A sparsely attended Minnesota Senate hearing last week featured allegations about election irregularities that have gotten more attention in other states — charges that Minnesota’s top election official called “a paranoid fantasy.”
During the hearing, Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch, said that a national nonprofit that’s received funding from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan — the Center for Tech and Civic Life — used grants distributed to local election offices to influence the outcome of the 2020 vote.
In some cases, Koran said, local elections were turned over to the non-government entities. “It’s shocking that so many cities allowed this undue influence in their election process to try to affect the outcome,” Koran told the Senate State Government and Elections Committee. “It’s shocking that a county would willingly give up that type of control to an outside entity.”
A bill Koran has sponsored, Senate File 3333, would prevent local elections offices from accepting any money from non-government entities. Koran offered no evidence that the grants awarded to 28 Minnesota counties and cities by the Center for Tech and Civic Life went for anything other than the organizations’ stated goals, which include helping to ensure local election officials “have the staffing, training, and equipment necessary so this November every eligible voter can participate in a safe and timely way and have their vote counted.”
More than $350 million was granted by CTCL across 49 states; every local elections department that requested money received money, the organization said.
“Over half of all grants nationwide went to election departments that serve fewer than 25,000 registered voters,” wrote the organization’s executive director Tiana Epps-Johnson. “We hope that as elected officials consider the issue of philanthropic funding, they solve the real long-standing problem, which is making sure that election departments have consistent, long-term public funding so they are able to deliver a professional, inclusive, secure voting process for all of their voters.”
[image_caption]State Sen. Mark Koran[/image_caption]
The Koran bill is unlikely to get through the DFL-controlled House or be signed by DFL Gov. Tim Walz. Yet Secretary of State Steve Simon said even holding a hearing on the bill that airs allegations that go un-rebutted is damaging. “There was zero undue influence. There was zero relinquishing of control. Zero,” Simon said Friday. “Anyone who talked to someone who administered an election would know that.”
He termed the idea that either occurred “a paranoid fantasy.”
“It is part of a broader campaign of disinformation to corrode confidence in the election system,” Simon said. “I see that as related to the big cloud of disinformation out there. This part of that whole narrative out there.”
The suggestion that this was meant to help Democratic jurisdictions is not borne out by the distribution of grants, he said. “Red, blue, purple or polka-dot, it doesn’t matter. Every single jurisdiction without exception that raised their hand got money.”
In response to a question from DFL Sen. Jim Carlson of Eagan, Koran said he wasn’t sure how a town in his district, Center City, spent the $5,000 it received. But he said money to smaller towns and counties doesn’t change the fact that most was spent in large cities and counties in “key targeted states in the 2020 election cycle.”
Some Democrats also have questioned whether nonprofits should be funding basic elections costs, but their response has been to call for increased funding from Congress and legislatures rather than bans on outside money. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers last year vetoed a bill similar to what Koran has proposed, and Democratic governors in Pennsylvania and North Carolina also vetoed similar bills passed by their legislatures. Fourteen states have passed bills similar to the Koran bill, and there is a bill in Congress to do the same nationally.
Before the 2020 election, there were attempts by conservative legal organizations to block receipts of the funds, including in Minnesota. They were unsuccessful. The Center for Tech and Civic Life, as well as Zuckerberg, Chan, Dominion Election Systems and elected officials from four states, were named in suits filed after the election to reverse results in key states. Those too were unsuccessful, and one suit in Colorado resulted in court-ordered financial sanctions against the attorneys who filed it.
[image_caption]State Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer[/image_caption]
“The CTCL agreement facially violates the election bribery prohibition of (state law) because the participating cities and public officials received private money to facilitate in-person or absentee voting within such a city,” stated the report.
Because much of the money was spent in large jurisdictions with larger Democratic bases, increasing turnout helped Democratic candidates. But after a presentation of the allegations last week, the GOP majority leader of the Wisconsin Assembly said there would be no action taken. “We are going to continue to look through the windshield instead of the rearview mirror and focus on the future,” Rep. Jim Steineke told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I think the Legislature is largely united on this issue.”
Even as it was criticizing the grants, the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board stated “it’s hard to untangle partisan bias from urban bias. Big cities have big-city voting problems, and maybe they were more likely to ask CTCL for help.”
What the money went for in Minnesota
Prior to the 2020 election and in the middle of the first COVID-19 surge, Secretary of State Steve Simon struck a deal with DFL and GOP lawmakers on a bill to run elections that year. The new law would encourage mail-in voting, with a goal of increasing use of such ballots from around 30 percent to 60 percent in order to easy health concerns raised by voters gathering closely in polls.
The bill also released $17 million in federal funds sent to help run elections. Some of that money could be used for the types of sanitation and distancing that Center for Tech and Civic Life grants funded as well. The same deal saw DFLers back off from a desire to have an all-mail elections, and Republicans ended attempts to link the federal funds to other issues, such as voter ID and provisional ballots.
While Democrats in Congress wanted $2 billion for pandemic election costs, though only $400 million was eventually appropriated. Several of the early elections that spring were marred by long lines and crowded polls, The grants came in response to both a lack of money and fear of polling place problems.
Simon said the federal money was helpful for local elections offices but that it wasn’t sufficient. He said it was the dawn of COVID-19, before vaccines and with much less known about how the virus spread than there is now.
Based on the CTCL’s federal tax filing, Minneapolis received nearly $2.3 million, while other grants went to Ramsey County ($2.75 million); Hennepin County ($1 million); Dakota County ($613,000); and Olmsted County ($344,000).
