if you look it dead in the eye, the whole Republican Party looks like a fraud... with a cherry on top.
8
So many right-wingers in this comment thread claiming massive voter fraud in Southern California. As a Southern Californian, I'd like to say prove it or shut up. Meanwhile, we have actual election tampering going on in North Carolina that they seem content to ignore. "Uh...hey, look over there!" is not a valid defense.
11
Republicans utilize "voter fraud" as a subterfuge to engage in voter suppression. They've exposed themselves as frauds on many of the issues which they pretended to hold near and dear...deficits, debt, support for law enforcement (FBI), fidelity to the Constitution, etc., etc.. There appears to be nothing they won't sacrifice, accept, or countenance in order to remain in power.
11
They actually took a page out of the Dem playbook and are being punished for it. Because election fraud is only bad when it is Republican election fraud.
1
More distortion comes from the deep state. Willing to go into detail in North Carolina but not Texas and Kansas other than to utilize the pat phrase “it was unclear whether any had voted in a state election” referring to non- citizens is nonsense. Philadelphia is famous as is Chicago for voter fraud at the behest of Democrats.
Voter fraud indeed goes both ways, most significantly giving John F. Kennedy the Presidency in 1960 with Democrat Mayor Daley shenanigans and outright voting fraud. Please stop the distortion and risk painting an honest picture.
To deny that voter ID would level the playing field is to hide an advantage of voter fraud led by the Democrat Party. You need ID for every bank transaction and to get on an airplane yet Democrats scream discrimination regarding voter ID. Please explain cogently the rationale for fearing objective fairness with voter ID requirements.
2
Before there is too much self congratulation by the Democrats on their election morals, take a look at Illinois and Chicago elections for the past 100 years .....
Election fraud is a real issue.
1
The GOP under Mitch is lost... how can they possibly be taken seriously from now on? After hitching their wagon to such an unsettlingly bizarre quantity as this Trump individual?
It boggles the mind how an otherwise rational group of lawmakers would so willingly self-immolate in that manner.
Crazy...
5
Canada has had universal childcare for many years now, and my nieces and nephews have all attended one of the regulated an well-organized daycare centers. I can reassure the very worried commenters on this board that:
-Poor families did not suddently start having a lot more children.
-The economy did not collapse.
-Voters did not start expecting everything to be provided free by the government.
-Kids attending daycare have not been brainwashed into obedient zombies.
-After a few years, a reasonably competent workforce of early-childhood educators were trained; this created a lot of new jobs, and did not lower the status of elementary school teachers.
-Canada has not turned into a communist country.
-Income taxes on the middle class have not gone up significantly as a result.
-The primary impact has not been to encourage people to have more children but to encourage young mothers to pursue careers.
Reprinted without permission from another commenter.
4
Allowing Harris to be seated after extensive voter fraud would set a terrible precedent.
Hold a new election but do not allow Harris to run until the investigation of his complicity is finished. If he is innocent (unlikely), he can run in 2020 with better help.
2
Election fraud has been an ongoing problem.
Maybe now the left will accept this.
2
The Republican Party is all about fraud and has been for the past half century at least. It pretends to care about poor and middle class Americans (and is remarkably successful at drawing their support) only to cut programs intended to help them in favor of enormous tax cuts (paid for by those people) for people who already have more money than they know what to do with and corporations.
11
In the Democrat response to the State of the Union Address, Stacey Abrams was right. "Voter suppression is real!" It is on full display in the North Carolina 9th district. It is also practiced elsewhere in the state, across the South, and throughout this country.
Another classic example of “voter suppression" is the Trump administration’s fixation on closing our southern border. It's because the immigrants who are trying to enter the country from the South, trying to become citizens, and trying to earn the right to vote, are not white, not rich, and are not likely to become Republicans.
This too is “real”, and it frightens Republicans to the core.
4
Actually, this voter fraud incident tied to GOP candidate Harris, has left Party Leadership stressed. Paraphrasing their Dear Leader sums their stress up pretty well: they "like people who weren't captured".
2
Until 2013, when the Supreme Court struck down the states' oversight provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, something like this was much harder to accomplish.
North Carolina was one of the states that had been monitored; it took just five years for it to show that Justice Dept. oversight of its elections maybe should have continued.
Does the GOP really want to argue that the North Carolina case is not systemic discrimination against minority voters but a partisan scheme to harvest illicit votes?
6
Democrats stole most of Southern CA. One race vs part of a state? The GOP is just an amateur in comparison.
3
@Alan
Well guess what. My mommy told me not to talk to any 10-year-old boy who acts like a 3 year old boy.
So I guess that applies also to adult fans of Trump.
43
@Alan
Evidence, please?
47
@Alan
I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
47
Don't quite understand how an article on US voter fraud during the midterm election could have failed to mention Stacy Abrams race in Georgia??
85
Speaking of fraud, Donald J, Trump. I hear you folks made it onto his 'enemies list'. Wear it like a badge of honor. It is.
Congratulations and thank-yous to all!
2
Republican motto - "If you ain't cheating you ain't trying."
5
@susan: That belongs on a sign on the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. Thank you!
On second thought, lying, cheating, and stealing may be the only things for which he doesn't need reminders. And his minions already know what's expected of them.
2
The GOP can't deal with the truth.
10
Meanwhile in California
California's electoral officials are admitting that they have no idea how many illegals and other non-citizens voted in the last primary, based on the state's motor-voter registration, which has been shown to have registered thousands of non-citizen voters.
See: "Did non-citizens vote last year? California officials still can’t say"
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article223886630.html
1
@Sam Freeman
The answer is no, undocumented immigrants do not vote in Federal elections in America.
3
@Sam Freeman: I guess if they did, then Trump and Kobach must be vindictive, greedy, AND feeble-minded to have wasted our money looking for something so obvious, under their noses the whole time. But, wait -- they ARE vindictive, greedy, .... That doesn't prove your assertion, of course, though it does make one doubt the sincerity and intelligence of the so-called president and his minion.
3
Republicans will use any means necessary to hold onto their majorities against a rising demographic tide of Democratic voters. NC is rated as one of the worst instances of partisan gerrymandering in the nation, and Harvard's Electoral Integrity Project ranks the state near the bottom in a broad range of electoral issues, see https://tinyurl.com/y2z6dhmj. In this case, Republican operatives were just helping those voters make the "right" choices on their absentee ballots. They view these tactics as justified and reasonable since God clearly gave them the United States as their "Promised Land."
3
Why does the NYTs ruin legitimate news with their fantasy Russia stole the election stuff? As has been shown ad nauseum the NYTs bold talk of a supposed act of war by Russia is so dangerous. The NYTs and neo cons in the congress are in full throat yelling treason when there is any talk of Russians and the US meeting to discuss issues to lessen tensions.
1
It proves how little power the progressives and Liberals have. Your stories are mere spitballs and elected democrats have no fire.
1
Which party wants fewer, rather than more American citizens to participate in elections?
The answer should tell anyone with a modicum of intelligence which party can't win truly fair and democratic elections and make it easy to understand why there’s so much furor on the right over the alleged but actually almost nonexistent problem of voter fraud, and so much support for voter ID laws that make it hard for the poor and even the working class to cast ballots, and for gerrymandering that assures minority rule.
5
All you need to understand is that Republicans cannot win any elction on the vaildty of their policy ideas- they have been bankrupt in that department since 1980. Wrap oneself in the flag, talk endlessly about patriotism, freedom and trickle down economics while ignoring the real issues of climate change, health care, education, infrastructure, and a subversion of the constitution since 2017. Even their denial of a basic compact of fairness in our society is lost on the GOP. Time to bypass them, reform all of the issues and ignore their hypocritical musings on the national debt, morality, voting rights, infrastructure, school safety, gun control, whom you love and a host of other topics.
They squandered that right a long time ago !
7
I wish this article mentioned Crystal Mason, the Texas woman who is currently serving a five-year federal sentence for casting a provisional ballot as a former felon. Even though Ms. Mason cast the ballot using her own real name, a fact that lends credibility to her claim that she was unaware that she was breaking the law, the GOP has used her situation as evidence of widespread voter fraud. Will the guilty parties in North Carolina face similar consequences?
7
Harris hired him, despite being warned of his dubious background. What did Harris hire him for? Harris knew this is a guy who could deliver the goods, unsupervised!
6
You mean the people who endorsed the former "Dean" of Trump "University" as their president are okay with fraud?
Naw! You don't say!
4
Pelosi should refuse to seat Republicans who try to cheat their way into the House.
7
With a shrinking voter base (Republicans are now a third party in California), fraud, rigging, and gerrymandering are the only tools left at the disposal of what was once a G.O.P.
Remember this from 2000? https://me.me/i/new-bong-50-cocaine-habit-300-finding-out-that-the-13602842
2
Memo to the New York Times: These are the types of stories that should be followed day to day on the front pages, not a running log of Trump's tweets.
5
As a North Carolinian, I am appalled at the GOP's behavior. Disqualify the cheater and hold a new election--a fair election.
4
Any election won by a Republican is, by definition, a fraud.
4
Take to the streets, Carolina!
3
Actually, the evidence presented so far has not suggested any such thing. There has been no evidence presented to this point that any votes were changed or "filled in," the total number of votes in question are not enough to have swayed the election, and there has been no review of Democratic operatives doing precisely the same thing in some of the same areas either in 2014's gubernatorial election or again in 2016. In spite of all that, the Democrats in Congress refuse to allow the elected representative of NC-9 to take his seat, and the governor of North Carolina, himself elected with the help of this operative when he was Attorney General, refused to investigate the other allegations.
The irony of the Times applauding the disenfranchisement of an entire Congressional district while braying about photo ID is apparently lost on you.
Your view, to say the least, is in the minority. The evidence of knowing fraud appears overwhelming in the Carolina race. Typical Republican gaslighting aside - let’s count the columns of press on this actual travesty against the monumental columns of worthless “fake news” generated in 2017 by the ultimately worthless and fraudulent Voter Fraud Commission and its zero outcome.
7
Memo to Red Dome: Stop crying about not knowing and losing everything you've built. You got caught. As for Mr. Harris; if fraud is proven then your opponent with the most votes should be given the seat. If you've cheated this ineptly, and been caught, you should not get a chance to force your opponent into spending more time and money while denying the constituents their representation.
6
The state Attorney General should investigate why similar chicanery was reported in previous elections to the local District Attorney who did nothing.
5
It is now commonplace for any article referencing a federal judge to state which side - Republican or Democrat appointed him/her. Do the news media have to play along with this score keeping (settling) or might they promote the ideal of impartiality?
1
The Trump way is to get the lie out there and they can hedge later. It doesn't matter if they come out and admit it was a lie—the damage is done.
2
So the clear answer is that if you present ID and are registered as a Republican, your vote should be nullified in order to prevent the only documented case of VOTER FRAUD that I'm aware of. Let's see if they whine about voter suppression afterwards.
I want to be King.
But nobody will vote for me.
I need to eliminate voting.
3
The states can no longer be trusted to run fair elections. There should be some way to make all elections uniform throughout the country. More Federal oversight is needed.
2
It's like the religious zealots who scream about homosexuals then are outted once their online dating profiles are discovered. Republicans scream about election fraud, then get caught red-handed trying to rig an outcome. Sad.
7
Lock them up.
9
Clearly, North Carolina is unreconstructed. Time to restart proceedings.
1
The GOP voter fraud claims have always been propaganda driven. And it has been unfortunately effective in suppressing minorities from voting as it has been enacted across the country wherever possible. The GOP just doesn't care about democracy--and never will.
(The entire idea of people signing up to vote that are not living in the US legally is a non-starter to begin with. Why would someone think...yes, I will put myself into the system...put myself out there. It defies any logic.)
4
Yep, there's voter fraud in North Carolina by Republicans & voter suppression / fraud in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida et:al by Republicans. Guess they were right all along. Is there an ID for preventing that kind of fraud?
7
I totally believe these claims. Our elections are in deep, deep trouble!
For a fuller story behind the politics of both parties read this: https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/02/15/exclusive-audit-finds-signs-of-fraud-in-new-mexico-house-race/
Caveat, the story does appear in a right-wing publication. But the report of election anomalies linked in the article appears to be compiled fairly and with justified concerns. But you won't find it in any of the liberal pubs because a Dem. won.
If your emotions are in a place where you can consider it objectively, I think you'll find its details very, very similar to the NC story. The main difference is that it happens to be about the crooked dealings around a DCCC installment.
For the record, both candidates were unacceptable to me for completely different reasons. And on the Dem. side, the politics were nothing short of unethical and highly undemocratic. Though NM election fraud extended to witting or unwitting voters, how much of it would be classified as voter fraud is unclear. But what difference does it make? Election fraud definitely exists with much broader reach. Some/most of what happened in NM originated in DP high places.
Though many hard partisans seem really undemocratic when it favors them, I hope that those who want every eligible person's vote to count--free of fraud--as I do, will question both parties' duplicitous roles. At some point, this works against your interests.
1
Transference, pure and simple. (R)s who cheat to suppress voting, assume others are already cheating on elections.
The (R)ich tilt the deck every way they can to get free stuff (low tax rates on passive income, gov't bailouts after they crash the economy, farm subsidies for Big Ag, "relocation" breaks for Amazon etc). They then assume The Poor (you know, those who are too lazy to not be born (R)ich) are also "too lazy to work" and happy living on the "welfare" free stuff that "trickles-down" to them.
2
We live in an age where too many people embrace malignant self-interest. In the minds of too many of us "Right" and "wrong" have been displaced by "good for me" and "bad for me".
2
But, but, but.... I thought it was the Democrats who commit voting fraud.
I am shocked, shocked that our wonderful Republican Party would engage in such activity!
4
This is just the tip of the iceberg. How many elections did this Dowless guy influence this year? How many elections did he influence in previous years? In how many counties and states? Voter fraud is voter fraud and it needs to be rooted out for democracy to survive (I can't believe those words have to be written or spoken, but they do).
Hey republicans who's side are you on, sustaining democracy or trying to restrict democracy?
3
Free and fair elections. To the GOP, that is heresy.
4
No fraud by illegals and non-citizens? Aw!! I'm so disappointed and I am a Republican. Now I'll write to my Republican representative to push this bit of bad news out of the news. Oh, never mind. Don Trump will do it for me and G.O.P. He has declared emergency to build that wall to keep away these illegals and non-immigrants. See. The great, beautiful wall is working already!
When I hear the words, “voter fraud”, republicans are my first thought, as they continue, nationwide, to commit VOTERFRAUD by denying people there rights to vote, unharrased, and racism.
This is the voter fraud.
And why is it that republicans don’t have strict validation systems in place? Because they cant commit VOTERFRAUD with honest validations of Voters.
2
The North Carolina Board of Elections says it will call for a new election if the number of fraudulent votes were enough to swing the election. If the board determines the number of votes were not enough to change the election results, the House of Representatives should sit MarkHarris.
No one alleges that voter impersonation fraud is more prevalent than absentee voter fraud, which some states have facilitated by making "vote harvesting" legal. But voter impersonations nevertheless a problem.
The Texas secretary of state lower its estimate of the number of the number of non-citizens register to vote and the number of non-citizens who voted, but the number is still significant.
It’s pretty simple. The GOP has no integrity or shame. I wish I had something more profound to say, but this pretty much sums it up.
15
The Republicans in Congress know that their time is running out and that the clock is ticking. They have hitched their fortunes to an emotionally unstable, narcissistic and flagrantly dishonest man , who has no regard whatsoever for the rule of law and is seeking through his office to enhance his own fortune . Since these Republicans know that they are very likely going to be humiliated in November 2020 ,they are doing everything possible to get while the getting is good. They should have paid attention to the first mistake they made when they thought that they could somehow prevail by creating an alliance with arguably the worst president we have ever had in our history.
And when Robert Mueller‘s report does come out, and when the Southern District of New York finally indicts Donald Trump, there will be a most unpleasant blowback for these same Republicans in Congress .
It’s no wonder that they’ll do anything at this point.
8
This is not "voter" fraud. This is "election" fraud - election fraud for the benefit of Republicans.
8
Isn't cheating the American way? Even though the Patriots cheated and got caught, their fans still adore them. Zuckerberg and Gates stole ideas to get ahead. Corporate espionage is encouraged. Tax cheating seems to be an American past time. Why would we expect anything different from politcians?!
