{"id":2330394,"date":"2024-11-04T16:03:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T21:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/?p=2330394"},"modified":"2024-11-04T21:59:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T02:59:20","slug":"censorship-and-the-criminalization-of-election-integrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/2024\/11\/04\/censorship-and-the-criminalization-of-election-integrity\/","title":{"rendered":"Censorship and the Criminalization of Election Integrity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/censorship-and-the-criminalization-of-election-integrity\/\">Censorship and the Criminalization of Election Integrity<\/a><br \/>\nby <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/author\/brownstone\/\">Brownstone Institute<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\">Brownstone Institute<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/play.ht\/embed\/?article_url=https:\/\/play.ht\/drafts\/VNtZn92Yxve7RsXivZySefxGa2k2\/arWVkEET2&amp;voice=en-US-DavisNeural\" scrolling=\"no\" height=\"90px\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout this election cycle, we have witnessed an incessant assault on our First Amendment. The regime sent <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/the-first-amendment-cannot-stop-pavel-durovs-arrest-in-america\/\">dissidents to prison<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/letitia-james-vs-vdare-and-the-first-amendment\/\">destroyed opposition news sites<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/censorship-and-the-corruption-of-advertising\/\">colluded to control the free flow of information<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2022\/10\/12\/alex-jones-sandy-hook-shooting\/\">bankrupted<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/the-long-road-to-the-steyn-verdict\/\">its critics<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/john-kerry-and-the-circuitous-assault-on-free-speech\/\">boasted<\/a> that it would criminalize \u201cmisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The election threatens the death knell for free expression in the United States as Kamala Harris and her lead attorney, Marc Elias, vow to punish anyone who questions their pursuit of power.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No political actor has been more influential in overturning election integrity efforts than Marc Elias. Recently, he led the crusade to overturn the Wisconsin Supreme Court\u2019s 2022 ruling in <em>Teigen v. Wisconsin Elections Commission<\/em>, which banned the use of \u201cdrop boxes\u201d in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In deciding whether to hear the case, Republican Justice Rebecca Bradley <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpr.org\/news\/wisconsin-supreme-court-will-reconsider-ruling-limiting-absentee-ballot-drop-boxes\">called<\/a> the Elias-led litigation a \u201cshameless effort to readjust the balance of political power in Wisconsin.\u201d Elias was successful, and dropboxes are now taking votes in Wisconsin, a state that may be the tipping point in the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2020, President Biden won Wisconsin by just 20,000 votes. The rejection rate for absentee ballots plummeted from 1.4% to 0.2% as 1.9 million of the state\u2019s 3.3 million voters cast absentee ballots.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Similarly, Elias <a href=\"http:\/\/pennsylv\/\">led<\/a> lawsuits to defend dropboxes in Pennsylvania. In 2020, President Biden received 75% of the 2.5 million mail-in ballots and won the state by under 100,000 votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But temporary political victories are insufficient for Elias. Along with <a href=\"https:\/\/the65project.com\/updated-complaint-against-jenna-ellis\/\">Project 65<\/a>, Elias has called for the <a href=\"https:\/\/the65project.com\/bar-complaint-against-alexandria-taylor\/\">disbarment<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/the65project.com\/bar-complaint-against-daniel-hartman\/\">attorneys<\/a> who challenge him in court. \u201cI don\u2019t think any lawyer should have a bar license for the privilege of destroying our country\u2019s democratic traditions,\u201d Elias insists, though \u201cdemocratic traditions\u201d apparently means months of absentee voting without signature verification or photo identification. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/opinion\/we-cant-ignore-republican-attempts-to-undermine-free-and-fair-elections\/\">demanded<\/a> an \u201caccountability structure\u201d for those who challenge the Democrats\u2019 mandated standards for a \u201cfree and fair election.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, evidently share this intolerance for dissent. Walz has insisted that the First Amendment <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/volokh\/2024\/08\/08\/vp-candidate-tim-walz-on-theres-no-guarantee-to-free-speech-on-misinformation-or-hate-speech-and-especially-around-our-democracy\/\">does not protect<\/a> \u201cmisinformation or hate speech\u2026especially around our democracy.\u201d The Biden-Harris administration has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.johnlocke.org\/harris-walz-threaten-free-speech\/\">fiercely championed<\/a> censorship and the regulation of social media content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, they threaten to jail anyone who criticizes their pursuit of power. Their judges \u2013 likely to be in the mold of Ketanji Brown Jackson \u2013 will not let the First Amendment \u201chamstring\u201d their efforts to reshape the American government. And perhaps most tellingly, they\u2019ll censor the critiques that are most obviously true.