March 21, 2024

"We need to be doing legal ballot harvesting — something that has never been done by the RNC, but I can promise you will be a huge part of what we’re planning to do."

Said Donald Trump, quoted in "Republicans Can’t Beat Democrats’ Ballot Harvesting Game Until They Actually Start Playing It" (The Federalist).

66 comments:

WisRich said...

Republicans Can’t Beat Democrats’ Ballot Harvesting Game Until They Actually Start Playing It.

Indeed

Dems made the rules but R's better start playing by them or they have no chance.

grimson said...

Ballot harvesting can be done much more effectively in densely populated urban areas than rural areas and even suburbs. Advantage: Democrats.

tim maguire said...

It's about time. Elections today turn on get out the vote efforts and the Republicans have not been competing.

Hassayamper said...

Wife and I are signing up for this. Wife plans to hit every nursing home in the East Valley.

Big Mike said...

Yup

Original Mike said...

The only way we're ever going to get election reform, apparently, is if the republicans start winning elections using questionable practices.

Mark said...

Just the other day Trump was against ballot harvesting.

Mr Wibble said...

All this comes back to suburban whites. The GOP was slowly losing them in the 90s, but both the Dem's inability to offer a coherent- or sane- response to 9/11, combined with Bush's early successes in Iraq and Afghanistan, drove them back to the right for a while. Between 02 and 06, Republicans could run on "Kill Terrorists and Cut Taxes" and it would generally serve to win over a large chunk of those voters. Turnout was less important, because the goal was winning over voters who were going to show up at the polls no matter what, but whose political loyalties were soft.

The problem now is that is no longer the case, but the GOP has too many entrenched interests who's entire grift works by assuming that it does. They take campaign and PAC money for advertising and consulting gigs, rather than GOTV efforts. Suburban whites are increasingly loyal leftists, meaning that they're not willing to buck the left to vote for a "respectable" centrist Republican.

Aggie said...

Playing catchup is better than not running at all, it's true, but it's still not necessarily a winning strategy. The Republican Party will have to leave their gated country club and return to the street and start fighting, hard-bitten, bare-knuckle grass-roots populist politics. They'll win if they do this, and they'll keep winning if they walk the talk. The public sentiment is very susceptible right now to anybody that is speaking in a grounded way about the normal things that concern normal people. We're all tired of this f*ckin' freak show.

Gusty Winds said...

Good. Fight fire with fire. In 2020 voting laws were broken and ignored. Dems will ignore and break them again in 2024.

Madison, WI illegally harvested absentee ballots in broad daylight, summer 2020, and then the clerk mixed the collected "votes" in with all others to destroy chain of custody, making any challenge difficult. And this is in the WI State Capitol where WI voting laws were made. Arrogant, corrupt...crazy Madison.

Let the harvesting begin in Waukesha, Washington, and Ozaukee Counties. Wisconsin liberals will throw a shit fit.

Rusty said...

Sauce for the goose, etc.
I have it from reliable Democrat sources "ballot harvesting" isn't vote fraud.

Yancey Ward said...

Republicans need to do the exact same thing Democrats do in "harvesting" ballots. However, I guarantee you that when the GOP tries to do this, if they do, they will find themselves arrested by the DoJ. There is simply no way the Democrats in the law enforcement agencies will allow the GOP to do what the Democrats do- it isn't a level playing field and hasn't been in a long, long time.

Gusty Winds said...

...the practice makes it harder to detect potential ballot fraud and undermines voter confidence...“Ballot harvesting” refers to when a third party, such as volunteers or paid workers, go to residences, nursing homes, and other locations to pick up completed ballots and drop them off at election offices or another designated drop-off location.

Yup. These "third parties" complete ballots, add pre-completed ballots to the pile, and maybe even dump some in the garbage they don't like. And...when you drop the fraud in a "drop box" and not as mail box, you avoid committing mail fraud.

