Before every election, it seems that the Republicans start screaming "voter fraud". They warn of illegal immigrants voting, or people voting multiple times using different names or in in different precincts. The claims are all empty of course - there's never any evidence of widespread voter fraud, but they manage to dig up that one instance to insinuate that there is much more going on. The reality is that Democrats just want everyone to vote and for all votes to be counted.

Republicans know they will lose if that happens, which is why they commit the REAL "voter fraud". Their #1 tactic is to purge people from the voting rolls, and then push to disallow as many provisional ballots as possible. They also enact voter ID laws, claiming everyone needs a photo ID to do nearly anything. Yet per the Constitution, everyone has a right to vote - even the homeless (which would include the homeless veterans they claim to care so much about). It's voter suppression - not people voting when or where they shouldn't - that is the REAL voter fraud.

Once the ballots are cast, and the races are tight when the counting is almost done - that's when they really show their colors. In Arizona (where Democrat Krysten Sinema appears to have beaten Martha McSally by a very slim margin), the Republicans are going to court to get a judge to disallow the counting of mail-in ballots. Their rationale is that if the signature on the ballot doesn't exactly match the signature on the envelope, then they think this means fraud. Never mind that my signature never looks exactly the same every time. Never mind that the vast majority of military personnel vote by mail-in. They are assuming that these are all Dem votes that will widen Sinema's lead. They don't want to count every vote.

The race in GA is a classic case. The Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp - who is the guy claiming to have won the race - purged a bunch of voters from the rolls in predominately Democratic districts before election day, and was the one in charge of counting the votes until he recently resigned the post while claiming victory. They also made sure that there were less voting machines in minority/democratic districts so voters had to wait in long lines (and hopefully - to the Republicans - get discouraged and leave without voting). Talk about the fox guarding the hen house! He too wanted to disallow the counting of provisional ballots, and challenger Stacey Abrams took him to court and won. She may still lose the race, but at least the final vote county will reflect the will of the voters (who COULD vote). Here again, they don't want to count every vote.

In Utah, it's the same story. Republican Mia Love (R-UT) is losing to challenger Ben McAdams by a slim margin. She is suing to halt the vote count, also claiming a mismatch in signatures for mail-in ballots (which interestingly enough is how most people in Utah vote). Here again, they don't want to count every vote.

The mess in Florida has gained nationwide attention. The Governor and Senate races are extremely close. Because of the recent "Mad Bomber" event, a mail-sorting facility in Miami-Date County was on lockdown. In that facility were mail-in ballots that didn't get delivered in time for the counting date cutoff. Whether or not those get counted remains to be seen, because Florida is headed for an automatic recount. Rick Scott is suing a couple counties because he claims they didn't follow the law and counted votes they shouldn't have. On Veterans Day, tRumpy told Florida to ignore military ballots (who - as previously mentioned - normally vote via mail-in ballot). Here again, they don't want to count every vote.

In a final insult to our intelligence (and to give some raw meat to the racists), tRumpy decided to assuage his bruised ego at the huge beating the Republicans took at the ballot box last week by claiming well - here... read it yourself:

Of course there is no evidence of this. He (and other Republicans) just can't fathom why they and their policies are unpopular with everyday Americans. Fear only works for so long, and when there's nothing to back it up, it gets replaced with anger at being played for a fool. Once a voter decides to abandon the Republican party, the Republicans no longer want them to vote.

It's the only way they can win - suppress the vote, and not count votes whenever they can. Perhaps they think we should go back to only allowing the landed gentry to vote. That would seem to suit them. It's not American though. True Americans let everyone vote and count every vote. Otherwise, we're back to taxation without representation.