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAbsentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2013Jimmy Carter, 2005<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We have long known the threat that absentee ballots pose to our elections. Following the controversy of the 2000 Presidential election, the United States formed a bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform. President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican, chaired the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After almost five years of research, the group published its final report \u2013 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eac.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/eac_assets\/1\/6\/Exhibit%20M.PDF\">Building Confidence in U.S. Elections<\/a>.\u201d It offered a series of recommendations to reduce voter fraud, including enacting voter-ID laws and limiting absentee voting. The commission was unequivocal: \u201cAbsentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.\u201d Yet, Elias and Harris would gladly disbar any attorney who uttered such a sentence in court.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report continued: \u201cCitizens who vote at home, at nursing homes, at the workplace, or in church are more susceptible to pressure, overt and subtle, or to intimidation. Vote buying schemes are far more difficult to detect when citizens vote by mail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recent history supports this thesis. Just last week, a Chinese national <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2024\/10\/30\/chinese-university-of-michigan-college-student-voted-presidential-election-michigan-china-benson\/75936701007\/\">illegally voted in Michigan<\/a>. He was only caught because he brought it to the attention of authorities, who later revealed that his vote (though admittedly invalid) will still count.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 1997 Miami mayoral election <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1998\/03\/05\/us\/fraud-ruling-invalidates-miami-mayoral-election.html\">resulted<\/a> in 36 arrests for absentee ballot fraud. A judge voided the results and ordered the city to hold a new election due to \u201ca pattern of fraudulent, intentional, and criminal conduct.\u201d The results were reversed in the subsequent election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following Dallas\u2019s 2017 City Council race, authorities <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/courts\/2018\/06\/20\/bogus-voter-gets-180-days-in-dallas-jail-for-forging-mail-in-ballot\/\">sequestered<\/a> 700 mail-in ballots signed \u201cJose Rodriguez.\u201d Elderly voters alleged that party activists had forged their signatures on their mail-in ballots. Miguel Hernandez later pled guilty to the crime of forging their signatures after collecting unfilled ballots and using them to support his candidate of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The following year, it appeared that Republican Mark Harris defeated Democrat Dan McCready in a North Carolina Congressional race. Election officials noticed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-election-north-carolina-idUSKCN1NZ2T2\/\">irregularities<\/a> in the mail-in votes and refused to certify the election, citing evidence and \u201cclaims of\u2026concerted fraudulent activities.\u201d The state ordered a special election the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2018, the Democratic National Commission challenged an Arizona law that set safeguards around absentee voting, including limiting who could handle mail-in ballots. US District Judge Douglas L. Rayes, an Obama appointee, <a href=\"https:\/\/casetext.com\/case\/democratic-natl-comm-v-reagan-1\">upheld<\/a> the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIndeed, mail-in ballots by their very nature are less secure than ballots cast in person at polling locations,\u201d he wrote. He found that \u201cthe prevention of voter fraud and preservation of public confidence in election integrity\u201d were important state interests and cited the Carter-Baker Commission\u2019s finding that \u201cAbsentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/two-weeks-to-flatten-became-eight-months-to-change-the-election\/\">In May 2020<\/a>, New Jersey held municipal elections and required all voting take place via mail due to Covid. The State\u2019s third largest city, Paterson, held its election for City Council. Election officials rejected 19% of the ballots from Paterson, a city with over 150,000 residents. While Paterson\u2019s election was particularly troublesome, mail-in ballots were problematic across the state. Thirty other New Jersey municipalities held vote-by-mail elections that day, and the average disqualification rate was 9.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Jersey brought voting fraud charges against City Councilman Michael Jackson, Councilman-Elect Alex Mendez, and two other men for their \u201ccriminal conduct involving mail-in ballots during the election.