# Republican attacks on election integrity take their toll
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [July 11, 2023, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911 "2023-07-11T19:57:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/1 "2023-07-11T19:57:57Z")
All the more reason for them to just stay home!
> **[GOP confidence in 2024 vote count low after years of false election claims,...](https://www.aol.com/gop-confidence-2024-vote-count-040308519.html)**
>
> Few Republicans have high confidence that votes will be tallied accurately in next year’s presidential contest, suggesting years of sustained attacks against elections by former President Donald Trump and his allies have taken a toll, according to a...
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/2 "2023-07-11T21:30:21Z")
That can cut both ways.
If lots of teh Reactionary wacko Traitor party adherents sincerely believe the propaganda that their side always has more actual voters but loses anyhow due to D skullduggery they may well set fire to the whole country when they really do lose from lack of actual voters.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/3 "2023-07-11T21:32:46Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> If lots of the Reactionary wacko Traitor party adherents sincerely believe the propaganda that their side always has more actual voters but loses anyhow due to D skullduggery they may well set fire to the whole country when they really do lose from lack of actual voters.
I mean, whatever damage angry Republicans did in the wake of 2020 was a mere pinprick.
If I were given a choice of “win the election, and my opponents get mad and torch a few buildings and go home and pout for 4 more years”, I’m taking that every time.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/4 "2023-07-11T21:38:44Z")
For sure.
Fear of provoking the frothers should never be a reason to veto any planned action by the good guys. Planning ahead for an aftermath where the frothers actually do something stupid and rash seems only sensible.
Those are two different ideas.
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### Author:  [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/5 "2023-07-11T21:55:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> they may well set fire to the whole country
Or they may just sit around and whine.
For all the damage they did on Jan. 6, it only happened because the Capitol police and National Guard were kneecapped in advance by the Trump administration. That won’t happen this time around. Similarly, state and local law enforcement agencies will be ready, and I imagine the FBI will be keeping much closer tabs on who’s threatening to do what online.
I’d predict small-scale, isolated violence – met by appropriate force – at the worst.
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> If I were given a choice of “win the election, and my opponents get mad and torch a few buildings and go home and pout for 4 more years”, I’m taking that every time.
Plus one.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/6 "2023-07-11T21:58:20Z")
Agreed.
The only way to get and keep the RWTs frothing angry is to keep them glued to the Outrage-o-vision and [Outrage.com](http://Outrage.com). Which promotes slacktivism, since getting off the couch is hard. Besides, while you were out you might miss another wonderful outrage pill the Big Bosses want to shove down your throat. Can’t miss those, now can we?
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/7 "2023-07-11T22:05:20Z")
I like this part, from the linked article:
_“I don’t vote at all," he said. "I think it only adds credibility to the system if you participate.”_
The Republican attacks on election integrity appear to be backfiring, but they’re still attacking full-steam ahead. If ever there was a greater irony, or better example of how the Republicans do stuff that is against their own interests, I would like to see it.
But, yeah, I am all for encouraging the quoted thought among Republicans. It should be promoted, cultivated, and enhanced among the conservative populace, especially in the few key purple states. And the great part about it is the Democrats barely have to do anything other than simply say “Biden won in 2020” and that will trigger the frothers to keep digging further and deeper into this hole.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/8 "2023-07-11T22:32:49Z")
> [@snowthx](#):
>
> “I don’t vote at all," he said. "I think it only adds credibility to the system if you participate.”
The Republican Party is part of that system, that’s the irony. If they don’t support the system, they don’t support Republicans or anyone they endorse. If they want to crawl down a Q rabbit hole and live there, ignoring the outside world and reality, well that’s fine with me.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/9 "2023-07-11T22:41:42Z")
Quoting myself for context
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> and [Outrage.com](http://Outrage.com). Which
That was meant to be a shorthand for the general category of frother websites, QAnon, InfoWars, Alex Jones, Faux, etc. I didn’t notice that Discourse made it clickable.
Fortunately there’s no real website at that address. So don’t bother clicking and if you do, don’t be surprised if a click goes to nowhere. Yet.
Oops. Sorry.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/10 "2023-07-11T22:44:18Z")
> [@Atamasama](#):
>
> If they want to crawl down a Q rabbit hole and live there, ignoring the outside world and reality, well that’s fine with me.