But money was requested and granted to many smaller cities and counties, too, including $5,000 each to Albertville, Center City, Becker, Chaska, Hugo, Sartell, St. Joseph, St. Michael and Victoria. Additional grants went to counties such as Brown ($9,795), Nobles ($11,660), Rice ($33,362) and Houston ($5,880).
Casey Carl, the city clerk of Minneapolis, said he applied for a grant because he knew running an election during the pandemic would add costs he hadn’t anticipated. He said the money was spent on mailings, postage, printing, extra staff to process a record number of mail ballots, extra space to process.
“We bought more people, more postage, pallets of ballots from day one,” Carl said.
The Center approached the city and asked if it would benefit from more money “and we said, ‘yeah’ so we wouldn’t have to go back to the taxpayers if you’re going to give us a grant for stuff that we need.”
[image_credit]MinnPost file photo by Jessica Lee[/image_credit][image_caption]Casey Carl, the city clerk of Minneapolis, said he applied for a grant because he knew running an election during the pandemic would add costs he hadn’t anticipated.[/image_caption]
Minneapolis also added dropboxes that were staffed with two elections judges.
Joyce Jacobs, the auditor-treasurer of Nobles County, in southwest Minnesota, said she applied for a grant after hearing about it from a representative of a company that makes election equipment. She used it to purchase a folder-inserter machine.
“Nobles County had a number of townships that had moved to mail balloting prior to COVID – mostly due to the difficulty in finding election judges,” Jacobs wrote. “When COVID hit, that became even more of an issue since many of our election judges were in the age range that put them at high risk.
[image_caption]Joyce Jacobs[/image_caption]
Max Hailperin, a retired computer science professor who has been involved in election policy, tweeted during the hearing on the Koran bill what he termed an effort to debunk false or misleading statements. Hailperin said about $1.3 million of Minneapolis money went for mail-in ballot staffing and the rental of extra space at the convention center. The total for voter outreach, $50,000, amounted to 18 cents per voter.
This is what a million dollars looks like: a whole bunch of people in a whole bunch of space mailing out a whole bunch of postage-paid envelopes. I say this because @MarkkoranMN seems so confused how @VoteMpls spent its @HelloCTCL grant. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/kiZA80e04J
— Max Hailperin (@MaxHailperin) March 2, 2022
“There’s nothing at all shocking about more money having been spent in large cities than in small. What would they have done with all of those pallets of ballots in Center City, MN, population 672?” he tweeted.
No one showed up to testify pro or con on the bill last week, but Kiffmeyer said she would hold the bill in committee and look for another hearing for those wishing to testify.
Proving, once again, nobody hates democracy more than Republicans. No wonder they’re cheering for Putin. He’s their kind of “leader.”
Yeah, you hate to say it, but, we agree 100%, appears our “R” colleges will do near anything to promote Authoritarianism!
No one’s cheering for Putin. Although there’s doubtless a conspiracy site for this kind of thinking.
There’s at least one guy still cheering for Putin.
Want to cite something? But of course you can’t, outside of mind reading. Some hyper-partisans ought to hang out signs and go into fortune telling. There’s people who fall for that, too.
Well, Russian state media is continually running clips of Tucker and Trump to help justify their invasion of the Russian people.
You can look at the below video at about 1:25 to see MTG be introduced by an avowed white supremacist to chants of “Putin, Putin, Putin”. If you watch the full video you will need to get through all the claims of election fraud Republicans continue to use to justify their attempted coup.
This stuff is easy to find if you actually have any interest. BTW, I linked to YouTube just because it provides an compilation. Not because it is in and of itself a source.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWbzHszCy2o
Intersplicing video of mainstream politicians with wacko fringe groups is cheap political manipulation. This is more an embarrassment for MSNBC than anything else.
Those aren’t “fringe” politicians, they are elected Republicans that include governors and U.S. senators and representatives. They are repeating the words and thoughts of the unquestioned party leader Trump. Those are the ideas you support.
But that’s my point. They aren’t fringe. And intersplicing them with a far right fringe group is the grossest manipulation.
The GOP simply does not support Putin. Buying into the whole idea is ridiculous, even laughable. Is that what left-wing reporting has brought you to?
In that clip, the mainstream Republicans were repeating the insanity of election fraud which is the same level of insanity. Here is some more direct evidence of the Putinization of the Republican party.
“In an interview with CBS’ “Face The Nation,” Kinzinger was asked about the segment of the Republican Party who asked President Joe Biden not to interfere with Putin’s goal. The congressman said this group isn’t “a huge portion” of his party, but that “it’s way too big and it’s growing.’ And I think Vladimir Putin has done a decent job of engaging in culture battles and culture war, and he is seen as the person defending, in essence, the culture of the past. And so it’s very frightening,” he told CBS’ Margaret Brennan.
Tucker Carleson, the primary Republican talking head. “Why would we take Ukraine’s side and not Russia’s side?” he said on November 10. “It’s a sincere question. If you’re looking at America’s perspective, why? Who’s got the energy reserves? Who’s the major player in world affairs? Who’s the potential counterbalance against China.” “At this point NATO exists primarily to torment Vladimir Putin, who, whatever his many faults, has no intention of invading Western Europe,”
And of course Trump, the unquestioned leader and demagogue of Republicans.
He sided with Putin over the FBI and his own intelligence agencies regarding Russian influence on the 2016 election “President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be,”
“Look at Putin – what he’s doing with Russia – I mean, you know, what’s going on over there. I mean this guy has done – whether you like him or don’t like him – he’s doing a great job in rebuilding the image of Russia and also rebuilding Russia period,”
“I think I’d get along very well with Vladimir Putin. I just think so,”
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 [Hillary Clinton] emails that are missing,”
“He’s running his country and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country,” Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” in 2015
“Putin is smart. He’s taken over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart.” He then doubled down in an interview.
