WHOA! NC absentee scandal just got crazy more interesting!!

[Roland99]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1070149544724365312.html

1. Wow. There is a subplot to the election fraud scheme unfolding in North Carolina that is absolutely insane.

This is DEEP in the weeds, but worth it.

Let's go.

2. So Jeff Smith owns a "video sweepstakes" business in Bladen County, which is apparently a place you an go and win money for playing video games.

The head of the Bladen County GOP, Landon Bordeaux, goes to Smith and says that he's about to get raided by the current sheriff.

3. But Bordeaux says, there's an out. If Jim McVicker wins the 2014 election for sheriff, Smith will be in the clear.

Bordeaux asks Smith to give McCrae Dowless $4000 IN CASH to help McVicker win. So Smith does it.

And it works. McVicker wins by 350 votes!

4. But Smith gets stabbed in the back. McVicker raids his video-sweepstakes operation BACKED UP BY HELICOPTERS. Smith is pissed.

5. But apparently Smith does not blame McCrae Dowless, who, after all, did what he what he was supposed to do (If you overlook breaking N Carolina law)

Smith agrees to let McCrae Dowless use an empty office in a building Smith owns to run his absentee ballot operation for Harris
standby have to take a phone call

6. OK, I'm back. So anyway everything is going swimmingly between McCrae Dowless and Smith until Smith finds out that McCrae Dowless isn't just running his (probably illegal) absentee ballot operation for Harris -- he's also helping Smith's arch nemesis McVicker!

7. This is apparently when Smith and McCrae Dowless become "former friends." So when the current controversy erupts, Smith is more than happy to dime out McCrae Dowless to the Washington Post.

Shows them the desk where Dowless sat and recieved the absentee ballots from his crew

8. Smith basically describes a whole bunch of illegal conduct by McCrae Dowless in fairly devastating fashion

Well, someone (I don't know who, but maybe McCrae Dowless) wasn't happy about that

Today, an even more devastating story emerged on Smith

9. The story on Smith involves a meeting that occurred during the 2018 primary. Smith was supporting Billy Ward in the GOP Primary to oust McVicker.

At this point, he's not working WITH McCrae Dowless, he's on his own now

At some point he attended a meeting & left behind NOTES

10. So today, one day after Smith dimed out McCrae Dowless to the Washington Post, these notes, written by Smith, make their way into the hands of a North Carolina reporter

And they show Smith cooking up a scheme to pay CASH for UNSEALED ABSENTEE BALLOTS


11. Smith was clearly desperate to oust McVicker. But he's not as good at rigging absentee ballots as McCrae Dowless.

McVicker defeated his opponent and is still sheriff.

Where is goes from here -- I have no idea.
A lot of the details in this story come from a great New Yorker article that came out a couple hours ago so, I also recommend reading that:
Republican Operative Faced Prior Allegations of Election Fraud in Disputed North Carolina District
Doug Bock Clark on allegations of election fraud, dating back to 2014, against the Republican operative Leslie McCrae Dowless, who helped the Mark Harris House campaign in North Carolina‘s Ninth Cong…
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/republican-operative-faced-prior-allegations-of-election-fraud-in-disputed-north-carolina-district

Link to tweet

[grantcart]

1. I think I saw this movie, wasn't Burt Reynolds in the lead

Unbelievable

[Pacifist Patriot]

22. It does seem straight out of a Hiassen novel, doesn't it?

[grantcart]

23. Soon to be Coen brothers film

[Roland99]

24. The Ballad of Busted Skuzz?

[Hortensis]

31. THAT's what it reminded me of. Missing a NC alligator

chewing off Smith's leg and a bloody stump as he staggers about his plotting is all.

[Roland99]

2. Financial ties to the GOP!

Link to tweet

[BigmanPigman]

3. Going back to 2014.

WOW. They are going to have to have a reelection and clean out all the voter fraud as well.

This prove, along with Wisconsin, GA and FL that the only way the GOP can win is through cheating, lying and stealing. The GOP should be renamed the GCOP(Greedy Corrupt Old Party).

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. election fraud

The evidence points to election fraud. Unless I'm missing something, there's no evidence showing voter fraud.

Scheming GOPers hate democracy.

