Voter Supression
Mail Sorting Machines Removed
August 12, 2020


About two weeks ago I warned of mail-slowdown tactics by Republican mega-donor and Trump's new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who has $30-$75 million invested in USPS competitors.

During the pandemic, voting by U.S. Mail (absentee ballot) is more important than ever before.

DeJoy has not just eliminated overtime hours. DeJoy has taken mail processing and mail sorting machines out of postal facilities in Iowa, which has become a swing-state for 2020. (He's DeJoy, and he's DeLay.) We only know about the removal of the machines because the Iowa Postal Workers Union complained to NPR. What other swing states have had their postal machines stolen?

When the Grinch stole the Christmas tree of Cindy Lou Who, he explained the crime by saying he was taking it in for repairs.

What's Trump's excuse?

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Music Association: Marvelettes - Stop! Wait A Minute, Mr. Postman








Minnesota Primary
Vote
August 11, 2020


Hopefully you have already voted by mail: followed the instructions so your ballot won't get rejected and sent it in early. To date, more than half a million Minnesotans have requested absentee ballots for today's primary election and about 423,000 ballots have been sent in and accepted.

If not, Minnesota voters should vote today (Tuesday, August 11) in the primary (and vote again in the general election on or before Tuesday, November 3, 2020).

Polling locations can be found through the Minnesota Office of the Secretary of State or by calling 651-215-1440 or 1-877-600-VOTE (8683).

Here is information on registering to vote on Election Day.

Election judges will be wearing masks and will sanitize surfaces for your protection. Voters must wear masks and practice social distancing for the protection of other voters and election judges. Curbside voting is available by request.

If voters aren’t already wearing masks or face coverings, they will be offered a disposable mask in the polling place. If they refuse to wear the mask, they can cast a ballot through curbside voting without violating the state’s mask requirement. If a voter declines a mask and curbside voting, they will still be allowed to vote, but their name will be recorded as in violation of the mask requirement.

             

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Music Association: Rush - Freewill
“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”








Don't Wait
Vote Before November 3rd
July 26, 2020


Expect trouble. Expect voter suppression. Expect your name to have been taken off the voting rolls.

If you are voting by mail, expect the mail to be slower than ever before because President Trump's new Postmaster General (Republican mega-donor and Trump ally Louis DeJoy) has canceled all post office overtime to (if you believe this) save money.  

Go to vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote and spend 30 seconds entering your name, address and date of birth, to find out instantly if your voter registration is current. If not, follow the instructions to register. Next, go to vote.org/absentee-ballot and sign up to receive an absentee ballot for the November 3rd election. It takes about two minutes. Make sure your friends and family do the same. If they’re technology-challenged, help them through it or give them the phone numbers for their states’ election offices, available at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. (This paragraph is on loan from a Washington Post Op-Ed.)

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Music Association: Four Tops - I'll Be There







Voter Suppression
Voter ID
August 30, 2018


Voter Identification is a relatively new requirement by states to prevent voter impersonation. Voter impersonation may have never happened or at most, may have happened in 31 cases from 2000-2014.

Indiana became the first state to enact a strict photo ID law in 2006. Since then, 33 states have enacted some form of voter ID requirement. Strict photo ID is required by: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Strict non-photo ID is required by: Arizona and Ohio.

Minnesota voters rejected a voter ID proposal on the 2012 general election ballot with 54% of voters against the proposal. It is the only such ballot defeat for a voter ID law in the country.

Ten percent of voters do not have a government issued photo ID. For people who make less than $35,000 a year, 15% do not have a photo ID. Twenty percent of Asian-Americans do not have a photo ID. Twenty-five percent of African-Americans do not have a photo ID.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver had a segment on Voter ID, which included video of people voting on behalf of others in state legislatures. He proposed having legislators get new IDs before each vote.

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Music Association: The Who - Who Are You









Voter Suppression
Voting Matters
August 29, 2018


Vote.

It doesn't matter to me who you vote for on November 6th as much as that you vote. Or do the early voting or vote by mail.

Reverse chronological order is 2020, which is when (hopefully) many more people will vote and not have their votes suppressed. Previously, I talked about voter suppression by:

• felony disenfranchisement
• closing voting precincts
• targeting college students
• attacking the media
• voter purges - Kris Kobach crap
• voter fraud claims - more Kris Kobach crap
• denying the right to vote
• candidate clones
• gerrymandering

I don't understand the paranoia that causes politicians to scare people out of voting. I understand it from Russian oligarchs not Americans. Republicans are doing much of it now, using an antique playbook from the Democrats. Scaring voters scares voters without regard to demographics. Target college students and old people will complain about how voting was never so complicated in “their day.”

