Voter Suppression & Election Theft by the Republican Party

[LFC]

Remember these two assholes?

A judge on Tuesday ordered Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, two right-wing conspiracy theorists behind robocalls that sought to intimidate Black voters here out of casting mail-in ballots in the 2020 presidential election, to spend 500 hours registering voters in low-income neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C., area.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John Sutula placed each on two years of probation, fined each $2,500 and ordered them to wear GPS ankle monitors with home confinement beginning at 8 p.m. each day for the first six months of their probation.

Sutula, 71, said that most of the civil rights advances in the United States have occurred in his lifetime. He compared the men’s effort to those who used violence to suppress southern Black voters in the 1960s.

“I think it’s a despicable thing that you guys have done,” he said.

Wohl, 24, and Burkman, 56, attended the hearing via Zoom along with their attorneys. When given the chance to address their charges in court for the first time since they were charged, each man was brief.

“I just really want to express my absolute regret and shame over all of this,” Wohl said.

Burkman did not share any thoughts of his own.

“I would just echo Mr. Wohl’s sentiment,” Burkman said. “I think the same.”

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said in a statement that the sentence was appropriate.

“These two individuals attempted to disrupt the foundation of our democracy,” O’Malley said.

The men each faced a maximum sentence of one year in prison after they pleaded guilty in September to a telecommunications fraud, a fifth-degree felony. The charge is connected to thousands of robocalls placed in Cleveland in the run-up to the 2020 election between then-President Donald Trump and the Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.

The robocalls came at a time when states across the country had expanded the use of mail-in voting as a protective measure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pair gained notoriety in recent years by throwing press conferences to levy phony sexual misconduct allegations against prominent Democrats and Republicans who are critical of former President Donald Trump. They are also charged in Michigan and are being sued by a civil rights organization in federal court in New York over the same robocalls.

[goldenvalley]

Nov 30, 2022 16:29:52 GMT LFC said:

Remember these two assholes?

A judge on Tuesday ordered Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, two right-wing conspiracy theorists behind robocalls that sought to intimidate Black voters here out of casting mail-in ballots in the 2020 presidential election, to spend 500 hours registering voters in low-income neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C., area.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John Sutula placed each on two years of probation, fined each $2,500 and ordered them to wear GPS ankle monitors with home confinement beginning at 8 p.m. each day for the first six months of their probation.

Sutula, 71, said that most of the civil rights advances in the United States have occurred in his lifetime. He compared the men’s effort to those who used violence to suppress southern Black voters in the 1960s.

“I think it’s a despicable thing that you guys have done,” he said.

Wohl, 24, and Burkman, 56, attended the hearing via Zoom along with their attorneys. When given the chance to address their charges in court for the first time since they were charged, each man was brief.

“I just really want to express my absolute regret and shame over all of this,” Wohl said.

Burkman did not share any thoughts of his own.

“I would just echo Mr. Wohl’s sentiment,” Burkman said. “I think the same.”

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said in a statement that the sentence was appropriate.

“These two individuals attempted to disrupt the foundation of our democracy,” O’Malley said.

The men each faced a maximum sentence of one year in prison after they pleaded guilty in September to a telecommunications fraud, a fifth-degree felony. The charge is connected to thousands of robocalls placed in Cleveland in the run-up to the 2020 election between then-President Donald Trump and the Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.

The robocalls came at a time when states across the country had expanded the use of mail-in voting as a protective measure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pair gained notoriety in recent years by throwing press conferences to levy phony sexual misconduct allegations against prominent Democrats and Republicans who are critical of former President Donald Trump. They are also charged in Michigan and are being sued by a civil rights organization in federal court in New York over the same robocalls.

Nice creative way of punishment though I'd think it should require some very close supervision of these two while they are registering people.  

[LFC]

The Georgia GOP chair sounds like he's particularly in the line of fire.

The judge overseeing an Atlanta-area grand jury probe into Donald Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election ruled Wednesday that Georgia’s Republican Party chairman, David Shafer, may not share an attorney with 10 other GOP activists who served as false electors on behalf of Trump’s campaign.

Judge Robert McBurney said that while the criminal exposure for those “alternate electors” might be limited and relatively comparable, Shafer was in a different category because of his central role as an organizer of the effort. As a result, McBurney ruled, Shafer may not share lawyers with his 10 colleagues.

“Given the information before the Court about his role in establishing and convening the slate of alternate electors, his communications with other key players in the District Attorney’s investigation, and his role in other post-election efforts to call into question the validity of the official vote count in Georgia, the Court finds that he is substantively differently situated,” McBurney ruled in a seven-page opinion.

