"It Was the Right Thing to do"

Link to CNN Story: Democrat Claims Patrick's Bounty

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick put up campaign funds and offered a reward to anyone who reported voter fraud in Pennsylvania following the 2020 election.  If you recall, Patrick and several other Texas politicians were livid because Pennsylvania Democrats scored a victory for Joe Biden after a long, drawn-out vote count that was caused by a massive number of mail-in ballots.  In an unpredented and completely unconstitutional attempt to get votes in Pennsylvania overturned, claiming that the state had changed its voting procedures in a non-legislative manner, Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, sued the state of Pennsylvania in the Supreme Court.  

The court dismissed the case immediately, stating that the constitution leaves the conduct of elections up to the individual states, therefore Texas had no legal standing to bring a case to the court of this nature. It was a little bit hypocritical for Texas to bring such a case, since it is the poster-child state for changing election rules without legislative approval but things didn't turn out the way they wanted.

But sometimes, you just can't fix stupid. Hence, the Lieutenant Governor's determination to keep Pennsylvania's votes from counting. 

The problem with Patrick's offer is that it requires evidence leading to a conviction.  You can't get the money for just pointing fingers and making an accusation, like the collection of paid witnesses that showed up to grab Trump cash from Giuliani and Powell during their highly unsuccessful attempt to convince even one court that what they had was "evidence."  To get your hands on Patrick's stash, proof is needed in order to substantiate another court challenge to the vote certification.  And that's the catch. 

Almost half of the ballots cast in Pennsylvania in 2020 were mail-in.  And it's just a logistical and physical fact that voting by mail is the most secure way to run an election.  Oh, and by the way, Pennsylvania has allowed mail-in voting for decades, and there was no change in any election procedure that occurred prior to 2020.  The difference from previous elections was that this time around, the number of requests for them was much higher because of the pandemic.  And since procedures did not change, and the mail-in ballots could not be opened and counted until after 7 p.m. on election night, it took a week to count them all.  

One Case After a Year, Reported by a Democrat and Involving a Republican

Eric Frank, a poll worker, reported Ralph Holloway Thurman, who had voted once and attempted to vote a second time as his son.  Frank, who is a Democrat, recognized the 72 year old Republican who came back to the same polling location later in the day in a baseball cap and Ray-Ban sunglasses.  He was convicted and sentenced to three years probation.  The conviction let to the meager pay-out from Patrick.  

"Of course, I never do anything for money, that's just how I was raised.  I do things because it is the right thing to do.  And I would have reported Thurman whether he was a Republican or Democrat," said Frank.  

"It was just ironic--it's my opinion, that Patrick put up, they put out this bounty to try to find Democrats committing voter fraud.  And, in fact, it was the complete opposite of what their intentions were," he stated.  

Or perhaps understated.  

Pennsylvania's vote has been audited, recounted, and a "forensic audit" performed because the myth was circulating among Republicans that some of the ballots may have come from "outside sources."  Those who make accusations of "massive voter fraud" have absolutely no idea how an election is conducted or how ballots are counted.  And the politicians who are making these claims, including Trump, clearly think that their followers and supporters must be the most ignorant, stupid people on the face of the planet to believe what they say.  

After All the Audits, Recounts, and Even Dan Patrick's Bounty, No "Massive Voter Fraud" Has Been Proven

Just this week, a complete audit of ballots in Wisconsin, where Biden won the state by just over 20,000 votes, was finished.  This was audit number 3 in Wisconsin, with two previous audits having been conducted prior to the deadline for certifying the election results.  Most audits find a few discrepancies here and there, in Wisconsin, the total number amounted to fewer than 300 votes.  But these were common discrepancies, not evidence of any kind of "fraud."  It seems like a pointless waste of taxpayer dollars to conduct an election audit a year after the election is over, since it is long past the time that anything can be done about it.  

Likewise, ballots in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and Nevada have all been recounted at least twice, audited at least twice and no evidence of any kind of fraud has surfaced.  In Arizona, where Doug Logan's "Cyber Ninjas" make themselves look like incompetent idiots, spend months examining counting and voting machines, looking at ballots and claiming to be examining them looking for "bamboo fibers" which allegedly would prove they came from China, they humiliatingly had to conclude that actually, Biden got about 300 more votes than the certified total showed.  They chided the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for procedural practices which were nothing more than a shield for their own incompetence and inability to produce what their master had ordered.  They spent $6 million in an exercise in incompetence and futility.  

Proof That There Was No "Massive Voter Fraud" in the 2020 Election

An incompetent nut job like Doug Logan, and his "Cyber Ninja" boobs, paid by Trumpies to find massive voter fraud in Arizona, couldn't even find something that might support another lie about massive voter fraud.  Logan walked away with $6 million, most of it from Trumpies but some of it wasted tax dollars from the people of Arizona.  The report they left behind is proof that Trump's claim of massive voter fraud is a lie.  

Likewise, the failure of Dan Patrick's bounty to find its way into anyone's pocket who actually can prove a claim of voter fraud committed by Democrats, after almost a year of being offered, is another major piece of evidence that proves the "big lie" is exactly that, another Trump lie.  Patrick must not think very highly of his fellow Republicans, thinking that they need to be motivated by money to "do the right thing" like Mr Frank, the Democratic poll watcher in Pennsylvania did.  But then, through all of this post-election madness that includes Republicans supporting and defending a mob that attempted to overthrow the goverment on January 6th, it's obvious that you can't depend on Republicans to "do the right thing."