Free Republic

Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday voted to spend up to $12 million for an expected uptick in requests for mail-in ballots in the July primary runoff and November general election from voters concerned about contracting the novel coronavirus at polling places. The three Democrats on the five-member court voted to give County Clerk Diane Trautman enough to send a mail-in ballot to every registered voter in the county over the objections of the two Republican members who said the clerk failed to justify the expense. ...Attorney General Ken Paxton earlier this month said fear of the coronavirus is not...

“I’m worried about 2020, I think it’s 50-50. I think it’s a coin flip,” said Ted Cruz, the Republican U.S. Senator from Texas. The 2020 presidential race happens when the country is “deeply divided.” “It is an incredibly polarized country,” he said. “I think it all comes down to turnout.” “I think the Left is going to show up in massive numbers,” he continued. “And it all comes down to who shows up on the center-right.” Ted Cruz was on the Ben Shapiro Show Sunday when, 45-minutes into the interview, Shapiro asked Cruz for his assessment of the 2020 election...

The midterm elections may have been a sign of what's ahead for the 2020 presidential election: experts say the voter turnout could be the highest in a century. The big picture: According to Michael McDonald, an elections expert at the University of Florida, turnout for the 2020 presidential election could be as high as 67% — the highest it's been since at least 1916. If that happens, President Trump will have a tougher fight for a second term. •He's driving turnout among those most unhappy with him (younger voters and people of color) even when he's not on the ballot....

Caramagna, who resigned Sunday, is accused of filling out some portions of mail-in ballots and primary election ballot certifications he Democratic mayor of a northern New Jersey town has resigned amid an election violation charge. The Bergen County prosecutor's office said Monday that former Elmwood Park Mayor Francesco Caramagna faces a charge of interfering with the secrecy of the election process. Caramagna, who resigned Sunday, is accused of filling out some portions of mail-in ballots and primary election ballot certifications

Outsiders think of Arizona as one of the reddest states. From Barry Goldwater to anti-immigration hawks like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, our most famous politicians tend to be Republicans. But traditionally, Arizona is rather purple and regularly features tight statewide elections. In the past 45 years, Democrats have held the governorship as often as the Republicans. But in the last decade, the GOP consolidated their hold on power due to the unprecedented organization of the Tea Party and the Left’s hyperbolic anti-Arizona rhetoric in the wake of the illegal immigration debates. (“Vote for us, you dumb racists!” wasn’t the winning message...

FULL TITLE: Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher Threatens To Jail Media For Filming "Ballot Counting" Two kinds of people hate being filmed while going about their business in public: celebrities and criminals. Breaking from normal practice, the Palm Beach County elections supervisor banned media from filming and photographing the high-profile midterm election ballot review process amid allegations of “incompetence” by Gov. Rick Scott. The camera ban prompted an attorney for NBC Universal to interrupt the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board and object to the meeting, calling it “illegal.” Tensions flared Friday morning when Bucher threatened to have camera...

U.S. Senate – Rick Scott leads Bill Nelson by 15,092 15,079 votes (13 more votes for Nelson “found” in the past 30 minutes) FL Governor – Ron DeSantis leads Andrew Gillum by 36,223 36,219 votes (4 more votes for Gillum “found” in past 30 minutes) UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect that at approximately 2pm Eastern, the Broward County Supervisor of Elections posted another 11,300 votes (which broke 70-30 in favor of Democrats). This new tranche of ballots triggered a mandatory machine recount in the governor’s race and a hand recount in the U.S. Senate race. UPDATE #2:...

Governor Rick Scott delivered a blistering report Thursday on the offices of supervisors of elections in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Addressing the media in front of the governor's mansion, Scott said there could be "rampant fraud" in the election practices of the two counties. Scott said at the end of election night, the Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office said 634,000 votes had been cast. By 2:30 p.m. Thursday, the office reported 712,040 ballots counted with an unknown number of ballots remaining. Scott said his office has filed a lawsuit and is asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement...

