GroupThink - Speaking About News

The Dangers of Elite Groupthink

January 1, 2020

Victor Davis Hanson, The Washington Post recently published a surprising indictment of MSNBC host, Stanford graduate and Rhodes scholar Rachel Maddow. Post media critic Erik Wemple wrote that Maddow deliberately misled her audience by claiming …

Georgia Fraud investigation targets voter registration group, founded by Abrams

Georgia Fraud, What we know about 4 progressive groups accused of seeking fraudulent registrations. A group at the center of the investigation into voter fraud recently opened by the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger hired contractors who were found to have forged ballot applications in 2014. The group, The New Georgia Project, was founded by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams to help register new voters. Ultimately, the 2014 investigation found no wrongdoing by the group, but did cite 14 people for forging 53 voter applications. All those cited were working as independent contractors, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. On Wednesday, Raffensperger announced an investigation into several progressive organizations he alleged “sought to register ineligible, out-of-state, or deceased voters” for the Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections. Among those named are Vote Forward, The New Georgia Project, Operation Voter Registration GA and America Votes. “I have issued clear warnings several times to groups and individuals working to undermine the integrity of elections in Georgia through false and fraudulent registrations,” said Raffensperger in a statement. “The security of Georgia’s elections is of the utmost importance. We have received specific evidence that these groups have solicited voter registrations from ineligible individuals who have passed away or live out of state. I will investigate these claims thoroughly and take action against anyone attempting to undermine our elections.” “I have issued clear warnings several times to groups and individuals working to undermine the integrity of elections in Georgia through false and fraudulent registrations.” — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger The New Georgia Project, which was led by Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock until February, is accused by Raffensperger of several election violations. Almost all of them involve sending voter registration or absentee application mail to people who were either deceased or ineligible to vote. The progressive nonprofit was founded in 2013 and works to build the progressive voting bloc in Georgia largely by registering young people to vote. In the 2018 election cycle, the New Georgia Project reported $96,000 in payments, with two payments worth a total of $35,000 going to the Working Families Party. Vote Forward is a nonprofit founded by Scott Forman in 2017. The progressive group focuses on sending handwritten letters imploring people to vote. According to OpenSecrets, a campaign finance database, the organization had no filings for 2020 and raised just over $50,000 in 2018. Forman, like many on the medium, has made a number of inflammatory Tweets about President Trump and his supporters. He insinuated the president is a “would-be dictator” and called his supporters deplorables. Raffensperger alleged that Vote Forward sent a letter to a deceased person encouraging them to vote. America Votes is a much larger operation, conducting voter education and mobilization efforts in 20 states. In his announcement, Raffensperger accused the progressive nonprofit of sending two absentee ballot applications in one week to an old address of a Georgia voter. During the 2020 election cycle, according to campaign finance data, the nonprofit amassed more than $15 million in donations. The group dispersed money to a number of progressive political action committees. The investigation is a formal acknowledgement that there was some impropriety in the voting process, though both sides of the aisle understand it’s nowhere near enough to upend Joe Biden’s victory in the state. Raffensperger’s office did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News. The announcement comes about a month before two critical runoff Senate elections in Georgia, the results of which will determine the partisan balance of power in Congress during Biden’s presidency.
Rampant Election Fraud Continues

