Speaker Johnson

[BoSoxGal]

Amidst the horrors of recent days, is everyone else just too burnt out to converse on the subject of the election denying fundamentalist Christian misogynist we just got served as the speaker of our House?

Mike Johnson blames women and no fault divorce for the ills of our nation. He says pick up a Bible to know his policy mind.

He will happily steal the next election for Trump, doubtless.

Yay for US.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I have been avoiding the news to manage my anxiety but this news actually doesn’t bother me that much. I feel like the MAGA party in full freak show mode in the House of Representatives will be the best campaign material for the Democrat candidates.

I am glad to see you changed your mind. I brought this bad news up under the RIP GOP thread because it bothers the heck out of me. It's only too easy to see Trump losing, declaring he didn't lose, and this arse-likarn doing what Mike Pence refused to do - put the election back to the House. We all have every right to be very worried - but do what we can to get the vote out next year to overwhelmingly defeat the anti-civilization Trump machine

Sorry about the anxiety though

[Big RR]

I could google it, but does the House have any pwoer to override the electoral vote count; as I understand it, both the House and the Senate must vote to uphold any objection or it stand rejected. I guess if the dems were to lose both the the senate and the House. I guess the dems could lose the Senate in the next election, but I'd be surprised if enough senators would support such a resolution absent more concrete proof than Trump shooting ihis mouth off. Perhaps the House could continue debate on it indefinitely?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Under the 2022 Act it should not happen. It requires approval of one-fifth of the House and Senate to consider a challenge to a state's results. It used to be that only 1 from each chamber was sufficient.

[Big RR]

One would hope, but that is only 87 reps and 20 senators, which would not surprise me as the chambers are currently consittued, even though I hope it wouldn't. There are a lot of loons in each chamber. But my biggest concern is, should a challenge be entertained, my understanding is each chamber would consider it separately and all proceedings are stopped until this is completed. If there are no time limits, I could see debate lasting forever and stalling everything. Of course, we would also need the cooperation of one or more states submitting competing slates of electors, but who knows what could happen?

[liberty]

Amidst the horrors of recent days, is everyone else just too burnt out to converse on the subject of the election denying fundamentalist Christian misogynist we just got served as the speaker of our House?

Mike Johnson blames women and no fault divorce for the ills of our nation. He says pick up a Bible to know his policy mind.

He will happily steal the next election for Trump, doubtless.

Yay for US.

I am not very knowledgeable about the mechanics of elections, and vote counting, and I don’t have the time to do an in-depth study. But I do know this, if an election can be stolen one is justified in questioning it's validity. Election results are not innocent until proven guilty but guilty until proven valid. I agree with the Founders trust no one for it is only safe to consider all liars, cheats and thieves.

Elections should be designed in such a way they can’t be stolen.

[Joe Guy]

Elections should be designed in such a way they can’t be stolen.

They are.

[Econoline]

Elections should be designed in such a way they can’t be stolen.

They are.

And until just a few years ago every candidate for POTUS, and every major US political party, acknowledged that fact.

...or at least pretended to (which as a practical matter was just as effective)

[MajGenl.Meade]

The only 2020 election thefts that were attempted were all discovered and the would-be thieves are on trial for it:

Donald Trump; his lawyers; and some lunatic named Rudy Giuliani. Many Proud Boys and other fascist fiends have been incarcerated and otherwise punished for their attempt to steal an entire country on January 6, 2020

[Econoline]

Of course, this leaves open the question Can an election be STOLLEN?

Inquiring chefs want to know.

[Big RR]

Jarl--

Election results are not innocent until proven guilty but guilty until proven valid.

This makes very little sense; how are they proven valid? We have procedures put together and approved by our elected bodies and appointees; if there is a question as to validity,it i up to the person(s) raising it to prove their contention. Otherwise, we could not have any elections--we need to run them and then have to prove the results are valid each time? Please. I am happy to let any and all mount whatever challenges they may, but leave the burden of proof with them.

[Sue U]

Of course, this leaves open the question Can an election be STOLLEN?

Not if Strudel is on the ballot.

[Burning Petard]

Would vote for it before I would vote for fruit cake, even if the fruit cake was endorsed by Thomas Merton.

snailgate

[MajGenl.Meade]

Don't you mean, "Lib"?

Jarl--

Election results are not innocent until proven guilty but guilty until proven valid.

This makes very little sense; how are they proven valid? We have procedures put together and approved by our elected bodies and appointees; if there is a question as to validity,it i up to the person(s) raising it to prove their contention. Otherwise, we could not have any elections--we need to run them and then have to prove the results are valid each time? Please. I am happy to let any and all mount whatever challenges they may, but leave the burden of proof with them.

[Big RR]

You're right; Lib.