“So, Putin is now saying, “It’s independent,” a large section of Ukraine. I said, “How smart is that?” And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force… We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy… I know him very well. Very, very well.”
Also, the small fact that he was impeached for requesting Ukraine dig up dirt on his political opponents in order to receive defensive weapons.
His appointment of Rex Tilerson as secretary of State, a man with close ties to Putin and was given Russia’s highest civilian honor is just the tip of the confirmed Trump Russian/Putin iceberg which also includes, Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner, Wilbur Ross, Michael R. Caputo, Rick Gates, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Roger Stone, Donald Trump Jr., and Rudy Guiliani and his Russian buddies who illegally funneled money to Trump super PAC America First Action. A number of which were convicted (and then pardoned by Trump) for their activities. A lot of Trump pardons were for people who were convicted of corruption that directly helped him
The millions of dollars oligarchs have funneled to Republicans is also fairly easy to find. We could add in the whole NRA debacle as well. There is so much it is actually hard to keep track of.
From the Senate Intelligence Committee “Finally, the Committee’s bipartisan Report shows that almost immediately following Election Day in 2016, the Trump transition responded to Russia’s election interference not by supporting punitive action, but rather by holding a series of secretive meetings and communications with Russian representatives that served to undercut the outgoing administration’s efforts to hold Russia accountable. The transition’s openness to this private Russian outreach prior to taking office, so soon after Russia’s interference on Trump’s behalf, combined with Trump publicly questioning Russia’s involvement, signaled that there was little intention by the incoming administration to punish Russia for the assistance it had just provided in its unprecedented attack on American democracy”
In the end, Republicans seem fine with all of this in the same way they are alright with confederate flags and white supremacists being a vital part of their base and rallies. Either out of willful ignorance or because they agree with it. Not that it matters which.
These is just quote manipulation and soundbites for the faithful. Don’t you realize the exact same thing can be done showing Dems support Communism?
Thanks for your painstaking efforts here, Dan, but as I’m sure you’ve figured out, you can’t get anywhere when the goal of the opposing “debater” is merely gaslighting and contrarianism. That Trump’s immediate statements regarding Putin’s invasion (that he was “very smart” in his method of aggression and occupation, with all the wonderful tanks which showed that it was the work of “genius”) can be blithely dismissed as “off the cuff, possibly sarcastic” tells you all you need to know. Leave aside that Trump is currently the obvious leader of the Repub party and base, has spent many admiring years praising the wonderful autocrat Putin, and is the leading candidate for the 2024 Repub nomination.
Not every elected Repub became a Putin admirer during the Trumpolini years, of course; Audrey is right about that. But to follow Trump meant to follow his admiration and enabling of Putin, and one doesn’t have to troll around the internet too much to find Putin-supporting statements from a huge segment of the American right in the Trump interregnum.
Now that Putin has commenced a destructive war of annihilation against a democratic state, our Repubs have had to pivot somewhat from their Putin admiration of 2016-2020, and they are now willing to enact funds to aid Ukraine and mouth support for democracy (at least democracy abroad). The big test for them will be when Putin’s Puppet throws his hair into the ring for the 2024 nomination, since only an uninformed imbecile could imagine that Trump will continue the current pressure being place on Czar Putin’s regime or will continue to aid Ukraine instead of Putin’s Russia.
Of course I can. Remember when the ignorant racist called Putin brilliant, and a genius for his invasion, he said that just last week. How quickly his supporters forget.
Why do all of you people keep demanding cites? Does that make you feel smarter? This isn’t a peer reviewed thing, so no cites needed really.
Trump said something off the cuff, possibly sarcastic, and the left wing press hyperventilates. They’re playing their partisans like a harmonica.
Here’s another one, my own U.S.House Rep, Matt Rosendale, who was one of three who voted no to aid Ukraine. Rosendale’s a real peach, or as they say here in Montana, all hat and no cattle. His rational, “America first”. I can keep going if you’d like.
That proves it. He’s for Putin.
He’s not for Biden, and while I’ve never met Rosendale (thankfully), it can be safe to assume that in his tiny world, he’s a fan of the dictator. You can google some of the bright ideas coming out of his head as support to my statement.
Rosendale is a front runner for being the lead sycophant of the ignorant racist, and the ignorant racist called Putin a genius, therefore Rosendale is likely a cheerleader for Putin too, which was evinced by his vote not to fund Ukraine.
They are absolutely NOT soundbites taken out of context. Especially the criminal convictions and Trump’s clear request for Russia to dig up dirt on political opponents, his decision to believe Putin rather than his own intelligence operations, and his impeachment for trying to make selling Ukraine weapons specifically for defense against Russian unless they provide dirt on his political opponent. The long list of Trump associates convicted of illegal activities tied to Russia (his pardons of them) and all the business ties directly to Putin-linked businesses and Olegarhcs by Trump’s inner circle. We could also go through the hours of Fox talking heads defending Russia. If Tucker isn’t quoting The Daily Stormer he was excusing Putin’s actions. Within the last day, former Trump staffer A.J. Delgado suggested the Russian bombing of a maternity hospital was Ukraine propaganda.
Add to that the “big lie” that has become the primary plank of the Republican platform. A disinformation campaign designed to undermine democracy that might as well come out of the playbook of a former KGB officer. That and the insane anti-vax and Qanon conspiracy theories that are now mainstream Republican ideology. Being repeated by Republican officeholders and candidates at every level, without irony. MTG is in no way a fringe Republican party.
