Posted on 11/14/2002 3:55:19 AM PST by Elle Bee
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:47:31 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
It's not enough for John Thune to just talk about "unethical" voting practices.
Republican John Thune threw in the towel on his South Dakota Senate race yesterday, notwithstanding the suspicious circumstances under which he lost by a mere 524 votes. We think that at a minimum he owed his many supporters a recount.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
It was 8 years later, not 4. Nixon lost to Kennedy in '60; then beat Humphrey in '68. In between he narrowly lost the Californina governer's race ('62?) to Edmund Brown (Jerry's Dad). He followed the California loss with that famous statement about "not having Richard Nixon to kick around anymore." Fact is, Nixon's political career appeared to many observers to be over by '62.
Mr. New points out that this is just a 4% increase in GOP votes over 1998. In the other three South Dakota counties where Indians constitute more than two-thirds of the population, Mr. Thune gained between 23% and 43% more votes than the GOP candidate in 1998. The Oglala Sioux would seem to give new meaning to the phrase "bloc voting."
A follow-up to our discussion from a previous thread.
I don't think that a court can overturn a certified election that isn't being formally contested. If the FBI were to find substantial evidence of vote fraud by the Dems AND could prove that this fraud was decisive, perhaps the US Senate could vote to vacate the seat. South Dakota would then have to stage a special election to fill the vacancy.
"I think this is correct analysis also."
Perhaps...however, I believe the recount--and VoteFraud investigation--will go on despite Thune's protestations and Thune shall be seated in the Senate in January 2003.
Just my humble opinion...MUD
I agree. Fraud can take several forms. Some are easier to catch than others. If dead people in Shannon County voted in numbers greater than Johnson's statewide margin, I think it is very likely that a judge would order a new election. However, I doubt that happened.
One thing I've not seen is how many of the Shannon County votes were cast at the polls and how many were absentee. One of the things to check is the signature of voters at the polling places versus a verified signature taken by investigators.
If most of the votes came in absentee, one can still do a signature check. However, my guess on absentees is that Democrat operatives simply sat down with people, ensured that they voted "correctly," and then had them sign the envelope. That would be hard to prove unless someone talks. It's also possible, if ballot security was loose, for the envelopes to be opened and the votes switched after the fact. That would also be hard to prove.
If the result is a high-profile investigation that sends a stream of people to prison over the next two years, you can expect Dashole to have difficulty in recruiting people to help with vote fraud in the next election. Bush probably thinks that Dashole is the better target
This would be a great step in the right direction.
However, much more needs to be done.
1. Get rid of Motor Votor. It's a license (sic) to steal elections.
2. Institute ID verification of every votor, and a system to assure he only votes once.
3. Massive cleanups need to be done on the registration rolls, eliminating dead people, moved people, false people and otherwise ineligible people.
4. Voter fraud needs to be resolutely investigated and prosecuted with heavy fines and jail time penalties.
5. Ongoing registration needs to be closely monitored and the voter rolls finalized well before the actual election, perhaps 30 days before to allow proper eligible voter printouts which may be checked by in advance.
6. Get rid of wholesale absentee balloting and make it the very seldom exception instead of the rule.
7. Have a paper trail for every ballot cast.
Most of these problems can be addressed at the federal level for federal elections. The result will be cleaner elections at all levels.
I repeat, patience, patience, patience!!
Bingo. Let the Feds do their job and put some people in jail. It'll take about a year of investigations. That will put us right at campaign time with some very compelling reasons to get the Repub vote out, and the Rats will be under a microscope. This will put a chill on people who are considering taking $10 to vote for a Rat. Then, we get rid of Dashole and all of his seniority.
Revenge is a dish best served cold. :)
Yes, then spend the next 2 years raising up another Repub candidate to unseat Mr. Fraud - Johnson. We get 2 for the price of 1!
You are so right. The big assumption here is that everything will be the same two years from now (an eternity in politics) and that Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson are the same candidate (they are not). Standing on principle is always the right thing to do ...in season and out of season. Mr. Thune is actually a bit selfish in all of this because he has allowed one more variation of nationwide vote fraud to go unchallenged.
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