McBurney’s ruling undercuts a legal arrangement that 11 of Georgia’s 16 pro-Trump “alternate” electors had made amid the Fulton County special grand jury probe. They all retained the same two lawyers: Kimberly Burroughs Debrow and Holly Pierson.

The ruling is a partial victory for District Attorney Fani Willis, who had asked McBurney to disqualify Burroughs and Pierson from representing the 11 GOP electors (five other pro-Trump alternate electors have separate attorneys). Willis contended that the joint representation of so many of the GOP contingent electors would present a conflict if any of them were criminally charged and some of them were called to testify against one another.

LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP!

[LFC]

The childish temper tantrum being thrown by Cochise County, AZ Republicans is on the verge of flipping a House seat. Don't like it? Hey, the law is the law! That's what Republicans have told us repeatedly when any attempt is made to help people vote in the first place.

Irony of All Ironies

The game GOP-controlled Cochise County is playing in Arizona could cost Republicans a House seat.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is warning in filings made in her lawsuit against Cochise County that if it doesn’t certify the results by Dec. 8, the ballots from the county will not be included in the final count. That would be enough to flip the results of the House race in the AZ-06.

That would flip the results of the race for Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District, where Republican Juan Ciscomani holds a 5,232-vote lead over Democrat Kirsten Engel in unofficial results, as well as the race for state Superintendent of Public Instruction, where the Republican candidate has a narrow lead.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 1, 2022 17:06:38 GMT LFC said:

The childish temper tantrum being thrown by Cochise County, AZ Republicans is on the verge of flipping a House seat. Don't like it? Hey, the law is the law! That's what Republicans have told us repeatedly when any attempt is made to help people vote in the first place.

Irony of All Ironies

The game GOP-controlled Cochise County is playing in Arizona could cost Republicans a House seat.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is warning in filings made in her lawsuit against Cochise County that if it doesn’t certify the results by Dec. 8, the ballots from the county will not be included in the final count. That would be enough to flip the results of the House race in the AZ-06.

That's not fair to the voters in Cochise County.  Somebody in that county ought to be seeking some sort of writ of mandate for the Board of Supes to do their ministerial duty in the absence of evidence of actual fraud.  

[jackd]

I don't know; maybe we should just accept the House seat and say, thank you.

[LFC]

Dec 1, 2022 17:23:54 GMT goldenvalley said:

That's not fair to the voters in Cochise County.  Somebody in that county ought to be seeking some sort of writ of mandate for the Board of Supes to do their ministerial duty in the absence of evidence of actual fraud.  

Dec 1, 2022 20:34:59 GMT jackd said:

I don't know; maybe we should just accept the House seat and say, thank you.

While I most definitely support expanded voting rights and abilities, I have to admit it's tough caring about helping those who voted for the hosing they may end up receiving. It is an overwhelmingly Republican county. This is what their years of voting mean. It's kind of like listening to people who vote for politicians that promise more and more tax cuts, but then turn around whine that the roads aren't nice, bridges aren't repaired, it's tough to get help in government offices, etc. And then whine their taxes are sky high. (Rinse, wash, repeat.)

 

I would never advocate actively doing anything to improperly take away the county's votes. I just don't care to advocate saving them from themselves. As they loved to say about others, "the law's the law."

[indy]

Judge ordered them to certify by 5pm today and I believe they have.

[LFC]

Giuliani is in court defending himself as they look to taking away his D.C. license to practice law. On the one hand his defense is horrendous and he's been called out multiple times in court already. On the other what other defense does he have? He fully supported The Big Lie and was instrumental in pushing Trump's coup attempt in court.

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani spent much of Monday defending his efforts to reverse the result of the 2020 election before an attorneys disciplinary committee, flailing and muttering as he attempted to elide questions about his conduct.

“I really believe I’ve been persecuted for three or four years,” Giuliani said at the hearing, which could lead to him losing his law license in the District of Columbia.

The hearing was held before a panel of the D.C. Bar Board of Professional Responsibility, and came after the office that oversees attorney ethics in the district issued two charges against Giuliani, both for conduct in Pennsylvania in 2020: one for bringing a frivolous legal proceeding, and another for “engag[ing] in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.”

Giuliani defended himself directly throughout the Monday hearing, during which he testified as a witness.

Both members of the hearing board and Hamilton Fox, the disciplinary counsel, repeatedly pleaded for Giuliani to stop pontificating and to only answer the questions at hand. But nevertheless, Giuliani persisted, claiming that what he did was righteous, professing ignorance of Pennsylvania election law, and accusing those present of bias.

