First of all, settle down. We're on the same team. And, I used to live in the north Philly suburbs so I'm closer to this issue than you think. Also, get some anger management therapy. My post to you was tongue-in-cheek but you took it personally. No need for you to jump all over California Republicans, either. There has been a sea change in political affiliation all over the country and this is not because of a party or poorly run elections. That's why LA and Orange Counties are now predictably Democratic when a mere 20 years ago they were equally predictably Republican. Ditto for entire states like New Hampshire. The people are changing more than the party.
Second, I agree with your assessment of the Philly suburbs. Folks that should be reliably voting Republican now vote Democrat. I think the problem is them, not our party. They're like all my wife's relatives who think, now that they are 40-50 and are comfortably middle class, can vote their heart and expiate their guilt by voting liberal. Republicans will win not by getting the guilty prosperous whites in Malvern, Blue Bell, Downingtown, and Bala Cynwyd to vote Republican, but to get larger majorities of the blue collar whites in rural Pennsylvania (Reagan Democrats) to vote our way.
Third, there is huge evidence of voter fraud in Philly. I am not an expert here but the internet is filled with them:
* Republicans excluded from monitoring city precincts; no Republican observers in 61% of precincts.
* 96% of voting-age adults registered. [Yeah, right. I know what the citizens of Philly are like. They are not the most civic-minded, straight-laced, honorable people in the nation. I expect a lot of dead people and non-existent people in the total.]
* Huge reports of voter irregularities on election day by a local watchdog.
Frankly, I think that we in the US are almost at the point where we need to mark citizens' fingers, like they do in third world countries, to force people to vote only once.
http://townhall.com/Columnists/PeterJWirs/2008/03/27/voter_fraud_has_begun_and_no_ones_noticed_yet
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a41f7e24141.htm
http://neighborhoodcivicpac.blogspot.com/2005/08/philadelphia-identified-as-no-1.html
Second, I'm still not buying it. There is no evidence, and you really haven't cited any, of voter irregularities on the scale you require. Yes, they do happen, and yes, there are plenty of stories. But there are not a thousand stories, and there are certainly not 75,000 stories.
96% of voters registered in Philly is a "so-what" statistic. This happens because the change in the Federal election law in 2000 keeps us from cleaning up the rolls. It doesn't mean those people would actually be allowed to vote. Many of the actually documented -- in many cases resulting in convictions -- voter fraud cases in Philly happen during the Dem primaries. We don't watch them nearly as closely, and since Dems control the political machine in Filthydelphia, many of those charges are politically motivated in-fighting.
I am well aware of the claims made by American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund unfortunately, they haven't resulted in a single indictment, and most of their evidence is 1) anecdotal and 2) of voter suppression and intimidation -- not outright fraud.
Peter Wirs is also well known to me. His article at Townhall.com that you cite is problematic for a number of reasons. Mostly, again, it is anecdotal, and the kind of raw-meat that gets the base psyched-up, so, it's fine; however, he doesn't claim (although he might lead you to believe) that 61% of Philly elections are unmonitored. There aren't enough Republicans on the local committee for all of the judges and minority reps to be Republican Committee members. That doesn't mean they aren't Republicans. I believe we found the actual number of precincts with no GOP monitoring was 8%. Wirs says 11%. I won't quibble: either one is still way too high. But it doesn't mean the elections aren't monitored at all in those precincts, and it probably isn't all that rare even outside West Camden, PA. When I was an undergrad and still an idiot Libertarian, I often had to stand-in at the firehall for the Democrats who had one minority rep who often didn't show. I suspect there are many other rural counties in PA where the minority monitoring -- in this case Democrats -- is spotty.
I get irked by this because it's so casually thrown around on FRee Republic as a truism that PA is some kind of cesspool -- it's common to talk about 100+% precincts in Philly on FR, but you will not be able to document it, believe me.
I lived in Pasadena California for several years for graduate school. I also have lifelong family in Orange County. That doesn't make me an expert in California electoral politics, but I don't think your problems in (mostly) Southern California or for that matter South Texas have anything to do with New Hampshire. They're both migration problems, but of a different kind, and they have nothing to do with why we lost the Philly suburbs.
Reading your rebuttal, I think we agree on the fundamental point which is that the Republicans are destined to loser status if they don't start getting the message out, and that's what really burns me about the claims made on FR about Pennsylvania. The belief is that except for corruption, PA is "really" Republican. It isn't. It's "really" conservative, but the Party here has no idea how to make the brand identification (and many people down on the Main Line don't like that identification anyway.) Example: Fast Eddy had a record of being the biggest gun-grabber in the history of PA, but nobody has ever hit him with that in his statewide elections: this in a state with the highest percentage of NRA members. Geez. You cannot solve that kind of ineptitude by blaming voter fraud. That's the problem: poor losers blame the refs. We have a message that can be sold and we aren't trying. We've now had several gubernatorial nominations in PA in a row with no real primary. Sorry, I love the Steelers but when Lynn Swann is the only candidate the GOP can field in a state this size, there is clearly something very wrong with our Party.
Anyhow, I take the electoral process very seriously, and I know the Philadelphia FReepers do as well, but you are right. We're on the same side, so I do apologize for the tone of the original missive.
You're still wrong.
FRegards,
FRed.