[EL] “Donald Trump, Slipping in Polls, Warns of ‘Stolen Election’”

[Sean Parnell]

I’m not terribly impressed by Trump’s talk about stolen elections, and I think we ought to be concerned about this sort of language and its impact on how the public views its government. But I’m also not sure why this is much different than the rhetoric coming out of most of the “reform” movement and allied politicians, both of whom routinely portray elections as bought and sold by “big money” and describes the legislative process as though it were an auction, with favorable policies being doled out to whomever contributes the most money. I doubt that this does much to bolster public confidence in elections and government either.

 

Best,

 

 

Sean Parnell

President, Impact Policy Management LLC

Alexandria, Virginia

571-289-1374

sean at impactpolicymanagement.com

 

 

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Rick Hasen
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2016 11:39 AM
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/13/16

 


 <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87448> “Donald Trump, Slipping in Polls, Warns of ‘Stolen Election’”


Posted on  <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=87448> October 13, 2016 8:34 am by  <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

This NYT story  <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/us/politics/trump-election-rigging.html?ref=politics> is chilling:

“I haven’t seen it since 1860, this threat of delegitimizing the federal government, and Trump is trying to say our entire government is corrupt and the whole system is rigged,” Mr. Brinkley said. “And that’s a secessionist, revolutionary motif. That’s someone trying to topple the apple cart entirely.”

Roger J. Stone Jr., a close confidant and informal adviser to Mr. Trump, has also highlighted fears of election rigging. In an August column in The Hill, <http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/291534-can-the-2016-election-be-rigged-you-bet> he wrote of voting machine manipulation. And during a panel Saturday at this year’s New Yorker Festival, as he discussed the possibility of such tampering, Mr. Stone hedged when asked whether he would advise Mr. Trump — should he lose in November — to concede the election and accept its legitimacy.

“As long as there is no irrefutable evidence of fraud, yes,” he told his questioner. “He should — unless there is any refutable evidence to the contrary.”

Mr. Stone is one of the people behind Stop The Steal, a movement of 500 grass-roots volunteers who plan to stand outside what they believe could be “suspect precincts” on Election Day and conduct their own exit polls to compare against voting machine results.

“In an election in which  <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/donald-trump-on-the-issues.html?inline=nyt-per> Donald Trump has made it pretty clear that the Clintons are going to prison, I think they would do anything to make sure they win it, even steal it,” Mr. Stone said. But, he added, “Trump cannot just lose and say, ‘They stole it.’ He has to have some tangible evidence — and that’s exactly what we’re trying to collect.”

Democrats fear Mr. Trump’s rhetoric, in the short term, will lead to voter suppression — and, in the long term, could have the corrosive effect of encouraging huge swaths of Americans to view Mrs. Clinton as an illegitimate president if she is elected.

My earlier pieces on this:

Donald Trump’s Dangerous Vote Rigging Comments Follow Years of Republican Voter Fraud Hysteria, TPM, October 6, 2016

 <http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-hasen-vote-rigging-20160816-snap-story.html> If You’re Worried About Rigged Elections, Look at Trump’s Tactics First, Los Angeles Times, August 16, 2016

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D87448&title=%E2%80%9CDonald%20Trump%2C%20Slipping%20in%20Polls%2C%20Warns%20of%20%E2%80%98Stolen%20Election%E2%80%99%E2%80%9D&description=> 

Posted in  <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12> chicanery,  <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8> fraudulent fraud squad,  <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60> The Voting Wars

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