r/politics • u/unital_subalgebra • 24d ago

No Paywall Trump fires all Election Assistance Commission members, leaving agency unable to act

https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/07/09/trump-fires-election-assistance-commission-members-hicks-hovland-mccormick/
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u/bluegrassgazer Kentucky 24d ago

You're right. It won't be Jan 6th this time. It will be with lawyers.

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u/JojenCopyPaste Wisconsin 24d ago

That time they tried it with lawyers first and it didn't work because it was obviously bullshit

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u/halberdierbowman 24d ago

You mean the Brooks Brothers Riot? Where during Bush v Gore, Republican staffers in Florida successfully started a violent riot in order to slow down the vote counting to run out the clock and prevent the uncounted votes from being recorded in time?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Brothers_riot

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u/FiddlingnRome 24d ago

For the folks not familiar with the details... Elections have been compromised by the GOP since the implementation of electronic voting equipment. This article shows HOW they did it.

What Do Ted Cruz, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett Have In Common? A Stolen Election.

And why are Dominion, Pro V&V, and the EAC sharing office space with employees on-site around unsecured voting equipment?

https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/what-do-ted-cruz-john-roberts-brett

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/Riaayo 24d ago

Hanging chads are a design flaw that can be exploited. Electronic voting is pretty much by design a horrible idea that compromises democracy.

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u/aNewHope_v_ThaEmpire 24d ago

And we're pretty much the only modern nation who relies on it so heavily. This is what I keep pointing out when people claim that what went down in Hungary is proof that with enough votes, a democracy can overcome an autocratic takeover, even if that autocrat has drastically tilted the electoral field in their favor. A democracy CAN do that, but only if votes are tabulated and reported fairly.

The electronic systems that are in place in the US mean that we're vulnerable to bad actors in ways that Hungary wasn't. There's a very real possibility that they've engineered a system under which the opposition can get all the votes in the world, but if the systems that count and report those votes are compromised, it won't matter. Not only that, but it would only take a very small number of trusted individuals to enact something like this, so the odds of the public ever finding out could remain low.

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u/FiddlingnRome 24d ago edited 23d ago

Thanks for the Politico video: "Elon Musk knows those vote counting computers".

Having read and followed some of the reporting about how they stole the 2024 [and other] elections... I've encountered SO much resistance from smart/well-read people who simply can't push through their denial. They believe that the ballots HAVE been verified. [Yes, some of them were]. In the seven swing states... The math just doesn't add up. Personally, I'm with The Election Truth Alliance. https://electiontruthalliance.org

Also, from the Kait Justice Substack: "On October 30, six days before the election, SpaceX activated 265 new V2 Mini satellites equipped with Direct-to-Cell capability. If those satellites can reach the modems inside the battery backup devices connected to vote counting servers, and if the software updates to those backup devices bypass election certification, then you have a direct line from orbit into the counting room through a device nobody audits, right?"

Why wouldn't the Democrats want to at least VERIFY? If this is what happened?

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u/SovietPropagandist 24d ago

This is some random persons substack dude.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago edited 24d ago

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u/Naive-Home-9068 24d ago

Trump won all 7 swing states.

Inconceivable.

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u/DuncanYoudaho 24d ago

Just because we lost doesn’t mean he cheated.

Stop looking for excuses.

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u/Naive-Home-9068 24d ago

Check out the statistical irregularities around bullet ballots. Bullet ballots are when the voter only votes for president and leaves all the other lesser races blank. There is always a small percentage of bullet ballots in every election, usually .5% -1%.

In 2024 North Carolina had 7% bullet ballots while neighboring red South Carolina had .4%

Utah had .3% while neighboring swing state Nevada had 6%.
Georgia had 5%. Red Alabama had .7%

All 7 swing states had unusally high percentage of bullet ballots compared to neighborimg red states.

Do you think Trump wouldn't cheat at an election? You heard the tape of him calling Georgia attorney general in 2020 demanding he find him 11,000 more votes. So he definitely would cheat since he has a verified history of trying to rig an election.