Racism is a major theme of voter suppression. I don't understand that either. Demographic groups are more diverse than politicians or pollsters imagine. There can be a candidate (Trump) who goes out of his way to attack a group (Mexicans) and still there were Mexican-Americans who voted for him. While there aren't specific numbers for Mexican-Americans, the Hispanic vote, representing about 20 national origins, was 29% for Trump and 65% for Clinton in 2016. People vote (or don't vote) as individuals, not as groups.

Another theme is the role of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the champion of voter fraud claims and voter purges using the flawed concepts of Crosscheck.

Voter suppression is unnecessary. The electoral system and the candidates do enough to suppress voting without state governments trying to rig the game.

Minnesota is at the top of the country for voter turnout. Hey other 49 states, vote!

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Music Association: Metallica - Nothing Else Matters









Voter Suppression
Felons Know Candidates
Why Can't They Vote?
August 27, 2018


Felons are subject matter experts on crime, ideal to weigh in on candidates who:

• accept bribes, compensation, and gifts from foreign governments and agents
• hire foreign agents and give access to classified secrets
• seek loyalty from law enforcement officials
• fire or force out law enforcement officials
• obstruct justice
• tamper with witnesses
• make false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States
• break campaign finance laws
• pay bribes and hush money payments
• pressure government agencies to punish an enemy
• discuss the elimination of due process rights
• receive hacked emails prior to Wikileaks release
• revoke the security clearance of a political enemy

Most states disenfranchise felons, either temporarily or permanently, preventing them from voting. Maine and Vermont are the only states with unrestricted voting rights for felons. Florida has 1.5 million disenfranchised voters.

But felony disenfranchisement has nothing to do with crime or knowing crime. It's about racism.

Read about the “Racial Threat and Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States 1850-2002” by Angela Behren and Christopher Uggen of the University of Minnesota and Jeff Manza of Northwestern University  (American Journal of Sociology 109, no. 3 from November 2003: pages 559-605).

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Music Association: Scott Joplin - Solace (from The Sting)
 










Voter Suppression
Georgia County Nearly Disables 7 of 9 Voting Places
August 25, 2018


Yesterday was weird.

Randolph County's Board of Elections, all two of them, took a 30 second vote in front of a national spotlight, to keep all nine of their voting precincts open.

Mike Malone, a consultant recommended by Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office, had proposed closing seven of the nine polling places in Randolph County, where 60 percent of residents are black, nearly a third live in poverty, and about a quarter don't have a car.

“Folks, I will tell you right now, your polling places are not ADA-compliant, period,” said Malone. “You have to have compliant polling places.” When a county resident asked if he would be open to finding other ADA-compliant polling locations, Malone said he was “not hired to find alternatives.” Right. Randolph County did not hire him to evaluate the polling place toilets for Americans With Disabilities Act compliance at all. Malone donated $250 to Kemp's campaign for governor.

Some people got suspicious that election officials were trying to suppress the black vote. The timing of the proposal led civil rights groups to assume it cuts votes in the Democratic-leaning county away from Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia House minority leader who's trying to become the first African-American governor in the country. Abrams faces Kemp, a Republican, in the November 6th general election.

The entire Randolph County Board of Elections was nervous on Friday. Board member Michele Graham said, “I move that the Randolph County Board of Elections and Registration make no change to the voting precincts in Randolph County.”

The other board member Scott Peavy said, “There is a motion, and I second it, and the vote shall be. All in favor say, ‘Aye.’”

“Aye,” both said.

“This meeting is adjourned,” said Peavy.

The audience, which included representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and members of the state and local branches of the NAACP, applauded the vote.

Last Wednesday, August 22nd, the county fired Malone. He previously bragged that he had closed voting precincts before in Morgan and Greene counties. In 2008, state records show Greene County had 10 voting precincts. By the 2016 presidential election, Greene County had reduced to eight precincts, a 20 percent drop.

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Music Association: The Carpenters - Close To You









Voter Suppression
New Hampshire Thinks Small
August 19, 2018


New Hampshire is a solidly divided state with 44% of its voters claiming no political affiliation.

Of its 1.3 million residents, about 880,000 are registered voters. In the 2016 presidential election, 47.59% voted Democrat and 47.22% voted Republican — a difference of 2,736 votes to win the state for Hillary Clinton.

The New Hampshire legislature (the General Court), which has almost always been Republican, and Republican Governor Sununu decided to tip the scale by targeting college students.

New Hampshire has a bunch of colleges I've never heard of, plus the University of New Hampshire (15,000 students, 40% from New Hampshire) and Dartmouth College (6,400 students).

