Voting, "one of the most solemn trusts in human society"

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 17, 2021 

Right now the biggest danger to this nation is not what other nations can do to us, but what we can do to ourselves. The voice we have is our vote and what some politicians are doing is the equivalent of putting a muzzle on all of us. 

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual - or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." Samuel Adams

Some voters are deluded enough to not see that all votes are in jeopardy. All they want to see, all they want to know is, the vote of the "others" are being removed. They fail to see that their own votes are in peril.

If anyone has the right to disallow, remove or overturn the voice of the voters, then no one running for office is safe. Even if they do the will of those with the power to overrule votes, there is nothing to prevent themselves from becoming a target later on when someone else shows up, and those in power want to hand over that seat to them.

It is time for wisdom to defeat ignorance. This is something the Founding Fathers tried to imagine happening and they sought out ways to avoid it.

The connection between Jay’s day and ours is clear: “In our age,” Roberts wrote, “when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale,” there is even greater danger that political passions can turn us against one another, or against constitutional government itself. He emphasized judges’ particular role as “a key source of national unity and stability,” but his deeper point was that those values are needed among more than just judges.

His letter invoked Jay, Hamilton, Madison, and John Marshall, but his ideas called to mind another Founding Father: Benjamin Franklin, who, on leaving the constitutional convention of 1787, supposedly told a curious passerby that the Framers had produced “a republic, if you can keep it.” (The Atlantic)

New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan spoke about the need to secure our votes yesterday.

The truth is, men and women have been putting their lives on the line to defend this right to determine the direction of this country, before there even was a country. They fought the best military in the world and defeated it so the people could decide the leaders. That right has been defended over and over again because men and women valued it more than their own lives.

Now we see that the perception of military members being Republican, no longer applies.

In August, Military Times released its annual poll of service members, one of the only political pulse readings conducted of those actively serving. The poll found that support for Trump among the 1,018 active duty troops surveyed had fallen to 38 percent in 2020 from 46 percent in 2017. Of those respondents in the August poll, 41 percent said they were voting for Biden; 37 percent said they planned to vote for Trump; 13 percent would seek a third-party candidate and 9 percent said they did not plan on voting. “Donald Trump’s numbers are beyond dismal in the military, especially for a Republican,” said Jon Soltz, an Army veteran who deployed to Iraq twice and founded the 700,000-member VoteVets, a progressive-leaning veterans’ political advocacy organization. “The idea that veterans and the military are heavily Republican is just not true anymore.” (McClatchy)

Republican voters seen to think it is hitting Democrats. Democrat voters seem to think the same thing. The truth is, more voters are Independents and our votes are being threatened as well. This is from PEW

If we, as Independents, do not fight for all voters, no matter which party they claim, as well as, we who have no party loyalty but true loyalty to this nation we love, then we have failed all those who came before us.

It is up to all of us to keep them from trying to steal further elections!

Kathie Costos

July 25, 2021

When we listen to reporters talking about the election they don't seem to get it. How could they miss the biggest part of all these allegations over the right for people to vote in this country? This was a stolen election! Not the one from 2020 because Trump lost that one over and over again, as you'll read below, but this was the beginning of stealing elections to come.

Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they push barricades to storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C on Jan. 6, 2021. Demonstrators breeched security and entered the Capitol as Congress debated the a 2020 presidential election Electoral Vote certification. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images) SOURCE: ROBERTO SCHMIDT (KMBC News)

We watched in horror as the US Capitol was attacked by fellow Americans screaming about "stopping the steal" when they were in fact attempting to do exactly that. They didn't like the results, so they tried to stop it from being accepted by Congress.

Trump set the stage for all of this by claiming if he lost, it meant the election was stolen. That was all he had to do to set things in motion.

Fact Check took a look at the claims made by the previous president. Point by point, they showed how the claims were false. 

Courts rejected the claims of a stolen election.

