# Is this a violation of election law? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 10, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973 "2020-07-10T21:19:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/1 "2020-07-10T21:19:47Z")
If not, it should be! This Missouri state legislator made a extremely dubious and just all-around shitty claim, pitting healthcare and education against each other, that a whole detailed series of deep cuts to individual schools would somehow automatically happen if Medicaid expansion passes in Missouri. (And Missouri would need a lot of expansion even to cover as many people as a normal state did before Obamacare was ever passed: their income eligibility cutoff for adults is absurdly low, somewhere in the four figures.) > **[Log into Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/1312548800/posts/10222331098968995/?d=n)** > > Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know. It appears she has now not only disabled comments, preventing anyone from further arguing with her, but has also deleted all of the negative comments that previously existed! So now if people look at the post, they can only see what she wrote and what her sycophants wrote, and can “like” any of those as they desire. That’s so fucked up. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/2 "2020-07-10T21:26:27Z")
Perhaps only people she is Facebook friends with can comment? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/3 "2020-07-10T22:56:54Z")
No, someone I know posted a rebuttal which is no longer visible. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/4 "2020-07-11T01:19:08Z")
Are you seriously asking if a politician can lie? On a private social media page? On an opinion on an issue rather than a formal statement by the government? Is this for real? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/5 "2020-07-11T01:22:24Z")
Before you let yourself get carried away by scornful snark: are you aware that a federal judge ruled that Trump (on his private Twitter account, not @POTUS) cannot block anyone? > **[Appeals court rules Trump can’t block people on Twitter](https://thehill.com/policy/technology/452160-appeals-court-rules-trump-cant-block-people-on-twitter/)** > > The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that President Trump cannot block Twitter users from his official account, finding that the practice is discriminatory.The ruling upholds… How is this different in principle (as opposed to scale)? ETA: You may have missed that I’m not questioning whether she can lie, but whether she can delete the comments that take issue with what she said, keep the ones that support her, and then block anyone else from weighing in. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/6 "2020-07-11T01:25:00Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > No, someone I know posted a rebuttal which is no longer visible Maybe, but I find that I am unable to comment on any of her posts. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2020, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/7 "2020-07-11T01:28:10Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Before you let yourself get carried away by scornful snark: are you aware that a federal judge ruled that Trump (on his private Twitter account, not @POTUS) cannot block anyone? From your cite: "The judges wrote “that the First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise-open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees.” Is Cindy O’Laughlin using her Facebook page for official purposes, or is it a personal page? ---
**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:** [July 11, 2020, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/8 "2020-07-11T01:33:24Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > You may have missed that I’m not questioning whether she can lie I certainly didn’t miss the title in large font asking “Is this a violation of election law?” If you didn’t mean your thread to have anything to do with that question, why should we care about it? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/9 "2020-07-11T01:38:43Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Is Cindy O’Laughlin using her Facebook page for official purposes, or is it a personal page? She’s a public official (member of the legislature) advocating a vote against a referendum authorizing Medicaid expansion, with a warning that she will cut individual schools’ funding by X amount if it passes. How can that not be “for official purposes”? The Twitter account the judge ruled on was Trump’s personal one, that he used for his various celebrity feuds, long before he ran for president. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I certainly didn’t miss the title in large font asking “Is this a violation of election law?” If you didn’t mean your thread to have anything to do with that question, why should we care about it ??? I certainly did mean it to revolve around precisely that question. But you seem to have interpreted “this” to mean “her lying in the post”, when what I meant by “this” is her deleting responses she didn’t like, leaving up the ones she did, and then blocking any further discussion. ETA: Let’s look back at the Twitter case the judge ruled on. There are actually a lot of people who don’t actually tweet themselves, but just “lurk” on Twitter to use it as sort of a news feed. If Trump edited out all the replies to his tweets so it looked like there was nothing but unanimous praise for what he says, that would be very misleading to voters. Same principle applies here. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2020, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/10 "2020-07-11T02:40:17Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > The Twitter account the judge ruled on was Trump’s personal one, that he used for his various celebrity feuds, long before he ran for president. Absolutely not true. The case was on his Presidential account. Your own link says: > The judges wrote in the opinion that Trump’s Twitter account shows “all the trappings of an official, state‐run account,” and that Trump and his aides have described his tweets as “official statements.” O’Laughlin’s account, as easily shown by clicking on her name in your own link, is clearly personal and not official. Do you have any evidence that she is violating the terms of a personal account or breaking any actual state or federal law? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/11 "2020-07-11T03:00:06Z")
You’re wrong, but part of the problem is that the article I linked used the wrong wording. Here is one that makes it clear that it’s about his personal account: > **[Appeals court won't revisit ruling saying Trump can't block Twitter users |...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/politics/trump-twitter-block/index.html)** > > A federal appeals court is standing by its ruling that President Donald Trump can't block Twitter users from viewing his social media account. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2020, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/12 "2020-07-11T03:45:18Z")
Again, from your link: " On Monday, the appellate court underlined how the Twitter account [@realDonaldTrump] is used for the President’s official communications. Blocking people on Twitter, the court found, violates the First Amendment because it excludes people from interacting with the President in a public forum, according to a statement from a judge today and previous court opinions." He was using his personal account to transmit official communications, understand? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/13 "2020-07-11T03:56:44Z")
And how do you figure this state rep is not doing the same? ---
**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:** [July 11, 2020, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/14 "2020-07-11T03:58:21Z")
You do realize that Twitter and Facebook are not the same thing, and do not have the same rules, right? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/15 "2020-07-11T04:02:52Z")
The judge’s ruling has nothing to do with Twitter’s rules. She could keep her Facebook account limited to friends and that would be totally different. She has now added: > I updated my post on the education cuts we would see if Medicaid is expanded. Here is how the numbers were derived: > > It’s school district financial data from DESE, DHSS (actuarial study on MedEx by Mercer) and Foundation for Government Accountability. > It was calculated on 8% cut straight across the board for all public schools. Just like Parson did with current withholds. They won’t be held harmless on this. Sure looks to me like constituent communication on official state business. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/16 "2020-07-11T04:07:56Z")
I don’t understand what this has to do with election law. If DJT made a separate Twitter account for his presidential campaign, and used that account to post only campaign-related propaganda, I think the federal court’s logic breaks down. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/17 "2020-07-11T04:09:45Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Sure looks to me like constituent communication on official state business. I disagree, on its face anybody could make such a post. ~Max ---
**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:** [July 11, 2020, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/18 "2020-07-11T04:13:19Z")
She is using _Facebook_ to give her official opinions, while Trump is using _Twitter_ to officially communicate White House policy with both the government and the public. If Trumps personal account is the primary way to communicate with the public(and it is), then tries to block the part of the public that he doesn’t want to listen to(which he tried to do), then he has effectively silenced communication between that part of the public and the President of the United States. Do we know if the same is true of Cindy O’Laughlin? And has been point out, there is a difference between an Official Opinion and an Official Proclamation. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/19 "2020-07-11T04:26:27Z")
I feel like you are really splitting hairs. And you came in all scornful and sarcastic like I didn’t even remotely have an argument here. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973/20 "2020-07-11T04:29:37Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I feel like you are really splitting hairs. And you came in all scornful and sarcastic like I didn’t even remotely have an argument here It’s a poor argument maybe? She posted some spreadsheet. Is she calling for those cuts? Are those cuts just is what is going to happen? Maybe it is just something that might happen? A screenshot of an Excel spreadsheet is not really evidence of anything. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-violation-of-election-law/914973.md?page=2)