6
Because we hold our politicians to the highest of standards. That’s why it’s often said that we have “the best government that money can buy”.
1
"When republicans become convinced that they cannot win democratically they will not give up power, they will give up democracy." David Frum
That began in 1992 after Bill Clinton was elected. republicans refused to recognize that election or the one that re-elected him or the two Barack Obama won.
In fact 22 republican VIPs met in a steak house on Obama's inauguration day to vow they would give him no victories. And by extension no victories for the America people.
How is that no sedition, at best? Treason, at worst?
11
Voter-impersonation fraud, the kind Republicans are targeting, is extremely rare. The North Carolina case is different in that it shows an organized, strategic effort by the Republicans' own party bosses to steal an election. The only hypocrisy it reveals is on the GOP side, period. Republicans are like the little boy with chocolate on his face who says he didn't touch the cake.
177
@Sky Pilot
No, it isn't. There are tens of thousands of documented cases.
@INTJ
Untrue. Over the last quarter century there are fewer than 2,000 documented cases while more than 2,000,000,000 votes were cast by Americans.
22
@INTJ
The nation's law enforcement has no knowledge of this.
Provide the documentation for the "tens of thousands" of cases so that we can take you seriously.
6
My grandmother used to say that the rat smells its own stink first. Republicans are so certain that voter fraud exists because they practice it.
13
Please NYT's Writers, please take a Look at Detroit if you want to see Election Fraud. Just look at their Absentee Ballots, the City Clerk sends her people to all the Nursing Homes in the City to "Help" people fill out their Ballots, they probably bring the ballots to pass out and FILL OUT. Please NYT's Writers, please Explain to me how a BLACK MAN running for U.S. Senate can only get 29% of the VOTE in a 90% Black City??? I do have a Interesting Story that ALL can look up, a Woman in Pontiac Michigan died sitting in her car in her closed Garage but it seems nobody missed her, she was in the garage for a bout 5 years before she was discovered, all her Bills were on automatic pay so nobody inquired until the Money ran out, and her body was discovered . She lived in a DEMOCRAT CITY and NEVER missed a Vote while being dead in the Garage. These DEMOCRATS fill out Absentee ballots like Clockwork in these Cities!
3
"This alarming situation in North Carolina should prove instructive for Mr. Trump and his party."
Because Mr. Trump and his party are so good at taking instruction?
Isn't it time we stop pretending these are reasonable people who have any capacity for taking responsibility? They are all about winning at all costs. Lies, deception, spin...
They know what they're doing. Nothing is going to prove instructive. They don't do instructive.
7
Missing from this story is what has become of Dowless? Is he headed to trial now?
5
The witness said she collected ballots and completed the incomplete ones, filling in republican candidates. Doesn't this mean that elections/issues on the ballots they illegally collected other than the Congressional seat are also tainted?
7
First, 4 proven cases of voter fraud last Presidential election. Yes, but think of the hundreds of thousands of voters ballots thrown out on bogus technical issues, often created by repub voter controls. Its the voting system itself that does the fraud not the voters.
Second, the fact that this guy Harris hired the fraud guy knowing he did fraud on other elections is enough to disqualify him. If the repubs want another election, fine, but get another candidate.
7
@RichardHead - Why should the Republicans get a second crack at the nut with a new candidate? To teach them that, even if they get caught rigging elections, they will get a second chance? No, the only reasonable outcome is a second election with the original candidates. If Harris is later convicted, the courts can deal with him. I suspect even the suspicion of his being aware of the fraud would damage his prospects with many voters.
2
Since the Republican party is engaged in voter suppression, voter intimidation, purging of voter rolls, making it difficult for voters from selective districts to vote, and admitted to have filled in ballots for unsuspecting voters have violated all established rules of free and fair elections.
Just calling them "hypocrites" is not enough. The Republican party as it stands today, should be banned from participating in elections.
12
If you can't win unless you cheat, maybe you should get out of the game.
4
The American center is not known for a spine or decisive action. Why the GOP wants to remain dominant by any means necessary in America - is not a question with answers worthy of a democracy. Their desire to install a white christian state with everyone but them in secondary positions - is similarly not defensible.
Except to everyone left of center.
They see merits on both sides. If slavery were rule of law today, the center and left would be arguing that while it is bad, slaves get free food and shelter, and that there is some basis in religion for its continuation - so we should sing Kumbaya together and be done with it.
GOP would not dominate unless we collectively colluded in their domination. GOP, the American right wing, the white nationalism - have no basis in moral or ethical reasoning. It favors the accumulation of power and wealth to those who have traditionally enjoyed it, and the criminalization and marginalization of everyone else by use of completely shameless arguments (rugged individualism for you, free money for me, and so on).
Of course the right wing lives in morbid fear that all Americans may come out to vote (according to their current Torquemada, easy access to voting is a 'power grab').
One is ignoring history if one does not see overflowing evidence of the conservatives acting to prevent anyone from voting; fraud is completely natural to what they do. None of this would matter if the center cared, or voted. We don't and we rarely do.
8
If the GOP were to express any outrage over this, they'd end up sounding as ridiculous as Captain Louis Renault in the movie Casablanca. He was shocked - SHOCKED! - to find out that cheating was going on in North Carolina's Republican party!
(As if we don't remember the myriad of ways the GOP cheated in Florida in 2000.)
7
What’s the lesson here? It’s that you should cheat all you can, because if you get caught the worst that will happen is that the results are all thrown out and you’ll get a mulligan. This law just punishes the cheating Republican’s innocent opponent because now he has to raise more money for the second go-around, through no fault of his own.
6
Fraud, gerrymandering, and voter suppression are the only ways Republicans can win now, and they know it. That's why they're a dying party. Trump is the undertaker.
8
How much is the fine? How long will they be in jail? A real case of (Republican) voter fraud must be used to hammer that party and move voters' rights forward.
6
If memory serves, similar activities by Mr. Dowless were reported to N.C.'s Eastern District Prosecutor after the 2016 election. No investigation. Nothing. No wonder he thought he could do the same sort of vote-stealing again.
8
Dems need to ask Ivanka Trump why she got a patent in China to manufacture "voting machines".
8
Pittenger lost to Harris in the primary. Pittenger told the powers that be that Dowless was pulling his shenanigans and it should be looked into.
Harris hired Dowless to deliver. He knew exactly what Dowless was up to. Harris should be made to take responsibility. It is time to hold
someone in Washington responsible. We should have a do over, at least!
5
My Rep. recently stated in a hearing that 10s of thousands of illegal voters voted in the Southwest. It must have the Texas mess he was referring to. I have yet to receive any information from him concerning his claim. I think you may just have explained where he got the info. Thanks.
1
Trumpeter Rep. Mark Meadows’ (R-NC) statement on the Democratic Republic of Congo Election Results (1/18/19):
“The United States, the African Union, and supporters of democratic government everywhere must continue to insist that the will of Congolese voters be respected ...
Congress is encouraged by the African Union’s call to suspend the proclamation of the final results the election and its decision to send a delegation to the DRC to find a way out of the post-electoral crisis.”
Does this apply to North Carolina voters? So far, no statement from Meadows about what is going on in his own back yard which to quote him, “stinks to high heaven.”
2
Gang GOP does not have a conscience. They are as corrupt as any criminal enterprise in Columbia, Mexico (my apologies), or Little Italy(also my apologies). They have a corrupt understanding of what our Constitution says and means. They are the real government coup. It is all about greed for power, and with it, money.
6
Voter fraud never happens and we should permit the widest possible use of absentee ballots to ensure that every voter votes and every vote is counted.
Well, unless the Republicans are the apparent perps.
Bear in mind that what much of what this guy did in NC, and (apparently) runs afoul of NC restrictions on how absentee ballots are supposed to be handled, is perfectly legal in CA, where it’s called “ballot harvesting” and was used by the local Dems to great effect. Election procedures differ by state, of course, but if this sort of thing constitutes electoral "theft" in NC, where is the outrage when the shenanigans are expressly legal?
The left loves to employ phrases like “mass fraud” and dismiss concerns about same because fraud is “rare”. Then, "mass fraud" shows up and they're shocked == SHOCKED!! -- to see that people are willing to misbehave to secure power.
But what this case clearly demonstrates is that opportunities for monkeying about with absentee ballots is not hard. And, in CA, it’s perfectly legal. (The deep blue authorities in CA will, of course, look carefully into the left's tactics which produced so many Dem votes.)
Unlike the left, conservatives are concerned about the integrity of the ballot even when it’s a Republican operative doing the dirty work.
But, then, consistency has never been one of the left’s strong points.
1
I try to follow elections pretty closely and I have yet to find in the past election a Democratic "partisan opposite" to Mr. Dowless and his vote rigging scheme. Your lack of balance might not be laughable but it is concerning.
4
The question of voter fraud is complex. Neither the Democrats or the Republicans really know the extent of the issue.
However, voter fraud is like income tax fraud in that you will probably under estimate the amount of fraud if you base your estimate only on discovered cases. How much is the question.
A study based upon analyzing a valid statistical sampling of all votes cast and not just identified cases could put this issue to rest. Until then, both parties will continue to use the issue to keep their respective bases fired up.
1
The Kobuch "witch-hunt" turned up, I believe, 2 elderly republicans who may have voted twice, having homes in 2 jurisdictions. In any case, non-citizens have NEVER been the problem, while confusion , voter id, constraints on early voting, and closed polling stations are REAL voting issues.
Suspicious absentee ballots have always been a greater threat to election integrity. NC has now shown us just how brazen this ACTUAL election fraud can be...
4
I still have a very hard time understanding why a requirement to have a photo ID in order to vote is considered so badly in the U.S.. I get that because it is tough to get (far away, time consuming, expensive, etc) it looks like it suppress voters but why is the requirement accompanied by a requirement by the state to have photo ID agency in every town?
If the actions alleged in NC are true, they likely pale to what takes place in California and likely several other states. The fundamental issue is the relaxation of controls in ensuring only eligible voters vote. It is easy to claim that no voter fraud exists at least until it is uncovered. Then any rational individual has to know that the fraud identified is not the only fraud. Voter ID and Election-day-only voting will stop the bad actors where ever they are and ensure election results reflect the will of the people
@Mark In Nj If what you say were actually true, we would know about it, given the constant use of this idea in support of voter restriction by the Republicans. They haven't come up with any incidences to support this, and it falls very definitely into the category of "fake news" Republican style. Try to actually be a rational individual, and get your information from verifiable sources.
4
@Mark In Nj "likely pale"? You republicans have been saying that for years. Where is the evidence? There is none. Come up with evidence or stop making things up.
3
Reporters once asked Willie Sutton, a 1930's bank robber, why he robbed banks. His answer - Because that's where the money is.
Anyone looking at possible voter fraud has to come to the conclusion that the real "money" was never persuading a person here and there to impersonate a legal voter at the polls. The reason is obvious, risk vs. reward. One vote equals the very real potential for thousands of dollars in fines, years in jail, and even when successful, one vote.
The better answer, obvious when I looked at a wall of mailboxes in a facility housing hundreds of senior citizens, is manipulating absentee ballots. Get the ballots before the intended recipient, help fill them in, choose which ones to return to the election authority, etc. The opportunities are endless. North Carolina shows that someone has gone beyond senior citizens...
If political operatives can't manipulate the polls themselves (Democratic machine in Chicago, etc.), absentee ballots are key to election fraud today. It's easy, it is far less likely to be detected and it can affect large numbers of ballots.
Willy Sutton's advice still helps.
3
Mr. Dowless performed the same duties for the 2016 election, and, in 2017 the State Board of Elections referred its investigation into his activities to the US Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of NC. Where no action was taken. I think that is the real story here.
14
No memo to President Trump or the Republican party is needed. They know full well what defines electoral fraud because they commit it every day.
To deflect attention from such malfeasance, the GOP needs to project its own malfeasance on its opponents to create the illusion that voter fraud is a Democratic Party problem.
Not content with mere voter suppression, widespread as it is, the GOP now stoops to outright, blatant vote theft. The Republican Party could not care less, but patriotic Americans should.
11
Unhappy with the closeness of 2016 election despite Russian help, Republicans became more proactive in 2018. At least Democrats have control of the House so we’ll get a more thorough investigation.
5
Running another election will create an incentive for the loosing side to "taint" the election, thus, giving an opportunity for a re-election. The candidate who hired a criminal to run his campaign and commit voter fraud does not deserve the second chance.
11
The reporting coming out of North Carolina is confusing and unclear. North Carolina law allows others to "request" absentee ballots for others but does not allow others to (obviously) fill them out and/or turn them in.
The big questions the inquiry is not asking nor is anyone answering is: Under the law, does the individual requesting absentee ballots (in this case Mr. Dowless) have to declare who the intended ballots is arefor or can the individual merely request a batch of ballots?
Who did Dowless and cohorts distribute the ballots to? Where these the same voters who operatives filled out their ballots and collected them? No one is asking how this process worked. No one has called any of the minority voters who had their absentee ballots filled out/collected for and submitted/or thrown out? Lastly, why isn't Trump's Justice Department involved?
@Candlewick 1 person, 1 vote, no one gets to decide another's vote for them, period.
2
Out of more than a billion votes cast over a decade, 10 persons were convicted of voting illegally at the polls. It that small fraction of in person illegal voting occurred in the midterms, 2 individuals may have voted illegally out of 117,000,000 votes cast.
Republicans so love our country that they say we should inconvenience 20,000,000+ people every election to prevent those 2 illegal votes.
https://votingrights.news21.com/article/election-fraud/
5
Yes, usually it is Republicans expressing a concern about Democrats abusing the absentee voter system, so the irony is huge.
On the other hand, doesn’t this story show that absentee ballots are inherently more susceptible to fraud?
In North Carolina, one of the more basic allegations is simply that a man, McCrae Dowless, picked up people's absentee ballots to turn them in, which is illegal in North Carolina. But wait, you might be surprised to know that it is not illegal everywhere. For example, this practice is legal in Washington State, where all ballots are absentee.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2018/12/08/674543576/voting-by-mail-is-on-the-rise-but-could-alleged-n-c-election-fraud-change-that
To my mind, the convenience of absentee ballots is not outweighed by the increased opportunity for fraud.
The easier it is to cheat at voting, the more cheating there will be.
If the public starts to think that there is significant fraud in our elections, we will be in big trouble.
@Larry WA State has mail in ballots for all -not quite the same as absentee As from the 2018 elections not even a stamp is needed, Very little opportunity for pickup or alteration. BTW the WA Secretary of State since 2012 is a Republican.
Let’s not forget that even where Republicans don’t resort to outright fraud, they have rigged the system to systematically tilt the playing field. It’s how Democrats can get more votes but still end up with fewer seats.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP
And don’t even get me started on the electoral college.
12
Well, at least the NYT finally admits that election fraud is a real problem. What isn't mentioned is that the absentee ballot "harvesting" that was allegedly done in North Carolina is illegal there, but it is legal in California based on a law promoted by Democrats and signed by Jerry Brown two years ago.
Read this article from the SF Chronicle about how last minute drop offs of thousands of absentee ballots changed the results of many races from a Republican win (based on election day results) to a Democratic win (after the absentee ballots were collected.)
https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-s-late-votes-broke-big-for-13432727.php?mod=article_inline
I'll take the NYT editors seriously when they question California's results with the same vigor that they criticize this North Carolina race. At least in NC they are investigating, while CA is ignoring the potential fraud in their state.
@J. Waddell Maybe if there was some PROOF for what you state, then others would be up in arms as well.
3
@J. Waddell Show the actual evidence of fraud, and I am sure the NYT will be investigating this. A key difference is that in North Carolina, absentee ballots were collected before they were actually filled in, and filled in by Dowless. That makes all the difference in the world.
4
To offer an analogy to this situation, compare it to the NCAA, where any action of management is scrutinized to determine the eligibility of the team to participate and compete. If violations occur the team is removed from competition.
A campaign is a team effort, and if member of management or the candidate breaks the rules in a substantive way, such as committing coordinated election fraud, the candidate of that campaign should be disqualified. The egregious nature of this offense would appear to make that inevitable, but instead, the most radical solution is deemed to be a new election. In my opinion the GOP candidate Mark Harris should be disqualified and the democratic candidate, who chose not to cheat, should be installed in the House of Representatives.
