Reply #187: Harry Truman said he told the truth and Republicans thought it was hell.

[sybylla]

That's all that PeaceNikki is doing here - telling the truth. I was an observer in another county and can vouch for you that she is doing all that she can legally, which isn't much beyond watching, objecting, and generally "observing."

What do you want? Are the Kloppenburg representative supposed to have a hissy fit every time something didn't get done right? Where would that get us but tossed out of the recount room?

So many people who are posting here, including Brad Friedman, whom I have a lot of respect for, don't seem to be understanding the role of this recount - to audit the actions of election night and since and to record the problems with the conduct of the polls, poll workers, and equipment.

As I have pointed out to others, the fact that bags of ballots were not sealed properly by itself isn't defacto evidence of fraud. It's evidence of irregularities - that's Joanne Kloppenburg's own word. Without eyewitnesses to an act of fraud, all Ms. Kloppenburg can do is send observers to collect the circumstantial evidence together and hope there is enough to build a case for tossing the most questionable votes. There will be no fraud conviction on a poorly sealed bag of ballots or a bag lacking the proper chain of custody records.

Should we be appalled that these kinds of things are happening. Of course. In the county I observed, everyone in the room, Republicans and Democrats, were appalled by the errors and problems - minor though the majority of them were. All of us are calling lawyers for Kloppenburg when the worst irregularities crop up.

But to label as suspicious or as traitors to the cause those of us who refuse to call something fraud when we could also explain so many of the "irregularities" as incompetence, willful neglect, failure of training programs or any number of other freaky but just a likely scenarios (if not more likely) is uncalled for and something I never expected to see.

Those of us who are on the ground are supposed to feed the meme or leave.

Well, guess what? We're telling the truth. If you don't like it, I guess that's hell.