Lessons Learned From the Debate Over Election Irregularities

Now that all of the controversial elections, recounts and re-recounts are over, let us review some of our lessons learned.

Florida is the Jaguar of vote-counting, and I'm not referring to the animal or the Jacksonville NFL franchise. I mean the car. For decades, part of the "charm" of having a Jaguar was how often it broke down. (That's no longer the case.) It was the kind of conspicuous consumption that economist Thorstein Veblen used to write about, with owners bragging about how much they paid for repairs.

The spectacle of sweaty election officials poring over provisional ballots -- 18 years after the state became infamous for such things -- has now cemented election incompetence into the montage of images we associate with the Sunshine State: beaches, rocket launches, Mickey Mouse and the human menagerie of freaks, weirdos, moperers, villains and perverts that fall under the omnibus internet meme "Florida Man."

We learned (relearned, actually) that a lot of people are very, very tense about politics and quick to jump the gun. President Trump, no doubt a bit insecure that his "red wave" failed to materialize, immediately claimed that voter fraud was rampant and that elections in Arizona and Florida were being "stolen." Florida Gov. Rick Scott followed Trump's lead and made similar allegations, as did a host of Republican pundits.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, Democrats led by Stacey Abrams and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, as well as a chorus of liberal pundits, insisted that the governor's race there had been "stolen" by Georgia's Republican secretary of state (and gubernatorial candidate), Brian Kemp.

We also learned that the actual evidence for all of these allegations fell far short of the rhetoric.

There were indeed sketchy irregularities in Florida, but none that came close to robbing Scott of his 12,000-vote lead. Brenda Snipes, Broward County's supervisor of elections, had a 15-year record of incompetence that at times seemed very difficult to distinguish from partisan skulduggery. She finally resigned from her post this week.

But in Arizona, there is no evidence of wrongdoing, and the state GOP's refusal to go with Trump's talking points was an admirable example of Republican leaders, particularly Gov. Doug Ducey, bucking the partisan tide.

Georgia is a more controversial case, but as the National Review's Rich Lowry documents, the evidence of theft through voter suppression isn't there either, no matter how many Twitter memes say otherwise. Kemp's decision not to resign from his job overseeing elections may have been bad PR, but that's the way the law works in Georgia.

Kemp had run for re-election twice before without stepping aside, without any improprieties -- as had Democrats in that position in the past. Allegations that he closed polling sites in black neighborhoods leave out that those decisions were made locally. Likewise, claims that he purged black voters from the rolls hinge on a tendentious reading of a law -- passed by a Democratic legislature and signed by a Democratic governor -- requiring that the rolls be updated. Kemp enforced the law, he didn't undermine it.

The final lesson: There is a massive double standard in the national conversation when it comes to election results and irregularities.

When Republicans suggest Democrats are up to no good, it is universally decried as a paranoid, craven or "openly authoritarian" attempt to delegitimize an election. When Democrats suggest an election was stolen, it's a grave warning of a crisis that should require "international election monitors," in the words of Dan Rather.

When Republicans graciously concede, as Rep. Martha McSally did in Arizona, it's an example of decency and civility. "I give McSally credit for a graceful concession. But let's be clear: It only stands out because of the moral sludge of Trumpism in which any show of grace or honorable conduct is shocking," tweeted Josh Marshall, the editor of the Talking Points Memo. "When you lose, you don't lie about it or attack the voting process. You concede & move on."

But when Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a three-term Democrat, refused to concede and move on, insisting that Scott was trying to steal victory, liberals didn't call him a sore loser. And when Abrams refused to concede in Georgia and (still) refuses to say that Kemp is a legitimate governor, it's hailed as heroic speaking truth to power.

Such double standards are poisonous and contagious. Which is why you can be sure you'll hear even more of this in 2020 -- and not just from Donald Trump.

Thank you for referencing that article Kaslin. As usual, please note that the following critique is directed at the article and not at you.

From related thread …

After 2018 election disappointment for patriots, the most serious problem with the country is ballot box integrity imo. Then comes jobs, economy and immigration, etc., however you want to order them.

Looking at 2020 elections, many states, under the thumbs of lawless Democrats, are not only violating the 12th Amendment with their winner-take-all electoral vote laws, but are also violating Section 2 of the 14th Amendment by allowing undocumented, non citizen Democrats to vote imo.

"Excerpted from the 12th Amendment: "The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice- President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate [emphasis added]; …"
”14th Amendment, Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens [emphasis added] twenty-one years of age in such State."
Apportionment of representation in House of Representatives

Patriots need to continue supporting Pres. Trump in draining the swamp for 2020 elections, emphasis on draining the ballot boxes this time.

Corrections, insights welcome.

The lesson is Republicans still don't understand how Democrats play the game.

Republicans believe the election stops when the vote counting ends.

For Democrats, vote counting is just the beginning.

Like rust, Democrats never sleep.

Don't turn your back on them. Don't count them out.

When Republicans are dancing in victory, Democrats are plotting their next more.

Republicans will never learn.

They should be organizing investigations.

They should have poll watchers at ever Democrat stronghold ready to go before 2020. Filming, photographing, taking names, etc.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.