Court Filing: Leftist Wisconsin AG’s Probe Of Mayor Is A ‘Fishing Expedition’
As The Federalist first reported, investigators raided Mayor Doug Diny's home while his wife and 18-month-old grandson were present.As The Federalist first reported, investigators raided Mayor Doug Diny's home while his wife and 18-month-old grandson were present.Over 30,000 ballots in Milwaukee need to be recounted after likely 'human error'
More than 30,000 ballots in Milwaukee need to be recounted after a likely "human error," according to local election officials.
Approximately 31,000 ballots need to be retabulated in Milwaukee after issues were reportedly discovered with tabulator seals.
'This is an unacceptable example of incompetent election administration in a key swing state.'
The tens of thousands of early absentee and in-person ballots were allegedly affected by all 13 tabulators.
According to WITI-TV, Milwaukee spokesperson Jeff Fleming said the tabulators were sealed, but the doors to the machines were not closed properly. Fleming added that the issue could cause major delays.
“It’s just out of an abundance of caution,” Fleming stated. “We have no reason to believe that there was any compromise to any of the machines. But because they were not fully sealed, human error, and not fully sealed, we are going to zero them all out again, the 13 machines around, and then re-run the ballots that had already been processed.”
Fleming added, "What has to be redone is just what’s happening against the wall at the machines. It is gonna extend the time that we will get the totals here, we don’t know how much longer that will be. So it’s not insignificant."
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley and co-Chair Lara Trump issued a statement on Tuesday: "Throughout the day we have been monitoring slow ballot counting in Milwaukee. Now, our legal team has learned that the counting took place in insecure conditions and the city now has to start over, wildly extending the counting timeline. This is an unacceptable example of incompetent election administration in a key swing state: voters deserve better and we are unambiguously calling on Milwaukee’s officials to do their jobs and count ballots quickly and effectively. Anything less undermines voter confidence."
Election workers in Milwaukee have been counting ballots since 9 a.m. on Election Day.
Wisconsin is a battleground state with a razor-tight margin between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
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'Damn shame': Trump signals distrust for swing states that have warned of delayed results
President Donald Trump expressed his displeasure Sunday over the likelihood that it might take officials over a week after Election Day to count votes in certain swing states.
At his campaign rally Sunday in Lititz, Pennsylvania, Trump discussed various factors that might undermine the integrity of the election and Americans' confidence in its integrity, including lax or absent voter ID requirements.
"There is only one reason you don't want voter ID. There's only one reason, and that's to cheat," said Trump. "And they do cheat."
Trump stressed that the expected failure of officials to count votes in a timely fashion is similarly suspicious.
"They are fighting so hard to steal this damn thing," said Trump.
"We should have one-day voting and paper ballots. And I just heard that a couple of states may go an extra 12 days. How the hell do you have an election? You know, they spend all of this money on these damn machines — and paper ballots, you'd have the answer by 9 o'clock tonight."
'Not every state is created equal, right?'
Pennsylvania, the state with 19 Electoral College votes where Trump apparently has a slight edge, is expected to take several days to release its final results because it cannot begin processing mail-in ballots until Election Day.
The official website of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania states:
Hundreds of thousands — sometimes millions — of mail ballots are cast in every election, and current state law does not permit counties to begin opening these ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day. That means county election officials cannot even remove the ballots from the envelopes and prepare them to be scanned until that time — on a day when those same officials are also running more than 9,000 polling places across the state. Then, under the Election Code, counties may not even begin to record and publish mail ballot results until after the polls close at 8 p.m. Election Day.
County election offices can also continue receiving completed military and overseas absentee ballots until Nov. 12, drawing the process out further.
Election officials anticipate that vote counting in certain larger counties could run into Wednesday or Thursday, reported Spotlight PA.
Barring a definitive landslide victory by one of the two candidates, it appears that Wisconsin — where Election Day 2020 ended up becoming "Election Week" — will similarly lag behind when reporting results, given that absentee ballots cannot be opened and counted until Nov. 5.
Wisconsin Public Radio indicated that Milwaukee, for instance, is expecting to process at least 80,000 absentee ballots on Election Day, which is supposedly a time-intensive process. Since the state has same-day voter registration, that number could grow significantly.
"Not every state is created equal, right? So if you're from Florida, you're going to get results a little quicker, simply because we have 22 days of pre-processing," Carolina Lopez, executive director of the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, recently told USA Today. "If you're in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, by law, they're not allowed to start until Election Day. So it's just a quick numbers game. It doesn't mean that Florida is more efficient or less efficient than some of their counterparts. It just means that the laws are a little different."