We can also talk about the real legislation and actions of Republicans that mirrors what Putin has done in Russia. Encourage vigilante violence against protesters (both by lauding Rittenhouse and passing laws encouraging drivers to run over protesters in the street), siding with terrorists like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and 3 Percenters, (“Stand down and stand by.” I recall, acting as security for Roger Stone, sparking the violence during the George Floyd protests, etc.)
Most disturbingly however is the evil bigotry Republicans are turning into law regarding LGBTQIA and teaching history. Passing laws at every level that makes teaching actual history that doesn’t comply with the wishes of local white supremacists a criminal act by teachers and enforcing it through vigilantes. The worst of all is their legislation that makes being gay or trans criminal. In some cases crossing state lines to receive medical care a felony. It is impossible for me to fathom how anyone who supports these laws or the party that passes them can feel anything other than shame.
I have been interested in history and politics since before I could drive. My extracurricular activity in high school 30 years ago or so was the World History and Current Affairs Club rather than band or baseball. I have, for many years, considered my viewpoints to be fairly libertarian and have never been a big supporter of the two major parties. The Republican party of Trump has brought what was the lunatic fringe into the mainstream and is now driven exclusively by the worst people in politics and brings out the worst in everything it touches. It is purely a Christian Nationalist party at this point and nobody left inside the party seems to mind. They are less disturbed by the confederate flag-waving white supremacists and overt fascists in their midst than they are with a center-right Democratic party. I can only conclude it is because they identify more with the former than the latter.
If you are truly interested in history and politics then you know that this is nothing more than a laundry list of puffed up standard issue partisan blather. Not one word would be contested by a Democrat. Doesn’t that tell you something?
Everything I posted is 100% true and as I stated, I am by no means partisan. You can’t point to one thing that I posted which isn’t correct but still refer to the facts as “puffed up standard issue partisan blather”.
BTW, between my last post and this another national Republican just came out as pro-Putin. Lindsay Graham tried to say that Cawthorn is an “outlier”. However, it seems fairly disingenuous from a man who has taken millions in donations from oligarchs close to Putin and voted to delay defensive weapons sales to Ukraine. Graham uses the words that sound good at the moment but his actions say call him a liar. Just like every other Republican.
The ideas you want to dismiss as “fringe” are the center point to Republican ideology now.
It’s true for you. Untrue for every single last Republican. What does it take for you to say, “Wait a minute, what’s wrong with this picture?”
Audrey, it’s ridiculously easy to cite conservative authoritarian politicians (and their followers) that cheer on Putin, as Dan has done.
On another note, why does the article not mention per-capita spending?
I’d guess that the most money per voter went to small towns, not larger cities.
No one’s cheering on Putin, period, unless it’s some fringe crackpot. And as for the super rich, regardless of where they send money, I want it nowhere near ballots.
It isn’t simply “true for me”. Those are actual facts, not opinions. None of which you can refute. The issue seems to be that if those facts happen to be believed by Democrats you assume they are false. That is what blind partisanship looks like. If the fact that the Republican party is a welcoming home to open white supremacy, fascists, Qanon nutcases, anti-LGBTQIA bigotry, and party leadership that is happy to undermine our democratic systems with the election fraud lie to support a political demagogue isn’t enough to make a person question their party then I doubt anything would be.
I prefer a smaller more responsive government. I have caucuses with Republicans in the past (also Democrats and independents) and read extensively both history and current affairs from sources around the world. I don’t make these claims from a partisan point of view or without a clear understanding of what is and isn’t partisan blather.
They’re not facts, but opinions. And I’m not taking you up on one of your “facts”, because you’ll just parse and parse and parse, and fight and fight and fight, and it will lead nowhere. All I’m asking is to look at this rationally. Does it make sense all Republicans and their supporters are lying cheating horse thieves? Of course not, unless you are so basted in partisan suggestion, mind reading, and innuendo you can’t think for yourself.
“Not one word would be contested by a Democrat. Doesn’t that tell you something?” Your suggestion is that if Democrats believe it then it likely isn’t true. This would mean you also would question that the earth is round and the sky blue since Democrats believe that. That is the definition of hyper-partisan.
You asked for citations, I provided them, I pointed to actual legislation being passed right now which shows that Republicans are every bit the party many view them to be and you dismiss it all out of hand.
How did Republicans become a party so comfortable repeating the election fraud lie (believed by the vast majority of Republicans) and with white supremacy and fascism in their ranks? They selected Trump, a person who has made a life of lying and cheating, who values loyalty over morality or intelligence, a man who takes pleasure in belittling and demonizing others, and is more than willing to share space his platform with white supremacists and fascists, as their unquestioned leader. That, in a nutshell, is why Republicans have ended up where they are.
A party whose biggest mouthpieces you want to dismiss as “fringe” while they are also their most popular. One of which, Tucker Carlson, has again between this post and the last continued to repeat straight-up, unadulterated Russian propaganda. A show that is the lifeblood of the Republican party messaging and is repeated continually by Republican supporters. I would cite it, but I doubt it would have any impact here.
Dan, these are opinions. And I respect your opinions. Or try to, but you do not stand alone. An entire, giant machine is behind you. Now, if an entire, giant machine was behind me I would pull up, stop, and be uncomfortable. What do they want? Is it true? Or am I just encouraged to serve their ends?
And don’t say I am in league with Republicans. When they ask me to believe the Democrats are closet Commies, anti-American elitists, anti-freedom loonies I pull up, stop, and ask what they want from me. Does this make sense? Or am I being asked to serve their ends? I think we both know the answer.
This isn’t peer reviewed, merely opinion, so no cites needed really.
But, since you ask, do you remember just last week when the ignorant racist called Putin a “genius” for the invasion? Not sure you can fawn more than that .
So, is Putin a genius or not, in your estimation.
