The Wire - October 30, 2024

//The Wire//2300Z October 30, 2024//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: ELECTION INTEGRITY ISSUES CONTINUE AS EARLY VOTING INCIDENTS HIGHLIGHT CONCERNS.//
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-HomeFront-
United States: Election irregularities, fraud, and voter intimidation tactics continue as before:
Pennsylvania: Direct and open voter intimidation continues to be carried out by volunteers affiliated with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. Individuals have been observed to deceptively portray themselves as election officials or poll watchers, who are in no way affiliated with official election integrity efforts. These individuals have been observed telling prospective voters that they can’t vote, or that they are at the wrong polling place.
In Bucks County, several lawsuits have been filed regarding the illegal closure of polling places yesterday by law enforcement. This afternoon a judge issued a judgement confirming that the closure of early-voting places was illegal, and while the polling places will not re-open, citizens desiring to vote early may apply for an early mail-in ballot until November 1.
Throughout Pennsylvania, a local ABC affiliate TV station allegedly mistakenly aired an election day “test” news ticker, which just so happened to show a Kamala Harris victory. AC: While the news station itself claims the news ticker leak was an error, these kinds of “errors” seem to be happening quite often in Pennsylvania, and only end up favoring one particular candidate.
Colorado: A spreadsheet containing the passwords and access data for nearly all voting machines statewide was allegedly “accidentally” leaked to the entire world by being uploaded to the official Secretary of State’s website. AC: While many may attribute this incident to incompetence, this could also be a deliberate effort to plant the seeds of shifting blame away from state officials regarding election integrity issues. Now, state officials can always say “we were hacked”, which is a less-severe implication than government officials deliberately changing votes.
Ohio: The Secretary of State has filed a lawsuit against the federal government due to the Department of Homeland Security not providing citizenship verification data as required by law.
Michigan: Initial early voting data indicates that over 114,000 Michigan voters have voted multiple times from multiple addresses. AC: This has been a hot topic in Michigan, as state officials have attempted to downplay the fact that out of 7.6 million eligible voters throughout the state…somehow 8.2 million people are registered to vote. State officials have frequently made claims that this discrepancy is due to the intricacies of how the voter rolls are purged. However, seeing as the data very obviously highlights this gaslighting, and hundreds of thousands of ineligible votes have already been cast in this election, Michigan citizens are unlikely to be reassured or surprised upon the miraculous discovery that the illegal voting which was expressly not supposed to happen, has indeed already happened.
Also in Michigan, this afternoon the Secretary of State admitted during a televised press conference that not only have issues been reported with Dominion Voter Access Terminal voting machines (which provide assistance to disabled voters in casting their ballots), but that the programming issues have been reported nationwide. Straight-party voting reportedly causes issues within the system, though exactly how this occurs is unknown. AC: This may come as a surprise to some, as this issue nationwide implies that these devices, which are not supposed to be networked or connected to the internet, somehow probably are, in a continuation of the years-long issues pertaining to the networking of various voting machines. As the Secretary of State has admitted to this issue, and explicitly stated that her colleagues in other states have reported the same issues, this has caused questions as to which other states she was referring to since no other state has reported this specific issue publicly yet. This slip-of-the-tongue could be an admission that other states are concealing issues with Dominion voting machines.
Washington D.C. – The US Supreme Court ruled to allow Virginia to purge self-identified non-citizen voters from voting in the election. AC: Of note, this judgement was NOT unanimous. Three SCOTUS Justices voted to allow non-citizens to vote in the federal election.
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Analyst Comments: In Pennsylvania, it is unclear as to if any of the law enforcement officers involved in this confirmed case of voter suppression in Bucks County will face any criminal investigation, but this is very unlikely. Law enforcement entities throughout Pennsylvania have been accused of (and now confirmed to be supportive of) widespread voter intimidation and illegal election practices without consequence, such as arresting a woman who verbally urged voters to stay in line to vote yesterday. Law enforcement arrested the woman (who has since been identified as Valerie Biancaniello, an RNC Delegate) for pointing out and contradicting false statements that were being made by election officials.
Specifically, video evidence of the incident indicates that Biancaniello claimed that poll workers were giving voters the runaround and falsely telling people that they could only be in certain lines to vote if there was a “pressing need”, as opposed to their right to vote. She also contradicted the poll workers efforts to close the polling place early (echoing the other early-closure complaints that have already been confirmed to be election interference by a judge).
Of note, there are two sides to every story, and a minor incident of alleged disorder at a polling place is important (as the tiniest claim of voter suppression MUST be investigated thoroughly), even if it is not an indication of a larger situation. In short, this appears to be a case of an educated citizen knowing the rules, calling out the poll workers for breaking the rules, and getting arrested for it. This is a tale as old as the election of 2020, and a situation that will undoubtedly be repeated throughout the United States on election day once again.
However, in a larger sense the overall picture is probably more of an indicator of the election irregularities throughout the state of Pennsylvania. For instance, law enforcement entities have also not arrested or even questioned the very obvious election interference carried out by fake “poll workers”, who have pretended to be election officials. Arresting a woman and charging her with disorderly conduct must be viewed in the context of what the poll workers themselves are doing, which in this case appears to indeed be multiple cases of voter suppression, with law enforcement in Pennsylvania making it absolutely clear as to where they stand on all of this.
As election integrity issues continue to mount, one of the major considerations to keep in mind is simply documenting the crimes that are blatantly being committed. Right now, there’s not much that can be done as the nation is not entirely ready for the tough solutions that are Constitutionally called for. If a law enforcement officer threatens to arrest someone who is legally engaging in their legal right to vote, there’s no solution to that problem that lies within the currently accepted social norms and mores of the United States, even if the United States Constitution is quite clear on how that situation should be resolved. Of course, a handful of issues in one swing-state are not entirely a good indication of how things are going in other areas, but widespread election integrity issues should be expected throughout many areas on election day.
However, thinking strategically is strongly recommended…just because the options are limited right now doesn’t mean they will remain so forever. The election integrity issues we’re seeing right now during many states’ early voting periods are probably a dry run for what is planned on election day, a culmination of years of laws that for the most part legalize cheating, or a combination of both. As such, documenting irregularities (or outright blatant election fraud) will be crucial for options in the future. Though the chances of election integrity reform are unlikely to be undertaken over the next few years, if no evidence is documented, the chances of any accountability being had drops to zero.
Furthermore and as a reminder, due to the extremely rampant media manipulation that has already occurred, it is extremely ill-advised to base one’s voting intentions on a news media ticker on television. There is no accountability for what media says, and a TV station can produce figures that indicate one candidate lost by a wide margin, and thus additional votes wouldn’t make a difference. Do NOT fall for this trick. Citizens should exercise their rights as they so desire, and steel themselves for abuse, false information, and any number of other voter intimidation and suppression tactics that intend to sway voters one way or another, and have already run rampant in some hotly-contested districts.
Analyst: S2A1
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