# 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:** 6
**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 24, 2024, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/101 "2024-09-24T02:31:45Z")
Proofreading is dead, but it’s not a Republican conspiracy. > **[Tim Walz’s Name Misspelled on Palm Beach Ballots](https://www.thedailybeast.com/tim-walzs-name-misspelled-on-palm-beach-ballots)** > > A cursory LinkedIn search suggests a simple typo could have voters backing a retired attorney in Wisconsin or the owner of a machinery company in Maine. > Just over 250 election ballots mailed to military and overseas voters by officials in Palm Beach County, Florida, contained a small but significant typo: Tim Walz, the Democratic candidate for vice president, was nowhere to be found. In his place was “Tom Walz.” The error came to light when a concerned voter sent a screenshot of their ballot to the New York Times. “The error was isolated to 257 electronic ballots,” Wendy Sartory Link, the county’s elections supervisor, told the newspaper, attributing the error to a vendor that made a “manual typed change.” … "The error in no way affects the proper tabulation of any of the electronic ballots and every vote will count as the voter intended,” Link said. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/102 "2024-09-24T02:49:54Z")
The purpose of these easily discovered mistakes may not be getting away with anything. The actual purpose may be to establish a created pattern of mistakes to show a people (and perhaps the judiciary) that voting cannot be trusted. ---
**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 24, 2024, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/103 "2024-09-24T03:47:52Z")
Or they might just be mistakes. > **[Hanlon's razor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor)** > > Hanlon's razor is an adage or rule of thumb that states: > It is a philosophical razor that suggests a way of eliminating unlikely explanations for human behavior. It is probably named after Robert J. Hanlon, who submitted the statement to Murphy's Law Book Two (1980). Similar statements have been recorded since at least the 18th century. > The adage was a submission credited in print to Robert J. Hanlon of Scranton, Pennsylvania, in a compilation of various jokes related to Murphy's law publishe... ---
**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 24, 2024, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/104 "2024-09-24T03:51:32Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Or they might just be mistakes. Nah…unless you think all republicans when strategizing collectively succumb to this. Any one person might. Even a few. Everyone though? I doubt it. ---
**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 24, 2024, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/105 "2024-09-24T04:01:22Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Nah…unless you think all republicans when strategizing collectively succumb to this. I mean, we’ve got a thread for cataloging stupid Republican ideas that’s been running for 15 years now… ---
**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 24, 2024, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/106 "2024-09-24T04:04:20Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I mean, we’ve got a thread for cataloging stupid Republican ideas that’s been running for 15 years now… If they keep doing it for 15 years I would suggest Hanlon is wrong (at least in this case). 15 years is willful ignorance at the least. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/107 "2024-09-24T04:07:49Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Or they might just be mistakes. Well, so far two errors and both hurt Harris/Walz. Fine, could be a coincidence. but when we get to three all hurting the Dem ticket I am calling it. ---
**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 24, 2024, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/108 "2024-09-24T04:12:40Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, so far two errors and both hurt Harris/Walz. Does it? It’s not as if the election is going to be decided because one of 250 overseas voters got a ballot that said “Tom Walz” and decided to vote for Trump instead. And in both cases the mistakes were spotted promptly and are being fixed. You have to try really hard to read something nefarious into this. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/109 "2024-09-24T04:18:07Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Does it? It’s not as if the election is going to be decided because one of 250 overseas voters got a ballot that said “Tom Walz” and decided to vote for Trump instead. The GOP has played the game of putting a similar named guy on the ballot before to siphon off votes for the dem candidate. Mind you, this is not a huge deal. like leaving Harris name off. let us see what the next boo-boo will be. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/110 "2024-09-24T04:25:20Z")
Did you say “Oopsie! It looks like they just made some innocent mistakes!” In _that_ thread too? ---
**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 24, 2024, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/111 "2024-09-24T04:30:33Z")
I have no idea what you’re alluding to but it’s probably not appropriate for this forum. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/112 "2024-09-24T04:30:47Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, so far two errors and both hurt Harris/Walz. Fine, could be a coincidence. but when we get to three all hurting the Dem ticket I am calling it. “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” As said by Auric Goldfinger in Ian Fleming’s _Goldfinger._ I agree that there should be questions asked, but I don’t think that any voter would be thrown too much by “Tom Walz.” It’s not like they put “Tony Woltz” on the ballot. But these things should also be checked, double-checked, triple-checked, and then checked yet again before the printing presses roll, and those doing the checking must be politically neutral; or, at the very least, a group comprised of an equal number of Ds and Rs, with a few Independents thrown in for good measure. Both the “Tom Walz” misspelling and the Harris exclusion from Montanan ballots should have been caught the first time. And if not then, then on subsequent examinations. ---