Additionally, everyone keeps referring to the 905 vote advantage of the GOP candidate. The over 1,000 ballots that were manipulated after being stolen from democrats were altered to favor the republican. For argument's sake, assume only half of those ballots would have been for the democratic candidate. A vote transferred to the democrat automatically deducts that same vote from the republican, meaning that merely one half of the ballots in question would be sufficient to flip the winning vote count to the democrat.
That the GOP insists that this election was in any way valid is yet another sign of the pervasive hypocrisy they are using to undermine our democracy.
3
I guess Trump was right. Rampant election fraud. Who knew? Boy, if you had written this as a work of fiction, you would have never been able to get it published.
3
I wonder if FOX is covering this at all?
5
It’s OK if you’re a Republican.
6
Usually when you see an ant in the kitchen ... there is a nest of them hidden behind the cabinets. This is the "tip of the iceberg" ...
Voter Fraud ... Voter Suppression ... Political Gerrymandering ... Dark Money, Paying Off Politicians ... mostly GOP "fingerprints".
Oh there are corrupt Dems but how many are you seeing to obstruct and disenfranchise voters of their Constitutional Rights to Vote?
America is in a war for it's National Soul and 2020 can't come soon enough!
2
Republicans must lie and cheat to win. It's that simple.
6
This is yet again an example of the long standing truth about the GOP. If you want to know what sins/crimes the Republicans are committing, just look at what they are blaming on the Democrats and about which screaming the loudest.
6
I have a sister, New York Times. She is conservative--not obdurately, stupidly conservative--but conservative nonetheless.
She has asked me not to discuss politics. Because, being a Republican herself and having many Republican friends, she feels herself assailed personally--
--whenever I read articles like this--
--and react--
--as I am about to react right now--
--by saying:
THESE GUYS ARE A PARCEL OF CROOKS!
Am I saying: every single Republican voter or office holder in these United States is a crook? No. Of course not.
But as a party--as a national organization--the GOP has so disgraced itself, has so let down the American people, has proven itself so utterly faithless to our democratic form of government--
--that I put the question to my son (a lawyer). Will the day ever come when the bottom drops out? When these frauds and failures, these pitiful shifts and dodges, these little tricks everlastingly played by a parcel of grifters and con men become so glaringly evident to the American people--
--that they turn with loathing and contempt from "the Grand Old Party"--
--and cast their lot with someone else?
I believe (two hundred years ago) this happened to the Federalist party. They were felt to be so utterly out of touch, so unresponsive to the needs and wants of a growing American electorate--
--that they fell apart and disappeared.
Maybe it's time that happened to the present-day GOP.
Maybe that time is way overdue.
Maybe.
9
Why is Harris getting a legal pass? He hired the guy knowing his m.o.
8
If the Editorial Board painted with a brushes any wider, their wrists would snap. Not every Republican and or conservative supports voter fraud nor do they follow Mr. Trump blindly.
Let the system work. For all of its imperfections, I have faith in America, its processes and most importantly, its people.
The democrat should get the seat. Why should the cheating team be allowed to replay the game?
8
Hi, from Texas, ya'll.
Ken Paxton is, for those who don't live in the neighborhood and whose interests aren't focused primarily on our politics, our Attorney General and, just coincidentally, under indictment for felony fraud on the order of millions of $$$. Is Texas a great state, or what? Something to do with oil, if only tangentially.
Texas's Secretary of State, David Whitley, our diligent public servant who compiled a list of potentially fraudulent voters, based largely on the non-Anglo origin of the surnames on their driver's licenses, bears more than a striking physical resemblance to folks like Donald J. Trump, Jr., Steven Miller, Jared Kushner and that sleaze of a used car lot owner who purchases all the post-midnight ad time on your local TV channel. Oh, and Richard Nixon, too. When do we move out of the realm of "coincidence" and correlation into causal "if A, then B" relationships?
Voter fraud in Texas is as common as our official state reptile, the Horned Toad. I dare you to find one. There are more Ken Paxtons and ilk in Texas than there are "horny toads." I've lived in Texas for the past 38 years and you can count on the fingers of your two hands the number I've seen in the wild, and still have enough unused digits to pick your nose and snap a finger and thumb. And then some.
Americans, and this is not an exaggeration, should be more worried about the extinction of the lowly horned toad, as a result of environmental degradation, than voter fraud.
5
Why should there be a revote? Throw out the fraudulent ballots and the Democrat won.
4
The very fact that the winning side is questioning whether there should be a reelection shows one is needed. We aren’t talking about a 10,000 vote difference between the two candidates. If Dowless couldn’t get together 943 fake votes over the course of the mail-in ballot period, he wasn’t doing his job.
The words of the NC GOP leader make me sick. They need to stop posturing and call for a new election, because there is no way Nancy Pelosi will seat Harris. Harris is lucky a second election is even an option for them. In school, when you’re caught cheating on a test it’s an automatic fail.
6
The Republican code has always been clear:
“Voter fraud” means too many Democrats (esp. brown ones) are voting.
“Drain the swamp” means there are too many Democrats in Washington DC.
“Socialism” means any program, project, or idea that protects or advances all Americans, as opposed to current programs that benefit “real Americans.”
“Real Americans” means Donald Trump supporters.
Every time a Republican uses one of these phrases it ought to come with a subtitle.
7
I thought that Republicans generally opposed easily hackable absentee ballots?
1
@Titian ONLY in blue states.
1
Nationwide, Republicans are the minority party. They know their only hope to hold power is to cheat, lie and steal. That's who they are.
12
Republicans aren't against voting fraud. They are against the reality, and attempting to prevent the impact of increasing numbers of minorities, particularly those with dark skin, who will soon make up a greater and greater percentage of voters nationally.
It is not about saving the country, or the electoral system. It is about saving Republican necks and sinecures.
1
I don't understand why the Times thinks there is no "voter fraud", and that the bruhaha in Texas and Kansas was unjustified hysteria about weak or non-existent data. Just look at the real, strong evidence of "voter fraud" in North Carolina! See, there really is "voter fraud" -- and far from being a bunch of "illegals" voting for Hillary, the real voter fraud is a Republican Congressman's campaign hiring a Republican operative who fraudulently collected and modified ballots in favor of his employer's campaign in a 'get out the votes effort'. So who says there's no "voter fraud"?! There sure is -- and it is caused by Republicans trying to steal elections!
1
This did not get ONE headline. This is why Republicans always win - they bury their evil and never shut up about anything Democrat. The 4th estate is complicit in the mediocrity that is the American (gambling) experiment because it assigns false equivalences and always lets white men get away with anything without properly calling out the evils and repeating it so it is understood.
Why is it that Republicans complain so much about voter fraud when they are responsible for most of it? As North Carolina proved once again, they should be looking in the mirror and saying: "The enemy is us."
3
If Mr. L. McCrae Dowless Jr. is found guilty of what this inquiry finds, then he should be charged, tried and punished as a traitor.
2
The GOP welcomed Trump into the presidency and his family of grifters along with cabinet of corrupt officials who all got busy looting away as fast as they could. Trump is compromised by Putin and McConnell knew and did not care he wanted power to be leader and right wing judges, party before country. GOP will cheat lie and steal elections to get power and stay in power as Citizens United keeps these corrupt old men in power until they become multimillionaire lobbyist, Trump along with the GOP have made the swamp a festering sewer of money grubbing slime selling out the country,
2
Wish we could have a revote of the 2016 general. The evidence of massive fraud sits in the White House wreaking havoc 24/7 as the nation suffers.
4
"Voting fraud is real" although Democrats have denied this repeatedly in recent years.
Voter fraud should be prosecuted.
Preventing "voter fraud" requires voter IDs.
Democrats who falsely claim that "minority" individuals are incapable of obtaining IDs, demean those very individuals.
1
@jck Democrats have claimed that on in person voter fraud is a hoax not voter fraud as a whole. The North Carolina voter fraud dealt with absentee ballots that Dowless' minions manipulated so voter id would have been useless.. I asked a coupe who have been poll workers for twenty years in my city whether they ever came up with a voter masquerading as someone else and the answer was a loud No!
1
In California, we are giving the Republican party a mercy killing. The rest of the country should follow.
4
@Keith Dow If only
1
The republicans knew voter fraud was going on.
Rigged elections, gerrymandering, electoral college.
They are the one's doing it. They will even steal a supreme court seat.
Imagine the character of one who knowingly accepted the stolen seat. Imagine the character of an accused attempted rapist, who republicans installed without a real investigation.
We have much to undo if we want our justice system back.
The whole world is laughing. The whole world is laughing, and KGB Putin is laughing the loudest.
4
Yes but they were not black African nor brown Native and Mexican nor Buddhist nor Hindu nor Muslim nor yellow Asian in America so they get a white European Judeo- Christian pass to MAGA.
3
Oh the irony of blatant lies wrapped in hyperbole and covered with hypocrisy coming home to roost, as it were…
Trump and his minions, always without evidence, forever harp on their accusations of "rampant" voter fraud by left-voting illegals.
Along comes North Carolina with egg on its face eating crow, this time over the inarguable and documented case of intentional voter fraud – initiated, perpetrated and conducted by un-American Republicans intentionally to circumvent democracy's "the will of the voters" and purposefully to sway the election in favor of the Republican candidate. Tsk-tsk...
Let's see Trump and his minions climb up on their soap box over this one... ... ...(chirping of crickets across empty fields) Yea, thought so...
1
Most always the case, the kettle calling the pot black.
I'll get outraged if North Carolina seats Harris. Until then, I'm mostly ticked North Carolina has to hold another election. McCready won already. Why should voters have to risk a special election in the case of voter fraud? A candidate is potentially guilty of criminal conduct and Republicans get another shot at the seat? I think legislatures need to rethink the laws applied to election fraud.
158
@Andy
Because it was ELECTORAL FRAUD, perpetrated by the "winner."
2
@Andy
In the end it is up to the House Of Representatives to seat Harris. Article 1 of the Constitution gives the House to judge the qualifications of each Representative and may decline to seat someone they determine to be unqualified. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has said the House may not seat Harris pending the outcome of an investigation.
1
We are most fortunate that light has been drawn on the blatant theft of votes in North Carolina's 9th District. Imagine if this violation of The Constitution had been left unchecked?
There are many issues that go the heart of this matter. Clearly Mr. Dowless thought that he would be able to get away with his efforts. Like any thief who feels that if the plan is well thought out and well executed, they would get away with it. I truly hope that he receives the maximum allowable penalty possible. He MUST be made an example of.
Then there is Harris himself. Was he aware of Mr. Dowless's plans and if so, did he green light them? If this is the case he does not deserve to be on the ballot let alone in Congress.
And them comes North Carolina. What will state government do to proudly yell out to all, to the nation, that it has gotten the message?
I have long given up hope that Republicans in DC will pay lip service to this or for that matter Fox, Limbaugh, Coulter, etc. And Trump will only view all this as "fake news".
So I leave it to the honest people of North Carolina and hope that they will by example, lead our nation forward.
2
All you have to do is look at the polls. Close to 90% of Republicans are all good with Trump presidency, the emergency, the voter fraud. All they care about is that they won. The Russian influence and the trashing of the constitution matter not at all. This election fraud is all good too if they win the seat. There is lots more to come before the next election and they will stick with Trump no matter what because it’s not about the country it’s about them. The pendulum will swing the other way some day and that 90% will completely ignore the fact that they are part of the problem. It always swings back and when it happens watch out.
3
Election fraud is perfectly legal and aboveboard if it's done by the GOP. They are doing it to keep America Great for white men. There's nothing like a little white supremacy to liven things up.
On the other hand, and more seriously, this sort of fraud is what convinces people NOT to vote. It tells them that their votes mean nothing. If the GOP is trying to discourage people who are registered to vote they've found a wonderful way. If I were living in North Carolina I'd never trust another the results of another election even if the candidate I voted for won.
4
I'm reminded of the big story in South Carolina as its voter ID law was being debated. The State DMV ran the voter registration list against their records and came up with 900 dead people who voted. It was in all the papers, and to this day many in South Carolina still believe they have a problem with voter fraud from people voting in the names of deceased registered voters.
The State Law Enforcement Division was called in to investigated the list of dead voters. Virtually all were matching errors (typos in social-security number) or a poll worker marking the wrong person who voted. Only one dead voter was found, someone who voted absentee and then died the day before the election.
7
This is a perfect example of the imbalance between our two major parties. Were this a Democrat stealing an election, you would have wall-to-wall coverage from Fox to all corners of the conservative propaganda machine, Congressional investigations would already be underway, the fundraising machine would be in overdrive on the back of this, armies of Twitter trolls and 4chan warriors would be doxxing the perpetrator and staking out his home. (You know this, because this is happening already, even without any Democrat committing fraud.) Since it's a Republican... we have reasoned opinion pieces from concerned editorial boards, jokes on late night TV and a few snarky but impotent tweets. One of these parties is fighting a battle, the other is commenting on it.
339
@PAF
I agree entirely. The Republicans have no shame. They pay lip service to their so called "values" but in fact have none.
They live in an alternative universe of their own making.
70
Alleged voter fraud will be the reason Trump attempts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election. If anyone doubts this, they haven't been paying attention. We underestimate the depravity of this man and his enablers at our own peril.
12
The GOP have never commanded the majority of American voters. After decades of well paid hard work, conservative think-tanks have figured out a successful systemic plan to award political power to a minority party. Besides gerrymandering, limiting voter participation, which is advantageous only to the GOP, is one of their strategies and the most noticeably undemocratic of them all. The Senate leader Mitch McConnell has admitted the GOPs great deception by attacking the idea of an "election day national holiday" as a power play by the Democrats, because it would attract more voters to the polls meaning fewer votes in total for the GOP. The Republicans aren't interested in generalized voter fraud...unless, as in North Carolina, it benefits them. Sad!
8
Republicans have never cared about "voter fraud." What they do care about is voter suppression - that is, suppressing as many potential Democratic voters as possible, in Texas, North Dakota, Georgia, North Carolina, and elsewhere. And if that fails, then they nullify the election results as much as possible, as Republican legislators did in Wisconsin and Michigan.
"Voter fraud" is as vacuous as "draining the swamp" by appointing billionaires to Cabinet positions who have no understanding of the agencies they're tasked to lead, or corporate oil and chemical insiders running federal agencies that regulate their industries.
Voter fraud; build the wall; drain the swamp - slogans as real as a diploma from Trump University.
466
@jrinsc
And then there are Democrats who regularly find boxes of ballots in the trunks of cars, who push for no voter ID, and for election day registration. What could possibly go wrong?
@EGD and except for voter ID which should be easy to get but isn't what of what you wrote is true?
16
@EGD
Could you provide some evidence or citation of Democrats found with "boxes of ballots in trunks of cars"? No such evidence exists, except in the minds of Alex Jones and his crowd of conspiracy nuts.
This nation needs to grow up.
When one side points out an illegal activity the goal should be to fix the problem, not to respond with: "well, you do it too."
37
The NC Board of Elections forwarded info aout Dowless's actions to the Trump-appointed US Attorney's office in 2017 - who of course did nothing.
21
Actual voting fraud is another nail in the Republican coffin. At some point soon millions of people will recognize what this party has been about for decades. Lying about who truly benefits from their "policies". The wealthy elite (1%-.001%) have taken all the cash and are accumulating enormous quantities. The foundational values underlying the Rs strategies, initiatives, actions and votes are about the money for their paymasters behind the curtains. And we all know this.
The Rs do not want a democracy. Kleptocracy is their game. Trump and the Rs continually lie and 10s of millions of people believe them. It's truly extraordinary that so many of our fellow Americans believe this, for so long.
Many have been saying for years that we'll have to pay the piper some day - say hello to the piper.
Climate change is banging on your door
Economic thievery by a few is killing us
We are destroying life and the natural world, and we know it.
The ballot thievery in N. Carolina is the point - the Rs will do ANYTHING to keep power to continue shoveling mountains of cash to their patrons. It's simple.
Our friends in N. Carolina were robbed by Rs - our nation is being robbed by people in positions of power and responsibility. And most have an "R" in front of their name.
Good luck to us all. All citizens have a duty and right to their vote. Trump and the Rs will steal as many as possible with whoever and whatever. Other thugs, other nations. It doesn't matter.