Fact check: Courts have dismissed multiple lawsuits of alleged electoral fraud presented by Trump campaign

In the early morning of Jan. 7, hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, the U.S. Congress certified enough Electoral College votes for President Biden to declare him winner of the election ( here ).  

As reported by Reuters here , state and federal judges - some appointed by Trump - dismissed more than 50 lawsuits brought by Trump or his allies alleging election fraud and other irregularities.

So many claims were made about absentee ballots it was impossible to keep track of. What was missed, among many, was they were also claiming military votes were stolen because Trump couldn't believe so many members of the military were not supporting him. Facts proved he was wrong, no matter what his ego would not allow him to even contemplate.

Members of the military rely on absentee voting

According to the Federal Voting Assistance Program's 2018 post-election report to Congress, the Defense Department sent 655,409 absentee ballots to personnel serving abroad, and more than half, or 344,392, were returned, a rate comparable to the overall percentage of Americans who voted in the midterm elections.

Georgia military votes were not stolen but over and over again, he and his supporters, pushed that rumor with no evidence to prove anything they claimed. Over and over again, in each state, they attacked mail in ballots during a pandemic setting the stage for all other elections to be jeopardized.

There are members of the Senate who refused to see that Republicans Senators will never support voter integrity legislation to protect the rights of voters when they can easily take over the results. 

There was a time when people wanted their votes to be earned by politicians. After all, the funds they spend come from what taxpayers pay for. Now they want to use our tax dollars to prevent us from using our voice to vote for who we believe will do the best job for us.

Now in state after state, they are passing laws that will take away our voice by vote, using rumors started by Trump and his supporters to cover up for what they wanted to do all along. It doesn't matter how many citizens served in the military to protect and defend the Constitution, including the right to vote, as long as they win. 

It was appalling to hear people were pleased the Capitol was attacked. It is appalling to hear the lies about what we saw with our own eyes. It is repulsive to know so many of our elected officials are standing in the way of holding people accountable for all of this. If they stand in the way, we need to wonder if it is because they were part of all of this and do not want their participation proven. The innocent would want the evidence to come out to prove they were wrongly accused. The guilty want to prevent evidence from proving their guilt!

It is time for members of the Senate to remove the obstacle of the filibuster and defend the rights so many generations of American fought for.

Editorial: Senate Republicans won’t even consider voting rights. The filibuster must go

"...Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that Democrats were aiming to “tilt every election in America permanently in their favor.” That was an unfair, even outrageous, characterization of the Democrats’ proposal, the ambitious For the People Act, not to mention an exercise in projection.

The For the People Act in its Senate and House versions was arguably too large and complicated a piece of legislation, stitching together a multitude of proposals including disclosure requirement for political contributions, public financing of congressional elections and even an ethics code for the Supreme Court."

The 19th Amendment was hard fought for to allow women the right to vote. This was when elected officials fought to expand voting rights, not prevent them! Notice how many "Red" States were among the first to do it?

Between 1910 and 1918, the Alaska Territory, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington extended voting rights to women.

Also during this time, through the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women (later, the Women’s Political Union), Stanton’s daughter Harriot Stanton Blatch introduced parades, pickets and marches as means of calling attention to the cause. These tactics succeeded in raising awareness and led to unrest in Washington, D.C.

Did you know? Wyoming, the first state to grant voting rights to women, was also the first state to elect a female governor. Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977) was elected governor of the Equality State—Wyoming's official nickname—in 1924. And from 1933 to 1953, she served as the first woman director of the U.S. Mint.

The article goes on to point out how long this was fought for.

In 1918, President Wilson switched his stand on women’s voting rights from objection to support through the influence of Catt, who had a less-combative style than Paul. Wilson also tied the proposed suffrage amendment to America’s involvement in World War I and the increased role women had played in the war efforts.

When the amendment came up for vote, Wilson addressed the Senate in favor of suffrage. As reported in The New York Times on October 1, 1918, Wilson said, “I regard the extension of suffrage to women as vitally essential to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we are engaged.”

