Report: Armed Men Arrested In Philadelphia Were Trying To Deliver Fake Ballots

[appalachiablue]

Source: CNN

2:46 AM. (CNN )Two armed Virginia men who were arrested Thursday outside the Philadelphia Convention Center were "coming to deliver a truck full of fake ballots" to the city, CNN affiliate KYW reported, citing prosecutors. The center is one of the places where election workers have been counting votes from the 2020 general election, which includes the race for president.

Text messages reveal that the men were concerned about the tallying of votes at the convention center, prosecutors said, according to KYW. Antonio LaMotta, 61, and Joshua Macias, 42, both of Chesapeake, Virginia, were arrested Thursday night outside the center on suspicion of carrying handguns in Pennsylvania without permits, authorities said.

Philadelphia police said they found the men Thursday night after receiving a tip that people with firearms were heading to the Pennsylvania Convention Center in a silver Hummer truck. Officers found a silver Hummer a block from the center -- parked and unoccupied -- around 10:20 p.m. Thursday, about seven minutes before finding the men, who acknowledged the Hummer was theirs, police said.

Both men were carrying loaded handguns, and police found an AR-type rifle in the Hummer, authorities said at a news conference Friday. About 160 rounds of ammunition were found in the weapons and the vehicle, authorities said. Stickers and a hat with logos of the QAnon conspiracy movement were found in the vehicle, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said...

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/07/us/pennsylvania-convention-center-arrests/index.html

---

The men were charged with having a concealed firearm without a license and carrying a firearm on a public street or public property, Krasner said.

"This alarming incident is still very much under investigation regarding additional charges," Krasner said.

Both were arraigned Friday night, and a judge set bail at $750,000 each.

Details about the alleged fake ballots were not yet available.

[rownesheck]

1. Where does one acquire

fake ballots?! Republican operatives, perhaps? Karl Rove probably prints them from his house.

[appalachiablue]

2. Karl & Newt

[DeminPennswoods]

4. I doubt Dumb and Dumber were that sophisticated

I mean they thought they could walk into the convention center with no credentials, just drop off ballots and no one would ask questions.

[mdbl]

30. Morans!

damn where's that sign

[WinstonSmith4740]

48. This one?

[mdbl]

95. YES!! Thank you

[whistler162]

36. For a lot use Kinkos

[csziggy]

79. Kinkos is now FedEx Office - my husband worked there

He was hired by Kinkos, then the brand and outlets were acquired by FedEx and rebranded FedEx Kinkos, then it was rebranded FedEx Office. He worked there at three different stores in town through all the changes.

If someone used the self service copiers, they could run off the ballots. I suspect that the stores would not do it for them without a lot of questions - unless one of the people involved was an employee doing it in a slow period.

By the way, many of the print jobs are now farmed out to subcontractors in India rather than being run locally, including all their design services.

Duplexing laser printers (ones that can print on both sides of the paper) are not all that expensive. I have a Brother duplexing laser printer that only cost $150 and have run thousands of pages through it. That would be the best way to pull off a job like this.

[LeftInTX]

83. Laser all the way

I printed 150 sample ballots and dropped them off at doors in my precinct.

[csziggy]

84. LOL! nt

[bucolic_frolic]

41. If genuinely undetectable from the real ballots

they would have to fake the barcodes, and find and substitute the fake for the real ones, and destroy or make off with the real ones. All that would require the highest sophistication - the actual software of the printing company, I would suspect - and hours upon hours of sorting. So if that was the plan, this operation goes very very deep.

If they simply wanted to sabotage the count, a match would have sufficed.

[LiberalFighter]

68. They need to investigate that and find out who printed them.

If a printing company, who is the customer?

[tanyev]

69. They had their kids and grandkids working on them all night with markers and crayons.

Watch out for the ones little Susie put glitter on!

[Chellee]

86. Well, that's going to gum up the optical scanners.

[DeminPennswoods]

3. They found out Krasner wasn't kidding

He said if you come to Philadelphia to try to disrupt things, he has jail and prosecutors waiting. This pair of losers are going to have sell their Hummer and then some even to make bail.