12
This article stops way short of it's own point: there is flagrant vote manipulation by Republican operatives..see Greg palast's work...which amounts to the destruction of democracy. It isn't "instruction" that's called for: it's imprisonment.
20
But for fraud, cheating, gerrymandering, treason, billionaire money, and the electoral college, the republicans would be in charge of nothing.
24
@Rick
When republicans depend on these things to get elected it just shows they are the party of very bad ideas. Maybe it's time they try coming up with better ideas.
4
@Rick
You left out foreign propaganda and assistance.
3
Not at all surprised by the illegal activities of the republican party in my state. When they came to power a while ago, a large chunk of Asheville-including most afro-americans was gerrymandered like a snake to the suburbs of Charlotte. This put a republican in charge for many years to come in this my 11th District. The republicans have carved up North Carolina to their benefit-that was bad enough but now in the 9th they have committed fraud to keep power there. Harris should not be seated by a democrat House.
14
In a ridiculous turn of events, the Board needs a “supermajority” to overturn the results of the election, which means that one of the two Rs on the board must vote to order a new election. Good luck with that.
Dallas Woodhouse, NC’s Republican Chairman who lacks even a shred of integrity stated yesterday that he found it “disappointing” that some
may have broken the law, but was looking forward to Harris being given his “rightful” seat - “disappointing!” Nancy Pelosi, I hope you refuse to seat this man, because North Carolina will do all it can to legitimize stealing the election, as it has done with all federal elections anyway thanks to its unconstitutional gerrymandered election map.
8
Southern tricksters around the GOP is a simple fact of life. GOP operators are like house fly seeming incapable of getting smashed because they sense the moment of your precisely aimed swat. The GOP officials always count on these guys because you can hire a dozen tricksters with only a 1/5 of whiskey and a carton of cigarettes.
3
Definitely should look into what the Christian-right "reverend" Harris knew about the tactics. He specifically went after Dowless as a hire, fully knowing what his "skills" were.
17
Mr Trump and his party are sanctimonious hypocrites.
4
Even if the fraudulent ballots in this race can’t be shown to have tipped the balance in favor of the Republican candidate, the Republican should be disqualified and the election given to the next highest vote getter. Actually the election should optimally be done over with strict monitoring because you also can’t trust the results of the down ballot measures and positions. Election fraud should be met with severe penalties. Right Republicans?
10
Tip of the iceberg indeed.
In this discussion it is worth remembering that worldwide, in most countries that hold elections of any sort, attempts at gerrymandering are considered to be election fraud.
In many countries, campaign SPENDING is strictly monitored to be equal among candidates.
And of course, most countries have higher rates of voter participation than we do, simply because they have policies that encourage voting. We don't. We have policies that discourage voting.
In these ways and many others, the United States of America scores very low in measures of election integrity--sub-Saharan Africa contains countries that score higher than we do. But remember--WE'RE EXCEPTIONAL!!
21
The GOP is only interested in winning at all costs. Throughout this country there are many examples of Republicans' willingness to lie, collude and cheat to maintain power. Voter suppression is a favorite tactic, in their endeavors. Mitch McConnell is the prototype of this corruption. He made this clear, when his primary goal was to stop Barack Obama from re-election. He then disregarded the Constitution and refused to consider Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court. He was unwilling to act against evidence that the Russians were meddling in our 2016 election. He has refused to bring any bill to the Senate floor unless, he has Trump's assurance of approval. He has done nothing to support voters' rights.
Gerrymandering has been taken to its worst outcome, with Republicans clearly at the forefront. Hypocrisy has become the norm. Both parties have shameful members, who should be driven from power and the GOP should begin with the President.
9
Republicans are quick to accuse others of that which they are themselves guilty. By preempting an aggressive offense, "Blame Shifting" puts the onus of guilt on the innocent party, who have little choice but to defend themselves with unconvincing protestations of innocence.
It's a devious and effective tactic, which relies on deception and hypocrisy, traits which Republicans and Conservatives seem to have institutionalized in their never ending quest to seize and hold power by any means.
12
What else can the Republican Party do except restrict voting rights for those who might be Democrats, pump up fears of immigrants, send out dog whistles to attract white supremacists, vow to take control of women's bodies, and on and on. The Party does not have a program which would appeal to anyone except wealthy people who want their already too low taxes reduced even further. They have flogged the "it's your money, not the government's money" horse to death since Reagan's tenure along with the raising of fears about social change in order to get votes. People are finally seeing through this charade and realize their wages have not gone up for 50 years and that the wealthy are getting all the goodies in our superb economy which has the protection of the government which furnishes a great climate in which to do business. So, what else can they do to stay in office except to promulgate hate and try to restrict voting rights? People are wising up.
3
@Harold Johnson Sure hope you're right....
This is nothing new. One thing leads inevitably to the other.
Working in Venezuela during the late 90's, when Chavez was first elected, everyone on the lower end of the class-scale was disgusted by the same type of voting manipulation. Chavez received a lot of votes from the middle-class as well as the populous poor.
Once elected, he knew what was coming.
The opposition had made voting as difficult as possible.
Imagine, in order to vote you had to have a government cedula- or I.D. card of citizenry. Getting one was involved and problematic if you worked out in the country on some rich guys finca, or couldn't get time off from your job in town.
This was no accident.
Chavez, after his election, sent out fleets of campers equipped with mobile cellular receivers to directly access the computer files and issue cedulas to thousands, who afterwards voted for him.
We are setting up the same sort of scams on ourselves.
3
Injustice they are screaming about is what they themselves are doing. This has been true for ages. You can always tell where they are and what they are up to. But I think this all came about by re-implementing the Jim Crow policies to keep the vote white. The slippery slope of temptation is to extend that to one party control. And that's what we're seeing now. Would we be as upset if it was just the usual, institutionalized disenfranchisement of people of color (I'd say black but we've got any number of colors now) and the poor? But now white and well-to-do people are getting disenfranchised because they are part of another party, and there's a lot more resistance. Where was that heavy resistance with Jim Crow? Why didn't more people with means care? Are we still really that racist and clannish? After all the progress I'd thought we'd made? Perhaps it's true that all politics is local. Very local.
3
Got to love the irony: their voter fraud is actually voter suppression which is itself voter fraud which must be suppressed. I would have expected that schemes to interfere with an election was a crime, why are they not in jail?
6
Actually, the Party of Cheaters, not the Party of Lincoln, is how the Republicans should be known. Republicans are perfectly fine with using any means, both legal and illegal, to alter the outcome of elections in their favor.
The fraud perpetrated in North Carolina may be outright against the law, but other techniques, such as gerrymandering and culling eligible non-Republicans from voter rolls, are no less abhorrent.
It's not a coincidence that a Republican candidate has only won the popular vote in one of the last seven Presidential elections, and the Republicans control the U.S. Senate despite having won a significant minority of the total vote.
6
The hypocrisy of Republicans is glaring. They care about Republicans being elected and not about the integrity of elections or actual democracy.
Look at GOP Sherin Wilson in Texas. She sentenced one woman in Texas to five years in prison for voting. The woman, a mother of three, did not realize she had lost her voting rights as a felon. Wilson sentenced another woman -- an immigrant who was not eligible to vote but didn't realize it -- to prison for eight years for voting.
But Wilson let a JP off the hook who had actually forged signatures to get on the ballot -- no prison term, while she herself violated election law by obtaining her staffs' contact information and then soliciting their election support for herself.
In Georgia of course, we had a stolen election with numerous egregious problems with the midterm elections and earlier hacking into election databases including by Russians.
The GOP is a party that has lost its way. Power is all that matters. The blue tide must continue despite the voter suppression and GOP fraud.
7
This is what election fraud looks like.
The Republicans will stop at nothing to steal elections, without the slightest acknowledgment that what they do is illegal and immoral, including:
1. Imposing strict Voter ID Laws.
2. Gerrymandering.
3. Incarcerating African-Americans in grossly disproportionate numbers and disenfranchising them not only de facto when they can't make bail but also after they've paid their debt to society.
4. Concocting a Census form to include a question designed to discourage a large group of citizens, who were formerly recent immigrants, from responding.
5. Suppressing the vote by making robo calls to known Democratic voter areas giving these voters false information about voting days and places.
6. Allowing one of their candidates for public office, Mark Harris, to be in charge of the election in which he was running. Harris then knowingly hired a known dirty operative, L. McCrae Dowless Jr., to gather and fill in absentee ballots in support of Harris, including forging signatures and mailing small batches from post offices near voters' homes to avoid suspicion (or throwing away ballots of Democrats).
"This alarming situation in North Carolina should prove instructive for Mr. Trump and his party." Well, not in the way the Editorial Board thinks. The Republicans will continue on this path until they are thrown out of office, because their years-long success in thwarting Democratic votes speaks for itself.
5
This is just a small example of voter fraud perpetrated by the Republican Party; the larger examples are gerrymandering and voter suppression. Why does the Republican Party do this? because they can't imagine that non-whites would vote for them. Instead of competing for their votes they try to suppress it. What does this say about what the Republican Party's self image is? It's no wonder that non-whites no longer voter for them.
4
The only way the GOP wins is by cheating, lying, gerrymandering, dark money and voter suppression.
In the case of presidential elections- add the biggest scam of all- the Electoral College where the minority can pick the winner making the idea that we have a true democracy a very cruel joke- and now interference from Russia to elect the GOP candidate to add further corruption.
If you think we have democracy in this country, you are fooling yourself.
We need major election reform in all levels of elections but the GOP will never agree to any reform since they benefit from corruption and are the party of amorality regardless of how many flag pins they wear.
5
For all the bluster of the republican party and voter fraud the republicans appear to be the party of voter fraud, lies, gerrymandering and voter suppression. Trump, having a created a commission to find all the voters he claimed voted illegally, could find nothing when it was right in front of his face all the time. The party that doesn't understand "Duh!" seems never to get anything right.
3
In my mind, the decline of the Republican Party began in earnest with Ronald Reagan and his "take care of yourself and don't worry about the other guy" (a fellow American) mantra. This current iteration of the GOP makes the Gipper look positively saintly in comparison.
5
We have a fraud in the White House and we have have a fraud in North Carolina. They are both so called republicans. The GOP doesn't mind voter fraud, election meddling, or good ol fashion cheating as long it puts one of their own in power. Because welding and achieving political power is the oldest political game there is.
5
A woman in Texas was given an eight year sentence for a case of voting while ineligible, just so the Attorney General could trumpet how seriously he and other Republicans take the issue of election fraud. With that sentence in mind, they should call for the death penalty in the North Carolina case, where a structured and intentional conspiracy may have actually led to the wrong party winning the election.
This is what election fraud actually looks like.
4
This is how politicians of every sort have always "ginned. up" the base and gerrymandering is how they keep them.
2
The current version of the Republican party from the local level to the halls of Washington is perhaps the most dishonest political party in the history of this country. As would be expected for such a group, they operate by assaulting the honesty and integrity of others. Defeating them soundly at the next election will be difficult, but is necessary if we are to once again have honesty and integrity in our government.
4
This North Carolina issue won't put the tiniest dent in Republicans trumpeting about voter fraud. How about GOP Gerrymandering of voter districts? That's the biggest voter fraud of all, and they have been utterly dedicated to it and pursuing it for an entire generation. You see stats about how Democrats get way more than 50% of votes in some places and get way less than 50% of the legislative or congressional seats. How's that for voter fraud? All the GOP voter fraud smokescreen is just a ruse to disenfranchise people of color. You could argue about why they don't want people of color to vote. Or you could just look at the photos of the Republicans in the U.S. Congress.
2
Give us credit for coming up with an election fraud scandal that features not just Republican political operatives, but a conservative Baptist minister.
5
America is becoming George Orwell's "Animal Farm" democracy, where all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal.
When Republicans can't win on their platform and they resort to winning at all cost including voter fraud, gerrymandering, voter purges, anonymous money, Superpacs, and grass roots cheating like we see in North Carolina they have introduced a rot that may well bring down the nation.
3
1.) "collect absentee ballots from voters". How did they do that? Why would voters give these to them? What explanation did they give to voters why they should do this?
2.) "absentee ballots or request forms". How many of each? How many fraudulent votes resulted?
3.) "coordinated effort to tamper with ballots". 'effort', successful, unsuccessful? How many fraudulent votes, enough to change the election result?
4.) How much smoke here, how much fire? It doesn't seem to take much to ignite Democrat indignation and send sparks of supposed 'fraud' flying in all directions to hopefully start as many other fires as possible.
In no just world is Mr. Harris rewarded for cheating. There needs to be a new election, and he needs to be disqualified from running.
3
I dont understand all this fuss.
Why should we accept Democrats candidates when only Republicans are fit.
Having to ressort to fraud is a disgrace .
So ironic that the only evidence that voter fraud exists anywhere in the country is this example from North Carolina - executed by a comically incompetent bunch of Republicans (reminds me a lot of the talent used in planning and exectuing the Watergate break-in on behalf of Nixon).
It will be interesting how they, the GOP voter-suppression and voter-ID proponents couch their arguments in the future. What facts will they rely upon?
1
The fraudulent election in North Carolina is yet another example of the Republican Party's disdain for democracy.
1
Republicans have been projecting their own misdeeds onto Democrats and other non-republicans among our citizenry for a long time. If you want to know what the republicans are really up to, just listen to what they indignantly claim their opponents are doing !
When you know deep down that you represent a minority of voters you have to resort to whatever it takes to win. When Mitch McConnell declared from the floor of the senate that making voting day a national holiday was a democratic power grab that pretty much tells you all you need to know. Never thought I would see the Republican Party stoop to such levels of deceit and outright illegal acts.
I think this is just the tip of the iceberg! I doubt this didn't just happen here for the first time. How many other elections were tainted in this way? Was the presidential election affected? What about other states? I think there needs to be a broader investigation into this issue! House democrats I see opportunity for you here!
The NC Republicans are fixated on whether the number of votes involved exceeded the margin of difference.
.
That isn't the point.
.
There was organised cheating of significant magnitude on behalf of one party.
.
It has to be publicly denounced and repudiated.
That is done by throwing out the tainted result, and re-running the election.
.
The election is stained.
Hand soap isn't going to do the job.
You need to use bleach.
2
Another day another republican fraud. The party whose main platform revolves solely around deceptive fear and hatred of anyone not them is as compromised as it gets. The grift in Trumpville is alive and well and the Republican Party seems more than happy to live it. Were it not for gullible self indulgent suckers they would have nothing.
2
The Republican Party has become a bunch of liars and cheats who will do anything to win at all cost. It is especially galling that they do it behind the veil of patriotism, integrity, and religion.
1
NC is rampant with voter fraud. In a roughly 50 :50 split between GOP and Democrat voters when actual votes are tallied, but the GOP gets 10 out of 13 seats for a veto proof majority, time after time. The head of the GOP openly acknowledges on You Tube that the only reason it is 10:3 is because the GOP couldn't draw the boundaries to get an 11:2 result. The GOP is harvesting ballots whilst at the same time screaming voter fraud by Mexicans the way a magician uses slight of hand and distraction to do his tricks in front of an audience. This is not just happening on state election. it happens all the way down to school boards and sheriffs elections. And the basis for this ballot fraud is RACE. Eliminate race data from the database and those responsible for so effectively gerrymandering the NC districts are powerless. Please don't tell me voter ID stops fraud. Voter ID is the basic tool of gerrymandering GOP election officials.
I think a good rule of thumb for understanding Republicans -- particularly Trump -- is whatever they accuse Democrats of is a sure indication of what Republicans are doing.
We saw it in the campaign. Hillary Clinton, a seasoned and experienced public servant, is vilified as a greedy cheat who should be locked up by the penultimate grifter of greed and grandiosity who very likely will be locked up, sooner or later.
Election fraud is a another prime example.
As the editorial points out, Republicans have had a cow or two over Democrats allegedly orchestrating ineligible votes from undocumented migrants. They've staged a Benghazi-like inquisition that collapsed from its own weight. The GOP Texas Attorney General made wild and inflammatory accusations about 90,000 non-citizen voters, which proved to be a lie.
What they meant was: democracy is a game won by cheating so if Democrats win they're obviously cheating.
The conundrum for Republicans is explaining how with fewer votes in aggregate than Democrats they still attain disproportionate majorities.
Now we know for certain what most suspected: those who smelt it dealt it.
