Posted on 11/14/2022 6:45:22 AM PST by jimjohn
The lesson of November 8, 2022: No one man can save you.
The lesson of November 10, 2022: Neither can the other guy.
My evidence may seem anecdotal, but here’s my story. Again, class is in session, folks…
It was a grueling 8.5 hour drive back through NYC traffic just to log 15.5 hours working the polls in purple state New Hampshire (home of the Free State project). The polls are tight. The signs were in all the yards and on the streets everywhere. The expectation was that it would be “Red-Wave”. But this poll worker had his hopes dashed on that fantasy before most Americans got their first exit poll.
This is the Granite State. My job is to check ID’s to those coming to vote, because that’s what we do here (been at this for 6 years). When the gates opened at 6:00 am, I was able to catch my first breath at 8:15 due to non-stop voters (kinda like we're voting for a president). Behind me was the cordoned off area designated for official election observers; folks to make sure we were doing our job correctly, no slide of hand stuff, etc.; you know – the stuff we’ve been preaching against for the last two years – and hell bent not to let it happen again.
I went to shake hands with the one election observer present – yes, the ONLY one who, probably due to my skin pigmentation (why do they keep doing that?) wasted no time explaining to me that he started doing “…back during the Obama administration to hopefully get hired by someone in is cabinet”.
Wanna guess his party affiliation?
If you read the above correctly, you notice I reported NO republican observer there. Just the one #44 suck-up. But more on those ‘observers’ later.
What stuck out the most to me are the number of voters whose names I could not pronounce or spell if you put a gun to my head. And yes, you guess it – ALL but one were democrats. In fact, some of our freshly minted driver license holders clearly did not speak my language, as I got only smiles and nods when I asked questions. At least most of them were among the 5,700+ already registered in our ward. About 500 or so were not, until Election Day. The ‘newbees’ formed the longest line. If you recall, I covered this in “How We Lost 2020, And What it Takes to Win it Back” . Now, that number may not seem like a big number to the reader, but let’s say this happened in all 12 wards in Manchester alone (and my ward is not the biggest).
Do the math: 6000 or so folks in one town either moved, changed their name, just turned 18 or completely forgot this years’ election was on November 8… just like 2020. Go figure.
Here’s a related story on that - also from New Hampshire.
Where were all those Republican eyeballs to help watch over things? Good – no, GREAT question. I’m sure the woman sitting next to me was. There is an unspoken dress code at these events so we can generally sort out the partisans. She made mention that at the last election (primary), a gentleman lost his temper, completely frustrated for having to show ID before voting. Now for those who don’t know, NH has been asking for a photo ID pretty much since there have been photos on IDs. How could this fool NOT know he had to show one?
What made that story worse is that he is a Republican.
(Don’t facepalm yet – there’s more)
I knew the day was going south as the voting patterns were off. From the moment it started, I was checking in democrats at a rate of about 4/5 to 1. We can tell their party affiliation when checking off their names (or for that matter – their wardrobe choices, hair styles, etc.). It’s usually GOP in the early AM, followed by seniors, more GOP during lunch times, with more dems filling in the rest of the day. But this day was different. I saw voters with little notes and cards to help them make a decision. Of course, it was easy. The header columns on the ballots were marked Democrat and Republican.
Although the participation was at near presidential election levels, I still found time late to scan the voting rolls to get a gist of how many more we might expect to roll in before the polls close. I saw a lot of unchecked voters with ‘REP’ in the left column, but plenty checked off with ‘DEM’ and ‘UND’ in that same column.
Who do we want to blame for that, folks?
Then comes the icing on the cake. A seasoned gentleman walks in at the last minute before the polls close. He’s one of us – I can tell. Military veteran ball cap and a shirt that said something about a guy named Brandon.
But he’s not there to vote. Instead, he’s there to ask if there is any way he could help by working at the polls.
Bless his heart.
Dude, whoever you are: Thank you for your service, but we’ve been working our butts off for the last 14 hours, and calling for more GOP poll workers since the Summer of Love. Did you just get the memo?
(Now you can facepalm).
The moderator, a Democrat, gladly signed him up for the next election. It’s a high turn-over rate, and extra GOP folks from outside the ward were called in to help with this election.
Now, you know those dedicated folks who stand outside as you’re going in to vote holding signs of their party candidates (as if you haven’t made up your mind already) as you’re walking in the building? Yeah, those folks. We had them on both sides, and every time I walked outside for a reason, the Dems were quick to tell me “thanks for voting today!” (Why do they keep doing that?) But when the polls closed, I saw those same Dems come inside and take a seat next to the local media folk (as observers) salivating for the vote tallies that ticker-taped out of the machine. One big, happy family. Bless their hearts.