The Bill failed in the Senate by 2 votes.

Rep. James Mann brought it up again. This time, it passed.

On May 21, 1919, U.S. Representative James R. Mann, a Republican from Illinois and chairman of the Suffrage Committee, proposed the House resolution to approve the Susan Anthony Amendment granting women the right to vote. The measure passed the House 304 to 89—a full 42 votes above the required two-thirds majority.

Two weeks later, on June 4, 1919, the U.S. Senate passed the 19th Amendment by two votes over its two-thirds required majority, 56-25. The amendment was then sent to the states for ratification.

How could we have gone from elected officials fighting for the rights of citizens to vote, into what we have now when so many of them are fighting to take away the right to vote? It is up to all of us to keep them from trying to steal further elections!

12 most despicable things Fox News did in 2012

If it is about the military or veterans, I read it. I may not post it, but that all depends on how important the story is. This one is. Considering the majority of the veterans I know watch FOX, this is actually a great example of why they shouldn't trust FOX at all.

Remember when they were claiming Romney was going to win in a landslide while the rest of the country was laughing at them? That proved they want to twist things up to get the result they want. It didn't matter what the truth was any more than it has mattered to what it is when they are talking about, or not talking about, the men and women risking their lives for this country.

The list of "despicable things Fox News did in 2012" has two reports involving the military. While this is a "left leaning" site, it does not change the fact that FOX did them.

12 most despicable things Fox News did in 2012
From producing its own anti-Obama video to spinning furiously on unemployment, the network had a banner year
BY MARK HOWARD, ALTERNET
JAN 5, 2013

1) Romancing Petraeus: Fox News CEO Roger Ailes tries to recruit for the GOP.

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward revealed that Fox News CEO Roger Ailes had dispatched a Fox News defense analyst, to Kabul, Afghanistan to recruit Gen. David Petraeus as a GOP candidate for president. The notion of a news network soliciting candidates for political office is a perversion of the role journalists play in society. In response, Ailes claimed that it was “a joke” and that he “thought the Republican [primary] field needed to be shaken up.” Where Ailes got the idea that it was his right and/or duty to shake up the GOP primaries is unexplained. News people are supposed to report the news, not make it. Woodward’s story affirms that Fox News is a rogue operation. Its intrusion into the political process debases journalism by breaching all standards of ethical conduct. And it debases democracy as well by exploiting its power and wealth to manipulate political outcomes.

5) Fox lies about military access to voting in Ohio.

This year Republicans in the state of Ohio sought to amend their early voting law so that only members of the military would be permitted to vote early in the three days prior to the election. Democrats objected to this as it discriminates against certain voters, and they filed suit to preserve the right of every Ohio citizen to vote early. Fox News picked up the story advancing the premise that Democrats were seeking to take something away from our military. Anchor Shannon Bream falsely declared that “If President Obama gets his way, the special voting rights of some of America’s finest will be eliminated.” The truth is that Democrats in Ohio were suing to ensure that nobody’s rights were eliminated. The Ohio GOP was deliberately attempting to suppress the votes of citizens they presumed would vote Democratic. And Fox News helped them in that mission by brazenly lying about the substance of the debate.

Obama Not Trying to Curb Military Early Voting
Military Vote

The Center for Responsive Politics reported last month that self-described military personnel had donated $678,611 to Obama, 85% more than the $398,450 the Romney campaign has collected.

The other issue viewers notice is that FOX doesn't seem to have much time covering all the problems our veterans face coming home any more than they have time to cover what is happening in Afghanistan.

War hero, 91, targeted in Florida's purge of voter rolls

War hero, 91, targeted in Florida's purge of voter rolls
By Brittany Wallman and Kathleen Haughney
Sun Sentinel
Published: May 29, 2012
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

Using an American war veteran as the face of their cause, two South Florida congressmen called on the governor Tuesday to immediately stop the state’s purge of the voter rolls.

