Trump Right To Be Concerned About Voter Fraud As His Supporter Arrested for Voting Twice In Iowa

Staying on message has again paid off for Donald Drumpf and the Republican lackeys who still support him.  After years of complaining of nearly non-existent voter fraud in this country as cover for the Republicans thinly veiled pretext for voter ID laws and other voter suppression tactics we finally have proof that actual voter fraud exists.  Today the Des Moines Register editorialized:

 Iowans can vote early in this year’s general election, but they cannot vote often. Unless they want to spend some time in jail and perhaps lose the right to vote entirely.

Terri Lynn Rote of Des Moines was arrested last week on suspicion of casting two ballots for the upcoming election: one at the Polk County Election Office and one at a satellite voting location. The 55-year-old woman was booked Thursday on a first-degree charge of election misconduct and released Friday after posting bond.

Iowa Code Chapter 39A rightly contains unforgiving language about offenses with the potential to affect the election process, including voting or attempting to vote more than once in the same election. Such wrongdoing should “be vigorously prosecuted and strong punishment meted out through the imposition of felony sanctions which, as a consequence, remove the voting rights of the offender.”

Iowans will be watching to see if Rote, a registered Republican who supports Donald Trump for president, is vigorously prosecuted. Because she certainly should be.

Rote is not an elderly person with dementia who forgot she had already voted. It appears she knew exactly what she was doing. She told Iowa Public Radio she feared her first ballot for Trump would be changed to a vote for Hillary Clinton. So she went and cast another one. “The polls are rigged,” she said.

The polls are rigged? Where in the world would she get an idea like that?

From her favored presidential candidate, of course.

Donald Trump has repeatedly used the term “rigged” in reference to this election, even going so far as to say he would not accept the final results unless he wins. His website includes a form to sign up as a poll watcher on Election Day to help stop “Crooked Hillary from rigging this election.”

The irresponsibility of calling into question the integrity of this country’s voting process prompted Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, also a Republican, to dispute the claim. “I take the integrity of our elections very seriously,” he said. “I can assure you Iowa’s elections are not rigged." A slew of research has found voter fraud to be close to non-existent.

Unfortunately, facts are not the strong suit of the Republican presidential nominee. And Rote either believed the lies or used them as an excuse when she was caught. Meanwhile, this is the first election in 12 years that Polk County auditor Jamie Fitzgerald can remember having to report potential voter fraud.

The irony, of course, is the Des Moines woman was arrested and charged. That is proof the method for voting in this country — a decentralized system with thousands of different electoral jurisdictions — works well. Not even an avid Trump supporter can get away with trying to cheat it.

Well said by the major newspaper in a state leaning for Mr. Drumpf.

In other reports of Republican based voter suppression shenanigans, a lawsuit was filed in North Carolina alleging that individual objections are being made against thousands of minority registered voters in a greatly disproportionate number to non-minorities.  If you stop and think that there are more Democrats than Republicans and minorities are disproportionately Democrats it doesn't take a genius to figure out where the objections are coming from. Pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act:

 "A State shall complete, not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for Federal office, any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters."