More Desperate GOP Attempts to Thwart Voting.
They just don’t quit, ever.
Oh look, more GOP getting indicted and charged with voter fraud…and STILL ALLOWED TO GO BACK TO WORK AS AN ELECTIONS COMMISSIONER.
TROY — Jason T. Schofield, the Republican Rensselaer County Board of Elections commissioner, was arrested outside his residence Tuesday morning by the FBI and charged with fraudulently obtaining and filing absentee ballots last year using the personal information of at least eight voters without their permission, according to an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court.
The indictment handed up last week — and unsealed Tuesday during his arraignment — charges Schofield with 12 felony counts of unlawful possession and use of a means of identification.
The indictment accuses Schofield of using an online state Board of Elections portal to request absentee ballots on behalf of eight voters who had no interest in voting, did not request absentee ballots and didn’t know that Schofield was using their personal information to obtain the ballots. The indictment alleges the official “falsely certified” that he was the person requesting the ballot when he entered the voters’ names and dates of birth in the portal.
The ballots that were delivered to the Rensselaer County Board of Elections were subsequently filled out and submitted in last year’s primary election, the general election, and sometimes both.
In some instances, documentation was completed falsely claiming the ballots were mailed to the voters at their residences.
And this is part of the investigation that brought these charges against a DIFFERENT GOP councilperson
A member of the Troy City Council has agreed to resign after pleading guilty to identity theft and casing absentee ballots back in 2021.
Kimberly McPherson, age 61, of Troy, according to federal court papers, won her re-election to the Troy City Council in 2021.
As part of her plea, she admitted to casing an absentee ballot in the name of another person in the primary, as well as two absentee ballots in the general election.
Hell, we even have GOP Megadonors hiring private investigators who then commit aggravated assault while trying to prove election conspiracy theories (I am not making this up.)
Conservative activist Steven Hotze on Wednesday was indicted on two felony charges related to his alleged involvement in an air conditioning repairman being held at gunpoint in 2020 during a bizarre search for fraudulent mail ballots that did not exist, according to his attorney, Gary Polland.
Hotze, 71, was indicted by a Harris County grand jury and faces one count of unlawful restraint and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Court filings in the case were not available Wednesday evening. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg declined to comment.
The charges stem from Hotze’s hiring of more than a dozen private investigators to look for voter fraud in Harris County ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
One of the investigators, former Houston police captain Mark Aguirre, was arrested in December 2020 and charged with aggravated assault. Prosecutors said Aguirre used his vehicle to run an air conditioning repairman off the road before dawn on Oct. 19, 2020.
Aguirre then detained the repairman at gunpoint and ordered an associate to search his truck, according to court filings. When a Houston police officer happened upon the scene and stopped to investigate, Aguirre said the truck contained 750,000 fraudulent mail ballots prepared by Democrats.
The truck contained only air conditioning parts and equipment. Hotze’s investigators have not produced any credible evidence to support allegations that Democrats orchestrated a wide-ranging mail ballot scheme in Harris County during that election.
On top of all this crap, MI is in deep with the GOP trying to prevent people from voting on ballot measures because…wait for it…the spacing on the docs were wrong.
In August, the Board of State Canvassers again had a typically uncontroversial task — voting to approve ballot measures for the November ballot. This year, the state Bureau of Elections, after auditing the petitions and determining organizers had submitted the requisite number of signatures, recommended that two ballot measures — a package of pro-voting reforms and a measure creating a constitutional right to reproductive freedom — be placed on the ballot.
Rather than follow the recommendation of the Bureau of Elections, as is customary, the Board’s two current Republican canvassers voted against adding the two measures to the ballot. They didn’t dispute that supporters had submitted enough signatures — instead, the canvassers pointed to dubious rationales to keep the measures off the ballot, arguing that the reproductive freedom measure had some errors with spacing and the voting rights measure didn’t adequately specify how it would change the state constitution. As a result, the Board deadlocked at 2–2, keeping both off the ballot.
This is after the same Board of Canvassers almost didn’t certify the 2020 elections
After every election, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers meets in what is supposed to be little more than a formality. The Board, consisting of two Democrats and two Republicans appointed by the governor, merely compiles and certifies the election results that have already been confirmed by county election officials. This body has no power to audit election results or conduct investigations — the Board has a purely “ministerial” duty according to legal experts. So when the Board met in November to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, it should have been a boring affair, with all four members voting in favor — just like they had done in 2016 when the margin was much narrower.
But, as we saw in many states, what should have happened after the election is not what actually happened. After Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of fraud were — to put it mildly — laughed out of court after court, he and his supporters turned their attention to the Board. The four canvassers were inundated with calls and emails from Trump supporters urging them to vote against certifying the 2020 presidential results in Michigan. Amid this crucible, one of the Republican canvassers announced he was leaning towards voting against certification, citing debunked conspiracy theories about voting in Detroit. Meanwhile, the second Republican canvasser did not publicly state any position on the controversy, leading to speculation about how he would ultimately vote — and what would happen if the Board deadlocked.
This is why voting in EVERY ELECTION is so damn important.
The GOP folks are willing to use any and all levers of power, no matter how small or big, to screw with the democratic process. They do not care about the country anymore, they only care about their party winning. We are seeing this over and over and over that these little obscure bureaucrats who, up until Trump, for the most part played by the accepted rules of behavior in a democratic society are now refusing to do that.
For too long liberals have just ignored all the below-the-top-line boxes on the ballot, we leave them blank and don’t want to take the time to do the research as we don’t understand what these people do and how it can affect our lives. Well, we’re learning.
The GOP will not sit idly by either, they’re going to keep pushing even if Trump falls off the scene, they have a taste of how easy it is to thwart the process so they’re in no mood to stop.
The only thing that can stop them is the rest of us making sure they don’t get elected.
So make a plan, constantly check your registration and voting info, and VOTE!!
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