No worries, Kurt. Audrey only wants proof if it doesn’t agree with her preformed opinion. She doesn’t hold the same standards for herself. It takes no effort to find proof of Putin worshipping for a LOT of Republicans, and even if you do that much legwork for her, she’ll tell you that it’s too much to read in its entirety, so give her the Cliff Notes version. Most of the awake world was well aware of the “genius” statements when Putin invaded Ukraine, but apparently that info poofed from the minds of the TFG community the moment it was inconvenient.
“It takes no effort to find proof of Putin worshipping for a LOT of Republicans” That’s right, if you’re marinating yourself in left-wing sites.
I don’t marinate myself anywhere. I do subscribe to NYT and WaPo, but I don’t spend a lot of time there. MinnPost is the only “liberal” site I spend a lot of time on, but mostly for the discussion. My news sites are otherwise widely varied. So, you are fooling yourself into believing that anyone that’s paying attention is simply looking at sites you don’t approve of. I can directly quote TFG from very recent and very public statements, and do so in context, and interpreting in any other way than that he is fawning over Putin would be obviously disingenuous.
You’re entitled to your opinions. Although it would be prudent to examine any conclusion that doesn’t make sense. Also any conclusion that requires a significant rhetorical or logical leap. Also any conclusion that fits lockstep with one political party.
And Minnpost isn’t liberal. The Opinion section tends that way, and staff may very well be liberal, but this article is a good example of solid, non-partisan journalism (even though I think it shades a bit against the GOP, not too bad). The NYT and WaPo would never have run it, or if they did use only the most slanted, hysterical language.
How about Republican candidate Robert “RJ” Regan from Michigan?
(warning, his love of Putin is not the most despicable thing about him):
https://www.yahoo.com/news/michigan-gop-candidate-tells-daughters-190734197.html
During Sunday’s Facebook Live event, Regan also defended Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces are currently invading Ukraine.
“Putin said, ‘I have to protect my country, I have to protect my children, and I can’t count on the United States,’” Regan said.
“So what he did was took some proactive action, he went into Ukraine, knocked out the bio labs, knocked out the missile sites, so he can protect his people,” the candidate added, likely referring to a QAnon conspiracy theory about bioweapons.
Yep, a fringe candidate for state office proves the GOP is for Putin. I get it.
Putin and Trump use the same Adolf Hitler playbook. They walk in step with each other with their misinformation, disinformation, fake facts and lies.
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-praises-putin-move-ukraine-021323120.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
Former President Donald Trump is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin two thumbs up for his decision to recognize two breakaway regions of Ukraine and send troops to the areas.
While Putin’s actions have received sharp criticism and sanctions from President Biden, Trump was full of praise for the Russian leader. During an interview on the conservative Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show Trump said it was “wonderful,” “so smart,” and even “genius” for Putin to “declare a big portion of the Ukraine … as independent.” He claimed Putin will now “go in” and “be a peacekeeper.” While Putin has said he’s sending troops to the breakaway regions as part of a “peacekeeping” mission, Western leaders say he is merely making it easier for Russia to launch a full- scale invasion of Ukraine.
Trump also declared that Putin has “the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen,” with “more army tanks than I’ve ever seen,” and “we could use that on our southern border.” Putin is “savvy,” Trump continued, before complimenting himself by stating the Russia-Ukraine crisis “would have never happened” if he was still president.
The GOP – doing absolutely EVERYTHING to make voting and the election process more difficult and restrictive.
The article states: “Koran offered no evidence that the grants awarded to 28 Minnesota counties and cities by the Center for Tech and Civic Life went for anything other than the organizations’ stated goals, which include helping to ensure local election officials” That should be sufficient to end the discussion on another time-wasting fantasy trip.
Why don’t our legislators focus on helping farmers who were affected by the drought and not waste time on such nonsense? And dairy farmers should not have their assistance held up by discussion of planting trees as the current DFLers have insisted.
The entire republic platform is based on institutionalizing oppression while claiming they are victims. Trump and the AFPAC crowd represent everything anyone needs to know about them. There is no meaningful space between the Christian Nationalist ideals of Republicans and Putin which is why so many have spent so much time praising him.
Sen. Mark Koran, election water-boy for the GOP.
Excerpt: A bill Koran has sponsored, Senate File 3333, would prevent local elections offices from accepting any money from non-government entities. Koran offered no evidence that the grants awarded to 28 Minnesota counties and cities by the Center for Tech and Civic Life went for anything other than the organizations’ stated goals, which include helping to ensure local election officials “have the staffing, training, and equipment necessary so this November every eligible voter can participate in a safe and timely way and have their vote counted.”
While we are at it, let’s ban cake sales to fund public schools as the money might be used to teach critical race theory (I hope your sarcasm detector is working).
From someone who follows the direction of a man who failed to end democracy by trying to be a dictator this is really choice. While we are at it, ask him how much anonymous money from outside his district funded his election and watch his outrage.
I wonder if our Republican friends would be interested in a bill creating a State election fund that Counties and Cities could draw on when they find that they need things like, say, folder-inserter machines and the other mundane tools of elections. If they don’t want local and County governments applying for private grants for what ought to be tax-payer provided election resources, maybe they should reconsider their “government is the problem” mentality on spending.
More sad paranoia from the state Republican Party, and likely a reflection of the party’s leadership at local, state and national levels. No apparent interest in voting, democracy, or even a republic – simply part of the ongoing tantrum resulting from the painful realization that they are not in the majority. As a minority, they’ll have a hard time persuading the rest of the legislature (or the population in general) to follow lunatic-fringe policy suggestions that have no basis in reality.
