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  1. DrewInWisconsin, Doormat Coolidge
    DrewInWisconsin, Doormat
    @DrewInWisconsin
    11:26 AM PDT ⋅ Aug 17, 2020

    It is not “very safe.” It is how Democrats steal elections.

    https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2020/08/17/insanity-wrap-29-obamas-painful-endorsement-and-introducing-fraud-by-mail-n798095

    The vital thing about in-person voting is that the process increases trust at every step of the way, particularly when photo ID is required.

    Here’s how it used to work at Insanity Wrap’s little precinct before Colorado outlawed in-person voting (because Democrats).

    Poll workers come from both major parties, helping ensure that they’re keeping an eye on each other.

    You show up and present your ID to one of the poll workers, who compares it to their voter roll and against your actual face. (This increases trust in both directions.)

    Only then do you receive a ballot, which you take to a booth to fill out in private.

    If you need help, help is provided to you — in public, where everyone can see.

    You then personally slip your ballot into an electronic counting machine, give a wave to the nice poll workers, and leave.

    This process engenders trust, that each person received just one ballot, and that ballot was properly marked and counted. Poll workers increase trust further, not just by keeping an eye on one another, but by making sure each person receiving a ballot was legally entitled to receive one.

    Insanity Wrap understands that no human system is perfect, and every system is subject to mistakes and abuse. Nevertheless, the steps described here engender the minimum amount of trust required for rational people to have faith in both the process and the result.

    An election without trust is barely worth holding — if that.

    Insanity Wrap finds none of these virtues in mail-in balloting.

    Mail-in ballots get sent out according to a process invisible to the voters.

    Yes, you received a ballot with your name and address on it, but did someone else at your old house or apartment receive one with your name on it, too? If so, what happened to it?

    Who “helps” older or infirm people fill out their ballots in private?

    Were extra ballots printed? If so, what happened to them?

    What happens to your ballot after you drop it, as yet uncounted, into a USPS box?

    Where does the counting take place, and by whom?

    The postal workers union just endorsed Joe Biden — can it be trusted?

    If you don’t know — if you can’t know — the answers to any of these questions, then how much do you trust the process?

    Insanity Wrap believes the move to mail-in voting isn’t so much about stealing elections. Democrats have always proven willing (and oftentimes able) to come up with enough mystery ballots to win a close contest.

    Instead, mail-in voting is about reducing the level of trust the public has for the result of any and every election.

    When trust in free elections is reduced low enough, the people will be ready for something…

    …else.

    • #1
  2. DrewInWisconsin, Doormat Coolidge
    DrewInWisconsin, Doormat
    @DrewInWisconsin
    11:30 AM PDT ⋅ Aug 17, 2020

    ‘Three large tubs’: Reports of missing absentee ballots pile up

    A Republican state senator reported Wednesday that a postal worker had discovered “three large tubs” of undelivered absentee ballots from voters in Oshkosh and Appleton, and the Milwaukee Election Commission said it is asking the U.S. Postal Service to investigate what happened to absentee ballots that never reached voters in that city.

    Wisconsin is discovering problems with absentee ballots, including hundreds that were never delivered

    Attention turned to missing absentee ballots Wednesday as state officials reported three tubs of them were discovered in a mail processing center and the Milwaukee Election Commission called for an investigation into a separate set of undelivered ballots. 

    And Fox Point officials said 100 or more ballots a day were returned to the village as undelivered in the week leading up to the election. 

    The discoveries emerged as would-be voters across the state expressed a host of frustrations about trying to obtain absentee ballots so they could avoid going to the polls during the coronavirus pandemic. Many have said ballots they requested long ago did not arrive by Tuesday, the deadline for getting their ballots postmarked. 

    “I learned today that the (Wisconsin Elections Commission) received a call from a postal service worker informing them 3 large tubs of absentee ballots from Oshkosh and Appleton, were just located,” Republican Sen. Dan Feyen of Fond du Lac said on Twitter. 

    Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the Elections Commission, said she had been talking to the U.S. Postal Service about the situation but so far has not determined whether the ballots had been on their way to voters or already filled out and on their way back to clerks.  

    “We don’t have answers on that at this point,” Wolfe said during an online media briefing.

    Representatives for the Postal Service did not immediately respond Wednesday to questions about undelivered absentee ballots. 

