Jack Kemp

Here's the first half of an Amer. Thinker piece that explains another liberal lie and myth...

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/11/hillary_wins_the_popular_vote__not_.html


By Steven Feinstein

Okay, let’s address this "Hillary might win the popular vote, isn’t that Electoral College situation just awful” thing head on.

No, it’s not awful. It’s great, and it protects the importance of your vote. It’s also uniquely American and demonstrates yet again the once-in-creation brilliance of the Founding Fathers.
First of all, she’s probably not going to win the actual number of votes cast. She may win the number of votes counted, but not the votes cast.

States don’t count their absentee ballots unless the number of outstanding absentee ballots is larger than the state margin of difference. If there is a margin of 1000 votes counted and there are 1300 absentee ballots outstanding, then the state tabulates those. If the number of outstanding absentee ballots wouldn’t influence the election results, then the absentee ballots aren’t counted.

Who votes by absentee ballot? Students overseas, the military, businesspeople on trips, etc. The historical breakout for absentee ballots is about 67-33% Republican. In 2000, when Al Gore "won” the popular vote nationally by 500,000 votes and the liberal media screamed bloody murder, there were 2 million absentee ballots in CA alone. A 67-33 breakout of those yields a 1.33-.667 mil Republican vote advantage, so Bush would have gotten a 667,000-vote margin from CA’s uncounted absentee ballots alone! So much for Gore’s 500,000 popular vote "victory.” (That was the headline on the NY Times and it was the lead story on the NBC Nightly News, right? No? You’re kidding.)

But... getting back to the "Win the popular vote/lose the Electoral College” scenario: Thank G-d we have that, or else CA and NY would determine every election. Every time.

Dana Mathewson replies:

The author of the American Thinker article has not done enough homework. What he says may be true in some states but not in all. States such as Minnesota, which have many rural precincts that rely totally on absentee and mail-in ballots (not the same thing) and have no centers in which to go to cast ballots into machines count every ballot regardless.

My source is "Friend Ken," who lives in one of those counties, who worked as an election judge this year and found that he was busy for months. I sent him the AT article and asked for his comments, and here they are in their entirety:

Well, the "Thinker" has done some 'drive by' research on absentee ballot voting. What may have been true in the past is not true with states with 'no-excuse' absentee voting. I had been informed many times the last few days at the courthouse that the entire State of Minnesota conducts elections the exact same way statewide. There are no 'mavericks' in Minnesota I had the sense that the DNC had mailed info to party members to use the absentee ballot method to vote early (and often) as the info coming out on Hillary may cause some to not vote for her if they waited. I received a 'letter' from the Minnesota RNC to use an absentee ballot just to be sure my vote was counted and I was not unexpectedly incapacitated on election day and couldn't vote.

Cass County does indeed separate 'mail-in' ballots from 'absentee' ballots. Both are sent by registered voters. We processed the MB (mail-in) ballots first, then the AB (absentee) ballots. The results go into the system from both 'counts'. We had BAM count the votes and they were NOT published so no one knew who was leading or losing in any of the races When BAM was done with the 'batch', we put the ballots into a sealed envelope to be stored. We kept every ballot, if one was duplicated, we had to save both the original which was NOT 'read' by BAM and stored in a special envelope and the duplicate went in with all the other ballots, but marked 'duplicate' with the reason noted on it. For auditing, one could retrieve the original and compare, and know who made the duplicate, and see why a duplicate was made. All stored by precincts and batch number for the precinct. Thursday, we had to reconcile the ballot numbers per precinct. that is the number of ballots processed by pre-registered voters and the number of 'new voters' per precinct that were added to the voter list per precinct. That included the mail-in only precincts and the polling place precincts that had absentee ballots as well as the new registers in those precincts.

As for absentee ballots favoring Republicans. In my humble opinion, the ones in Cass County favored Democrats. Of course, Minnesota is heavily Democrat, at least in the large population centers. By my cursory impression of the votes for president, the mail-ins I helped 'process', and I could look at who voted for president, as I had to initial the ballots and the line to initial wasn't far from the first two candidates for president. The 'mail-in ballots seemed to favor Trump/Republican and the absentee ballots seemed to favor Hillary/Democrat. I glanced at every ballot as I initialed it and counted to myself the number of Trump votes in the precinct I was 'processing'. Might be a total of 200 ballots processed, might be a total of as few as 1 ballot, the average was probably around 50 per precinct after the first day of processing. We called them 'batches' and precincts had at least 3 batches, most 4 and some 5 batches. The mail came in twice a day and we had to process the ballots each day. I never saw the precinct totals till Wednesday afternoon and then I only looked at the vote count for president on a couple of precincts, my precinct being one. Of 274 ballots mailed out, over 265 were returned. And our precinct had at least 4 'new registers' vote by what is then referred to as 'absentee' ballot since they were not registered when we sent out the ballots in September. In Minnesota, one only has to live in the state for 20 days to qualify as a Minnesotan. One could have moved into the precinct the day before, but has to prove residency in Minnesota for at least 20 days. And the county does a computer check with the precincts to be certain the voter had NOT voted prior to registering. Many of the precincts in Cass County had new registers, those who had not voted or at least been a registered voter before. I found it interesting, as I had to double check the voter lists for the precencts I helped process that some of the new registers had the same address as what appeared to be a spouse currently registered. Most of the newbies were men, the 'wives' had been registered. And of course, some kids turned 18 and could vote for the first time so had to register.

I had thought/anticipated the absentee ballots would mirror the mail-in ballots in terms of party preference but it appeared to be opposite, and we processed a lot of absentee ballots. Some by business people out of the country or out of the state or out of town, and those in military, some just wanted some time, from all appearances, to consider the candidates, and not be 'rushed' in a voting booth. Coffee stains, jam remnant we has to wipe off, that kind of stuff to deal with. Foot prints on the ballots, doodles. With the 'no excuse', I assumed many simply didn't want to bother with a crowded voting place, nor the drive to there and back. Any ballot received after the polls closed Tuesday was an invalid ballot. We had two certified return envelopes with ballots in them and two ballots sent 'overnight' delivery. Both 'stamp costs were borne by the sender, not the county and they were not cheap.

For me, the weak points in Minnesota's election system is first, the Post Office and its sense of priority with mail ballots. Second, the state has no reference source that can affirm if a new register is a felon from another state. It can only by computer determine if the person is a felon in Minnesota. There is no data base exchange between states for this. Minnesota does have a type of 'protected witness' ballot method to protect abused wives living apart from husbands or people who were critical witnesses in a court of law. Fortunately for us, only a handful of them, but we had them. Third, the state has no data base to prove anyone is or is not a legal citizen of the USA. A driver's license is NOT proof of citizenship, nor of course, is a utility bill, or the 'memory of someone' who vouches for you. So, the state as many states do, relies upon the integrity/honesty of the voter. When a 'new register' is entered into the 'system' he/she signs an affidavit that all the information is correct and it is a felony with a jail sentence of one 'lies' and is caught at it, so there is a consequence when 'cheating' in Minnesota. If one says one is a legal citizen and one is not, it is a felony that can be pursued with the signed affidavit. However, unfortunately, the vote still counts, but the person goes to jail for a time. In Minnesota, I understand one can 'admit' a mistake, such as a wrong address, or wrong birth date, on the affidavit and then one 'walks' is not prosecuted.

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