Tag: voting

North Carolina Threatened To Prosecute Her for Taking a ‘Ballot Selfie.’ Now, She’s Suing.

There’s a pretty good chance you’ve taken a “ballot selfie”—a picture of or with your completed ballot. Around one in 10 Americans say they have, and pictures of filled-in ballots are common on social media during election season. However, taking a picture of your ballot is a crime in 14 states, leading to possible fines and jail time.

A North Carolina woman is challenging her state’s ban on ballot selfies, arguing that she has a First Amendment right to take a picture of her own ballot—and to post it online. 

“Ballot selfie bans turn innocent Americans into criminals for nothing more than showing their excitement about how they voted, or even just showing that they voted,” said Jeff Zeman, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the First Amendment group that filed the suit. “That’s core political speech protected by the First Amendment.”

According to the lawsuit, North Carolina resident Susan Hogarth took a photo this March with her completed primary ballot. She posted the photo to X, with the caption: “Laws against #ballotselfie are bullshit.”

Just a week after the primary election, Hogarth received a letter from the North Carolina State Board of Elections threatening prosecution for her post, demanding that she take down the post or face legal action. As of the filing of the suit, Hogarth’s post had received less than 3,000 views—hardly a viral post. Hogarth has refused to take down the post and says that she will continue to take ballot selfies.

“Between March 2016 and March 2024, the State Board investigated at least 50 reports of voters photographing completed ballots from primary and general elections,” reads FIRE’s suit. “During election cycles from November 2018 through March 2024, officials from at least eight different North Carolina county boards sent reports of voters photographing completed ballots to the State Board.”

The lawsuit argues that these investigations—and the multiple North Carolina laws justifying them—obviously violate the First Amendment.

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Texas investigates reports of noncitizens being illegally registered to vote

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Wednesday that he has opened an investigation into reports that groups in the state may be registering noncitizens to vote in violation of both state and federal laws.

Investigators with the Texas Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit conducted undercover operations to identify potential voter registration of noncitizens in the state, with the investigation already confirming “that various nonprofit organizations have been located outside Texas Department of Public Safety Driver License offices, operating booths offering to assist in voter registration for persons doing business at the driver’s license offices,” a press release from Paxton’s office stated. These undercover operations are ongoing.

The press release noted that “all citizens have already been presented an opportunity to register to vote as part of the process of renewing or being issued an identification card or driver’s license, so there is no obvious need to assist citizens to register to vote outside DPS offices—calling into question the motives of the nonprofit groups.”

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Democrats Demand ID To Get Into Their Convention But Not To Vote For President

The Biden-Harris administration has called voter photo identification laws “burdensome” and “unnecessary.” The administration has let hundreds of thousands of unvetted illegal immigrants pour across the border with no questions asked about who they are. But the administration’s political party has implemented identification requirements for anyone who wants to attend the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

Individuals seeking to get into the DNC must show proof of identity “for security screening” to pass through a security perimeter and physical barriers, NewsNation reported. In fact, Chicagoans who live in the “areas around the United Center and McCormick Place” where roads will be closed for the convention “will still be able to go in and out of their homes” but they are only “allowed guests as long as those guests have photo ID.”

This is all done under the guise of protecting attendees. “Security” is suddenly important to Democrats. So why not protect and secure our elections?

Eighty-one percent of Americans support requiring voters to show a “government-issued photo identification” in order to cast a vote, according to a Pew Research study. A 2022 Gallup poll found 79% of Americans support requiring a voter to prove his identity.

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Did You Know? Democrats Are Using Organization with 50,000 Physicians and Software Giant Epic to Sign Up Patients to Vote – Includes a Script for Undocumented Aliens – Led By Harvard Dr. Linked to Kamala Harris

Vot-ER is a group of 50,000 physicians who are signing up patients to vote in the 2024 election. The group is led by Dr. Dr. Alister Martin who served as a White House Fellow in the office of Kamala Harris.

Dr. Kat Lindley joined Tom Basile on Newsmax Saturday morning to discuss this latest attempt by the Biden regime to use doctors to register patients to vote.

Tom Basile: A code blue for election integrity. Why do doctors need to know your voter registration status? Why would they be tapped to help ensure you’re registered to vote? Healthcare software giant Epik recently announced that they would be making it possible for patients to register to vote and for doctors to help them through their popular MyChart app. All this in conjunction with the Biden-Harris and activist group, Vote-ER, which just so happens to be headed up by a former senior advisor to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

For more on this, we’re going to bring in FLCC senior fellow and President of the Global Health Project, Dr. Kat Lindley. Doctor, thank you for being with us. I couldn’t believe this. When I heard this, and you’ve been one of the folks who blew the lid on this, the same application that your doctor interfaces with that provides you with your health care information can now also help you register to vote with the click of a button, which means your choice can also be tracked. This is the threshold question. Is this setting up a scenario where millions of illegals and non-citizens passing through safety net hospitals that serve lower-income and undocumented could be registered to vote?