Instead of election day, we have absentee election weeks and months...which gives plenty of time to implement the fraud. And of course lazy Americans miss those deadlines, and fill out and address accurately, or sign their fucking name. No wonder Democrats think Americans are too stupid to get an ID. But...they have to play up the "poor, incompetent voter" angle, or the fraud is harder to commit.

You're living under an installed regime. Do they seem accountable to any voters to you??

Michael K said...

He is right and has the grass roots supporters to do it.

Gusty Winds said...

Would you give a "third party" $100, $500, $1000, or $5000 of your own cash to go deposit in the bank for you, or would you rather take care of depositing it yourself, and get a receipt from the bank?

Americans will give their "sacred" vote to a third party to deposit in a drop box. They won't even get off their ass to put it in a mailbox themselves.

Americans either consider their vote worthless, or, we're just lazy fucking morons.

Howard said...

I thought the hole Republican strategic approach to elections was vote suppression and low turnout.

Amadeus 48 said...

I thought this after the 2018 mid-term elections, and I was flabbergasted that Team Trump didn't do ballot harvesting in 2020. When the polls closed and the election day votes were counted in 2018, the GOP was down 10-15 HR seats. By the time all the mail-ins and absentees were counted, the GOP was down 40+ HR seats. Trump ran the 2020 election the way he ran the 2016 campaign--rallies of the true believers. The Dems ran the 2020 election the way they ran 2018...plus spending several hundred million Zuckerbucks for "election security".

RideSpaceMountain said...

The very term "ballot harvesting" conjures images of Bill The Butcher from Gangs of New York waking up opium addicts with a billy club to get them to the polls. Know why? Because that's exactly what it fucking is, except there is no billy club, Bill the Butcher is thousands of paid activists cutting checks, and the fentanyl addicts don't even have to get out of bed.

God damn straight to hell the jurists that have allowed this electoral malfeasance to continue. Straight to hell.

I Shouldn’t Have Left the White House said...

Trump's RNC officially kills the GOP's mail-in voter effort
The Trump-branded Republican Party is less interested in promoting voting by mail than in legal challenges aimed at voting systems.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/main-in-voting-bank-your-vote-republicans-rcna143291

“In a victory for the extremist wing of the Republican Party, it looks like Donald Trump’s hand-picked leadership team at the Republican National Committee has officially scrapped the GOP’s plan to encourage early voting this election cycle. Instead, the party is taking steps to prioritize legal challenges to voting systems ahead of November.”

Trump Claims 2024 Will Be Rigged, Putting Republican Turnout at Risk
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-claims-2024-will-be-rigged-putting-republican-turnout-at-risk-830b213d

It’s rigged! Unless I win of course. Hope the nation is prepared for a seismic shock if voters reject him again. And yet MAGA sheep follow along. How anyone or any organization with both a working brain and even a smidge of interest or concern about the Republic can support this clown grifter is beyond me. I’m not a huge Biden fan, but compared to Trump he is Abraham Lincoln.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

He's right. California from which I fled to the free state of Florida, is still harvesting Democrat votes more than two weeks after the primary while the CAGOP sits on its fat ass. Other states that voted this week are done counting, because of the lower incidence of fraud. You see CA Democrats know almost all R voters vote on election day by routine. So once they have that tally they know how many votes to "harvest" from various sources. If Republicans started dumping vast numbers of "cured" ballots it might make the cheating more difficult. Even after the machine debacle in AZ last time the AZGOP was not prepared to go out and collect ballots from R voters who'd been turned away in Maricopa County because of "misprinted" ballots and wrongly programmed machines. Turning Point USA has been raining precinct workers to do this because the GOP was so lame under Ronna's hand. They didn't even have precinct-level maps of likely voters before TPUSA stepped in.

Laugh about Trump putting his DIL into the top spot if you like, but she's behind this effort in battleground states all the way. God bless Lara Trump and Charlie Kirk.

TeaBagHag said...

