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Buying Votes

Why does nothing shock or surprise me anymore? I mean, this is something I would expect in some corrupt third-world country run by a warlord, but here we are:

Allies of Donald Trump have begun holding events in black communities where organizers lavish praise on the president as they hand out tens of thousands of dollars to lucky attendees.

The money is being funneled through a 501(c)3 charity, which allows the donors to remain anonymous and their contributions to be tax deductible. So you are paying for part of this.

The winners’ names are picked from a bin, and most of the winners get $300 – $500, just below the $600 where the lucky recipient would have to fill out an IRS W-9 form in order to comply with tax law.

Of course, charities are supposed to use their money for charitable activities, and giving out money in a lottery to arbitrary people in return for them listening to political speech is hardly that. But don’t hold your breath waiting for Trump’s “Justice” department to investigate.

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10 Comments

  1. Wildwood wrote:

    Label me as shocked. Not! Surprised this hasn’t happened before? Maybe. But there seems to be no depths too low for the Republicans.

    Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 12:54 pm | Permalink
  2. Raymond Gergen wrote:

    Republicans being Republicans(You can substitute “low lifes” or “crooked politicians” for “Republicans” and still be 100% correct).

    Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 9:30 am | Permalink
  3. Anonymous wrote:

    Now that’s bad. Only thing worse would be if they were also caught bringing in millions of illegal immigrants, promising them access to healthcare and government handouts and then also registering them to vote. Now THAT would be treasonous and nothing short of an attack on the integrity of the Republic.
    Oh wait! That’s exactly what democrats have been doing for decades…

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/governor-wont-pause-automatic-voter-registration-despite-over-500-noncitizens-found-on-voter-rolls

    Friday, January 31, 2020 at 3:11 am | Permalink
  4. Iron Knee wrote:

    OMG, 19 people voted by mistake! And the glitch that caused the problem has been fixed.

    The grand total of 547 people who were registered by mistake is dwarfed by the more than 17 million people who have been removed from voter rolls since 2016. 230,000 people were removed in Wisconsin. Heck, one of Trump’s people even bragged about their efforts at voter suppression and how it would help Republicans win elections. And Georgia removed more than 300,000 people from the voter roles, and that was right after Brian Kemp removed over half a million people (tens of thousands for things as small as a missing comma from their address), so he could win over Stacy Abrams by 55,000 votes. See https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/31/voter-purges-republicans-2020-elections-trump

    Let’s be serious about the relative sizes of these problems, which ones have been fixed, and which have not.

    Friday, January 31, 2020 at 6:39 am | Permalink
  5. Anonymous wrote:

    OMG due process was applied and a relatively small percentage of voters have been removed in a routine update of the list! Next you’ll be upset that they removed dead voters from lists.

    Interesting that you mentioned Georgia btw, those people “failed to respond to a pre-addressed, postage paid confirmation card within 30 days”
    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/17/politics/georgia-voting-rolls/index.html

    The voting illegals problem is far from being solved: some states still issue them driving licences and in doing so they are automatically registered on voting lists.
    If you’re so concerned about vote integrity why not advocate for voter ID laws like the rest of the world has?

    Friday, January 31, 2020 at 8:54 am | Permalink
  6. dave TN wrote:

    Anom, thats quite a load of bs you are shoveling. I have via the military been a resident of various states and not in a single one was I registered to vote because I had a drivers license. Please check your facts before shoveling.

    Friday, January 31, 2020 at 10:32 am | Permalink
  7. dave TN wrote:

    Fir example
    https://www.elections.virginia.gov/registration/how-to-register/

    Friday, January 31, 2020 at 10:36 am | Permalink
  8. Anonymous wrote:

    DAVE TN, well maybe do a bit of digging first:

    https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/automatic-voter-registration.aspx

    https://www.google.fr/amp/www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/10/17/glitches-in-california-embolden-automatic-voter-registration-foes%3famp=1

    Friday, January 31, 2020 at 6:36 pm | Permalink
  9. Iron Knee wrote:

    > If you’re so concerned about vote integrity why not advocate for voter ID laws like the rest of the world has?

    You’re cracking me up. Most of the rest of the world has automatic voter registration (what you were complaining about!). “The United States is one of a few democratic nations that place the entire burden of registering to vote on individual citizens.” https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/expanding-democracy-voter-registration-around-world

    Voter ID laws are a solution in search of a problem. The ONLY problem that Voter ID solves is in-person impersonation (which hardly ever happens). https://www.aclu.org/other/oppose-voter-id-legislation-fact-sheet

    And funniest of all, the first link you just gave is about giving people who are registering to drive “the opportunity” to also register to vote. And the second link is complaining about how a few isolated glitches “emboldens” foes of automatic registration. So it is the opposite of what you claim.

    At this point, unless you actually start producing some real evidence, you are convincing me that you are just a troll. Sorry, you’re going to have to do better.

    Saturday, February 1, 2020 at 5:47 am | Permalink
  10. Iron Knee wrote:

    I also want to point out that your blatant “whataboutism” has nothing to do with the original post. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

    Do you believe that it is ok for a “charity” to give out thousands of dollars in exchange for people listening to political speech?

    Saturday, February 1, 2020 at 5:51 am | Permalink