[NotAPuppet]

5. Once again,

Last edited Sat Nov 7, 2020, 06:38 AM - Edit history (1)

Republicans trying to commit election fraud with fake ballots.

[NBachers]

6. Confiscate that Hummerhoid as a forfeiture asset from the hemorrhoid asses.

"Where did our Q-tip wet dream go wrong?"

[vercetti2021]

7. So let me get this straight

Counting ballots = election fraud/stealing an election

Trying to deliver fake ballots = Patriotism?

The fuck is going on in their world of dumbassry?

[catbyte]

40. I'm sure it was some boneheaded plot to somehow "prove" that the election HAD to be "rigged"

because they just can't imagine how Biden could receive more votes than Dear Leader.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. I think these yahoos think that Philly is some small town

One of our neighborhoods is the size of their little towns. This is the 2nd largest city on the east coast behind NYC. Every time they bring in their goons and every time they bring in their loons, they will get a taste of Philadelphia that they will never forget.

Need to send Gritty after them.

[gordianot]

9. Exactly living in small town my entire life I can vouch for peoples arrogance.

You may be a big fish at home but out in the big lake there is a lot more competition. These pathetic assholes were gobbled up.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. You would never see these people walk into NYC

and try to pull this kind of stuff off.

That whole area where the Convention Center is located IS Chinatown (which goes from 8th St. to 12th St., and Arch St. to Vine St., which includes the multiple buildings that make up the Convention Center), so they probably bugged out seeing all the small Chinese businesses up and down Arch St. and Race. St.





And it is also bordering what we call "the 'Gayborhood'" which is up and down 12th St. & 13 St., a few blocks south from the Convention Center, and which represents everything they hate and abhor!

[mr_lebowski]

90. Wow there's a 'Castro' in Philly? I had no idea!

I bet it's one of the more beautiful parts of town ...

[BumRushDaShow]

92. One of my cousins and his husband lives there!

And I know I wouldn't be able to afford to live there.

[COL Mustard]

24. No Cheesesteak For Them!!!

Goobers.

[BumRushDaShow]

42. See....

[WinstonSmith4740]

49. Grew up in South Philly.

When you go to Pat's Steaks, if you turn around at the order window, you'll see my Grandmother's house.

Anyhow, was visiting a few year back, and found a T-shirt that said, "Don't fuck with me. I'm from Philly" Wore it into a rag.

[BumRushDaShow]

58. "Salfilly"

My great-grandfather on my mother's side (born in 1876) lived around 17th & Dickinson. In fact my mother used to talk about when she was little and had lived at her grandfather's house just before her parents moved up to Nicetown (this was back in the '30s).

Me and my sister would always make an annual trek to 9th Street (although I haven't been there for ages now). I remember back in the '70s when my parents took us down there and during one of those trips I bought my very first 45 with my allowance money at a shop on 9th Street (and I still have it).

I will say that I miss Aquarama!!!!



I also remember when they built the Vet and my mom taking us down there because she wanted to see what it looked like. Now it's all gone. Just watching all the changes that have happened down there in the stadium area, has been dizzying.

[yuiyoshida]

10. Its amazing how BILL MAHR on his show tonight

covered this very thing, though not the specific incident, but in general. He hit the nail on the head!

[Roy Rolling]

11. The best people?

These guys look like the gang who couldn’t park straight.

[woodsprite]

13. Probably had someone on the inside waiting to accept them. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

18. The problem with their Snidely Whiplash plan

is that EVERY exterior envelope and EVERY ballot is BARCODED with unique numbers (the outer envelope would associate with a voter and the ballot would identify a specific Ward/Division). So any "fakes" would be immediately rejected by the system after scanning.

[Maeve]

54. Also, the boxes used to deliver would have to be BOE boxes

I laugh at our "high tech cardboard" here in Ohio, but when we deliver to the BOE they do have stickers and other identifiers(not being specific because..idiots like these guys!); it's not just ballots without other equipment, either.

[BumRushDaShow]

65. Yeah

and at the satellite elections offices, the rolling "drop bins" were "papered up" with all kinds of identifying info (looked like this) -



This is all new for us. There has always been the standard "absentee ballot" that got mailed in or dropped off at the Board of Elections. But this whole "no excuse" type is just a whole 'nother world. and it's interesting how they have attempted to adapt to this reality.

