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elections

Monday 22nd of July 2024

2020 Presidential election In addition to this plan to create and transmit fake electoral slates, Donald trump as also personally and substantially involved in multiple efforts to pressure State election officias and State legislatures to alter official lawful election results. January 6 Commitee Report - Summary © 2022 Kwiple.com
Aging Higher voting rates by older people make the ballot box a “time machine”: it reflects the US of a decade ago. Simon Kuper, Financial Times, February 27, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Putin in Russia, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, and Viktor Orbán in Hungary have all discovered that opposition parties can be left in existence and elections can be held in order to provide a fig leaf of democratic legitimacy, while in reality elections pose  scant challenge to their power. Truly dangerous opposition leaders are neutralzied or eliminated one way or another. Christopher R. Browning, “The Suffocation of Democracy” © 2018 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Research … shows that in the 2012 elections the residents of 75% minority zip codes waited more than twice as long to vote as the residents of 75% white zip codes. There was almost no difference in waiting time by average income level. The zip codes with the longest lines were minority zip codes, not poor zip codes. Salvatore Babones, Sixteen for '16 © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Total ballots cast in national general elections between 2000 and 2014: 834,086,926 Total credible allegations of in-person voter fraud during those years: 35 In-person voter fraud as a percentage of ballots cast during those years: 0.0000000419 % (a bit more than 4 per 100,000,000) raw data from Vox, August 2, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Citizens United Proverb affirmed: The voice of the poor has no echo © 2015 Kwiple.com
Cocks of the walk say I think nobody knows more about campaign finance than I do because I'm the biggest contributor. Donald Trump © 2018 Kwiple.com
Cocks of the walk say The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy. Edwin Edwards, on his chances of winning Louisiana's 1983 gubernatorial election © 2015 Kwiple.com
The Constitution of the United States Our constitution not only permits divided government,  it cannot prevent divided government. And it provides no way out except by elections at fixed intervals— elections that may only reproduce the existing divisions or inaugurate new ones. Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Cyber security If that's our best election defense, we might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Moscow. Adam Schiff, responding to Donald Trump's statement that he and Vladimir Putin had discussed “forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, and many other negative things, will be guarded and safe” following talks at the Hamburg G20 meeting © 2017 Kwiple.com
< Death threats One email, sent on Jan. 2 to officials in nearly a dozen counties, threatened to bomb polling sites: “No one at these places will be spared unless and until Trump is guaranteed to be POTUS again.” Reuters, June 11, 2021, in an article about Georgia entitled: “Trump-inspired death threats are terrorizing election workers” © 2021 Kwiple.com
< Death threats “You actually deserve to hang by your goddamn, soy boy, skinny-ass neck,” said a woman in one voicemail, to Richard Barron, director of elections for Fulton County, GA. Reuters, June 11, 2021, in an article about Georgia entitled: “Trump-inspired death threats are terrorizing election workers” © 2021 Kwiple.com
Democracy But the threat we face is a new one; it requires new thinking. Through most of American history, both parties, while excluding large numbers of Americans from the franchise, basically accepted the choice of the electorate — and that is no longer true.  The supreme danger now is not that voters in urban counties will have a harder time  finding a drop box, or that some states will  shorten the mail-ballot application window. The danger is that the express will of the American people could be overthrown. George Packer, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Democracy Democracy can be defined as a civilised civil war. It recognises the existence of differences of opinion, but resolves these peacefully,  through elections, which are the fundamental institution of representative democracy. Elections determine legitimacy. But to do so they must be recognised as fair. A lie about the outcome of an election, then, is not just any lie. It is not even just any political lie. It directly threatens democracy. It is an attempt to overthrow elections as the arbiter of power. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, May 2, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Democracy  There is no easy way to stop a major party that’s intent on destroying democracy. The demonic energy with which Trump  repeats his lies, and Bannon harangues his  audience, and Republican politicians around the country try to seize every lever of election machinery — this relentless drive for power by American authoritarians is the major threat that America confronts. The Constitution doesn't have an answer. No help will come from Republican leaders; if Romney and Susan Collins are all that stand between the republic and its foes, we’re doomed. George Packer, The Atlantic, January/February 2022 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Election meddling My people came to me, Dan Coats [Director of National Intelligence] came to me and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be. Donald Trump, standing beside Vladimir Putin at the Helsinki summit press conference, siding with Putin over America's intelligence agencies © 2018 Kwiple.com