Oregon has had mail in voting for decades and nobody cries about it being rigged and we've had no major problems, whatsoever. Do people ever really ask themselves the fundamental questions: why does the GOP lose when more people turn out to vote? Why does the party beloved by christo-fascists hate democracy so much?

MadisonMan said...

Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a challenge to overturn the padlocking of Ballot Drop-off Boxes. (Most of which are right next to mailboxes, so I'm not quite sure why they're needed).

MadTownGuy said...

Mark said...

"Just the other day Trump was against ballot harvesting."

Too bad. It's already happening here in PA. Just got a mail-in application from the GOP in today's mail. MadTownGal and I are still voting in person, though.

Mutaman said...

"People are just beginning to focus on the fact — I mean, this is incredible, I can't believe I've said this, I've worked in this party for 30 years — the Republican Party is led by a guy from Queens who can't make bail."

Gusty Winds said...

TeaBagHag said...
Oregon has had mail in voting for decades and nobody cries about it being rigged and we've had no major problems, whatsoever

Except Oregon has turned Portland into an absolute drug infested, violent shithole. And the failed decriminalization of heroine, meth, oxy has made it even worse since 2021. I'd imagine harvesting absentee ballots from the homeless drug addicts is quite necessary.

There probably isn't a voter fraud problem in Oregon. The Northwestern part of the state, dominated by crazy libs, are morons. Worse than Madison, WI. I can fully believe they vote for this shit. Western Oregon wants to succeed and join Idaho.

And it's funny the hag refers to "turn out to vote". Absentee ballot fraud makes "turning out" unnecessary. That's the whole point. You can fill out an ballot on behalf of the Oregonian braindead.

But were not talking about Oregon. We're talking about WI, MI, PA, GA, AZ...and we can throw in NV, and MN in the purple state voter fraud mix.

Gusty Winds said...

Blogger MadisonMan said...
Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a challenge to overturn the padlocking of Ballot Drop-off Boxes. (Most of which are right next to mailboxes, so I'm not quite sure why they're needed).

The drop boxes are needed so when you drop in a fraudulent ballot it's not mail fraud. The coven running the WI Supreme Court knows the fraud advantages to Democrats by bringing back the drop box. Even if current state law doesn't allow them.

Kai Akker said...

Win with ballot harvesting, Republicans can then pass some federal-level voter-ID-encouraging law. Electors from non-ID states only count as 3/5's of a vote? Just a starter idea. Win-win. And ps good to see Michael K's post.

Breezy said...

Would be quite ironic if the popularity of dem policies tanked so much that even urban area people would refuse to help the dem fraud efforts. Maybe they’d even help the rep team win legally….

One can dream.

AlbertAnonymous said...

Cue MSM freak out in 3, 2, 1…

“OMG, OMG, Trump says he’s going to start stealing ballots and committing voter fraud…..”

Google changes definition of “Ballot Harvesting” to make him look bad

Women and Minorities hardest hit….

Hell maybe they‘ll pull a complete 180 and start demanding Voter ID laws to stop this Tyrant from trying to steal the election?

Aggie said...

But I was told that ballot fraud was impossible and never happened, since it's so exhaustively controlled.

https://www.fox6now.com/news/kimberly-zapata-ballot-fraud-case-guilty-all-counts


Note that this case was one of the few to be prosecuted - because the woman convicted of fraud was proving a point by requesting absentee military ballots, in phony names, and having them sent to a Representative's home. That's why she was prosecuted, isn't it? You know - to show 'the highest integrity' of the system.

Skeptical Voter said...

You want to harvest ballots, there's a rich crop in Stockton California. There was a story in the Los Angeles Times earlier this week. And "independent" voter had 34 sealed mail in ballots in his home. 70 different "voters" had registered to vote using his address or his e=mail as a reference. The San Joaquin County District Attorney was prosecuting him for voter fraud.

Of course the Los Angeles Times was pitching this as "voter fraud is not a problem"--look the authorities are catching and prosecuting only fraudster in the nation. And then they sold me the Brooklyn Bridge.

MadTownGuy said...

