Free Republic

Paper ballots tucked in paper envelopes. No absentee voting, and no early voting either. French voters in Sunday’s presidential election are using and old-school system that has defied calls for more flexibility or modernization. As France’s 48.8 million voters are invited to choose between President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen, here is a look at how the French election works: HOW DO THEY CAST BALLOTS? Voters make their choices in a booth, with the curtains closed, then place their ballot in an envelope that is then put into a transparent ballot box. They must show photo...

Twice failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sympathized with failed 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams this week, claiming she too had her respective election stolen.But in Clinton's case - ignore the electoral votes.In Abrams' case, ignore the popular votes. Speaking at the Defense of Democracy Conference at Georgetown University on Tuesday explained why she lost.

When Katherine Polizzi showed up to vote at Le Club Century Village, all she wanted to do was cast her ballot. But she describes a confrontational and unnecessary scene that mirrors complaints about the precinct received by the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office during the primary election on August 28th. This year the precinct was moved to a building inside a private gated community in Deerfield Beach. Previously it was housed at a community center, says Polizzi. "To even get in to the gate you needed to show an ID, before you even got to the polling place itself," Polizzi...

A week after Westmore­land County acknowledged it erred in allowing several hundred voters to improperly cast absentee ballots in this month's general election, officials are still trying to figure out why it occurred. “The only thing we can really surmise is that what happened was a misinterpretation of the law,” said Beth Lechman, the county's election bureau director. Voting officials allowed 278 people to cast absentee ballots for the Nov. 7 election solely because they were 65 and older. That accounted for 16 percent of nearly 1,700 absentee ballots submitted countywide. Voters cast 65,770 total ballots on Election Day in...

Nearly two months into the Trump administration, the IRS commissioner House Republicans once threatened with impeachment remains on the job. John Koskinen's continued tenure may be surprising, considering how aggressively Republicans went after him under the Obama administration. But despite a sustained push by congressional Republicans to oust the IRS chief before his five-year term expires this November, President Trump so far has made no move to do so. A White House official, asked about the commissioner's future, also told Fox News on Wednesday they had no personnel announcements “at this time.” House Republicans aren't giving up their quest to...

LITTLE ROCK -- Is it the first sign of desperation or just force of habit on her part? Or maybe even clever strategy, however unprincipled or untruthful. For whatever reason, Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to accuse a slew of Republican governors and presidential candidates of "systematically and deliberately" trying to deny millions of Americans, mainly the poor and black, of their right to vote. Now some of her Republican rivals, unimaginative but ever-hopeful types that they are, have begun to fight back by reciting the facts, little as those may matter to Ms., Mrs., Sen., Secretary, First Lady, Presidential...

How much difference will it make if Republicans win the Senate majority on Nov. 4, joining the GOP-run House against a Democratic White House? Congress’ persistent gridlock is due largely, but not entirely, to the current power split in the two chambers. But even if Republicans add Senate control to their safe House majority, big legislative roadblocks will remain. President Barack Obama still can veto legislation. Should Democrats lose six or more Senate seats, ceding the majority, they can use the power of the filibuster to thwart dozens of GOP initiatives. Republicans have employed this tactic from the minority side....

WASHINGTON — In March 2012, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s leading homosexual-rights group, posted the National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) confidential 2008 tax returns, including the names of donors. The disclosure of tax returns without permission is a felony, and NOM quickly cited evidence that allegedly pointed to an Internal Revenue Service official as the likely source of the confidential data. But a year and a half later, after repeated inquiries elicited no satisfactory response from the IRS, NOM has filed a lawsuit demanding answers and damages. “Our confidential tax returns were disclosed to the Human Rights Campaign, which...

The short answer? The highest-ranking official in the Cincinnati office where, the IRS would have us believe, a few rogue employees initiated a scheme to target conservatives. SNIP When an application for tax exempt status comes into the IRS, agents have 270 days to work through that application. If the application is not processed within those 270 days it automatically triggers flags in the system. When that happens, individual agents are required to input a status update on that individual case once a month, every month until the case is resolved. Keep in mind, at least 300 groups were targeted...

Vanity Those Tokyo Rove types and the useful idiots at Faux News can crawl out from under their desks now. At least one poll showing Barack Obama ahead in the swing state of Pennsylvania has been exposed as the fake it is. The evidence is clear and convincing. The accompanying answering machine audio catches a robocall poll declaring silence to be a vote for Barack Obama. How else could he possibly even be close – which he is not?

(AP) MILWAUKEE Four Democratic presidential campaign workers were sentenced to jail time ranging from four months to six months Wednesday for puncturing the tires of Republican vehicles on Election Day 2004. The men had pleaded no contest in January to misdemeanor property damage. A fifth worker was found not guilty. Those who pleaded no contest were Sowande A. Omokunde, the son of Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee; Michael Pratt, the son of former acting Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt; and Lewis Caldwell and Lavelle Mohammad, both from Milwaukee. They originally were charged with felony property damage but accepted plea deals...

ohn Kerry, the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam*, showed up yesterday at a Boston event, where he was "using crutches as he recovers from knee surgery," reports the Associated Press. He was also using emotional crutches as he recovers from last year's election: "Last year too many people were denied their right to vote, too many who tried to vote were intimidated," the Massachusetts senator said at an event sponsored by the state League of Women Voters. . . . Kerry also cited examples Sunday of how people were duped into not voting. "Leaflets...