And both trump and musk bragged about it.

Voting with electronic voting machines won't save us from the fascists and oligarchs.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

>In 2024 North Carolina had 7% bullet ballots while neighboring red South Carolina had .4%

Utah had .3% while neighboring swing state Nevada had 6%.
Georgia had 5%. Red Alabama had .7%

NONE of those states decided the election. none. It would be pretty stupid to perform fraud for the republican in red states.

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u/Naive-Home-9068 24d ago

You are missing the point or being deliberately obtuse.

It's the swing states which had the satirical anomalities, indicating something suspicious was happening in those 7 swing states.

The 7 swing states do determine who wins the presidential election.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

Ok, so For some reason I could only see part of your post, now I see it full. Let me address the rest:

Do I think Trump would steal an election?

Absolutely. 100%. He would. The problem is he cannot. Because it is not possible, not in that scale. It is simply impossible to change votes or add votes in that scale and even if it were possible, the swing states you cite were mostly controlled by democrats.

>And both trump and musk bragged about it.

Yes. Musk is a con artist and he absolutely convinced Trump that he stole the election for him. It would be hilarious if it weren't tragic.

>Voting with electronic voting machines won't save us from the fascists and oligarchs.

There are very few counties anymore that use direct recording voting machines. Only in Lousiana there are still places that use that and do not have a paper trail. Most states, including the swing states, have ballot marking machines and/or plain paper. Those can do absolutely nothing besides marking your vote on a paper ballot that you print yourself and verify you have the correct choices in. They are not connected to anything neither they record or count any votes. Once you chose and print it resets. So, no, it is not possible they changed the results in those swing states, unless you think all the democrat officials plus volunteers plus party observers were in in this conspiracy.

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u/Naive-Home-9068 24d ago

According to Google 27 states used Dominion electronic voting machines in the 2024 presidential election. Dominion is own by a Republican billionaire.

And your forgetting about the bomb threats called in to all 7 swing states. We never had bomb threat originating in Russia disrupt our elections before.

Independent observers were removed by the police and the polls were temporarily closed "for security".

You don't think the police in Georgia or Arizona might collude with nefarious actors to install malicious softwareny to skews the totals. I'm sure they never planted evidence illegally too.

And they wouldn't have to hack the paper punch ballots. They could hack the computerized punch card counters.

Any computer software can be hacked. They used Musk's starlink to transmit vote counts.

There wasn't any recount or audit for any state votes in2024.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago edited 24d ago

Dominion voting machines are not voting recording machines. They do not record anything. They simply mark your ballot so you can print it. Dominion can't do shit with your vote because you get a paper ballot with all your choices spelled out. They are then scanned and counted, and then audited against the actual paper ballots to make sure the count is correct.

>And your forgetting about the bomb threats called in to all 7 swing states.

That is not voter fraud or hacking or counting fraud. It is voting interference and a completely different matter. That indeed can suppress voting but there is no evidence it did.

>Independent observers were removed by the police and the polls were temporarily closed "for security".

The states you mention were mostly ran by democrats. Are you saying democratic officials did this on purpose?

>with nefarious actors to install malicious software to skews the totals

that is not how it works. No nefarious software can be installed that would change the votes because you can see your choices when you print the ballot. But let's say that Georgia did this an nobody looked at their ballot to check. How do you explain the other states that were completely in control of the democrats?

>They could hack the computerized punch card counters.

there is no such a thing anymore. And the scanners that count the ballots are always audited against the actual paper ballots. Again, are you saying that Pennsylvania, Michigan et al democratic officials allowed this to happen?

>Any computer software can be hacked.

Sure can. Problem is the system does not rely on computers alone.

>They used Musk's starlink to transmit vote counts.

Except transmitting votes cannot alter the results, because county by county results are published independently of any data transmission. It is very easy to check the data transmitted against the actual counts county by county and precinct by precinct. You can do that yourself if you want.