Oh, and the GOP sign holders were nowhere to be seen.
The vote totals, you ask?
Let me put it this way: if the republicans I saw with their names unchecked would have voted in my ward, the GOP candidate would have beaten every opponent they were facing – at least in that ward. But except for the incumbent governor – well you know the rest of the story; pretty much the same pattern across the state (same day registered voters notwithstanding).
Now, so you wouldn’t have to take notes, I added bold font to the lessons here. (you picked up on that, right?) This is just one ward in one county, in one state, but how many times was this repeated around the country?
Our side has a fatal flaw of expecting someone else to do what needs to be done. We are asked to join in, then we see others do so, and then believe it’s all to be handled for us. The polls are predicting this or that, so some of us don’t have to lift a finger. It’ll all work itself out, and life is good. But that’s not enough.
So, do we blame the GOP Establishment? The weak candidates? Or everyone’s favorite punching bag – Orange Man #45 (the man who should really - well, read the room) ?
So now, after taking the house back (maybe), battle lines have been drawn – inside the winning team. Two years from selecting #47, and we’ve already skipped the primaries, and decided who should be the nominee.
Bless our hearts.
But we need to learn that no matter who the nominee will be, even if you THINK they can fix this country, from my observation, they still can’t fix US!
The “Next Man Up” cannot compel us to work the polls and primaries, help get out the vote, become poll watchers and observers, or for that matter even simply talk to our neighbors.
Grass roots mean just that: self-motivated movements that work from the ground up – not the other way around.
Oh – you say they cheated? Fine. Prove it, but we need to have eyes on and damn near full participation to make our case, and make sure it never happens again. In reality, fact is that we’re all but beyond that now.
I fear there is a growing consensus among Real Americans that other options must be considered. Such fears can cause one to understand the need to hire 87,000 armed IRS agents to quell the revolt of citizens voting with their feet. Question is: will that be enough?
More later...
P.S. If you haven't already, please take a look at the How to Defeat Mail-in-Voting trilogy :
How to Defeat Mail-in-Voting Part II
How to Defeat Mail-in-Voting Part III
One can’t have a “wave” if no one is splashing (voting).
Great article from someone at a real polling place.
Best title ever.
Amen, Brother...
Amen
mods: Can you fix that title? those errors don’t show in preview.
thanks.
The challengers to the current and last 10 years board, called themselves the America First slate and they organized and participated and won every seat on the board, from President to statewide delegate. In a very small county, we had over 200 R's show up to participate.
RNC Chair Ronna ROMNEY McDaniel said the GOP had a huge campaign training boots on the ground GOTV and poll workers
This is going to have to be grass roots
For 50 years I have heard the same old story:
Democrats are too stupid to vote for good candidates and the Republicans are too busy with their everyday lives to get too involved with politics.
Democrats hope that voting for Democrat candidates will improve their financial standing.
Republicans hope that the Democrat politicians will foul the government up so bad that the Democrat voters will quit voting for Democrat candidates.
How long will the Democrat voters have hope that their candidates will do anything that will really improve their financial condition?
Will that hope outlive their time on earth?
All these people coming into this country illegally…..will they have hope over the solid truth of Conservative values?
Thank you… It needed to be said, and you said it perfectly.
Use the abuse button and then explain your problem. They’ll fix it.
Interesting.
We need to make a list of different types of fraud done at the precinct level...
Minor fraud would include ‘last minute’ questionable sign ups...
Major fraud would be ‘voting’ the people who don’t show up to vote. (’Voting the dead’ is an accidental byproduct of this type of fraud - since ‘the dead’ never show up)
I’m sure there are many others...
Ping
Thanks for posting, the only problem I see is that the Republicans don’t understand how the Union Machine works during elections.
Re title: Preview is our friend, FRiend.
They moved?
My hubby and I have decided to move to Tennessee next summer. ,We’ve puzzled over states we would like to live in. We will no longer call NH our home. Gone is the freedoms and good ole common sense of the Yankee . It’s nothing but Massatwochits north.
A couple of things jump out at me. First, all those new “citizens” not familiar with the language. Are they really citizens or registered falsely by the Motor Voter law that is so poorly managed? That is auditable.
Next, to what extent did all the “red wave” talk suppress GOP turnout, since the election was supposedly in the bag? Shame on us if that was the case.
Finally, does your precinct hand out those “I voted” stickers? Nice little token for them to exchange for the pack of smokes or that little bit of walking around money.
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