To suppress (remove) about 3,000 votes, Governor Sununu signed House Bill 1264 last month, which requires anyone choosing to vote in New Hampshire be a resident of the state.

Under the existing election law, college students — even those who are not originally from New Hampshire — can vote in the state because they are “domiciled,” which means that they live [in New Hampshire] for most of the year without officially being “residents.” When HB 1264 takes effect in 2019, non-residents will need to obtain a New Hampshire driver’s license and register their car in the state in order to become eligible to vote.

“It’s a poll tax,” said Garrett Muscatel, a Dartmouth College student and candidate for state representative. “Especially on students who may not be New Hampshire residents permanently, but they live here and they spend most of their time here, and they want to be members of their community.” Muscatel said he recently spent $300 to register his car in preparation for his Statehouse bid. The process, which he said took about a month, included obtaining a letter from the university affirming his campus residency to prove to the town clerk that he lived there, and a 45-minute drive each way to the New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles.

The 14 offices of the New Hampshire Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) are dispersed throughout the state, except not near Dartmouth or UNH, and none of them are open evenings or weekends. At most, they are open Monday-Friday 8am-4:30pm, when most students are in classes.

Dartmouth College is in Hanover in the middle-left of the map to the right. The closest DMV office is in Newport (20 North Main Street, Newport, NH 03773) about 30 miles south of Hanover, where driver's licenses can be transferred from another state. The transfer of the motor vehicle registration is done at the Hanover town clerk's office (41 South Main Street), which is also open Monday-Friday 8am-4:30pm.

The University of New Hampshire students would be driving from Durham southeast to Dover (50 Boston Harbor Road, Dover, NH 03820) near Portsmouth, where driver's licenses can be transferred from another state. The transfer of the motor vehicle registration is done at the Durham clerk's office, which shows some of the math involved in calculating the vehicle registration fee. The state fee is either $43.20 or $55.20 depending on the weight category of the vehicle. The local fee is a personal property tax of $18 per $1000 of the list price of a current model year. The $18 drops by $3 per year older than the current model year, so last year's model is $15 per $1000 of the list price on down and ending at $3. Vehicles are registered in the birth month of the owner; initially the fees are pro-rated from the date of registration to the birth month. Another fee will be added for payment by credit card.

Senior Living recently decided New Hampshire senior citizens are happiest, after looking at CDC data from the state. Senior Living never looked at the Voter ID documents at the New Hampshire Secretary of State website. New Hampshire seniors who get confused and vote more than once for any office or measure, ought to read the Voter ID document and the Voter ID Explanation document, as they may be charged with a class B felony and a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000. Imagine if old people moved to New Hampshire from another state.

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Music Association: Genesis - Land Of Confusion
Dartmouth College motto: Vox clamantis in deserto (a voice crying out in the wilderness)









The Checks and Balances
Accounting for Media
August 16, 2018


Media in all its shapes and forms are part of the checks and balances of democracy.

At its best, media digs for information, makes calls and emails, checks sources, reads through large documents, sits through the slow machinations of government, sifts through it all, and tells you what it gleans. It questions presidents and policies. It attacks. It presses. It saves praises for the obituaries.

Hiding rolls of film in a toilet water tan- (let's say) reservoir to get pictures of heroics to print... reporting illegal activities and cover ups of a President... these are the highest standards of the press.

It also screws up, announcing President Dewey's win in 1948 and printing the 1963 route of the Presidential motorcade in Dallas. And Fox News.

It far too often regurgitates what it hears, while ignoring context and bias. It is far from perfect.

But it is better than corporate and Presidential proclamations and propaganda.

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Music Associations: Paul McCartney - Press
& the Queen of Soul, the late great Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) - Think














Election Primaries
Vote Today, Minnesota!
August 14, 2018


It's primary election day in Minnesota!

From 7am to 8pm, polling places will be open today to cast your votes for:

Despite what the Star Tribune reported today, if you have already registered to vote, you don't need identification.


For more information call 1-866-687-8683

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Music Association: George Michael - Freedom
Twin Cities Calendar - August 14, 2018






Voter Suppression
Voter Purges
August 10, 2018


Imagine going to vote and your name is no longer on the voter registration lists. You've been purged!

Almost 16 million voters were removed from the voting rolls between 2014 and 2016 — four million more than had been purged between 2006 and 2008 — a 33% increase that far outstripped growth in both total registered voters (18%) and total population (6%).

On April 19, 2016, thousands of eligible Brooklyn, New York voters showed up to cast their ballots in the presidential primary, only to find their names missing from the voters lists. The New York City Board of Elections had improperly deleted more than 200,000 names from the voter rolls.