The RWTs inadvertently transforming themselves into the Listless Nihilists who are duly slaughtered at the real ballot box would be a delicious irony indeed. One I hope to savor for years to come.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/11 "2023-07-11T22:56:58Z")
"“I just didn’t like the way the last election went,” said Lynn Jackson, a registered nurse from El Sobrante, California, who is a registered Republican. “I have questions about it. I can’t actually say it was stolen – only God knows that.”
If you didn’t like the outcome, it had to be rigged. 🤪 Nurses are _supposed_ to be intelligent.
While you can never completely satisfy the we-wuz-robbed crowd, it would help some if we didn’t have unreasonable delays in counting votes, partly due to to acceptance of mail-in ballots received well past Election Day.
I’d go from highly confident to fully confident about election integrity if there were paper ballots available in all states in all circumstances, in case of questions about domestic or foreign malefactors hacking electronic voting.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/12 "2023-07-11T23:05:46Z")
On a tangent, though - suppose that one did live in a country where elections were semi-rigged. (Picture a government like Belarus’ or Turkey’s.)
How do you get your voters to vote so that you _might_ have a chance of winning, while simultaneously saying public that the electoral system is crooked? You have to do both, but those things are mutually contradictory.
That’s essentially what the GOP is facing (in their mind.) This impossible bind of simultaneously telling voters to vote, while saying their vote may not count.
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### Author:  [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/13 "2023-07-11T23:10:31Z")
I would encourage Republican voters to just sit out elections. Stay home. Especially if you get a whiff that there is anything “rigged” or “unfair” going on. To participate would be to play right into “their” hands.
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/14 "2023-07-11T23:12:53Z")
Right! Own the libs by not voting, harder!
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/15 "2023-07-11T23:18:44Z")
Unfortunately, this could lead to a malignant version of the John F Kennedy saying - that those who prevent reform from happening peacefully, ensure that it can only happen violently.
Conservatives aren’t going to be “content” with not winning. They may not be able to win legally, but that won’t make the desire to win go away.
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### Author:  [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/16 "2023-07-11T23:23:22Z")
So what, then? I am not living in fear of any Republican threat of violence.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/17 "2023-07-11T23:28:35Z")
> [@bobot](#):
>
> I am not living in fear of any Republican threat of violence.
The likely outcome is not Republicans rising up, Che Guevara style (I’m agreeing with you obviously). The likely outcome is the Republican Party dying off like the Whigs and others that are only in history books.
Something else would pop up in its place. Maybe something worse. But there will always be at least two parties, because there will always be enough people annoyed at one party to form another one.
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### Author:  [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/18 "2023-07-11T23:29:15Z")
My latest response to the election deniers is:
What you can’t deny is that it was either stolen or it wasn’t.
If it wasn’t, then Trump got his ass kicked fair and square -Joe Biden is a man you claim is a senile idiot, and he beat Trump like a drum. Biggest loser ever!
If it was, then Trump got played by Joe Biden, a man you claim is a senile idiot. So Trump won and was too weak and stupid to claim his prize, and Joe Biden- in what would qualify as the most bad-ass move ever if it were true- managed to depose his ass to his tacky Florida gold club. Biggest loser ever!
When the Republicans continually deny their loss, that blocks them for doing the important post-mortem work of figuring out why they lost and how they can do better.
And if TRUMP WON IN 2020 is the platform of the Republican Party, they aren’t going to move any 2020 Biden voters over to Trump.
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2023, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/19 "2023-07-11T23:44:48Z")
Seriously, in their worldview, with all the potential avenues for cheating, from voting machines to truckloads of ballots at midnight to illegal immigrants voting (and whatever else BS they dreamt-up), any candidate and party that is too dumb not to be able to rig an election doesn’t deserve to win.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2023, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republican-attacks-on-election-integrity-take-their-toll/986911/20 "2023-07-12T00:06:47Z")
My understanding is that very few Republicans claim Biden _himself_ was the mastermind behind the ‘theft’ of the 2020 election. Rather, they claim it’s the political machinery behind the scenes - that there was a built-in apparatus of shady vote counting, vote rigging, sly computer software, that was there to put in the (D) candidate.
The (D) candidate could have been Biden, Hillary, Buttigieg, whoever. What mattered was that there was a nefarious network of people working to make it happen.
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