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Was there vote fraud in the 2012 elections?

11/16/2012

1 Comment

 
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Just because the election is over doesn’t mean politics has ended. That’s like saying the passing of a storm signals the end to all weather.

So it’s not surprising to hear people point to irregularities in the general election in an effort to boost their arguments for voter I.D. laws. Some of the claims are ridiculous, but some really do point out bizarre results that require a bit of head-scratching.

Let’s start with the ridiculous. Maine’s Republican Party chairman, Charlie Webster, basically accused Democrats of busing in African-Americans to vote for Obama in rural areas. At least, he acted perplexed that people actually saw humans with black skin casting votes.

“In some parts of Maine, there were dozens of black people who came in and voted on Election Day,” he said. “Everybody has a right to vote, but nobody in town knows anyone who’s black.”

Well, a small percentage of Maine is, in fact, black, and Webster later apologized for his remarks.

But that one never passed the smell test. If you were going to rig a presidential election, you would look for a more effective way than to send only dozens of conspicuous people into rural Maine to somehow cast ballots they weren’t registered to obtain.

Now on to the head-scratchers:

In 59 Philadelphia voting districts, Mitt Romney received zero votes, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The same happened in nine inner-city Cleveland districts, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Really?

It’s easy to believe President Obama would win those districts by an overwhelming majority, but totally and completely unanimous? Even in his rigged elections, Saddam Hussein never got 100 percent.

And Mitt Romney, it’s worth noting, only got 78 percent of the Mormon vote.

But, frankly, a rigged result like that would be too obvious, which argues against fraud.

Finally, Florida once again proved that, if it were an independent nation, it would make Haiti’s elections look good.

In St. Lucie County, 247,383 votes were counted. The only problem with that is that the number of registered voters there is 175,554.

This blogger called it a massive fraud. Officials, however, explained that the ballot was so long some voters submitted two voting cards. The actual turnout was said to be about 70 percent, which some conservatives think is still suspicious.

So what’s going on?

Look, no election, especially one involving more than 100 million voters, can be held without some strange problems. I’ve spoke with election clerks that tell of all kinds of odd things, mostly involving equipment problems and mostly in races where the outcome was not otherwise in doubt, so the problems didn’t come to light. I doubt any presidential election in U.S. history has been without these oddities, and there certainly have been instances of real fraud.

However, none of the above instances was of a scope large enough to change the outcome of the election. I’m also not sure they would have been changed by the requirement of a photo I.D.

That doesn’t mean states shouldn’t require I.D., as long as it makes them readily available to those voters who otherwise don’t have one. Any step toward making elections more secure is a good one.

Politics, after all, is a conduit to power, and power can tempt people to do some strange and desperate things.
1 Comment
Wayne Kleinman
12/7/2012 06:39:13 am

When in ten Colorado counties, the number of ballots was 104% to 140% of the legal voting age population in that particular county, there is not much doubt that the vote reported was false. I also read your article concerning the reshaping of public schools. It is remarkable and sad that no one ever mentions getting rid of the actual cause of the problem, breaking the law, ie crime, including usurpation, by the government. The secret combinations met back in 1908, not for any benevolent cause, but to decide whether there were any better way of taking over a nation or people, than war. Their decision was, "No!" and they soon had us in war. They met again in 1914 to decide how best to prevent this people from returning to the beliefs and values which they had prior to 1914. Their decision was, "they had to completely take over the educational system of the United States, which they proceeded to do, largely through their manipulation of fellowships, etc. Nowhere in the law, the Constitution, does it say that government has any authority to meddle in education or any other business, medical, financial, etc. I remember well a principal telling me, years ago, that the enjoyable years of teaching were over. Today, we get pitiful governmental absurdities, lies and breaking the law in all areas of education, etc., such as government textbooks which preach, for example, that "the holocaust never happened, but was simply a pandemic which began in the Middle East and spread to Israel, which is why a few Jews died." Ask those who were there! When the teacher was confronted, her comment was, "Oh, you must be mistaken. It does not say that." When the principal was confronted, she said exactly the same thing. When the mother requested to see her son's textbook again, she was told that the pupils were no longer allowed to bring any school books home, so the parents can not see what their children are being taught. It is the same as our government trying to tell us that "communism died," or our government preaching "democracy" for decades, now, when they know that a democracy has been known, for milenia, as the most dangerous, unstable form of government, always lasting only a short time and always chosen as the best way to take over a country or people. The Roman Empire is a good example, formed in the beginning as a republic, based upon law, rather than on the whims of people or oligarchy, but allowed to be subverted into a democracy, then an empire, which immediately began to tax everything they could think of, even the legal load allowable on a donkey in a day. The people began to want in on the spoils, until a third of the entire Roman Empire was working for the government, and it soon merely imploded upon itself. We are past the 30%, with over 41,000 in Colorado alone working for the government. Ominous!
What is wrong with going back to work in school, studying, rather than playing, studying the important things, learning, having to compete? In Indonesia, in my highest English class, the students were mostly young professionals, executives, etc., and constantly complaining that "when we graduate from the universary, we cannot compete with other countries." A prime cause is that they do not read. They can, but do not, just as now in America. We have been brought to the same situation, a third world nation which cannot compete. Socialism has never worked, never will, since it is not a form of government but a means of corrupting and destroying a people, in order to eliminate all opposition to their slavery.
Wayne Kleinman

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    Jay Evensen is the Opinion Editor of the Deseret News. He has more than 40 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities.

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