‘Kill them’: Threating 2022 Midterm Election workers
“‘Kill them’: Arizona election workers face midterm threats,” (msn.com), Linda So, Peter Eisler and Jason Szep
Some more information on counting votes. Guess where?
Election workers in Arizona’s fiercely contested county of Maricopa faced more than 100 violent threats and intimidating communications. This was occurring during the run-up to Tuesday’s midterm Election. Most of the threats alleging election conspiracy theories were promoted by former President Donald trump and his lackies. After the election, we were watching Kari Lake stomp around yelling at Maricopa County officials.
What is strange about this? Well for one thing, Maricopa County has a majority Republican County Board of Supervisors. Four of the 5 supervisors are Republican. In response to Blake Master’s accusation and Kari Lake’s fits, Maricopa Republican Chairman and Supervisor Bill Gates had this to say addressing the specific accusations from the RNC;
“I would prefer that if there are concerns that they have, that they communicate those to us here. I’m a Republican. Three of my colleagues on the board are Republicans. Raise these issues with us and discuss them with us, as opposed to making these baseless claims.”
Didn’t stop Kari Lake from stomping around and making more baseless comments. To make matters worse there are two Democrats amongst the Maricopa County officials, a Supervisor and the Sheriff.
I took the liberty of looking up the Maricopa County elections results for 2022. These are the unofficial election results (November 13, 2922) for Maricopa County in the Governor’s race. The numbers are in.
UNOFFICIAL COMBINED RESULTS General Election Maricopa County November 8, 2022, Page 5
Elector Group Counting Group Ballots Voters Registered Voters
“The harassment in Maricopa County included menacing emails and social media posts, threats to circulate personal information online, and photographing employees arriving at work. This, according to nearly 1,600 pages of documents obtained by Reuters through a public records request. All related to threats and harassments against election workers.”
The news media is not reporting all the Voter information. There are a lot of Democratic Voters and even more Republicans in Maricopa County. The Maricopa County Administration is mostly Republican and the administration is run by Republicans. The news media is not reporting this information. Meanwhile Kari, trump, and the RNC are complaining about Maricopa County like it is a Democrat stronghold. It is not.
One statement by the news media on vote gains is misleading. Hobbs gained 48,562 (see above results) more votes in Maricopa County to add to her 26,000 initially. At the end of the Maricopa County count, Hobbs had supposedly gained 48,562 more votes.
“Lake gained ground among Maricopa County voters, where officials reported a big update of 97,000 votes in the evening. Lake won the majority of those, over 54%, eating into Hobbs’ lead in the county and cutting it from about 57,000 votes to 48,500.”
The point to this commentary is Republicans attacking Republicans in the 2022 Midterm Election. The news media has not said much about Maricopa County being Republican led. Neither is the news media reporting accurate. It was not till recent has there been a reveal of Maricopa political leadership. I thought they were doing fine.
This Arizona election appears to be wrapping up. Republican will go on ranting and making more threats.
“Promoting the 2022 Election – Michigan Signs,” Angry Bear, angry bear blog.
“It’s not looking good for Kari Lake. I picture John McCain laughing his head off,” (msn.com), Laurie Roberts
The news media has not said much about Maricopa County being Republican led.
Why does this matter? Is is OK to make threats if it is Democrats? How about conservatives learn that sometimes elections do not go your way and making threats is not a valid or legitimate response.
Turtle:
How about accurate and timely reporting?
I am in Arizona. Maricopa county is soundly Republican led. The issues are with the tabulators which as it was would be called a conspiracy by Republicans and was labeled as such. This occurred under Republicans watch.
People will assume it is a Democrat stronghold. Trump and other Repubs have caused much of the public to always believe in conspiracy. It is important to be clear and accurate in reporting the news.
Of course, if they delay in reporting such . . . more people will tune in or read additional articles. I had the unofficial results almost two days before it was announced Hobbs had won in Maricopa County by ~46,000 votes.
Have you not had enough lies and story-telling coming out of people’s mouths?
Have you not had enough lies and story-telling coming out of people’s mouths?
Has the media portrayed Maricopa county as Democratic stronghold. By your comments you state the media has not done enough to inform the public that Maricopa county is Republican led.
Why does that matter?
It is not appropriate to threaten election officials no matter their political affiliation. I do not see why that is a controversial belief.