[BigmanPigman]

5. What is the difference between the two types of fraud?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

7. fake election vs fake voter

Here, you have people conspiring to alter the election process itself; damaging the rights of multiple, presumed innocent voters.

Voter fraud is where a person attempts to vote when they do not have the right; typically, voting more than once or under an assumed name.

[GReedDiamond]

9. Voter Fraud (which is almost non-existant)...

...is when an individual person/voter commits Voter Fraud by, for example, registering in two different places/states, so it could be possible to vote more than once. I think Ann Coulter was an example of this scenario.

Electoral Fraud is when there is an organized effort, usually by members of the "Republican Party," to rig elections in general, using such tactics as had been most recently used in North Carolina. Absentee ballots were being collected by fake "election workers" and were apparently never turned in for counting, meaning massive numbers of votes were never counted. I think the fake election workers were also sometimes filling out ballots for some people, but not the way they would have voted - those ballots were turned in for counting.

[blm]

27. Election fraud uses the process to steal votes by the thousands

While voter fraud is committed by an individual to cast one vote.

[BigmanPigman]

29. I learn so much from DU.

Thanks for helping to clarify this. No one ever makes me feel like an idiot when I ask a legit question.

[blm]

32. 👊🏼

🙏🏽

[Awsi Dooger]

6. Normally these things are nameless and well concealed

That's what is astonishing to me. This guy Leslie McCrae Dowless has his name attached all over the place going back multiple cycles yet somehow was allowed to continue into 2018.

Some news organization should have been all over this based on 2016 and following Dowless' every move in 2018.

[blm]

28. Need to look into Thom Tillis 'win' in 2014 which was unexpected

.

[LuckyLib]

8. This sounds like "Dukes of Hazard" -- McRae Dowless? Seriously? You can't make this stuff up.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. waiting for Dudley Doright to ride in

[diva77]

11. And this is why elections should occur ONLY on election day with hand counted paper ballots at the

PRECINCT level with public oversight. Results for each precinct are posted AT the precinct PRIOR to ballots leaving the premises. Exceptions could be made for people with special needs.

This way you don't have corruption of the chain of custody, which is part of the problem with what occurred with this mad tale from NC.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. "corruption of the chain of custody"

You've boiled the problem here down to its essence.

Voter education could help a lot -- ballots should go into secure drop-boxes or the U.S. Postal Service.

[Bluesaph]

14. Except where the post office workers keep them inste

[Qutzupalotl]

30. Not a problem in my state.

In Oregon, voters can check that their ballot was received and even observe the sorting process at the precinct.

It would be hard to rig an election under vote-by-mail, since tampering or interfering with mail delivery is already a felony. Hardly worth it for one vote.

[Roland99]

18. I've thought of doing mail-in absentee ballot. But Early Voting fixes that

I disagree with one day. Should be a full week-long event to allow people to vote in-person.

[pecosbob]

12. This just keeps getting better and better

It's a freaking Dukes of Hazzard episode...

darn I got beat.

[SweetieD]

15. This is crazy. They just need to redo the election in that country for the local races.

[SweetieD]

16. Does anyone remember the firebomb of a gop office in North Carolina during 2016?

They never found who did that. I always suspected that it was an inside job done by local gop members to smear dems. Hopefully with the national eye pointed toward north carolina some journalist will revisit that story and investigate. Local law enforcement are probably republican and if they knew it was an inside job by a republican they would never charge the person.

[yardwork]

20. That particular incident was probably done by a tiny anarchists group.

They also bombed a Democratic office at the same time. That got much less publicity, natch.

[BSdetect]

17. I've been wondering how the gop managed to get so many such votes.

Now we know this one method they exploited.

What about other such scams?

They are real "ratfuckers".

Probably protected by powerful friends in key places.

[Roland99]

19. UPDATE - Handwriting on note matches public documents

http://www.wbtv.com/2018/12/04/notes-suggest-second-person-ran-absentee-ballot-operation-bladen-county/

The handwriting in the notes obtained by the station appears to resemble several publicly filed court documents and other official paperwork bearing Smith’s handwriting.

[progressoid]

21. +1

[Roland99]

25. Another update!! More than 1,000 absentee ballots possibly destroyed!!!

Link to tweet

[oswaldactedalone]

26. So this is a deep state, librul plot

false flag program to make Repubs look bad, right?