Tuesday November 8, 2022 is Election Day in the United States of America. In addition to Congressional "midterms" at the federal level, many state governors and other more local offices are up for grabs. Given how things shook out over Election Day 2020, things could get a little crazy.
...or, perhaps, not! But here's the Megathread for if they do. Talk about your local concerns, your national predictions, your suspicions re: election fraud and interference, how you plan to vote, anything election related is welcome here. Culture War thread rules apply, with the addition of Small-Scale Questions and election-related "Bare Links" allowed in this thread only (unfortunately, there will not be a subthread repository due to current technical limitations).
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Fraud
SubthreadMosh PitI will listen to allegations of fraud, dismissal of potential fraud, and attempted refutation of fraud here. Show receipts to add spice.
New York Times is on the beat.
The Maricopa County shitshow: the alt-right and conspiracy boards were lighting up about Dominion vote tabulators not accepting ballots in a big Republican section of Arizona.
Detroit voters were stunned to be told they’d already voted absentee.
Some Pennsylvania voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected for errors were notified in time to cast an in-person ballot, some weren’t notified, and some were told they couldn’t cast a provisional ballot to replace it.
All in all, “red wave barely a ripple, Trumpism refuted, cope and seethe more” will once again be met with “y’all cheated, just give us a year to figure out how.”
Would any of these be conceded as voter fraud even if they are proven true?
Over the last couple of years, there was more than one appeal to semantics on what was / was not fraud, to dismiss irregularities/concerns as not fraud, and thus accusations of fraud baseless.
"Voter fraud" typically seems to refer to people voting who shouldn't be allowed to vote, including most felons, noncitizens, children, or the dead. Also, people voting more than once, or intentionally counting ballots incorrectly.
Liberals will often levy accusations of "voter suppression" which tends to run in the opposite direction: People not being allowed to vote who should, making it unreasonably difficult for them to vote, or failing to count their votes. Examples include not having voting places where certain groups can access them (particularly the poor, who may not have reliable transportation), undersupplying voting locations (so that lines are very long, which again can be a larger burden on the poor who can't take time off work), the fiasco around Florida's felons from last election, discarding ballots for minor errors and not giving voters the chance to correct them (as alleged in PA, mostly around missing a date) or being told they can cast a provisional ballot (I think this was alleged in Detroit; voters had to know to request one).
I would say that "fraud" definitely does not refer to accidents and misunderstandings, or to things that have a completely benign and likely explanation just because someone who lost claimed fraud.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link