\u201d All four were charged with illegally collecting, procuring, and submitting mail-in ballots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A state judge later ordered a new vote, finding that the May election \u201cwas not the fair, free and full expression of the intent of the voters. It was rife with mail in vote procedural violations constituting nonfeasance and malfeasance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Wisconsin, the April 2020 primary election offered further evidence of the challenges and corruption surrounding mail-in voting. Following the primary, a postal center outside Milwaukee discovered three tubs of absentee ballots that never reached their intended recipients. Fox Point, a village outside Milwaukee, has a population of under 7,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beginning in March, Fox Point received between 20 and 50 undelivered absentee ballots per day. In the weeks leading up to the election, the village manager said that increased to between 100 and 150 ballots per day. On Election Day, the town received a plastic mail bin with 175 unmailed ballots. \u201cWe\u2019re not sure why this happened,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jsonline.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2020\/04\/08\/wisconsin-election-3-tubs-ballots-found-mail-processing-center\/2971078001\/\">said<\/a> the village manager. \u201cNobody seems to be able to tell me why.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democrats admitted the system threatened election integrity. \u201cThis has all the makings of a Florida 2000 if we have a close race,\u201d said Gordon Hintz, the Democratic minority leader in the Wisconsin State Assembly. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo went further. \u201cIt\u2019s a harder system to administer, and obviously it\u2019s a harder system to police writ large,\u201d he said. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/04\/09\/us\/politics\/wisconsin-election-absentee-coronavirus.html\">Cuomo continued<\/a>, \u201cPeople showing up, people actually showing ID, is still the easiest system to assure total integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Wisconsin primary also featured special elections for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. A liberal judge upset the incumbent conservative justice, and partisans embraced their overhaul of the electoral system. The <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/05\/10\/us\/politics\/Wisconsin-election-vote-by-mail-.html\">reported<\/a>: \u201cWisconsin Democrats are working to export their template for success \u2013 intense digital outreach and a well-coordinated vote-by-mail operation \u2013 to other states in the hope that it will improve the party\u2019s chances in local and statewide elections and in the quest to unseat President Trump in November.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/two-weeks-to-flatten-became-eight-months-to-change-the-election\/\">Scores of other reports of election fraud<\/a> came forward as the Democratic Party used the pretext of Covid to reshape American elections. Despite the corruption, lost ballots, and admitted threats to electoral integrity, the process had been a success in political terms; their candidate had won. The ends had justified the means. Citizens lost faith in their election process, and political leaders readily admitted that their concerns were justified; but the professional politicos and their mouthpiece, the <em>New York Times<\/em>, characterized the disaster as a \u201ctemplate for success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The stakes of the election could not be more stark. We either remain free to criticize those who reign over us, or we surrender this nation to a cabal of censorious thugs who will remain insatiable in their pursuit of ever-more power.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/censorship-and-the-criminalization-of-election-integrity\/\">Censorship and the Criminalization of Election Integrity<\/a><br \/>\nby <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/author\/brownstone\/\">Brownstone Institute<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\">Brownstone Institute &#8211; Daily Economics, Policy, Public Health, Society<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"attribution\">The post <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/censorship-and-the-criminalization-of-election-integrity\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Censorship and the Criminalization of Election Integrity<\/a> was first published by <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Brownstone Institute<\/a>, and is republished under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. <a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Please support their efforts.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Censorship and the Criminalization of Election Integrity<br \/>\nby Brownstone Institute at Brownstone Institute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":2330396,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2330394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2330394"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2330397,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330394\/revisions\/2330397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2330396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2330394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2330394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monetizemail.com\/magatoon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2330394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}