In this context, it doesn’t matter that the funding is coming from private entities. The legislature – specifically, the Minnesota Senate – could nip this lunacy in the bud by appropriating some of the $9 billion surplus to make sure every election jurisdiction has the equipment and personnel it needs to run fair elections, without any contributions from private entities, especially when the whole process is under attack. Let’s see how Senate Republicans vote if this gets far enough to need a decision by the Senate.
Funny. If Mark Koran is concerned about how election-related money is used he needs to check into the Republican- water boy Citizens United.
Did anybody read the article, instead of jumping on the Republican’s are bad bus?? Do you think it is ok to have outside money controlling our elections?? Who gets to count the votes? What is next? I am still amazed that we had to prove our identity for going to a restaurant, but we don’t have to when we vote.
Really, you had to prove identity to enter a restaurant – well that’s just a lie.
There are a group of folks in Florida all supporters of the ignorant racist some called president, so far 4 of them have been charged with voter fraud (imagine that, Republicans cheating), and producing an ID would not have changed those folks felonious ways. And it appears Mark Meadows is also a felon for voting illegally too. Why do Republicans hate America so much that they have to lie and cheat – this is rhetorical, I understand that type of behavior is part of being part of that party.
Show me where there is evidence that the outside money was “controlling our elections”. And I’m sorry, but funding for adequate staffing and supplies =/= “control”.
Finally someone taking a breath and stating the obvious. Of course we don’t want the super-rich feeding money into vote counting. This is nuts. The real story is it’s legal.
I read the article – twice, actually, because the first time I missed the sinister bit about an organization trying to buy elections. Then after the second reading I realized it wasn’t in there. This organization, somewhat like the nonpartisan League of Women voters’ support for elections, is simply helping the gears of elections turn with a little more oil.
Honestly, what is this Koran up to? Is he so devoid of ideas that he has to raise something like a non-idea to get noticed? Is he happily unaware that there are actual problems that he, a public servant, might actually address? You don’t think he’s actually paid to wear that suit, do you? You don’t suppose this in any way contributes to public cynicism about politics, do you?
Questions, questions…
The tech titans are not nonpartisan.
nothing in the article suggested the donations did anything to “control” elections, thats just a GOP talking point. Hand sanitizer? folding ballots? printing ballots? Paying for drop boxes? None of these have a partisan bent. I agree the government should be funding these activities sufficiently so the dont need phillantrophy from the private sector but the false link from donation to controls is part of the “big lie” being pushed by republicans everywhere which is damaging faith in democracy for craven short term political gain and to curry favor with the guy who lost the last election – bigly.
Show an ID (universal support for this) to vote in person, update voter rolls annually (dead folks should not vote) and request a mail in ballot no mass mailings of them. There that is not so hard is it?
“(dead folks should not vote)”
And you have some evidence that this occurred? Thanks to DJT we just had the states and courts do the most in depth analysis ever of voting fraud and found that we really do a good job.
Time to move on. There must be problems that actually need fixing.
There are more than a thousand convictions in the Heritage Foundations database, which is by no means complete. Is it rampant, I don’t think so, but who really knows? But it does happen. Nobody can dispute that. I am getting a little weary of the statement that it never happens. It happens every election.
It is incredibly rare as a percentage and has no meaningful impact on results. Once Republicans admit that the obviously false, clearly anti-democratic “stolen election” rhetoric was simply an attempt to overturn an election they lost they can reenter the conversation. Until then they have zero credibility because people will rightly assume their motivations are the same and simply shouldn’t be trusted.
1000 convictions since 1982. Let’s be REAAAALLLYYY conservative and say there were an average of 120 million registered voters each presidential voting year (in 1996, there were 127 million, in 202o, there were 168 milion–I’m very conservatively extrapolating back to 1984 and ignoring 1980), with only 50% voter turnout every 4 years (1996 was the lowest turnout at 51.7%). Let’s ignore any of the elections between presidential elections because I want to give you some benefit of the doubt. That’s 10 presidential elections, worth approximately 600 million votes. Very, VERY conservatively. That means that there were fraud convictions for 0.0017% of votes AT MOST. Fewer than 1 bad vote in every 588,235 votes. FAR fewer. By contrast, COVID-19 has killed one in every 345 Americans that were alive in 2020 so far. That is, COVID-19 has a 1700X mortality rate than the US election fraud rate. And you guys don’t seem to think that COVID-19 is all that significant. Clearly, your risk assessment competence is off by a factor of 10^3.
It isn’t a reasonable request from a party that continues to be run by and support a president who attempted a coup after losing an election. Most reasonable people know your real intent because you keep saying the quiet parts out loud.
Mass mailing of unrequested ballots in Minnesota? When has that happened?
No, it’s not hard, but it would accomplish nothing positive.
1. There’s NOT universal support for voter ID. But I’ll give in to it if you let me make the rules.
2. It appears that dead people vote for Republicans the vast majority of the time. But yeah, let’s update annually. Fund it.
3. There were no mass mailings of ballots other than for jurisdictions that have all-mail voting. In those jurisdictions, and only those jurisdictions, ballots are mailed to all registered voters. It is legal in those jurisdictions, so get over it. In jurisdictions where all-mail voting isn’t legal NO mass ballot mailing happened. Period. In some places, forms for REQUESTING mail-in ballots.
Rachael, I see I struck a nerve on a few of the Lefties here. 50 million unsolicited ballots were mailed out in 9 states plus DC. Don’t want that to become a trend. NPR, PBR and Marist had a poll, 8 out of 10 Americans favored voter ID. Not really right wing organizations and 8 of 10 is a majority, last time I checked. Dead people should never vote, even once, that seems like something everyone can agree on. Funny to me that it is ok for dead people to vote as long as it is a low number of dead people voting….. That was my favorite so far.
