Dems Already Trying to Throw Today's Election

As Wonker suspected, the gradual MSM buildup of the "voting irregularities" and "difficulties with electronic voting" memes in the MSM over the past two weeks is coming to fruition today. The Dems have laid the groundwork for widespread voter fraud and litigation, and we shouldn't be surprised if "Florida 2000" isn't replicated across the country in selected locales where the Dems think that a little vote manipulation might give them the pickup of a House or Senate seat. Here are the typical manipulations that the Dems can use to help assure they'll squeak by in a tight contest:

1. Court challenges to assure that selected polling places (the ones with a lot of Democratic votes) remain open long after official closing time. This allows more lazy Dems to be trucked to the polls to build Democratic numbers. Meanwhile, Republican-tilting precincts will be closed at the usual time to prevent the same game. Here's a flavor of that game that should help Representative Ford in Tennessee. Here's another in Muncie, IN, that also could give a significant boost to Dems in tight races where they hope to pull in a Republican seat. Here's another in Denver, with the Dems heading up the request again. This is how you legally stuff virtual ballot boxes, generally in urban areas.
2. Destroy records and intimidate voters. Remember the vans that got tire-slashed two years ago in Wisconsin? Vans that were lined up to transport Republican voters who needed rides to the polls the next morning? Democratic "activists" (read "thugs") were caught red-handed in that one. Inhabitants of the City of Brotherly love are experiencing a different flavor of "progressive" behavior today, according to PoliPundit, who notes that "In wards 7, 19, 51 in Philly, PA, the crowds are going wild. Inside several voting locations, individuals have poured white out onto the polling books and the poll workers are allowing voters to go into the polls and vote without first registering. Several individuals are on hand demanding that voters vote straight Democrat." But wait, there's more: "More from the ground: Reports of voter intimidation by son-in-law of Philadelphia City Commissioner in 19th Ward. Carlos Mantos is not allowing Republican poll watchers with valid poll-watching certificates monitor polling places." Saddam would approve. So would the ghost of Boss Tweed. And of course, there's always those countless tombstones that get voted every two years in Philly and Chicago. (See #1 above.)
3. Commit outright fraud. We saw this in 2004 with University of Wisconsin students happily voting many times (assisted by Dem operatives) and with boxes of ballots disappearing in Portland OR (not that the Dems had to worry about that predictably left-of-center state.) Now we have ACORN, which the Wall Street Opinion Journal humorously describes as a "liberal activist group" (read "socialist"), who have apparently been happily submitting phony voter registration forms in Kansas City, MO, once again, in an urban area Dems intend to use to fraudulently pick up a Republican incumbent's seat in a tight election, much the way St. Louis Democratic precincts were given extra hours to stay open a few years back to give the Democratic Senatorial candidate (Jean Carnahan, the widow of the actual dead candidate) a leg up. The ACORN people are the same good-humored folks who registered Mary Poppins, et. al. in a Toledo, OH area district and were once again caught red-handed. Not surprisingly, they're extraordinarily hostile to voter identification laws. (See "tombstones," #2 above.) Hey, when "the people" aren't voting right, what's the problem with changing outcomes until they come to their senses, eh? More on voter fraud here.
4. When in doubt, find a court that will overrule the people. (AKA, "Send in the lawyers.") Emboldened by their near-success in using a left-wing state court in Florida to selectively recount counties that favored Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore (although thwarted, in turn, by a higher court), the Dems will be trying this again, as it's worked so often for them before. If a Republican victory margin is even modestly thin (as Bush's vote count in Ohio was in 2004), the Dems will happily go to court to thwart the majority, selectively choosing sympathetic judges who can and will rule in their favor. The Dem philosophy seems to be that when they win elections, that's a sure sign the elections are legal. But when they lose elections, the elections must be illegal. The underlying logic of this is that elections are only valid when Democratic candidates win. Otherwise, there must be some kind of fraud going on. It makes little difference that, thoughout modern history, fraud has been a specialty of the Dems, particularly in urban areas. You simply cannot pry a modern Democrat from the notion that there is no conceivable outcome other than Democratic victory. All other victories are suspect. Recall movie critic Pauline Kael's famously stupid remark which summed up her disbelief that Richard Nixon had actually won the 1972 presidential sweepstakes: "None of my friends voted for him." Imagine that. The Dems have an armada of lawyers ready to file on a moments' notice, frivolous or not. The Repubs, not to be outdone, have their own legal army waiting to respond. The bill, of course, will go to the taxpayers.
5. Call the election in favor of the Democrats early. Barring that, cite "exit poll" trends. This is a favorite of the MSM. Their early call of Florida for Bush in 2000, even as the Central Time Zone—and conservative—panhandle Floridians still had an hour to go to the polls, nearly pulled Gore's fat out of the fire, and, arguably, led to the nearly dead-heat numbers that caused the Supreme Court flap. After this, it was no longer possible for the MSM to engineer a close outcome so blatantly. But watch for sneaky exit poll data to "leak" out today if it might be damaging to Republican candidates. For chapter and verse on this dirty little secret, link here. Bottom line: Don't listen to exit poll crappola. It means nothing, it's often misleading, and it is almost always tilted in favor of Dems because Republicans typically will either clam up on the exit pollers or lie because they rightly regard most of the pollers as Democratic operatives who will collude to stab Republican candidates in the back a bit later in the day.

There you have it. Wonker's guide to today's already ongoing Democrat-led voter fraud, vote manipulation, voter intimidation, and rule by judicial fiat. This isn't to say Repubs can't occasionally get carried away. But we know who the pros are in this business, and you don't spell it GOP.

So now, go out and vote, already.