John and Andy Schlafly, Election Fraud! “Voting in Georgia when you are not a resident of Georgia is a felony,” blustered the ineffective Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday, as he denounced well-publicized efforts to enlist temporary residents to vote in the January 5 election for two seats in the U.S. Senate. “Third-party groups have a responsibility to not encourage illegal voting.” But he and other Republican state officials have the responsibility not to use a voting system that allows fraud in the first place. Occasionally urging people to behave, and not to exploit a system rife with vulnerabilities, does not prevent fraud when the political stakes are so high. Of the 4.9 million ballots counted in Georgia in the recent presidential election, some 3.9 million were cast by the Friday before election day, and many of those ballots were mailed in without verifiable proof of their legality. Yet Joe Biden insists he won the Peach State by just 12,670 votes, or only three-tenths of 1 percent of ballots cast. President Trump properly said he is “ashamed” of ever having endorsed Georgia’s do-nothing governor, Brian Kemp, who continues to fail to protect election integrity there while control of the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance with the upcoming runoff election. As of last Friday, a whopping 900,000 Georgians had reportedly requested mail-in ballots, many of which will probably be filled in or returned by Democrat operatives paid to boost the numbers for Democrat candidates, as they did for Biden. Unlike in-person voting, there is no meaningful way to protect against fraud in filling out and returning mail-in ballots. Raffensperger announced that the New Georgia Project had “sent voter registration applications to New York City,” which is a potential violation of Georgia law. He declared that NGP, recently headed by Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock and before that by Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, is under investigation as are three other groups. Such investigations should have been done long before now, of course. And since election fraud by Democrats is rarely prosecuted, no one is holding his breath that any real prosecutions will ever happen. Way back in 2014, the office of the Georgia Secretary of State, which was then headed by now-Governor Kemp, had investigated the same group, yet delayed three years before referring that case to law enforcement. Charges were never brought, which is typical when the accused are liberals. Other Georgia groups now being investigated include one which allegedly mailed “absentee ballot applications to people at addresses where they have not lived since 1994,” another which purportedly registered a dead Alabaman to cast a ballot in Georgia, and a third which urged college students to change residency to vote. Elections should not rely on begging people not to cheat. Kemp, Raffensperger, and the GOP-controlled Georgia legislature should be installing safeguards to ensure that fraudulent ballots are caught and rejected before they are counted. Georgia law requires voter ID for casting a ballot in person, and yet permits mailing in ballots by anyone and everyone. There is no justification for permitting massive stuffing of the ballot box by unverified voters. https://speakingaboutnews.com/stacey-abrams-seeking-out-of-state-dead-voters-ahead-of-ga-senate-races/ In Pennsylvania, Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough suspended mailed-in ballots as a violation of that state’s constitution, in a case brought by newly reelected U.S. Representative Mike Kelly of Erie. Judge McCullough properly questioned the 2.6 million mailed-in ballots which erased the landslide victory earned by President Trump on Election Day, when he won among in-person voters by nearly 700,000 votes. The Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which had already allowed mail-in ballots to trickle in for days after Election Day in violation of state law, quickly reversed the good ruling by the lower court. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not express any doubt that the mail-in voting violated its constitution, but permitted it anyway by saying plaintiffs should have sued earlier. The Pennsylvania Senate held a hearing last week about election fraud but then failed to take action as authorized by Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution to pick electors for the Electoral College. Republicans improved their majority in the Pennsylvania legislature this election, but Democrats insist Biden won the state based on an implausible imbalance in mailed-in ballots. Neither mailed-in ballots nor electronic voting machines can be properly audited to ensure the same level of integrity associated with traditional in-person voting. To restore confidence in the process, states should return to traditional paper ballots, marked in person by each voter on Election Day. While the Leftist ground game steals elections, Republican campaigns continue to be dominated by ineffective, highly paid consultants who enrich themselves with commissions for placing television ads. The result could make the January 5th Senate runoff election in Georgia a pathetic television rerun of the recently stolen presidential election. John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.
Stacey Abrams seeking out-of-state, dead voters ahead of Ga. Senate races