No "What the DNC did to the GOP" tag? If Podesta et al
hadn't implemented the "
Pied Piper"
strategy, Trump might not have made it all the way to nomination.

tim maguire said...

Blogger Mark said...Just the other day Trump was against ballot harvesting

So? It’s not inconsistent to live in the world as it is even while you argue the world should be different. But you knew that.

Democrats are using vote harvesting—legal and illegal—to win elections. Like it or not, to compete, Republicans need to do the same. But you really knew that.

Drago said...

Overcompensating Non-combat "vet" Howitzer Howard: "I thought the hole Republican strategic approach to elections was vote suppression and low turnout."

There is no question you are dumb enough to believe that, so I wont challenge your demonstrated ignorance on this subject.

Particularly when there are so many other more important subjects where your ignorance should be addressed.

In a target rich environment one has to be selective.

Hassayamper said...

Most countries in Europe forbid vote-by-mail, or allow it only for expatriates. It's regarded with great suspicion, and with good reason. Italy experimented with universal mail-in voting in the 1980's, but quickly abandoned it because the local Mafia gangs began demanding that peoples' blank ballots be handed over if they wanted to avoid a beating.

I have not the slightest doubt that Democrat union thugs in nursing homes are already doing this to vulnerable old people, or at least threatening it.

The ONLY reason for mail-in voting is so Democrats can cheat. Always and everywhere, that is what they do, and any government elected by fraud-by-mail is by definition illegitimate and deserves the contempt and hatred and sabotage due to an enemy occupier.

After the impending Civil War 2 is won, and the last Democrat in America has been run across the Canadian border at gunpoint, I have some proposals for our new revised Constitution:

1) Tax withholding is abolished at all levels of government. You write one big check a year on Tax Day for all your taxes.

2) Election Day is always the same 2 days: the Saturday and Sunday immediately following Tax Day.

3) You need a free government ID to vote. India, one of the poorest nations in the world, manages it for over a billion people.

4) Voting is done in person, on paper ballots, and thumbs are marked with indelible purple ink.

5) Votes are tallied at each individual precinct by residents of that precinct. Anyone who wants to participate or observe must be allowed.

6) The only valid reasons for an absentee ballot are military orders or a doctor's note. Absentee ballots must be received by 5 pm on Election Saturday, when the number of such ballots received will be tallied for each precinct, but they will not be opened until after voting is complete on Sunday.

7) Vote fraud is treason. 10 years mandatory in prison on the first offense. Mandatory execution on the second offense; to be hanged at dawn on the Saturday morning of Election Weekend on a gallows outside the county courthouse where the offense occurred, and left dangling there in public until the polls close Sunday.

Jim at said...

Just the other day Trump was against ballot harvesting.

You do realize you can be against something in principle, yet recognize the necessity of still having to do it, right?

And it's not hypocritical, right?

Right?

Jim at said...

Oregon has had mail in voting for decades and nobody cries about it being rigged and we've had no major problems, whatsoever.

Of course nobody cries about it when the people doing the rigging always win.

When was the last time a Republican won a statewide race in Oregon? Decades you say? Hmmmm.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Oregon has had mail in voting for decades and nobody cries about it being rigged and we've had no major problems, whatsoever. Do people ever really ask themselves the fundamental questions: why does the GOP lose when more people turn out to vote? Why does the party beloved by christo-fascists hate democracy so much?”

Or the better question - why does mail in voting quickly lead to one party (Dem) state elections?

Rabel said...

The "Pied Piper strategy" is largely a myth promoted by people who can't abide Trump and are looking for an explanation for his success that fits their worldview. It's a cope that soothes their angst.

wildswan said...

"The Republican Party will have to leave their gated country club and return to the street and start fighting, hard-bitten, bare-knuckle grass-roots populist politics."

