# Actual attempts of Republicans trying to steal the upcoming presidential election in 2024 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [September 20, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533 "2024-09-20T22:16:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/61 "2024-09-23T00:15:02Z")
Huh…I thought all governors could issue pardons. Seems in four states they can’t. It seems they do have some power in this regard by appointing people who do make those decisions but they cannot promise a pardon. TIL Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/62 "2024-09-23T00:33:48Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > So, it’s accurate to say, I think, that SCOTUS ultimately did not impact the outcome. It’s also reasonable to say that Gore got the most votes. Various counts and analysis made different and conflicting conclusions. Florida was so damn close that really it was a tie. > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I think the real issue is that the supreme court, nine people (but really only five needed), thought it ok to pick a president with no more reason than who they liked. No, that is not what happened. There had been a recount, and Bush won, but Gore was asking for another (and incidentally his request recount would have had him losing) . But you cant have the election stymied for recount after recount. That is what they ruled. If Gore had won the first recount, they would have ruled for him. not Bush. > [@Stratocaster](#): > > It’d be like counting the pink and white Good & Plenty candies—filling several dump trucks. Slightly more white ones? Count ‘em again. Oh, this time there’s just a few more pink. Right. Several recounts and analysis after the fact went back and forth who won. > [@Smapti](#): > > The same way it did in 2020, when they uniformly rejected every single one of Trump’s baseless challenges. Exactly. > [@Velocity](#): > > I thought absentee voting usually slightly favors Republicans? Since a lot of absentee ballots are cast by military personnel who are away on deployment? It used to. And Reagan was a big fan when he was Governor. But it is hard to tell now. Basically the GOP knows it has lost the demographics war, and they want as few votes counted as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/63 "2024-09-23T00:37:33Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > If Gore had won the first recount, they would have ruled for him. not Bush. So, that is why the supreme court said that the ruling they made could never, ever be used as precedent in future cases? They were so sure of their rightness in ruling they said never look to this ruling again. Ever. > “Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities.” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/64 "2024-09-23T00:45:08Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > So, that is why the supreme court said that the ruling they made could never, ever be used as precedent in future cases? T I have no idea of what you are getting at? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/65 "2024-09-23T00:48:55Z")
The notion that the ruling was a proper and righteous one so future courts would have guidance. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/66 "2024-09-23T00:49:57Z")
Moderating: @DrDeth and @Whack-a-Mole, please note that the thread title asks that you discuss attempts of Republicans trying to steal the upcoming presidential election in 2024, not relitigate the presidential election of 2000. Take it to another thread if you wish, but drop it in this one. It’s a total hijack to what is under discussion here. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/67 "2024-09-23T00:52:16Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > not quite that easy. As @BippityBoppityBoo pointed out, the counties in which Omaha and Lincoln are located contain close to half the state’s population. Given that those two counties are in close proximity to each other, drawing lines as you suggest would be impossible Exactly. Nebraska has 49 legislators. Only 24 were willing to be seen supporting the idea when Trump, Graham, our governor and DC reps push it. The governor needs to have have 33 sure votes to prevent a filibuster and that’s after he calls a special session and gets it out of committee. Pillen called a special session earlier this summer, wasted nearly a million tax dollars doing it and then he failed to get his bills passed. Every Tom, Dick and Harry are still pissed about it and voters have long memories about wasting a million dollars on an ego trip, a vanity bill to cut taxes for the **noblesse oblige**. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/68 "2024-09-23T02:01:21Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > There is exactly as much evidence that the CEO of.Diebold rigged the Ohio results as there is that Hugo Chavez had bamboo ballots from China planted in Maricopa County, AZ. Did Hugo Chavez claim that he was going to do that? Because the CEO of Diebold did. Again, maybe he was lying. But when the CEO of the company that makes the voting machines says he’s going to subvert democracy, that’s the sort of thing that you kind of have to pay attention to. > [@Railer13](#): > > Um, not quite that easy. As @BippityBoppityBoo pointed out, the counties in which Omaha and Lincoln are located contain close to half the state’s population. Given that those two counties are in close proximity to each other, drawing lines as you suggest would be impossible. Not impossible. It just means that the lines would have to run through the population centers in order to put the same population in each horizontal stripe. Start one line at the southern border, and move it north until it encompasses 1/3 of the state’s population. Start the next line at the first line, and move it north until it encompasses the next 1/3. A districting like this is always possible, and in the specific case of Nebraska, would result in all three districts holding a comfortable Republican majority. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/69 "2024-09-23T02:06:02Z")
Nm, this is off-topic. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/70 "2024-09-23T02:38:43Z")