**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 24, 2024, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/113 "2024-09-24T04:31:42Z")
Tom Walz was the clone created in a transporter accident. ---
**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 24, 2024, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/114 "2024-09-24T04:45:59Z")
I want to see that episode! (I get the reference) ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/115 "2024-09-24T16:03:49Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Or maybe it was done for the purpose of causing people to doubt the competence of the people running an election to run an election. If they were that smart they would have eliminated Trump’s name. Trump would still win Montana and they could point to it as the Dems trying to steal the election. I’m with @Smapti that it’s just mistakes. As stupid as the Republicans are they are unlikely to try to fix a race that they are already going to win in such a ham handed way. As for the Tim vs Tom, it would be an easy mistake to make, and miss in editing and will have absolutely no effect on the election. Its so minor that it doesn’t even reach the point of calling the process into question. ---
**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 24, 2024, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/116 "2024-09-24T17:06:37Z")
Presidential slates are written as Kamala Harris/Tim Walz. A typo in Tim could easily go ignored: eyes would sail right over it. Those are the hardest errors to check when proofreading or copyediting. A voter wanting to vote Democratic will look for Kamala Harris. The person after the slash could be Tim Allen or Tom Brady or Mit Walz or Mitt Romney. In addition, seeing mistakes on a computer screen has a reputation of being harder to see than on paper. That doesn’t excuse the mistake. As @Spoons indicated, whoever programmed the electronic ballots needed to have thrown a battalion of eyes onto the ballot before it went out. Everybody sees more than anybody. Nobody has mentioned that Palm Beach County is where Mar-a-Lago is located. Trump is voting early. Where’s the CT that they rigged the error to make Trump giggle when he voted? ---
**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 24, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/117 "2024-09-24T18:03:42Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > If they were that smart they would have eliminated Trump’s name. Trump would still win Montana and they could point to it as the Dems trying to steal the election. > > I’m with @Smapti that it’s just mistakes. Indeed, which is what I was trying to get at with my first post in this thread here: > [@Aspenglow](#): > > One of the saddest things to me about the Trump era is how a system that has functioned beyond reproach for our entire history, that of our elections, is now repeatedly called into question because a man who can’t stop committing crimes and lying about _everything_, characterizes them, without evidence, as “rigged,” and we now question every discrepancy. I, too, think it was most likely just a mistake. ---
**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 24, 2024, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/118 "2024-09-24T18:29:17Z")
> **[Nebraska governor ends push to change the way state awards electoral votes in...](https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/24/politics/nebraska-governor-electoral-votes/index.html)** > > Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said Tuesday that he has “no plans to call a special session” to change the way the state allocates electoral votes to a winner-take-all system, ending an effort led by Donald Trump. > Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said Tuesday that he has “no plans to call a special session” to change the way the state allocates electoral votes to a winner-take-all system, ending an effort led by Donald Trump. > The announcement comes after Republican state Sen. Mike McDonnell said he would not support a last-ditch effort to overturn the law that awards electoral votes based by congressional district. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/119 "2024-09-24T19:03:12Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Or they might just be mistakes. While I agree the two examples discussed are, in all likelihood, mistakes, I do not believe they are “just” mistakes. By that, I mean if they had gone the other way, they would have been discovered and stopped. As they were both against the Dems I think it is more likely than not that one or more of the reviewers who had to sign off on the ballot simply made sure the “Trump” part was correct and never even noticed the “Harris” part. Inattentional blindness, I think they call it. Kind of like the test where you don’t see the gorilla when you are tasked to count the number of basketball passes. No malice, so it was accidental. It wasn’t merely an accident, though. Subliminal forces were at work, IMO. ---
**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 24, 2024, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533/120 "2024-09-24T20:01:00Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > By that, I mean if they had gone the other way, they would have been discovered and stopped. …they were discovered and stopped. That’s why we’re talking about them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actual-attempts-of-republicans-trying-to-steal-the-upcoming-presidential-election-in-2024/1007533.md?page=7)