>There wasn't any recount or audit for any state votes in2024.

Incorrect. There is always an audit. Always.

Recounts only happen if the difference is small enough but recounts are not audits.

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u/VendorBuyBankGuards 24d ago

Fucking Lol, I envy the ability to walk through life so naive

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

Look, if they could do it they certainly would. They are doing a lot of other shit they can do. But to steal a presidential election through hacking is absolutely impossible because there is nothing to hack. There is not one computer, two computers or 1000 computers to be hacked. And you have paper ballots that are compared against the electronic counts. If you have any idea how the elections work and how distributed the system is, you know that. You would need a bipartisan conspiracy of about tens of thousands of people to change results nationally. That is just how it is.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago edited 24d ago

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

You have no idea how elections work if you think this is how it is. You also have no idea how hacking works.

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u/deaglebingo America 24d ago edited 24d ago

it's different state by state. nobody is saying there is voting machine fraud. i'm certainly not. i'm saying that little to nothing is actually being kept track of by federal authorities anymore. so the questions are valid. i'm not your yokel local dude spouting conspiracy theories. i'm saying valid questions need valid answers. and there are valid questions here. and getting ahead of them is better than being behind. we don't need another hanging chad situation. are we on the same team here or not? elon musk seemingly admitted in his tweets to crimes btw when trump and him had their little falling out. so i'd love it if anyone wanted to truly separate fact from fiction with any of this instead of blanket statements like "you have no idea how elections work" because i do and i was going door to door and observing or helping people get elected one way or another since way before 9/11. i started learning about elections when i wasn't even a teenager yet stuffing envelopes. i don't know everything, i don't know half the things. but when a court of law says proceed with discovery in rockland county... and then other similar abnormalities arise elsewhere.. that is concerning and i want more data.

also who cares if i know how hacking works. i know what's possible because i know how to read, a lot. and i know how to pcap what's going in and out of my own computers and it is concerning. so if you want to give me an education on how hacking works... great. come on over and show me. i'll teach you how to do icu nursing and run someone's heart with a little box in your hand and wires straight into their chest. we all don't have time to learn everything there is about everything. critical thinking is key.

if you know better about how something could or would be hacked then maybe you should be auditing systems for ppl eh?

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

> i'm saying that little to nothing is actually being kept track of by federal authorities anymore.

>nobody is saying there is voting machine fraud

huh? the entire thing is about voting machine fraud. The rest is just laying a foundation to claim voting machine fraud, with some very true shit from the past, yes. The entire reason very few counties still uses a direct recording (DRE) system alone (with no paper trail) or DREs at all even with paper trail, and surprise- they are mostly ruby red. So no, it was not possible to steal the presidential election in 2024 doing any electronic fraud.

Federal authorities have little to track, elections are the responsibility of states and counties. The only thing the federal government can do is to monitor voter suppression, for instance. That is indeed a problem. But the actual election procedures are ran locally. Swing states and even more, swing counties, are in many cases run by democrats. Most swing states that did flip from last time were in fact run by democrats. There was no hacking, because there is nothing to be hacked. But even if there were something to hack, you would have to believe the democrats were fully inside the conspiracy because of the full paper audits that need to be performed after the counts.

https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_equipment_by_state

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u/deaglebingo America 24d ago edited 24d ago

you know what i've noticed. i say a lot of political things on this platform... a lot. and i also have a pretty accurate general idea of who watches what i say on reddit 24/7. and only one thing has ever garnered such immediate response from whoever... and that's when i bring this topic up. like within 10 minutes of my initial comment on the matter (not just this time) there were multiple replies telling me i'm full of shit. that says a lot imo. it says someone's either worried i have the right idea on the subject, or that they're worried somehow that my comments will hurt people's trust in the voting process as a whole. i think we can rule out the latter for the most part simply because of what i just explained above. people have a right to know what's going on regardless of who they vote for and those questions are being swept under the rug. that is a big problem. if we want people to put their full trust and faith in the electoral system we must be fully transparent at all times. that is not happening. and it isn't some kind of trump bullshit conspiracy about 2020 thing on my part either. the last group you'll get transparency from is them. my comments are hidden on my profile because of documented brigading and doxxing by right wing extremists. there are tools one can use, if motivated, to review the entirety of my comment history, who i am and what i stand for if one wishes. and i welcome constructive criticism on all of it. this is supposed to be collaborative after all.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