People believe conspiracy theories because it confirms their idiotic beliefs. Look at the anti-vaxxers and election deniers as evidence. The science and truth about vaccines and the 2020 election has been out there for years and yet these conspiracy nuts still believe that ballots printed on Chinese bamboo paper and Jewish space lasers exist and eating horse paste is a valid treatment for COVID. Stupid people believe stupid things.
Turtles
life is so complicated.
since you mention vaccination… i hthink i probably know more about vaccination than most people. but when i suggested it was a bad idea to even talk about FORCING people to get vaccinated, another contributor was sure that meant i did not believe in vaccines. No, I said, I don’t believe in FORCING. I don’t think he ever got the point.
People are and always have been stupid. You are not going to cure them. Saying hateful things about them is not the way to get them to change their minds.
People are and always have been stupid.
Not sure how that is less “hateful” than anything I have stated.
well, first, i include myself among the stupid people.
and, related to this, i am not identifying any “other” person as being somehow more stupid than we should have to tolerate.
and, in my comment above i tried to identify that at least one person, arguably knowledgable about vaccines couldn’t understand that we were not talking about vaccines but about using force.
And Yes, Repubs believe the 2020 election was stolen.
yes…stolen by Democrats. It might have caused them some cognitive constipation to realize the people they were accusing of stealing the election were actually Republicans. hence “germane.”
of course it would only have taken them a minute to say either “that’s a lie” or “they were really Democrats pretending to be Republicans.”
once people believe a lie they will go to any length to keep on believing it.
coberly:
Maybe it is not as clear as I could have made it. It should have been more than a one liner. Gates the Chair for Maricopa County is talking back to the RNC and Kari. Anybody can dive into the article and read it too.
I just don’t know at times Coberly.
Run
thanks. i needed that.
First Sentence: “Some more information on counting votes. Guess where?”
Run
actually, i thought i understood your point, be very sorry to find out i didn’t. on the other hand i absolutely do not understand your 10:16pm,Nov 15
Coberly:
You did. You were fine.
Turtle
Any time you wish to write on vaccines, do so. We will put it up for you and credit you. I am assuming you have a background in this like Joel.
Run
Thank you for doing the hard work. Turtles seems to have missed the point. No one was saying the threats were okay as long as the officials were Republicans. Run was pointing out that the threats were made because the media created the impression that Dems were in charge of the election process. The point here is less about what Party to blame, but to note that the media is (yes, is) part of the overall and ultimately non-partisan conspiracy (yes, conspiracy) to de-legitimize democracy, if not reason itself, and truth itself.
This is either a “natural” consequences of a more or less blind hisorical development, or it is the result of a careful and intelligent (if evil) plan by some big money barons to take over the government entirely and permanently..whether that results in a Potempkin democracy or frank fascism… they don’t care, as long as they are in control.
This could have happened under Democratic Party control as easily as under Republica. It just happened that the Republicans were an easier target.
oh, well
“as easily” does not lead to “easier”…unless I am referring to different factors’s : I mean the Dems are just as susceptible to becoming the agents of evil as the R’s. But the R’s prior rhetoric and “base” made them a better fit for the kinds of lies and manipulations the non partisan expert liars had in mind.
Turtles seems to have missed the point. No one was saying the threats were okay as long as the officials were Republicans.
I believe you have missed my point. The original complaint is that the media has not done enough to inform people that Maricopa county is Republican led. This has led the whackos to believe that Maricopa county is a Democratic stronghold and they are threatening election workers.
My comment is that it does not matter the political affiliation of the election workers, threats are completely unacceptable. Maybe I am being naïve but a functional democracy should not and cannot function in this manner. What the media has or has not done is not germane to that believe.
Turtles
looks like we each mised the other’s point.
i quite agree a democracy cannot function in this manner.
But if the media are fomenting it, then that is germane.
The interesting fact, which Run points out, is that the media foment it even when they have to mislead, or allow the voters to be mislead, about which party is actually running the election system.
Trump’s great contribution to democracy is that he discovered how easy it was to lie to the people and lead them to violence.
Actually, if I may, the Framers knew this (because they read history) and invented all the checks and balances to prevent it…that the Left now calls “undemocratic.”
Well Mr. Turtle;
I don’t believe in eating your kin. If the news had broadcast a REpub County was having difficulties with the count due to the tabulators and the county is retabulating the ballot counting. It is unlikely the citizenry would have reacted like they did. But the newscasters did not explain the politics of the county (being Republican) and the rest is history. I do not understand your confusion.
Political affiliation does matter as they believe the election is being stolen now and in 2020 also. Anything sets them off.