Days after Biden was declared the president-elect, Republican Lieutenant Governorn of Texas, Dan Patrick, announced that he would be willing to pay $1-million to anyone who could produce evidence of voter fraud.
Well, Mr. Patrick, if you happen to see this, have I got a story for you! A Trump supporter in Colorado cast an illegal ballot for his dead wife—whom he murdered.
"Barry Morphew, who is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his wife who remains missing, is now accused of submitting a ballot for her in the November presidential election. Suzanne Morphew was last seen in May 2020, and while she has not been found, the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office announced earlier this month the arrest of her husband Barry, and said they believe Suzanne is no longer alive."
To review, Suzanne Morphew has not been seen in a year, and last week, her husband, Barry Morphew, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Last October, Barry Morphew also submitted a ballot on behalf of the wife he killed. Her ballot was submitted without a signature—a requirement in Colorado's vote-by-mail system—but it did include his name as a witness.
According to the arrest affidavit, asked why he submitted the ballot for his missing-and-presumed-dead wife, Barry Morphew said, "Just because I wanted Trump to win. I just thought I'd give him another vote." He added that he believed "all these other guys are cheating."
This is the second example in two weeks of Trump voters casting ballots on behalf of dead relatives. If the Republican lieutenant governor wants to send me a check, I promise to apply the money to a good cause.
In the wake of Trump's defeat six months ago, Republicans launched a desperate search for illegally cast ballots to help justify the GOP's conspiracy theories. But despite all the hysterical rhetoric, only a handful of legitimate allegations have been raised, and all involve Republicans casting illegal ballots for Trump on behalf of dead relatives.
Take Bruce Bartman, for example. The Washington Post reported this morning:
"Weeks before Election Day, Bruce Bartman mailed his mother's absentee ballot with a check mark next to President Donald Trump's name. The problem was, his mother had been dead since 2008. Bartman, 70, pleaded guilty on Friday to a charge of felony perjury and unlawful voting — and blamed his decision to cast the fraudulent ballot on consuming too many false claims about the election."
Expressing regret for his crime, the Pennsylvanian conceded, "I listened to too much propaganda and made a stupid mistake."
The Post's report added, "In addition to Bartman, two other men in Pennsylvania face charges of fraudulently voting for Trump, according to the [Philadelphia] Inquirer. Ralph Thurman of Chester County allegedly tried to cast his son's vote and Richard Lynn of Luzerne County allegedly attempted to obtain an absentee ballot for his deceased mother. Both cases are pending."
My first thought after seeing this news was to remember the case of Crystal Mason, who cast a provisional ballot in 2016 while on supervised release for a federal conviction. She didn't know she was ineligible to vote, and her ballot was never counted, but Mason—a Black woman—was convicted of illegal voting and sentenced to five years in prison.
It's hard not to notice that Bruce Bartman—a White man—received a far more lenient sentence: five years of probation.
My second thought after seeing the report out of Pennsylvania was the expectation of Republicans seizing on the news. "See?" I assume they'll say. "Voter fraud is real after all, which means sweeping new voter-suppression laws are fully justified."
That's clearly the wrong response. What the Bartman story actually helps show is that fraud is extremely rare, and when would-be criminals try to cheat, the existing system is strong enough to catch them, charge them, and convict them. This doesn't prove the need for voter-suppression laws; it helps prove the opposite.
"A Trump supporter in Colorado cast an illegal ballot for his dead wife-whom he murdered." -snip
"But despite all the hysterical rhetoric, only a handful of legitimate allegations have been raised, and all involve Republicans casting illegal ballots for Trump on behalf of dead relatives." -snip
Didn't quite turn out how Trumpers had hoped it would.
I'm looking at a big list of names from the Heritage Foundation, many of which probably weren't big headline news so lets pick a random one out of the hat:
Well, at least you can't accuse them of culling results to make the right look good.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
Yeah, its easy to forget while the UK left is an actual Left, its also the land that elected Margaret Thatcher.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
They're still crying over GA and AZ and MI etc. They're the party who can't accept election results unless they win, even if they win, there's a chance they'll still cry foul over something.
We wouldn’t have it. Gordon Brown got demolished over his proposal to introduce ID cards to everyone. Granted, I can get an ID card, but it’s not a necessity, like he was proposing.
__________________ Sig by Nuke Nixon
Last Edited by Blakemore on Jan 1st, 2000, at 00:00 AM
A U.S. Postal Service mail carrier from Hudson County today admitted he discarded mail, including 99 general election ballots sent from the Essex County Board of Elections to West Orange, New Jersey residents, from his assigned routes in Orange and West Orange, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
Nicholas Beauchene, 26, of Kearny, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor in Newark federal court to one count of desertion of mails.
Beauchene admitted that on September 28th, October 1st, and October 2nd, he discarded into dumpsters in North Arlington and West Orange, New Jersey 1,875 pieces of mail that he was assigned to deliver to postal customers.
This mail included 627 pieces of first-class mail, 873 pieces of standard class mail, two pieces of certified mail, 99 general election ballots destined for residents in West Orange, and 276 campaign flyers from local candidates for West Orange Town Council and Board of Education.
Law enforcement recovered the mail on October 2nd and October 5th, and placed it back into the mail stream for delivery.
The desertion of mail charge is punishable by a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Sentencing has been scheduled for September 21st.
We know how many there were, because the police recovered them, and put them back into the mail stream.
The issue here is that the mail carrier was opposed to mail-in voting, because conservative media told him to be, and the ballots he threw away were supposed to be delivered to a Democratic voting district.
Another Day, Another Republican Committing Voter Fraud
Edward Snodgrass, who is a Republican Porter Township trustee, has admitted to forging his dead father's signature on an absentee ballot and then voting again as himself, court records and other sources revealed. Snodgrass was busted after a Delaware County election worker questioned the signature on his father's ballot. A subsequent investigation revealed the ballot had been mailed to H. Edward Snodgrass on October 6th—a day after the 78-year-old retired businessman died.
Snodgrass, as part of a plea agreement, "is expected to plead guilty to a reduced charge of falsification and [will] receive a sentence of three days in jail and a $500 fine."
A man from Forty Fort said he used "poor judgement" and regrets using his deceased mother's name on an application for an absentee ballot for the 2020 presidential election.
Robert Richard Lynn, 68, of Center Street pleaded guilty to a third-degree misdemeanor charge of violations relating to absentee or mail-in ballots during a court proceeding before Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough on Monday.
Lynn is notable in part because of the amount of effort the Republican voter in Pennsylvania invested in his scheme. This guy used a typewriter to complete an absentee ballot application—pretending to be his deceased mother, Lynn claimed to be "visiting great-grand kids" around the time of the election—before signing the dead woman's name.
It was not long before election officials flagged the ballot, when a database showed that the voter in question died six years ago.
The defendant faced up to two years behind bars. He instead received a sentence of six months' probation.
Just a reminder that Crystal Mason, a black woman who cast a provisional ballot during a period she did not know she was ineligible to vote, was sentenced to five years in prison.
Meanwhile, white men like Robert Richard Lynn are sentenced to probation for deliberately hatching schemes to cast illegal ballots on behalf of dead relatives.