“8 out of 10 Americans favored voter ID”
Should be updated to 8 out of 10 Republicans favor requiring NRA membership cards to vote.
Here are the very reasonable MN registration ID requirements. Expand these to the day of the vote and you still will not be satisfied until it thins the voting herd to your liking:
ID is not required to vote in Minnesota, with the exception of federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requirements for first-time voters.
If you need to register or update your registration, or you have not voted in four years or more, you will need to show proof of residence before you vote in Minnesota. Valid forms of proof of residence include:
– ID with current name and address, including: valid Minnesota driver’s license, learner’s permit or ID, or a receipt for any of these; Tribal ID with name, address, photo and signature
– Photo ID and a document with current name and address (see lists below)
– Registered voter who can confirm your address
– College student ID with housing list
– Valid registration in the same precinct
– Notice of Late Registration
– Staff person of a residential facility
– A registered voter from your precinct can go with you to the polling place to sign an oath confirming your address. This is known as ‘vouching.’ A registered voter can vouch for up to eight voters. You cannot vouch for others if someone vouched for you.
– If you registered to vote within 20 days of the election, you may get a Notice of Late Registration in the mail. Bring it with you and use it as your proof of residence to register.
– If you live in a residential facility, a staff person can go with you to the polling place to confirm your address. This is known as ‘vouching.’ A staff person can vouch for all eligible voters living in the facility.
If you’re using a combination of a photo ID and a document with your current name and address, the following are acceptable photo IDs (the ID can be expired):
– Driver’s license, state ID or learner’s permit issued by any state
– U.S. Passport
– U.S. Military or Veteran ID
– Tribal ID with name, signature and photo
– Minnesota university, college or technical college ID
– Minnesota high school ID
If you’re using a combination of a photo ID and a document with your current name and address, the following are approved documents with your current name and address (these can be shown on electronic device):
– Bill, account or start-of-service statement due or dated within 30 days of the election for:
– Phone, TV or internet
– Solid waste, sewer, electric, gas or water
– Banking or credit card
– Rent or mortgage
– Residential lease or rent agreement valid through Election Day
– Current student fee statement
So little time and so much disinformation.
A small example:
Five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington — have operated virtually all mail-in elections prior to 2020, some of them for many years. Voters are routinely mailed ballots in these states as part of the regular process.
Shall we stop these states from doing this? Were their past elections all tainted with fraud?
I can certainly agree that dead voters should not vote. And we could do many things to insure that. The question is what is the trade off? if dead voter prevention results in 1:1 ratio of for every dead voter fraud we stop, another rightful voter fails to get their vote recorded is seemingly fine and dandy with the right and even more rightful vote stopping is even better. 1:1 Is a travesty and shows that all the right really cares about is voter prevention not voter security.
You didn’t touch any nerves of “lefties” Joe. You are spewing misinformation. And now that you know that it’s misinformation, to continue to do so makes it disinformation. Misinformation = incorrect. Disinformation = lie. It’s the wrong thing to do, Joe.
For example, this “50 million unsolicited ballots were mailed out in 9 states plus DC” DID NOT HAPPEN. You got that directly from TFG (except he said 80 million), who was AT BEST, misinformed. But probably just lying. Here’s the facts (which I already stated, but this is more detail):
Ballots were ONLY automatically sent out in states where it’s the LAW that ballots are automatically sent out to REGISTERED voters. That is NOT unsolicited. That’s the LEGAL procedure in those states. That is, in Oregon, if you are a registered voter, you will get a ballot ahead of each election. That was true in Oregon for TWENTY YEARS at the time of the 2020 election.
Also, I understand that you’re trolling me with your intentional misspelling of my name. Trolling is also the wrong thing to do, Joe (if that’s your name). I see you.
I agree with Joe. I think we should require people to arrive at the polls in horse and buggy. I think we should reinstitute poll taxes. I think we should use only handwritten scraps of paper as ballots. Mail-in ballots? Absurd. We use modern technology for banking, passports, driver’s licenses, investing. Why should we bring the the new fangled 20th century gimmicks into voting?
There’s no need for new funding for annual list maintenance because it is already done, per M.S. 201.171. What that does is deactivate anyone who has not voted in four years, which among other things serves as a failsafe way to catch those who have died. However, the primary way to remove dead people is not through this annual process but rather on an ongoing basis, all year long, based on records from the commissioner of health, the social security administration, and obituaries, per M.S. 201.13.
Koran rubs his hands together in glee as his North Branch constituents wait in line 5 minutes to vote and someone in the inner city waits 5 hours. In his GOP world it’s not a problem, it’s a feature and not to be messed with by civic do gooders.
This is the heart of the matter. In and by themselves, many of the election restrictions are fairly benign. But when you combine them with targeted programs to inhibit voting by those you think favor the other side, then you attack democracy. For example, not allowing food and water to be handed out (Georgia) isn’t an issue when you’re waiting in line for 1/2 hours but can be when waiting in line for 3 hours because there are too few polling places and you slow down the process. Or requiring IDs when you’ll accept a concealed carry license but not a student ID.
Now maybe this would be an acceptable trade-off if there was a real voter fraud problem. But there isn’t.
What is most galling is the disconnect between Republicans’ alleged devotion to unfettered “freedom” and their desire to regulate private behavior whenever it suits them. If Democrats proposed a limitation on the ability of non-profits to give money wherever they saw fit, the response would be hysterical–Socialism! Tyranny! Even if one can reasonably argue that grants to public bodies should not improperly control those bodies, the conservative principle would be that any regulation of that effort should be as limited as possible, and narrowly targeted to achieve the desired goal. The fact that Republicans repeatedly jettison their alleged principles is the reason so many on the left and even the center can’t take them seriously. (For another egregious example, see the recent proposal in Missouri to prohibit Missouri citizens from traveling to other states for an abortion–so much for the states as the laboratories of democracy.)
