Oh Look, Yet Another Former Trump Official Seems To Have Done A Voter Fraud

[epicurus]

Republicans are right about one thing; voter fraud is rampant…among Republicans.

[greenman66]

@chjim

I taught martial arts for years. It was gratifying to see students who thought they wanted to fight and who were quick to anger learn that courtesy can prevent conflict, and that fighting just leaves everyone tired and in pain. Best to take the high road where possible, and refuse to escalate things.

I was called to jury duty on a case that involved an altercation that resulted in assault charges. I don’t remember all the details but the whole mess could have been avoided if one or the other had just walked away. I said so when during the voir dire and was dismissed by the defendant’s attorney because of “stand your ground” rights or some such BS.

[richardinjax]

I can’t imagine the law is that goofy ( although I’ve seen quite a bit of lunacy in it ). That set of rules would allow one to get 1 mm away from breaking the law or breaking it with a plausible excuse…“the law sucks”. If I remember correctly my absentee ballot just a month ago here in Florida specifically said that voting using it it mutually prohibited me from voting anywhere else or again here. This state is fairly backward. We can’t be the only folks that make this clear.

[richardinjax]

Well…splitting hairs isn’t going to get us anywhere. If what the beef is about is that voting in State A for candidates that are not on State B’s ballot so it’s OK to vote in both …well I get that. But to do that I’d think you’d be required to drop your registration in A. If not you’re set later to vote in both for a candidate that’s on the ballot in both.

[kelaine]

I understand your explanation. It makes sense, I guess. It also looks like a loophole that should be fixed.

[sniffit]

@txlawyer

There is nothing to interpret. The statute prohibits voting more than once in “an election,” period. He did not vote more than once in “an election”; he voted one time apiece in each of two different elections.

I already explained to you the argument that it’s not two separate “elections” and how I believe it should be interpreted. You then come back at me, per usual, ignoring that I said anything about that. That statutory language has never been interpreted and has never been put at issue via a prosecution. You can argue the interpretation you think it should be given all day, but it doesn’t trump any other interpretation. I’ve given you ample reasoning why it should be interpreted the way I argue, but you’ve done no such thing as to your interpretation.

Primaries in different states are merely two parts of the same election whole, primarily because the focus should be on whether the voter in question is attempting to exercise outsized influence over the outcomes that choose who ultimately becomes the nation’s representatives. You are entitled to vote for your representative…not your representativeS. “One person, one vote” becomes a farce and a lie under any other interpretation. We’d be encouraging those who wish to weigh in on elections that don’t even effect them or more elections than is their due to play musical registrations…and yes, that’s what we’re finding them to be doing.

[txlawyer]

I am assuming this guy established residency in New Hampshire while working there for the Christie campaign and subsequently moved back to his parents’ basement in time enough to establish residency there before that state’s primary. If so, giving up his NH residency would indeed make him ineligible to vote in New Hampshire.

[demyankee]

@communistagronomist

It does seem pretty tough–probably a result of all those Massachusetts carpetbaggers sneaking over to try to influence the results of the NH primary.

It’s so unfair that we carpetbaggers have to take up residence. And, behold! We’ve managed to change the political landscape to the tune of Democratic women (gasp!) comprising a major portion of the state’s Washington delegation for not a little while these days.

@mrf

Back in the 70’s there was Gov. Meldrim Thompson who wanted the state to have its own nuclear weapons and the publisher of the Union Leader William Loeb…

“quaint and reasonable” I love it! They were a couple of sour-pussed jackasses (can we recall Loeb’s savage assault on Ed Muskie that sounded his last hurrah) the likes of which have been relegated to the fringe. Unfortunately the species has not gone away.

[richardinjax]

There may be some goofy protection for voting twice in a given election period but there cannot be any legal cover for being registered to vote in two places at the same time. At least I would think.

[generalsternwood]

grade school furries

Good point. Another ludicrous example!

[txlawyer]

@sniffit

I already explained to you the argument that it’s not two separate “elections” and how I believe it should be interpreted.

It is flatly unreasonable to interpret “an election” to include “two or more elections so long as they concern the same office in the same electoral cycle.” You may wish for the statute to provide for that, but it doesn’t. And we don’t read criminal statutes to mean things that they don’t say. That’s kind of a Due Process issue.

[kelaine]

@richardinjax

There may be some goofy protection for voting twice in a given election period but there cannot be any legal cover for being registered to vote in two places at the same time.

When my daughter made New York her permanent address, she filled out a voter registration change of address card. It had her new address on it and her previous address on it. She assumed that New York would have informed Pennsylvania about the change. My daughter never contacted Pennsylvania herself (I wouldn’t have thought about doing so). She just stopped voting in Pennsylvania. Even after she cast her first vote in New York, she still got Bureau of Elections mail at my address in Pennsylvania. So in a sense, she was registered to vote in two different places. Pennsylvania did not remove her from the rolls for a couple years - I’m guessing because there is a backlog of such changes.

[staggerlee]

Please keep sending us your tax dollars!

[richardinjax]

I suppose it also was innocent and that played a role in it. She didn’t use the period of dual registry to vote in 2 places. To all the GOP’er in here…I VOTE IN TWO PLACES all the time . Once here and once in Holland…and there aint shit Uncle Sugar can do about it. I’m registered to vote in 3 places…Here, Holland and Peru…

[txlawyer]

@richardinjax

There may be some goofy protection for voting twice in a given election period but there cannot be any legal cover for being registered to vote in two places at the same time.

It’s not at all unusual for someone to remain on the voter registration roles at their old address, even if they don’t intend to vote there again. But it would definitely be an issue if somebody deliberately maintained voter registrations in two states in order to cast two different ballots. I don’t think the federal statute we’ve been discussing would capture it, but I’m pretty sure it would be criminal vote fraud under the law of most states.

[staggerlee]

You e been stealing our Sunday liquor cash for years. I say fair play!

[noonm]

@txlawyer

@richardinjax

So NH and NJ don’t have the candidates on the ballot?

Is the New Hampshire primary the same election as the New Jersey primary that takes place four months later? If the answer is no – and the answer is obviously no – then the federal statute only prohibits voting twice in the same election. It does not prohibit voting twice for the same office, which is what this schmuck did.

Looks like a loophole in our primary election system, as the spirit of our current election system is that each person should only get one vote for each office in the primary then general election.

Still seems fair to call the guy out on it since he basically got two votes for the GOP Presidential nominee in the 2016 primary.

[demyankee]

Yep. And I stopped drinking after moving up here, so that was a chunk out of Concord’s egg money. Makes it marginally easier to cope with the real estate taxes on a personal level at least.

[rascal_crone]

You mean hoaxes like COVID and global warming?

[txlawyer]

@noonm

Looks like a loophole in our primary election system, as the spirit of our current election system is that each person should only get one vote for each office in the primary then general election.

If it’s a loophole, it is one that the states seem happy enough to have created it by dragging out their primaries over such a long period of time. No state that I’ve seen has attempted to to close it, and I just don’t see it as any kind of big deal. Everyone should get the chance to vote in their state’s primary, even if that state changes between February and June.