So next time Trump accuses Democrats of treason, he's just confirming that he and his ilk are selling America down the drain, lock, stock and barrel.
With Trump white is black and black is white.
7
The GOP endorses fraud. They proved that when they endorsed Donald Trump.
2
If these were democrats, the republicans would be losing their MINDS
But because it is Republicans, this is business as usual
2
The GOP really does not care what you think or what the NYT opines. As long as they win elections, which they seem to do with alarming frequency, they will keep at it. We have a different judiciary because of this kind of thing. Is there any dialing that back now?
2
investigate. prosecute. convict. sentence. zero tolerance.
4
Where are Chris Kobach and his commission when you need them?
"a “coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced” effort to tamper with absentee ballots."
This is the danger of the movement towards absentee voting: tampering, intimidation (boss asks employees to fill out ballots in his presence), etc.
This is similar to the movement away from mechanical voting machines to hackable voting machines (some owned by Republican families, with no paper trails, demonstrably hackable)
Massive, systematic fraud is the only way for the Republican party, which transfers wealth from workers and the middle class to ultra wealthy to Republican donors, to gain and retain power
20
@Lynn Bingo. The Republican Party is the minority party in the country and can only hold power through chicanery. They’ve been perfecting their chicanery since the Nixon era.
Now people will say Democrats practice chicanery, too, but I submit that the Dems are seriously comic about it, while the Rs are masters of deceit and obfuscation. Prime Example: Mitch McConnell. Past example: Paul Ryan. Ongoing Pestilence: Newt Gingrich.
Need I say more?
5
Please also remember that Kobach, as Secretary of State while running for Governor in Kansas, moved the only voting location in the heavily Democratic city of Dodge out of town to make voting much more difficult. This is the way Republicans prevent voting by their opposition, make it more difficult to vote! Thankfully he did not win.
18
Dowless is an equal opportunity fraudster having worked for Democrats in the past. There is certainly a lesson here for Republicans, and a larger lesson for the country.
Voter fraud is most likely to be committed by our political class. They have the resources to pull it off. I hope that in their efforts to strengthen our Democracy going forward, the Democrats will take into account that the temptation to cheat is bipartisan.
6
@NCTransplant Please share examples of Democrats pulling the same level of shenanigans as the Republicans cited in this editorial.
2
@NCTransplant You're attempt to tie Democrats to the current North Carolina Republican-led voter fraud case is absurd. But nice try; it didn't work.
2
Hi John and Chris,
Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to tie Democrats to this fraud, nor was I suggesting the two parties share the same level of shenanigans.
I was saying that I fear for our democracy and when someone like Dowless has a track record working for both parties it's something to consider in the larger package of electoral reforms I hope the Democrats--for whom I voted--will pass.
Thanks for the conversation.
I think it's been demonstrated quite definitively that the Republican Party cares not one whit for election integrity. Any kind of election chicanery is acceptable to them as long as it results in permanent GOP power. If Latino Americans were to suddenly become right-wing Republicans tomorrow, the GOP would be tearing down whatever wall is already built and say, "Come on in!" When the GOP started talking about voter fraud, everyone should have realized that this was just another example of GOP projection -- whatever they accuse the Democrats of doing is what they themselves are doing.
28
If you want a clear idea of which party supports democracy and which party doesn't, all you have to do is look at which party wants all citizens to vote and which party doesn't. I'll bet this is not a new phenomenon for the republican party and that they have being doing it for years.
41
The Republican party has lost any sort of internal moral compass. Republicans in the U.S. Congress are failing in their duty to put the Constitution and their oaths before any party. Sen. McConnell and former Speaker Ryan determined that anything that Trump does to undermine the rule of law and the Constitution is ok so long as they get what they want. Any organization that is willing to turn a blind eye to its own corruption cannot be trusted or have access to so much power. When do we consider having to outlaw a party, i.e. post WW II Germany, in order to protect the overall wellbeing of the nation and our rules and laws and democracy? If another party wins the presidency and Congress in 2020 consideration should be given to overturning every decision made while such vile, corrupt leadership had nearly absolute power.
33
Could it be that this absentee voter fraud problem is aggravated or even caused by gerrymandering? Districts such as the NC 9th are sprawling, ill-shaped amalgams of census tracts, designed (in NC) to elect Republicans. These sprawling districts, composes of communities at their margins which have very little in common, have made elections in some districts closer. It would follow that the urge to scour the district for votes would become more acute in these cobbled-together districts.
Likewise, it makes sense for election "operatives" to do their dredging in backwaters of these districts (like Bladen County, NC in the 9th) far away from the prying eyes of the districts press guardians far to the west in Charlotte. As an aside, isn't it remarkable how the language of espionage has become common in writing about an American election?
Interviews with several of these "voters" have revealed that they did not know who had been standing for congressional office in the 9th. But you can hardly blame them--gerrymandering in NC is so acute that many educated people no longer know the name of their congressman, and far fewer could name their home district. The system we have makes sense only to the Republican programmers who successfully designed it to flip NC from a 9 to 4 Democratic delegation to a 10 to 3 Republican one. Ah, the wonders that dark money can accomplish when diligently applied.
24
This same form of fraud, committed in 2016 by these same people, was reported over a year ago by This American Life, the public radio program. It included recordings of real people describing criminal acts. One wonders where the Trump Justice Department and North Carolina law enforcement has been all this time. Could it be that fraud that gets GOP candidates elected is acceptable? This is yet another example of GOP corruption not only at the state level, but at the national level.
43
As a resident of NC-9, I'm gratified to see that Kim Strach, the Republican executive director of the Board of Elections, called Dowless' efforts "a coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme operated during the 2018 general election in Bladen and Robeson counties.”
It appears Strach is going to vote with the 3 Democrats on the 5 member board and is laying the foundation for a finding of fraud to call for a new election. A deadlock would kick of an investigation by House Dems and Britt would be called to testify before the US House. Those hearings would be televised giving Democrats a public platform to call for election reform while turning the issue of voter fraud on the Republicans. It seems unlikely the national and NC Republicans want the specter of a televised hearing with the whole country watching.
Besides Mark Harris being an example of the worst sort of a regressive theocrat, NC is getting a bit fatigued with the Republicans' regressive tactics under the governorship of once popular Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory and the continued assault on the law since 2016.
29
Harris's opponent should be declared the winner, period, no re- election. While we're discussing this matter how about Georgia officials look into the their election in which Stacy Abrams was cheated out of becoming Governor by her opponent who just happened to be in charge of the entire election process.
36
Start with the assumption that, since the GOP's policy is tax cuts (not paid for) leading to massive deficits, inevitable recessions (a GOP tradition when they hold power, going back to the 1880's), draining hard-earned dollars out of the money pool and cutting decent jobs to the bone while eagerly looking for foreign wars to distract and further drain domestic spending, what does the Republican Party have to sell to voters? It's not simply that people of color won't vote for them, they think. They understand that no ordinary working person would vote for them if self-interest governed. So they have decided, top-down, to be forever on the offense, attack, attack, and force the opposition (i.e. the rest of us) to waste time, treasure and life trying to protect the rule of law. They certainly don't mind using the government to undermine the Constitution itself. They need cover. And like a magician, they realize that sleight-of-hand works great. Or sleight-of-mouth. It seems the GOP believes that not lying is not trying. Or in this case, that not cheating is defeating.
21
@Martin Veintraub " what does the Republican Party have to sell to voters?" What it has sold the electorate over the past 50 years was first Nixon's racist dog whistle calling for "law and order" in the 1968 election which got coupled in the late '70s with the faux moralism of the anti-abortionist "moral majority" started by Jerry Falwell Sr. The former led to the mass incarceration of non-whites while the latter energizes especially Repub primary voters who have fostered the GOP takeover of state governorships and legislatures by corrupt, misogynistic and homophobic politicians who put party over country. Dems have hardly been completely innocent of nefarious behavior over the years, which provides the GOP with fodder to carry out the 'whataboutism' tactics and create hostility for the Dems. Not to excuse them but Dem transgressions pale in the comparison to perfidious GOP falsehoods and dirty tricks. As has been said often, Trump is simply a symptom of the longstanding corruption at the core of the modern Republican party.
It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Trump and the GOP used this incident as a blueprint for voter fraud elsewhere. It pains me to have become this cynical—especially growing up in a Republican family and spending my first three decades regarding the GOP as the “lawful and honorable party”—but here I am.
19
A consideration of the simple mechanics of voting exposes the claims of vast voter fraud at the polls to be a lie. Regardless of whether you need an ID or not, in the states I've lived in you always need to give your name AND address so that it can be checked off on a list. What some Republicans are therefore saying is that thousands, even millions, of voters are showing up claiming they live at someone else's address, and thus when the actual voter who lives there shows up, they are told, "Sorry, you already voted." If this were happening on even a minor scale it would be a major story. These allegations are debunked by common wisdom.
23
@DL
I agree, but unfortunately, "common wisdom" is not all that common.
5
Voter fraud is only voter fraud when it might reward a Democratic candidate, clearly. The GOP's response to what happened in North Carolina is so unsurprising. What is equally unsurprising is Mr. Harris's silence in the matter. If he had any integrity (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he had nothing to do with this) he would be demanding a new election.
21
Will it make a difference in the vote count that Ivanka was awarded a patent on voting machines from China?
13
I love these articles where it is pretended that Trump or the GOP cares about the truth. Voting issues in the hands of the GOP is important only if it makes Democrats look bad or dishonest. The same with budgets deficits. A deficit is bad if the money is used for children’s health care or SNAP. it’s good if it gives millionaires giant tax cuts.
37
News outlets should be investigating vigorously whether this kind of behavior, altering ballots, stuffing ballots and the like have gone on in any other districts. Do the vote totals in each district reflect reasonable turnout or excessive turnout? Are there other irregularities perpetrated by people who shout most loudly about voter fraud?
22
Start in Florida where we just had two extremely close elections. The Governor at the time was against the laws of his own state being implemented to determine the results.
15
How on earth is it legal for private actor to gather absentee ballots in the first place?
If this kind of fraud can happen in NC, it can happen anywhere by any party.
18
@CNNNNC Well, put simply, that *isn't* legal, which is the problem here.
2
@CNNNNC
It's legal here in Colorado. A "collector" can gather up to 10 ballots and turn them in. But I wouldn't be surprised if legislators changed the law before 2020.
2
@CNNNNC It is not legal. That voters willingly handed them over is kind of sad. Too many Americans are ignorant about their civic duties. Our nation's education system is in just as much crisis right now as is our climate.
2
The GOP just doesn’t care. Everything they say, everything Trump claims is calculated to benefit them and them only. Voter disenfranchisement is designed to help them. Every voter ID law is targeted with its effect to decrease minority voting, to limit the rights of those who would vote against the GOP. Why would they care of a sole operative was helping them? Why should they pay attention when their system is geared towards legalized cheating?
Granted both parties will gain advantage where they can and we’ve seen some Democrats do likewise but in general Democrats have attempted to expand voter access, a move that could help ANY politician that would even attempt to represent their district as a whole and not just the commands of their party.
24
Here, here, we all know that democracy is a threat - to the GOP and its agenda. And nobody knows that better than the GOP.
36
And who are the people most targeted by the voter id laws? Just the poorest, most disenfranchised people in America. Imagine if they all exercised their constitutional rights. Lacking money and wealth, they are non-entities in the richest nation on earth. People in the bubbles of privilege really have no idea how many of them there are and the poor cannot muster the strength to make themselves heard.
23
Republicans seem to be afflicted with psychological projection - accusing others of acting badly to validate their own bad actions. This is what the loud Republican crusade against voter fraud advantaging Democrats and justifying GOP-led State restrictive and discriminatory voter ID laws bring to mind. GOP noise distracts from their own bad intentions to solve a nonexistent problem to advantage their own candidates.
While Republican-led State legislatures pass laws to make voter suppression legal, no laws are broken. This does not erase the corruption.
26
Their leader is an expert in “ Whataboutism “
Narcissistic behavior that the GOP has became afflicted with . There is no healing for personality disorders .getting away is the only answer but to vote .
There sis no need to repeat that Republicans see errors, frauds and delinquencies only among Democrats and when Republican misdeeds occur, a deep silence descends on the land. What else is there to do when the example is set by Mitch McConnell.
41
McConnell is the lowest of the low.
'Nuff said.
In the eyes of the GOP, it is only fraud if the seat goes to a Democrat. Those are the rules of their game.
They work very hard at their gerrymandering to ensure that districts are drawn heavily in their favor. Then they attempt to suppress voter turnout through various means: questionable purges of the voter rolls, onerous voter identification laws, laws making voter registration difficult, restrictive voting windows and means, closing polling places, etc.
We need a modern voting rights act. Time to show Mitch McConnell what happens when the people do get the power.
30
Thanks for this. The supposed voter fraud is really used by the repressive regressives (aka the GOP) to limit the impact of minority or eligible immigrant (read new citizen) voters. Besides cheap real estate what does a state like NC have to offer? Clearly a fair and legal voting system is not one of those.
23
Besides cheap real estate ww have the highest mountain this side of the Mississippi river, jobs, a beautiful pristine coast free from commercial development, an international airport, beautiful lakes, great sporting events and excellent hiking to name a few. Just because the state is plagued with a large blick of religious voters and clueless rural communities doesn't mean it has nothing good to offer. The state even voted for Barack Hussein Obama for crying out loud. Don't be so ignorant just because republicans have cheated here for ages. This state is worth fighting for and the latest episode only proves that our democracy has been rigged and corrupted by people that realize this state's importance and value.
Perhaps a great use of the money of Michael Bloomberg and others would be to help register and deliver people to the polls. The Senate races is where it counts and Republicans must be voted out.
41
Absentee voter fraud has been a concern for years because it is relatively easy to commit, and similar schemes have surfaced at times across the country. The ninth district is certainly not the first example, although in someways the oddest in that the fraud took place in a tiny part of a rural county that most voters this Charlotte suburban district didn't even know existed.
7
It seems to me that re-voting is a far underused remedy in election fraud cases. Letting the "winner" keep the seat despite breaking the rules is a recipe for anything goes campaigns...like letting a football team keep the advantage they gained after a penalty. The goal of an election needs to be to win and do it with ideas rather than tricks.
59
And in addition, the election outcomes associated with ongoing, unproven, accusations about voting fraud, judged in court to be "largely created by confusion and administrative error,” is enabled by the complacency of many ordinary citizen-people, who seem to take the gifts of democracy for granted, as well as by many active complicit-others, in a culture which fosters personal unaccountability. Daily. At all levels. All over.
7
Tnis board has the option to certify the results . They can also find enough doubt exists that a new election is called for. There was a time in November when the board could have called for a revote .
17
@G T A Morris In November, there hadn't been time to do an investigation and the Election Board itself was caught up in another round of unconstitutional actions on the part of the Republican majority in the state legislature. State courts had ruled the new makeup of the board under Republican legislation to be unconstitutional. Those court decisions caused the board to be dissolved in December and new -- constitutional-- appointments had to be made in January. In other words, Republicans have been intent on manipulating the state voting process in every possible way, including trying to give Republicans control of the state elections board.
5
You're skirting the issue, Ed (May I call you Ed, Mr. Itorial Board?)
"This alarming situation in North Carolina should prove instructive for Mr. Trump and his party. " It should prove instructive, actually, to any party that goes into a presidential election with the presumption that the ends justify the means, and that the ends are not the selection of the best possible representative of the People but the preservation of the Party.
Am I in the right comments section? This is the discussion of Bernie Sanders' announcement that he's running, right?
5
@WOID If Bernie Sanders wanted to be treated like any other Democratic candidate, he should have become a Democrat. I have never understood the notion that the Democratic Party owed a non-Democrat the party's nomination. I think the mistake the Democrats made in 2016 was in allowing Sanders to run in the Democratic primary to begin with.
4
@NCSense I have turned this over in my mind since Sanders' announcement. I think he would be more dangerous running as an independent. If the Democrats allow him to compete in the primaries, he can either win or be side-lined by the frontrunner. Hillary won the popular vote despite him. As an independent, he could easily split off a substantial portion of the Democratic electorate and help to reelect Trump. Either way, he is an obstacle to the kind of party solidarity that the Democrats will need to overcome the Republican Party.
