GOP Concludes It Can't Win Close Races Without Court Intervention And Gaming Vote-Counting Process

[struggle4progress]

Mark Nickolas
Managing Editor, PoliticalBase.com
Posted April 15, 2009 | 03:24 PM (EST)


Beyond the effort to incite some of the most extreme elements of its party, maybe the most noteworthy development by the Republican Party over the past year has been what appears to be a concerted new election strategy in any close contest -- starting with the Minnesota Senate recount and now extending to the NY-20 congressional special election.

This effort appears to be two-fold. First, challenge as many Democratic votes as possible (thus lowering the Democrat's preliminary vote totals) with the singular goal of being ahead at the end of any phase so that once those challenged ballots are properly added back to the Democratic candidate's column the GOP can then argue that obviously someone stole the election since they were previously ahead. Secondly, if the first step doesn't work, demand court intervention to tie-up matter indefinitely.

Obviously, in the case of the Coleman/Franken contest, this strategy has miserably failed so far. Not only did the courts unanimously smack down Coleman's efforts, but Franken actually gained votes in each phase of the vote counting and recounting. Nevertheless, Coleman is promising further appeals and may try to find a GOP-friendly, Bush-appointed judge in the federal courts to prolong the formality of Coleman's narrow defeat.

Sadly, the same thing is going on in New York's 20th Congressional District, as James Tedisco's (R) camp has been responsible for the vast majority of ballot challenges. Their desperation has grown so significantly of late that yesterday Tedisco unbelievably challenged Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-NY) own absentee ballot, arguing that she was in the district on Election Day and should have voted in person. Aside from the idiocy of that argument -- since New York law only requires an "expectation" that a voter might be out of the county on Election Day -- turns out that Gillibrand wasn't in the district in any event, despite the GOP's unsupported accusation. Also, the GOP has repeatedly hinted that a court challenge looms next, if they don't win the absentee ballot count ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-nickolas/gop-concludes-it-cant-win_b_187297.html

[Bolo Boffin]

1. Well, what else should we expect?

America has left them no choice. They can hardly be blamed for what America's forcing them to do.

:sarcasm:

[thunder rising]

2. This has been known for decades ... ter are MANY more Dems that Reps...we finally got pissed off

enough to show up. Literally, any time you see a non-partisan "Go Vote" ad ... it's Dem.