    • #2
  3. DrewInWisconsin, Doormat Coolidge
    DrewInWisconsin, Doormat
    @DrewInWisconsin
    11:44 AM PDT ⋅ Aug 17, 2020

    Why do you think we’d be fooled into thinking you’re on our side when you supportively retweet Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and Alexandra Occasional-Cortex, Amy Klobuchar? Not to mention Steve Schmidt, racists Rick Wilson and Joe Walsh, and the Lincoln Project.

    Why are you presenting yourself as a Republican? How dumb do you think we are?

     

    • #3
  4. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad
    2:37 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 17, 2020

    I looked at the title of this post and thought, “With all the evidence over the years, how can any person believe mail-in voting is safe?”

    I think back to the package of Christmas presents we got from my Aunt and Uncle – not what they sent us, but a mishmash of junk to weigh the package down.  Then there was the time our renewed credit cars were stolen the very day they showed up in our mailbox.  Inside job?  Had to be someone notifying an outsider the cards were there (you can feel them through the envelopes, even if there is nothing on the outside saying they are cards.

    Then there are the torn covers of some magazines, like National Review, America’s First Freedom (NRA), or the Weekly Standard (when it used be to good).  Couple that with disappearing issues (same mags) and I think at least our local post office has a serious liberal worker problem.  Throw in the Postal Worker Union endorsement for Sleepy Joe and you have a recipe for electoral disaster.

    I welcome different viewpoints, but the title of this post could have been “Bigfoot and aliens plan on stealing the 2020 election for Joe.”

    • #4
  5. JoyceCordi Coolidge
    JoyceCordi
    @JoyceCordi
    6:15 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 20, 2020

    DrewInWisconsin, Doormat (View Comment):

    Dear Drew in Wisconsin —

    1)Yep, ballots in Wisconsin primary did not get delivered by UPSP.  Under current management that is a feature not a flaw!   It happened early in pandemic, people stood in line for hours in horrible weather as a result — so they could vote.  Again, not a flaw but a feature. 

    2) Different states have different practices — some (like my home state California) allow “permanent absentee voting” — and, also, requested absentee voting.  This year, every REGISTERED VOTER will be mailed a ballot because we are trying to control the COVID19 Pandemic.  

    Some states will mail ballots to all REGISTERED VOTERS, some will still require absentee applications.

    All states will, also, have early voting, election day voting and various means of returning your ballot prior to Election Day.

    What is WRONG WITH YOUR THESIS is that you act as though ballots are just printed in bulk and mailed like Christmas packages.

    Every REGISTERED VOTER gets a ballot in the mail that has a barcode assigned to it and only it.  That barcode is associated with the voter who is receiving the ballot.

    As to ID.  In the old days — all I needed to vote in person was to take my sample ballot with me to the polls.

    I had to sign the register just as I have to sign the ballot before mailing or dropping in the locked, chained box at the local Library.

    The difference is that  if I mail my ballot, the signature on the ballot envelope is compared to the signature on my voter REGISTRATION.  If I vote at the polls, that extra check is not done.

    In the midst of pandemic — please allow your reason to take precedence over partisan rhetoric — protect both your health and your vote.  VOTE BY MAIL but vote early and follow your state’s instructions to insure your ballot is delivered and counted.

     

    • #5
  6. JoyceCordi Coolidge
    JoyceCordi
    @JoyceCordi
    6:29 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 20, 2020

    Dear Drew —

    My Republican credentials are rock solid.

    I have walked precincts — even for Goldwater, years before I could vote!

    I’ve worked in every GOP Presidential contest through Romney in 2012!

    I’ve been a GOP candidate for Congress

    A Central Committee Member

    A significant donor.

    Donald Trump is a Trumpist — not a Republican.  He does not believe in limited government, balanced budgets, a strong national defense, the USA as the guarantor of a Rules-Based Global Order — the principles of the Republican Party.

    I first met Steve Schmidt during the Schwazenegger campaign for California governor.  I admire his skills and his patriotism.

    Rick Wilson is the man for his hour.  His GOP credentials are legendary —

    Yes:  I am a part of the Lincoln Project.   We must burn the Trump Cult down, in order to rebuild the Republican Party on principle not idol worship — especially when the idol is like the Wizard of OZ — a con!

    But thanks for following me on Twitter!

    • #6
  7. DrewInWisconsin, Doormat Coolidge
    DrewInWisconsin, Doormat
    @DrewInWisconsin
    7:00 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 20, 2020

    Thanks for responding. A lot of podcasters don’t. I’m afraid that your association with the Lincoln Project marks you as a grifter. You can complain about the President, yet the man you praise, Rick Wilson, is not only a racist with a foul mouth, but writes pornography about the President’s daughter on Twitter.

