It’s the Republicans who rig elections, Donald: The GOP history of voter suppression goes way back

[DonViejo]

Donald Trump's paranoid attacks on democracy aside, only one party has a history of manipulating elections

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

This presidential election has featured the Republican nominee talking about the size of his manly member on national TV and talking about grabbing women by the crotch on video. He has also endorsed torture, mass deportations, a 2,000-mile border wall, war crimes, nuclear proliferation, a ban on Muslims and jailing his opponent, all cheered on wildly by his rapturous supporters. All of that is a terrible comment on the state of American democracy. But as hard as it is to believe, something even more disturbing is happening. Yesterday morning Politico reported that 41 percent of registered voters believe that the election could be “stolen” from Donald Trump because of voter fraud. That number rises to 71 percent among Republicans.

Donald Trump himself has been pushing this theme ever since his poll numbers started slipping. His TV surrogates and campaign advisers started out spinning his charges as more or less metaphorical, saying that he meant the media was on Clinton’s side and therefore “rigging” the election. Former house speaker Newt Gingrich said, “The complaint isn’t at the polling level, it’s at the news media level.” Trump’s running mate Mike Pence explained, “The American people are tired of the biased media, that’s where the sense of a rigged election goes.” Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed Trump had “never talked about cheating at the polling place.”

That didn’t last long. Trump himself has recently made it clear that he thinks the election is literally going to be stolen from him at the ballot box. On Monday night in Green Bay, Wisconsin, he said:

They even want to try to rig the election at the polling booths. Believe me, there’s a lot going on. Do you ever hear these people, they say there’s nothing going on? People that have died 10 years ago are still voting. Illegal immigrants are voting. Where are the street smarts of some of these politicians?

“Street smarts” or delusion? Studies show this is utter nonsense. There have only been 31 credible instances of voter impersonation out of more than 1 billion ballots cast between 2000 and 2014.

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2016/10/18/its-the-republicans-who-rig-elections-donald-the-gop-history-of-voter-suppression-goes-way-back/

[patsimp]

1. exactly. gore versus bush comes to mind

[Cha]

2. #trumpfubar always projects

[Gothmog]

3. The GOP is the party of voter suppression and relies on voter suppression to win races