[Mike 03]

19. The plot sounds fairly elaborate.

Who printed the fake ballots in the first place?

How many ballots?

Were they convincing enough that in different circumstances they could have passed through the pre-count screening and even possibly the scanners?

I won't rest until we know more about the sophistication of this endeavor.

Could something similar have happened elsewhere and gone undetected?

[catbyte]

38. No. The barcodes alone are impossible to fake. Plus, if the signature on the envelope

doesn't match the signature on the voter registration form it's rejected. Rest easy.

[Boomer]

74. We know nothing about the ballot plot

Where did you get the idea that this was an elaborate, feasible plot?

I'm betting the people who thought this up know little to nothing about how the ballot processing works. Most of the Right Wing comments I've heard about possible vote corruption reveal yawning gaps of knowledge.

[LeftInTX]

81. I have a bunch of sample ballots that I downloaded

[yardwork]

78. I kind of doubt that, actually.

[C Moon]

14. The GOP has too much time to do this kind of law-breaking.

And there is a lot more of this kind of thing being planned—and probably being done right now.

[catbyte]

39. Imagine what could be accomplished if they focused all that energy for good instead of evil...

[raccoon]

15. Wonder who those fake ballots were voting for?

I’m going to make a wild guess and say Trump.

[Mike 03]

21. On the other hand, what if it is a set up operation

and the ballots were for Biden, so that Trump can claim "fraud"? What if they were supposed to get caught?

That's a frightening thought.

[raccoon]

27. False flag operation. I wouldn't put it past them. Nt

[bucolic_frolic]

33. If it really had black bag sophistication to plant "genuine" bar-coded substitute ballots

they would not have carried guns, nor would there have been a tip-off back at home. The anonymous tip almost sounds intended to blame it on the opposition.

This whole thing sounds to me like an operation to gain access, pollute the ballot pool, so Trump could scream "RIGGED ELECTION" and push for a do-over, which has already been floated in the last couple days.

I suspect DEEP ROOTS to this black op.

Kudos to police, they do catch some crooks. Like the dynamite operation last week, and the dynamite ATM guys in June.

[DeminPennswoods]

43. Don't give these bozos that much credit

If you added up both their brains, you might get a half-wit.

[Yeehah]

63. That would be my guess

After all, "voting fraud" is what their fuhrer is screeching.

[peacefreak2.0]

16. Silver hummer?

Good job, Bubba for keeping it on the down low.

[Yeehah]

64. Never been off-road from the looks of it

Just wannabe soldiers.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. This right here is the hilarious part (from the OP link) --

--Not the hat but the fact that the Philadelphia Parking Authority, which used to have its own reality show, ticketed their asses

They should be glad that this didn't immediately show up to remove that hummer before they might have tried to return to it -



These guys drove all the way up here from SE VA to get snagged by Larry Krasner. It takes me like 2.5 - 3 hrs to drive from here just down to the D.C. metro area, so they had to have been on the road for 5 - 6 hours from Chesapeake, VA.

[Native]

20. So the older dude they arrested works for an investigation and security firm,

based in Houston, and there was a woman travelling in the Hummer with them who wasn't arrested. Interesting.

[Mike 03]

22. "Investigation and security firm"

That opens a can of worms.

Who or what company printed the ballots?

[Native]

23. Both guys requested time off from their employers because of an "assignment" they had in Philly.

[Mike 03]

25. Interesting. I sure hope we get more information about this soon.

[DeminPennswoods]

45. Bet neither of them have jobs whenever they get

home. And who knows how long they'll be in jail since covid19 has slowed court proceedings to a crawl.

[bdamomma]

50. Geez

this case needs a lot of investigating. Time off from work, how about no work now. We must stay very vigilant.

[captain queeg]

26. Those dirty Dems are trying to cheat, told you so...Er what? Never mind!

Just some red blooded patriots trying to make sure things are going ok.

[modrepub]

28. If They're Trying To Add Trump Votes

They picked an odd county. Checking 2020 versus 2016 Trump is actually +17k from last time and Biden is -28k from last time. These aren't final numbers but the Democratic net from Philly is smaller in 2020 than it was in 2016; +476k in 2016 versus +430k in 2020.

