On Trying to Beat Them at Their Own Games

Topic: Elections

The conclusion of the Georgia U.S. Senate race allows me to begin assembling final thoughts on the fiasco that was the 2022 midterm election.  The Republicans have a narrow house majority, which should be much larger, and lost ground in the Senate, dropping the Pennsylvania seat and failing to flip anything as a counter.

The underwhelming results have conservendom in a condundrum.  Responses range from “abandon all hope” (wrong) to “try and outvote controlled elections” (naïve) to the most innovative, but also naïve, which is “beat them at their own games.”  Those games would primarily be two potent daggers, ballot harvesting and vote-by-mail.

My primary struggle with the latter point is that that mindset lends legitimacy to a cheapened, invalid, and seemingly unlawful way of running elections, given that equal protection is not afforded regarding transparency and duration of elections, such as in the cases of certain states or counties being authorized by courts to count mail-in votes for longer periods of time.  I have written in my Ten Points to True Election Integrity that both mail-in voting and ballot harvesting should be outlawed nationally, with only limited exceptions granted for voting absentee.

Florida has not only outlawed ballot harvesting, but turned it into a felony, a serious deterrent to such behavior.  Several other states have outlawed the practice as well, but without sufficient deterrence or enforcement against the practice.  Other states have vague laws, meaning many gaps exist which leave those states vulnerable to cheating.

From my earlier article on harvesting:

The gathering and turning in of ballots by someone other than the voter is otherwise referred to as “ballot harvesting,” which is illegal in many states.  True the Vote’s evidence from Georgia shows that the laws are easily violated, anyway.  See the map below for the best representation of existing law pertaining to the turning in of ballots.

The states in gold (plus Alabama) represent those with clearly defined laws regarding ballot harvesting.  Donald Trump carried these electoral votes 101-69 in the certified results, but with Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada clearly assigned to the wrong candidate, a more accurate total would show states with laws against ballot harvesting going to Trump by a score of 150-20, before even considering my suspicions about New Mexico and New Hampshire. 

The rest of the map went to Biden 237-131 in the certified totals, before readjusting for Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, at minimum, being reassigned to Donald Trump’s column.  In short, as highlighted by the mail-voting map (see Point Four) below, dirty voter rolls, suspect and compromised electronic equipment, mail-voting, and ballot harvesting are the key ingredients to ensuring elections can be controlled and manipulated against the will of the people.

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I had a conversation yesterday with Jim Marchant, the Nevada Republican who recently “lost” his race for Secretary of State.  He was a key tactical piece for restoring elections nationally, along with Mark Finchem of Arizona, who is still in play thanks to pending litigation.  I told Jim he is going to need to fight fire with fire in his home state, since ballot harvesting is legal there.  Democrats have mastered the trade over the past decade and have it down to science in the Industrial Midwest (Rust Belt), a key region for implementing the America First agenda nationwide.

It may be successful in one election cycle, or perhaps two, but until the entire corrupt election infrastructure is reformed, those who count the vote will ultimately determine who wins the vote.  It is evident in Arizona from the past three election cycles that Maricopa County’s corrupt officials know the count right off the bat and spend a week getting the results where they need to be. 

I was prepared to throw the baby out with the bath water regarding ballot harvesting until two California conservatives told me they picked off several races in Southern California.  One went as far to say they would eventually make Democrats regret ballot harvesting and force their hand to make it illegal.  I’m not sure I agree with that, given that loyal Republican voters are considered loyal because they generally show up and vote, whereas the inner cities, projects, and dormitories are likely to yield an 80-20% split for a batch of ballots of any size.

My opinion comes down to this: we are going to need to “play ball” by the rules in states that permit ballot harvesting, just as patriots in Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and other states that vote exclusively by mail do, while keeping our eyes on the ball to eradicate these reckless practices when in position to do so. Until then, we are stuck playing games that rely on the hope that Philadelphia doesn’t come up with 155,000 new harvested ballots to account for 150,000 new Republican harvested ballots, found exclusively after a four day pause to “count” the votes.