Archive for January 10, 2023

Pennsylvania: A worthwhile recount

Posted: January 10, 2023 by chrisharper in election 2020
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By Christopher Harper

Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, where I live, launched one of the few recounts of the 2020 presidential election this week.

The recount won’t change the election results, but the inquiry should provide at least one significant example of what happened.

I don’t think the election was stolen on November 3, 2020. I think the election was stolen by various questionable laws that made it easier to vote via mail and without adequate oversight for the identification of voters.

In 2019, the Pennsylvania legislature voted to allow voters to mail in ballots for 50 days before the election and extended the time to register.

In Lycoming County, which has about 75,000 eligible voters, registered Democrats dropped by 1.3% between 2016 and 2020. But Joe Biden received nearly 30% more votes than Hillary Clinton, and Biden received 8,814 votes on Election Day and 7,911 in mail ballots.

All told, Donald Trump got 41,462 votes, or 69.8%, to 16,971 for Biden, or 28.57%.

Keep in mind Biden won the 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania, a critical state in the presidential election, by 80,000 votes, 3.458 million to 3.377 million.

In a small snapshot of the Lycoming County vote in 2020, investigators found the following:

–2,590 registrations were removed from voter rolls

–268 duplicate registrations

–526 inactive voters

–55 mail-in ballots were recorded without voter identifications

–108 mail-in ballots were received after Election Day

–74 mail-in ballots were recorded from out of state

For more information, see Audit the Vote at www.auditthevotepa.com.

Jeff Stroehman, the chair of Lycoming County for Trump 2020, said it was not the group’s intention to “tear down an institution called voting, but to restore public confidence in the election process.”

The recount is expected to conclude by Friday at the cost of $55,000.

I know the recount won’t affect any election, but the inquiry should answer questions that still puzzle many people here in central Pennsylvania.

Good News Bad News on the Rules Package

Posted: January 10, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

The Good News is that the rules package that was agreed to as a condition for Kevin McCarthy’s speakership has passed with only one GOP member voting against.

There was always a chance that there would be a block voting against it which would have really crippled the GOP in congress this session but apparently cooler heads prevailed.

There are also some excellent provisions in the package including one that, while good in principle will make at least this session of congress a tough one for the GOP agenda.

The rules package says bills must be on one subject only. This was actually a reform that was first included in of all places the confederate states constitution to prevent the kind of horse trading that was common (vote for my river being dredged and I’ll vote for your port improvements) that had been abused by earmarks lately.

It’s a big win for transparency but it also means that deals with the Democrats in the senate will be tough.

While the House has the power of the purse without passage in the senate and POTUS signature none of those house initiates can pass, so deals will have to be made and all such deals will require some sort of a quid-pro-quo. You give me what I want and I’ll give you what you do. In fact with the need to please both the white house and the senate it will likely be a quid-pro-quo quo.

In theory of course you can have say three bills pass to provide those two quos and a quid but the problem is with a party notorious for lying concerning deals do you dare risk something in three bills that might pass in one?

Now if the plan is to simply stop the Biden agenda this won’t be an issue but if you want to get any kind of legislative solutions during this session it could be fatal.

It will likely be worth it but the GOP needs to set expectations with their base because if they don’t it could end up biting them.

You have been warned.