""HOLY CRAP! FLORIDA VOTER Films Broward County Election Officials Transferring Ballots in Rented Truck on Election Night! (VIDEO)""" Florida voter JoAnn Knox captured Broward County Election Officials Transferring Ballots in Rented Truck on Election Night! “This violates all chain of custody requirements for paper ballots,” argues Independent Congressional candidate for Florida’s 23rd District, Tim Canova. They were transferring ballots around without any security officials in sight!

Marco Rubio ‏ Verified account @marcorubio 1h1 hour ago More #Broward election supervisors ongoing violation of #Florida law requiring timely reporting isn’t just annoying incompetence. It has opened the door for lawyers to come here & try to steal a seat in the U.S. Senate & Florida Cabinet

Project Veritas dropped an undercover video earlier Tuesday showing election officials admitting “tons” of non-citizens are voting in Texas. O’Keefe’s undercover video caught the attention of Texas Governor Gregg Abbott. “This will be investigated,” Abbott said of the non-citizens being encouraged to vote by election officials. In the video, a Project Veritas undercover journalist asked a Texas election official if her “DREAMer” boyfriend can vote as long as he is registered to vote and has a driver’s license. “Yeah okay” the election official responded. “If he has his ID that’s all he needs. If he’s registered,” the election official said...

I had an interesting conversation last night with a young girl I work with. Her sister is attending college in Connecticut. Apparently at the college she was encouraged to register to vote. She had explained that she lives in New York and had already applied for an absentee ballot. She was told since she spends seven months in college she should register in Connecticut. (She is a freshman, so has only been in CT a few months) She registered and I assume will vote. The girl I was talking to said her sister asked her to pick up her NY...

Colorado is one of only three states that run their elections with all-mail ballots. The other two are the west coast progressive strongholds of Washington and Oregon... So, between this and Jared Polis’s goal of 100% renewable energy five years sooner than California’s unreachable goal, we’re out-Californicating California... Colorado mandated all-mail ballots the last time the Democrats controlled both the state house and senate, 2013. And it fundamentally changed electioneering ... We used to have an election day, a 12-hour period for civically minded folks to get to their neighborhood polling place and exercise their voice. Voting was for those...

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Georgia election officials to stop summarily tossing absentee ballots because of mismatched signatures, delivering a crucial win to voting-rights advocates — and to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams — less than two weeks before Election Day.

My daughter received an absentee ballot today. She can't even vote yet! She won't be 18 until June of next year!

The cast of West Wing wants to make sure you can vote. Republicans want to make it way more difficult for people to vote — the cast of The West Wing needs your help to stop them

**SNIP** In the video, Totsy Bailey, Local 439 Steamfitters/Pipefitters Union president, can be heard saying, "Vote early, vote often, whatever you can get away with... I shouldn't say that, but, I don't care." When reached for comment, Bailey said he didn't have a comment about his words and hung up the phone abruptly. The video shows Bailey introducing a speaker at the Labor Rally in Caseyville.

Election officials in Ohio found 588 uncounted votes Wednesday in a suburb of Columbus, county officials said. After counting the ballots, Republican Troy Balderson received 198 votes; Democrat Danny O’Connor got 388 votes; and Joe Manchik, 2 votes. Thus, O’Connor gained 190 on Balderson, who currently leads by 1,564 votes in the close race. “The votes from a portion of one voting location had not been processed into the tabulation system,” officials explained. “Election night results are tabulated through the use of a device called a master PEB that is returned to the Board along with flash drives from each...

How can liberals get millenials to vote for Dems in 2018? It’s EASY says liberal actor Peter Fonda. Just steal their ballots and do it for them: Then we have to take them by the hand and lead them to the water and teach them to drink! If you have a millennial in your family, take their early ballots, fill them out and mail them in, or take the ballot to the voting place and give it to the officials… no more worrying! https://t.co/wiDXP9sl60 — Peter Henry Fonda (@iamfonda) August 4, 2018 Yeah, that’s voter fraud all right: Hi @realDonaldTrump...

A new lawsuit alleges that Iowa’s new voter ID law violates the state constitution and will make it more difficult for some residents to vote. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa and Iowa State University student Taylor Blair, is the first major legal challenge to the law since it was passed last year, according to the Associated Press. The law requires that election officials ask voters for a form of identification starting this year, including during Iowa’s primary elections on June 5. This year, those without ID can sign an oath verifying...