Welcome home, fellow Gator.

The Gator Nation's oldest and most active insider community
Join today!

‘It’s going to be an army’: Tapes reveal GOP plan to contest elections

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by philnotfil, Jun 2, 2022.

  1. slocala

    slocala VIP Member

    2,193
    584
    2,003
    Jan 11, 2009
    See my post #35. Look, these wacky state legislatures wrote garbage laws to make it difficult to vote. Dems need to fight those laws, but when it comes to voting time, it’s important to follow those laws. I think Dems are too focused on what the law should be and not what it says. Follow all the laws. Beat them at the polls. Take their garbage MAGA hat nonsense and laugh at them while they cry. They can’t come up with policy, so that’s why they have to go this direction.
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2022
    • Agree Agree x 2
    • Like Like x 1
    • Winner Winner x 1
  2. l_boy

    l_boy 5500

    11,410
    1,424
    2,868
    Jan 6, 2009
    My limited experience is decades ago my mom worked as a poll worker and for a brief period managed a local elections office. You had people there of varying political affiliations but if you took the job you abosolutely put those aside and the mission was to follow the election laws and regulations and partisanship had nothing to do with it. We had a friend who also worked there and they were very far right, but the elections office was not the place where that manifested itself. I think they all genuinely believed it was an important democratic process and integrity was the only driver.
     
    • Like Like x 3
    • Fistbump/Thanks! Fistbump/Thanks! x 1
  3. PITBOSS

    PITBOSS GC Hall of Fame

    6,618
    532
    548
    Apr 13, 2007
    Not sure you understand the issue. A big difference between the following;

    from your post..
    Dems - “micro-targeted voters and tracked their get out the vote efforts.”

    and from the OP

    “multi-pronged strategy to target and potentially overturn votes inDemocratic precincts”. That is overturn or stop votes in dem precincts.
     
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2022
    • Agree Agree x 3
    • Winner Winner x 1
  4. rtgator

    rtgator Premium Member

    6,430
    649
    458
    Apr 3, 2007
    I agree with much of what you said, but this isn't about compliance. It's about planting disrupters at the polls who will raise all sorts of BS complaints to cast doubt on the election, so higher up MAGA officials can overturn the elections in swing districts and states, like Trump has tried to do nationally.

    There's not a chance in hell they'll do anything constructive. And there's not a chance in hell they'll call out problems in MAGA districts. But, they'll make up BS problems in minority and Dem districts. You can count on it.

    From the article linked in the OP . . . .

    "Penniman also expressed concern about the quick-strike networks of lawyers and DAs being created, suggesting that politically motivated poll workers could simply initiate a legal conflict at the polling place that disrupts voting and then use it as a vehicle for rejecting vote counts from that precinct."
     
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2022
    • Agree Agree x 3
    • Winner Winner x 1
  5. CaptUSMCNole

    CaptUSMCNole Premium Member

    2,562
    127
    343
    May 23, 2007
    NCR
    I was making the point that Republicans typically are doing the same thing that Democrats have done but are behind Democrats. Once Republicans start doing it, it is consider nefarious. Micro-targeting voters is a good example. When Obama did it in '12, it was brilliant. When the RNC invested in it in '16, it was wrong and Facebook became the enemy.

    If they are doing something illegal, which I hope they will not, then I think that will become apparent since Democratic poll watchers will also be present.

    Are you familiar with the name Marc Elias?
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2022
  6. reboundgtr

    reboundgtr VIP Member

    1,276
    348
    1,808
    Oct 14, 2017
    Jawja
    I seriously doubt it’s just a grass roots effort to increase GoP poll watchers in traditional Democratic Party areas and poll workers to help people vote their choice. What a crap show.
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2022
    • Agree Agree x 1
  7. rtgator

    rtgator Premium Member

    6,430
    649
    458
    Apr 3, 2007
    I'm sure you're right. In those days, people still respected our democracy and elections.

    But Trump has changed that. Today's GQP has millions of deluded Trumpers believing his BS election fraud claims. Upcoming elections may be very chaotic, especially at polling places manned by these wackos. So, I will hand deliver my mail-in ballot. No doubt, Trumpers will find a way to screw that up too.
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2022
    • Agree Agree x 1
  8. slocala

    slocala VIP Member

    2,193
    584
    2,003
    Jan 11, 2009
    Ok. If it is a BS problem then the courts will make MAGA Hat look foolish again and again and again? What’s the end game for MAGA Hat??

