Another mail-in voting mess

ITEM #1:  As the calls continue for a shift to all-mail voting, ostensibly because of the health threat posed by the coronavirus, the evidence continues to build that this would be an absolute disaster for our country.

Witness recent events in New Jersey, for just the latest example.

As Mark Hemingway reports at RealClearPolitics:

“Following accusations of widespread fraud, voter intimidation, and ballot theft in the May 12 municipal elections in Paterson, N.J., state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced Thursday he is charging four men with voter fraud — including the vice president of the City Council and a candidate for that body. …

“In the City Council election, 16,747 vote-by-mail ballots were received, but only 13,557 votes were counted. More than 3,190 votes, 19% of the total ballots cast, were disqualified by the board of elections. Due to the pandemic, Paterson’s election was done through vote-by-mail.”

Hemingway reminds us that, “Mail-in ballots have long been acknowledged by voting experts to be more susceptible to fraud and irregularities than in-person voting.”

Yet even as that fact becomes painfully obvious, with an array of current-day, real-world examples of the folly of mail-in voting, some continue to push for it. Here in Nevada, of course, we used vote-by-mail for this June’s primaries. No doubt there will be a push to do the same in this November’s general election. Make no mistake: This constitutes a dangerous threat to the integrity of our elections.

The Wall Street Journal’s editors put it well, writing:

“New Jersey politics isn’t known for probity, but at least today it offers a useful warning to the nation.”

It’s a warning we must heed here in the Silver State. We need to stay vigilant and make sure that mail-in voting isn’t forced on us for the general election. 

Please make your feelings known to our Secretary of State, so she won’t choose — again — to voluntarily convert our state’s elections to vote-by-mail. You can contact her office’s Elections Division at 775-684-5705 or [email protected]. 

ITEM #2:  Speaking of mail-in voting, the left has opened up a new front in this attack on election integrity.

U.S. News reports:

“A network of deep-pocketed progressive donors is launching a $59 million effort to encourage people of color to vote by mail in November, a step many Democrats view as crucial to turning out the party's base during the coronavirus pandemic. ...

“A nonprofit arm of the donor network Way to Win is working with philanthropic organizations including the Ford Foundation and George Soros' Open Society to raise the money. The network has already donated $50 million this cycle, which has largely gone to groups in battleground states including Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Arizona.

“But the group says more is needed because the coronavirus — which has led to a shortage of poll workers, contributed to long lines and forced the closure of some polling sites — could alter the outcome of November's presidential election.”

Don’t be fooled by the left’s (or the left-wing media’s) spin. They’ll frame this effort as a warm-hearted, sincere attempt to simply help citizens cast their votes and have their voices heard, but in reality this is nothing more than a ruse — it’s all about opening the door to fraud.

ITEM #3:  Last week we shared the latest turn in the Michael Flynn saga, specifically the alarming extent of former President Obama’s personal involvement in the targeting of President Trump’s former national security advisor.

Now, David Montanaro reports that:

“Flynn’s lawyers said this week that newly uncovered notes from former FBI official Peter Strzok indicate then-FBI Director James Comey appeared to downplay Flynn’s calls during the presidential transition with Russia's ambassador as ‘legit’ during a meeting where then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden also weighed in.”

Yet even in the face of exculpatory evidence, the case against Flynn was pursued.

In a recent interview with Fox & Friends, former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman weighed in on the new developments, and he didn’t mince words:

"That should concern everyone that they still, somehow, found a way to manipulate a case and bring it when they deemed his underlying action as being legitimate. ...

"Why does he do it? Because there is an absolute effort — call it collusion, conspiracy, whatever you want to say — that now we know goes as high as the vice president and the president. To not only withhold information about the investigation to the incoming president, but to go after the incoming president through their incoming national security adviser on an investigation that did not have a foundation to it. …

"That's why they continued to prosecute him. Because they were doing what they could to try to prevent Donald Trump from getting into the Oval Office."

As Montanaro reports, Tolman argued that Flynn’s “rights were violated and he should consider a lawsuit against the Department of Justice and former Obama administration officials.”

It seems every week brings something new and damning involving this story. We’ll continue to bring you the latest, so stay tuned.

ITEM #4:  From the Washington Post:

That’s the headline on a column by Philip Bump.

It’s true that the President has consistently pointed out this connection between Democrat Party governance and high crime rates. So it was with much interest that we opened Bump’s piece — which, by its headline, would be expected to dispel the President’s claim.

To the contrary, not only does Bump not offer any evidence to show that President Trump is wrong, but — get this — he actually concedes the President’s central point.

No, really.

Here’s an actual line from Bump’s piece:

“It may be the case that cities with more crime are more likely to have Democratic leaders.”

Oh?

Bump does attempt to argue (weakly) why this connection, while real, shouldn’t be given too much weight. But that is far different from arguing that the connection itself doesn’t exist — which, again, is what the headline states.

Even the graph the Post published with the column makes Trump’s point:

Maybe that headline was a typo. (We jest.)

Keep in mind that this was published in the Washington Post, one of our country’s most prominent “news” papers.