“My role was to show how Pennsylvania involved the same set of eight or ten suspicious actions — illegal actions, whatever you want to call them, irregular actions — that could not be the product of accident,” Giuliani said. He added that he believed he had uncovered enough circumstantial evidence of fraud in Pennsylvania to suggest a “conspiracy.”

It was a tour de force performance from the former mayor, and only the first day of his testimony.

He tried to outwit the Fox, the disciplinary attorney, at various points, leading to the apparent bewilderment of those watching.

Fox, for example, asked Giuliani to confirm whether he co-authored a lawsuit in Pennsylvania that he had signed.

“Not that day,” Giuliani retorted.

After a long pause and some discussion, Fox repeated the question. Giuliani provided the same response.

“I’m asking you what time it is,” Fox said. “You’re telling me how to make a watch.”

Fox began his opening remarks by suggesting that Giuliani had “weaponiz[ed] his law license” in service of spreading claims about election fraud that he either knew were false or which he didn’t care to verify.

He added that it was part of “an attempt to undermine the constitution to which he — like all members of the District of Columbia bar — took an oath to support.”

After the proceeding ends, the attorney overseeing the process — D.C. litigator Robert Bernius — will make a recommendation to the Committee on how to proceed.

This. Just sayin'.

[jackd]

The real complaint against him is filing actions without any evidentiary basis. It's permissible to claim fraud and election law violations but not without evidence.

[LFC]

Dec 6, 2022 15:43:25 GMT jackd said:

The real complaint against him is filing actions without any evidentiary basis. It's permissible to claim fraud and election law violations but not without evidence.

I guess the Tucker Carlson / Sidney Powell "no reasonable person would believe me" defense would be very useful when accused of filing invalid complaints in a court of law.

[jackd]

Um, no.

[LFC]

Oh, Rudy.

It doesn't sound like he's got an attorney with him. I can practically hear him now.

[andydp]

You mean years of claiming mail in voting (and other kinds of voting) is rigged didn't work ?

Newt Gingrich urged the GOP to embrace mail-in voting in the wake of Georgia Senate runoff loss


Former House Speaker and veteran Republican operative Newt Gingrich called for the party to rethink its tactics in the wake of GOP candidate Herschel Walker's defeat in Tuesday's Georgia Senate runoff.

Mail-in ballots and other early voting measures have long been the target of Trump and his allies, who have baselessly claimed they are plagued by mass fraud.

Some analysts believe these attacks have dented the confidence of Republican voters in the integrity of elections, while a surge in early ballots have given Democrats strong platforms to build off.

"You have to play the game by the rules that are existing," Gingrich said.

"That means, for example, if you want Generation Z voters you've got to be on TikTok, even if in fact in the long run we may abolish TikTok as a Chinese communist device," he said.



www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/newt-gingrich-urged-the-gop-to-embrace-mail-in-voting-in-the-wake-of-georgia-senate-runoff-loss/ar-AA150PXj?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=fb51544c43814c038114e8f5f937f302

[goldenvalley]

Dec 7, 2022 15:22:42 GMT andydp said:

You mean years of claiming mail in voting (and other kinds of voting) is rigged didn't work ?

Newt Gingrich urged the GOP to embrace mail-in voting in the wake of Georgia Senate runoff loss


Former House Speaker and veteran Republican operative Newt Gingrich called for the party to rethink its tactics in the wake of GOP candidate Herschel Walker's defeat in Tuesday's Georgia Senate runoff.

Mail-in ballots and other early voting measures have long been the target of Trump and his allies, who have baselessly claimed they are plagued by mass fraud.

Some analysts believe these attacks have dented the confidence of Republican voters in the integrity of elections, while a surge in early ballots have given Democrats strong platforms to build off.

"You have to play the game by the rules that are existing," Gingrich said.

"That means, for example, if you want Generation Z voters you've got to be on TikTok, even if in fact in the long run we may abolish TikTok as a Chinese communist device," he said.



www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/newt-gingrich-urged-the-gop-to-embrace-mail-in-voting-in-the-wake-of-georgia-senate-runoff-loss/ar-AA150PXj?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=fb51544c43814c038114e8f5f937f302

The complaint about vote by mail being inherently subject to fraud is fairly recent...like in the last 2 1/2 years.  

Gingrich seems to understand that this BS has a negative impact on Republicans.  Looking at the counties in CA that have been roiled by distrust of elections I see many of them voted for Trump 2 1/2 years ago and elected a lot of Republicans into office then and last month.  Even when they win, they don't trust the results.  That's a problem. 