    I could post some of his more vile Tweets here, but the redacto-bot on Ricochet would render them invisible. They are that foul.

    So I don’t believe a word you say. You are pretending to be a Republican just for money. You and your fellow fakers must be opposed. I look forward to seeing your left-wing donors pulling their funding when they are done using you to divide the Republican party

    • #7
  8. DrewInWisconsin, Doormat Coolidge
    DrewInWisconsin, Doormat
    @DrewInWisconsin
    7:30 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 20, 2020

    JoyceCordi (View Comment):
    Rick Wilson is the man for his hour. His GOP credentials are legendary —

    What is it that you like about him? Is it that he uses the word “f*ck” in every other Tweet? Was it those times he suggested that the President has sex with his own daughter? Is it the confederate flag on his beer cooler, or “the South Shall Rise Again” scrawled on the side?

    • #8
  9. DrewInWisconsin, Doormat Coolidge
    DrewInWisconsin, Doormat
    @DrewInWisconsin
    7:42 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 20, 2020

    JoyceCordi (View Comment): I first met Steve Schmidt during the Schwazenegger campaign for California governor. I admire his skills and his patriotism.

    Here’s a vile Tweet from your pal:

    Wait, I thought the Lincoln Project was focused on Trump?! Turns out they want to throw out all Republicans! And you still think we believe you when you call yourself a Republican?

    The Lincoln Project sinks to a remarkable new low.

    As someone whose parents defected from the Soviet bloc, I find this kind of slander especially indefensible because it belittles the horrors of tyranny for cheap political points, and because it’s impossible to defend against. It would be tantamount to Rubio saying, “Steve Schmidt is the type of guy who would have been leading the mob in Kristallnacht because it might mean a few extra Reichsmarks in his pocket.”

    Then again, we’re used this kind thing from The Lincoln Project, whose mission, it seems, is to outdo the worst tendencies of Donald Trump at every turn. But what excuse is there for a CNN “analyst” to concoct a counter-history in which Rubio, who has such a long record of speaking out about Chinese Communists that he has been personally sanctioned by Beijing, is a vicious Castro-regime apparatchik?

    • #9
  10. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale
    12:14 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 21, 2020

    JoyceCordi (View Comment):
    The difference is that if I mail my ballot, the signature on the ballot envelope is compared to the signature on my voter REGISTRATION. If I vote at the polls, that extra check is not done.

    Assuming that’s true, my voter registration  is about 30  years old.  I doubt my signature from then matches my signature now.  So presumably they’ll discard my ballot.  Will they tell me?

     

    But I really don’t believe they’re actually one-by-one as they process a few million absentee ballots comparing the signatures with the voter registration card.  Let’s be honest – the signature books when you vote in person are really only used in the event of an after-the-fact complaint.

    • #10
  11. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles
    12:21 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 21, 2020

    Keeping in mind that the Postal Workers Union has endorsed Biden (but even if they hadn’t):

     

     

    • #11
  12. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles
    12:26 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 21, 2020

    JoyceCordi (View Comment):

    …  Donald Trump is a Trumpist — not a Republican. He does not believe in limited government, balanced budgets, a strong national defense, the USA as the guarantor of a Rules-Based Global Order — the principles of the Republican Party.

    I first met Steve Schmidt during the Schwazenegger campaign for California governor. I admire his skills and his patriotism.

    Rick Wilson is the man for his hour. His GOP credentials are legendary —

    Yes: I am a part of the Lincoln Project. We must burn the Trump Cult down, in order to rebuild the Republican Party on principle not idol worship — especially when the idol is like the Wizard of OZ — a con!

    But thanks for following me on Twitter!

    Ms Cordi,

    I hope you understand that if the Democrats take back the White House, the Republic is lost. That is not an exaggeration.  Trump wasn’t my guy either, not in the primaries. But I’m behind him now, and even if you don’t love what he’s been able to achieve as I do, you can’t possibly think the alternative is better. Because it isn’t. 

    • #12
  13. DrewInWisconsin, Doormat Coolidge
    DrewInWisconsin, Doormat
    @DrewInWisconsin
    12:41 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 21, 2020

    RightAngles (View Comment):

    Ms Cordi,

    I hope you understand that if the Democrats take back the White House, the Republic is lost. That is not an exaggeration. Trump wasn’t my guy either, not in the primaries. But I’m behind him now, and even if you don’t love what he’s been able to achieve as I do, you can’t possibly think the alternative is better. Because it isn’t.

