Did GOP Insiders Steal the Kentucky Governor's Race for Tea Partier Matt Bevin?

[Mika]

Did GOP Insiders Steal the Kentucky Governor's Race for Tea Partier Matt Bevin?
Lower down the ballot, many Democrats got
tens of thousands more votes than Bevin.
By Brad Friedman / Brad Blog November 5, 2015

We see, again, the nightmare scenario I've warned about for so many years: a U.S. election where all of the pre-election polls suggest Candidate X is set to win, but Candidate Y ends up winning by a huge margin instead and nobody even bothers to verify that the computer tabulated results accurately reflect the intent of the voters.

That's exactly what happened in Kentucky on Tuesday, where Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway was leading by a fair margin (about 3 to 5 points) in almost every pre-election poll in his race for Governor, but then ended up being announced as the loser to 'Tea Party' Republican candidate Matt Bevin by a landslide (almost 9 points) --- according to the state's 100% unverified computer tabulation systems.

As detailed on today's program with my guest Karoli Kuns of Crooks And Liars, there are a number of reasons to question the reported results. Among them, as Kuns points out today at C&L, the Democrats running in the down ballot races --- for Secretary of State, Attorney General (Conway's current job) and even state Auditor --- each reportedly received tens of thousands more votes than Conway did at the top of the ticket!

Bev Harris, of BlackBoxVoting.org, who I spoke with earlier today, described the higher vote totals in the down ballot races as a "significant anomaly". She tells me that, at least until more records are requested and examined, the KY-Gov's race "has to be looked at as a questionable outcome, particularly because of the discrepancies in the down ballot races. More votes in those races and not at the top...that just doesn't happen."

Entire article --> here.

[Angry Dragon]

1. need a hand recount

[HassleCat]

2. Pretty obvious what happened

They rigged the system to win the governor's contest, but failed to cover the other offices. Oops! Now we know. Of course, there is no way to verify the fraud, since the system is designed to be defrauded without leaving a trace of the crime. Meanwhile, we keep passing voter ID laws because a dozen or so illegal Mexicans might register to vote in Texas. Our democratic process is broken.

[VanillaRhapsody]

26. Its designed to work when its close too

Because it just shaves fraction of votes....and the way to beat them at that game....and the way to defeat that kind of cheating.....are landslides.....landslides. The sooner we unify behind one candidate the better.....let them beat the,shit out of each other while we prrfect our ground game

[Fred Sanders]

3. Canada had a 100% paper ballot election with ZERO complaints. Complete trust in the system.

Why America ignores proven models of election ballot security is itself a crime.

And 33% voter turnout....how is that not a statistical variation worthy of a forensic audit?

And how can an election be valid when the majority of voting eligible votes were not cast, for whatever reason? How is not participating a "protest" or a "protest vote" if it is not a protest or a vote??

That 16.5% of the voting public choose the Governor is a crime against democracy....and math.

Restore the trust in voting the Republicans have purposely tried to destroy....with some success!

[WaitWut]

10. Our owners won't allow it. :(

Why America ignores proven models of election ballot security is itself a crime.

Most of us realize that a completely digital system without any third party oversight is a ridiculous way to conduct an election process.

“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.” -Frank Zappa

[VanillaRhapsody]

27. Oh no its the deaded PTB!!

[PatrynXX]

16. we have paper ballots

circle in the dot and scan in machine = paper ballot. go back and check. should be required in every state. if the ACT's allow it why not.

[Mika]

25. Many states invalidate the actual bubble sheet after it is scanned. IOW, no paper recount.

Go look at www.blackboxvoting.org and have a look around there. You'll see the numerous ways scanned votes can be altered and/or flipped.

[think]

4. bookmarking

[msongs]

5. your president and political party have no interest in this sort of election legitimizing but thanks

for sharing

[GoneFishin]

6. Unverifiable electronic voting always shifts red. Hmmm.

[Raster]

21. Always. NEVER shifts the other way. NEVER.

Go figure.

[kimbutgar]

7. My fear is the GOP is practicing and putting in place a way to rig our 2016 election in their favors

Last edited Fri Nov 6, 2015, 12:16 AM - Edit history (1)

They will come out and say the polls were wrong.