2
@WOID
And the NYT was all in while it was going on. Let's see if they can restrain themselves this time. I fully expect to see them pushing Gillibrand or Booker, the Wall Street candidates, to the front while doing all they can to marginalize Bernie - again.
1
GOP is a party of talk.. work and ethics is for all others..and they're ok as far as they win.
GOP has sold its soul to money.. everything else is secondary.
If we the people, don't put GOP out of power and bring back values to the fore front, which drives us and define us in 2020, we will become a lost country forever. One good side effect will be, no one will want to migrate here after another 4 years of Trump and GOP is power..
47
The GOP has been heading this direction for a while, but now they have descended beyond Gerrymandering and voter suppression to outright fraud and disenfranchisement. Let us call it for what it is: treason. Not just against our nation in the present, but against the very principles on which it was founded and against the many who have worked, fought, sweated, bled and died to earn and maintain freedom. If and when justice prevails, those who did those should face the harshest of judgments.
114
@John. While I agree that such efforts by the GOP are of the worst sort, there is this one small fact standing in the way of the accusation of treason. That fact is that our Constitution defines treason. Article 3, Section 3, “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, or in giving them Aid and Comfort.” The word “them” refers to the States as a whole, not to individuals or groups within them. So treason is not on the table, if we are to abide by the highest law in the land.
I believe that Mr. Dowless should be tried in a court, and if found guilty (almost a certainty), should spend the rest of his life behind bars. His operatives should be given lesser penalties even if they claim that they didn’t know it was against the law to do what they did. After all, ignorance of the law is not a legally recognized defense.
2
This voting fraud occurred in the Congressional District in which my Mother resides. In conversations with her she was appalled to hear this had occurred. Mark Harris is a Pastor and his advertising promoted that aspect of his life. A lot of citizens in her district were persuaded to support Mr. Harris because he is a Pastor.
Mark Harris’s campaign hired Mr Dowless to do exactly what is alleged. Mr. Dowless is a well known political operative who has worked for both Republicans and Dems over a number of election cycles. He’s known to deliver the vote for his employer.
After the NC Elections Commission makes it report law enforcement should take over the investigation. If Mr. Dowless is found guilty his sentence should severe enough to completely dissuade anyone considering a career such as his.
151
@Michijim. The fact that Harris promoted himself to be qualified for public office because he is a pastor violates the concept of "no religious test" for holding public office, a basic concept spelled out in the US Constitution.
The fact that so many Americans are ignorant of this standard in the Constitution, and the candidate would play to this ignorance, or be ignorant of it himself, says a lot about the candidate and the voters in that district. In my mind, that ALONE, disqualifies Harris. Not that he is a pastor, but that he panders to that ignorance and disgracess our Constitution by doing so.
3
@Michijim
A man of the cloth is the person I would LEAST trust.
3
The North Carolina case reads more like outright theft of votes by handsomely paid political operatives than any kind of voter fraud. Tammany Hall was decent enough to pay a buck or two for the votes it bought. These North Carolinians, but handing a hundred g's and more over to the lowest of the low, figured a way to cut out the voter altogether.
40
Commenters: This is NOT "voter fraud". It is "voting fraud". The Times' editorial is careful to use the right words in the right places. Can you also do that, please?
66
@Thomas Zaslavsky I think it’s actually election fraud.
3
@Thomas Zaslavsky For all intents and purposes it is "voter fraud". You're tilting at windmills.
It is Election Fraud, as distinguished from Voter Fraud by an individual, unqualified voter.
2
Dowless worked indiscriminately for Democrats and Republicans, from what I read. It is amazing that his theft changed the election.
Republicans have been gerrymandering the whole country, county by county. How can this still be legal? How can courts accept districts that look like Rorschach tests? It is Republicans now that are stacking the deck. There are rumors of election fraud on both sides historically. There has to be accountability, and at present, there is not. How many Dowless's are there out there? He was particularly brazen and the vote was on the razors edge.
21
@Frank Shifreen
Let's touch on the implications of this hearing for other SC Republicans. Earlier, the NY Times reported that the NC election board reported Dowless as a potential problem based on election activities in 2016: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/carolina-election-fraud-dowless.html. So there is credible evidence that he may have interfered with previous elections. This begs the question: Why else would Harris hire him? The article goes on to say that state and federal authorities failed to follow up. I hope that someone now investigates why there was no follow-up. Authorities who fail to address leads like this should not be in government. They should be private citizens or in jail. Consider a parallel kerfuffle in close-by Georgia. Is Stacy Abrams also the victim of a stolen election? At this point, knowing what we know about republicans and voter fraud, I would consider betting money on it.
38
@Frank Shifreen Do you have a link to what you read that shows Dowless worked "indiscriminately" for both Democrats and Republicans? I've seen no hard evidence of that at all; just some mentions of it.
1
This case is taking place in North Carolina, where the political climate is quite different from South Carolina. District 9 includes Mecklenberg County, which is predominately Charlotte and predominately Democratic. District 9 was purposely gerrymandered to include Bladen County (three hours from Charlotte by car) and other rural counties to minimize the effect of Charlotte, and especially African-American, voters. Harris clearly knew that he hired an operative who was known for delivering the vote with absentee ballots. Harris was quoted as admitting this, However, he said, he an no idea that anything shady was being done. This is a case where Harris is either a liar or so clueless he shouldn’t be trusted to represent anyone.
2
I'm shocked(!) to learn that republicans--those standard bearers for election purity--have been engaged in VOTER FRAUD! (That's how they always present it: as immediate, on-going emergency.)
But, as we have learned, voter fraud and other forms of electoral cheating is how the republicans win.
And, as a group, including the so-called president, they engage in projection.
We need to remember: when republicans are busy screaming their heads off about how "the other side" is engaging in voter fraud (they aren't), they are actually telling us what they themselves are doing.
48
@VB
This is not what we mean by "voter fraud". It is "voting fraud". Your Republican friends and neighbors, if any, will hold your feet to the fire over a misplaced word.
13
I just finished watching a documentary on the LA riots (which I lived through in East LA by hiding for three days). At one point there is video of a young African-American man overlooking the city from the hills above as it burns. He notes that it is not only Black neighborhoods burning across the city and that the anger and violence isn’t just an African-American phenomenon. He further implies that the King trial not-guilty verdict might have been the match, but that the powder keg was the general oppression in which folks of all races were working 60 - 80 hour weeks and still struggled economically - a poverty made more unbearable without any rights in their community, justice, or a feeling that they could make change happen. Indeed - the worst kind of poverty - a poverty of hope.
Articles like this are evidence for me that Trump and the GOP are bringing that level of oppression to everyone who isn’t Rich, White, or at least selfishly corrupt. What will happen with the new national level powder keg when the GOP or Trump inadvertently finds the next match in its ceaseless effort to increase power for Rich WASPs at all costs?
What happens when the GOP finally extinguishes the last bit of hope that positive change is possible?
40
@Jason
WASP = white & Anglo Saxon & Protestant
Trump is but one of the three. SAD.
REAL evidence of REAL voter fraud, and the GOP will conveniently ignore the facts. Instead, they will demonize Democrats and question the credibility of the voting commission. If we can't agree that voter fraud is wrong--whoever commits--then our Democracy is dead.
22
Trump has never gotten over losing the popular vote in 2016 by over three million votes. His cries of voter fraud only serve to point our his basic insecurity.
29
Outrageous but not surprising. I knew when the GOP started making a huge fuss about voter fraud they were about to start committing it. If nothing else, they'll claim it's necessary to offset the Dems voting fraud.
27
@bob I see no evidence that this is new.
1
@bob. Yep...the GOP projects their own corrupt & perverted values onto others....it's always a heads up. They are outrageously bold in their efforts to steal & loot & destroy all that is good while pretending to be upstanding patriots & solid Christians....sadly that approach has worked pretty well for them so far....Q: are Americans really that stupid? These people are actively anti-American in their actions.
The reason GOP worries it that they know that they are doing it themselves, and so project their shame on to others. In fact, they are the primary offenders.
15
I think this may be a prime opportunity for Mr. Trump to reprise Mr. Kobach's "career" as leader of the voting “integrity” commission, In this manner, Mr. Kobach will have a bonafide election scandal to investigate.
Nah. That will never happen when you look at what is involved: "Trump," "Kobach," and "integrity." Which one of those three things does not belong with the other two?
19
I am greatly saddened that this great republic will fall and fail because party loyalty trumps all other possible loyalties . . . including to God, to decency, to democracy, and to the truth.
This was not an overnight transgression. Ask McConnell, who is decades into his senate seat.
19
Voter ID is just a Republican way of controlling who gets to vote, since the honest methold of actually convincing voters to support you was thrown out long ago. So why not make a National Rifle Association membership card the only acceptable voter ID? If Democrats rush to join the NRA to be able to vote, or if Democrats stay home because too few of them are NRA members, the Republican Party wins either way. And winning is all that matters.
13
Yet another example that the US is a failed democracy. Aided and abetted by both parties, for years now. I weep for the American people who aside from their politicians are on the whole, good and fine. Although a fair amount of them seem on the brink of becoming warped by the twisted system. Perhaps some day, historians will play the game of; what came first the warped system or the warped populace? If I'm still around, I'll tell them it was the former.
5
@Mike Bonnell
Let’s not get overly simplistic. The democracy that makes the most difference in people’s lives is local government. Democracy thrives at this level. Many communities take great pride in their efforts and results. Let’s not overlook these successes.
6
@Mike Bonnell please don't apply the "both parties" nonsense. Nobody is perfect but responsibility for our state of affairs lies squarely on one of the two parties.
33
We used to criticize banana republics for this stuff, and join advanced democracies in sending observers to dubious elections. It is remarkable how quickly one blustery demagogue, and one party so clearly at ease with its own fraud, has sabotaged our democracy. Apparently the aging careerists of the GOP have come to realize what they'll never say aloud -- that they can't win fair and square, and their defiantly backward base is not representative of the majority of Americans.
43
The GOP is literally full of crooks. And no wonder why.
Their base is shrinking as minority populations continue to grow. They must now win at all costs. What we are seeing from this party is desperation. And desperation makes people do all sorts of unsavory deeds.
They no longer have a message. They no longer have any principles. They no longer care about the US as a whole. While I have disagreed with that party much over the years I alway felt they were just of a different opinion and were overall pretty decent--as politicians go.
But now, however, the GOP is akin to political thuggery. They are more like a gang than a viable party with a platform.
Soon, very soon, their day of reckoning will come. That party is going to be wrecked for years as it scrambles to remake itself.
Mr. Trump, thank you. You are doing more to strengthen the democratic cause than you could possibly understand.
When the current nightmare is all over, our country will emerge badly bruised but stronger because of it. New people with new ideas will take leadership positions and get us back to where we should be.
66
@Marcus
The appropriate punishment would be for the GOP to sit out the next two presidential cycles, 8 years w/o being able to put a candidate for any office on any ballot. Maybe that would allow the neutral redistricting we all want, and other good results.
This is absolutely crazy seeing an example of voter fraud, regardless of which party stuffed the ballot boxes. Almost all coverage by the NYT has said that voter fraud is non-existent since 2016 and criticized the GOP for making claims.
Weirdly, former NC Governor Pat McCrory (R) claimed that Democrats committed voter fraud to elect current governor Roy Cooper (D). Pat McCrory eventually conceded the race and accepted the results, but it is ironic that the fraud was actually the other way around to elect one of the US Representatives.
13
@Alex: Just to clarify, what the NYT and other outlets who report on actual reality have been saying is not that voter fraud is non-existent. It's that *in-person* voter fraud is essentially non-existent. The GOP knows that in-person voter fraud is a hopelessly inefficient way of swinging elections — that's why they use wholesale methods like gerrymandering, voter ID laws, and schemes like this one in NC.
4
Republicans see nothing wrong with voter suppression and voter fraud as long as this is committed by Republicans who would rather talk about the border wall. How much further can the GOP sink?
29
We are blind to the giant iceberg of Republican voter fraud - remember the Russians? The NC 9th district is only a tiny icicle in the giant iceberg that it really is and that Kobach's integrity commission conveniently missed and Mueller is investigating.
Republicans are 100% right - there is rampant mass voter fraud going on. What they don't tell you is that they're the ones committing the fraud. Republicans feel entitled to allow only American citizen Republicans to commit voter fraud.
After half a century of winning elections in NC's 9th district, the Republican's were finally caught. How many of those elections did they illegitimately win?
Harris knowingly hired and funded Dowless, a "longtime political operative." Indeed, re-hired a known election fraudster by the Republicans - this is nothing new and standard operating procedure for Republicans nationwide. Dowless is nothing less than a Roger Stone-Lite.
The solution is clear. Harris should be disqualified from ever running for public office and jailed, and a new election should be had.
"Republicans have been in a tizzy over voter fraud" and election "rigging" in their attempt to divert attention from the fact that it is they who are rigging and fraudulently stealing elections with impunity for many decades.
27
Voter IDs are common sense supported by 70% of the country.
2
@Beetle.....Yes. But who bears the responsibility for providing the required voter IDs? Who is responsible for paying the poll tax?
12
@Beetle Ok, then support "motor-voter" legislation that registers all citizens 18 or older with election authorities (unless they opt out of process) when they obtain or renew a driver's license or DMV-issued non-driver state ID card. Registration is confirmed using the same, birth, residence, visa &/or naturalization documents citizens must provide to legally drive and they're double (anti-fraud) checked against databases and existing voter lists to confirm citizenship. The system also automatically purges voters it registers from out-of-state state & in-state precinct rolls where they are no longer resident & eligible to vote. Registration confirmation, w/ voters' precinct, district, city ballot rights, sent by mail. Non-citizens w/driving rights not registered. The photo license or non-driver state ID card is then proof of identity on election day & checked against official voting rolls. Voting-rights activists have supported, even begged, for such laws for years, but GOP politicians & "anti-fraud" activists have blocked such simple, cost-effective & secure means to protect the sanctity of voting in all but 16 states. Conservatives should love system that uses an existing bureaucracy to do two things at once & promote democracy at little or no extra cost to taxpayers. Truth is, anti-fraud zealots don't care about fraud. They seek to make it hard for those who disagree with their politics or belong to groups they fear or hate to vote. Opposition to motor-voter is proof.
18
@Beetle Voter ID has absolutely nothing to do with this particular scheme to make phony absentee votes and destroy real ones. Voter ID addresses a different problem, people showing up at the polls pretending to be somebody else. That problem, it turns out , doesn't really exist.
16
This technique for voting fraud is very similar to a common approach used by the ruling authorities in Russia. Politicians hungry for money and power behave very similarly - regardless of nationality. The Republicans in Congress are now almost identical to their counterparts in the Russian parliament - unthinking, unprincipled rubber stamps for "His Majesty."
23
Republican tactic as old as the hills: make a great show out of accusing the Democrats of crimes the Republicans are already actively committing. Trump does this almost daily.
But it begs a big question: is this particular instance of Republican election fraud a fluke? Or is it happening elsewhere?
13
A Republican operative has been caught commiting election fraud and the editorial board projects that Republicans don’t care even though there is exactly no evidence to back that assertion up.
Unlike Democrats who encourage and enable illegal voting, Republicans would throw the book at the perp here if he is convicted. As it should be.
1
@EGD
"Republicans would throw the book at the perp here if he is convicted."
Where is the evidence to support that claim? Harris hired Howless even after being told that there were suspicions about the elections he worked for. Howless was previously convicted of fraud. Birds of a feather flock together!
Stealing a Presidential election in Florida (Bush vs Gore) was never enough for Republicans.
Instead, seemingly emboldened by stealing a Presidency for Bush, they persist in fake news "voter fraud" campaigns targeting non-existent fraud.
All the while, they take steps, often not as brazen as that which took place in North Carolina (but pretty darn close to that!), to institutionalize fraudulent voting outcomes, where the result is skewed by actions they take to disenfranchise and discourage legitimate American voters.
Wrapping oneself in American flags, doesn't make traitorous and criminal conduct, upstanding. Time to break out Trump's old campaign slogan: "Lock 'em up."
31
@AJ
They also stole a Supreme Court seat.
It doesn't matter whether Republicans or Democrats Arte guilty. The North Carolina election fraud provides more evidence the votes fraud is not a fantasy; it endangers democracy and needs to be death with. It is especially prevalent in absentee balloting, which some states facilitate by legalizing ballot harvesting.
