General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What would happen if Hillary were to loudly and often start to voice how she was cheated, which she [View all]karynnj
(60,902 posts)While there is plenty to criticize in the election, it is not the first election where there was voter suppression, tremendous money behind lies against the candidate and a VERY close election in terms of the electoral college. It is really incumbent on BOTH parties to really fight to have a real bipartisan committee to completely clean up our voting process. ... and no, the blatantly biased effort led by Kobach,which includes Ken Blackwell, who was both the Bush/Cheney Ohio chair and the Ohio SoS in 2004, is not what is needed.
Some time in the early 2000s, Jimmy Carter, who monitors elections around the world and has international respect on this issue was asked if his center could monitor a US election. His response was that the way it was run violated the basic standards he insisted on world wide. I KNOW Jimmy Carter is 92, but I think he needs to be paired with a respected Republican (Lugar?) to head a committee that could monitor completely cleaning up the process.
Fixing the way we vote is a better remedy than any amendment that could change the result of the vote. Think of the down side - where a legitimate victory by the party that does not control Congress (as could have happened in 2016) might be challenged. Not to mention, If Trump colluded with Russia, he should be removed. However, following the Constitution, his party stays in power. Republicans would argue that this is fair, because you can't PROVE that without that (assumed) collusion, HRC and Kaine would have won.
So far, we do not know any votes even any voters' listing in the voters roll were changed. It is actually easier to prove that the email/Comey had a big impact -- and could have cost the election -- then the Wikileaks/DNC/Podesta stuff. In 2000, we now know if all the FL votes were recounted, Gore would have won. In 2004, like 2016, we do not have anything that clear cut. We KNOW that Ohio suppressed the innercity vote by giving them too few voting machines leading to 4 plus hour lines - in pouring rain. If everyone had the same easy time voting as I did in a Republican NJ county, Kerry likely would have won, but you can not prove that. Not to mention, a new word entered the language - swiftboating.
Back to Hillary, because she was the one who lost - just as Kerry and Gore did - she can't lead the call that she was cheated because it will seen as not living up to the US standard of peaceful transfer of power. What she can do is back an effort to get the US voting process up to standards we demand that third world countries meet.