Donald Trump Promises 100% Evidence Of 2020 Fraud — With A Racist Dogwhistle

Donald Trump just became his own hypeman in the trials he faces for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The ex-president promised yet again on Friday to produce irrefutable evidence in court that he got robbed of a victory after lying about his election loss for three years.

“Massive information and 100% evidence will be made available during the Corrupt Trials started by our Political Opponent,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We will never let 2020 happen again. Look at the result, OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED. MAGA!!!”

The Real Voter Fraud

For a while there, it appeared that the GOP’s long-running assault on voting rights was finally losing steam. In recent years, federal courts have struck down or significantly weakened several of the country’s worst voting restrictions. At the same time, many states—including red ones—have debated or passed bills to expand access to registration and polling places.

House Republicans Just Voted to Eliminate the Only Federal Agency That Makes Sure Voting Machines Can’t Be Hacked

In a little-noticed 6-3 vote today, the House Administration Committee voted along party lines to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission, which helps states run elections and is the only federal agency charged with making sure voting machines can’t be hacked. The EAC was created after the disastrous 2000 election in Florida as part of the Help America Vote Act to rectify problems like butterfly ballots and hanging chads. (Republicans have tried to kill the agency for years.) The Committee also voted to eliminate the public-financing system for presidential elections dating back to the 1970s.

In Trump’s unfounded voter fraud claim, a familiar pattern

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday elevated an unfounded conspiracy theory about last fall’s campaign to its highest level yet, saying that he will ask for a “major investigation” into his repeated claims that up to 5 million illegal immigrants voted in the election.

The head-spinning sequence had all the hallmarks that the country witnessed throughout his campaign: First came an early morning tweet calling for the investigation. It was immediately clear his claim had no basis in fact. His demand for an investigation then sent many in the political class — the media, and political supporters and detractors — into a state of astonishment.

Voter registration glitch keeps growing

An Elections Canada spokesman called them “very isolated.” An acceptable level of systemic error. A glitch.

This glitch is growing. Complaints of voters being de-registered, of not receiving their voter information cards or of having the wrong information on those cards have been reported across the country.

After writing about a few of those examples in Vancouver, I asked readers to write me if they had trouble with their voter registration.

Timely new film shows voter suppression in the past: will it happen again?

For most Canadians, organized electoral fraud seemed to emerge with the 2011 election with the robocall scandal.

But that was actually the second election in which these tactics were employed. The successful test-drive took place three years earlier.

Here’s the story of what happened in the Saanich-Gulf Islands (SGI) riding in 2008, based on a stunning new documentary by veteran journalist and filmmaker Peter Smoczynski.

Incorrect voter information cards sent out to hundreds of Canadians

CBC News has learned that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people may have difficulty casting a ballot in this election after receiving incorrect voter information cards.

Elections Canada says there's a problem in various parts of the country.

The dimensions of the 2011 voter suppression fraud gravely underreported

In the first essay in this series, I implied that the failure of Maclean's political editor Paul Wells to mention the 2011 electoral fraud in his book on Stephen Harper qualified him for inclusion among "Harper's Helpers." Wells has himself confirmed the point.

When he suggested on Twitter (the same day) that journalists "might just want to ask other questions" rather than digging into government scandals, singer-songwriter Raffi Cavoukianreplied: "It's the Harper #elxn42 [2015 election] run that ought to be in question -- a lawless, rogue [prime minister] running again -- that's the issue." Raffi added that the Harper Conservatives were "convicted of wrongdoing in each of last [three] elections. That's a huge issue." Wells responded, Tweeting, "The Governor General, Elections Canada and the Constitution disagree with you, you flatulent crank."

Suppressing our knowledge of voter suppression

That 2011 voter-suppression scandal, the "robocalls" fraud: it was all smoke and mirrors, right? So how could Harper's Conservatives have organized a fraud that never happened?

Try consulting Paul Well's book The Longer I'm Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006-, published in 2013. The jury citation for an award this book won called it "impeccably researched" -- and it contains not a whisper about the scandal.

If you get a call from the “Voter Outreach Centre," it's the Conservative party

Telephone solicitors working for the Conservative party are again identifying themselves with the generic-sounding name “Voter Outreach Centre” in calls to potential supporters.

