# Donald Trump's 2016 General Election Campaign **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 4, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901 "2016-05-04T02:37:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 181
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3603 "2016-08-04T13:37:25Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > … Do we have a Republican nominee who has never voted? Impossible to say. Everyone pushing voter ID laws makes claims about how easy it is to commit fraud, regardless of the actual difficulty. They can’t all be ignorant of how the process works – it’s just parroting talking points. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3604 "2016-08-04T13:44:10Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > I’ve been reading the most recent WaPo [interview with Trump](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/03/donald-trump-has-a-secret-state-strategy-that-you-cant-know-about/), and something dawned on me when reading his blather about voter fraud. I don’t think that he has voted for a long time, if he ever has. He seems to think that, without voter ID laws, people can just vote as many times as they want. I have voted for 44 years in a couple of states, and every time I have voted, I have had to state my name, my name had to be found in the roll book, and I have had to sign my name in the book. Isn’t that how it works all over the US? Do we have a Republican nominee who has never voted? Pretty much. But that wouldn’t prevent you from registering under 10 different names in 10 different precincts. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3605 "2016-08-04T13:46:15Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > I’ve been reading the most recent WaPo [interview with Trump](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/03/donald-trump-has-a-secret-state-strategy-that-you-cant-know-about/), and something dawned on me when reading his blather about voter fraud. I don’t think that he has voted for a long time, if he ever has. He seems to think that, without voter ID laws, people can just vote as many times as they want. I have voted for 44 years in a couple of states, and every time I have voted, I have had to state my name, my name had to be found in the roll book, and I have had to sign my name in the book. Isn’t that how it works all over the US? Do we have a Republican nominee who has never voted? There isn’t that much difference between Trump Crazy and Republican Crazy. The Republicans, in a last-ditch effort to prevent non-Whites from voting, must believe that a system without overly-stringent voter ID laws is ripe for voter fraud. The fact this has never been demonstrated to happen can’t exist in their worldview: They must _demand_ that it does, the way they _demand_ that abstinence-only sex ed _doesn’t_ lead to increased teenage pregnancies. Implying that it’s easy to vote multiple times in modern American elections just plays into that strategy; the fact Trump is bad at implying doesn’t mean he _isn’t_ toeing the party line on this one. Really, Trump Crazy usually isn’t that far from Republican Crazy: Republican Crazy is demanding that Muslims are a Shadowy Foreign Conspiracy; Trump Crazy is picking a fight with a Muslim Gold Star family. Republican Crazy is subtly implying that women are hormonal child-beasts who need to be carefully controlled; Trump Crazy is outright stating that a FOX News talking head is menstruating on stage the moment she exhibits something resembling a journalistic backbone. Republican Crazy is starting wars of choice on paper-thin pretexts; Trump Crazy is staring at the nuclear button and drooling while your index finger begins to twitch. The difference is mostly a matter of degree. ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3606 "2016-08-04T13:47:56Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Pretty much. > > But that wouldn’t prevent you from registering under 10 different names in 10 different precincts. Your hypothetical sounds possible, and it does happen in a very few individual cases, but here is no evidence that widescale voter fraud is really a thing. Actually, evidence exists the [opposite is true.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/) ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3607 "2016-08-04T13:51:35Z")
> [@leftfield6](#): > > Your hypothetical sounds possible, but here is no evidence that voter fraud is really a thing. Actually, evidence exists the [opposite is true.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/) I didn’t claim that anyone did this. I was just responding to someone who said that checking off the names of voters without IDs in a book would prevent someone from voting more than once. If someone were determined to vote more than once, checking off their name in a book wouldn’t stop them. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3608 "2016-08-04T13:52:10Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Pretty much. > > But that wouldn’t prevent you from registering under 10 different names in 10 different precincts. But doesn’t registering require proving who you are and where you live? It did for me when I moved to Ohio fifteen years ago. And anyway, Trump wasn’t talking about registering many times, he talked as though people could just vote and vote and vote. [QUOTE=Trump] Multiple times. How about like 10 times. Why not? If you don’t have voter ID, you can just keep voting and voting and voting. [/QUOTE] I think he really doesn’t understand the process. