Voter Fraud in Florida? Gimme a break.

"True the Vote" Has Found Absentee Voter Fraud!

Apparently the right wing Republican-supported "non-partisan" group True the Vote which has been ceaselessly looking for voting fraud in the protection of our democracy (Yes, I'm being sarcastic) found 173 cases of people registered and apparently voting in both Florida and Maryland.

Wow... 173 between these two states alone.

That could extrapolate to up to 200,000 people registered and apparently voting in two states all over the United States.  Over 127,000,000 people voted in the most recent 2012 elections, so has True the Vote found proof that 0.16%, that is, a fraction of a percent of votes cast in 2012,  are fraudulent because they were cast by the same person in two different states?

I can just imagine the right wing talkers going bonkers over this statistic. After all, some group in Florida called the FloridaWatchdog.org is posting headlines screaming that Absentee Ballot Fraud is Rampant in Florida!  

From the article:

MIAMI — Just when the whole messy, unsavory business of electoral fraud seems to have died down in Florida, someone has to go and turn up another case.

True the Vote, a citizen-led organization that looks to restore truth, faith, and integrity to elections, has found 173 new cases of electoral fraud in Florida and Maryland. As reported in our story last Wednesday, it appears that some voters believe they are entitled to be registered in more than one state and cast more than one vote.

How dare those cheating Democrats!  

A pox on those lying, cheating Democrats and all of their houses!  One sixth of a percent!  (Sarcasm again.) A sixth of a percent is not much, but it might, in some very rare cases, if concentrated in one or two districts or counties, cause the results of a very close race to be WRONG!  

Except...

Well...  Don't get too excited yet, Republicans...  You haven't found the wholesale fraud that you are dying to uncover.  Here's the whole story:

Of those 173 dual-registered-and-voting cases, only TEN, yes, that's right:  TEN as in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, TEN! dual registered voters voted in the 2012 federal election in Florida.  137 dated back to 2006!

If we extrapolate the ten dual voters found in Florida and Maryland in 2012, we could have up to 12,000 dual registered-and-voted people in 2012 throughout the United States.  Twelve thousand out of the 127 million that voted... That's one in ten thousand fraudulent votes.  One in ten thousand. And let's remember that we have no idea from the data that True the Vote has presented whether or not these double-registered and voted people voted Republican or Democrat.  

Remember Those Long Lines?     

Found at tampabay.com:  Long Lines In Florida in 2012

Now...  We all saw those long lines in Florida last November, didn't we?  How many people were disenfranchised.. turned away.. because of the procedures put in place by Florida's Republican governor Rick Scott to cut back early voting days and hours?  Yes, many people waited in line, but we can imagine that many people simply COULD NOT wait in line.. and I bet the number of people who were disenfranchised by Republican policies in Florida was a lot higher than ten.

Will the Republicans Throw Her a Bone?

My comment to Marianela Toledo, who wrote the above-quoted article for FloridaWatchdog.org:

 You fail to mention that, of these 173 absentee ballot problems, only ten (10) were from the 2012 election. Most of them, 137, were from the 2006 election. When I see those numbers I wonder what happened between 2006 and 2012 to reduce the numbers of double voters so exponentially. 

Now.. this whole silly business. How many people do you think were not able to vote in Florida in 2012 due to those extremely long lines? I would bet that it is a lot more than 10. 

Keep working, Marianela. Your Republican overlords may just throw you a bone or two.

Woof! 

   

The Two Parties Only Divide Us?

Many people think that there is something artificial about the divisions between the two parties. 

Many also feel that there is some kind of "conspiracy" to divide us on "petty" issues. 

"Charles", commenting on the above picture at the Teanderthal Party Facebook page, is one who doesn't believe in this "two parties" stuff:  

I'm sorry, but if anyone in here is falling for this "Left vs Right" bullshit, you've all got it wrong. The two party system divides us. A nation divided, will fall. Instead of all the "Left vs Right", why don't we, as a people, drop the party line bullshit, and start doing what is RIGHT for everyone, as a whole?

My reply to Charles:   

Yes, I do believe that we should figure out what is RIGHT for everyone. This is what I think is "right" for everyone:

• A strong social safety net, for instance. Do you think everybody would agree that is "right" for the country? 
• Strong gun controls. Do you think that everybody would agree that is "right" for the country? 
• Free birth control so that only people who want children will bring them into the world. Do you think that everybody would agree that is "right" for the country? 
• Marriage equality so that people can marry whoever they wish to marry regardless of gender. Do you think that everybody would agree that is "right" for the country? 
• A path to citizenship for people who have been here for years without documentation. Do you think that everybody would agree that is "right" for the country?

Charles, dear, is it starting to sink in? What I think is "right" for the country is probably exactly the opposite as what significant numbers of the people feel is "right" for the country. 

The two party system divides us, Charles, because we ARE divided. I do not agree with what is good for the country with many of my neighbors, former classmates, even some family members. If they could understand my point of view and agree, then we could get rid of these silly two parties.

No, Charles, the two parties are NOT "both the same".