In 2013, nearly 39,000 voters were removed the voter rolls when the state relied on a faulty database (Crosscheck) to delete voters who allegedly had moved out of the commonwealth. Error rates in some counties ran as high as 17%.

In June 2016, the Arkansas Secretary Of State provided a list to the state's 75 county clerks suggesting that more than7,700 names be removed from the rolls because of supposed felony convictions. The list from the Arkansas Crime Information Center included people who had some connection with the courts, such as filing for divorce.

On  August 8, 2018, a federal court issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the state and county boards of elections from purging voters based on mass challenges filed by private parties. These groups targetted three counties with “voter caging” -- mass mailed postcards to verify addresses that cannot be forwarded.


Crosscheck - Questionable Databases
While most states previously used the National Change of Address database compiled by the U.S. Postal Service, many states have more recently used dubious databases like the Kansas-based Crosscheck program, run by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Crosscheck creates matches based on birthdate, first and last name, which means Crosscheck finds false matches all the time.

Crosscheck - Chances of Having the Same Birthday
A book on my bookshelf, Harry Anderson's Games You Can't Lose, talks about the odds of people in a room having the same birthday. In a room of 30 people, you might think the odds are 12 to 1 (365 days divided by 30 people). “However you are not wagering on two people sharing one particular birthday (such as yours). You are betting that two people will share any birthday. This is what is known as progressive calculation. Each additional person adds another set of calculations to the odds. The fact is the chances are around fifty-fifty with 22 persons present. Every added person increases the odds” so that with 30 people the odds are 4 to 1 of finding two people with the same birthday. In a group of 180 people, it's more than likely that two people will have been born on the exact same day.

Crosscheck - Understanding Common Names
Over the past century, the United States has had 4.7 million James babies, 4.5 million John babies, 4.5 million Robert babies, 3.3 million Mary babies, 1.5 million Patricia babies, and 1.4 million Jennifer babies. The 2010 census found 2.4 million people with the last name Smith. Johnson accounted for 1.9 million, Williams was 1.6 million, Brown was 1.4 million, Jones was 1.4 million, Garcia was 1.1 million, Miller was 1.1 million, Davis was 1.1 million, Rodriguez was 1 million, and Martinez was 1 million. Common surnames are shared by 50% of communities of color, while only 30% of white people share common surnames. White voter names are underrepresented by 8%, African-American voters are overrepresented by 45%; Hispanic voters are overrepresented by 24%; and Asian voters are overrepresented by 31%. Minority voters are significantly overrepresented on Crosscheck.


Purges: A Growing Threat to the Right To Vote by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School urges that states notify voters who may be removed from the rolls so that errors can be averted. It also urges more states to join the 12 that, along with Washington, D.C., provide for automatic voter registration when a citizen interacts with a state agency (in California or Minnesota, the Department of Motor Vehicles). Automatic registration, it says, better tracks changes of address, reducing the need for purges and questionable databases.

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Music Association: U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name







Voter Suppression
Voter Fraud Claims
August 6, 2018


Just before the 2016 election, Donald Trump was starting to make claims of voter fraud, expecting to continue those claims throughout the Hillary Clinton administration. But he won.

Donald Trump won the 2016 election but lost the popular vote and continued to make unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. A committee, PACEI (May 2017 - January 2018), was formed to dig up signs of voter fraud. Kris Kobach, the operational leader of PACEI, kept its findings hidden from some of its own members. One committee member, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, twice sued the committee to release its documents, which are posted on the Maine Secretary of State's website.

Dunlap sent a letter to the committee chairs last Friday (August 3, 2018), saying:

The 29 PDF documents (7.37gb) listed on the Maine Secretary of State's website do not include details about the files, so here they are:

0001 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0000001.pdf) - 562pages, 217mb
emails w/ selective redactions mostly from Andrew Kossack, p212 shutting states out on security from Russian hacking, p465-479 Garden State Gotcha, p480-499 Martinez-Rivera, p500-550 Bellitto v. Snipes

0563 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0000563.pdf) - 652pages, 271mb
p001-015 Garden State Gotcha, p016-035 Martinez-Rivera, 036-086 Bellitto-v-Snipes, meeting agenda, emails, Trump email p107-109, NH Operator ID cards p179, p269-273 The Measure of American Elections 2014, p363-413 Bellitto v. Snipes, p414-433 Martinez-Rivera, email, minutes, p566-580 Garden State Gotcha (15pages-redacted), p627-635 Brennan Center for Justice 7-4-2017

