Pubs work on plans to outright steal next election.

[rstrong]

Dems are so fed up with the likes of Obama and his party of yes men that they're defecting to the republicans or going non affiliated

This claim approaches reality only in that very few Dems will be voting for Obama in 2016.

Those who don't want pre-2008 Republicans running as Democrats (Hillary, Biden) will vote for Sanders.

Not that the republicans have a hell of a lot of favorable choices, but there are two that I would vote for over that other sea of circus clowns.

I only see three that you might not call circus clowns. Jeb! - who if nominated won't overcome his connections to his brother, to terrorism, to the mob, and more. Jindal, whose only recent press has been when he angrily insists that the "Duck Dynasty" cast supports him and not Donald Trump. And Chris Christie, who the Republican Party simply will not support.

Jeb! is the only one of the three likely to win the nomination. But the country won't vote for him.

"Steal the next election", another crock of horseshit the liberals dreamed up to blame on what will most likely be an embarrassing lopsided defeat.

The problem with what you call a "crock of horseshit", is that it's well documented, on display for all to see.

But yes. This'll be the same lopsided defeat for liberals that it was in 2008 and 2012. They got two more terms of Republican policy.

[Vrede too]

homerfobe is delusional, as usual. Sure, the GOP could win, but there's no evidence for it right now.
If Trump doesn't get the GOP nod, he still will have thoroughly trashed whoever does.
Hillary and Bernie are both polling ahead of Republicans, especially the wingnut GOP frontrunners.
Most Americans have voted Dem in 5 of the last 6 POTUS elections.

[rstrong]

Trump dominates the press, but the Republicans have other more established media figures who can inject some sanity, intelligence and dignity into their 2016 campaign.

"Okay, so there's water flowing on Mars. Yip yip yip yahoo. Hey, you know me, I'm Science 101, big-time guy, tech advance it, you know it, I'm all in. But NASA has been corrupted by the current regime. Don't know how long it's going to take, but this news that there is water flowing on Mars is somehow going to find its way into a technique to advance the leftist agenda."
- Rush Limbaugh

Ha, ha, just kidding.

[Vrede too]

Alabama to stop issuing driver’s licenses in counties with 75% black registered voters

The state of Alabama, which requires a photo ID to vote, announced this week that it would stop issuing driver’s licenses in counties where 75 percent of registered voters are black....

AL.com’s John Archibald asserted in a column on Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Justice should open an investigation into the closings.

“Because Alabama just took a giant step backward,” he wrote. “Take a look at the 10 Alabama counties with the highest percentage of non-white registered voters. That’s Macon, Greene, Sumter, Lowndes, Bullock, Perry, Wilcox, Dallas, Hale, and Montgomery, according to the Alabama Secretary of State’s office. Alabama, thanks to its budgetary insanity and inanity, just opted to close driver license bureaus in eight of them.”

“Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed. Every one,” Archibald explained. “But maybe it’s not racial at all, right? Maybe it’s just political. And let’s face it, it may not be either… But no matter the intent, the consequence is the same.” ...

“So roll out the welcome wagon to the Justice Department, and tell the world what it already so desperately wants to hear,” he concluded. “That Alabama is exactly what they always thought she was.”

“That Alabama refuses to pay for its own government, and used it as an excuse to keep black people from the polls. That Alabama hasn’t changed a bit.”

Sign the petition to Attorney General Loretta Lynch:

“The right to vote is under attack. Launch an immediate investigation into the attempt by Alabama state officials to suppress African-American votes.”

[O Really]

Those people are dumber than rocks. Even if it was strictly budgetary with no discriminatory intent (yeah, right ), to not notice the effect is beyond stupid. To do it "accidentally" is almost dumber than admitting to a continued blatant attempt to stifle black votes.

[Vrede too]

Alabama Addresses Voter Suppression Accusations By Keeping Rural DMVs Open One Day A Month

... In a recent campaign visit to Alabama, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton slammed the state’s Republican legislature for cutting funds for the DMV offices amid their budget crisis, calling it “a blast from the Jim Crow past.” Other critics have noted that both the voter ID law itself and the DMV closures could have been prevented had the full Voting Rights Act of 1965 not been severely limited by a 2013 Supreme Court ruling — based on a case that also originated in Alabama.

A federal bill to restore the Voting Rights Act’s protections was introduced in June, but the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has so far declined to take it up.

Alabama governor fires back at U.S. DOT investigation

The U.S. Department of Transportation has launched an investigation into the closure or reduction in services at 34 drivers' license office in Alabama, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced in a statement Wednesday morning....

The investigation is being launched as part of the agency's responsibilities under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make sure federal dollars going to state and local governments are used in a non-discriminatory fashion.

"Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation is making it clear that Title VI is not optional and that we will work to make sure all of its components are enforced," according to the statement from Foxx. "Driver License Offices offer essential services to the American people, including providing thousands in Alabama with a method of identification. It is critical that these services be free of discrimination, and serve the people of the state fairly and equally."

... If Alabama was found to be discriminatory in the closures, FOXX told CNN that the DOT's first recourse would be to get Alabama to voluntarily comply with any changes DOT deemed necessary. If the state does not do that DOT would have the ability to suspend federal money going to the state, which could cost Alabama "millions of dollars," he said....

