On today’s BradCast: The President’s defense team picked up on Monday where they left off on Saturday in their Opening (and potentially Closing) Argument in the Senate Impeachment Trial of Donald John Trump. But that defense was hit with a major bombshell by the New York Times on Sunday which could (emphasis on “could“) turn out to be a game-changer for the previously expected course of this trial. [Audio link to program is posted at the end of this summary.]
But first, and before we eventually open the phones today, a few updates on the tragic Sunday death of Los Angeles Lakers’ legend and NBC icon Kobe Bryant, who was killed along with his 13-year old daughter and seven others during a helicopter ride on a very foggy day just outside of L.A. While the shocking death of the 41-year old Bryant has reverberated around the globe, the pain of his loss was particularly acute here in Los Angeles yesterday.
In other Los Angeles news with national implications, we’ve got a bit more information on Friday’s “conditional certification” [PDF] by CA Sec. of State Alex Padilla of L.A. County’s new, 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting system set for first-time use in the upcoming March 3rd Super Tuesday Presidential primaries. Among the updates, we’ve got a bit more information on the so-called “hand-marked paper ballot” that Padiila has ordered be made available at Voting Centers “for any voter that requests to cast” one. It will, according to the Secretary’s mandate, be a “write-in absentee ballot,” modeled on the Federal Voting Assistance Program’s federal write-in absentee ballot [PDF] — meant as a ballot of last resort for overseas voters who do not receive a normal absentee ballot in time to cast a vote — that requires voters to write in all of the names of the offices and candidates for which they would like to vote. As much confusion and chaos as L.A. County’s new, $300,000,000 “Voting Solutions for All People” or VSAP voting system is likely to cause at the polls this year, the provision for a second-rate, hand-marked “write-in ballot” as the only means for casting a hand-marked ballot at the polling place, is likely to make things even more chaotic. We detail that, and a few other points related to the certification of the new system on Friday, despite a newly filed lawsuit and warnings from cybersecurity and voting systems experts after its failure to meet more than 40 California Voting System Standards, according to the independent testers hired to analyze the system during Padilla’s certification process.
Next it’s on to the President’s lawyers’ case being presented once again as we went to air today, in the U.S. Senate, where Ken Starr (yes, that Ken Starr, the Special Prosecutor who recommended impeachment against Bill Clinton for lying about an affair) argued hypocritically that Trump could not Constitutionally be impeached for Abuse of Power (Article 1 of the two Impeachment Articles against him), even though Starr’s own recent book on impeachment explains that Abuse of Power was the capstone of Clinton’s impeachment case in 1998. That, and his argument that impeachment was just too divisive to put the country through without a bi-partisan political consensus was a bit hard to stomach for those of us old enough to remember the Clinton impeachment.
But the most noteworthy Impeachment-related news today is John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, reportedly charging in a manuscript of his new book, according to the New York Times, that Trump was directly involved in the unlawful freeze of $391 million allocated to Ukrainian for military assistance, unless the Ukrainians agreed to turn over documents related to an investigation of Joe Biden meant to help Trump’s 2020 reelection changes. That alleged Abuse of Power is at the heart of Trump’s impeachment, and the manuscript of Bolton’s forthcoming book reportedly charges that Attorney General Bill Barr, Sec. of State Mike Pompeo and Trump’s Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney were all directly aware of the scheme, according to the Times blockbuster report.
That explosive news on Sunday has, according to several different news outlets, led a number of key GOP Senators to rethink their previous votes against calling for new witnesses and documents in the Senate Trial. Will four or more Republican Senators now agree to vote in favor of subpoenaing Bolton and other related (and/or unrelated) witnesses? That appears to be the question of the moment in this matter as we go to air today, and one we open up to discuss with callers near the end of today’s program…
Brad, I have a question: From 2001 to 2016, votebymail ballots were received by Diebold, then ES&S, outsourced by the registrar. This was done inside Norwalk. For this reason, as well as chain of custody, I have always told voters NOT to vote by mail. In fact desenfranchised voters in LA often found that they were switched to vbm without voters’ consent. The bmds are connectable, per the certification. Do you know if the receipt of the vbm ballots is still outsourced? I would like to advise voters to obtain vbm ballots and walk them in to a ballot box. I wanted to check with you if that is advisable. We know that in the past, in LA County, vbm was the least secure way to vote. Opening a dialog about what we should do.Thank-you!
Robin asked @1:
If this happened, I am not aware of it. I have heard of no “outsourcing” VBM ballots to Diebold or ES&S. (Not doubting you, just have never heard of that.) That said, until this year, I would NOT have advised VBM for L.A. voters, unless they were walking their ballots in for drop off at the precinct on Election Day…
I have seen reports of that, yes. Though not sure what the cause is, who is behind it, if it’s voter mistake or something else, etc. But this is one reason why I recommend folks check their Voter record frequently at LAVote.net
“Connectable”??? What does that mean?
I can’t speak to the “outsourced” question (since I wasn’t aware of it in the first place), but yes, given that the new BMD system is 100% unverifiable after an election, and can easily change a voters vote without their knowledge, I am recommending that all LA Voters now use a VBM ballot and deliver it, in person, to a Voting Center as close to Election Day as possible.
I am not fan of Vote-by-Mail, and have many concerns about it. But, unless something changes, we will now have something even worse at the polling places, the touchscreen VSAP system. So I have to recommend VBM for a hand-marked paper ballot, and recommend a personal drop off as the best way to maximize the odds of your vote being counted, and counted as cast.
Backatcha, Robin!