Dr. Kat Lindley: Yes, because the Vot-ER group that you just mentioned was founded by Dr. Alister Martin and actually has a script for undocumented patients on how to register to vote.

Tom Basile: That’s incredible. You’ve been a vocal critic of this new practice. You’ve made the point that your doctor doesn’t need to know your political affiliation. They don’t need to know whether or not you are registered. Talk to me about why we should be alarmed by this. Another example of what seems to politicised medicine, politics, getting into your doctor’s office.

Dr. Kat Lindley: Well, actually, the reason is that, interestingly, a few days before I found out about this, there was a tweet from an anonymous physician on the West Coast. I believe it was the Oregon area. It’s a female physician who said that if she treats Conservatives, she often misdiagnoses them and gives them the wrong treatment. Just that lets you know that there’s no reason for any physicians to know the political status of our patients. We’re supposed to be completely impartial. We are supposed to just deal with the health issues that a patient has and do the best we can to make them recover.

Tom Basile: Doctor, the other issue that I guess you would inevitably encounter here is a patient who perhaps lacks the mental capacity to make basic decisions for themselves and is being manipulated into registering to vote. That’s a very real concern in the state of Pennsylvania, where at least one psychiatric hospital has been exposed for registering patients. Do you see activist physicians and other healthcare providers potentially taking advantage of those folks for political purposes as well? Because, again, you could just do this now with the click of a button on your own app, or the doctor through through their portal could actually do this for you.

Dr. Kat Lindley: That’s exactly right. According to that article, actually, they started registering the patients in that psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania, the ones who were not necessarily there for the in-house treatments, the ones that were going to be discharged. But then they continue that practice and register patients who are in-house to register as well, and they help them obtain mailing ballots and other things. When you are in need, and they’re We also do this in oncology centerss, in substance abuse centres, in the ER. And as you can imagine, all of these centers, what they have in common is you’re at your most vulnerable state. Yeah, absolutely. And they are taking advantage of this state to say, Oh, it’s really important for you to register. It’s going to make you feel better.

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24 States Join Forces to Defend Voter Integrity — Coalition Files Brief Urging Supreme Court to Uphold Arizona’s Proof of Citizenship Law

A coalition of 24 states has joined forces to support Arizona in its battle to uphold proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration.

This united front comes in response to a controversial ruling by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court on August 1, which struck down Arizona’s law requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.

On August 1, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit issued a narrow 2-1 decision that struck down Arizona’s requirement for proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.

The ruling allows individuals to register using a state form without providing documentation of their citizenship status, which could lead to widespread voter fraud.

Arizona’s law, enacted in 2022, was designed specifically to prevent non-citizens from voting by mandating proof of citizenship for state voter registration. The initial emergency stay by a different Ninth Circuit panel had upheld these safeguards, but the recent ruling has been interpreted by many as a significant step backward in election security.

“This is just another example of why the radical Ninth Circuit is the most overturned circuit in the nation,” said Senate President Warren Petersen.

“They routinely engage in judicial warfare to carry out their extremist liberal agenda that’s contrary to the laws our citizens elected us to implement. We will seek assistance from the Supreme Court to ensure only American citizens are voting in our elections. If this principle is not followed, democracy as we know it, and as our Founding Fathers intended, is in jeopardy.”

The Republican National Committee (RNC), joined by Republican lawmakers, has joined the fray, filing a brief with the Supreme Court seeking to revive key provisions of Arizona’s law. They argue that the lower court’s decision undermines the rights of legitimate voters and jeopardizes the integrity of electoral outcomes.

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Racial Equality and Election Fraud

The African-American quest for political equality has been a long and often difficult struggle. Though the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution enacted in 1870 stated “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” this was largely an empty gesture.  

Matters changed dramatically when Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. (it has since been amended multiple times). The Act mobilized the federal government’s vast power to ensure that African Americans had full, unencumbered, access to the ballot. Section 2 prohibited any state or local authority from imposing any rule that, “results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of race or color or membership in a language minority group.” Also banned were practices such as the literacy test whose unstated purpose was to minimize black voting.

The Act explicitly barred  jurisdictions with histories of racial discrimination from altering their voting regulations without the U.S. Attorney General’s prior approval (called “pre-clearance”) The Act’s language was further interpreted to mean that voting provisions that hindered blacks from being elected by fellow blacks violated the Act.   

The Act dramatically altered our political landscape and today African Americans have achieved notable electoral successes from twice electing a black president to being elected mayor of almost every major American city. To be sure, while black turnout vis-à-vis-white rates have declined somewhat from the highwater level when President Obama was elected, nobody could possibly deny that the “Black vote” is a fervently courted voting bloc.