    You assume she’s honestly a Republican. She’s no more a Republican than Steve Schmidt — who left the Republican Party a couple years ago because nobody on the right would hire him — because not only did he fail to do his job, he trashed his former employers on the way out the door. Political consultants are trash mercenaries who will work for anybody waving enough cash at them. They are loyal to nobody and nothing except their own bank accounts. “Drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park . . .”

    I mean, praising The Lincoln Project? Rick Wilson and Steve Schmidt? If you’re doing that you’re not even trying to hide the fact that you have no principles.

    Why does Ricochet let grifters use their platform? If they’ll run this podcast, why not Pod Save America? Or The Young Turks? Those podcasts are just as destructive, but at least they’re honest about where they’re coming from.

    • #13
  14. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman
    11:42 PM PDT ⋅ Aug 21, 2020

    JoyceCordi (View Comment):

    My Republican credentials are rock solid.
    I have walked precincts — even for Goldwater, years before I could vote!
    I’ve worked in every GOP Presidential contest through Romney in 2012!
    I’ve been a GOP candidate for Congress
    A Central Committee Member
    A significant donor.

    Credentials, shmedentials.  You are currently actively campaigning for the Democrat party.

    We must burn the Trump Cult down, in order to rebuild the Republican Party on principle not idol worship — especially when the idol is like the Wizard of OZ — a con!

    Violent revolution.  ‘Got it.

     

    • #14
  15. DrewInWisconsin, Doormat Coolidge
    DrewInWisconsin, Doormat
    @DrewInWisconsin
    7:53 AM PDT ⋅ Aug 22, 2020

    Even other NeverTrumpers say the Lincoln Project is a financial scam and a Democrat front group. (The fact that they’ve moved from just attacking President Trump to now attacking the Republican Party as a whole is a good sign.)

    The evidence is quite strong.

    Financial Controversies

    Critics have accused the Lincoln Project of numerous controversial financial practices, including purposefully obscuring its expenditures, spending relatively little of its funds on its stated goals, and of funneling money towards organizations owned by its founders.

    As of July 23, 2020, the Lincoln Project has paid Tusk Digital, a digital marketing company founded and run by co-founder Ron Steslow, $1,140,313 across 22 payments. During the same timeframe, the organization paid Summit Strategic Communications, run by co-founder Reed Galen, $1,134,523 across 32 payments. As of July 23, 2020, the Lincoln Project has steered about 25% of its total spending toward these two groups.

    Ordinarily, PACs pay vendors directly and all transactions are publicly recorded in accordance with FEC regulations. But with Tusk Digital and Summit Strategic Communications handling much of the Lincoln Project’s expenditure, there are no public disclosures of the final recipients of funds.

    Open Secrets has also expressed concerns about the unusually high production costs of the Lincoln Project’s advertisements. They found that of the $364,000 spent by Tusk and Summit on political ads opposing Trump and other Republicans, only half was spent on the buying and placing the advertisements, while the other half was spent on ad production. For one ad targeting Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ), only 25% of the Lincoln project’s $19,000 expenditure went to ad placement.

    Democratic Party Connections

    Despite ostensibly representing conservatives and classical liberals disaffected with the Trump-era leadership of the Republican Party, the Lincoln Project has numerous connections to Democratic operatives.

    The Lincoln Project has engaged in “fundraising consulting services” from the Katz Watson Group, which was founded by Franz Katz Watson, the former national financial director of the Democratic National Committee. The Katz Watson Group has also provided services to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the U.S. Senate campaign of former U.S. Rep. Beto O’ Rourke (D-TX). The Lincoln Project has also paid Elrod Strategies, a firm run by Adrienne Elrod, the former director of strategic communications for Hillary for America. Zachary Czajkowski, who has worked for President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other Democratic politicians, has also been paid as a consultant by the Lincoln Project.

    Likewise, the Lincoln Project’s communication director is Keith Edwards, who has worked exclusively for Democrats over the last few years. In 2018, Edwards was the campaign manager for Democratic New York Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell (D-Manhattan), and then worked as special assistant to City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan). In 2019, Edwards was a press lead for Michael Bloomberg’s Democratic presidential campaign.

    • #15