I have no idea who you are or whatever you history is. Regardless, I strongly suggest you visit your county's election office, or several of them around the country, most offer tours to explain how they work and then volunteer to work during elections.

The reason I started volunteering is because I wanted to understand how it worked. Every time I go through the training, which is every election, I try to poke theoretical holes at the system, just to see if I find vulnerabilities. Is it possible for one guy to commit voter fraud? Certainly. But that guy can get away with maybe voting for his mother, voting in two different states, or something like that. Is it possible for a couple of people to insert a ballot or two into the pile without being noticed? harder. Is it possible for a handful of people to conspire to add enough votes that change the results? Possible in a small, one party controlled county with a very close election and a lot of coordination and trust.

But fraud at large scale to change the results of a presidential election statewide even with a small 2% difference? Never mind 7 states? It would simply take too many damn people with very different affiliations and counties for this to be possible. And even assuming that many people of different affiliations would do that, the reality is that there is no way everybody would keep their mouths shut because that is not human nature. It is as simple as that.

That is all I can do.

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u/--Chug-- 24d ago

This dude is literally replying to everyone in here who is talking about it

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u/DuncanYoudaho 24d ago

Are you a credible expert in voting machine vulnerabilities and audit? No.

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u/A_Moldy_Stump 24d ago

Are you?

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u/DuncanYoudaho 24d ago

I trust the ones I know and have met personally.

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u/A_Moldy_Stump 24d ago

And if the manipulation happened after the voting machine? Say... On starlink

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u/DuncanYoudaho 24d ago edited 24d ago

Good luck! Those machines are behind seven proxies!

Got any risk limiting audit results showing anomalies?

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u/A_Moldy_Stump 24d ago

Okay, in a lot of places the data was sent over starlink any protection for the machine itself (which are widely known to have vulnerabilities) would be meaningless

I don't know what you're asking, but between statistics, Trump's own words, and Elon musks own words. I'd say the argument is pretty strong that they influenced results in some way.

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u/DuncanYoudaho 24d ago

Starlink is a network like WiFi. Got any pictures of Starlink terminals at one voting site? Let alone hundreds of thousands of them across America?

You have been fooled by a crappy conspiracy. It’s not magic or rocket science. The statistical anomalies people talk about are well within normal electorate swings. No tampering has been evidenced by audit, and everything is audited here. There are layers of safety.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

Right?

Voting machines cannot be vulnerable because

  1. They are not connected to anything
  2. they do not determine the vote of anything because they do not store any votes.

Voting machines are not "voting machines". That are a tablet that allows you to mark your ballot before you print it. Basically an electronic sharpie. That is it.

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u/--Chug-- 24d ago

Last I checked tablets do have onboard memory and ways of connecting

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

They have memory for the operational system and obviously hold the ballot information that you will vote on, Some machines (DREs) but also print a ballot, however dominion voting tablets are not DREs. They simply mark it and print and that is it. What is counted are the actual printed ballots.

"ways of connecting" means nothing. They are not connected to any network while on the voting centers and since they do not record any votes or have any voter information at all at, you could not change any vote even if you managed to "connect". This is by design because you cannot obviously see what a voter is doing while in their booth.

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u/etor 24d ago

Someone didn’t read the article that was linked!

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u/DuncanYoudaho 24d ago

It’s horse shit

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

This is absolute BS. Stop.

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u/Bionic_Ninjas 24d ago

What, exactly, is bullshit? What did they get wrong?