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3609 "2016-08-04T13:52:56Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Aren’t the records of who voted public? Couldn’t an enterprising reporter check to see if Trump turned up at the polls? ISTR someone shaming Rush Limbaugh several years ago because he hadn’t voted in the previous election. I figured there was some way to see the sign-in records. Yes, there was a Democratic activist groups that pissed off TONS of people around here. They sent out this mailer pushing people to vote in Governor Walker’s recall election, and they included a chart telling whether your nearest neighbors voted in the last several elections. And they threatened to do it again after the election, so your neighbors would know if you hadn’t voted. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3610 "2016-08-04T14:00:53Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > But doesn’t registering require proving who you are and where you live? It did for me when I moved to Ohio fifteen years ago. > > And anyway, Trump wasn’t talking about registering many times, he talked as though people could just vote and vote and vote. > > I think he really doesn’t understand the process. Ok. So then we are talking about having ID laws for registering, but not ID laws for voting? In that case, you’d still be disenfranchising people who don’t have ID, but at a different point in the process, (but giving a break to people who lost their ID after registering but before voting). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3611 "2016-08-04T14:10:30Z")
Jeepers, the 538 now-cast has Clinton at a\*\* 91.6%\*\* chance of winning ! I know it’s “just” the now-cast, but that’s not good optics. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3612 "2016-08-04T14:18:58Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Jeepers, the 538 now-cast has Clinton at a\*\* 91.6%\*\* chance of winning ! I know it’s “just” the now-cast, but that’s not good optics. Yup. Horrible optics. Democratic voters can now rest assured that Hillary will win in a landslide, save that money they were going to donate, not bother volunteering, and not bother voting (just like they do in off-year elections). ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3613 "2016-08-04T14:21:33Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Yes, there was a Democratic activist groups that pissed off TONS of people around here. They sent out this mailer pushing people to vote in Governor Walker’s recall election, and they included a chart telling whether your nearest neighbors voted in the last several elections. And they threatened to do it again after the election, so your neighbors would know if you hadn’t voted. Do you mean the Ted Cruz [“Voter Report Card” from the Iowa caucuses](http://opinion.ijr.com/2016/01/252498-said-undecided-iowan-received-controversial-mailer-ted-cruz/)? He’s not a Democrat. (Move on did something similar in 2012, but it didn’t name names. It showed percentages for your neighborhood in general, but not whether specific people had voted.) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3614 "2016-08-04T14:29:44Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > Do you mean the Ted Cruz [“Voter Report Card” from the Iowa caucuses](http://opinion.ijr.com/2016/01/252498-said-undecided-iowan-received-controversial-mailer-ted-cruz/)? He’s not a Democrat. > (Move on did something similar in 2012, but it didn’t name names. It showed percentages for your neighborhood in general, but not whether specific people had voted.) No, I don’t mean that. I mean tens of thousands of pieces sent 1st class through US mail to me and I think everyone in at least this city, and maybe the whole state, that listed our neighbors by name and whether they have voted on the last … I dunno, two or three state-wide elections. It must have cost them a fortune to produce because every piece was slightly different. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3615 "2016-08-04T14:30:58Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > Do you mean the Ted Cruz [“Voter Report Card” from the Iowa caucuses](http://opinion.ijr.com/2016/01/252498-said-undecided-iowan-received-controversial-mailer-ted-cruz/)? He’s not a Democrat. > (Move on did something similar in 2012, but it didn’t name names. It showed percentages for your neighborhood in general, but not whether specific people had voted.) No. [Democratic activists did it in the Walker recall election.](http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2012/jun/02/mailer-voter-information-sparks-concern-across-sta/) And it contained actual names and addresses. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3616 "2016-08-04T14:36:42Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Pretty much. > > But that wouldn’t prevent you from registering under 10 different names in 10 different precincts. What would prevent that is that if you got caught (say, by a neighbor seeing you), you’d face prison time, whereas if you do it individually, the chances of any material gain from your shenanigans is pretty much nil. It’s about the least rational crime a person can commit. Of course, you could do it as a conspiracy. But then your chances of getting caught skyrocket. Again, an incredibly irrational crime to commit. That’s why virtually nobody does it. ---
