the Supreme Court, that contingency plan was made more possible by a stroke of luck, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the lightning replacement of her seat with a person Trump thought in his transactional mafia-like mind would vote his way in his belief that the new justice would owe him one. So far judges in lower courts whether appointed by Democrats or Republicans, have rejected suits to overturn the vote brought to them byTrump's cohorts because they were claiming fraud without evidence or they asked the judge to throw the votes out because of some baseless technicality. . The exception is now his last resort:.to use threats and the fear of Trump tweets to force electors to be in defiance to the popular count in their states and vote for Trump in the Electoral College when their state's majority popular vote went for Biden. The Trumpsters are also buying time by screwing up the certification process to pull off such a strategy of sabotaging the electoral college process. If it should happen, expect there to be a court suit slugfest. In a press conference on November 19, Biden did not rule out court action.

Trump has been somewhat successful with convincing his base for now that the claims of fraud are legitimate. Over 70% of Americans polled believe Biden won, but the other third is Foxated, believing Trump media that Trump won, conveying the message of conspiracy theories and charges of intentional criminal irregularities. Half of Republicans still believe the Democrats rigged the election by fraud. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-poll/half-of-republicans-say-biden-won-because-of-a-rigged-election-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN27Y1AJ For some of these true believers, facts, data, evidence and supporting the democratic process, the rule of law, hold no meaning and they will likely carry to their graves a belief Trump was robbed. OnlyTrump's words count. Fortunately for the continuation of the oldest democracy in the world, they are not the majority. The lasting negative fall out of the post-election day attempt to overturn the vote will be a minority body of antidemocratic forces always nipping at the heels of democracy, looking for a dictator/strong man that will carry out their will., and no one else's.

There may be a beneficial result if this attack on the vote integrity of the electoral college fails. I can imagine more pressure then to eliminate the electoral college system in favor of the direct election of the president based on the national popular vote. The electoral college has a weakness that was exposed in 2020. The electoral college can be exploited in the future to do what a tyrant like Trump is trying to do, to thwart the will of the people. Some have called this maneuver a "coup" like those stunts attempted in banana republics by tinpot dictators desperate to stay in power.. Even if the Electoral College is not replaced by popular demand, there will certainly be a retooling of state elector laws and election certification processes and increased penalties for such misbehavior..