[andydp]

Dec 6, 2022 21:25:05 GMT LFC said:

Oh, Rudy.

It doesn't sound like he's got an attorney with him. I can practically hear him now.

Before you act, it’s Prudence soberly to consider; for after Action you cannot recede without dishonour: Take the Advice of some Prudent Friend; for he who will be his own Counsellour, shall be sure to have a Fool for his Client.  (Funny how we knew that already)

quoteinvestigator.com/2019/07/30/lawyer/

[LFC]

Special prosecutor Jack Smith has subpoenaed 5 counties for information that might shed light on Trump's pressure campaign to overturn the election. Remember that throwing several swing states into election turmoil was critical to his coup attempt.

Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained grand jury subpoenas last month for communications between Trump, his campaign, and top campaign staffers and local officials in Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

TPM has reviewed a subpoena issued to the Milwaukee County Clerk, dated Nov. 22.

The subpoenas went to at least five counties in swing states where the Trump campaign sought to reverse the election results in 2020.

They are Dane County, Wisconsin, Maricopa County, Arizona, and Wayne County, Michigan, the Washington Post reported. TPM confirmed Tuesday that another subpoena was sent to officials in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and received a copy of the subpoena issued to Milwaukee County.

Smith, who was appointed by Garland last month, is not known to have issued any subpoenas before this batch of demands.

The subpoenas request any and all communications with the Trump campaign, Trump, and a series of aides that include 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien and attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, and Cleta Mitchell.

The subpoena to the Wisconsin counties also asks for communications with attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis. The date range for all of the subpoenas is reportedly for communications between June 1, 2020 to Jan. 20, 2021.

The Milwaukee subpoena obtained by TPM names Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Burke and Daniel Mehochko, a special agent in the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Burke has recently appeared in cases brought in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The subpoenas suggest a broader look at the campaign to reverse the election result than the DOJ has so far shown, nearly two years after the Capitol insurrection.

More info on the counties and Trump's activities.

What distinguishes the five counties known to have been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith is that former President Trump and his campaign filed lawsuits to invalidate the 2020 election results in all of them.

The subpoenas, issued last month by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., but only publicly revealed Tuesday, sought communications between election officials in at least five counties and Trump, his 2020 campaign, and multiple attorneys and staffers affiliated with the re-election effort. It is not known if additional counties were subpoenaed but have yet to disclose it publicly.

What the five counties across three states have in common is that Trump filed suit to reverse the 2020 election results in each of them while his allies reportedly contacted officials in several of the areas.

With the exception of Maricopa County, Arizona, the counties are also heavily Democratic counties in key swing states, and Biden won them handily, which is partly why Trump targeted them in the first place. Biden narrowly won Maricopa County.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 7, 2022 17:56:24 GMT LFC said:

Special prosecutor Jack Smith has subpoenaed 5 counties for information that might shed light on Trump's pressure campaign to overturn the election. Remember that throwing several swing states into election turmoil was critical to his coup attempt.

Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained grand jury subpoenas last month for communications between Trump, his campaign, and top campaign staffers and local officials in Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

TPM has reviewed a subpoena issued to the Milwaukee County Clerk, dated Nov. 22.

The subpoenas went to at least five counties in swing states where the Trump campaign sought to reverse the election results in 2020.

They are Dane County, Wisconsin, Maricopa County, Arizona, and Wayne County, Michigan, the Washington Post reported. TPM confirmed Tuesday that another subpoena was sent to officials in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and received a copy of the subpoena issued to Milwaukee County.

Smith, who was appointed by Garland last month, is not known to have issued any subpoenas before this batch of demands.

The subpoenas request any and all communications with the Trump campaign, Trump, and a series of aides that include 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien and attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, and Cleta Mitchell.

The subpoena to the Wisconsin counties also asks for communications with attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis. The date range for all of the subpoenas is reportedly for communications between June 1, 2020 to Jan. 20, 2021.

The Milwaukee subpoena obtained by TPM names Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Burke and Daniel Mehochko, a special agent in the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Burke has recently appeared in cases brought in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The subpoenas suggest a broader look at the campaign to reverse the election result than the DOJ has so far shown, nearly two years after the Capitol insurrection.

More info on the counties and Trump's activities.

What distinguishes the five counties known to have been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith is that former President Trump and his campaign filed lawsuits to invalidate the 2020 election results in all of them.

The subpoenas, issued last month by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., but only publicly revealed Tuesday, sought communications between election officials in at least five counties and Trump, his 2020 campaign, and multiple attorneys and staffers affiliated with the re-election effort. It is not known if additional counties were subpoenaed but have yet to disclose it publicly.