I disagree. I think ballot harvesting is an entirely new way - I will not say to cheat - but an entirely new way to vote with entirely new opportunities to cheat.
For example, there is ballot harvesting among the Somalis in Minneapolis. It is said by some that there are tribal structures among the Somalis and these are tied to the Democrats who send out the harvesters who fill in the ballots for the "voters." There is a background of threat, it is said by some, or maybe there are just unwarranted fears leading to solid Dem harvesting. There is evidence that many Somalis would like to oppose AOC and the Un-American intimidation they are experiencing. But I can't see Minneapolis Republicans functioning in that environment this year.
Then there was ballot harvesting in senior care homes in Wisconsin where everyone voted including dementia patients in locked wards. We will be prosecuted if we use those tactics - we have to prevent them.
Then there was ballot harvesting in Dem areas in Wisconsin. Political figures and the sort of people who help people make their way through government regulations to a safe landing on government social programs were out harvesting. Might it be a threat to have such a figure "help you" with your ballot? It was known who lived in those areas and whether they depended on a government program and whether they voted on their own. Then the harvesters went forth and there were plenty of them. This whole thing was a Zuckerberg project so of course it was data-rich and convinced that the way to a Democratic victory was the definition of legal AND moral campaign tactics.
And there are all the 8 million illegal immigrants everyone of whom is vulnerable to being shipped back, most of whom have driver's licenses and were automatically signed up as voters when they got those licenses. And there are the PAROLE immigrants being flown to unknown, targeted locations. Is it to shore up blue wavering or to overturn legitimate red majorities? Could the intention be to vote harvest all these vulnerable illegals and mingle that vote harvest with legitimate "early voting." Early voting is just another name for mail-in voting in terms of how its done. And there are all the low info or indifferent voters. Will they be forced into voting by visits from the Harvesters. Does some kind of implicit threat exist: "We'll harvest your vote or we'll harvest you?"

We could do a lot by identifying and reaching those voters who are Republican but not inclined to vote. In any case many Trump voters come from this group and Trump's trials are just so much campaign PR for this group. In fact I often think that if Trump gave up his quest for justice and the return of the rule of law and turned all campaign money over to the RNC it would not be as well spent as most of it is now being spent. These are extraordinary times and campaigning against political show trials by hiring effective lawyers is the right tactic for these times. Besides The Trump Trials is drawing in voters far more effectively than boring old-style photo opportunities, boiler plate speeches and TC spots. Challenging Lawfoul is just another and far more interesting way of campaigning and right for the times.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

dominion probably changes votes.
Democrats are liars and cheaters.
The democrat/left lie about everything else - why not their vote fraud?

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

In 2020 (I think), 90-some mail-in ballots showed up on one elderly OR woman's porch. Totes no fraud, nothing to see here. Except, of course, that no one in his/her senses would really try to mess with an OR Presidential election. This state is safe-blue.

Dude1394 said...

"Blogger Hassayamper said...
Wife and I are signing up for this. Wife plans to hit every nursing home in the East Valley.

3/21/24, 1:39 PM"

Me too

retail lawyer said...

Only Democrats have a significant reservoir of people too unmotivated to vote.

Chuck said...

Any long-time Republican Party election volunteer -- as I was -- knows what typical phony rot this is from Trump.

In Michigan, we made extreme efforts to turn out the absentee vote. Before 2018, we were a qualification-only absentee balloting state. (Fn 1.) When people (a) requested absentee ballots and then (b) recieved absentee ballots, and especially when their qualifying characteristic was that they were homeowners over the age of 60 (super-high voting propensities) we knew who they were, where they lived, and when they recieved their ballots. It vastly facilitated targeted messaging in many ways.

That was back in the day when we had competent Republican election pros, and experienced Republican election lawyers running things. Before the Trumpist maniacs went around telling people that they only realy way to vote was in person on Election Day.

When Trumpism took over the MI GOP, within six years the "leadership," such as it was, was presiding over a bankrupt, homeless Party, as well as an all-Democratic state government after a string of GOP election losses in 2018, 2020 and 2022.