The New York Times suggested that Arizona and Nevada will likely also take days to finish counting votes.
In Nevada, where the Associated Press waited four days to call the election for Biden in 2020, postmarked ballots are allowed to pour in until Nov. 9.
Things are worse in Arizona, where Maricopa County deputy elections director Jennifer Liewer indicated at a press conference last month that it could take "between 10 and 13 days to complete tabulation of all the ballots that come in."
"It's a damn shame, and I'm the only one that talks about it because everyone's afraid to damn talk about it," said Trump. "And then they accuse you of being a 'conspiracy theorist. He's a conspiracy theorist.' And they want to lock you up, and they want to put you in jail."
Trump suggested that while it's unclear what will happen this time around, Americans should insist upon voter ID, paper ballots, and same-day results for future elections.
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Pennsylvania officials silent over election integrity concerns
Former President Donald Trump won a lawsuit in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, alongside the Republican National Committee on Wednesday after law enforcement turned voters away from mail-in voter registration before the original deadline lapsed. As a result, the state ruled in favor of Trump and extended the deadline to request a mail-in ballot from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1.
Although this was a victory for the Trump camp as well as for voters, Pennsylvania officials have stayed silent on how this was able to happen in the first place.
Shapiro was quick to criticize Trump, who he said has 'attacked our elections over and over,' but has remained silent following the verdict, failing to clarify whether there will be any investigation into the individuals who violated the Pennsylvania election code.
"Pennsylvania is cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before," Trump said ahead of the ruling. "REPORT CHEATING TO AUTHORITIES. Law Enforcement must act, NOW!"
Prior to the ruling, Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro responded to Trump's claim, saying he is just trying to "stoke chaos" ahead of the election.
"Republican and Democratic clerks of elections are doing their jobs here in Pennsylvania — and together with law enforcement, they’re making sure only eligible voters are able to register and vote," Shapiro said in a post on X before the ruling.
"He's now trying to use the same playbook to stoke chaos, but hear me on this: we will again have a free and fair, safe and secure election — and the will of the people will be respected," Shapiro continued.
Shapiro was quick to criticize Trump, who he said has "attacked our elections over and over," but has remained silent following the verdict, failing to clarify whether there will be any investigation into whether individuals violated the Pennsylvania election code.
Blaze News reached out to officials like Shapiro, as well as Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmitt, Attorney General Michelle Henry, the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Bucks County Deputy Director of Communications James O'Malley, and Director of Policy and Communications Eric Nagy.
As of this writing, none of them have responded to a request for comment from Blaze News.
"This is illegal, and [Shapiro] should do something about operatives in his own party depriving people of their right to vote," Trump's running mate, JD Vance, said Thursday of the allegations. "If he doesn't, he is complicit in voter fraud."
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Supreme Court deals Biden-Harris DOJ crushing blow regarding noncitizen voter push: 'Victory for election integrity'
The Biden-Harris Department of Justice sued Virginia earlier this month in hopes of killing an initiative aimed at removing thousands of suspected noncitizens from the commonwealth's voter rolls.
The Youngkin administration fought back and won.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares noted, "I am pleased to announce that the US Supreme Court granted Virginia's emergency stay to keep noncitizens off our voter rolls."
In a 6-3 ruling Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily overruled Democrat-appointed 4th Circuit judges and halted a Biden-appointed judge's order, thereby allowing Virginia to resume the work of making sure that only American citizens can vote in next week's election.
Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
The stay means that Virginia — where the latest Quantus Insights poll indicates Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump are virtually tied — will not have to put over 1,500 suspected noncitizens back onto its voter rolls before Election Day.
'Kamala's Administration sued Virginia and is now arguing to the US Supreme Court that non-citizens must remain on the voter rolls.'
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement, "We are pleased by the Supreme Court's order today. This is a victory for commonsense and election fairness. I am grateful for the work of Attorney General Jason Miyares on this critical fight to protect the fundamental rights of U.S. citizens."
"Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections," continued Youngkin. "Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia's elections are fair, secure, and free from politically motivated interference."
Dozens of red states backed Virginia's defense along with the Republican National Committee.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill tweeted, "Huge victory for election integrity! SCOTUS grants Virginia's emergency stay to keep noncitizens off its voter roles. Proud to have joined my fellow AGs in support of the American people and our most sacred right."
Murrill was among the 27 state attorneys general who filed an amicus brief asking the high court to allow Virginia to resume the work of ensuring the integrity of the election.
The amicus brief noted, "Non-citizens are not eligible voters. They were not eligible voters before Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, they were not eligible when Congress passed the NVRA, and they are not eligible today."
