They already have too much power.
Excuse us, Mr. President. Hate to correct you in front of the cameras here in the Oval Office. You just said “states are agents of the federal government.”
No, Mr. President, they are not.
In these United States, states have sovereignty over their spheres of influence. The Tenth Amendment makes that explicit: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
The United States is not France. France has 101 departements. They are not sovereign; they are administrative units of a unitary state — akin to your regional EPA offices. French departements have, for example, no military under the command of a governor; they cannot levy their own taxes or pass their own statutes.
On a podcast run by Dan Bongino (can’t we be rid of this nut?), you said:
“We want to take over, we should take over the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
No, they must not. Frankly, Mr. President, speaking for those of us who owe allegiance to the Constitution, we are troubled by your Caesarism. (Sir, call us whatever name you wish; we RINOs have sharp horns!)
States are a check & balance
The Elections Clause, Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution empowers states to determine the “Times, Places and Manner” of holding federal elections. True, Congress has the power to “make or alter” such rules, but it has done so sparingly in the 237 years since ratification, mainly through constitutional amendment.
The SAVE Act pending in Congress would seem to meet this threshold; the legislation requires proof of citizenship. Fair enough. Other proposed “reforms” are off-ramps to nationalized elections. We may question the practice in mostly blue states of prospectively mailing out ballots, unbidden. As long as the returned ballot matches an actual voter. We also prefer paper ballots. Restricting vote harvesting to relatives? Hard to enforce. Not a fan of ranked choice voting (too confusing). Nonetheless, we oppose this federal mission creep because we are conservatives. Conservatives resist the accretion of power by Washington — especially by the unitary executive.
Ronald Reagan said at his first inauguration, “the federal government did not create the states, the states created the federal government.”
Before you eject us bodily out of the White House without supper, like you did to Volodymyr Zelensky, we should add that too many Americans don’t trust you running elections, full stop. When you tried to overturn the 2020 election, people got hurt. If Congress votes for these regs, who would enforce them? Donald J. Trump!
“I’m not in favor of federalizing elections.” — Senate Republican Leader John Thune
Tulsi will find what she wants
You have seized ballots in Georgia in a desperate attempt to prove your “stolen election” lies. We have no doubt Tulsi Gabbard will duly generate the expected obscurant smoke, with the assistance of many mirrors.
Yes, something called the tabulator tapes for 315,000 early, in-person ballots went unsigned, a lapse in Georgia election procedures, not statutes. The tapes are one of at least five redundant checkpoints including encrypted memory cards, centralized tabulation, audits, and recounts. Georgia conducted statewide hand and machine recounts, all of which confirmed your defeat. (Mr. President, your blood pressure!)
It is troubling that you are willing to disenfranchise 315,000 voters — a majority of whom could well have been Trump voters — over a bureaucratic mistake.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: If you want to make it easier to jigger elections, consolidate 50 election systems into one. Makes Vladimir’s and Xi’s efforts to hack our elections that much simpler.
27 responses to “No president should run elections”
Thanks David. I was stunned when I read that The Donald wanted to take over state elections. It all makes me very happy to be considered a RINO. Like Reagan said, I didn’t leave the party, the party left me….
But it sure would make it more convenient to find them 11,780 extra votes!
Believe me or not, they are there. re-counting illegal ballots over and over again won’t change a thing but give you RINOs cover to look the other way so your friends don’t get there underwear in a bunch. Face the facts Signor Ferrari, it doesn’t take Captain Louis Renault to know that there is cheating going on here.
You really need to spend some time as an election worker. Not only would you be contributing, you’d get an education in to how elections are run.
Becoming an election worker in a democratic precinct would be like getting on the Madison School Board.
Now you just have to reach all the MAGANUTS with this. Bannon just called for federal forces (ICE) to surround the polls during voting. I BELIEVE IN FREE SPEAH, BUT THIS GUY IS STARTING TO PISS ME OFF.
If the states won’t control it, who will stop the caravans of students driving from poll to poll using utility bills an/or another person’s word for voter eligibility? Who will stop the neighborhood Karen from setting up a democracy in the park and harvesting 20,000 votes that turn in to real ballots, enough to change a state electoral votes? Who will stop the biased poll workers of covering the windows and place the poll observers in the parking lot? Tell me RINOs, who is stopping the poachers from killing you and selling your horns to China.