Given these successes, what unfinished business remains on the black voting rights agenda? According to leading Democrats, including President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, the answer is to enact “The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement of 2024” (John Lewis was a notable civil rights activist). According to one supporter, “It would restore the Voting Rights Act to its place as the crown jewel of American democracy.’’

The proposed legislation would restore the pre-clearance policy that the Supreme Court had invalidated in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013.  With this returned power, the U.S. Attorney General could then intervene to protect the voting rights of  “…cohesive coalition of members of different racial or language minority groups.” In other words, this 2024 proposed Act is a return to the earlier era when blacks were barred from voting by devious tactics such cumbersome registration requirements.

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Smartmatic President Surrenders To US Authorities In Miami To Face Election-Related Bribery, Corruption Charges

Smartmatic co-founder and president Roger Piñate surrendered to federal authorities in Miami, Florida on Monday, where he faces charges related to foreign corruption, bribery, and money laundering to secure elections contracts in the Philippines.

Piñate, 49, was charged along with Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, the company’s former VP of hardware development – who also surrendered on Monday.

Piñate posted an $8.5 million dollar bond and was later released, however he did not enter a plea because his defense attorney, Curt Miner, has yet to become his permanent lawyer. Vasquez was released on a $1 million bond. His defense attorney, Frank Rubino, told the Miami Herald “It’s so early in the case, “But we have been aware of this investigation since 2019.“

Oh…

According to the indictment, the alleged co-conspirators financed the bribes by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine used in the elections. To hide their crime, prosecutors say they used coded language to refer to a slush fund used to make the illicit payments – causing the creation of fraudulent contracts and fake loan agreements to make the transfers appear legitimate.

The defendants then allegedly laundered the funds related to the bribery scheme via a constellation of international bank accounts in Asia, Europe and the United States – including in the Southern District of Florida.

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Pennsylvania announces election results won’t be available on election night

The Pennsylvania Department of State has announced that the results of the state’s upcoming election will not be known on election night.

In a social media post, the department ,“Pennsylvanians won’t always know the final results of all races on election night. Any changes in results that occur as countries continue to count ballots are not evidence that an election is ‘rigged.’” The post also included a link to a website dedicated to fact-checking claims about Pennsylvania’s election process.

The announcement echoes the situation from the 2020 election when initial results appeared to favor President Donald Trump as polls closed. However, as mail-in ballots were counted in the following days, Joe Biden was declared the winner in Pennsylvania. The prolonged counting process has frustrated some critics who argue that state election results should be finalized and made public on or immediately following November 5.

Despite calls for reform, Pennsylvania lawmakers did not pass legislation that would allow pre-canvassing of ballots, which could speed up the counting process. The legislative session ended without any changes to the law despite the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passing an initiative in May, according to The Washington Post.

As one of the key battleground states in the upcoming election, Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes could be crucial in determining the next president. If the race comes down to Pennsylvania, it may take several days before the American public knows the final outcome of the election.

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St. Johns County GOP Launches Election Fraud Investigation After Fake Voter Guides were Mailed to Confuse Voters Ahead of August Primary

The St. Johns County Republican Party (SJCRP) has sounded the alarm, claiming that fraudulent endorsement cards are being circulated ahead of the August primary.

These cards, which appear to be near-exact replicas of the legitimate GOP endorsements, have been mailed in an apparent attempt to confuse voters and sway the election.

“It’s a very close knockoff, but it’s fraudulent,” said Denver Cook, Chairman of the St. Johns County GOP per WOKV. “When you talk about election interference and election fraud, I don’t know how it could be worse than this.”

The fake endorsement cards list 8 candidates that directly contradict those endorsed by the St. Johns County GOP. According to Cook, this is a deliberate and malicious attempt to mislead voters and disrupt the integrity of the election.

“This is our real voter guide, you can see on the back side of it, we explain why we did, we have the required disclaimers on the bottom,” Cook said.

The St. Johns GOP endorses grassroots conservatives who are willing to take out the RINOs in Congress.

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RNC Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Arizona’s Citizenship Check Voting Laws

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is asking on the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate an Arizona law requiring voters to prove their U.S. citizenship for the upcoming presidential election.

In an application for emergency relief filed on Aug. 8, the RNC asked Justice Elena Kagan to block a previous lower-court ruling that put the state law on hold.

The Committee centered much of its filing around how the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handled the matter.

The laws at the center of the debate are H.B. 2492 and H.B. 2243—collectively known as the “Voting Laws”—which were passed by the Arizona Legislature in 2022.

Among other things, they require that people who register to vote in Arizona using a state form provide “satisfactory” proof of citizenship or residency, such as a birth certificate, to be eligible to vote.

The laws also require individuals to include their state or country of birth and mandate that counties conduct citizenship checks and remove non-citizens from the rolls.

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