Ahead of the ruling, RNC chairman Michael Whatley stated, "With only one week to our country's most important election, Democrats are now taking extraordinary measures to keep non-citizens on voter rolls. Kamala's Administration sued Virginia and is now arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that non-citizens must remain on the voter rolls."
Blaze News previously reported that the DOJ sued the state over Youngkin's Aug. 7 executive order, which requires both the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections to routinely update voter lists to remove individuals identified as noncitizens and that the state Department of Motor Vehicles must expedite the interagency data-sharing with the DOE with regard to noncitizen transactions.
According to the DOJ, the election integrity initiative violated Section 8(c)(2) of the National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to complete programs intended to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from registration lists by no later than 90 days prior to a primary election or general election for federal office.
Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia agreed with the DOJ, claiming the removals of suspected noncitizens amounted to a "clear violation" of the NVRA. Giles ordered Virginia to reinstate those individuals whose registrations were canceled under the program, including suspected noncitizens.
Virginia asked the 4th Circuit to put a hold on Giles' order, but two Obama-appointed judges and another Biden appointee denied their request Sunday, prompting the state to file for an emergency stay of the injunction hours later.
The commonwealth's emergency application stated that the injunction sought by the Biden-Harris DOJ will "irreparably injure Virginia's sovereignty, confuse her voters, overload her election machinery and administrators, and likely lead noncitizens to think they are permitted to vote, a criminal offense that will cancel the franchise of eligible voters."
According to Virginia, the program did not violate the NVRA as it was an individualized removal process. Further, the state stressed that Giles' injunction was based on a provision of the NVRA that "does not even apply to the removal of noncitizens and other voter registrations that are void ab initio."
The state told the high court that of the over 1,600 suspected noncitizens whom Giles ordered back onto the voter rolls:
About 600 of these individuals personally informed Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that they are not citizens, and about 1,000 presented noncitizen residency documents to DMV and were then positively identified as noncitizens through the United States' own Systematic Alerian Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.
The Supreme Court did not indicate which of the state's arguments ultimately prompted its decision.
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Thousands of apparently fraudulent voter applications discovered in Pennsylvania
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney Heather Adams announced Friday that investigators have uncovered evidence of what appears to be a "large scale" voter fraud campaign.
The Republican DA indicated during a press conference that the county's chief clerk of elections and registrar of voter registration, Christa Miller, contacted her earlier in the week regarding what appeared to be fraudulent voter registration applications received by her office.
County commissioner Ray D'Agostino, the chairman of the Lancaster County Board of Elections, confirmed that two separate drop batches, amounting altogether to roughly 2,500 completed applications, were dumped off by individuals near the county's elections office around the time of the Monday deadline.
According to the DA, when preparing to enter the forms into the Statewide Uniform Registry, "staff noticed that numerous applications appeared to have the same handwriting, were filled out on the same day with unknown signatures, and some were previously registered voters and the signatures on file did not match the signatures on the applications."
Adams indicated that in their review so far, investigators have found signs of fraud affecting 60% of the registrations.
The issues encountered have included inaccuracies with the addresses listed on the applications; false personal identifying information, including false names; and inconsistencies between Social Security information and names. While the identifying information on other suspect applications appeared to be correct, the corresponding residents confirmed that they had not requested or completed the forms, and further, that the signatures on the forms were not theirs.
'Our systems worked.'
While most of the applications were supposedly from Lancaster residents, Adams indicated there were also questionable applications received from residents in various other locations including Strasburg, Akron, Ephrata, and Mount Joy.
D'Agostino indicated that the applications from the questionable batches are undergoing an extensive multi-step review and that those deemed eligible will be processed.
"At this point, it is believed that the fraudulent voter registrations are connected to a large scale canvassing operation for voter registrations that date back to June," said Adams. "However, the majority of the applications received are dated August 15 and after."
Adams said that the investigation is ongoing and that she will not comment on who may have dropped off the applications.
The board of elections noted in a statement, "Our Lancaster County Elections system is secure. Our systems worked. We will continue to operate with the highest levels of veracity, integrity, and transparency so that Lancaster County voters can be confident in our election."
President Donald Trump beat President Joe Biden in Lancaster County by over 44,000 votes in 2020.
According to Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight polling, Trump presently has a slight edge over Harris in Pennsylvania.
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Federal judge grants the Biden-Harris DOJ's wishes regarding noncitizen voters in Virginia
The Biden-Harris Department of Justice sued the Commonwealth of Virginia earlier this month in an attempt to arrest and reverse its efforts to keep noncitizens off the voter rolls.
A Biden-nominated judge obliged the DOJ Friday, ruling that Virginia must restore the registrations of over 1,600 individuals allegedly identified as noncitizens.