What the five counties across three states have in common is that Trump filed suit to reverse the 2020 election results in each of them while his allies reportedly contacted officials in several of the areas.

With the exception of Maricopa County, Arizona, the counties are also heavily Democratic counties in key swing states, and Biden won them handily, which is partly why Trump targeted them in the first place. Biden narrowly won Maricopa County.

Looks like the whole panoply of attempted election theft is being looked at.  Maybe the special counsel will be able to tie this is directly to Trump via Giuliani and company along with Eastman and the fake electors stuff.  Roger Stone has to be in there somewhere too.  Trump likes to sit back and let someone else organize nefarious doings while he guards himself with deniability and actual inability to plan this stuff.

[LFC]

Hoisted on their own retard.

[LFC]

It appears we may have a sitting U.S. Congressman who has voted illegally several times. Before you read the quote, care to guess which party they're from?

A Republican Congressman from Georgia appears to have voted illegally three times in a county where he no longer resides during the general election.

The website for Drew Ferguson, who is the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 3rd congressional district, showed he and his wife live in The Rock, Georgia, which is 63 miles away from his former residence in West Point.

However, the Huffington Post indicated the GOP Congressman and former Mayor of West Point never updated his Troup County address to his new home in Pike County–a requirement of the state law–before voting in the general election and in the Senate runoff.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirmed it was illegal for Georgia voters to cast a ballot in a county in which they do not reside.

Brian Piper, Ferguson's spokesperson, defended him in a statement:

“Congressman Ferguson, previous mayor of West Point and lifelong resident, was registered to vote in his hometown."

“Congressman Ferguson is currently in the process of transitioning his residency to his new home in Pike County.”

However, Piper did not respond to reporters asking why Ferguson continued voting in Troup County despite property tax records showing the Congressman sold his house there in April.

The spokesperson additionally kept mum about the specifics of when Ferguson moved and of his possible state violation of voting in a county where he no longer lived.

And yes, of course he was on the fraudulent Republican voter fraud train.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 27, 2022 15:34:02 GMT LFC said:

And yes, of course he was on the fraudulent Republican voter fraud train.

His spin will be that this just illustrates how easy it is to commit fraud and that voter rolls are inaccurate and should be purged as soon as someone files a change of address form with USPS.  Why even an elected official will do it!  

[LFC]

Dec 27, 2022 16:07:03 GMT goldenvalley said:

His spin will be that this just illustrates how easy it is to commit fraud and that voter rolls are inaccurate and should be purged as soon as someone files a change of address form with USPS.  Why even an elected official will do it! 

Then he'll sponsor a bill that exempts members of Congress.

[LFC]

DeSatanist's record on entrapping former inmates continues to be unimpressive. It doesn't get much more fascist than imprisoning American citizens for fun and political profit.

Another case under Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R) faux election fraud program has been dismissed, marking three dismissals and four defunct cases overall.

63-year-old Terry Hubbbard was one of 20 people arrested back on Aug. 18 by DeSantis’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security, a political stunt veiled as a task force designed to whip up MAGA support ahead of his potential presidential run in 2024. 

The office rounded up 20 formerly incarcerated Floridians who’d registered to vote in the 2020 election because they thought they were allowed to under a constitutional amendment that reinstated their voting rights back in 2018. But the amendment excludes people who’ve been convicted of murder or felony sex crimes – charges all 20 arrestees have faced.

The voters in question, however, weren’t aware of this boundary, nor were they prevented from registering or voting in the presidential race. In some cases, election administrators even helped them register.

But so far two of the cases have been dismissed on technicalities while one was settled. On Friday, a Broward County judge added another dismissal to the list on the grounds that the Office of Statewide Prosecution can only prosecute crimes that occurred in two or more counties. 

[andydp]

More absentee ballot harvesting.  Oh wait !! Its GOP ballot harvesting.  This one got caught.

Rensselaer County elections commissioner will plead guilty to federal criminal charges

Schofield's scheduled guilty plea to felony charges on Jan. 11 would mark the second conviction in the federal investigation that's being spearheaded by the FBI and has focused on the harvesting of absentee ballots in elections over the past two years. A source close to the case said Schofield's plea agreement includes a pledge to cooperate in the wide-ranging investigation that has also examined the use of county resources and employees to gather absentee ballots.

www.timesunion.com/state/article/Rensselaer-elections-commissioner-to-plead-guilty-17681350.php?utm_content=h3&utm_campaign=timesunion_breakingnews_20221228&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

[LFC]

Always a Republican.