Rensselaer County's Republican elections commissioner arrested by FBI

[brooklynite]

Source: Albany Times Union

TROY — Jason T. Schofield, the Republican Rensselaer County Board of Elections commissioner, was arrested outside his residence Tuesday morning by the FBI and charged with fraudulently obtaining and processing absentee ballots last year using personal information of at least eight voters without their permission, according to an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court.

The indictment handed up last week — and unsealed Tuesday during his arraignment — charges Schofield with 12 felony counts of unlawful possession and use of a means of identification.

...snip...

The indictment accuses Schofield of using an online state Board of Elections portal to request absentee ballots on behalf of eight voters who had no interest in voting, did not request absentee ballots and didn't know that Schofield was using their personal information to obtain the ballots. The indictment alleges Schofield "falsely certified" that he was the person requesting the ballot when he entered the voters' names and dates of birth in the portal.

The ballots that were delivered to the Rensselaer County Board of Elections were subsequently filled out and submitted in last year's primary election, the general election, or in some instances both.

Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/state/article/Rensselaer-County-s-Republican-elections-17438122.php

[barbtries]

1. republicans

really don't care how they win. the ends justify the means even it means people die.

[RSherman]

2. This too. Also in Troy.

https://www.wamc.org/news/2022-06-08/troy-city-councilor-pleads-guilty-to-ballot-fraud-agrees-to-resign

[wnylib]

29. Wow. The Working Families Party is

a left of center Progressive party. Cindy Nixon (actor who played Miranda on Sex and the City) ran for governor in a 2018 primary challenge against Cuomo as the Working Families Party candidate.

The Republican election fraud does not surprise me, but the WFP does.

[yankee87]

3. College Ethics

The ends justify the means is a doctrine I remember studying in an Ethics class. That was in relation to the bombing of Loas during the Vietnam War. Back then it was because of the fear of communism. Now the Qpublican party is doing God’s work, so of course, anything they do is justified in their eyes.

[harumph]

9. While it seems to be "end justifies the means" in both cases,

the example you provide is so quantitively different as to be qualitatively different.
Scale of misdeeds matter.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. the examples are different - the reasoning is exactly the same. "We must win, and damn the ethics"

winning is what matters.

Ethics only get in the way, and are something that only the weak worry about.

[Volaris]

19. Ehhh, not according to Kant..evil is evil, wrong is wrong, and the scale is irrelevant,..

And anything that's NOT that, is ultimately a Utilitarian argument...

For my part, Ethics was the most irritating of the philosophy classes I took...but on any given day, I'll admit it was ALSO the most fun..

[NJCher]

28. consider this

Might have been a test run for greater fraud down the road.

The republicans have pretty much admitted they can't hold on to power or attain it without cheating.

Try it out, see how you do, if successful, next time increase the take.

[Escurumbele]

6. Because, like that guy, they have no sense of consequences. The criminal mind acts that way.

[TheRealNorth]

4. Not surprised

Ihttps://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1046&pid=5174

[Escurumbele]

5. The party that keeps on giving...criminals, fraudsters, cheaters, liars, etc., etc., etc.

[questionseverything]

7. It's always repubs doing what they accuse democrats of doing

And this sob was an election insider

Lock him up and throw away the key

[Rebl2]

8. Was just

going to say that. They project onto others exactly what they are doing themselves.

[emulatorloo]

11. I swear they must teach Projection on day one of Republican 101.

[Rebl2]

30. Seems like it

[LaMouffette]

14. Like Rachel Maddow said last night: the Repubes have been accusing Dems of weaponizing the DOJ,

and we come to find out that that is exactly what Traitor Trump and Barr had brazenly done at the Southern District of New York.

The Repubes did the same kind of projection by accusing Hillary of running a child sex trafficking ring out of a pizza parlor, when it's the Republican Party that is rife with sexual deviants. A few examples from Slate:

In 2006, Florida Rep. Mark Foley was forced to resign after it was revealed that he’d sent sexually explicit messages and propositioned teenage congressional pages via email and text.

In 2015, former Rep. Dennis Hastert, the longest-ever serving Republican speaker of the House, pleaded guilty to making illegal hush-money payments in order to cover up his history of sexually abusing high school wrestlers he had coached decades before.

“Nothing is more stunning than having ‘serial child molester’ and ‘speaker of the House’ in the same sentence,” the judge said at his sentencing.

During and after the 2016 presidential race, among the dozens of women who accused former president Donald Trump of being a sexual predator were several contestants in the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant, who reported that he barged into their dressing room while girls as young as 15 were changing. (Trump allegedly told them, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.”)

[link:https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/04/from-hastert-to-gaetz-lets-talk-about-republicans-and-sex-crimes.html|

[Evolve Dammit]

16. Constant projection. And this post shows once again where the "voter fraud" is. It's always Goopers.

[FakeNoose]

31. Yes well they've constantly accused Dems of voter fraud with mailed ballots

There's only one party that's committing fraud with mailed ballots. And it's not the Democrats.

[ultralite001]

10. Tammany Hall redux???

...helping NY's poor and underserved populations have a voice...

in politics...


That is all...

[Deb]

12. Local GOP shenannigans with real consequences!

How delightful. Cheating, it's all they've got and for years too.

[Fiendish Thingy]

13. What state is this? Nt

[WestMichRad]

20. Given that it's a Repuke, must be the state of Denial.

Sorry, couldn’t help myself…


New York, actually… Albany area.

[patphil]

22. New York.

Funny how most of the actual instances of voter fraud turn out to be Republicans.

[MissMillie]

23. Well, it's the Albany Times Union

and the sub-header says "STATE," so I'm guessing this is New York.

[Justice]

24. Upstate New York. Albany is just outside west Border of county which runs along Vermont line

Spent 11 years there.

Rensselaer County itself is run by Republicans.

For President, from 1992-2012 a majority voted for the Democratic candidate.

However, County voted for Trump in 2016. People I knew well as 100% Trumpers. Unbelievable.

With redistricting, the US Rep for Rensselaer County is infamous Elise M. Stefanik.

[FakeNoose]

32. Upstate New York

Albany, Schenectady and Troy form the nucleus of the Capital District. It includes 3 or 4 counties in the metro area.

[Lonestarblue]

15. It seems that most voting fraud committed today is by Republicans.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. And this is why they assume the dems MUST be committing voter fraud: because they do it.

"Well, we do it, so the dems must be doing it! And they won the election, so they must be doing it a hell of a lot more than we are!"

[ZonkerHarris]

21. GOP should crack down on Republican election fraud. Thats all there is

[OMGWTF]

25. Lie, cheat, steal, treason, murder, kidnap -- it's the Rethuglican way!

[Justice]

26. Also tied back to this post by Nevilledog from February of 2022

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100216320564

FBI seizes mobile phones of top Rensselaer County officials

The FBI, which is continuing to investigate alleged absentee ballot fraud in Rensselaer County, seized the mobile phones of county operations Director Richard W. Crist and Jim Gordon, the county’s director of purchasing and a political ally of county Executive Steve McLaughlin.

[yourmovemonkey]

34. I didn't know about this

Rich is an old acquaintance of mine. Haven't seen him in a few years though. Helluva good guitar player.

[mgardener]

27. Elise Stefanik's new district

She will blame the FBI

[Mopar151]

33. In simple terms

Holy shit! What gets these goobers, every friggin' time? Their steadfast belief that everybody in the world is at least as stupid as they are!

[Scalded Nun]

35. Easiest way to figure out what the GOP is doing...Look at what they are accusing others of.