Without calling into question the broader possibility that malfeasance did occur, I don’t feel like this argument is particularly credible.
Suppose you were to engage in some form of straight up ballot stuffing? Why then would you make them bullet ballots? Why not vote straight ticket Republican? Straight ticket ballots are not unusual - even less so then bullet ballots, apparently - so you’d draw less suspicion, and you’d get the benefit of lots of extra down ticket votes.
If someone was going to cheat, what benefit would they gain from cheating this way?
If this was some tabulation hack, then maybe whatever exploit they used to add or flip votes didn’t easily allow for introducing a full ballot of choices.
If it was human ballot stuffing maybe it was easier to make only one selection so that local county-level choices wouldn’t limit where/when those ballots could be introduced.
Just for the record, I don’t think there’s anything to this. It’s very hard to do voter fraud on a scale that matters, and I need more evidence than some strange ballots. If evidence emerges, I’ll change my mind, but I don’t expect that to happen.
That said, if I were to come up with an argument for why they did it this way, it’s because of how fascism is lined up behind a specific leader. Nobody below him matters. However important those people think they are, they are replaceable parts. This line of thought is so ingrained into fascism that they don’t even think of supporting anybody else.
Which is really important for reasons beyond possible voter fraud. It explains why people would naturally vote that way on their own, and then the voter fraud theory is cut up by Occom’s Razer.
The people below him matter because they enact his agenda. The fact that there is a cult of personality around Trump absolutely explains why real voters would vote that way. But anyone enacting a ballot stuffing scheme on his behalf would almost certainly understand that he needs cronies to actually do any of the things he wants to do.
But I’m forced to credit them with intelligence, by the framing of the theory.
You see that, right?
The supposition is that these people engaged in a massive ballot stuffing scheme, and covered it up so well (including successfully obtaining the silence of every one of the people involved) that the only evidence left is an abnormally high number of bullet ballots.
So they have to be smart enough and self-serving enough to do all that, but stupid enough to not do the obvious - and selfish - thing and make those ballots straight ticket votes.
See my previous point about any argument that relies on the same people simultaneously displaying extremes of competence and incompetence. I’m not saying that never happens, but it is usually a good indicator that you’re engaging in wishful thinking.
Generally speaking, a good test for fantastical thinking is when your theory relies on the same people displaying outlandish degrees of both competence and incompence at the same time.
If the people who did this are good enough to pull off - and keep quiet - a fraud at this scale, how did they fuck up such an elementary component?
If they’re capable of fucking up something that basic, how is it that they’ve failed to leave any other stunningly obvious evidence?
Personally, I’m of the opinion that even apparently fair elections should be treated as active crime scenes. That’s how we do things in Canada. Everything is checked and rechecked. But this particular theory seems to have veered pretty far into moon landing territory.
Without calling into question the broader possibility that malfeasance did occur, I don’t feel like this argument is particularly credible.
Suppose you were to engage in some form of straight up ballot stuffing? Why then would you make them bullet ballots? Why not vote straight ticket Republican? Straight ticket ballots are not unusual - even less so then bullet ballots, apparently - so you’d draw less suspicion, and you’d get the benefit of lots of extra down ticket votes.
If someone was going to cheat, what benefit would they gain from cheating this way?
If this was some tabulation hack, then maybe whatever exploit they used to add or flip votes didn’t easily allow for introducing a full ballot of choices.
If it was human ballot stuffing maybe it was easier to make only one selection so that local county-level choices wouldn’t limit where/when those ballots could be introduced.
Just for the record, I don’t think there’s anything to this. It’s very hard to do voter fraud on a scale that matters, and I need more evidence than some strange ballots. If evidence emerges, I’ll change my mind, but I don’t expect that to happen.
That said, if I were to come up with an argument for why they did it this way, it’s because of how fascism is lined up behind a specific leader. Nobody below him matters. However important those people think they are, they are replaceable parts. This line of thought is so ingrained into fascism that they don’t even think of supporting anybody else.
Which is really important for reasons beyond possible voter fraud. It explains why people would naturally vote that way on their own, and then the voter fraud theory is cut up by Occom’s Razer.
The people below him matter because they enact his agenda. The fact that there is a cult of personality around Trump absolutely explains why real voters would vote that way. But anyone enacting a ballot stuffing scheme on his behalf would almost certainly understand that he needs cronies to actually do any of the things he wants to do.
I think you’re guilty of crediting them with an abundance of intelligence.
But I’m forced to credit them with intelligence, by the framing of the theory.
You see that, right?
The supposition is that these people engaged in a massive ballot stuffing scheme, and covered it up so well (including successfully obtaining the silence of every one of the people involved) that the only evidence left is an abnormally high number of bullet ballots.
So they have to be smart enough and self-serving enough to do all that, but stupid enough to not do the obvious - and selfish - thing and make those ballots straight ticket votes.
See my previous point about any argument that relies on the same people simultaneously displaying extremes of competence and incompetence. I’m not saying that never happens, but it is usually a good indicator that you’re engaging in wishful thinking.
Republicans are dumb enough to give it away if that is what happened. I’m not saying it is but I think there is definitely a non zero chance it is.
Generally speaking, a good test for fantastical thinking is when your theory relies on the same people displaying outlandish degrees of both competence and incompence at the same time.
If the people who did this are good enough to pull off - and keep quiet - a fraud at this scale, how did they fuck up such an elementary component?
If they’re capable of fucking up something that basic, how is it that they’ve failed to leave any other stunningly obvious evidence?
Personally, I’m of the opinion that even apparently fair elections should be treated as active crime scenes. That’s how we do things in Canada. Everything is checked and rechecked. But this particular theory seems to have veered pretty far into moon landing territory.
That’s what I’m saying look for other evidence, the anomaly is worth checking but doesn’t mean something nefarious happened.