[BumRushDaShow]

55. The last couple elections had these stats that I jotted down (from the PA elections website)

(from here - https://www.electionreturns.pa.gov/ where you can select elections by year/type and by county)

584,025 - 2016 (Clinton)

588,806 - 2012 (Obama)

595,980 - 2008 (Obama)

As of the last city elections page update at 6:41 pm EST yesterday (11/6/20) and this is with at least 40,000 ballots (both mail-ins and provisional) that are still outstanding... and that doesn't include all of the military/overseas ballots that have until next Tuesday to be received and can amount to as much as 20,000 more votes -

PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
(VOTE FOR 1)

Divisions Reported: 1686 / 1703

JOSEPH R BIDEN AND KAMALA D HARRIS Democratic 80.78% 555,833
DONALD J TRUMP AND MICHAEL R PENCE Republican 18.30% 125,897
JO JORGENSEN AND JEREMY SPIKE COHEN Libertarian 0.65% 4,473
Write-in Nonpartisan 0.27% 1,880
Total Votes 688,083

So assuming that the 40K are validated, and although Biden has been generally picking up 80% - 85% of the mail-ins, there would be more potential 45 provisionals because the provisionals are something that happen for "in-person" voting (even if someone got a mail-in that they want to have "spoiled" in order to vote in-person or they never got their mail-in and have to vote in-person), one could figure Biden maybe getting about 70% of the provisionals which would be about 28K... And if that were added onto the the current ~556,000, it would take the current snapshot to ~583,000.

This is just back-of-the-envelope because they STILL have some divisions that are not completely reported for in-person and there was that order by Judge Sullivan to recover ballots from the post office and all the pooh-poohing mess that went on with that, so the disposition of those would need to be factored PLUS there are thousands that are being counted and segregated from the totals I believe, if they arrived after Nov. 3rd despite being postmarked on Nov. 3rd, and I do not believe they are being added to the "official" totals (although that is unclear from what I recall). And note that the divisions in Philly range from about 1,000 - 2,000 in population each.

[modrepub]

66. What's Really Interesting (to me)

Is how much voter participation increased in the rural areas of PA that are experiencing steady population declines. At some point I may go through the numbers but I'll take Cambria County (the home of Johnstown, birth place of the Red Cross) to show as an example.

2016: (Skipping Green Party, 413)

Clinton: 18,867
Trump: 42,258
Johnson: 1,270
Total: 62,395

2020 (current)

Biden: 21,614
Trump: 47,885
Jorgensen: 754
Total: 70,253

Census:

2010: 143,695
2019 (est) 130,192

Registered Voters:

2016: 86,848 (~73% participation)
2020: 88,273 (~79.6% participation)


Like it or not, Trump seems to have connected with these folks in ways that are still keeping the Republican party viable given current population/demographic trends. If Republican areas like many parts of rural PA keep responding to their message, they will continue to make elections close and ensure the Republican party can still contest elections at the state and national level due to structural advantages they've built into the political system via gerrymandering and the Electoral College.

[bucolic_frolic]

70. I think they are doing this with aggressive wide footprint PYRAMID MARKETING

Wow that's a mouthful. What I mean is people belong to organizations, groups. Church, work, social, pyramid. It's basically an Amway type operation, remember DeVos?

So pyramid marketers are the worst. Aggressive, in yer face, sell, sell, sell. Conservative, self-reliant. They work all those groups. If there's a pyramid lady in your church, you know about it, soon you're selling the stuff too. Soon all the community organizations are infiltrated. Local businesses, civic, scouts organizations, PTA, high school. In burbs and small towns, these organizations are all there is.

Dems underperformed with white suburban women? There's your answer. Pyramid marketing, aggressively integrated, text and cell phones, yak-yak-yak. That is what is polluting our ground game? I think so. We're using mail, text, phone, volunteers. GOP is using life connections.

[BumRushDaShow]

76. Yes exactly

I had read a few articles before election day that said that the voter registration/participation was actually UP here in PA in 2020 - mostly rural. I think that was sortof the case (perhaps not as obvious) in 2016, even if it were a few dozen or a few hundred in each of those small population counties.