    These “challenges” are going to happen regardless. I ain’t worried a damn second about them collecting real time documentation of grandma legally voting.

    To be perfectly blunt… the left has to work twice as hard just to get to the damn start line. That’s the way the party roles. These dem precincts needs to work twice as hard to show they are squeaky clean. Let MAGA Hat play their stupid games and win stupid prizes. I’m not worried about convincing Republican voters to not be MAGA fools. That’s on them.
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  9. rtgator

    rtgator Premium Member

    6,430
    649
    458
    Apr 3, 2007
    To disrupt local elections in swing districts and states and sow chaos on election day.

    To give top MAGA officials (AGs, Secretaries of State and Governors) in swing states an excuse to overturn the popular vote and install their own MAGA electors for the Electoral College.

    To install their own authoritarian candidate as President, even if he loses the nationwide popular vote by 10 million.

    That's exactly what Trump tried, but failed, to do in 2020. They've learned from their 2020 failure and are now in the process of setting up to do a better job of stealing the Presidency in 2024.[/QUOTE]
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2022
    • Agree Agree x 4
    • Funny Funny x 1
  10. slocala

    slocala VIP Member

    2,193
    584
    2,003
    Jan 11, 2009
    First, these are talking points that many have espoused. Bill Maher has been on this for a while. This will happen regardless of installing these folks as poll watchers. It’s reality that they want to contest every election and create doubt.

    This is probably the straw that breaks our Country’s back. Much has been said about this idea. If Republicans go this far, we will have blood in the streets. The will of the people circumvented is a bridge too far. As I said, we have to work twice as hard to be squeaky clean.

    Democrats will be in charge of protecting the Capital. Think about how weird it will be to be defending against your own people. Not a good place to be.

    So we are now worried that the Republicans will steal an election when for the last 2 years we have been beating the drum of the most secure election ever? Let’s beat them at the voting booth not the conspiracy theories.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  11. rtgator

    rtgator Premium Member

    6,430
    649
    458
    Apr 3, 2007
    I agree with much of what you said. The past two elections were fair and secure, despite Trump's attempts to taint them.

    Screenshot_20210902-180234_Facebook.jpg

    Screenshot_20210902-180010_Facebook.jpg

    But that hasn't stopped Trump and his cronies from trying to lie, cheat and steal the next one.
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2022
  12. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

    16,119
    2,470
    1,618
    Apr 3, 2007
    Poll workers, i.e, paid employees of the Supervisor of Elections, are nonpartisan and fair. The Supervisor is elected in officially nonpartisan races where everyone knows their partty. The SOE can make some differences with discretionary decisions. The employees are fair.

    In Florida, poll watchers are previously credentialed observers. Each candidate on the ballot can, by law, have one inside and one outside. That never happens but is legally possible.

    What you do is strictly prescribed. You cannot approach a voter. If a voter approaches you, usually because they have called a hotline or been directed to you by the outside worker (you are allowed to wear nonpartisan "Voting Rights Attorney" hats), you can approach a designated supervisor with the voter in a non interfering matter to question and insure the law is being followed. Most times you just confirm what the SOE employee said to make them feel they were not wronged. Sometimes you send them outside to fill out affidavits or just contact info/incident reports, in case the campaign finds something systematic later and wants to mount a legal challenge.

    You can ask the precinct leader for numbers once hourly to report numbers of voters, provisional votes, etc., up the line. Campaigns track this stuff.

    You report problems to a centralized call center in case they want to intervene with SOE officials at HQ to keep a precinct open to let everyone in line at closing to vote.

    Before the consent decree expired, you reported uniformed officers at the precinct. You report partisan harassment outside (very rare).

    You used to pass out water.

    You report in final totals at the end of the night and observe safeguard checks on the machines to make sure totals match the books, etc.

    Sure I'm forgetting something. But that's most of it.
     
  13. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

    16,119
    2,470
    1,618
    Apr 3, 2007
    I haven’t worked a precinct since 2012. But I was always matched with a Republican, and never any problems. In 2004 the guy came in fired up, wouldn’t shake hands, said he knew a lot of crap was going on. By 1:30, he thought it was all a waste of time and sending old ladies away because they came to their precinct where they had voted for decades, only to find out they had been shifted, was grossly unjust. A stand up guy.

    I had pick up trucks with Confederate flags drive back and forth shouting stuff but they left when we said we were going to call law enforcement. A similar group actually caused trouble one year at a Manatee County precinct, but nothing in Hillsborough.