As I mentioned in post #20 above the GOP plan in Nebraska looks to be in trouble. And I provided a gift link to the same article: > [@Actual attempts of Republicans trying to steal the upcoming presidential election in 2024](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/20): > > It appears the GOP plan to make Nebraska a winner-take-all state may not work out. [This article (gift link) in the NYT](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/us/politics/nebraska-trump-electoral-vote.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MU4.kpTJ.ZRPeV-mluSw9&smid=url-share) reports on State Senator Mike McDonnell (R) and how he is not onboard with making the change. For those who don’t want to read the article, McDonnell is a former Democrat who recently changed parties and is planning a run for mayor of Omaha when his term ends in the Senate. He is term limited so he has no need to fear losing reelection and realizes going along with the GOP s… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/71 "2024-09-23T03:12:43Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I thought absentee voting usually slightly favors Republicans? Since a lot of absentee ballots are cast by military personnel who are away on deployment? The article I linked to gives the military as part of the rationale for the early voting. > The federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act allows certain groups of citizens living overseas including members of the armed forces to vote absentee in elections. Montana residents can do so online through the state’s Electronic Absentee System. We can only speculate if this is why they caught the error so quickly. I continue to maintain that it wasn’t a deliberate error. I’m not a coder, but I worked in the same rooms as them when I did all the writing from specs to help files. They were good people and experienced coders, yet I kept catching bugs, omissions, and confusion. Anyone reading the internet for the last quarter century will have seen hundreds of weird errors passed around to laugh or gasp at. Did the Democrats sabotage the ballot to undermine military voting? Ridiculous. Did the Republicans think for even one second they would get away with leaving off Harris’ name? Unlikely. Election monitors are probably the most honest and reliable group in America. They want everything to go right despite the human errors that inevitably creep in among the 94,793 physical polling places (in 2022, not counting early voting), voting in 3,143 counties and 50 states for who knows how many thousands of different ballots. Keeping people from voting is comparatively easy. Tampering with the polls is next to impossible. Trump’s gang who can’t shoot straight aren’t going to be the ones who succeed. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/72 "2024-09-23T03:55:56Z")
Thanks. I am sorry I didn’t cite your cite. I should have. I still think my post stands noting that it seems there is one guy thwarting the GOP in Nebraska right now and that person is a republican. I would be willing to bet (just a guess, no proof) that McDonnell is being offered a lot to change his vote. Nothing illegal (probably) but maybe positions in a future Trump administration like a cabinet position or a juicy ambassadorship. That does not make me comfortable relying on “Nebraska integrity” for this. ETA: I think I rely too much on the message board notifying me that a link to a story has already been used. Not the board’s fault, it is my fault. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/73 "2024-09-23T05:25:47Z")
McDonnell is term limited as a State Senator. So nothing to lose if he doesn’t go along w/ the GOP. He plans to run for Mayor of Omaha (heavily Dem). Potentially everything to lose if he goes along w/the GOP. **CHECK MY ORIGINAL POST** (and the NYT link) ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/74 "2024-09-23T05:28:41Z")
Mayor of Omaha or Ambassador to Great Britain. Hmmm… (I made up the ambassador thing but just saying…the GOP can dangle some sweet options for him) And it remains that it seems there is ONE person deciding this whole thing. How does that not scare everyone? And he is a republican. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/75 "2024-09-23T05:31:55Z")
I get why you say that but NO. This dude seems pretty well dug in and was a Democrat until last March when the state party censored him. **He want’s to be Mayor of Omaha.** That won’t happen if he votes to make the city have less say in how the Electoral Votes are allocated. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/76 "2024-09-23T06:02:03Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Programmer here. Considering the importance, consternation and focus this election has, that could NOT have been a mistake. Unless of course DJT is hiring programmers. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’m not a coder, but I worked in the same rooms as them when I did all the writing from specs to help files. They were good people and experienced coders, yet I kept catching bugs, omissions, and confusion. As a sometimes coder, sometimes bug hunter, sometimes support monkey (hey! my current title is Software Engineer!): Even very good programmers make mistakes, and I’ve seen some of the worst of them (good programmers and mistakes). This could easily be explained by someone not remembering the array they’re working with starts at 0 instead of 1. Where my mind boggles is when I wonder how this wasn’t caught in the review process. I figure a ballot process at least has a test print where someone signs off on it, hopefully several. What idiotic review process let that slip through? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/77 "2024-09-23T12:50:02Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > What idiotic review process let that slip through? That’s really what I meant. Sometimes you don’t see the forest for the trees. Or as a previous boss called it “Seeing Zebras” Say the results look right to you (but they are not). So you run it again. Same results that you think are right but are not. It can be a self affirming process. That’s why you must test and test, **and then put other eyeballs on it**. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/78 "2024-09-23T13:32:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A districting like this is always possible, and in the specific case of Nebraska, would result in all three districts holding a comfortable Republican majority. I don’t want to belabor this point, but while your proposal is theoretically possible, it is virtually impossible from a practical standpoint. The ‘middle’ strip would contain most of the city of Omaha and then would be a narrow swath bisecting about a dozen counties to the western border. Even then, I’m not sure that it would contain a ‘comfortable Republican majority’. Lindsey Graham thinks it’s still a 50/50 chance that Nebraska will change its system even at this late date. (Link goes to [MSN](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/nebraska-change-that-could-hand-donald-trump-win-is-50-50-lindsey-graham/ar-AA1r2boZ?ocid=BingNewsSerp).) ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/79 "2024-09-23T19:15:51Z")
> **[State Sen. Mike McDonnell deflates GOP hopes for Nebraska winner-take-all in...](https://www.1011now.com/2024/09/23/state-sen-mike-mcdonnell-deflates-gop-hopes-nebraska-winner-take-all-2024/)** > > State Sen. Mike McDonnell announced he won't back the GOP push to change how Nebraska awards its Electoral College votes to winner-take-all. Perhaps Railer13, Kolak and I (a voting resident of Nebraska for 43 years) actually did know more about likely Nebraska politics after all. Strange how that works if you don’t rely only on national news sources going for click-baity headlines without any local, boots on the ground experience or sources. It behooves us to never forget “all politics is local”. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/80 "2024-09-23T21:18:38Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > Strange how that works if you don’t rely only on national news sources going for click-baity headlines without any local, boots on the ground experience or sources. Gosh darn it, I wish we had a “like” button sometimes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533.md?page=5)