1215 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0001215.pdf) - 949pages, 255mb
p016-094, 119-193 MT lawsuit, p194-218 PA issues, p229-503 Bellitto-v-Snipes transcript, p504-556 index, p573-607 John Lott Jr show, p611-626 Simpatico show, p668-678 Andrew Appel story, p680-695 Voting By Mail, p696-702 Kimball Brace show, p703-714 Paul Gronke resume, p721-739 Simpatico story, p743-745 Senate letter, p754-765 NH memos, p769-783 Kobach letters to states, p799-850 NH coalition letter, p857-872 Simpatico show, p880-897 Simpatico story, p912-943 John Lott Jr show, p944-945 Bratlie copy of MN voter rolls, p949 Maine denies request

2164 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0002164.pdf) - 442pages, 254mb
Kossack emails, p048-065 Simpatico story, p090-118 GAI (Government Accountability Institute tries to sound like GAO) story, p120-121 KY reply, p126-134 NH memos, p142-155 Hans Spakovsky, p247-348 Kobach letters to states, p382-388 Andrew Smith show, p389-417 GAI, p419-420 KY reply, p425-437 Hans Spakovsky, p438-442 Nordic show

2606 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0002606.pdf) - 395pages, 269mb
p001-009 Nordic show, web pages, p032-038 Andrew Smith show, p039-067 GAI story, p069-070 KY reply, p075-087 Hans Spakovsky, p088-101 Nordic show, emails & webpages, p201-231 ACLU-v-PACEI, p232-253 Common Cause-v-PACEI, p254-269 EPIC-v-PACEI, p275-395 ACLU-Florida-v-PACEI

3001  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0003001.pdf) - 313pages, 247mb
p001-056 NAACP-v-PACEI, p057-076 Lawyers Committee, p081-182 Kobach letters to states, p184 "Commission's Real Goal: Voter Suppression" by E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post (upside down), p188-196 CO reply, p197-198 WY reply, p205-306 Kobach letters to states

3314 is the same as 3761 & 4201 & 4648 & 5095 & 5542
3314  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0003314.pdf) - 53pages, 311mb
p01-53 The Election Process - Kimball Brace show

3367 is the same as 4254 & 4701 & 5148 & 5595
3367  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0003367.pdf) - 167pages, 265mb
p001-009 unknown show, p010-050 Andrew Appel show, p059-073  Garden State Gotcha (15pages), p074-078 Judge Alan King statement - "This Commission, and we as a people, should be expanding the rights of our citizens to vote, instead of arguably looking for ways to keep people from voting." website copies, p091-121 John Lott Jr story, p122-131 Bellitto v. Snipes, p132-142 Martinez-Rivera, p143-167 Bellitto v. Snipes

3534 is the same as 3974 & 4421 & 4868 & 5315
3534  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0003534.pdf) - 227pages, 272mb
p001-007 VIP-NC, 039-052 Andrew Smith show, p053-081 GAI story, p083-084 KY reply, p089-113 Hans Spakovsky show, p114-140 Nordic show, p141-156 Simpatico, p157-158 NH memo, p159-190 John Lott Jr show, p191-226 Ronald Rivest show

3761 is the same as 3314 & 4201 & 4648 & 5095 & 5542
3761  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0003761.pdf) - 53pages, 311mb
p01-53 The Election Process - Kimball Brace show

3814  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0003814.pdf) - 160pages, 263mb
p001-009 unknown show, p010-050 Andrew Appel show, p052-066  Garden State Gotcha (15pages), p067-71 Judge Alan King statement - "This Commission, and we as a people, should be expanding the rights of our citizens to vote, instead of arguably looking for ways to keep people from voting." website copies, p084-114 John Lott Jr story, p115-124 Bellitto v. Snipes, p125-135 Martinez-Rivera, p136-160 Bellitto v. Snipes

3974 is the same as 3534 & 4421 & 4868 & 5315
3974  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0003974.pdf) - 227pages, 272mb
p001-007 VIP-NC, 039-052 Andrew Smith show, p053-081 GAI story, p083-084 KY reply, p089-113 Hans Spakovsky show, p114-140 Nordic show, p141-156 Simpatico, p157-158 NH memo, p159-190 John Lott Jr show, p191-226 Ronald Rivest show

4201 is the same as 3314 & 3761 & 4648 & 5095 & 5542
4201  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0004201.pdf) - 53pages, 311mb
p01-53 The Election Process - Kimball Brace show

