Iowa, USA voter, fearing rigged election against Trump, casts two ballots and gets charged with election fraud crime! What a tragedy!
Trump supporter charged with voting twice in Iowa, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/10/29/trump-supporter-charged-with-voting-twice-in-iowa/, Oct. 29th 2016.
The article links to this video clip of a campaign speech by Mr. Trump, Trump says voter fraud is 'okay' if the votes are for him, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LObQFaTwcg, 1 min. 20 secs, published on Oct. 22nd 2016 by Washington Post.
I have transcribed Mr. Trump's comments in the video clip below:
(Isn't) it amazing they say there's no voter fraud. Folks, it is a rigged system and it is a rigged election, believe me. According to the highly respected Pew, there are 24 million voter registrations in the United States that are either invalid or significantly inaccurate.
(A) lot right! 24 million. (A) lot. There are 1.8 million dead people that are registered right now to vote. And folks, folks, some of them vote. I wonder why, I wonder how that happened. They woke up from the dead and they went and voted.
There are 2.8 million people that are registered in more than one state. So we will vote here. Lets (go) right down the road, lets vote there. Maybe they will vote for Trump. I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't be saying it.
[Seemingly in response to an audience comment:] I may be hurting myself. You are right. You are right. Maybe they are going to vote for Trump. All right! Let's forget that. It is OK for them to do it."
---- end transcript of video ----
This article, Trump’s Bogus Voter Fraud Claims, http://www.factcheck.org/2016/10/trumps-bogus-voter-fraud-claims/, fact checks Trump's jumping to conclusion about significant voter fraud and so rigged elections in the USA general election (different from Democratic and Republican party primary elections). It seems to be a rigorous fact-check quoting professors who are viewed as experts on voter fraud in the USA due to their study and work related to it, and concludes that Trump's claim of rigged election due to (significant) voter fraud is a bogus one.
The article mentions an article by Prof. Richard L.Hasen a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. The article is titled, Voter Fraud, with the sub-title: It would be literally insane to try to steal an election in the way Donald Trump is alleging. Here's the link to it: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2016/10/donald_trump_s_rigged_election_claims_are_literally_insane.html, Oct. 17th 2016.
A couple of short extracts from the article are given below:
In recent days, Donald Trump has been aggressively pushing the idea that the election is about to be stolen from him through voter fraud and dirty tricks.
...
The truth is, though, that not only does zero evidence exist that this sort of fraud has taken place on any regular basis, but multiple voting simply cannot happen in any practical sense on a scale to influence a presidential election.
...
That’s not to say voter fraud is nonexistent. We do see occasional fraud with absentee ballots. Usually that involves vote-buying, where someone is paid to vote a certain way or someone steals someone else’s blank absentee ballot mailed from election officials and casts that ballot for a preferred candidate.
--- end short extracts from Prof. Hasen's article ---
Now this case of the lady in Iowa voting twice seems to have been triggered by her fears of the election being rigged (as per the Washington Post article linked above). She feared her first vote/ballot for Trump would be changed to a vote for Clinton!!! She was convinced that the "polls are rigged"!
So, while she walked by a satellite voting location, something "came over" her, and she voted again!!!
Here's an associated video, Iowa woman faces criminal charges in voter fraud case, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1gkgh13kE4, 1 min 32 secs, published on Oct. 28th 2016. The video has Sgt. Paul Parizek of the Des Moines Police Department saying, "(It got) picked up pretty quick. These things (aren't) going to slip by the election office. They brought it to our attention. The elements of the crime were there.So she was charged."
Apparently her second ballot's signature got caught by election safeguards (perhaps an automatic system).
After her arrest she had to pay US Dollar 5,000 to get released on bond!
The video also has a clip of John Sarcone, Polk county attorney [she was arrested by Polk County Jail authorities, it is reported] saying, "What I can say is that in the 25 years + that I have been doing this job we have had very few cases where there have been voter fraud allegations made."
Ravi: I have to say that the power that top political campaign speakers like Mr. Trump and Mrs Clinton have over their followers is something that should make such political campaign speakers more responsible. If they casually talk or joke about votes being rigged in their favour as being OK, as was said by Mr. Trump in the video above (Mrs. Clinton does not seem to have said anything on those lines in her campaign speeches), some of their followers could view it as a suggestion to them to go out and participate in voter fraud in favour of their preferred political candidates. This is what may have happened in the case of this lady from Iowa who decided to cast ballots twice in favour of Trump, as she believed the election is rigged, and so may now have a criminal record against her name, even if she does not serve jail time for it!
What a tragedy for the democratic election process to have a seemingly innocent citizen be charged for election fraud crime due to her possibly getting misguided by campaign rhetoric claiming that the election is rigged!
Please note that I have a PUBLICLY NEUTRAL informal-student-observer role in these posts that I put up about the USA presidential elections. Of course, as I am an Indian citizen living in India, there is no question of me voting in these elections.
