The Republican "Voter Fraud" Fraud [Op-Ed]

[SpaceMarine93]

And the worse thing is, not enough Americans would discover this article, let alone believe it, to make the nation notice this crime committed by the Republican Party. Even worse, what can be done about it? No one's pressing charges. The Republicans will get away with it, and there's nothing we could do about it.

[Dominus Atheos]

Here's how Vote-By-Mail works in Oregon:

Vote-by-Mail: The Real Winner Is Democracy

While many states were embroiled in fights over touch-screen voting machines and provisional ballots and struggling to find enough people to staff polling places, Oregon once again quietly conducted a presidential election with record turnout and little strife.

Oregon's vote-by-mail system has proved reliable and popular. Critics said that vote-by-mail is prone to fraud. But signature verification of every voter before a ballot is counted is an effective safeguard against fraud.

Curtis Gans of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate contended that vote-by-mail would suppress voter participation. But record numbers of Oregonians registered to vote, and almost 87 percent of them cast ballots.

Critics argued that vote-by-mail eliminates the communal experience of voting on Election Day. But community activities promoting voting were readily available to Oregonians on Election Day and in the days leading up to it. With two weeks to conduct public education and get-out-the-vote efforts, Oregonians were surrounded by civic engagement reminders. Oregonians have also started a new communal experience: voting at home, showing their children the ballot and talking to them about how important it is to vote.

Vote-by-mail is voter-friendly, and high turnout in every vote-by-mail election shows that voters like the convenience. Oregonians receive ballots in the mail two weeks before Election Day, allowing ample time to research issues, review and mark the ballot, and eliminating the need to stand in long lines waiting for a polling booth.

Voters are busy, but voting fits their schedule if they may return their ballot at any time during those two weeks and up until 8 p.m. on Election Day. Voters may mail their ballots or save a stamp by dropping them off in person at any of the official sites located throughout the state. The earlier that ballots come in, the more time election officials have to check for any problems and to process the ballots to ensure that every vote counts. With a large number of ballots received before Election Day, the first tally released on election night contained nearly 50 percent of the vote and proved to be an accurate predictor of the final numbers.

Vote-by-mail provides an automatic paper trail. Every vote-by-mail ballot is read by reliable optical scan machines, and the paper is available should a hand recount become necessary. Mailed ballots are not forwarded by the post office, and the constant updating of voter rolls provided by returned ballots allows Oregon to have accurate and updated voter rolls without the risk of partisan purges.

Without polling places, vote-by-mail eliminates the expensive and time-consuming recruitment and training of poll workers. As a result, the cost of a vote-by-mail election is nearly 30 percent less than the cost of a polling place election.

Centralized supervision and control of ballot processing by elections officials in county elections offices, instead of dispersed polling places, maintains uniformity and strict compliance with law throughout the state.

An impressive percentage of Oregon's registered voters cast ballots in this election. Each of those voters can be confident that the mechanism of democracy in Oregon suits their needs, runs smoothly and fairly, and, most importantly, protects their votes.

The answer to the nation's voting anxiety is not a national standard that imposes new rules on an outdated system of polling places. The answer is a low-tech, low-cost, reliable and convenient system that makes it easier to vote and easier to count votes. The answer is vote-by-mail.

As you can see by the video, there really isn't any chance for voter suppression in our vote-by-mail system.

[The Romulan Republic]

And the worse thing is, not enough Americans would discover this article, let alone believe it, to make the nation notice this crime committed by the Republican Party. Even worse, what can be done about it? No one's pressing charges. The Republicans will get away with it, and there's nothing we could do about it.

If large-scale voter fraud is going on, why is no one pressing charges? Could an ordinary citizen do so? Or would the US government have to press charges?

Edit: unless of course they're just exploiting loopholes and technicalities and not technically doing something illegal.

[SirNitram]

And the worse thing is, not enough Americans would discover this article, let alone believe it, to make the nation notice this crime committed by the Republican Party. Even worse, what can be done about it? No one's pressing charges. The Republicans will get away with it, and there's nothing we could do about it.