[Vrede too]

Scott Walker Dramatically Rewrites Election Rules In Wisconsin
He signed bills loosening campaign finance laws and dismantling an independent state elections board.

[Seth Milner]

This thread began 3 years ago. Surely you all don't think that any of that line-up of clowns (Republicans) is going to steal the election, do you?
I see one, maybe two that might would be serious contenders, but it appears Trump is saying what the majority wants to hear; never mind his arrogance, inexperience in politics, and lack of diplomacy. On the Democratic side, I see only one serious contender.

[O Really]

Probably not the Presidency, but there are a lot of other elections to steal, particularly on a state level. And they've been good at it.

[Seth Milner]

Probably not the Presidency, but there are a lot of other elections to steal, particularly on a state level. And they've been good at it.

Money talks and bullshit walks.

[O Really]

Buying an election isn't the same as stealing it.

[rstrong]

This thread began 3 years ago. Surely you all don't think that any of that line-up of clowns (Republicans) is going to steal the election, do you?

It's not the clown car that people are worried about. Its done at a lower level.

Like the story a couple of posts up. Alabama requiring ID from the DMV to vote, and then closing all the DMVs in poor areas where people are more likely to vote Democrat.

Gerrymandering is wide-spread and well documented. Both sides do it, but lately for Republicans it's become an art.

In the last election where vast numbers of people wrongly found themselves on list of voters with felony convictions and thus unable to vote, it was shown that it wasn't happening randomly at all. It was far more likely to happen to people with black-sounding names.

There's also swiftboating tactics. You know, named after the Republican-produced book about John Kerry, measured in lies per paragraph. These books have become a standard part of any Republican campaign, without a Democrat equivalent. This time with Hillary, there's the Benghazi and other disinformation campaigns.

Watch for Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, LLP - the folks who brought you the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - to launch bullshit lawsuits against Democrat candidates as they've done numerous times in the past. Lawsuits that get launched just before the election and dismissed right after, because the only point is to last-minute smear candidates as having legal problems. (In 2012 for example they sued Shuttle astronaut and local Democratic candidate Jose Hernandez for calling himself an astronaut.)

Stealing an election isn't about just stealing it outright. In a system where the White House is usually won by a couple percentage points - and in in Bush I's case won by LESS than a majority of voters, it's about stealing smaller percentages here and there.

[O Really]

Republicans like to justify their gerrymandering by "Dems do it too," which of course doesn't make it right, but let's give them that for sake of discussion. What don't Dems do? They don't limit access to polls or reduce voting places or times. They don't put up artificial obstacles to voting by creating unnecessary and illogical rules. ("must have government-issued ID." "Opps, that government-issued state university ID won't work." And on and on.

[Vrede too]

This thread lists in detail the many ways in which the Republicans are working on plans to outright steal elections. Maybe Seth Milner should look through it before posting out of ignorance, again. As stated, it's not just about POTUS elections, it's also the thousands of lower offices. And, as we've seen, POTUS elections can come down to a few thousand votes in one or more swing states. Thus, minor voter suppression and other ant-democratic schemes can have a major effect.

[rstrong]

On the Democratic side, I see only one serious contender.

Too put that into perspective, even Bernie Sanders is more popular than Trump, but the press ignores him.

About 16 percent of Americans identify Bernie Sanders as their top choice for the next president; Trump is preferred by about 11 percent of the population -- Sanders is nearly 50% more popular than Trump, but Trump outperforms him in press headlines by as much as 23:1.

[Vrede too]

I would bet on Hillary being the Dem nominee, but there's enough scandal swirling around her that her lead could evaporate in a heartbeat. If so, the general election is more likely to be about how awful the GOP nominee and other leadership is than how left Bernie is. Then, there is the real possibility that Trump won't be the GOP nominee and runs as an independent, thus handing the election to any Dem.

[O Really]

That's not scandal swirling. It's just right-wing trash talk. Not that she's always been perfect, but you can pretty well bet that she's been working on her Presidential run since before 1992, and is very experienced in dealing with bullshit witch-hunts like Whitewater, yada. Neither Benghazi nor the (gasp) email server is going anywhere. And I bet nobody finds her with a ho or cheating on her taxes.

[Vrede too]

The GOP's hypocritical and incessant overreaction to Benghazi has seemed to have helped her. I'm not a rightwinger predicting outcomes but the emails are still being investigated by the FBI, and there's the coziness with Wall Street and the Clinton Foundation donations overlap with her SoS work. Whether these come to anything or not, she's not the epitome of squeaky clean and, as Howard Dean knows, weird stuff happens in politics. Maybe I could have worded it better, but my point is that Seth Milner's contention that, "On the Democratic side, I see only one serious contender," is nonsense.

Just for fun, betting odds on Sanders to win: 5th, 6th, 6th, 5th, not bad for a cranky old socialist. If Hillary were to stumble, he would assuredly move up more than one slot.

[Seth Milner]

I've not decided yet; either party. Bernie impresses me more than the other contenders of both parties, but in reality, I despise politics.

[Vrede too]

Tell the DOJ: Investigate Alabama's Voting Rights Violations (petition)