4254 is the same as 3367 & 4701 & 5148 & 5595
4254  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0004254.pdf) - 167pages, 265mb
p001-009 unknown show, p010-050 Andrew Appel show, p059-073  Garden State Gotcha (15pages), p074-078 Judge Alan King statement - "This Commission, and we as a people, should be expanding the rights of our citizens to vote, instead of arguably looking for ways to keep people from voting." website copies, p091-121 John Lott Jr story, p122-131 Bellitto v. Snipes, p132-142 Martinez-Rivera, p143-167 Bellitto v. Snipes

4421 is the same as 3534 & 3974 & 4868 & 5315
4421  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0004421.pdf) - 227pages, 272mb
p001-007 VIP-NC, 039-052 Andrew Smith show, p053-081 GAI story, p083-084 KY reply, p089-113 Hans Spakovsky show, p114-140 Nordic show, p141-156 Simpatico, p157-158 NH memo, p159-190 John Lott Jr show, p191-226 Ronald Rivest show

4648 is the same as 3314 & 3761 & 4201 & 5095
4648  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0004648.pdf) - 53pages, 311mb
p01-53 The Election Process - Kimball Brace show

4701 is the same as 3367 & 4254 & 5148 & 5595
4701  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0004701.pdf) - 167pages, 265mb
p001-009 unknown show, p010-050 Andrew Appel show, p059-073  Garden State Gotcha (15pages), p074-078 Judge Alan King statement - "This Commission, and we as a people, should be expanding the rights of our citizens to vote, instead of arguably looking for ways to keep people from voting." website copies, p091-121 John Lott Jr story, p122-131 Bellitto v. Snipes, p132-142 Martinez-Rivera, p143-167 Bellitto v. Snipes

4868 is the same as 3534 & 3974 & 4421 & 5315
4868  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0004868.pdf) - 227pages, 272mb
p001-007 VIP-NC, 039-052 Andrew Smith show, p053-081 GAI story, p083-084 KY reply, p089-113 Hans Spakovsky show, p114-140 Nordic show, p141-156 Simpatico, p157-158 NH memo, p159-190 John Lott Jr show, p191-226 Ronald Rivest show

5095 is the same as 3314 & 3761 & 4201 & 4648 & 5542
5095  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0005095.pdf) - 53pages, 311mb
p01-53 The Election Process - Kimball Brace show

5148 is the same as 3367 & 4254 & 4701 & 5595
5148  (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0005148.pdf) - 167pages, 265mb
p001-009 unknown show, p010-050 Andrew Appel show, p059-073  Garden State Gotcha (15pages), p074-078 Judge Alan King statement - "This Commission, and we as a people, should be expanding the rights of our citizens to vote, instead of arguably looking for ways to keep people from voting." website copies, p091-121 John Lott Jr story, p122-131 Bellitto v. Snipes, p132-142 Martinez-Rivera, p143-167 Bellitto v. Snipes

5315 is the same as 3534 & 3974 & 4421 & 4868
5315 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0005315.pdf) - 227pages, 272mb
p001-007 VIP-NC, 039-052 Andrew Smith show, p053-081 GAI story, p083-084 KY reply, p089-113 Hans Spakovsky show, p114-140 Nordic show, p141-156 Simpatico, p157-158 NH memo, p159-190 John Lott Jr show, p191-226 Ronald Rivest show

5542 is the same as 3314 & 3761 & 4201 & 4648 & 5095
5542 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0005542.pdf) - 53pages, 311mb
p01-53 The Election Process - Kimball Brace show

5595 is the same as 3367 & 4254 & 4701 & 5148
5595 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0005595.pdf) - 167pages, 265mb
p010-050 Andrew Appel show, p059-073  Garden State Gotcha (15pages), p074-078 Judge Alan King statement - "This Commission, and we as a people, should be expanding the rights of our citizens to vote, instead of arguably looking for ways to keep people from voting." p091-121 John Lott Jr story, p122-131 Bellitto v. Snipes, p132-142 Martinez-Rivera, p143-167 Bellitto v. Snipes

5762 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0005762.pdf) - 230pages, 273mb - mostly just presentation shows
p016-26 Robert Popper story, p27-38 Donald Palmer story, p39-52 Andrew Smith show, p53-81 GAI story, p83-84 KY reply, p89-113 Hans Spakovsky show, p114-140 Nordic show, p141-156 Simpatico show, p159-190 John Lott Jr show, p191-226 Ronald Rivest show

5992 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0005992.pdf) - 617pages, 245mb
Kossack emails, p003-032 Andrew Smith show, p72 voter turnout (MN highest 1980, 1984, 1988, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012) not a voter ID state p70, p75-78 by-laws, p151-152 voter ID laws, p165-169  The Measure of American Elections 2014, p213-241 Andrew Smith show, p259-269 Co-WY state replies, p325-351 Lawyer Committee v. PACEI, p370-381 OH reply, p401-402 PA reply, p421-467 explanation of Kobach - personal email, p497 voter supression denial, p511-526 Simpatico show, p595-605 Robert Popper story