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has launched investigations into several groups, including one founded by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, for seeking to “aggressively” register “ineligible, out-of-state, or deceased voters” before the state’s Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections. Raffensperger’s office on Wednesday said the investigations are into groups including America Votes, Vote Forward and The New Georgia Project — which was founded by Abrams and previously chaired by Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock. Raffensperger for weeks has issued warnings against efforts to register individuals who are ineligible to vote in Georgia’s runoff elections or to encourage people to come to Georgia with the sole purpose of casting ballots. “I have issued clear warnings several times to groups and individuals working to undermine the integrity of elections in Georgia through false and fraudulent registrations,” Raffensperger said in a statement Wednesday. “The security of Georgia’s elections is of the utmost importance.” Raffensperger said Wednesday that his office has “received specific evidence that these groups have solicited voter registrations from ineligible individuals who have passed away or live out of state.” “I will investigate these claims thoroughly and take action against anyone attempting to undermine our elections,” he vowed. Raffensperger said earlier this week that America Votes “is sending absentee ballot applications to people at addresses where they have not lived since 1994.” Vote Forward, he said, “attempted to register a dead Alabama voter, a woman, to vote here in Georgia.” He also spotlighted The New Georgia Project, “who sent voter registration applications to New York City.” The secretary of state also pinpointed “Operation New Voter Registration Georgia, who is telling college students in Georgia that they can change their residency to Georgia and then change it back after the election.” Raffensperger’s office also has 23 investigators working on 250 open investigations into “credible claims of illegal voting” and election law violations, he said. According to the Georgia Code, false registration, i.e. someone who registers to vote knowing that they do not possess the qualifications required by law, is a felony and can be punished by between one and 10 years in prison and/or up to a $100,000 fine. Raffensperger’s office on Wednesday detailed several instances in which the Abrams-Warnock associated group, The New Georgia Project, have allegedly solicited voters living out of state and people who have passed away. Warnock was chairman of the group until January. Raffensperger’s office referenced one Fulton County resident who reported receiving five postcards from The New Georgia Project soliciting a registration “for the same dead person” and a Cherokee County resident who received a voter registration solicitation from The New Georgia Project for his spouse who is ineligible to vote. A third person, according to Raffensperger’s office, said The New Georgia Project sent a voter registration solicitation to his daughter who is not registered to vote in Georgia and had not lived in a different state for five years, while a fourth individual reported receiving a “package of postcards” at her home in New York City from The New Georgia Project encouraging people to register to vote in the Georgia Senate runoffs. Another effort, according to Georgia election officials, Operation New Voter Registration GA, encouraged Emory students to register fraudulently to vote in the Jan. 5 runoffs. A flier from the group told students that “Your current residence can be another state. You are simply changing your state of residence now; and it can be switched back for future elections (your option).” Meanwhile, Vote Forward, a nonprofit organization, sent a letter to a long-deceased Alabama resident, encouraging her to register to vote, while America Votes, which calls itself “the coordination hub of the progressive community,” sent two absentee ballot applications in one week to an individual at an address where they had not resided since July 1994. The current balance of power for the next Senate coming out of this month’s elections is 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats. That means Democrats must win both of Georgia’s runoff elections to make it a 50-50 Senate. If that occurs, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaking vote, giving her party a razor-thin majority in the chamber. In Georgia, where state law dictates a runoff if no candidate reaches 50% of the vote, GOP Sen. David Perdue narrowly missed avoiding a runoff, winning 49.75% of the vote. Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff trails by roughly 87,000 votes. In the other race, appointed Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler captured nearly 26% of the vote in a whopping 20-candidate special election to fill the final two years of the term of former GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson. The Democratic candidate in the runoff, Rev. Raphael Warnock, won nearly 33% of the vote in the first round.
Election Whistleblower: I was driving completed ballots from New York to Pennsylvania

Election whistleblowers arenow coming forward with stories of fraud from the Nov. 3rd election. A truck driver was one of three who spoke out today about what caused them to be suspicious: Jesse Morgan, a truck driver with USPS subcontractor says he was suspicious of his cargo load of 288,000 COMPLETED ballots: https://twitter.com/i/status/1333873636135084034 “I was driving completed ballots from New York to Pennsylvania. I didn’t know, so I decided to speak up.” Colonel Tony Shaffer spoke out about the brave USPS subcontractor Jesse Morgan’s story of 280,000 ballots shipped from Bethpage, NY to Lancaster, PA: “We have evidence of a MASSIVE transfer of completed, curated ballots ready to be injected into counting centers.” https://twitter.com/i/status/1333875528009453574