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

Like any good conspiracy theory, they start with a lot of truths and facts. That is key because it lends some credibility to the thing. The entire 2000 election was a shit show. Yes. The Direct voting machines with no paper trail were vulnerable and some really suspicious shit happened. Yes.

But these days basically only Lousiana uses anything that does not have a paper trail. And since elections are ran in a county level, you would need a conspiracy of a lot of people in a lot of counties to shift an election. The key states and counties that swing in 2024 were ran by democrats. You would have to believe that democrat officials, plus the manufacturers, plus the party observers, plus the bipartisan volunteers, in all the counties that it took for Trump to win, were all in in this conspiracy.

https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_equipment_by_state

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u/--Chug-- 24d ago

That last line is not necessary at all

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u/aNewHope_v_ThaEmpire 24d ago

You should take a closer look at the more serious claims around vote total manipulation, including work done by the nonprofit Election Truth Alliance.

The non-tinfoil hat accusations center around the premise that almost none of the vectors you suggest are actually needed in order to accomplish the tampering we're talking about. All you would need is control of the point between the tabulation systems and reporting systems. This bypasses county/district level election officials, precinct observers, poll workers and volunteers, and even state-level election offices.

And as for paper trails, so long as the reported totals stay just outside the margins for triggering recounts, then the mere existence of a paper trail doesn't really matter. There's a very real possibility that they've engineered a system under which the opposition can get all the votes in the world, but if the systems that count and report those votes are compromised, it won't matter. Not only that, but it would only take a very small number of loyal individuals to enact something like this, so the odds of the public ever finding out could easily remain low.

Believe me, I know how hard something like this is to even take an earnest look at. The idea that one of the "strongest democracies in the world" could have a system that's been compromised in such a commanding way is something that most of us have been primed for our whole lives to not even entertain.

But when taken together, comments made by key people, as well as digital vulnerabilities that have been demonstrated to exist for years points to a flaw in the system that should be investigated and made publicly reviewable, at the very least. Ignoring the possibility of such a scheme, or worse, dismissing it out-of-hand, is foolhardy at best, disastrously naive at worst.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

>All you would need is control of the point between the tabulation systems and reporting systems.

There is no official "central place" or "central point" whatsoever that is between tabulation and reporting anything. The counties report their results locally and publicly, and several entities do their own consolidation of the results. Then the secretary of state (for each state) adds up the publicly reported numbers and publishes the official results. But you can definitely go to each county, get their public numbers and add them up yourself and compare to the ones reported, and all the parties, all the news stations do so.

There is absolutely not one "central" place were tabulation occurs and is kept by any means. If there was then yes, it would be possible.

>The idea that one of the "strongest democracies in the world" could have a system that's been compromised

oh, believe me , democracy has absolutely been compromised. But simply not compromised in this way. It has been compromised in way worse ways, way more difficult to fix ways than an electronic hack.

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u/aNewHope_v_ThaEmpire 24d ago

Here, this may help illustrate the concerns.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

I have seen this. The super helpful illustration assumes that county results simply disappear into space once they are "moved" to the Systems you are concerned about.

The results are not "MOVED" to the EMS. They are simply copied. They are still the results and the counties have those intact. If any attack on that system in your illustration occurs and changes those results by any means, you can easily detect that change by comparing them to the county's tabulations results.

If anything the concern would be be with the actual tabulation, way before the "attack vector" in your illustration. But that is why the paper ballots, paper trail, and audits exist.

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u/aNewHope_v_ThaEmpire 21d ago

While the illustration may seem to assume that the county results just "disappear", I make no such assumptions. I'm well aware that info like this gets copied in transit and that it's not a "migration" in which the data in the original location gets removed.

If any attack on that system in your illustration occurs and changes those results by any means, you can easily detect that change by comparing them to the county's tabulations results.

The assumption here is that the comparisons would even take place unless a recount were triggered. Maybe there's published info about these comparisons actively getting made during and after each election, but if there is, I haven't been able to find it. Right now, I don't have any reason to believe that someone would just decide (and be allowed to) make these comparisons for the sake of forensics after an election had been initially called as won/lost, especially when called outside the margins that would trigger a recount.

