The Orange County, North Carolina Republican headquarters was struck by a firebomb over the weekend, and while that in and of itself is a pretty crappy thing to have happen regardless of the fact that it was a Republican campaign HQ, one piece of news that slipped out in the aftermath has been getting some attention. The North Carolina Republican spokesperson Emily Weeks told NBC News that it was possible that completed absentee ballots had been destroyed in the fire.

The problem with that statement is that, according to North Carolina law, there shouldn’t be completed absentee ballots at the party HQ. Absentee ballots are supposed to either be mailed to the county or delivered in person by the voter or a close relative. There is no legal reason that those ballots, if they were there, should have been anywhere near that office.

But a big stack of absentee ballots being where they shouldn’t be sounded familiar to me. I live in Dallas, and about fifteen years ago, the local alternative weekly, The Dallas Observer, published a series of stories about accusations of organized fraud using absentee ballots.

After a digging down, Observer reporter/columnist/curmudgeon Jim Schutze figured out the open secret of absentee balloting in South Dallas, and it wasn’t very pretty.

There were vote harvesters — people who would stake out specific neighborhoods and ‘vote the people’ in those neighborhoods. And it worked one of two ways. At the time in Texas, the county was required to publish a list of the people who had requested and been sent an absentee ballot within 72 of the request being granted. In those cases, the vote harvesters would know when those ballots were expected to arrive, and they’d arrive at the same time with an offer to ‘help’ the voter fill out the ballot.

Sometimes the vote harvesters cajoled or coerced the voter to vote the way the harvester wanted. Sometimes the harvester just filled out the ballot without regard as to who the voter wanted to vote for. And then, the harvester who was so nice to come over and help get the ballot filled out would offer to mail the ballot for the voter. The harvester would then leave with the completed/signed ballot.

Other times, the vote harvesters would be the ones who requested the absentee ballot in the first place...

Continues in link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/17/1583672/-This-is-why-a-political-office-would-have-a-bunch-of-completed-absentee-ballots

The Orange County, North Carolina Republican headquarters was struck by a firebomb over the weekend, and while that in and of itself is a pretty crappy thing to have happen regardless of the fact that it was a Republican campaign HQ, one piece of news that slipped out in the aftermath has been getting some attention. The North Carolina Republican spokesperson Emily Weeks told NBC News that it was possible that completed absentee ballots had been destroyed in the fire.

The problem with that statement is that, according to North Carolina law, there shouldn’t be completed absentee ballots at the party HQ. Absentee ballots are supposed to either be mailed to the county or delivered in person by the voter or a close relative. There is no legal reason that those ballots, if they were there, should have been anywhere near that office.

But a big stack of absentee ballots being where they shouldn’t be sounded familiar to me. I live in Dallas, and about fifteen years ago, the local alternative weekly, The Dallas Observer, published a series of stories about accusations of organized fraud using absentee ballots.

After a digging down, Observer reporter/columnist/curmudgeon Jim Schutze figured out the open secret of absentee balloting in South Dallas, and it wasn’t very pretty.

There were vote harvesters — people who would stake out specific neighborhoods and ‘vote the people’ in those neighborhoods. And it worked one of two ways. At the time in Texas, the county was required to publish a list of the people who had requested and been sent an absentee ballot within 72 of the request being granted. In those cases, the vote harvesters would know when those ballots were expected to arrive, and they’d arrive at the same time with an offer to ‘help’ the voter fill out the ballot.

Sometimes the vote harvesters cajoled or coerced the voter to vote the way the harvester wanted. Sometimes the harvester just filled out the ballot without regard as to who the voter wanted to vote for. And then, the harvester who was so nice to come over and help get the ballot filled out would offer to mail the ballot for the voter. The harvester would then leave with the completed/signed ballot.

Other times, the vote harvesters would be the ones who requested the absentee ballot in the first place...

Continues in link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/17/1583672/-This-is-why-a-political-office-would-have-a-bunch-of-completed-absentee-ballots

Dear Milwaukee: @SheriffClarke is no typical law enforcement officer. He's part of a fringe anti-government movement http://attn-google-amp.herokuapp.com/stories/12111/sheriff-david-clarke-blasts-government-media-on-twitter

https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/787751045644640256

What This Sheriff Said on Twitter Is Part of a Dangerous Trend

On Saturday, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr., a frequent Fox News contributor and outspoken conservative, tweeted what appeared at first glance to be an incitement for his followers to riot:

David A. Clarke, Jr. ✔ @SheriffClarke
It's incredible that our institutions of gov, WH, Congress, DOJ, and big media are corrupt & all we do is bitch. Pitchforks and torches time

While calls for violence and rioting have become more prevalent among Donald Trump supporters, Clarke became one of just a few police officers to be the ones calling for lawlessness.

He’s part of a movement called the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), a group of county-level law enforcement officers who believe they hold the highest authority in their particular county, above that of both the state and federal government.

Considered by some to be "a growing threat in the U.S.," the CSPOA was founded by Richard Mack, a gun rights activist who threatened to use women as human shields during the Bundy Ranch standoff, and Joe Arpaio, the embattled Arizona sheriff currently facing federal contempt charges for his aggressive racial profiling program.

Other than Arpaio, Clarke is one of the group’s most visible members – and one prone to violent, aggressive, and racially-charged rhetoric. Clarke has shrugged off concerns about police brutality, blamed Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown for their own deaths, called President Obama a “heartless, soulless bastard” for defending black men killed by police, and claimed citizens should refuse to call 911, but rather handle crime themselves.