If large-scale voter fraud is going on, why is no one pressing charges? Could an ordinary citizen do so? Or would the US government have to press charges?

Edit: unless of course they're just exploiting loopholes and technicalities and not technically doing something illegal.

US Government would have to do it. But the game is rigged to the top: They're immediately called 'partisan politics' and denounced by everyone in the political media. The horserace is more important than anything else in politics, I've found. It's all about whose up on whom and how much shit their slinging.

[Zaune]

If large-scale voter fraud is going on, why is no one pressing charges? Could an ordinary citizen do so? Or would the US government have to press charges?

Edit: unless of course they're just exploiting loopholes and technicalities and not technically doing something illegal.

The trouble with the voter fraud accusation is, the fact that very little voter fraud is being detected doesn't prove it isn't going on. If all one needs to register to vote is a utility bill or similar proof of address then it wouldn't be at all difficult to Photoshop something to pass all but the closest scrutiny, and if the person whose vote you were stealing didn't bother to turn up to register themselves, who would ever know?

[Edi]

If large-scale voter fraud is going on, why is no one pressing charges? Could an ordinary citizen do so? Or would the US government have to press charges?

Edit: unless of course they're just exploiting loopholes and technicalities and not technically doing something illegal.

The trouble with the voter fraud accusation is, the fact that very little voter fraud is being detected doesn't prove it isn't going on. If all one needs to register to vote is a utility bill or similar proof of address then it wouldn't be at all difficult to Photoshop something to pass all but the closest scrutiny, and if the person whose vote you were stealing didn't bother to turn up to register themselves, who would ever know?

Bullshit. The US government has conducted extensive research into the prevalence of voter fraud at the instigation of Republicans and all results have been conclusively zero effective voter fraud. The probability of voter fraud in any single random instance is less than the chance of being randomly struck by lightning.

[Broken]

Bullshit. The US government has conducted extensive research into the prevalence of voter fraud at the instigation of Republicans and all results have been conclusively zero effective voter fraud.

Quite true, I know of no reputable study that has found the kind of massive, ongoing, organized voter fraud that the right-wing insists is constantly undermining the republic. Not that such pesky facts will change the talking points one iota. The issue is simply too juicy for the Republicans and their allies to give up as it ties so neatly into their "Real American" self-delusion and explains how it is possible that despite having all the true Americans on their side they keep not winning in massive landslides every election. Instead they get a nice, shadowy enemy they never have to identify and is impossible to root out, being all secretive and hiding from the public eye, rather then admitting that roughly 50% of their fellow citizens disagree with enough of their platform to not vote for the "Real American" running for office.

[Raw Shark]

You’re a new voter in Idaho and mail in your absentee ballot. Save the stamp and throw it away—because elections officials will: you have to personally appear with your ID. Idaho isn’t alone with that new voter Block-the-Vote trick. Missouri—did you notarize your ballot? In Kentucky, did you sign it twice? In Colorado, did you use the official envelope?

Okay, the Idaho example is fucked up, but using the official envelope in Colorado? The one that comes right to the house with the ballot and says right on it in big letters that it has to be used to be valid? Whoop-dee-shit. Voting by mail has been great for us for all the reasons listed above for Oregon, and the state has drifted to the left, not right, since it was started. The last time I had to vote in person, they sent me to one of those ridiculous megachurches staffed by the exact sort of people who I'd imagine if asked who would both want to suppress my vote the most, and be able to justify it to themselves as a morally correct decision without hesitation. I'll take my chances with the mail-in system, thanks.

[SpaceMarine93]

US Government would have to do it. But the game is rigged to the top: They're immediately called 'partisan politics' and denounced by everyone in the political media. The horserace is more important than anything else in politics, I've found. It's all about whose up on whom and how much shit their slinging.

I can see why this country had effectively gone to Hell in the last decade and why nobody could anything about it.

[Losonti Tokash]

Christ. What the hell are YOU doing about it?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Looks like he's pretending he can't. Thing is there's this little movement called Occupy Wall Street going around. It's really tiny and really underground, so it's no wonder he hasn't heard of it. In fact, it's so obscure I've only been asked about it several times a day at work since the middle of September!