Yes, Virginia,Voter Fraud Exists but...the Ground Game Trumps - image from motherjones.com
The election is over and President Obama is about to begin his second term, yet there are those that remain unconvinced that GOP Candidate Mitt Romney was defeated fair and square, but that there was some shenanigans afoot. That there is cheating via ballot stuffing, double voting (or triple voting), the Bridgeport, CT voting method of throwing ballots into the bay, busing out of state voters to the polls, and more tricks than a pony can come up with – all verified by 8 X 10 color glossies and hastily buried news reports during the election. That said, in order for the Democrats to have handily defeated Mitt Romney they would have had to come up with at least 5% of the vote total, if the polls were right. Understanding that this was to be a “close election” the fact that the Democrats needing to cheat up to 5% of the total vote makes no sense at all, however, all polls were weighted to the voter totals of the previous election or plus 8 for the Democrats. If one assumes the margin of error at plus or minus three, deducts that from the GOP candidate, then adjusts 8 points for the Democrats, one has a need to “catch up “by 5 points in order to push the Democrat candidate over the top. It would have to be “that” close. Cheating up to 5% is really pushing the envelope – yet, that’s what the Washington Post suggests, the founder of “unskewedpolls.com” believes. So much so that he began a new website regarding voter fraud. The site Barackofraudo.com looks at the swing states where the ballot returns appear to be out of sync. Welcome to Massachusetts.
However, in reality, what is more than likely the case is that the GOP failed to deliver the bodies to the polls. The election is like a chess game, where both parties need to push X amount of voters to the polls, and they need an infrastructure in place in order to do that. The Democrats have this down to a science, and it is on display in Massachusetts, add a little bit of obvious cheating (say 30,000 votes), and there is a one-party lock on the Commonwealth. In order for Republican’s or Libertarians or Tea Party (More on that) to win, they have to change the way in which they deliver voters to the polls.
The theme this year, and in past years, is simply the base is energized, so they’ll get out and vote, yet, and yet, the estimated landslide of evangelical and conservative voters never materialized. It was not as if they weren’t “out there”, they were, in droves, but they never made it to the polls. It is the organization that has been in place by Democrats, and is continually checked and doubled checked, right down to the precinct level, getting people to the polls. Poll watchers check to find out who hasn’t shown up, and has the ability to make a call and someone goes and picks up that extra vote, or extra 10,000 votes. Republican’s, don’t appear to have voting down to a science. Perhaps it’s the emphasis on individual freedoms versus the collective political ideology that appears to get them into trouble, or relying on what appears to be common sense (that’s something that no longer exits). The reason that the President won reelection by, what most would consider, a slim margin, was simply that his party was able to combine cheating and getting out the vote, better than the other party.
There are Democrats who have been totally turned off by the Progressive Socialists who now run my father’s party, and one would think they would be natural Republican’s, but the two-party system, for some people, is so broken beyond compare, that they have gravitated to that all maligned, Tea Party. Go figure. However, that said, some of these individuals one finds, and it’s shocking to say the least, also know how to get out the vote – the problem is, there appears to be a lack of enthusiasm when it comes to actually getting out the vote and working in the precincts. So much better for those Republican's to throw an annual cocktail party –than get in the trenches and troll for likely voters and new party members. It is frustrating, and must be for both sides to work so hard, and come up with nothing, or just above nothing in the vote totals. That frustration aside, (and there is much to be frustrated about in Massachusetts, if one is awake, looks at the legislation pending, follows the Governor ‘s doings, and basically - takes a valium in the hopes of waking up in a more “balanced state. Therefore, unless and until the Republican’s start to act more like Democrats, in the manner of getting out the vote, and getting the grassroots on board. Including those whom the media brands “rightwing”, and is generally dropped out of the GOP program so that the moderate candidate can appear to have distanced themselves from the people who are most likely to get out the vote in the first place.
So, the Democrats did not cheat any more or any less than they have in the past (See my father’s party , which gives insight into how that particular party has worked elections), they just are better organized on the ground. Therefore, if Republican’s want to win a general election – they need to include all voters on their radar, and actively court them, they need to put people in every single precinct, working in the same blocks and neighborhoods as their counterparts. Once that somewhat utopian ground game is in force, then the playing field will be level. It may take years, but, no time like the present to quit your bitching and do something about it. Checkmate.
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