[I thank washingtonpost.com, slate.com and KCCI and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above short extracts/transcripts from their website/video on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
The article links to this video clip of a campaign speech by Mr. Trump, Trump says voter fraud is 'okay' if the votes are for him, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LObQFaTwcg, 1 min. 20 secs, published on Oct. 22nd 2016 by Washington Post.
I have transcribed Mr. Trump's comments in the video clip below:
(Isn't) it amazing they say there's no voter fraud. Folks, it is a rigged system and it is a rigged election, believe me. According to the highly respected Pew, there are 24 million voter registrations in the United States that are either invalid or significantly inaccurate.
(A) lot right! 24 million. (A) lot. There are 1.8 million dead people that are registered right now to vote. And folks, folks, some of them vote. I wonder why, I wonder how that happened. They woke up from the dead and they went and voted.
There are 2.8 million people that are registered in more than one state. So we will vote here. Lets (go) right down the road, lets vote there. Maybe they will vote for Trump. I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't be saying it.
[Seemingly in response to an audience comment:] I may be hurting myself. You are right. You are right. Maybe they are going to vote for Trump. All right! Let's forget that. It is OK for them to do it."
---- end transcript of video ----
This article, Trump’s Bogus Voter Fraud Claims, http://www.factcheck.org/2016/10/trumps-bogus-voter-fraud-claims/, fact checks Trump's jumping to conclusion about significant voter fraud and so rigged elections in the USA general election (different from Democratic and Republican party primary elections). It seems to be a rigorous fact-check quoting professors who are viewed as experts on voter fraud in the USA due to their study and work related to it, and concludes that Trump's claim of rigged election due to (significant) voter fraud is a bogus one.
The article mentions an article by Prof. Richard L.Hasen a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. The article is titled, Voter Fraud, with the sub-title: It would be literally insane to try to steal an election in the way Donald Trump is alleging. Here's the link to it: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2016/10/donald_trump_s_rigged_election_claims_are_literally_insane.html, Oct. 17th 2016.
A couple of short extracts from the article are given below:
In recent days, Donald Trump has been aggressively pushing the idea that the election is about to be stolen from him through voter fraud and dirty tricks.
...
The truth is, though, that not only does zero evidence exist that this sort of fraud has taken place on any regular basis, but multiple voting simply cannot happen in any practical sense on a scale to influence a presidential election.
...
That’s not to say voter fraud is nonexistent. We do see occasional fraud with absentee ballots. Usually that involves vote-buying, where someone is paid to vote a certain way or someone steals someone else’s blank absentee ballot mailed from election officials and casts that ballot for a preferred candidate.
--- end short extracts from Prof. Hasen's article ---
Now this case of the lady in Iowa voting twice seems to have been triggered by her fears of the election being rigged (as per the Washington Post article linked above). She feared her first vote/ballot for Trump would be changed to a vote for Clinton!!! She was convinced that the "polls are rigged"!
So, while she walked by a satellite voting location, something "came over" her, and she voted again!!!
Here's an associated video, Iowa woman faces criminal charges in voter fraud case, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1gkgh13kE4, 1 min 32 secs, published on Oct. 28th 2016. The video has Sgt. Paul Parizek of the Des Moines Police Department saying, "(It got) picked up pretty quick. These things (aren't) going to slip by the election office. They brought it to our attention. The elements of the crime were there.So she was charged."
Apparently her second ballot's signature got caught by election safeguards (perhaps an automatic system).
After her arrest she had to pay US Dollar 5,000 to get released on bond!
The video also has a clip of John Sarcone, Polk county attorney [she was arrested by Polk County Jail authorities, it is reported] saying, "What I can say is that in the 25 years + that I have been doing this job we have had very few cases where there have been voter fraud allegations made."
Ravi: I have to say that the power that top political campaign speakers like Mr. Trump and Mrs Clinton have over their followers is something that should make such political campaign speakers more responsible. If they casually talk or joke about votes being rigged in their favour as being OK, as was said by Mr. Trump in the video above (Mrs. Clinton does not seem to have said anything on those lines in her campaign speeches), some of their followers could view it as a suggestion to them to go out and participate in voter fraud in favour of their preferred political candidates. This is what may have happened in the case of this lady from Iowa who decided to cast ballots twice in favour of Trump, as she believed the election is rigged, and so may now have a criminal record against her name, even if she does not serve jail time for it!
What a tragedy for the democratic election process to have a seemingly innocent citizen be charged for election fraud crime due to her possibly getting misguided by campaign rhetoric claiming that the election is rigged!
Please note that I have a PUBLICLY NEUTRAL informal-student-observer role in these posts that I put up about the USA presidential elections. Of course, as I am an Indian citizen living in India, there is no question of me voting in these elections.
[I thank washingtonpost.com, slate.com and KCCI and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above short extracts/transcripts from their website/video on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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