@William Case. But this kind of fraud is very different from the sort supposedly addressed by an ID requirement, which only targets persons voting in person. The point of this editorial is that there is indeed election fraud happening, but not the sort the Republicans are working to combat.
23
The Republican Party, and their president, are knee deep in cheating. They know, as David Frum points out, that this is the only way they may retain power. What ought to alarm us, however, is that they cheat in plain sight, entirely unabashedly. In fact, they're proud of their cheating. And they've figured out that as long as they have a large, rabid base of voters, they may keep cheating without consequence.
But voter fraud is just one aspect of Republicans' cheating. Consider McConnell's refusal to have a vote on Merrick Garland. Consider Trump working actively with Putin to throw the election his way. Consider Trump's unlawful acts in firing James Comey and doing everything in his power to shut down an investigation that will provide certain evidence of his guilt. Consider Trump's declaration of an emergency that exists only in his mind, so that he may spend our tax dollars on a racist boondoggle. Consider Trump giving Saudis sophisticated nuclear facilities, in violation of our law, just so he and his cronies may profit.
Trump voters don't view any of this cheating as a problem. In fact, they love it. They have a president who has gotten ahead by cheating people, rather than by his own efforts, and they're immensely proud of this. Trump and his toadies did not seize power. He was put there by millions of voters who put their hatred, their willful ignorance, their racism before the good of the country. Cheating is the least of their concerns.
40
This is the party that believes the truth isn't the truth from Rudy . Such corruption.
6
The GOP represents everything wrong with modern politics. They are hypocritical, duplicitous partisans who time and again put party before all else (including the country and constitution). What goes around comes around, Republicans. History will excoriate.
6
Never any doubt that the only fraud came from the GOP. Never. Any. Doubt.
6
Generally, Republicans accuse people of things they have already done themselves.
13
In sports, if they catch you cheating, you forfeit the game. There is no do over. The Republican candidate should just be disqualified.
23
Somebody needs to go to jail for this, for manipulating the process and waiting to see who will sue. That someone must be a Republican.
11
Republicans are masters at repackaging, neo-Jim Crow laws, putting a bow on them and gift wrapping and presenting them to the nation as "Voter Fraud" laws.
Then, Trump and other Republican bigots will concoct lies and look for scapegoats to blame to justify passing this racist legislation, solely designed to keep minorities from voting.
Trump lied and said as many as three million illegal migrants in California voted in the 2017 presidential election.
What is unfortunate is that Jim Crow and all its racial trapping will be resuscitated in many ways by the ultra-conservative Supreme Court with a steady stream of 5-4 votes.
This is a solid-conservative high court that was bought and paid for through Gerrymandering; Voter ID laws; strict voting registration requirements and excluding eligible voters and of course, the election of Trump with the help of the Russians.
12
The only shenanigans so far with the vote are with the GOP. The pot calling the kettle black.
7
Where’s Fox News in North Carolina? Why aren’t they interested? Is there collusion?
13
I used to be a Republican. Am I ashamed? No, because the party I left no longer exists.
Today's party is rotten...from the head down...and to its core.
39
The answer here is IOKIYAR - It's OK if you are a Republican.
Yes, we have real proof of voter fraud. But it's not in-person fraud, but absentee ballot fraud, and the GOP has never said a word about that … except when they make up new rules to prevent Native Americans from voting!
12
It's only wrong, unconstitutional, immoral, illegal, elitist, racist, economically unsound, pretentious, deceptive, duplicitous, hypocritical, politically motivated, unforgivable, licentious, intolerant, or a power grab - if Democrats do it.
One set of laws, rules, ethics, and codes of conduct for everyone else - but none for the modern GOP.
The 8 year 6 trillion dollar Iraq War and the systematic lies that got us into it should be quietly forgotten, while Benghazi was, "The worst thing to happen since Pearl Harbor!"
Watching the GOP in action is like watching an ignorant spoiled brat go on and on about how they're ten times smarter than Einstein and Aristotle combined.
"You Lie!"- And it's been that way since Reagan.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump is not the end of the story. He's merely Chapter 3 in, "How The Modern GOP Saved America!" - available anywhere fiction is sold.
27
Look at the Republicans such as Mark Foley, meth smoking anti-gay "gay" Ted Haggard, and "I am not gay, I love my wife" Larry Craig (visit his bathroom in MSP next to the Snoopey to relive his toilet paper moment). These hypocrites protest exactly about the hypothetical type of people that do what they, the Republicans actually do. The Republicans are against voter fraud because they commit voter fraud and are afraid that the Democrats may do what they do clandestinely. They criticize people who are not committing the crime. Rather, they, the accuser, are actually committing the crime that they are accusing others of committing.
19
The Tea Party “Bathroom Birther” Legislature has run the state since 2010 with racial gerrymandering and Jim Crow voter suppression laws as its forte.
It’s little wonder then that there was an attempt by a well known GOP operative to steal an election for a GOP Congressman.
I guess we should get Kris Kobach down here from Kansas to help clean things up, he being the nations foremost expert on voter fraud.
13
Republicans, have you no shame?
20
I predict that there will be no trial that results in a conviction of Mr Dowless . We do have testimony . We do not have formal charges . The absentee ballot voter shares responsibility by allowing his ballot to be mishandled .
1
@G T A Morris
I suspect there will be criminal charges, as the evidence is so clear and so extensive.
A number of voters, mostly black, have stated they received absentee ballots that they didn't request.
8
@David Allman I am not saying the allegations are false . I am suggesting that the individual voter shares in the blame and that may play a part in deciding if charges are brought .
North Carolina is a purple state and without rampant voter suppression, gerrymandering and now actual vote tampering it would be blue. The GOP is getting desperate here and this example just shows how desperate. Baden County where Mr. Doules did his dirty deeds has been a GOP bastion since 1963 and that it was split so evenly is telling.
As has been said so many times before, what the GOP can not win on the up and up it will steal and the little matter of voter rights is thrown away as just another inconvenience.
97
Is anyone really surprised that the Republicans would cheat to win an election? It's not like they haven't done it before: 1968; 1980; 2000; 2004; and probably 2016.
The surprising thing would be if a Republican won an election without cheating.
53
Here in Wisconsin every single voter is the victim of fraud. It’s called gerrymandering, and it has been raised to an art form by Republicans. They’ve managed to turn 48.5 percent of the statewide vote into 66 percent of the legislative seats. Messrs. Dowless and Harris are pikers by comparison. They only managed to turn one district.
212
@Richard - Sorry Richard but you folks in WI are actually the "pikers". Here in NC we have a state-wide 52-48 split going to the GOP. And from that vote results, the GOP gets 10 out of 13 Congressional seats.
When a Federal judge asked the NC GOP witness why this apparent disparity resulted from the GOP-drawn maps, he replied the NC GOP couldn't draw up with a map that would elect 11 out of 13 GOP Congressional seats! That's hubris.
25
Lie, deny, and blame democrats. The usual GOP “strategery “.
Of the handful of people convicted of Voter Fraud every year, Nationwide, almost ALL were registered Republicans, that voted twice OR illegally voted on another persons absentee/mail-in ballot. Think about that. A made up problem, searching for an excuse for Voter intimidation. SAD.
67
There were 1,000 absentee ballots tampered with in North Carolina before the election. That's a very small number. And there was no way to know at the time how close the election would be. Campaign officials are always under pressure to prove their personal successes. 1,000 votes is good for that purpose. It's almost never enough to throw an election. So these ballots were not likely to have been part of a devious election-tampering scheme.
The 95.000 votes in Texas were originally thought to be fraudulent. But when the attorney general looked into it, he didn't cover anything up. He immediately said it was all a mistake.
And, finally, the story in Kansas was reviewed by a judge who concluded it was caused by confusion and administrative error.
There is no proof of fraud here and little likelihood of serious wrongdoing. There are multiple unsubstantiated allegations of fraud, but this piece is all fluff.
2
@michjas
"There were 1,000 absentee ballots tampered with in North Carolina before the election. That's a very small number. And there was no way to know at the time how close the election would be."
You apparently haven't followed the N.C. story, which has too many twists to summarize in one editorial. Variously, local and state boards and the Democratic campaign place the count as high as 2500 ballots, and discrepancies in voting patterns from Bladen and an adjoining country also suggest fraud.
www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article226198190.html#topicLink=election-fraud-investigation
A separate allegation is that the lead operative had inside information as to how close the voting would be, based on (unlawful) early voting results. This would tend to predict how many more mail-in ballots the Harris campaign needed.
www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article226453520.html
From this link: ""Earlier on Tuesday, testimony established that local election officials prematurely tabulated early vote results at Bladen County’s lone early voting site." And, weeks ago, one or more persons said on record that premature tabulations were standard in Bladen, at least in recent times, and that the operative was given those results.
15
@susan
I read your extracts. 2500 votes seems to be the max. The Times reference to 1,000 may be more accurate. And nobody knew in advance that the margin would be less than 2500. Polls aren't that accurate.
The two candidates will be giving testimony this week. Until then, nobody can say for sure what they knew.
The News and Observer is a responsible local paper -- I subscribed to it when I lived in NC. And it concedes uncertainty. And if I read your account right, you concede uncertainty, too. Fraud has to be proven. Your best guess won't do. And that's why I criticized the Editorial Board. It repeatedly charges fraud without sufficient evidence and with substantial evidence of mistake in Texas and Kansas.
2
michjas,
Your point about voting fraud is mistaken. It does not matter what the actual election result was. If proper vote collection methods were not used, it is fraud. Lowless had a particular plan and executed on it. Some absentee ballots were "lost" some were changed and some were filled out by his operatives. Results in one district or county can affect actual voting in other districts or counties. The lies of the GOP are legion. Blue wave 2020!
3
Thank you for bringing this to light. Let's hope these hearings bring everything to light and they get published by all media.
30
Perhaps we should ask "the opinion" of how to fix the election system to the two latest Mr. Trump's Supreme appointees (with the help of his minions of the GOP ).Why not? The appearance of any justice is eroding dangerously since Mr. Trump became president.
30
The makeup of NC's elections board - three Democrats and two Republicans - is hardly representative of the state's electorate, nor of the ballot in the Ninth Congressional District.
About thirty percent of NC voters are registered Unaffiliated (more than are registered Republican), and the NC09 race featured not only Messrs. Harris and McCready but Libertarian candidate Jeff Scott. Yet our governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, "disappeared" over two million registered voters by stacking the board with a majority from his own party. Any 3-2 decision that splits along party lines will be viewed through the lens of partisanship rather than the available facts.
A more representative elections board would consist of two members each from the parties with the highest registration numbers, and one member registered as Unaffiliated or under the banner of a third party.
3
@Charles - Fair enough, but how about acknowledging that actual, organized voter fraud occurred in the NC 9th district, and perpetrated on behalf of (and perhaps by) the GOP - that bastion of democracy.
76
Charles evidently doesn't realize that under NC law, unless 4 of the 5 members of the board agree that the election should be deemed invalid, or valid, the matter will automatically be referred to the U.S. House of Representatives for resolution.
24
@Charles
The board's make-up could have been prescribed in various ways, yes. But you don't acknowledge that this has been the subject of intense political fighting during the past year (in a Republican-controlled general assembly) and that the new board is legally constituted.
You also don't mention that N.C.'s extreme gerrymandering, which denies a voice to millions of voters, is the subject of continuing lawsuits and appeals, all the way to the SCOTUS. Districts would have been redrawn before the 2018 election, except that there was "no time".
8
National Democrats would be wise to jump on this story. Republicans' attempts at voter suppression and outright dirty election tricks have been getting increasingly brazen. Not only is this a winning issue for Democrats (most people do not support GOP style suppression and dirty tricks), but Republicans have shown over and over that they will not hesitate to indulge their anti-democratic instincts. Establishment Democrats are not very good at fighting, but it would behoove them to do so - otherwise, it's not hyperbole to say that we could be headed for a profoundly anti-democratic moment where we end up ruled by a minority party.
83
@Vin
We are not "headed for a profoundly anti-democratic moment where we end up ruled by a minority party." We are there. We've been there since 2016.
5
The Senate is in Republican hands already, remember?
2
We're worried about Northam from 30 years ago and they're doing this. Can we get real and smart please? Can we hold our breaths and win for a change?
35
Informative, well-written article. Made my day and glad I'm able to subscribe to The NYT.
18
Stacey Abrams was right. "Voter suppression is real!" It is on full display in the North Carolina 9th district. It is also alive and flourishing throughout this state, and across this country.
This is why Trump and his administration are so fixed on closing our southern border. It's because none of the immigrants who are trying to enter the country, become citizens, and earn the right to vote are likely to become Republicans.
Game changer.
48
If there was a clockface to show how close American democracy to self-destruction, we are at 5 minutes before midnight.
Republicans are easy to read though: whatever they accuse Democrats of doing, they are telescoping exactly what they are up to. Hence their obsession with voter fraud for the past 5 years.
If you include Russian interference, we would probably have a Democratic President, two new Democratic Supreme Court Justices, and possibly even a Democratic Senate if it weren't for voter fraud.
893
@priceofcivilization
"Republicans are easy to read though: whatever they accuse Democrats of doing, they are telescoping exactly what they are up to. Hence their obsession with voter fraud for the past 5 years."
Thank you.
Whenever Republicans are waving their right hands in the air, be sure to check out what their left hands are doing. Misdirection is standard in their game plan.
51
@priceofcivilization - The joke in our house is conservatives are terrified that given a chance, everyone will behave the way they do.
26
@Steve
Exactly. But, I don't think it's a joke. We all project onto other people based on the way we, ourselves, look at the world. Liberals do this, too. My feeling is that liberals are much more likely to give the opposition the benefit of the doubt, because we find it really hard to believe that people would actually do these horrible things. I'm not saying all liberals are good, upstanding people. But, I stand by the fact that we're (much) less selfish, less devious, less hypocritically "moral" and more concerned with fairness than people who still call themselves Republicans today.
27
It's a sad state, and I paraphrase David Frum, when given the choice between democracy and power, Republicans choose the latter.
89
The real fraud in all this is former Secretary of State of Iowa, Kris Kobach, and those like him. They ought to put people like them in jail for falsely claiming voter fraud by the minorities that likely vote Democrat.
No wonder, of the 27 Amendments to the Constitution, 6 were related to voting rights. It appears we'll need a few more, 6 apparently is not enough to protect our voting rights.
87
@cherrylog754
Kobach was Sec/State of Kansas.
1
@cherrylog754
Although I refer to Iowa as Kanowa, Kobach was SOS of Kansas.
The Times continues to destroy its credibility with biased reporting. Democrats stole at least 4-5 elections in California by "harvesting” votes, i.e., voting for the people instead of them voting themselves. Now they want criminals to vote; they'd have illegal aliens do so if not for Federal law. The rule appears to be: either Democrats win, or it's unfair.
3
citations please.
57
@Mike Livingston
Wow if you have actual proof you should report it, but rightwing blogs and twitter do not count just so you know.
88
@Mike Livingston
Source please
44
From those of us who live and vote in NC to the NY Times and the media in general: Please keep the spotlight on this situation and please realize that this is just the tip of the iceberg here. As is true in many states throughout our union, democracy is under attack here. This is evidence enough that they will do whatever it takes to overthrow our nation and they're using a playbook taken straight from the despots of history.
Help!
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@Thomas Payne Voter suppression is happening right here in Georgia.
40
@Patti
And Florida, Ohio, South Dakota and many more places unfortunately.
15
@Patti How well I know that. We lived in the Atlanta area for over 20 years, back in the days of Newt and McDonald. Now you're stuck with Perdue...
7
Very hard to believe the Republican knew nothing of this. Didn’t this Dowless character have a “past” with election malfeasance?
Get caught cheating, immediately forfeit the election to your opponent. They’ll understand that.
Just another brick in the nauseating GOP wall. The hypocrisy couldn’t get any thicker.
190
well how about that? honest to goodness election fraud... brought to you by the very same people who? scream about election fraud!
the GOP is the largest fraud perpetrated on the citizens of this country...
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@Robert If we are lucky this will start a trend of investigations of illegal elections, possibly in Georgia?
4
That's why the GOP is successful political party! They play by their rules... It's the Democrats who are the suckers- thinking everyone will play fair.
19
@Aaron yes they are very good at destabilizing our democracy.