Partisan money going to non-partisan activities will always be suspicious.
Yes, those plexiglass barriers raised many suspicions.
The Koch brothers, the kings of partisan money, also funded hospitals and clinics that would have otherwise not succeeded. Likewise, George Soros’ $50M to fight poverty in Africa is a good thing. It is a “can’t see the forest for the trees” argument. Let’s try a little harder…
We’re talking politics. Big difference.
It’s fine to have a hearing on how this Zuckerberg grant money was spent, but ridiculous to propose some sort of legislation without the slightest indication of misuse or abuse. And there is not the slightest indication that this money wasn’t used solely to aid election administration in every county that received funds. But of course our MN Repubs have to do their part in the nationwide “conservative” effort to manufacture ginned up “outrage” over every aspect of the 2020 election. I do wish our hapless crew could come up with the own shenanigans and not have to copy the WI Repub regime in Walkerstan. The real outrage for Repubs is that their horrible presidential candidate lost decisively in 2020.
Lost in all this, naturally, is that the grants were largely offered because the state and nation was trying to have an election during the first deadly pandemic in a hundred years, and much of the Facebook money appears to have been spent on sending and administering mail-in ballots (which all low population Repub-leaning counties in MN now use). In a country with functioning state and federal governments, emergency funds would have been immediately enacted to aid the counties in administering such an election. But of course in 2020 we had divided “government” in MN and an anti-democratic Trumpite regime in DC, so no such funds were going to be forthcoming. So we have the absurd spectacle of a plutocrat riding to the rescue and aiding the operation of democracy.
What a country.
Exactly…
I look at entities like “The Wounded Warrior Project” and “Paralyzed Veterans of America” and wonder why we have to run “bake sales” for the needs of wounded veterans. Funding things that are basic common sense and basic humanity should not be controversial. And funding things means taxing things. Going into 2020 everyone knew that we would be conducting an election in the most trying set of circumstances in the past 100 plus years. And we had a big partisan fight because enabling party partisanship far out ranks applying basic common sense and basic humanity. That third party sources must fund these things is a disgrace and trying to prevent their help is a step beyond that.
Term limits for a master reset of these greedy incompetents…
So let’s have competing billionaires pouring money into vote counting. Sounds like a good idea.
Billionaires directly funding government operations via some sort of “pick and choose” mechanism is sub-optimal, as I indicated. This particular set of grants for election admin turned out to be benign, but it wouldn’t be surprising to move into a world where billionaires fund, say, preferred criminal investigations by state AGs.
The real problem is that the nation’s billionaires were allowed to be created by decades of disastrous “conservative” tax-cutting policies, beginning with St Reagan in 1980. They now have so much money to spend they don’t know what to do with it all, so now they are moving beyond “charity” and into aiding poorly funded agencies whose operations they agree with. In my view, our billionaire class needs to be taxed out of existence; that alone would solve a myriad of abuses in America.
The shorter term answer is for “conservatives” to agree to properly and adequately fund government agencies so they can carry out their statutory duties. It is “conservatism” that categorically refuses to adequately fund our state and federal governments, because they prefer to have an IRS that can’t audit every millionaire return, an SEC that can’t even review filings, an EPA that can’t enforce its regulations, an interior department that can’t police public lands, and on and on and on, ad infinitum (with the exception of the bloated military, naturally.)
Here, MN counties should channel their funding requests into the Sec of State’s office, who would then vet them and submit a non-partisan election funding bill that would be unanimously adopted by both parties in the legislature. The amounts involved are basically microscopic in the grand scope of things. Now which party do you think would be most likely to adamantly oppose that?
I’ll go with that.
And as to which party would oppose public funding, hard to say. What we do know is how the leading Democrat feels. He is calling the need a “paranoid fantasy” and “campaign of disinformation”. Not too helpful.
“He is calling the need a “paranoid fantasy” and “campaign of disinformation”. Not too helpful.”
Paranoid fantasy is when you offer new legislation without any evidence of a need for it, only your own perceptions and as those perceptions depart from accepted realty we enter the realm of:
Paranoid Fantasy
As evidenced by Mr Koran’s efforts. Or we could just go with cynical, petty, political gamesmanship as an alternative.
“cynical, petty, political” or sound, rational, needed? You don’t need evidence for passing legislation that prevents trouble. And allowing billionaires into ballot counting is trouble.
“Not one word would be contested by a Democrat. Doesn’t that tell you something?” Your suggestion that if Democrats believe it then it likely isn’t true. This would mean you also would question that the earth is round and the sky blue since Democrats believe that. That is the definition of hyper-partisan and aligns with how you have responded to every post.
You asked for citations, I provided them, I pointed to actual legislation being passed right now which shows that Republicans are every bit the party many view them to be and you dismiss it all out of hand while never even attempting to refute the facts.
How did Republicans become a party of white supremacy and fascists? They selected Trump, a person who has made a life of lying and cheating, who values loyalty over morality or intelligence, a man who takes pleasure in belittling and demonizing others, and is more than willing to share space his platform with white supremacists and fascists, as their unquestioned leader. A person who is unquestionably a massive, unhinged narcissist. That, in a nutshell, is why Republicans have ended up where they are.
A party whose biggest mouthpieces you want to dismiss as “fringe”. One of which, Tucker Carlson, has again between this post and the last repeated straight-up, unadulterated Russian propaganda on his show. A show that is the lifeblood of the Republican party messaging. I would cite it, but I doubt it would have any impact on you.