2020 Election Thread

Political discussion here. Any reasonable opinion is welcome, but due to the sensitive nature of the topic area, please be nice and respectful to others. No flaming or trolling, please. And please keep political commentary out of the other board areas and confine it to this area. Thanks!
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3rdside
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by 3rdside »

The upside is this stuff is happening early in the Biden presidency and surely won't go unnoticed by it.

But if the GOP gets the senate in 22 is it sayonara USA? Or will the non-certification of the next president by the GOP senate (assuming it's a democratic president elect) go to the Supreme Court for a confirmatory decision?

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3rdside
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

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Trump vs the USA is a crazy situation all the same - he's either going to the grave as king or a very bitter revenge-driven individual .. so sad that it's come to this.

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Superbone
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Superbone »

Trump has been a loser all his life. It will continue.
"Be Legendary."

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Indy
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Indy »

3rdside wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:00 pm
Trump vs the USA is a crazy situation all the same - he's either going to the grave as king or a very bitter revenge-driven individual .. so sad that it's come to this.
There was already talk of "can he run for president from prison" so I am not sure there is much chance of coming back from this.

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Indy
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Indy »

Superbone wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:47 pm
Trump has been a loser all his life. It will continue.
He actually wins quite a bit. He just does it by fucking over everyone around him, and the country.

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3rdside
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by 3rdside »

Indy wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:48 pm
3rdside wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:00 pm
Trump vs the USA is a crazy situation all the same - he's either going to the grave as king or a very bitter revenge-driven individual .. so sad that it's come to this.
There was already talk of "can he run for president from prison" so I am not sure there is much chance of coming back from this.
Haha .. I still have faith as it's a battle of the enlightened vs unenlightened and I really don't think unenlightened wins.

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Indy
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Indy »

3rdside wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 4:09 pm
Indy wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:48 pm
3rdside wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:00 pm
Trump vs the USA is a crazy situation all the same - he's either going to the grave as king or a very bitter revenge-driven individual .. so sad that it's come to this.
There was already talk of "can he run for president from prison" so I am not sure there is much chance of coming back from this.
Haha .. I still have faith as it's a battle of the enlightened vs unenlightened and I really don't think unenlightened wins.
Among registered GOP members in the US, more trust Putin than Biden. I forget if that was a Gallup poll or another polling place...

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3rdside
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by 3rdside »

The brainwashing is strong … I wonder if In2 is one of those.

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Superbone
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Superbone »

Indy wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:48 pm
Superbone wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:47 pm
Trump has been a loser all his life. It will continue.
He actually wins quite a bit. He just does it by fucking over everyone around him, and the country.
I was thinking of the 2016 presidency where he had less votes than Hillary Clinton. But yeah, he’s been screwing over people for years. He just figured out how to do it on a large scale, our entire country.
"Be Legendary."

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3rdside
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

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Mori Chu
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Mori Chu »

The AZ election "audit" is a bunch of GOP bullshit. Read this article as a start:


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Mori Chu
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Mori Chu »

From the above article, which I will note is written by a Republican county recorder for Maricopa County. Seriously, read this.
Cyber Ninjas play by an alarmingly different set of election audit rules
Opinion: Compare the rules we in Maricopa County follow on election audits to those the Cyber Ninjas are using. Everyone should be highly skeptical of their findings.

Stephen Richer
opinion contributor

In the months since Arizona Senate President Karen Fann launched her audit of the 2020 election, it has become clear there are different rules for different auditors.

There are rules that Maricopa County election administrators must follow, and there are far less demanding rules for the Cyber Ninjas conducting Fann’s audit. Here are examples:

How ballot counters are selected

Maricopa County: After every election, Maricopa County is required by law to oversee a hand-count audit of a statistically significant number of votes. For the November 2020 election, the hand-count of 47,000 votes matched the machine count 100% – the machines clearly worked. The volunteers who do the hand count are selected by the political parties, not the county. The volunteers work in groups of three, and all of the groups are required by law to be bipartisan.

Cyber Ninjas: The Cyber Ninjas have recruited their hand-counters almost exclusively from the Republican Party. The Cyber Ninjas counting teams are not bipartisan.

How candidates participate

Maricopa County: Throughout the election, candidates are prohibited from entering the tabulation room. Candidates cannot participate in the county’s hand-count.