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@Aaron
Suckers? We believe everyone should play fair; that does not mean that we should cheat when we find out that some others are cheating. That is a ditch I do not wish to get into.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor that Democrat’s proposal to make Election Day a national holiday (so that everybody would be able to vote) was a blatant “power grab” says all you need to know about the GOP Party of Trump.
427
@David Walker. When you live in the Trump Matrix you never know reality.
2
@David Walker
In this era of Individual-1 that we labor in, “grabbing” power is not the worst thing that gets grabbed.
Encouraging and enabling voting:
The backbone of a democracy.
Preventing people from voting:
The backbone of a dictatorship.
Where do you stand?
75
I appreciate this paper's holding Trump to account but perhaps too much coverage of a nitwit is tiring for readers. The Economist and even the Guardian ran Sander's announcement front page. Skimming the NYT, there's a story about a deceased fashion designer and just so much Trump and more Trump. Just let us know when he's impeached.
22
@Yann
Sanders may have cost Clinton the election with his use of GOP talking points during the nomination process. He became a Democrat out of convenience; he had always been an Independent from Vermont. He went up against a woman who had been a loyal Democrat for 26 yrs. He never answered the charges that his wife sold a small VT university worthless beach front property, and left them without funds to operate. He owns a $600,000 vacation home; he should stay there. He can't win a national election with his Socialist baggage. He can damage an electable candidate though; he has done it before. I would vote for a Biden/Harris ticket, or some other variations. I hope Bernie stays out of this race; what an ego for an old guy.
2
David Frum, who is a self-described Republican, said it best:
“If Conservatives come to believe that they cannot win elections democratically, they will not give up conservatism; they will abandon democracy.”
Where is Kris Kobach, Republican poster child of voter-fraud investigations, when we need him? Kris? Kris? Anybody home?
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@David Walker
Republicans are no longer conservatives. They’re all about lying, cheating, and stealing their way to more money and more power, even if they throw the USA under the bus in the process.
24
@David Walker I listened to a statement Mr. Kobach made about this investigation, he was stuttering all over the place. I wish I could remember which TV station reported it.
9
Two women in Texas were given sentences of 8 years and 5 years respectively for improper voting. One was Hispanic, the other black. Neither knew they were ineligible to vote.
How much time do you think these Republicans are going to do for forging ballots? I'll bet the farm they don't do a day.
830
That’s terrible. Can you site your source on that?
12
@Independent Google the names Crystal Mason and Rosa Ortega. Both were taken in on technicalities. Very sad cases.
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@Independent
I, too, remember reading about those sentences and seeing a photo of the African American. I believe it was reported by the NYT.
16
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article222459875.html#storylink=cpy
"Leslie McCrae Dowless was convicted of felony fraud in 1992 in Iredell County, according to court records. Dowless and his wife were accused of taking out an insurance policy on a dead man and collecting nearly $165,000 from his death, according to a 1991 Fayetteville Observer article. He served more than six months of a two-year prison sentence, according to court records.
Dowless, now 62, was convicted of felony perjury in 1990, according to court records."
Democrats should pass laws demanding multiple forms of proof that white male conservative political operatives have never been convicted of fraud or perjury before they are allowed to work on any elections.
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@tombo
With Republicans you need to consider them guilty until proven innocent. It's just the smart thing to do.
26
And here we were led to believe that voter fraud was only a Democratic problem. Republicans are the most accomplished practitioners of the dark arts of dirty tricks going back to Tricky Dick.
Now we know that these types of below the belt tactics are not just practiced in the Deep South but in the supposedly moderate and honorable state of North Carolina.
Just cancelled our trip to the Outer banks. Turns out the South is still the South no matter how deep you go.
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@Babel, you will recall that Trump appointed a special task force led by Chris Kobach, to investigate the “millions” of fraudulent votes in 2016. It goes without saying they found nothing, like his investigations of Hillary, of Obama wiretapping the White House, etc etc. meanwhile, here’s actual voter fraud (and more than 30 indictments, convictions, and guilty pleas from Mueller). Seems like only one party actually breaks the law. Hint: it’s the one that accuses others of law-breaking.
41
@Babel
Unfortunately NC has gone backward since Republicans gerrymandered the voting districts in 2010 to guarantee themselves unchallenged power.
14
Does no one remember Jesse Helms? He was the king of dirty politics and began this saga many years ago. NC and the nation still suffer from a Republican Party that uses his fear-mongering philosophy paired with voter manipulation and outright fraud to win elections.
13
The hypocrisy of it all.The Republicans wail about non citizens voting and demand verifiable ID-they say they want fair elections.What they want is elections that Republicans win and will do anything to make that happen including collecting absentee ballots and fraudulently filling them in and dropping them in the mail.When the Republicans talk about voter fraud, they should look in the mirror!
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@Janet Michael
Well, you know what they say: if they don't cheat, they can't win
3
This is crazy. I heard this covered on NPR this morning and it was treated like a traffic violation. "What are the lessons we can learn," etc., in reference to evidence and testimony in re election fraud in NC. Lessons learned? If we find out that someone stole a car or passed off bad checks or broke into a house, we don't focus on "lessons learned." We go after the criminals and bring them to justice! The "lesson learned" is that the Republicans cheat if they cannot win, and will continue to do so. Enough!
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@quizmo
Well put. But I'm sure you mean that "the Republican cheat if they cannot win fairly". Of course, we know they try to rig the system whenever possible, so who knows what is fair any more, right? More white men in suits need to be locked up.
51
@quizmo Is it just me, or is NPR becoming inhibited in the rigor of its coverage, perhaps wary of offending major funders. I seem to hear an awful lot of softball coverage and fluff nowadays.
50
@quizmo. NPR has lost its edge. It's been very disappointing lately. A bland centrism.
37
Every time we hear about the Republicans actually investigating all that non-citizen voter fraud they keep seeing, we come up with a couple of conclusions that seem to make the most sense:
a) they're making it up
or
b) they're incompetent in catching thousands or tens of thousands or three million people who are out there, somewhere, willfully committing a felony that would get them deported in a minute if they got caught.
Of course, both could simultaneously be true - article about the top klown of the voter fraud circus, his sloppiness, his lack of results and his contempt of court:
https://www.propublica.org/article/kris-kobach-voter-fraud-kansas-trial
Kobach got himself prosecutorial powers in Kansas to go after voter fraud - which he insisted was rampant. His net after a couple years work? Nine misdemeanor violations - eight of them citizens. Out of 1.8 million voters in the state.
Heckuva job.
50
Its not just Trump and his party hitting the panic button over voter fraud. Those lies are magnified by the megaphone of conservative talk radio and TV.
There is no 'deep state', the conspiracy to mislead and lie to the American people is right out in the open.
55
The ONLY way Republicans can win is through cheating. They ALWAYS cheat.
92
@Veda - that's not true, but unfortunately, as their policies these days tend to alienate all but their base, they are starting to prefer cheating as one approach.
6
So, let me get this...
After decades of decrying the GOP cry about fake votes...
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/nov-8-1960-john-f-kennedy-elected-president/
“...Many Republicans contended that Mr. Kennedy had fraudulently won Illinois, Texas and other states. Cook County...controlled by Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, a Kennedy supporter, was reputed to be rife with voter fraud, and there were allegations that dead people had been counted as voters. Texas, the home of Mr. Kennedy’s running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson, reportedly had counties with more votes than registered voters...
“...Nixon declared that he did not want to dispute the results, though his supporters pursued recounts or legal actions in 11 states. Mr. Nixon received praise for his decision to...let the country move on...rather than begin a potentially divisive campaign to overturn the results...
...turns out their real concerns about such fakery may be real
Or – this just some sort of trading-places thing between [someone who allegedly looks like] Peter Thiel and [someone else who allegedly looks even more like] Reid Hoffman...
Apologies in advance to anyone who’s ever been mistaken for either...
My AI bot claims to know – told it to go form an LLC and then we’ll talk...
But I digress...
What this enquiring mind really wants to know – who's Don Ameche and who's Ralph Bellamy...
PS
My AI bot now incorporated – and swears it was two of the Koch brothers...
Apologies in advance...
@W in the Middle
Oh my, not sure I understand your musings but I hope you are not trotting out Nixon as a paragon of election integrity. Pretty sure his side was upset that Kennedy's side was just better at dead people voting than his side was. And his integrity was on vivid display in 1968 and 72.
11
If Republicans were willing to sell out any integrity to support Trump's candidacy and presidency, they're not going to be bothered by a fraudulent 'win' either. They are determined to get their agenda enacted on all levels, whatever the cost.
58
The argument on illegal voting was always about cheating to win elections. There was never a problem. Now we have a real life example of Republicans who are the ones rigging elections. Voter suppression and fake robo calls as well as bogus voter id laws are all designed to PREVENT legal people from voting. This shall not stand. You can't claim to be a democracy if you do not act like one.
23
Remember that voter fraud only occurs when Democrats commit or are even accused of it. When Republicans do so, the party falls silent. And, when Democrats investigate such allegations, they are engaging in a "witch hunt." When the GOP investigates, they want to "get to the bottom of it."
As the president replied last week when challenged on facts, "You don't really believe that, do you?"
528
@Tom Q Similarly, when republicans are accused of molesting women it just doesn't matter, whereas democrats are forced to resign.
28
@Ann
And when Republicans are accused of molesting children, they almost become U.S. Senators.
It is a sad world we live in when voters would rather elect a child molester than a Democrat.
18
@Tom Q
And which side is the so-called mainstream media always on? The democrats are the ones that invented harvesting votes.
There should be no re-election. When someone gets caught cheating, they must be disqualified.
474
@Johnny Reb Excellent point! There should also be jail time.
15
@Johnny Reb
I think that should be - when a team cheats they should be disqualified.
4
@Johnny Reb
To be fair, it needs to be established whether the candidate was involved in any way with the fraud.
A more complicated question is whether his actual campaign staff was involved, perhaps without his knowledge. Is he still responsible and accountable?
2
Republicans ought to take a deep and searching look at the example you have here from North Carolina. And having "investigated" the matter, they will shrug, "leftist hysteria."
They will cite non-existent data and cull facts and figures from the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing information factories to buttress their arguments that voter fraud is an endemic political and social evil in America and, at all costs, must be surgically rooted out before it destroys the nation.
Republicans have a long, extensive history of voter suppression "sky is falling" fright-mongering. Texas proudly rides shotgun with the worst of the states in question, especially because of its large Hispanic-American population and the enduring fear there that they'll vote Democrat. It's Ken Paxson's and Governor Greg Abbot's greatest worry; that white, Anglo-Saxon, "real" Texan-Americans will be deprived of their Constitutionally-guaranteed franchises. These "pure" Americans will become second-class citizens, goes the hue and cry, and all political verisimilitude will be lost. We won't be America anymore. Can there be any other explanation for the president's singling out California?
When Republicans have been caught in demonstrable voter fraud, all the president and his cronies on The Hill and in the various state legislatures and governors' mansions have to counter with is "Strict Voter ID Laws" (all in caps on the presidential Twitter).
Democrats do no harm. Republicans always do worse.
41
Actual "rigged" elections are made by the GOP.
29
And how can we the US CITIZENS help?
3
Republicans don't care how they play the game, just so long as they win. We try to teach our kids that the essence of sportsmanship and competition is that everyone plays by the same rules and the best team or individual wins. That is unless the competition is an election in a Republican dominated state.
Then they stack the rules so the other team can't win. They close polling places in low income areas. They restrict access to the polls to make it harder for people that don't own cars to get to the polls. They impose all manner of I.D. requirements to make it as difficult as possible to vote. Then Mitch McConnell really let the cat out of the bag. A bill is floating around in the House to make voting day a national holiday. He called that a "power grab". That nails it. The Republicans not only want to make it hard to vote, they don't even want the other team to even be able to show up.
Lower income people often have to rely on public transportation. They have to work long and difficult hours. It's hard for them to get to the polls. Mitch doesn't want them to to be able to show up.
So I have to ask the Republicans. If your policies are so wonderful, why then don't you want to get as many people to the poles as possible to enact them? And that is exactly the point of voter suppression.
631
@Bruce Rozenblit
Beautifully stated; thank you.
53
@Bruce Rozenblit
Thanks Bruce. Well said. One day, hopefully, all this voting shenanigans will be behind us. Maybe not in our life time. Here is hoping.
25
@Bruce Rozenblit
You're overlooking one huge problem.
In Britain, where the popular sportsperson's motto was, "It's better to have played and lost than to have never played at all". It is the basis of real sport. Amateur sport.
When I came to the USA I discovered that was not how sports were played here. There were Winners and Losers. Winners got the prizes and the losers went home empty handed. This is what the US has become. Everything is about winning. More games. More Money. More celebrity. More votes. More power. Unfortunately there are not enough people that can become winners. Perhaps 1% are "winners" while the remaining 99% of us are considered losers.
I've noticed that Americans play different sports than Europeans. I've come to the conclusion that Americans had decided the only way to win was to control the rules. Just as they petitioned the EOC to change the Olympic eligibility rules so paid Americans could compete where previously only amateurs could.
Until the USA begins to understand that winning is not universal this culture will continue to undermine the fabric of American life. Until the 99% accept they are 'losers' and being trodden on by the 1% 'winners'.
Growing up in Britain the motto was "If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again". The motto here seems to be, "If at first you don't succeed, cheat". So your politicians and corporations 'play the game'. They cheat the 99%.
That is the point of voter suppression.
136
Spoiler this is written by a Republican....
Collecting absentee ballots by a third party is a system rife for exploitation. It creates a system that easily allows for fraud. Do not rely or trust individuals to be honorable. Odds are, the systemic weakness of allowing third parties to collect absentee ballots will eventually be targeted be unscrupulous operatives of both the left and right wings.
Invalidate this election, then hold a new election. The systemic change should be not allowing any third party to handle absentee ballots as a nationwide law. Otherwise this will be endlessly repeated.
39
@The Flying Doctor It is my understanding that involvement by a third party is already illegal. I believe that is true in Georgia as well. Yet this fiasco WILL be endlessly repeated.
11
@arjayeff, It should be illegal, but I do not believe it is in this case. Certainly in California it is explicitly allowed in the new voter laws. The thought was in California if you allowed easier access by allowing third parties to assist in the absentee or early voter process you would increase voter representation.
Unfortunate, but I think this new system will be exploited by those that care more about winning than the process of democracy.
2
@The Flying Doctor
By my understanding, collecting another person's absentee ballot in NC is illegal. That was what made someone actually describing having done that in a news interview so stunning... they were confessing on live TV to a crime.
A team of people knowingly defrauded the vote - for money - so that the Republican candidate would win. That team was hired by a consulting firm working for Harris, and communicated frequently with Harris.
This was voter fraud, plain-as-day.
9
Indeed, you heard it here first, Republicans are the personification of the word "hypocrite". I'd bet not a single conservative news outlet will spare a second to make mention of Republican election fraud. Just a couple of days ago Fox News railed about Kamala Harris trying on a jacket by request of a CNN correspondent as if it was actually something to mention...much less rail about, but they won't have time for the North Carolina malfeasance.
456
@David
No, I'm sure FOX News will mention it but they will describe the participants as Democrats. Their chyrons at the bottom of the screen are well known for using (D) instead of (R) when something illegal happens. At least for the first few hours.
25
Voter fraud is black and brown folk lining up to cast ballots in states traditionally controlled by conservative white elites. It is deemed fraud because it threatens to undermine the natural order of the universe.
39
This is how democracies die.
37
If Republicans have to choose between power and democracy, they will choose power every time. They have been engaging in a slow-moving coup since the Reagan administration, starting with having Fox News as their party's propaganda wing, then moving toward voter suppression in key electoral states, then through ALEC influencing state houses, then through astroturfing the Tea Party movement. This is simply the last stage, where they stop pretending to care about pluralism and democratic mandates. It is so thoroughly worrying that simply focusing on taking back the White House is not enough; we need to undo the damage that Republicans have done to the judiciary, we need to reign in Fox News by reinstating the Fairness Doctrine and extending it to cable news, we need to take back state houses and governorships, and we need to ensure that Republicans are held electorally (and, in some cases, criminally) liable for the role that they've played in this. We cannot allow them to wash their hands of Trump the same way that they did with George W. Bush.
50
Spot on. There's much more fraud of this sort going on than people voting who aren't allowed to.
16