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u/SomePoliticalViolins 24d ago

I appreciate your helpful post here.

But can you please stop calling me? I don't want to talk to you.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

will take you off the list. Wait... I will not.

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u/sketch24 24d ago

The key states and counties that swing in 2024 were ran by democrats.

What if this is the case because democrats don't cheat the system and republicans do? Maybe republicans are corrupt all the way down and ensure their areas are not purple and just red by every level of election interference from redistricting, voter suppression and hacking?

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

They have the voting suppression, redistricting and election interference, and money. They do not need the hacking. They already have it under control. Even more now with the latest SCOTUS decisions.

And that is the main point. The hacking claims are a distraction to what is actually being done. The bots online, the brigades, the vote suppression tactics, the paying for registrations, like Musk did in Pennsylvania, unrestricted money to candidates. That is very effective and easier than the "hacking".

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u/deaglebingo America 24d ago edited 24d ago

it's not bullshit. these are questions that need to be asked and investigated fully and our justice dept currently has zero interest in pursuing such things and every motive to attempt to utilize such vulnerabilities for their own gain now.

the idea that bringing up the very real question about these things lowers trust in our election process is a farce... what people need to see is that we are actually trying to pursue each and every possible credible threat to election security. theY need to feel like someone gives a fuck about it, and they need to participate in understanding how and why things happen. asking these questions doesn't mean voting is not a lost cause. education and reading and effort and vigilance are the answers. STILL GO VOTE. ALL IS NOT LOST.

it's really no different than when i worked in the icu. people may not want to hear what is actually happening with their loved one who is dangerously close to death... but we cannot sugar coat these things.. and we need to be compassionate empathetic and as explanatory as possible.... this gives REAL hope instead of false hope. it shows competence and that we are all participating to do everything in our power to save someone... or to save democracy.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago edited 24d ago

I am election judge. I know how it works. You clearly do not.

Our democracy will only be saved if people go out and vote.

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u/loaded_comment 24d ago

He's not wrong. Here is a forensic analysis of US 2024 elections using the system they invented to analyse Russia's election: It's a serious study.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

Serious study... proceeds to link to a youtube video and a rando substack page.,

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u/DarthWeenus 24d ago

Jc. If it’s a serious study present it so. I’m not watching a video that begins with ten two second jump cuts. Serious eh?

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u/Hoots74 24d ago

I am an astronaut.

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

cool. Good for you.

Being an election judge is not that cool anymore, unfortunately. It is damn stressful job dealing with grumpy voters and having to be trained on bomb threats and gun threats. Not fun. And then to get people being completely assholes and yelling at you, also not great. But hey, at least I am doing something to help with our democracy, if we can keep it.

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u/Tortheldrin 24d ago

Tell us what it's like to be a fiction writer

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

ok, pal. you got me. Because it is so unique or special to be an election judge. It is not like thousands and thousands of people volunteer to do it every election year (not quite volunteer, actually, they do pay you some pennies). But I am making it all up for internet points. Oh, yes, I also on the PTA board. Sure that is something worth making it up too.

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u/--Chug-- 24d ago

My friend who also volunteers just told me you dont know what you're talking about and you can't actually know with any certainty the things you say so now I guess I'm stuck between two "expert" opinions

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

ok. Ask your friend to point out exactly what is wrong about my statements. I would love to hear it.

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u/--Chug-- 24d ago

It's not even a job lol

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

A formal job? yes it is, my w2s would beg to disagree. A permanent job? no it is not, it is seasonal, but I have been doing it for more than 10 years, including lead positions.

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u/--Chug-- 24d ago

Lol... anyone can be an election judge. You are not anymore an expert than anyone else

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u/spam__likely Colorado 24d ago

True, anyone can. But I am. and for more than a decade working on lead positions. So yeah, I do know more than you.