According to Bloomberg News, Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles claimed the removals were a "clear violation" of the National Voter Registration Act's quiet period provision, which requires states to complete programs intended to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from registration lists by no later than 90 days prior to a primary election or general election for federal office.
The Biden judge ordered the state to dispatch notices to everyone whose registration was canceled under Youngkin's individualized voter roll cleanup program.
Giles indicated that these notices must go out even to those who election officials have reason to believe are noncitizens, telling the state's lawyer, "I'm not dealing with beliefs. I'm dealing with evidence."
Charles Cooper, a lawyer for the state, told the court, "Congress couldn't possibly have intended to prevent the removal ... of persons who were never eligible to vote in the first place," reported the Associated Press.
'It should never be illegal to remove an illegal voter.'
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin indicated that Virginia will appeal the ruling and, if necessary, take the the matter all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency stay of the injunction.
"Let's be clear about what just happened: only eleven days before a Presidential election, a federal judge ordered Virginia to reinstate over 1,500 individuals — who self-identified themselves as noncitizens — back onto the voter rolls," Youngkin said in a statement.
The governor noted further that the state was simply following through on a law "passed in 2006, signed by then-Governor Tim Kaine, that mandates certain procedures to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls, with safeguards in place to affirm citizenship before removal — and the ultimate failsafe of same-day registration for U.S. citizens to cast a provisional ballot. This law has been applied in every presidential election by Republicans and Democrats since enacted 18 years ago."
Blaze News previously reported that Youngkin issued an executive order on Aug. 7, exactly 90 days before the general election, requiring both that the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections routinely update voter lists to remove individuals identified as noncitizens and that the state Department of Motor Vehicles expedite the interagency data-sharing with the DOE with regard to noncitizen transactions.
"Call me crazy, but I think American elections should be decided by American citizens and Virginia elections should be decided by Virginians," Youngkin said in an interview.
The DOJ swooped in with a lawsuit on Oct. 11, claiming the initiative violated Section 8(c)(2) of the NVRA.
Former Virginia Attorney General Richard Cullen, Youngkin's lawyer, contended that the program was kosher because it is not a systematic program but rather an individualized process that begins with "individuals themselves indicating that they are a noncitizen during a DMV transaction."
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said of Giles' ruling, "It should never be illegal to remove an illegal voter. Yet, today a Court — urged by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice — ordered Virginia to put the names of non-citizens back on the voter rolls, mere days before a presidential election.
Miyares suggested that this is a clear case of the Biden-Harris administration weaponizing the legal system "against the enemies of so-called progress."
"That is the definition of lawfare," continued the state attorney general. "To openly choose weaponization over good process and lawfare over integrity isn't democracy: It's bullying, pure and simple, and I always stand up to bullies."
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Electoral environment bodes well for Republicans — but one nefarious F-word still lurks in the background
The Kamala Harris campaign has two pillars holding it up: “baby killing” and the narrative “[Trump] is literally Hitler.”
“They don’t have anything else to run on,” says Steve Deace.
According to Gallup’s most recent favorability polling, it would seem as if the Democrats’ two pillars are beginning to crumble.
Currently, Trump’s total favorable rating sits at a 50, while Harris’ sits at a 48. However, those numbers are reversed on the unfavorable scale. Harris’ total unfavorable rating is 50, while Trump’s is 48.
While this certainly is a positive sign for Republicans, Steve says we can’t forget about the thing that’s “lurking there in the background.”
- YouTube youtu.be
It’s the F-word we all dread: fraud.
Steve points to Maricopa County, Arizona, saying, "'I don't know, guys, it might take us a couple weeks [to count the votes]”’ as an example of a glaring sign of impending fraudulent activity.
“In fairness to them, given how Trump is surging in the polls right now, they don't have any clue how many votes they're going to actually need, so it may take them longer to conjure them up. I'm sorry — to count them. Count. Wrong C-word,” Steve jests.
While Steve is being humorous, "what lingers underneath the surface" is the gnawing fear that Trump will win and still not see the Oval Office — especially considering that there’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that that's exactly what happened in the 2020 election.
“Nothing substantive was done about it for the last four years. Lots of people built massive engagement farms, wringing their hands about it. ... Lots of money was raised to stop the stealing from happening,” but “no Krakens were ever released,” he sighs. “The polling is still close enough perceptively that you could justify stealing it if you wanted to try.”
While “the margin of cheating is definitely lower than it was a few weeks ago ... we're not outside of it yet by any means,” warns Steve.
To hear more of his election forecasting, watch the episode above.
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