Fn 1: Michigan's previous qualifications for absentee voting were (1) physical disability, (2) attestation that the voter would be outside the voting jurisdiction on election day or (3) over the age of 60.

Kai Akker said...

--- when the last Democrat in America has been run across the Canadian border at gunpoint,...

Yess, Hassayamper. And don't forget the rail she's riding on and of course the tar and feathers she's wearing.

Oh, sweet blindness; a little magic, a little kindness (but not too much!!)

Maynard said...

Democrats clearly outworked Republicans in 2022, here in Tucson.

They came to our door three times (my wife is a registered Democrat and I am a registered Independent). We never saw any Republicans in what is a reddish suburban area. The Democrats had a huge edge in banked voted before Election Day and they have taken over the state.

Trump needs to lead the charge on this because Republicans (at least here in AZ) are seriously infected with McCain RINOism.

Maynard said...

If Republicans want to compete with Democrats (a questionable assumption) then they need to harvest the dead vote as well.

As the saying goes, "My grandparents were Republican their entire lives, but after they passed, they always voted the straight Democrat ticket.

effinayright said...

Howard said...
I thought the hole Republican strategic approach to elections was vote suppression and low turnout.
**************

Howard, even in your increasingly infrequent lucid intervals, you don't have "thoughts".

JaimeRoberto said...

I helped my 93 year old mother fill out and mail her ballot a few weeks back. It's shocking to me how easily I could have manipulated her vote. I could have withheld her ballot from her. I could have filled it in for her. I could have spoiled it if she voted in a way I didn't approve. I could have not mailed it. Sure, all these things are illegal, but who would ever catch me? This is the kind of abuse that election observers look out for in other countries, yet some people claim democracy is at risk if we don't allow it.

MadTownGuy said...

Rabel said...

"The "Pied Piper strategy" is largely a myth promoted by people who can't abide Trump and are looking for an explanation for his success that fits their worldview. It's a cope that soothes their angst"

Did you even read the article and see the emails? It's no myth, Rabel.

Mark said...

Folks, it is too late -- too late -- for Trump to finally come around on early voting.

TeaBagHag said...

In 2020 (I think), 90-some mail-in ballots showed up on one elderly OR woman's porch…..

Well then! Sound reasoning; foggy memory of something….somewhere…..some porch…some lady? Voting by mail is as fake as the 2020 election! Case closed.

Drago said...

MadTownGuy: "No "What the DNC did to the GOP" tag? If Podesta et al
hadn't implemented the "
Pied Piper" strategy, Trump might not have made it all the way to nomination."

Rabel: "The "Pied Piper strategy" is largely a myth promoted by people who can't abide Trump and are looking for an explanation for his success that fits their worldview. It's a cope that soothes their angst."

Rabel is correct. The voters Trump energized to vote in 2016 that never turned out for republicans in the past and routinely wouldnt vote at all which is why pollsters completely missed them (rural, lower income and working poor, low propensity voters, etc) are not the types of people that never watch the cable "pied piper" talking heads.

Hassayamper said...

They came to our door three times (my wife is a registered Democrat and I am a registered Independent). We never saw any Republicans in what is a reddish suburban area.

Have you ever pounded the pavement for a campaign? I did it for McCain and again for Romney, to my eternal shame and regret.

You don't waste your time on registered members of the opposing party. Instead, you are assigned a sheet showing you all the Republicans who live on a particular city block or subdivision and you are expected to hit those houses to get "your" people out to vote. They also include independents or third party members for you to visit, but only if they have specifically expressed interest to the party. I believe that these sheets get updated every week or so, to allow you to skip over people who've already submitted an absentee ballot.

If you had any Republicans in your household, you probably would have had a visitor or two.

Hassayamper said...

don't forget the rail she's riding on and of course the tar and feathers she's wearing.

Works for me... a man can dream...

Jim at said...

I'll ask again:

When was the last time a Republican won a statewide race in Oregon? Decades you say? Hmmmm.