**Author:** ![dreamregent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6f9a4e/32.png) [@dreamregent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dreamregent)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3617 "2016-08-04T14:38:13Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Ok. So then we are talking about having ID laws for registering, but not ID laws for voting? In that case, you’d still be disenfranchising people who don’t have ID, but at a different point in the process, (but giving a break to people who lost their ID after registering but before voting). When I first moved to my current state, an ID was not necessary to register. You needed some kind of documents to prove your identity (e.g. utility bills) but it didn’t have to be a driver’s license. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3618 "2016-08-04T14:48:15Z")
> [@dreamregent](#): > > When I first moved to my current state, an ID was not necessary to register. You needed some kind of documents to prove your identity (e.g. utility bills) but it didn’t have to be a driver’s license. Same for me in Missouri. And if you couldn’t do that, you can still vote if two election judges – one D and one R – vouch for you at the polling place. Anyway, in-person vote fraud is just about the dumbest way to go about trying to cheat in an election. The scene in _Gangs of New York_ where they keep dragging people to vote over and over was kind of funny, but doesn’t really accurately represent the way we vote these days. Nowadays, we just have really poorly designed electronic voting systems with a lack of audit trails, so you have much easier ways to rig an election. Progress! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3619 "2016-08-04T14:51:40Z")
[Oops.](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/melania-trump-immigration-donald-226648) > [@](#): > > **Gaps in Melania Trump’s immigration story raise questions** > > "Nude photographs published this week are raising fresh questions about the accuracy of a key aspect of Melania Trump’s biography: her immigration status when she first came to the United States to work as a model… > > Representatives of the Trump campaign and the Trump Organization did not address detailed questions about the timing and circumstances of Melania Trump’s arrival in the country, but campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks responded to the emailed questions by stating, “Melania followed all applicable laws and is now a proud citizen of the United States.” > > Trump’s own statements suggest otherwise, immigration experts say. > > In a January profile in Harper’s Bazaar, Trump said she would return home from New York to renew her visa every few months. “It never crossed my mind to stay here without papers. That is just the person you are,” she said. “You follow the rules. You follow the law. Every few months you need to fly back to Europe and stamp your visa. After a few visas, I applied for a green card and got it in 2001.” > > In a February interview with Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Trump repeated that characterization of her early years in the United States. “I never thought to stay here without papers. I had visa. I travel every few months back to the country to Slovenia to stamp the visa. I came back. I applied for the green card. I applied for the citizenship later on.” > > The Trump campaign and Trump Organization representatives did not address questions about the type of visa Trump first used to enter the country, but it has been widely reported that she came here on an H-1B work visa. Writer Mickey Rapkin, who interviewed Melania for a May profile in the luxury lifestyle magazine DuJour, said she confirmed as much to him. “When I interviewed Melania, I mentioned that she’d come to New York on that H-1B visa, and she nodded in agreement,” Rapkin wrote in an email to POLITICO. > > Trump’s tale of returning to Europe for periodic visa renewals is inconsistent with her holding an H-1B visa at all times she was living in New York — even if it was the lesser-known H-1B visa specifically designed for models — said multiple immigration attorneys and experts. An H-1B visa can be valid for three years and can be extended up to six years — sometimes longer — and would not require renewals in Europe every few months. If, as she has said, Trump came to New York in 1996 and obtained a green card in 2001, she likely would not have had to return to Europe even once to renew an H-1B. > > Instead, Trump’s description of her periodic renewals in Europe are more consistent with someone traveling on a B-1 Temporary Business Visitor or B-2 Tourist Visa, which typically last only up to six months and do not permit employment. > > If someone were to enter the United States on one of those visas with the intention of working, it could constitute visa fraud, according to Andrew Greenfield, a partner at the Washington office of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, a firm that specializes in immigration law." So, Melania could be an illegal immigrant. Came to the US on a visa that didn’t allow her to work… and took jobs away from American citizens. Tsk-tsk. We should build a wall around her. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3620 "2016-08-04T15:05:17Z")
She’s roughly fifty. This could fit in well with a Trump move to a newer, ah, model. To hell with divying up property. Just deport her when you are done! ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3621 "2016-08-04T15:22:28Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > So, Melania could be an illegal immigrant. I can already hear Trump’s response if any Dems start attacking her on this front. “Crooked Hillary wants amnesty for illegal Mexicans who are rapists, drug dealers, killers, and some, I assume, are good people; but she wants to keep hot models out of the U.S. That’s no good. No good. When I am President, all the hot models, except for the Muslims, are going to be coming to this country. And it is going to be great.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/3622 "2016-08-04T15:28:18Z")
I don’t really see the point of attacking Melania Trump over the fine details - and details remembered by someone as unreliable as Donald Trump, no less - of how she got a green card. She got one, so the government looked at the papers and decided she was okay. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=180) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=182)