I remember reading there is a way to change votes and results to the national tabulators. Hillary should also be addressing "election" fraud. If she wants to be president do bad she could be denied it by gop fraud.

[Kip Humphrey]

15. Continuing the DU correction tradition, It is election fraud, not voter fraud.

[jeff47]

8. Golly, if only there was a Democrat in a position to investigate such things. (nt)

[elleng]

13. Imagine that!

[valerief]

9. Wow, I said two months but it was two days.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7314121

[maindawg]

11. Here in Ohio

We had 45 % voter turn out. That is amazing. The norm is about 32%. They cam out to vote on issue 3. The polling showed issue 3 with a 57% favorable.
They out spent the opposition , 20 to 1 .I never saw a single add against issue 3. Never saw any kind of add at all. The did not bother working to defeat the issue. The vote was about 20 million to 10 million votes against issue 3.
So what happened here, with our die bold computer voting machines is tht that they simply flipped the vote. Such a shame. The will of the people has been compromised.
The Vote in Kansas was obviously compromised,they are suing to get the records but the State Attorney is fighting them. Even if someone has the money to sue the state of Ohio for the voting records, it will take years and cost millions.
They are very good at hacking the vote these days.We are rapidly descending into fascism and will not stop until we hit bottom. I fear that its already too late.

[elleng]

12. I'd leave this country, if it weren't for my grandkids.

DAMN the Dem ptb for ignoring this for all these years.

[Stevepol]

17. You are so right!

They have been cheating for over a decade now and it's very easy to cheat when you know nobody will object or demand even an audit. This I believe is the primary reason that people are so frustrated that their will is being thwarted. Big money is part of the problem, but the voting machines are the CENTRAL problem. If the vote were by hand-counted paper ballots, the people would quickly be healed of their frustration and the whole complexion of politics USA would change.

[eridani]

28. Not so sure about that. Many legalization advocates hated the monopoly part. n/t

[penndragon69]

14. It's time to OUTLAW

electronic voting without verifiable paper trails
and a triple redundant verification system.

[Kokonoe]

18. OH crap. guess I gotta say it.

If everybody is not for a different accountability, then just accept the Democrats that republicans approve to work with.

[KaryninMiami]

19. Yes, they probably stole it

God bless Brad Friedman and his relentless investigative reporting on election "abnormalities". Why are DNC and the other candidate silent? Did no one notice the oddity of down ticket Dems winning by thousands but not the Governor's race? What will it take to wake the country up about the danger of using these machines without confirming their accuracy?
The sad part is this is not a new issue. Our country votes on electronic voting machines owned and serviced by GOP contributing corporations which do not permit access to the source codes is not ok. Therefore, there is no accountability. Period.

Sigh.

[mountain grammy]

20. So a bunch of Dems turn out to vote for

Democratic candidates on the ticket, but don't bother to vote for the governor. In what world doesthat happen?

[Raster]

22. It doesn't.

[A Little Weird]

24. Kentucky is weird politically

Democrats tend to be very conservative and sometimes both parties have been known to run nut jobs for office (in my opinion, Bevin qualifies for that description but he appealed to the evangelicals). So not everyone votes straight ticket. Grimes had pretty broad support - she probably had republicans come over and vote for her. The same with Beshear, he had both name recognition and he was running against a guy that I heard several people describe as "an overgrown frat boy". I wouldn't be shocked to learn of a stolen election, but I don't think there's strong evidence for it. Plus, it is a dem - Grimes - who is the Sec of State so she would be in charge of running the election.

[mountain grammy]

30. This is not a case of splitting the ticket.

The discrepancy is in the actual number of votes. Thousands marked ballots for candidates running for a particular office then didn't bother to mark the ballot for the governors office? It really is an anomaly.

[A Little Weird]

31. Oh I see

I didn't understand that part.

[IHateTheGOP]

23. If the Repugs are indeed stealing elections it's way past time to play nice.

[czarjak]

29. Chris Christie...

"Give us control of the voting apparatus."

[paul ofnoclique]

32. That's why Jeb Bush's campaign is dead

He was too busy in Kentucky, Fixing It, just like he Fixed It in Florida 15 years ago.