And in a separate move, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson sent a letter to the governor expressing his own concerns about the voter purging. U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, accused the Republican governor of using the roll cleanup as a ruse to disenfranchise voters just months before a presidential election.

Sitting in the retirement village in Davie where he lives, 91-year-old Bill Internicola listened Tuesday as Deutch read from a piece of his recent mail: “The Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office has received information from the state of Florida that you are not a United States citizen; however you are registered to vote.’’
read more here

Obama family together for voting

I just watched Senator Obama, his wife Michelle vote with their two daughters, Malia Ann and Sasha, at their side. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for the Obama family when they first saw the name Obama and Biden on the ballot. How many times had they voted before never really dreaming of the day when his name would be placed under President.

Obama votes in Chicago 1:13
Sen. Barack Obama casts his vote at an elementary school in Chicago.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/11/04/vo.il.obama.votes.cnn

History in hands of voters
Americans are voting in one of the most historic U.S. elections. Democrat Barack Obama could become the first African-American president. Republican John McCain could become the oldest president elected to a first term. Sarah Palin could become the first woman elected vice president. Record voter turnout also is predicted. full story

It reminded me of all the years taking my own daughter when I voted. It never mattered what the New England weather was like, she was always excited to go.


I have not met many people who said they were not voting but when I was having my hair cut, the young stylists told me she was not voting. Her mother was never involved in politics she told me. As we talked, it was clear the stylist had not paid attention to this election. We've had many conversations in the past about different topics. We talked about the Lifetime series Army Wives, which character did what and when. We talked about other TV shows, which she knew it great detail. Yet when it came to the direction this country is going in, what matters to her own future, she clearly had not been involved. Then she said what too many say "My vote really wouldn't matter anyway."

I told the stylists about how I had taken my own daughter, beaming with pride vote for the first time. We waited in line for her to vote. My husband and I had already voted in early voting in Florida. She wasn't sure what to do, so I gladly brought her to cast her first vote. As we approached the table for her to check in, the man behind the table grinned "Oh, first time voter?" I'm sure I must have been glowing when I said "Yes, she is." He greeted my daughter and congratulated her, then told me to go and sit down. I wanted to stay behind her but he said it was up to her if I did or not. She looked up at me and said, "I'll take it from here. Go sit down."

I had never imaged how I would feel the first time my daughter voted. "I'll take it from here" came after over 20 years of watching me make it to vote no matter what else was going on. From primaries to the general election, she was there at my side. Then it was time for here to "take it from here" and vote on her own. It had not occurred to me how many other parents never bothered to have their own children involved in their own futures. She had seen me reading the newspapers and watching the news on TV, reading what ballot measures meant for months before the election. My daughter did the same thing preparing to vote for the first time, deeply involved in studying what the candidates say and what is factual.

Parents involved in the election process, even if they are not fully involved in politics or dedicated to one political party over another, will decide if their children will take an active role or not simply by what they do. We can inspire them. It's great to lead the way so they are prepared to take it from here. We have a responsibility and all of us should do whatever it takes to get them to take their vote seriously. If you have not voted yet, do whatever it takes to do it. Stand in line for as long as it takes and then tell your children, your vote was worth it.

Even in this tiny town, they voted.

Obama wins in earliest vote in tiny N.H. towns.
Dixville Notch, Hart's Location 1st officially to announce Election Day results

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. - Barack Obama came up a big winner in the presidential race in Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, N.H., where tradition of having the first Election Day ballots tallied lives on.