Cyber Ninjas: The Cyber Ninjas counting teams included one former Republican state legislator who ran on the very ballots being audited. The Ninjas staff also includes members of President Trump’s campaign team, and tours of the auditing area are regularly given to Republican elected officials.

How races are examined

Maricopa County: For the county’s hand-count audit, the examined races selected are chosen randomly.

Cyber Ninjas: The Cyber Ninjas are only counting two races: the presidential and the U.S. Senate – both races in which the Democratic challenger beat the Republican incumbent.


What qualifies auditors to participate

Maricopa County: All county election officers must attend a two-week educational program and pass a written test. Many county managers also obtain CERA (Certified Elections Registration Administrator) certification by completing months of additional professional education with the Elections Center’s National Association of Election Officials. Several of the county’s employees have more than 20 years of election experience.

Cyber Ninjas: Prior to Fann’s audit, the Cyber Ninjas had never before conducted any type of election audit. The Ninjas’ only subcontractor with any election audit experience – a group called Wake TSI – quit midway through Fann’s audit, and had only conducted one previous audit of 1,000 ballots.

What drives the audit's methodology

Maricopa County: For its hand count and other operations, Maricopa County uses methodologies derived from state law and designed by experienced, qualified, educated experts who are widely recognized by the elections community.

Cyber Ninjas: Fann’s audit has relied on the ideas of Jovan Pulitzer. Pulitzer is a failed inventor who has changed his legal name multiple times and has spent years of his life searching for the Ark of the Covenant and for a magical sword in Nova Scotia. His marquee invention – the CueCat – was deemed by Time Magazine as one of “The 50 Worst Inventions” in the world. Nonetheless, because of Pulitzer’s theories, Fann’s audit has spent weeks looking for mysterious folds and bamboo fibers in ballots to see if the ballots fraudulently came from China (the county’s ballots are printed in Arizona and never leave the state).

How the audit is funded

Maricopa County: The state Legislature recently passed a law that bans all private funding of elections. Previously, any private funds received by the county were publicly announced, subject to public comment, voted on by the county’s supervisors, and the dollar amounts were publicly disclosed. Private funding made up approximately 8% of the county’s 2020 elections budget. County officials must disclose any direct funds received and are subject to bribery laws.

Cyber Ninjas: Fann’s audit will likely cost more than $2 million, but the total amount has not been disclosed. Of that sum, $150,000 comes from the state Senate. The rest is being raised from private donors. Most of the donors are anonymous, but the donor list is known to include Lin Wood and Sydney Powell, two conspiracy theorists who previously served as legal counsel for President Trump’s election efforts.

How much access the media is given

Maricopa County: During the election, Maricopa County gives the same open access to all credentialed members of the media. The county complies with all lawful public records requests.

Cyber Ninjas: The Cyber Ninjas have given the pro-Trump outfit One America News Network (OAN) special, exclusive access throughout the entirety of Fann’s audit, while other members of the media have been relegated to the distant bleachers at the coliseum. The Cyber Ninjas have stated that they do not have to comply with public records requests.

How results are disclosed

Maricopa County: In a statewide election, Arizona law prohibits the release of results prior to 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Cyber Ninjas: Prior to completing their work in Arizona, several of the key players of Fann’s audit, including Logan, appeared in a conspiracy theory movie titled “Deep Rig,” which supposedly confirms that the 2020 election had been stolen – the very thing Fann’s audit is supposed to be still investigating. The film’s director previously made a movie about extraterrestrial involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks.

How quickly results must be tabulated

Maricopa County: In a general election, Maricopa County must be done with the tabulation of all ballots and the hand-count audit within 20 days of Election Day, per state law.

Cyber Ninjas: The county had all ballots and tabulation equipment loaded and ready for delivery to Senator Fann on March 2. The Cyber Ninjas originally announced that they would be done with the ballots on May 14. Then they moved their deadline to June 30. The work is still ongoing.

Bottom line: Be extremely skeptical

The rules for Maricopa County are meant to ensure expert, nonpartisan administration of the county’s election. They are good rules. They promote confidence in the process.

The Cyber Ninjas are unchecked by sensible rules that promote accuracy and fairness. This is extremely troubling. Whatever the Ninjas ultimately produce should be greeted with extreme skepticism.

Republican Stephen Richer unseated the incumbent Democrat in the November 2020 election for Maricopa County recorder. Reach him at sricher@risc.maricopa.gov.