6609 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0006609.pdf) - 473pages, 192mb
Kossack emails, p016-051, 157-228, & 233-303 Ronald Rivest show, p105-132 Nordic usb-hack show, p312-343 John Lott Jr show

7652 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD001_0007652.pdf) - 473pages, 190mb
3-hole punched website clippings, p369-470 Kobach Letters to SOS's (July 26, 2017)

2-0001 (http://paceidocs.sosonline.org/PDF/PROD002_0000001.pdf) - 1618pages, 125mb
postcards & emails opposing the sharing of state voting records, p497 postcards again, much from Indiana (Holmcombe) and New Hampshire (Gardner), p558-600 redacted, p1331 postcards again, p1430 more postcards


Obviously, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity was the Department of Redundancy Department. A better understanding of voter fraud is provided by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.

---

Music Association: ACDC - Hells Bells












NRA (National Russian Activist) Pete Brownell, Russian spy Maria Butina, and Donald Trump, Jr at NRA (National Russian Alliance) meeting in Louisville, Kentucky (May 2016).






Voter Suppression
The Right to Vote
August 5, 2018


The Bill of Rights is a name applied to the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution and is kind of a misnomer. The first ten amendments do not list rights. They restrain Congress from blocking certain rights, using “restrictive clauses.” It's about establishing government, not setting law. The right to vote is not in the Bill of Rights nor in the United States Constitution.

Constitutional amendments prevent the denial or limits of the right to vote due to race, gender, age, or failure to pay a poll tax.

• The 15th Amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
• The 19th Amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
• The 26th Amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.”
• The 24th Amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.”

The 19th Amendment is understood to remove the gender limit on the 14th Amendment, and the 26th Amendment is understood to alter the age limit in the 14th Amendment from 21 to 18. Paragraph 2 of the 14th Amendment says:

If states deny the right to vote, the 14th Amendment says their representation could be reduced by the percentage of denied votes over all eligible votes from that state. So, if the state has ten U.S. Representatives and denies ten percent of its eligible voters from voting, then one Representative (10%) will not be allowed to be in the U.S. House of Representatives. Or none of that state's U.S. Representatives will be allowed in the House for the first 10% of the number of days scheduled to meet. I don't think any of that has ever happened.

The right to vote is established and altered or rescinded by state governments.

---

Music Association: Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right


 





Voter Suppression
The Future of Voting
August 1, 2018


Someday, every American will be available to cast a vote.

When you dive headfirst into the pool of voter suppression, you find the waters thick with obstacles, complications, and outright lies thrown in by men afraid of difference and change. Everything here is labeled like political cartoons. Some of it is as simple as having candidates who are all the same age (old), same race (white), and same gender (men). Issues buried in bullshit and negative bias are other dirty elements of the voter suppression pool. The flashing signs are SuperPAC sponsored media messages, thanks to Citizens United. The odd looking drain on the side of the pool purges the voting rolls. That leaky raft is a voter ID, a modern version of a literacy test or a poll tax. Those narrowing squiggly pool dividers are gerrymandering. Old prison fatigues and unisex swimsuits are labeled disfranchisement. That faulty timer limits early voting. That soggy, undelivered registered mail is from a caging list. The crowd on the front edge of the pool is labeled high turnout. That skeleton in the lifeguard stand is labeled electoral integrity and partisan mistrust.

Take a deep breath, plug your nose, and dive in.

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Music Association: Steve Windwood - Arc Of A Diver
Twin Cities Calendar - August 14, 2018 - Primary Election Day
             & Tuesday, November 6, 2018 - Election Day


















By The Numbers
Yelling “Next!”
July 27, 2018


On John Oliver's third Last Week Tonight show, back in May of 2014, he pointed out the stupidity of polls surveying people's opinions on facts. Oliver said, “You don't need people's opinions on a fact. You might as well have a poll asking which number is bigger, fifteen or five. Or do owls exist? Or are there hats? The debate on climate change should not be whether or not it exists. It's what we should do about it... ”




A new NBC News poll compares the stupidity of registered voters in three northern Midwest states.


Voters in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan were asked if they approve or disapprove of President Trump. The approval rating was 38% in Minnesota and 36% in Wisconsin and Michigan.



Voters were also asked if President Trump deserves to be re-elected. The polls had 30% of Minnesota voters re-electing him. Wisconsin was 31%. Michigan was 28% for re-electing Trump.