Election meddling Yes I did. Yes I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal. Vladimir Putin, responding to a reporter who asked him at the Helsinki summit press conference, “Did you want President Trump to win the election? And did you direct  any of your officials to help him do that?” © 2018 Kwiple.com
Elections After more than a century of experience with other alternatives, isn't it time at last to open our minds to the possibility that first-past-the-post may be just fine for horse races but might not be best for elections in a large and diverse democratic country like ours? Might we not also want to consider the possible advantages of a multiparty system? Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic Is the American Constitution?  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Elections Any election can be the last, or at least the last in the lifetime of the person casting the vote. Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century © 2017 Kwiple.com
Elections The best way to steal an election is to accuse the other guy of stealing the election. Greg Palast, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy © 2016 Kwiple.com
Elections Campaign promises are, by long democratic tradition, the least binding form of human commitment. Antonin Scalia © 2016 Kwiple.com
Elections Elections are not about finding the truth; if they were, there couldn't be such a thing as a loyal and legitimate opposition. Instead, we would have to assume that losers who persist with their position are simply liars. Jan-Werner Müller, Democracy Rules © 2021 Kwiple.com
Elections Elections aren't stolen in the vote count; they're stolen in the no count. Mary Frances Berry © 2015 Kwiple.com
Elections Here's one thing I know: if you have to win a campaign by dividing people, you're not going to be able to govern them. You won't be able to unite them later if that's how you start. Barack Obama © 2017 Kwiple.com
Elections I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President. Walden O'Dell, CEO of Diebold, manufacturer of electronic voting machines used in Ohio in 2004, in a fundraising letter supporting re-election of George W. Bush, whose victory there, a swing state, proved decisive © 2015 Kwiple.com
Elections I don't care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating. William M. “Boss” Tweed © 2021 Kwiple.com
Elections In practice, perhaps the most urgent practical steps in the United States involve: (i) reforming electoral regu- lations for registration and balloting; (ii) building more impartial, independent, and professional electoral management bodies; (iii) monitoring performance and expanding transparency through electoral observers, developing comparative and state-level indicators, and strengthening watchdog agencies; (iv) strengthening dispute resolution mechanisms and oversight agencies. Pippa Norris, Why American Elections Are Flawed (And How to Fix Them) © 2018 Kwiple.com
Elections Money beat money © 2015 Kwiple.com
Elections Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet. Donald Rumsfeld, on the low-turnout, violence-ridden, Sunni-boycotted elections in Iraq in 2005 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Elections The primary models of electoral administration … concern whether the main actors are governmental or independent agencies (on the horizon- tal axis) and whether decision-making and regulations are largely centralized or localized (on the vertical). Based on these distinctions, US electoral administration is primarily governmental-localized. This is quite possibly the worst combination. Pippa Norris, Why American Elections Are Flawed (And How to Fix Them) © 2018 Kwiple.com
Elections  So, I ask every elected official in America: How do you want to be remembered? At consequential moments in history, they present a choice: Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis? This is the moment to decide to defend our elections, to defend our democracy. Joe Biden, January 11, 2022, after which Mitch McConnell, speaking for  Republican lawmakers everwhere, said, in effect, “Silly of Joe to ask. Of course, we're with George, Bull and Jeff of sacred memory.” © 2022 Kwiple.com
Elections Strictly speaking, all an election reveals is the first preferences of some citizens among the candidates standing for office. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Elections The trouble with free elections is that you never know how they are going to turn out. Vyacheslav Molotov, 1954 [Often attributed to Leonid Brezhnev] © 2021 Kwiple.com
Elections When evaluating the integrity of elections, experts rated America exceptionally poorly. Compared with all 153 countries in the [Perceptions of Electoral Integrity (PEI)] survey, based on the average evaluations of both the 2012 and 2014 US elections, America scored 62 out of the 100-point PEI Index. Compared with the rest of the world, the United States ranks 52nd worldwide. Pippa Norris, Why American Elections Are Flawed (And How to Fix Them) © 2018 Kwiple.com
Elections When you turn an election into a three-ring circus, there's always a chance the dancing bear will win. Nancy Isenberg, White Trash © 2016 Kwiple.com
Elections You can’t have an election in the middle of a political season. Donald Trump © 2024 Kwiple.com
