Tuesday, October 14, 2014

More People Voting Is "Voting Fraud" To Republicans

Never forget that the Republican party is fully committed to make sure as few people are allowed to vote as possible, because low turnout from mostly older, wealthier voters keeps Republicans in office.  Whenever anything comes along that makes things easier for the Great Unwashed Masses to vote, it's of course inviting "voter fraud", as National Review's John Fund whinges about.

Perhaps the most hard-fought Senate race this year will be Colorado’s showdown between Democratic senator Mark Udall and Republican congressman Cory Gardner. The RealClearPolitics average of polls in the race shows Gardner holding a lead of 1.3 percentage points. The outcome may determine control of the U.S. Senate, and the margin of victory could be less than the 11,000-vote margin by which Democratic senator Michael Bennet was reelected in Colorado in 2010.

But there is a significant difference in this year’s Senate race. In 2013, a new Democratic state legislature rammed through a sweeping and highly controversial election law and convinced Democratic governor John Hickenlooper to sign it. The law, known as House Bill 1303, makes Colorado the only state in the country to combine two radical changes in election law: 1) abolishing the traditional polling place and having every voter mailed a ballot and 2) establishing same-day registration, which allows someone to appear at a government office and register and vote on the same day without showing photo ID or any other verifiable evidence that establishes identity. If they register online a few days before, no human being ever has to show up to register or vote. A few keystrokes can create a voter and a “valid” ballot. ​Once a ballot cast under same-day registration is mixed in with others, there is no way to separate it out if the person who voted is later found ineligible. Other jurisdictions that have same-day registration, such as Washington, D.C., treat the vote as a provisional ballot pending verification. Colorado immediately counts the vote.

There's only one problem with Fund's tirade:  he's factually incorrect on many of the details as The Moderate Voice's Kathy Gill points out.

First, polling places have not been abolished
Voters can choose to mail their ballots back to the county clerks, drop ballots off at early voting centers, or complete them at the polls on Election Day. 
Like Washington state, Colorado runs a limited number of polling locations. So I was wrong, initially: this system should save counties money and the election day headaches related to running many polling centers. That doesn’t stop some people from grumbling about how they preferred the old days … but preferring an old system doesn’t mean that the new one is less secure.

Second, in order to register online in Colorado, you must have a Colorado driver’s license
So what that “no human being ever has to show up”? One hopes that signatures are checked against the one on the driver’s license for confirmation of identity. They are in Washington. If not, then shame on Colorado for administrative incompetence. Since Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler (failed candidate for governor) opposed the new law, if he didn’t push for regulatory implementation that allowed for identity confirmation, then he’s incompetent. 
Besides, in the 2012 presidential general election, 74 percent of Coloradans voted by mail ballot. Safeguards in place then should work just fine two years later.

Third, same-day voter registration must be done in person, so please, where is the risk of their being found ineligible?
Gill goes on to point out a number of fallacies in Fund's dumpster fire full of outright lies.  The information on Colorado's vote by mail is readily available, but Fund actively chooses to tell bald-faced lies about it, to delegitimize Mark Udall's re-election.  This is how Republicans work: there's no possible way a Democrat could ever win an election fairly, so the problem is always "massive voter fraud" that never seems to materialize.  But of course, "everyone knows" Democrats must have to cheat, bribe, and steal in order to win because "real Americans" vote GOP.  So voter ID laws that are really all about disenfranchising those people are common practice in keeping red states red.

Fund doesn't even try to hide his lies here.  And this passes for intellectual honesty among conservatives.

If you have to keep people from voting in order to win, your policies may not be so hot, yes?

9 comments:

A. Citizen said...

Did it ever occur to you that accusing Greenwald of "fanatical absolutism" proves that you're not interested in hearing his valid criticisms or debating the role of the NSA? Greenwald is not your enemy, but by concentrating your sheer hatred on him that you are conveniently avoiding the very uncomfortable truths about Barack Obama, and avoiding the very debate you say that you wish to have.


I have seen no evidence that you want any debate, otherwise you wouldn't make ridiculous accusations like this about Greenwald and refer to Edward Snowden with the childish moniker of "Dudebro Defector."


But you'll prove your own "fanatical absolutism" by either deleting this or refusing to respond to me. If you want to debate the NSA, the fact it has zero meaningful oversight, and the fact that politicians of both parties allow that to continue, by all means, try your hand.

drspittle said...

More "blahs" and "poors" voting is "Voting Fraud" to Rethuglicans.

Horace Boothroyd III said...

The Greenwaldian flying monkey purity troll shows up, right on schedule, to inflict discomfort and sow his traditional fear and uncertainty and doubt.

The only thing I need to tell you, Arnold, is that I get to decide whether Greenwald's criticisms are valid. If I decide, after reading his book and and his articles and viewing his propaganda films, that he is instead offering up the hysterical vaporings of an overheated imagination then that is my right as an educated citizen. Efforts by toadies and sycophants, no matter how allegedly sincere, to convince me that I am the dupe of nefarious operators will be cheerfully rebuffed in the spirit in which they are offered.

A. Citizen said...

Hmm, speak out against those harassing female gamers last night, this morning I discover attempt to hack my accounts.— ZanDark Lorda Da Fif (@ZandarVTS) October 15, 2014



Do you maybe wish to have that debate about how the government is complicit in the constant and consistent destruction of your privacy rights now?

Zandar said...

You're not interested in a debate on those subjects. For the record, I agree that the government and Big Data aren't doing nearly enough in that regard. What you want is a fight about Greenwald and Snowden, and I'm under no contractual obligation to provide thst for you.

Horace Boothroyd III said...

The volunteered examples of Arnold's debating skillz indicates that he would merely offer up one ridiculous non sequitor after another. If he wants to indulge in lurid fantasies of the NSA cracking his laptap to watch him masturbate on the toilet, like his buddies at the Daily Kos, he is welcome to it. I have more enjoyable uses for my time, as you have for yours.

Scopedog said...

The Government didn't try to hack his account. The dudebros did.

Scopedog said...

I'm more concerned about losing my right to vote as a person of color due to GOP shenanigans instead of the NSA. I'm more worried about racial tensions and young Black men getting shot for no apparent reason than I am with Snowden's tomfoolery.

Meanwhile, the Far Left and it's dudebro contingent couldn't give a fuck about any of this.

Horace Boothroyd III said...

You got that right. It's easy to notice that I carry a grudge against the simpering hysterics at the Daily Kos, and it all stems from their appalling - nay, disastrous - behavior on this issue. Subcommandante Markos, the founder and leader, posted a comment that said basically what you say here (NSA spying bad, other shit bad as well, and he "doesn't give two shits about Greenwald and Snowden" in alignment with the constant howl to leave Snowden alone and look at the "revelations") and the flying monkey purity army exploded with rage: the one and only acceptable opinion is that NSA spying is the worst thing that ever happened and Obama is a worthless sell out for his failure to immediately bulldoze the NSA campus and salt the ground on which it stood.

And if the subsequent witch hunts and infighting consumed the most important leftie activism blog for six months, crushing effective action on any topic (ironically, especially including reform of the NSA itself) and perhaps handing control of the Senate and a number of statehouses to the Republicans, at least it punishes the perfidious Democrats and thereby paves the way for the triumph of leftie dudebroism. Old as I am, I will no doubt be dead before the Left recovers from this fiasco.

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