Posted on 11/30/2018 5:47:57 AM PST by Kaslin
House Speaker Paul Ryan questioned California’s ballot-counting process after Democrats were able to flip several GOP-held seats.
The state’s election system “defies logic to me,” he said during an interview with the Washington Post’s Paul Kane. “We had a lot of wins that night, and three weeks later we lost basically every contested California race. This election system they have, I can’t begin to understand what ballot harvesting is.”
“We were only down 26 seats the night of the election and three weeks later, we lost basically every California race,” he continued. “This election system they have — I can’t begin to understand what ‘ballot harvesting’ is.”
He did not accuse the state of any wrongdoing and his campaign spokesman Jeremy Adler later clarified in a statement to The Hill that "The Speaker did not and does not dispute the [election] results."
“I just think it’s weird,” he said when pressed by Kane during the event.
California does have a more liberal policy when it comes to counting ballots. The Golden State allows absentee ballots to be counted if they are mailed by Election Day and arrive at the registrar by the Friday after the election. That’s why results in a handful of close California House races were not called until days, or weeks, after Nov. 6.
In many cases, the GOP candidates had been leading on election night, but Democrats ultimately prevailed as additional absentee and provisional ballots were tallied in the days after. (The Hill)
“In Wisconsin, we knew the next day. Scott Walker, my friend, I was sad to see him lose, but we accepted the results on Wednesday," Ryan said. California’s “system is bizarre; I still don’t completely understand it. There are a lot of races there we should have won.”
He called the way absentee-ballots work now “pretty loosey goose,” compared to how the program operated in the past.
“When you have candidates who win the absentee ballot vote and then lose three weeks later because of provisionals, that’s really bizarre. And so I just think that’s a very, very strange outcome,” he said.
“When you win the absentee ballots and you win the in-person vote, where I come from, you win the election,” Ryan added. “If you then — and you’re up six points or something like that, it’s really bizarre. So my only point is, I’m not saying there’s anything nefarious about it, because I just don’t know, but we believed we were up about six seats in California the night of the election, now I think we lost just about every single one of those.”
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, the state’s top election official, took issue with Paul’s remarks.
.@SpeakerRyan, in California we make sure every ballot is properly counted and accounted for. That's not “bizarre,” that's DEMOCRACY.https://t.co/zBXiAscmRK— Alex Padilla (@AlexPadilla4CA) November 29, 2018
“It shouldn’t ‘defy logic’ that elections officials are meticulous in counting every eligible ballot,” Padilla explained, the Mercury News of San Jose reported. “California works to ensure every ballot is counted properly and every ballot is accounted for. In the most populous state in the nation — and the state with the largest number of registered voters — this takes time.”
Democrats flipped the seats held by GOP Reps. Mimi Walters, Dana Rohrabacher, Jeff Denham and Steve Knight, and won those by retiring Republican Congressmen Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. The race in California's 21st Congressional District between GOP Rep. David Valadao and Democrat T.J. Cox is too close to call still, but Cox was ahead in the last update.
Really Paul? Idiot.
To paraphrase a popular song’s first line . . . “Political p***y get away from me . . . “
I agree. He’s a contemptuous slimeball, but on this one, he was perfect for the reasons you stated.
It violates the us constitution.
All you need to understand is this:
'Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.'
Those who count the vote in KKKalifornia are members of the DemoKKKratzi Party.
We lost ALL those House seats because of him!
Ryan the Never Trumper got his wish! A decimated minority party status!
How do all those idiot republiturds who voted for this asshat Speaker feel now?
Oh, and now we get his heir apparent as minority leader, just great!
The republican party is toast, thanks to the likes of Ryan!!
I still remember MSNBC and CNN writing almost daily "Hillary Clinton's national popular vote lead expands with more votes being counted in California" stories for like three full weeks after Clinton conceded the race on November 9, 2016.
California's vote-counting system, its lax/non-existent voter ID requirements, illegal immigrants, etc. just kills the idea of a national popular vote. I'd almost not mind it if California didn't exist, but they do, so nope, not a chance in hell.
It’s not “bizarre”, it’s blatant fraud. Making coy remarks about it won’t ever lead to it being fixed.
It is FAR too late to educate Ryan on how this workd:
But- I will try-—
IF there were NOT voter fraud when the votes are CAST-—there would be no voter fraud in counting the ballots.
If there were stronger controls on where those cast ballots go for counting, then no ‘just found’ ballots could magically appear.
Ryan has refused to even look at the mess that voting has become & the rampant fraud. He could never look beyond the edge of the forest. He thought there ere no more trees, I guess.
People move-—and their name stays on the voter rolls, and an illegal is using that name to vote.
If this is such now a revelation to Ryan-—perhaps he could devote his remaining years to cleaning up the voter fraud in all areas of the election process in the USA.
That might give him a ‘legacy’ to be worthy.
Congress can easily force whatever standards it wants for Congressional elections. They can just refuse to seat anyone elected in an election that doesn’t meet whatever standards they specify. The states can then choose to allow the fraud and lose their representation, or institute standards and get it back.
Every ballot is mailed to every registered voter. Every applicant for a driver license is automatically registered to vote. Every ballot can be mailed back. When they started that crap I knew it was the end of fair elections in California.
I grew up in Orange County.
There are two things I miss- a few beautiful beaches and a few amazing Mexican Restaurants.
Nothing else.
“California does have a more liberal policy when it comes to counting ballots. The Golden State allows absentee ballots to be counted if they are mailed by Election Day.”
If that means by midnight of the election day, it can often both after the polls have closed and sometimes even after news reports have “called” a race, providing ample opportunity for fraudsters to discover how many registered voters did not vote (”yet”), use insiders at polls to determine who some of those registered non-voters were, and come up with the necesssary “mail in” ballots to makeup any vote tally needed to turn a loss into a win.
Romney eviscerated Barky in the first debate. Then it was as if he became afraid he might win. Ryan let Uncle Joe crap all over him in their debate with Biden doing nothing more than imitating a Friars’ Club Roast, saying absolutely nothing of substance. I, till this day, have no explanation for their failure. The election was theirs if they’d only showed up.
I was born and raised in Flint, Mi. After the Navy I moved to Grand Haven, right on Lake Michigan. Conde Naste magazine just had a pol and Grand Haven was voted the worlds best coastal city in the world. We have everything here that California has minus the earthquakes, add fresh water instead of saltwater. There you have it.
Well, to Ryan’s credit, at least he is obliquely acknowledging the massive voter fraud that has taken place, no other Republican in a position of power has done so. I suppose he is afraid to say more. Too bad.
Oh, you think so Paul?
Perhaps some tiny partial credit, but absent an authentic ‘Road to Damascus’ turnabout, Ryan is still Vichy.
Ryan should be on a lamp post.
Bizarre!?
How about fraudulent!
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