Remember, there was a time when Oregon had not one, but TWO, Republican US Senators. (Hatfield, Packwood)

Some might even say it was 'decades' ago. You know, before the state went all mail-in voting.

Funny, that.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Maynard - Trump is not a god. How on earth does he fix Arizona? Blaming McCain does what exactly?
If you want to change something locally - you gotta get involved.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

TeaBagHag,

Not so. This was four years ago, so, no, I do not remember the specifics. But it was an elderly lady in OR, and there were 94 ballots she knew nothing about, delivered to her house (or rather deposited there, since they were already filled out). If the parties were reversed . . . but you don't know any more than I do who the voters actually voted for, do you? For all you or I know, this was just another Trump scam. Amirite?

bobby said...

This comment makes me feel that we at least have a chance of a Republican president in 2024.

Until the RNC recognized this fact about modern electioneering, it was all just going to keep going downhill. Trump has not been good about this issue, until (maybe) now.

MadTownGuy said...

Rabel, Drago, read this article from Salon:

How the Hillary Clinton campaign deliberately "elevated" Donald Trump with its "pied piper" strategy

If it's tl;dr, i'll give you the salient points.

- In its self-described "pied piper" strategy, the Clinton campaign proposed intentionally cultivating extreme right-wing presidential candidates, hoping to turn them into the new "mainstream of the Republican Party" in order to try to increase Clinton's chances of winning.

The Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee called for using far-right candidates "as a cudgel to move the more established candidates further to the right." Clinton's camp insisted that Trump and other extremists should be "elevated" to "leaders of the pack" and media outlets should be told to "take them seriously."

The strategy backfired — royally.
"

- "As examples of these "pied piper" candidates, the memo named Donald Trump — as well as Sen. Ted Cruz and Ben Carson).

"We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates so that they are leaders of the pack and tell the press to them seriously," the Clinton campaign concluded.
"

As to your point that the voters who turned out who were under the radar, so to speak, I'd be interested in seeing a source for that. I'm not dismissing it, just wondering if statistics bear it out.

What I watched unfold during the time of Trump's announcement of his candidacy, through the crowded (and ugly) RNC debates, to the time when Trump had a lock on the nomination and media coverage switched from being bemused about his run to full on oppo research 24/7, is that Trump got lots of free media coverage - which elevated him even more.

Sort of like what's happening now.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

MadTownGuy consider withholding your votes until the last day allowed in your state. The early and same-day voting is a gift to the DNC fraudsters. No reason to give them a heads up and head start on their targeting.

lonejustice said...

Here's another strategy the Dems use, with some success, as evidenced from this past Tuesday's primary:

"Moreno, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is set to take on Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in November. The race will likely determine which party controls the Senate next year. It's a victory not just for Trump, but for Democrats, who spent $3.1 million in the final days of the race on TV and digital ads designed to boost Moreno's profile with GOP primary voters. It was the latest example of a tried-and-true tactic that Democrats have employed in recent years, meddling in GOP primaries to try to elevate the candidate who they believe they're most likely to beat."

mikee said...

I like to recall that Scott Walker only became governor because the Republicans mistakenly reported a vote total omitting one heavily R-voting precinct, and those votes when finally added to the total votes were enough to put Walker past the votes reported for a win by the Dems as their best and final offer. And it wasn't even accidental on purpose, it was just stupid human error by the voting offical calling in the vote numbers to the central HQ.

The R votes have to exceed the level of fraud by the Dems to win, every time.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Yeah that Pied Piper strategery really worked well for Clinton didn’t it! Labeling lifelong democrat Donald Trump as “far right” was the dumbest move ever made in politics because it actually desensitized the public to that slur entirely, allowing other lifelong democrats to cross over since common sense centrist positions were being impugned. Trump’s not a genius but choosing to run on the platform of JFK and Reagan was a totally boss move of yuge proportions.

MadTownGuy said...

@Mike (MJB Wolf), that was the point of the Salon article.

My point is that the DNC is continuing to manipulate the outcome of its own primaries and those of its competitors.