House of Representatives  Once you've got the gig,  it's yours for life. The reelection rate for incumbents in 2020 was 95%. That's better job security than a pedophile priest. Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, August 6, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Amend the Constitution to elect one Senator from each state and all Representatives from all states in presidential election years © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Amend the Constitution to ratify proposed amendments by conducting a nationwide election to be held 120 days after their official publication date, and in which all citizens at least 16 years old on that date are eligible to vote, regardless of their eligibility to vote in any other election © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Amend the Constitution to replace the electoral college with direct election of the president by popular vote © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Amend the Constitution to require elections for public office to be held on weekends © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Amend the Constitution to require members of Congress to be elected by a majority of voters in their constituencies © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Establish an independent, impartial Election Management Body to set and monitor standards for elections at all levels of government and a separate independent, impartial Election Dispute Resolution Body © 2018 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say I accuse Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes (CA), Chairman Paul Ryan (WI), Ex officio Mike Conaway (TX) Tom Rooney (FL) Rick Crawford (AR) I. Ros-Lehtinen (FL) Trey Gowdy (SC) Elise Stefanik (NY) Will Hurd (TX) Chris Stewart (UT) Peter King (NY) Mike Turner (OH) Frank LoBiondo (NJ) Brad Wenstrup (OH) of abrogation of duty in investigating the degree of Russian interference in the 2016 elections ——— Specific charges ——— • Failing to call key witnesses • Failing to verify witness statements • Failing to supboena uncooperative witnesses & witnesses who lied • Leaking secrets for partisan gain • Denying Putin favored Trump • Failing to inform Democratic committee members of meetings • Prohibiting Democratic input to written committee reports • Failing to await special counsel Robert Mueller's findings • Putting Republican Party interests above the nation's © 2018 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Make Election Day for federal government office holders a paid federal holiday © 2016 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Overturn the Citizens United decision allowing employers to discuss political candidates and issues with employees and to provide them with “information packets” about candidates and issues – activities implying that the employees may lose their job if they don't side with their employers © 2017 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say c Prohibit ballots from listing the name of anyone who raised or spent money, or for whom others raised or spent it, prior to the person's official announcement of their candidacy for office © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Prohibit publishing presidential primary exit poll or election results prior to the close of voting in the western-most U.S. voting district © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Replace first-past-the-post electoral systems with proportional representation © 2016 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Require all presidential primary elections to be held on the same weekend day from 7:00AM to 10:00PM local time © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Require candidates for state and national electoral offices to take a test about facts relevant to the office they seek, with the test being created and administered by subject matter experts and the results being widely publicized one month before the election © 2017 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Require local elections to be held on the same date as state and national elections  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Vote, dammit! © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Waving the voter fraud flag is intended to divert people's attention from real voting-related concerns: ♦ assenting to Constitutional provisions that make 1 person's vote in one state equal to 66 votes in another state ♦ disenfranchising minorities and others ♦ gerrymandering to render votes meaningless except in a few places ♦ hacking of electronic voting machines © 2016 Kwiple.com
Out-of-step legislators A group facing an out-of-step legislator [someone with different goals/priorities] may not be able to do much with the standard tools of lobbying and issue advocacy; interest groups are better at mobilizing their friends than converting their enemies, and elections seem to be more useful for replacing out-of-step legislators than changing their minds. The group's only option may be to try to replace the legislator with another candidate who shares its goals. Nicholas Carnes, White-Collar Government © 2019 Kwiple.com
Making money the new-fashioned way Creating campaign launch videos © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics I'm against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable, I'm going to do it. Sheldon Adelson, who does it to the tune of about $100,000,000 per election © 2015 Kwiple.com
Patriotism You can't love your country only when you win. Joe Biden © 2022 Kwiple.com
Politics Prior to politics, beneath it, enveloping it, restricting it, conditioning it, is the underlying consensus on policy that usually exists in the society among a predominant portion of the politically active members. Without such a consensus no democratic system would long survive the endless irritations and frustrations of elections and party competition. Robert A. Dahl, On Political Equality © 2018 Kwiple.com
Politics This notion, that the citizen's choice among determinedly centrist candidates makes a “difference,” is in fact the narrative's most central element and its most fictive. Joan Didion, “Insider Baseball” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Politics A two-party system in which both parties are committed to calibrating the precise level of incremental tinkering required to get elected is not likely to be a meaningful system,  nor is an election likely to be meaning- ful when it is specifically crafted as an exercise in personalismo,  in “appearing presidential” to that diminishing percentage of the population that still pays attention.  Joan Didion, “Eyes on the Prize” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Populism Populist parties that do not do so well at the polls have to face an obvious contradiction: How can it be the case that the populists are the people's only morally legitimate representatives and yet fail to gain overwhelming majorities at the ballot box? Jan-Werner Müller, Democracy Rules © 2021 Kwiple.com