Your error — and it is fundamental — is that you trust Donald Trump’s federal government to be an honest broker. This is a man who says he had nothing to do with the January 6 insurrection. Last thing in the world he ever expected! Who will stop “Democracy in the Park”? Wisconsin’s legislature did — after the fact. But when it was conducted, it was legal and the votes cast there were legitimate. Who will stop biased poll workers? Become one yourself, not that you are biased, of course.
Americans, in general, want fair play. But you want presidents presiding over their own elections!
prove what you say.
First, based on your comment, I would urge you to read a daily newspaper. If you desire a conservative editorial page, read the Wall Street Journal, for instance. But what you have written underscores where you do get your news, and what happens when you do not receive factual information. Second, The Brennan Center’s gold-standard analysis on this topic reviewed elections that had been meticulously studied for voter fraud and found incident rates between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent. Given this tiny incident rate for voter impersonation fraud, it is more likely, the report noted, that an American “will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls.” Third, I was a poll worker for about 15 years, a poll captain most of those years. Your total lack of understanding about poll workers and defining them underscores what you need to learn. A better more solid bunch of people otherwise not aligned you could not find. Fourth, when the WI ID law was being debated on the Assembly floor, I sat to watch one afternoon. I was continually struck that no Republican was able to stand up in the legislature and produce any court cases, judge’s rulings, or names of those who cast fraudulent votes. If there were such rampant voting abuses where was the evidence? Read a daily newspaper.
How about the Washington Post?
Good God, the “January 6th insurrection” saw again. I’m sorry Dave, it almost sounds like you are against voter ID and other guardrails to protect voter integrity in the service of your “conservatism”.
Says the guy who blames Nancy Pelosi for January 6.
When did I ever say that? Never is the answer. C’mon Dave, you’re making stuff up now to support your position. Quite unlike you!
Let’s cut to the chase. Do you hold Trump in any way responsible for J6?
Trump’s federal government is made up of a lot of honest people that don’t need a job, you are using the same brush to paint your barn.
Abe was honest; DJT is no Abraham Lincoln.
That is funnier than TPUSA having their own halftime show. You can go on BUMBLE and watch a banner running full time begging for your money. Can’t wait for that train wreck. GO SEA SMUCKS>>>
There difference between a serious protest and insurgency is control. Even Nasty admitted she lost it, but you won’t.
I was an election worker in Madison for about 15 years before leaving town to move to politics free MSP (yuk, yuk) for family reasons. I never saw politics enter into the process but did see some odd ball things….such as new voters who couldn’t read or speak English. A teen came in to register and didn’t have proof of address so his dad wrote him a two sentence lease on lined tablet paper which was acceptable by regulation. A slightly drunk guy tried to use letters from a girl friend to prove address…..not acceptable….so he looked around the room and saw a buddy who was registered who vouched for him…..legal at that time but no longer (?). I broke the law and registered an elderly lady who came in with her daughter. All records were in the daughter’s name so there was nothing to verify her mom’s address, other than her word. I looked the other way and registered her.
Dave, no I do not. That is a far cry from implying Pelosi orchestrated it. Stop digging the hole. Man up and admit you are wrong.
Who (pray tell) IS responsible for January 6 and why did Trump call them “beautiful people”? Or maybe it was just spontaneous generation? Or did Capitol Police hold open the doors but didn’t tell poor Ashli Babbitt? To which conspiracy do you subscribe?
Squire: You can’t reason with someone who suffers from TVS (Trump Vindication Syndrome).
Easy question. The people responsible are the same ones who got all the pardons.
Dave, you’re avoiding the point: you claimed I said Pelosi orchestrated Jan 6 when I didn’t. Your deflection around that is troubling. Making stuff up, not taking responsibility when you’re wrong, deleting posts on your blog without notifying the original poster (censorship, it’s happened to me a couple of times.) are all leftist tactics. You need to stop spending so much time with your progressive friends, they’re rubbing off on you.
To answer your question: I don’t know who or if anybody organized the January 6th riot and I certainly don’t buy into any conspiracy. I do not believe Trump did, that’s for sure.
Trump and Rush Limbaugh organized a protest not a riot. The rest was manipulated by both sides for very different reasons.
Did you pay to get in? Then you don’t get your money back.