The Philly Inquirer had done a quick analysis the day after the election - https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/live/elections-2020-results-candidates-updates-news-pennsylvania-20201103.html#card-819734852

3 days ago
1:32 AM - November 4, 2020
Nearly half of all Pa. counties cast more votes than in 2016

Voters in at least 31 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties cast more votes this year than in 2016, according to unofficial results from the Associated Press.

In all 31 counties, Trump received more votes than he did four years ago and Biden received more votes than Clinton did.

As of 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, the counties with more votes than in 2016 were:

Bedford
Cambria
Cameron
Clearfield
Clinton
Columbia
Dauphin
Elk
Forest
Fulton
Huntingdon
Jefferson
Lackawanna
Lawrence
Lebanon
Lycoming
McKean
Mifflin
Northumberland
Perry
Pike
Potter
Snyder
Somerset
Sullivan
Susquehanna
Union
Venango
Washington
Wayne
Wyoming

Turnout was also high in the state’s largest counties, but they had significant numbers of mail ballots, and those will take days to count.

» READ MORE: Pa. voter turnout on possible historic track: ‘People ... came to get a job done’

— Jonathan Lai

There are a couple things to keep in mind with some of the western, southwestern and south-central counties, and that is that many were (and in some cases still are) "Democrats" and not all have changed party affiliation, but quite a few have been ticket-splitting instead. I.e., Tom Wolf (D) was just re-elected in 2018 and our A.G. Josh Shapiro (D) has apparently been confirmed ("called" by multiple orgs) as being re-elected as state Attorney General.



And your mention of Johnstown brings up the fact that the area used to be represented by (infamous) Democrat John Murtha, who ALWAYS "brought the bacon home" to his constituents, and since he had the seniority to do it, he was kept in there until he passed away.



They named the airport after him, named a ship for him, and even have a statue of him in the county -



This is something to keep in mind for that area of the state. It is something that Conor Lamb locked onto, it is a phenomena that Robert Byrd and John Rockefeller IV dealt with in WV, and it's something you see with Joe Manchin (who we all love to hate). There is a certain aspect of "conservatism" that really needs to be cleaved from the extremist fringe aspect that has evolved over the past decade or so. And what has happened is that the whole of the GOP has been made to equal "conservative" and as such has been tagged for association with the worst elements of it (generally involving the oft-mentioned social and economic "wedge" issues).

[DeminPennswoods]

93. Didn't think Trump/GOP could increase votes in

Last edited Sat Nov 7, 2020, 08:19 PM - Edit history (1)

these smaller counties, but they did although I believe that phenomenon will turn out to be unique to Trump.

[BumRushDaShow]

94. I think many of them have always been there

but were not necessarily invested in "politics" except maybe what was happening locally. But because 45 was a "TV personality", they were probably familiar with him and valued his "style" rather than his (lack of) "substance", and that was enough to motivate them to go on and register (along with lots of GOP grassroots efforts) and vote.

In another thread I noted that you have a large population of people who "admire" the brashness and bravado of and/or are drawn to "the bully". The example I gave was the character "Biff" from "Back to the Future", and a reply that I got was that the story writer of that film actually developed the character "Biff" based on Donald Trump. And the movie came out in 1985.

[DeminPennswoods]

96. Yeah, I agree with that

In line at the poll there were three Trumpers near me and two were just as you describe.

[bucolic_frolic]

29. Quantitative Cheating - Trump told you there would be fake ballots, as usual it's projection

No mystery on this operation. It walks like a duck.

[Wicked Blue]

31. Look where they parked

In front of Big Brothers

[TheRickles]

34. Yes! And it's a pretty flashy vehicle to be leaving unattended like that.

[BumRushDaShow]

71. Philadelphia Parking Authority tagged them though

(pic from OP link)





It was only a matter of time before the big orange "Tow" sticker would have appeared and the hummer would have been "disappeared".

[struggle4progress]

32. Vets for Trump founder one of two armed men arrested

The founder of Vets for Trump was arrested on Thursday night outside the vote counting center in Philadelphia for illegally carrying a gun.