    I had 3 young guys try to harass people in line, trying to interrogate them. They argued a bit when told to stop, said it was BS they couldn’t come in and sit at the table and look over each check in because they hadn’t been credentialed (and because no observer sat at election worker tables). They eventually left.

    But all that was a different Republican Party. Those were in precinct Republican observers who believed in democracy.

    You are always taught that the precinct supervisor can throw you out if they believe you are disruptive or acting in bad faith. The current partisans likely want to thrown out to create a narrative. Saw some of that in 2016 from HQ, people just trying to harass to create narratives of widespread fraud that they were forbidden from gathering direct evidence of, for later propaganda. Might have used it if they hadn’t surprised themselves and won.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
    • Informative Informative x 1
  14. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

    16,119
    2,470
    1,618
    Apr 3, 2007
    One more thing. If you actually work inside the machine, even as a partisan observer, you know that the kinds of “fraud” they describe on Fox is an impossibility. Didn’t need to analyze the evidence two years ago. No way that stuff made sense.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  15. philnotfil

    philnotfil GC Hall of Fame

    16,795
    1,522
    1,718
    Apr 8, 2007
    Trump’s Insurrection Is Building Professionalized Institutions

    The plan is to flood voting sites with Republican volunteers, who largely believe they are witnessing crime scenes. The Republican poll watchers will almost inevitably harass and challenge both voters they suspect of fraud (i.e., ones who have dark skin) and the poll workers processing their votes. These objections can gum up the workers, increase lines, and discourage potential voters. Worse, they can trigger messy disputes, which opens the door for legislatures to override the results and select the winner.

    “Come Election Day, you create massive failure of certification” in Democratic precincts, Nick Penniman, founder and CEO of Issue One, an election-watchdog group, tells Politico. “The real hope is that you can throw the choosing of electors to state legislatures.”

    The risk of such a scenario is enhanced by the responses to Trump’s election lies undertaken by Republicans nationally. Several Republican states have enacted laws claiming to crack down on voter fraud, which extend the categories of potential violations and thus multiply the possibilities for objections. Some states have also created special police forces tasked with enforcing election law, and others are installing Trump loyalists into government positions overseeing elections.

    All these changes interact with each other: more poll watchers monitoring more election crimes and having more sympathetic officials to act on their demands. These conditions create at least the potential for the party to successfully and legally contest and overturn an unfavorable election outcome.
     
    • Informative Informative x 2
  16. duchen

    duchen VIP Member

    12,603
    4,839
    3,208
    Nov 25, 2017
    This is real third world, anti-democratic behavior. We will see more and more if it. Already seeing it in Florida, with districts designed to reduce African American representation being allowed to take effect to “preserve the status quo.” I guess they don’t want to teach critical race theory about systemic and institutionalized racism because they don’t want people to recognize it when they do it. Like preserving illegal boundaries because they are the status quo. Even though they have never been used for voting. And, when they are declared illegal, we have representation from illegally drawn districts in congress. All part of the same systemic attack.
     
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2022
    • Agree Agree x 1
  17. ursidman

    ursidman VIP Member

    12,193
    22,046
    3,348
    Sep 27, 2007
    Bug Tussle NC
    One of Putin’s/Russia’s weapons against the west is to cause democracies to fail by creating distrust and disbelief in election results. Russian cyber-warriors work hard at this.
    He also uses the turmoil accompanying disputed elections to convince his subjects and puppet heads of states of the superiority of Russia and their form of authoritarian government where no recognized transfer of power exists. The Big Lie and all the subsequent smaller ones help in this effort.
    Those of us who value Democracy need to grip it tightly to hang onto it in the face of its enemies both foreign and domestic.
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
    • Fistbump/Thanks! Fistbump/Thanks! x 2
  18. WC53

    WC53 GC Hall of Fame

    3,950
    845
    2,088
    Oct 17, 2015
    Old City
    Great point and all the Facebook analytics point to the issues that they wished to inflame. Unfortunately, the affected don’t believe it.
     
  19. tampagtr

    tampagtr VIP Member

    16,119
    2,470
    1,618
    Apr 3, 2007
    Another attempt to create a false record, quickly corrected

     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  20. sierragator

    sierragator GC Hall of Fame

    13,292
    12,846
    1,653
    Apr 8, 2007
    • Winner Winner x 1
    • Informative Informative x 1