Voters should have also been asked which number is bigger, fifteen or five.

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Music Association: Steely Dan - Rikki Don't Lose That Number








By The Numbers
Issues That Count
July 16, 2018


You are offered a choice of three candidates.

You pick one but are told your candidate may not win due to the electoral college making each vote a state-by-state contest. They offer to let you change your vote to one of the two candidates left. Is it better to change your vote or stick with your initial pick?

It almost sounds like the Monty Hall problem, except candidates are not new cars. They are each at least 35 year old. They have been around the block. Their tires have been kicked. Some have a trunk full of baggage.

In the Monty Hall problem, a contestant picks one of three doors, trying to get a car but two of the doors each have a goat. One of the goats is particularly ornery and confused. Before opening the door the contestant picked, the host opens a different door, which has a less-ornery goat. The host might give the contestant the option to switch doors (presumably to the other unopened door) or stay with the initial pick. Or the host might offer bribes to not switch. Three thousand dollars. Four thousand dollars. Five thousand dollars. “Cash money.”

What should they do?

The contestant stares at the two unopened doors, thinks it is one or the other, so it's a fifty-fifty chance. The contestant and the voter have already lost. They are facing the wrong problem.

Why doesn't their vote count? Who is trying to get voters to see a three-way race as a two-way race?

The host is playing psychological games, offering a switch or making the contestant think their selection is valuable by trying to bribe them not to switch. Russia and Cambridge Analytica were practicing psychological warfare too in the 2016 U.S. election and other elections worldwide.

Monty Hall summed up the Monty Hall problem by saying, “If you can get me to offer you $5,000 not to open the door, take the money and go home.”

Monty Hall died last September. I cannot help wonder if his will offered his three children: an envelope, a curtain, or a seemingly simple box of Rice-a-Roni (the San Francisco treat).




“The angry man will defeat himself in battle and in life.”  - Samuri maxim

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Music Association: Nena - 99 Luftballons













That's Entertainment
Old School Media
July 13, 2018


The modern dodgeball of entertainment and advertising has so thoroughly dominated lives, that people wonder what life was like before media-phones.

It used to be books.

Abe Lincoln used to walk miles to borrow a book. At least that's what I heard on TV or a podcast or on Wikipedia or an exercise commercial or something.

It probably went something like this.

Knock, knock.

“Oh, it's that Lincoln boy again. Let's act like we're not home.”

“He already borrowed a book. We only have the two books!”

---

Music Association: Gordon Lightfoot - Read My Mind
Picture Caption: “Hey, that's my book!”








Language Watch
Immigration
July 10, 2018




No immigrant has taken a job from a real American. You were laid off by a capitalist who took advantage of that immigrant to increase profits.
Nothing makes that capitalist happier than to hear that you're idiotic enough to blame the immigrant and not the business owner who laid off the more expensive laborer.

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Music Association: Billie Holiday - They Can't Take That Away













Two Steps Back
Democracy In-Action
July 4, 2018


History almost never marches forward.
It does side-steps of ego, fear, and power grabs.
Progress isn't very progressive.

When I was a kid, I had a poster on my wall that said,
“When My Brother Is Imprisoned, I Am Not Free.”
Being sent to my room without dinner was a social issue.

I imagined a fair world, a just world, and a free world.
I was told that was what we had.
I read Plato's Republic, Thomas More's Utopia, and Thomas Paine's Common Sense.

I was told we had a better world.
I was told we were the free world.
I was told we were the land of opportunity.

I was told everyone could vote.
I was told the person with the most votes won.
I was told we lived in a democracy.

I was told lies.

The United States is a limited-democratic, representational republic
with more prisoners than any other country
and cowering old people afraid of strangers.

Our voting rights differ state-by-state.
District lines drawn to box in minority parties.
With only Maine and Vermont allowing prisoners to vote.

Russians colluded with the presidential candidate's sons and staff,
while Facebook's data fueled Cambridge Analytica
to manipulate the flaws of the Electoral College.

Shutting out and shutting up, isn't what this country was about.
That wasn't what I was told.
That wasn't the sales job I received.

As we celebrate Independence Day, may mental fireworks highlight what our democracy should be.

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Music Association: The Who - I'm Free
Book Quotation: “Pride's criterion of prosperity is not what you've got yourself, but what other people haven't got. Pride would refuse to set foot in paradise, if there'd be no under-privileged classes there to gloat over and order about...” - Utopia by Thomas More, 1516








Music Videos

Landmine Hopscotch


Superman


Impact Investing





Holiday Gifs of Cats and Kittens Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5  




Southdale Hennepin Library


Wonder Woman


Food Fraud