Joshua Macias, 42, from Chesapeake, Virginia, and Antonio Lamotta, 61, from the same town, were detained on Thursday night, police in Philadelphia said.

Macias founded Vets for Trump in 2016; Lamotta is a member ...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8922951/Vets-Trump-founder-one-two-armed-men-arrested-outside-Philadelphia-ballot-counting-center.html

[Ligyron]

56. Thanks for that link and I saw no claims of fake ballots in that article.

I may have missed it since the Daily Mail has so many ads and pop ups it could have blocked out.

These idiots think they're doing gawds work and I guess with the negative publicity their actions will taint team trump with, maybe they are.

.

[DeeDeeNY]

35. Entrances at vote-counting facilities should hopefully be guarded

[2naSalit]

37. Must be those "thousands and thousands of fake ballots"

Asshole kept droning on about.

[Loubee]

44. I hope the Secret Service doubles up on protecting Pres Biden

For the scope and degree of deadly mass insanity, this decade makes the '60's seem placid.

[bdamomma]

46. That's

how sick the cult is. I think they were also planning to blow the building up too.

DOMESTIC TERRORISM .

[BadgerKid]

47. If there were fake ballots, how did they get them? nt

[WinstonSmith4740]

51. Remember when Il Douche was bitching about fake ballots being printed?

He's always been a master of projection. Of course there were...it was just being done by his supporters, so no problem, right?

[rickford66]

52. And what could they possibly do with them ?

They were just going to take them inside ?

[gab13by13]

53. Yes, that is a good question,

they would have to have a ballot from that district to be able to copy it. Is there someone from Pa. who is also involved in this scheme?

[yaesu]

57. Hey, need some help tracking down a thread from yesterday about repugs suggesting this on a zoom

meeting. Going to try to find it. I smell more RICO charges in the making.

[Trailrider1951]

73. I think this is the thread you're looking for:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214480374

[yaesu]

75. Thank you.nt

[Major Nikon]

59. Behold the creme-de-la-dum of Trump supporters

[bucolic_frolic]

60. Is this why counting is so slow?

Wouldn't surprise me to find similar or election unrest operations rolled up over the ensuing weeks. LE has their ears to the ground.

[58Sunliner]

61. I am grateful these people are incompetent as evil villains.

I also don't think they acted alone. I'd like more info on the call that alerted police.

[uncle ray]

62. but did they remember the watermarks???

[stevil]

67. A post on a Trumper Site

Lover Girl

"Of course there’s absolutely no information about the fake ballots

It’s fake, if there’s not a single detail then it’s safe to say FAKE NEWS".

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

[yaesu]

72. The entire GOP needs be investigated for violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization

Act as soon as we take our Justice Department back from the trump organized crime family. The above incident & this are a few examples & I don't believe in coincidence. MNGOP Chair recruiting Minnesota Republicans to amplify Trump claims of ballot fraud: https://minnesotareformer.com/2020/11/06/exclusive-mngop-chair-recruiting-minnesota-republicans-to-amplify-trump-claims-of-ballot-fraud/

[Firestorm49]

77. Where the hell did they get the ballots in the first place? nt

[dalton99a]

80. Kick

[NCjack]

82. Lock 'em up. 10 years for trying to corrupt the election and

10 years for guns, in a hardcore prison, doing hard time.

[McCamy Taylor]

85. Wow. The new attorney general will be busy.

[Iggo]

87. So they had a bunch of fake ballots, did they?

There they go again, trying to prove fraud by committing fraud.

[LudwigPastorius]

88. Carrying concealed without a license in Penn. is a third degree felony.

These chaps are facing 7 years in prison if convicted...not to mention the attempt at voter fraud.

[bucolic_frolic]

89. A lot of things don't add up here.

IF they were there to plant ballots, it would have to be an undetectable operation. So why the guns? Once they used them, the op would be blown. So by this line of reasoning, maybe the ballots were a cover for the guns, rather than the other way around? Meaning they were up to something other than ballot stuffing.

Just a thought.

[LudwigPastorius]

91. They are probably just under-endowed, ammosexuals who...

don't truly feel "all there" unless they're wearing their penis-enhancers.

These are the kind of mooks who wear their guns when they shower.