{"id":12780,"date":"2018-11-06T17:37:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T01:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12780"},"modified":"2018-11-06T17:36:46","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T01:36:46","slug":"election-day-2018-was-an-entirely-predictable-national-mess-as-voters-fight-to-vote-again-bradcast-1162018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=12780","title":{"rendered":"Election Day 2018 Was an Entirely Predictable National Mess as Voters Fight to Vote (Again): &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 11\/6\/2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_MidtermVotingLine_GwinnettCountyGA_110618.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>: Who could have foreseen it? Oh, yeah, we did. For months. Years, actually. At this point, even decades.  [<i>Audio link to show follows below.<\/i>]\n<p>American voters finally had their chance on Tuesday to respond to the ongoing, two-year national emergency precipitated by the 2016 election of Donald Trump and full Republican control of Congress. Control of the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House and dozens of governorships were up for grabs today.  But Election Day 2018 was &#8212; yet again &#8212; marred by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/elections\/midterms-2018-voters-face-malfunctioning-machines-long-lines-polls-across-n932156\">completely predictable disasters<\/a> for voters, including hours-long lines and failing voting and registration computers at polling places across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Today we cover just <i>some<\/i> of the worst reported messes (there are still more to come to light and many more that we simply couldn&#8217;t get to)&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In <b>New York City<\/b>, where paper ballot computer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/11\/06\/nyregion\/nyc-voting-machines.html\">scanners failed<\/a> leading to hours-long lines across city;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In <b>Georgia<\/b>, where many voters in African-American precincts stood <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomreganWSB\/status\/1059858653770145792\">in line for hours<\/a> due to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/news\/local-govt--politics\/machines-down-hundreds-wait-one-gwinnett-voting-precinct\/nNdh2wuAvjinnomVB5Oq9M\/\">failing electronic pollbook systems<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsbtv.com\/news\/local\/long-lines-voting-issues-reported-at-polling-places-across-metro-atlanta\/867629575\">too few<\/a> 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting machines (amid the tight race between the vote-suppressing GOP Sec. of State and Gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp and his African-American Democratic opponent  Stacey Abrams);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In <b>North Carolina<\/b>, where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/news\/local\/article221193695.html\">high humidity and a very long ballot<\/a> reportedly prevented scanners from accepting them in a number of precincts in Wake County (Raleigh);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In <b>South Carolina<\/b>, where oft-failed, 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting systems made by ES&#038;S were reportedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wltx.com\/amp\/article?section=news&#038;subsection=politics&#038;topic=elections&#038;headline=richland-county-says-review-your-ballots-after-voting-issues-reported&#038;contentId=101-611652645&#038;__twitter_impression=true\">flipping votes<\/a> and officials were (outrageously) said to be making calibration adjustments to them in the middle of Election Day (a very dangerous idea!);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In <b>Kansas<\/b> and <b>Missouri<\/b> where voters also <a href=\"http:\/\/amp.kansascity.com\/news\/politics-government\/election\/article221167130.html?__twitter_impression=true\">reportedly fought<\/a> with many problems, incluing long lines, voting systems that failed and poll workers unlawfully demanding Photo IDs to vote. In Kansas, Sec. of State and GOP &#8220;voter fraud&#8221; fraudster Kris Kobach is overseeing his own very tight race for Governor, and in Missouri, Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is fighting for her life as Democrats hope to claw back a majority in the U.S. Senate or keep Republicans from expanding their current one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then, we&#8217;re joined by Emmy award-winning journalist and documentarian <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hollerbackfilm.com\"><b>LULU FRIESDAT<\/b><\/a> with a <a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/new-evidence-shows-texas-senate-race-is-vulnerable-to-manipulation\/\">troubling exclusive report<\/a> for us out of Dallas County, Texas, amid the reportedly close contest for U.S. Senate between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and his popular upstart Democratic  challenger Beto O&#8217;Rourke.<\/p>\n<p>Friesdat reports on two different serious concerns out of the Long Star State&#8217;s second-most populous county, where numbers reported by the County&#8217;s ES&#038;S tabulators from the state&#8217;s March primary are still not adding up correctly (yes, months later, questions are still emerging), and from the County&#8217;s counting room, where a Texas election integrity group is reporting today that a computer in the tabulation facility appears to be hooked up to WiFi. That Friesdat tells me, is highly unlawful and potentially very troubling for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is <i>not<\/i> okay for it to be around voting machines and tabulators, because that is one of the easiest ways for election results to be hacked,&#8221; says Friesdat, who has been covering concerns about voting systems for many years now. &#8220;So there are usually very, very clear laws regarding internet connectivity or Wi-Fi in a tabulating area. And that is the case in Texas. They have laws that <i>forbid<\/i> Wi-Fi or connectivity.&#8221;  That, in a county where their vendor is ES&#038;S, the nation&#8217;s largest voting machine vendor, which recently <a href=\"https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/mb4ezy\/top-voting-machine-vendor-admits-it-installed-remote-access-software-on-systems-sold-to-states\">lied to the <i>New York Times<\/i><\/a> about whether their systems include remote access software. (Turns out many of them do, but that&#8217;s not what they initially told the <i>Times<\/i>, even as it still remains unclear which counties use ES&#038;S systems with such capabilities, and even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/daily\/2018\/11\/05\/voting-machines-what-could-possibly-go-wrong\/\">with cellular modems<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Friesdat does close on a positive note, however, noting that many in the public are becoming aware of these concerns and that observations by the public are helping. &#8220;The more people get involved and keep looking, down to the nitty gritty, what&#8217;s going on in your elections &#8212; it&#8217;s helping, folks! Keep it up!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Desi Doyen joins us today for our latest <a href=\"https:\/\/GreenNews.BradBlog.com\"><i>Green News Report<\/i><\/a>, with some bad news about plastic and the air we breathe, but some good news from the U.S. Supreme Court (believe it or not) and from the World Bank, which has now said it will no longer help finance coal-fired power plants anywhere in the world, because renewables are now cheaper than coal.<\/p>\n<p>Results &#8212; as reported&#8230;probably &#8212; tomorrow&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_ElectionDayProbs-GA-NY-NC-SC-KS-MO_LuluFriesdat-DallasCountyWiFi_110618.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><br \/>\n[audio:http:\/\/bradblog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_ElectionDayProbs-GA-NY-NC-SC-KS-MO_LuluFriesdat-DallasCountyWiFi_110618.mp3]<\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/stitcher.com\/s\/player.php?fid=25838&#038;src=psl\">Stitcher<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On today&#8217;s BradCast: Who could have foreseen it? Oh, yeah, we did. For months. Years, actually. At this point, even decades. [Audio link to show follows below.] American voters finally had their chance on Tuesday to respond to the ongoing, two-year national emergency precipitated by the 2016 election of Donald Trump and full Republican control [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1154,89,675,1006,952,543,499,850,299,442,930,106,6,28,200,5,72,171,477,654,120,111,43,300,126,248,1170,658,47,166,198,233,313,243],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-12780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-beto-orourke","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-brian-kemp","category-claire-mccaskill","category-climate-change","category-coal","category-dallas","category-democrats","category-dominion-voting","category-election-2018","category-election-fraud","category-election-irregularities","category-election-reform","category-environment","category-ess","category-georgia","category-kansas","category-kpfk","category-kris-kobach","category-missouri","category-new-york","category-north-carolina","category-republicans","category-rights-and-freedoms","category-south-carolina","category-stacey-abrams","category-ted-cruz","category-texas","category-touch-screen-vote-hopping","category-us-house","category-us-senate","category-us-supreme-court","category-voter-registration"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12780"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}