You may have heard that Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R-TX) – the guy who formally transformed the Republican Party from the Party of Life to the Party of Death – offered a million dollar reward for evidence of voter fraud. Fair enough.
But the interesting part is how the offer is really just a way to keep the Republican base stirred up – and with little connection with those old-fashioned concepts of facts & honesty. It’s a lot like looking at one of those toxic emails that I take apart from time to time. Here’s the interesting part, via CBS DFW:
“The Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for creating suspicion of final vote totals. Not allowing Republican poll watchers to observe the vote count in multiple states, in some cases blocking their view with poster board, last minute changes in election laws in battleground states, ignoring the deadline to vote and accepting ballots for days after the election, ignoring postmarks and signature checks, not verifying that mail-in ballots were being sent to people who were alive or living in the state and voting machines that have been a concern for over a decade all raise serious questions.
This paragraph is just packed with juicy Satanic tidbits. Let’s see:
- Poll Watchers denied: False.
- Blocking poll watchers with poster board: False.
- Last minute changes in election law: Properly legislated and signed by the governor? Within the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State? If so … Utterly irrelevant.
- Voting deadlines ignored. This remark, as it lacks particulars, can be labeled False unless someone provides more information.
- Signature checks: I had not heard these were ignored, but, if so, good! It’s widely agreed that signature authentication is foolish and should be outlawed. It’s a rare person whose signature does not change over time. Utterly irrelevant.
- Ignoring postmarks? Again, I’ve not heard of this. Every state that I’ve seen analyzed requires a postmark by Election Day. My guess is that this is false.
- Not verifying that mail-in ballots were being sent to people who were alive. Where did this happen, and does it matter? Validation of a voter’s right to vote typically takes place at collection and tabulation, not in sending mail-in ballots. Too, where mail-in ballots must be requested, validations take place at that time as well. Irrelevant concern.
- Not verifying living in the state. As has been noted by many commentators, this would deprive certain classes of voters of their rights: military personnel on deployment, college students, and, I should imagine, several other categories of voters. Irrelevant concern.
- Voting machines concerns. Only in this last point do I and the Lt. Governor share concerns. In fact, Lt. Governor, in view of the variance between poll results and election results in Texas, perhaps you should push for a full audit and manual recount of all national office contests – in Texas. If you insist that voting machines are a necessity, then push for an exception to trade secret laws in connection with voting machines. You are right, there are many concerns when it comes to voting machines – and Republicans should lead the way in getting rid of them, as I’ve said many times, or making them trustworthy.
“This lack of transparency has led many to believe that the final count is not accurate in states where the winner was determined be a very small percentage of the vote.
There is plenty of transparency. One can volunteer to be an election worker or a poll watcher, and we all know that. Those poll watchers, provided by the two major parties, assure there’s no shenanigans at the lowest levels. And in those States, such as Georgia, where the margin of victory is very small, recounts will occur, either automatically by law, or at the request of the losing candidate.
The only lack of transparency here is your real goal in this offer, Lt. Governor.
“In Texas we know voter fraud is real. In just the last 60 days, we have had three major arrests on voter fraud including a social worker who was arrested last week for allegedly registering almost 70 developmentally disabled adults to vote without their signature or consent.
It may be illegal to sign them up, but for all we know that was to harvest more Republican votes. In fact, I have to wonder if this crime actually qualifies as voter fraud, and instead may be identity theft.
“In Texas, we also know that it is possible to provide the results of mail-in ballots on Election Day. We counted 970,000 mail-in ballots last Tuesday – a 55% increase over 2018 – and added those results to the in-person voting total before midnight on Election Day. The delays in counting mail-in ballots in other states raises more questions about voter fraud and potential mistakes.
No, it doesn’t. It raises questions about the legislatures of the States involved. For instance, in Pennsylvania the processing, i.e., just opening the envelopes, of mail-in ballots does not begin until Election Day – a decision made by the Republican-dominated legislature. Minnesota? Counted as soon as possible. Same for Texas.
“When all legal votes are tallied and all illegal votes are discarded, then America can have a greater level of confidence in the election process.
Let’s go a little further with this, Lt. Governor. How about when everyone who is qualified to vote and wants to vote is not discouraged or restrained from voting? Isn’t that the higher standard to which you should aspire?
“President Trump is absolutely right to pursue every allegation of voter fraud and irregularities, just as Al Gore did in 2000. Every candidate for public office has this right. My goal is to ensure that, regardless of the outcome, every American has faith in our electoral process and our democracy.”
Then, Lt. Governor, please do not scamper about spreading lies.
In the end, this guy isn’t being honest in that last paragraph. He has managed to mix a motivating force of conservatives, love of money, with the aggrievement culture that has been a resounding drum in the conservative movement for decades. Suggestions that Democrats are stealing elections has, as a primary goal, to keep the base stirred up and donating money to Donald Trump and the rest of the grifters running the Republican Party, but also to accomplish a more important goal:
To drag the Democrats down to the Republican Party’s level.
The Republican Party is filled with incompetent third-raters. Anyone who’s willing to observe the preventable disaster called Covid-19, who has watched Republican governors try to ignore the problem, finesse it, depend on personal responsibility, and fall apart, is well aware that, with a few exceptions such as DeWine and Hogan and one other whose name escapes me, the Republican governors have assumed their states would be spared – for no good reason – and then have flailed when that proved false.
They’re incompetent.
And because of that, their dominance of the national scene is threatened.
What do you do when you’re saddled with incompetent folks who get elected only because of a marvelous Marketing department, but voters are figuring it out? You make your opponents look as bad as yourselves.
That’s why their opposition to the ACA – it’s not that it’s bad, it’s that it’s Democratic.
And that’s the crap Lt. Governor Patrick is frantically trying to sell.