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Nodack
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Nodack »

Arizona GOP Audit Director Barred From Recount After Sharing Data Supporting Trump Loss
https://www.newsweek.com/arizona-gop-au ... ss-1612791

The Republican overseeing the controversial GOP-backed election audit in Arizona has reportedly been banned from entering the building where the recount process is ongoing, after he shared some data with experts that showed the results match the officially certified numbers in Maricopa County.

The Arizona Republic reported on Friday evening that Ken Bennett, Arizona's former Secretary of State who has been described as the audit's "director," was barred from entering the building on the state fairgrounds where the audit is moving forward. The newspaper reported that Bennett had shared some of the audit data with outside experts showing that the ballot recount was tracking "very closely" with Maricopa County's certified results.

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Nodack
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

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Arizona elections officials launch bipartisan assault on GOP audit
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... -gop-audit
Two of Arizona’s top election administrators have issued scathing indictments of a contractor who audited millions of ballots cast in the state’s largest county.

The two officials are seeking to undercut a final report from Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired by Arizona’s Republican-controlled state Senate, that they say will be marred by deep flaws. Cyber Ninjas is expected to deliver its initial report Monday on the nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County in last year's presidential election.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) in separate reports castigated the inspection itself as deeply flawed — so much so that Hobbs argued it did not even merit the term “audit.”

Richer, the Maricopa County recorder who beat an incumbent Democrat in the same election the state Senate is disputing, framed his objections as an open letter to fellow Republicans.

“Nobody stole Maricopa County’s elections. Elections in Maricopa County aren’t rigged,” Richer wrote, citing statements from Gov. Doug Ducey (R), Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R), former Attorney General William Barr and several attorneys representing former President Trump.

“I believe in the court system. I believe in facts and logic. I believe that Maricopa County has many safeguards against widespread fraud. I believe in the simple, straight-forward, data-backed explanation that Trump lost many Republican voters in affluent areas,” Richer wrote. “Accordingly, I know Joe Biden won Maricopa County.”

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Nodack
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

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Draft report from partisan Arizona review confirms Biden defeated Trump in Maricopa County last November
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/24/politics ... index.html
(CNN)The partisan review of Maricopa County's 2.1 million ballots cast in the 2020 election found a vote count nearly identical to what the county had previously reported, a draft report detailing its findings shows.

Maricopa County's Republican-led board of supervisors pointed to the draft Thursday night, saying that it underscores the reality that the county ran an accurate election.
"You don't have to dig deep into the draft copy of the Arizona Senate/Cyber Ninja audit report to confirm what I already knew -- the candidates certified by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General -- did, in fact, win," board chairman Jack Sellers, a Republican, said in a statement.
"This means the tabulation equipment counted the ballots as they were designed to do, and the results reflect the will of the voters," he said. "That should be the end of the story. Everything else is just noise."

The draft report shows that the hand recount found that President Joe Biden received 99 more votes than Maricopa County had reported after November's election, while former President Donald Trump received 261 fewer votes than the county reported.


I thought for sure the Ninjas would present some BS statistics. Turns out they ended up giving Trump even less votes.

A: These results shut Trump up finally.

B: Trump doubles down and calls the Ninjas fake and part of the evil plot to steal the election.

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Superbone
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Superbone »

Yeah, color me surprised that they actually presented accurate data. In fact, they found it to be off even more in Biden's favor.
"Be Legendary."

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Mori Chu
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Mori Chu »

ROFL. I can't believe people keep calling for these "voter fraud" shams Trump and the GOP are peddling. What an embarrassment for them. But we're still in great danger until we pass laws to protect future elections from being stolen.

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Nodack
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Nodack »

Or we get smart enough NOT to vote for evil amoral narcissistic serial lying racist sexual predator ego maniac draft dodging tax evading russian puppet con men criminal traitor extortionist terrorist cult leaders who have absolutely no problem destroying our Democracy for personal gain.

I was thinking about this yesterday. When we have leaders with no moral compass, America has no moral compass.

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In2ition
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by In2ition »

Wait, I'm confused. So now it's legit?
"When we all think alike, nobody is thinking" - Walter Lippmann
"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them." ~ Frederick Douglass

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Mori Chu
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Re: 2020 Election Thread

Post by Mori Chu »

In2ition wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 12:26 pm
Wait, I'm confused. So now it's legit?
Can you clarify, what do you mean by "it"? What is legit?

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