Public discourse Lo and behold, the entity that becomes most persistent in alleging that Amerucan elections are fraudulent, faked, rigged and everything else, turns out to be the president of the United States [Donald Trump]. Renée DiResta, a leader of the Election Integrity Partnership, a team of scientists from various universities, think tanks and companies, that analyzes foreign and domestic anti-democratic disinformation campaigns © 2024 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say That's not enough. I need a majority.  Adlai Stevenson, responding to a supporter who called out, “Governor Stevenson, all thinking people are for you!” © 2019 Kwiple.com
Republican Party The second unforgivable sin is Trump's encouragement of a foreign adversary's interference in U.S. electoral processes. Leave aside the question of whether Trump's cooperation with the Russians violated the law. He at least tacitly collaborated with a foreign intelligence operation against his country–sometimes in full public view. This started during the campaign, when he called upon the Russians to steal and release his opponent's emails, and has continued during his presidency, as he equivocates on whether foreign intervention occurred and smears intelligence professionals who stand by the facts. Meanwhile, the Republican Party has confirmed his nominees, doggedly pursued its agenda on tax reform and health care and attacked–of course–Hillary Clinton. Jonathan Rauch and Benjamin Wittes © 2018 Kwiple.com
Republican Party motto Heads we win. Tails we coup.  citation Slogan for the Trumpist Republican Party suggested by Bill Maher, April 22, 2022, Real Time with Bill Maher © 2022 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Keep opposing us and I'll have our boys negative-ad you to death © 2015 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Nonbelievers should never be elected to public office © 2015 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Prevent Democrats from keeping or winning vacated seats in the legislature by outlawing special elections to fill them — It's better for people to be disenfranchised than to be represented by the devil or for us to suffer an embarrassing loss © 2018 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Set the tone by ensuring that early presidential primaries are in states dominated by white evangelicals, like Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada, Alabama, Arkansas, etc. © 2015 Kwiple.com
Republicans say We love it when Russians interfere to help us win elections Cnacибo, тoвapиши © 2018 Kwiple.com
Resisters say Support the multi-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office. Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century © 2017 Kwiple.com
Rovearian cancer If their [black voters'] share of the turnout drops just one point in North Carolina, Mr. Obama's 2008 winning margin there is wiped out two and a half times over. Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2011, Republican Party fundraiser and strategist, on benefits to Republicans of suppressing votes by voters likely to vote Democratic, later resulting in Republican-led laws aimed at solving the presupposed problem of “widespread” voter fraud in state after state © 2015 Kwiple.com
Social media We now have to reckon that any election we have is actually being subverted before it begins. I fear for democracy. It's being made unworkable. Onora O'Neill © 2019 Kwiple.com
State of the union Within the particular domain of independent political advocacy the principle of free speech now trumps the principle that previously inspired congressional regulation of campaign finance, namely that there is a public interest in preventing the appearance of corruption in electoral politics. Richard M. Valelly, American Politics © 2018 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say In fact, quite frankly, every election since, I think, George Washington, there's been some kind of a defect in the system. Mark Finchem, Oath Keeper and 2022 Republican candidate for Arizona secretary of state © 2022 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say Our elections are a circus, run by clowns. Kari Lake © 2022 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say There's going to be MAGA in the room counting votes because only MAGA can count fair. Steve Bannon © 2022 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say You guys need to be publicly executed … on pay per view. Email received by a 52-year-old member of the election board in Fulton County, GA, which Biden won and Trump accused of stealing the election © 2021 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say I'm not going to let Democrats and their water carriers in the media use Russia's attack on our democracy as a Trojan horse for partisan wish-list items that would not actually make our elections safer. Mitch McConnell, refusing to let the Senate vote on election security bills, leading to him being nicknamed “Moscow Mitch” © 2019 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say You put very sexy things like abortion and marijuana on the ballot,  and a lot of young people come out and vote. It was a secret sauce for disaster in Ohio. I don't know what they were thinking. Thank goodness that most of the states in this country don't allow you to put everything on the ballot. because democracies are not the way to run a country. Rick santorum, after Republicans in Ohio and elsewhere who attemped to ban abortion and prevent decriminalizing marijuana were defeated in the 2023 off-year elections © 2023 Kwiple.com
 
Voting Lunatics vote in the primaries and Americans vote in the generals. That's why we don't have a Republican president. It's pretty simple. Fran Lebowitz © 2015 Kwiple.com