Democrat Obama defeated Republican John McCain by a count of 15 to 6 in Dixville Notch, where a loud whoop accompanied the announcement in Tuesday's first minutes. The town of Hart's Location reported 17 votes for Obama, 10 for McCain and two for write-in Ron Paul. Independent Ralph Nader was on both towns' ballots but got no votes.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27528804/

War, not voting, focus of soldiers in Iraq

A few things bother me with this. The first is, if the military does not know how they vote, then why do they keep saying that the majority vote Republican? Next, the percentage. "In the last federal election, only about 30 percent of overseas military ballots were tallied" which seems really, really low considering they make the claim the military votes Republican. Up until this election, there was the assumption that the vast majority of the US troops overseas were voting Republican but now that I think of it, they really have no way of knowing how anyone voted. All this means is that for all these years we've been told the troops vote GOP, we've been had.

It also makes sense that the bulk of contributions from members of the military have gone to Obama and Paul, not McCain. As you read down, you'll see that one of the complaints the troops have is that McCain has been tied to Bush and they see Bush for what he did to Iraq and to the country. This also shows that the statistical data is right and troops are a reflection of the nation as a whole. They are Democrats and Republicans and Independents along with the minor parties just like the rest of us. The biggest difference is, they the ones risking their lives doing what the nation sent them to do without having the benefit of deciding who takes over next. The soldiers who do want to vote are not getting what they need as fast as they need it to do it. I wonder if they know how badly McCain has done on his votes for when they become veterans?

War, not voting, focus of soldiers in Iraq
Antiquated, flawed process impedes voting for some combat troops

MOSUL, Iraq - Car bombs rather than Obama, making it home rather than McCain dominate the talk among many U.S. soldiers in Iraq's deadliest city during the final countdown to America's presidential election.

Dangers, distance from home and the dawn-to-dark effort in an alien environment push U.S. politics into a corner for many soldiers — especially in combat outposts where television and the Internet are not readily available.

"Regardless of who wins the election, we are going to be here 15 months. And our mission is not going to be fundamentally affected, at least in the short term," said Capt. Justin Davis Harper after returning from a patrol into the northern city of Mosul's most violent zone.

No public voting data
How soldiers in Iraq or anywhere else vote will not be accurately known since government agencies do not make such data public.

"My guess is that the military will continue to vote Republican but less so in that direction because this time there are conflicting impulses at work," said Richard H. Kohn at the University of North Carolina.

McCain, a former Navy pilot and Vietnam War POW, is attractive to service members and "adept at its language," Kohn said. "But at the same time, I detect a disappointment and even anger at the way Bush has managed, ranging from treatment of the wounded to gross errors in waging the war in Iraq."

go here for more

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27476586/

Obama wants all military votes to count, even though most will go to McCain

Obama has been part of all the changes for the better in the VA and sits on the Veterans Affairs Committee. He has a higher rating from the service organizations for supporting veterans spending bills and legislation. He wants the military honored for their service and used as if they were of value to this nation instead of simply expendable and he wants the veterans taken care of. Now this. Yet with all of this what does he receive in return? Too many in the military are still supporting McCain just because he says he support them and veterans but his record proves he does not when it comes to actually doing it. Compare his record to Obama and you'll know who really supports the military and the veterans.

Obama camp wants every military vote counted

By Rick Maze - Staff writ
Posted : Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 12:06:36 EDT

The Barack Obama campaign is urging state election officials to make an extra effort to count all military absentee votes, even though most of those votes might be expected to support the Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

In an Oct. 27 letter to the top election officials in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Robert Bauer, general counsel for the Obama for America organization, asks states to make an extra effort to count absentee ballots cast by service members.

The letters come despite recognition by senior Obama campaign officials that many military voters —possibly a majority of military voters — are more likely to vote for Republican presidential candidate Arizona Sen. John McCain rather than Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois.

“A military voter who is timely registered with the state and has submitted his or her federal write-in absentee ballot by the state’s deadline should be in no doubt that their vote will be counted,” Bauer says in the letters.

One state already has had a legal battle over military ballots. Virginia election officials initially balked at accepting federal write-in ballots because the federal form omits one piece of information required under state election laws — the address of the people witnessing the voter signing the ballot.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/military_obama_militaryvoters_102908w/