Sorry Jarl.

[liberty]

Jarl--

Election results are not innocent until proven guilty but guilty until proven valid.

This makes very little sense; how are they proven valid? We have procedures put together and approved by our elected bodies and appointees; if there is a question as to validity,it i up to the person(s) raising it to prove their contention. Otherwise, we could not have any elections--we need to run them and then have to prove the results are valid each time? Please. I am happy to let any and all mount whatever challenges they may, but leave the burden of proof with them.

It makes plenty of sense. In the last election, there were 10s of millions of paper ballots. Is there any way to know how many counterfeit ballots were counted? The reason we went away from paper ballots in the first place is because it was just too easy to stuff the ballot box. If we can’t come up with a way verify ever paper ballot as valid, we should not use them. If the political elites can steal an election, ask yourself this: what do they need us for, slaves?

[Bicycle Bill]

In your case, we need people like you so the rest of us can feel superior by comparison.  Or as the old punchline goes, "no one is totally without value — they can always serve as a bad example."

I don't know how they vote where you live, lib, and frankly I don't care, but in my neck of the woods I get to mark a paper ballot — there' a broken arrow after every option and the voter needs to fill in the missing section.  I don't get the ballot until after I've shown my ID and I am matched in a hard-copy voters roll (there are two poll workers and each has a copy, and the two entries must match), and then it is marked with my voter number and the initials of both poll workers.

Then, after marking my ballot, I myself hand-feed it into the scanning machine, which reads and tabulate the votes.  Now this machine is not a paper shredder — it retains the paper ballot in case it is needed for a hand recount.  Since the machine has been tabulating the votes and keeping a running total through its internal memory, the final tallys are able to be almost immediately forwarded to the county clerk, election commissioner, or whoever is in charge of running the election.

If we come up with more votes cast than it shows voters checked off on the polling list?  Time to check the paper ballots.  Are there ballots without the voter number, or both sets of initials?  Invalid, and disallowed.  So where's the opportunity to 'stuff the ballot box'?

-"BB"-

[Joe Guy]

Where liberty lives they vote with smoke signals. That’s why they don’t trust the system so much.

[liberty]

In your case, we need people like you so the rest of us can feel superior by comparison.  Or as the old punchline goes, "no one is totally without value — they can always serve as a bad example."

I don't know how they vote where you live, lib, and frankly I don't care, but in my neck of the woods I get to mark a paper ballot — there' a broken arrow after every option and the voter needs to fill in the missing section.  I don't get the ballot until after I've shown my ID and I am matched in a hard-copy voters roll (there are two poll workers and each has a copy, and the two entries must match), and then it is marked with my voter number and the initials of both poll workers.

Then, after marking my ballot, I myself hand-feed it into the scanning machine, which reads and tabulate the votes.  Now this machine is not a paper shredder — it retains the paper ballot in case it is needed for a hand recount.  Since the machine has been tabulating the votes and keeping a running total through its internal memory, the final tallys are able to be almost immediately forwarded to the county clerk, election commissioner, or whoever is in charge of running the election.

If we come up with more votes cast than it shows voters checked off on the polling list?  Time to check the paper ballots.  Are there ballots without the voter number, or both sets of initials?  Invalid, and disallowed.  So where's the opportunity to 'stuff the ballot box'?

-"BB"-

That sounds like a good system if it works the way you painted it. What I was referring to is what we call absentee ballots, mail in ballots. I saw on the news a huge room with hundreds of people counting ballots by hand with no one looking over their shoulder; that looked like an excellent way to cheat. I have heard that some states don’t even have voter ID so how secure could their system be? If the ballots have serial numbers, a dishonest official could steal blank ballots fill them out and slip them into the box later as long as the total number of ballots received doesn’t exceed the number of ballots sent out how would anyone ever know?

What kind of person needs someone to look down on to make him feel good; is that the way you are? Wouldn’t that indicate low self-esteem or an inferiority complex?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Lib, I suggest you might want to actually volunteer at a polling station. Every election. Then you will learn how voting is conducted. You'll meet a lot of hard-working nice folks, ordinary people like you. There will be Republicans and Democrats working together - always one of each at any task and we rotate duties - greeter, poll-pad entry, provisional ballot table, directing people at the voting machine (don't ever TOUCH that ballot and stand far enough away so you can't be accused of seeing their choices) . You'll find out how scrupulously honest US citizens can be and you'll gain knowledge and reassurance to replace your fantastic notions of how elections are conducted. You clearly have no idea how difficult (impossible) any of your half-baked "ideas" would be to implement to any degree of success.

And I'll remind you again - the only attempts to subvert the 2020 election were conducted by Republicans. Every one failed miserably and the legally elected chap got to be President.