This is pathetic — even by the standards of today’s media.

ITEM #5:  Here’s a refreshing (and much-needed) case of common sense and justice prevailing.

The Washington Times reports:

“A federal judge in New York on Friday chastised [New York] Gov. Andrew Cuomo for imposing social distancing rules on churches during the coronavirus pandemic while allowing and encouraging mass demonstrations against police brutality.

“U.S. District Judge Gary L. Sharpe issued a preliminary injunction against Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, the state’s attorney general and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, saying he sensed an unconstitutional double standard in officials condoning mass protests in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd but continuing to restrict religious assembly.”

Cuomo and de Blasio have been among the most egregious actors on the left in their handling of the coronavirus outbreak. 

And of course, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak has acted in line with those two as well.

Naturally, they’ve all been the recipients of some of the most fawning news coverage.

Bravo to Judge Sharpe for holding these politicians accountable, at least in New York.

ITEM #6:  New York may have been the site of a lot of insanity in recent months, but California refuses to be outdone.

The Wall Street Journal’s editors share that, “while deploring racism, the Democratic Legislature in California has voted to codify racial discrimination in state law.”

They explain:

“On Wednesday the state Senate voted for a constitutional amendment, ACA 5, that would reintroduce racial preferences for who gets a state job or contract, or who is admitted to a state university.

“The state Assembly previously passed the measure, which means the amendment will be on the November ballot. It would repeal Proposition 209, which voters approved in 1996 and outlawed racial bias in state policy. The repeal effort received a boost from the killing of George Floyd, no matter the irony of voting for discrimination by race in the name of eliminating discrimination by race.”

America’s foundational goal of a color-blind society must be fought for at all costs. What California is doing is an affront to that principle. It cannot be our future.

ITEM #7:  Score one for religious and educational freedom.

Libby Sobic reports for National Review that:

“[Tuesday] the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a landmark decision that will allow low-income parents across the country to send their children to private schools with their taxpayer dollars. In a 5–4 ruling, the Court decided in favor of Kendra Espinoza and two other mothers in their case brought by the Institute for Justice (IJ) against the Montana Department of Revenue.

“Espinoza is a single mom who has wanted to send her two daughters to a religious school in Montana through the tax-credit scholarship program. Big Sky Scholarships provided families with a tax break if they contributed to charitable organizations that provide scholarships for students to attend private schools. The program was initially created to provide students with scholarships to attend any private school.

“But soon after Big Sky started, Montana’s Department of Revenue declared that the scholarships could be used only for non-religious private schools.”

This kind of institutional hostility toward religious education is nothing new, of course. Fortunately, in this case, the legal battle ended up at the U.S. Supreme Court, and resulted in a favorable outcome.

As Sobic reports, the Court held that “the application of the no-aid provision discriminated against religious schools and the families whose children attend or hope to attend them in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the Federal Constitution.”

And most significantly:

“This victory reaches much farther than the 559 miles across Montana. It will allow states throughout the U.S. to provide assistance to families for private school through the creation of school-choice programs, including vouchers, tax scholarship programs, and education-savings accounts (ESAs).”

Great news, all around — though it’s alarming that this decision from the Court was even close, with four justices on the other side of the majority.

By the way, it’s worth recalling that Morning in Nevada PAC President Adam Laxalt, when he was the state’s Attorney General, successfully led the legal fight to establish the constitutionality of Education Savings Accounts here in Nevada in 2016.

You can read more about that effort here.

ITEM #8:  And finally, the past week brought yet more revelations about Nikole Hannah-Jones, the head of the New York Times’ anti-American 1619 Project.

To recap, Hannah-Jones spearheaded this Times series on America’s founding, the central claim of which was that the chief inspiration behind our country’s birth was a commitment to preserving the institution of slavery.

Hannah-Jones was ultimately compelled to concede that the project got that central premise wrong.

Nevertheless, Hannah-Jones was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the project.

And now, this, as reported by The Federalist’s Jordan Davidson:

"In an indication of what was to come, the founder of the New York Times’ 1619 Project penned a lengthy racist screed attacking all white people in 1995.

"Nikole Hannah-Jones, the lead essayist on New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, wrote a letter to the editor in Notre Dame’s The Observer stating that 'the white race is the biggest murderer, rapist, pillager, and thief of the modern world.'

"Hannah-Jones claimed that the actions of European settlers and explorers such as Christopher Columbus were 'acts of devils' and likens them to Hitler.

"'[The whites] lasting monument was the destruction and enslavement of two races of people,' Hannah-Jones wrote."

Read more here.

Of course, the surfacing of this racist diatribe can mean only one thing: Another major award from some prestigious left-wing institution is doubtlessly in Hannah-Jones’ near future.

NOTABLE QUOTES

"America will always be worth standing for. We must love her even stronger through this spasm of wokeness." ― U.S. Congressman (and 2020 Basque Fry speaker) Matt Gaetz

“Black Lives Matter protests may have slowed overall spread of coronavirus in Denver and other cities, new study finds.” ― Colorado Sun headline (not a parody)