Websites that track unsolicited calls list numerous accounts from people who received these phone calls from numbers in Saskatchewan, Ottawa, British Columbia and the suburban Toronto area since the campaign began.

Robocalls registry will stay secret until after vote

The Conservative government created the Voter Contact Registry last year as part of the Fair Elections Act, in response to outrage over pre-recorded calls in Guelph that directed voters to the wrong polling location in the 2011 election.

The registry is now up and running but voters will have no way of consulting it to see if the calls they receive are legitimate until at least a month after the Oct. 19 election.

Tories revive 'Voter Outreach Centre' name for election calls

Telephone solicitors working for the Conservative party are again identifying themselves with the generic-sounding name “Voter Outreach Centre” in calls to potential supporters.

Websites that track unsolicited calls list numerous accounts from people who received these phone calls from numbers in Saskatchewan, Ottawa, British Columbia and the suburban Toronto area since the campaign began.

The name might confuse some voters, but the calls appear to be compliant with CRTC rules because they also refer to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and/or the Conservative party. Many who reported on the sites said the callers identified themselves as phoning on behalf of Harper as well as the Voter Outreach Centre.

Ministers' Regional Offices May Be Promoting Conservative Party: NDP

OTTAWA — Conservative ministers may be using taxpayer-funded offices to promote the Conservative party rather than doing government work, opposition parties suggested this week.

“It’s a black hole of accountability,” NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus told The Huffington Post Canada. “We’ve never really been able to get a clear picture of what these ministers’ regional offices actually do.”

Mysterious conservative group finds way around political spending limits

The Conservative Party of Canada’s former executive director has set up what could be a game-changing new organization to raise money and promote the benefits of “a strong, stable Conservative government” while bypassing the legal limits on fundraising faced by political parties, iPolitics has learned.

Conservative Voice is actively seeking donations from companies to help it counter Liberal and NDP viewpoints it says are being funded by institutions “on the left of the political spectrum.”

Taxpayers paid legal bills for Tory MPs in robocalls case

The House of Commons paid a six-figure legal bill incurred by a group of Conservative MPs named in an unsuccessful legal challenge of the 2011 election results based on misleading robocalls.

Sources tell the Citizen that the House’s secretive Board of Internal Economy agreed to approve payments for fees incurred by at least six MPs who were named as respondents in the Federal Court challenge, which was backed by the Council of Canadians, an advocacy group.

The court in 2013 had ordered the council to pay the MPs a total of $13,206 – just a small share of the $355,907 their lawyer, Arthur Hamilton, had sought to recover.

Limiting the expat vote: Another (un)Fair Elections Act tactic?

Following in the disturbing trend set by the Fair Elections Act of limiting Canadians' voting rights, Ottawa is now fighting hard to make sure Canadians living abroad long-term cannot participate in the next election.

Last week, the Conservative government appealed a ruling which would have removed a historical limitation on the length of time that citizens can reside abroad and still retain voting rights. If the appeal succeeds, it means that Canadians living abroad for longer than five years would not be eligible to vote in federal elections. 

The Ontario Superior Court's decision is yet to be announced.

Elections Canada Budgets $1M For Aboriginal ID Issue In Federal Vote

Elections Canada has budgeted up to $1 million to help First Nations cope with new voter-identification rules that could make it harder for indigenous people to cast ballots in this year’s federal election.

The agency is hiring the Assembly of First Nations to warn its 634 bands and others about the tougher rules, which are doing away with “vouching,” commonly used on reserves where relatively few voters have identity cards that show their home address as required.

Watchdog Asks Prosecutors to Reopen Robocall Investigation

A government watchdog is demanding the Public Prosecution Service of Canada re-open the investigation into the 2011 robocall scandal following the prosecutor's decision to appeal for a stronger sentence against the only person charged in the scheme.

The prosecutor wants to send a message to would-be election tamperers with a stiffer sentence for Michael Sona, who was convicted in November for his involvement in organizing the 2011 scheme.

Stage is set for more voter fraud in next election

If you're a low-level political operative, the conviction of Conservative party staffer Michael Sona for his role in the robocall scandal may well have deterred you from committing voter fraud in the future.

But if you're a high-level political operative, the outcome of Sona's trial probably left you emboldened.

With a federal election looming, the stage is set for more voter fraud. But this time there's very little chance we'll ever find out about it, due to changes the Conservatives have made in Canada's election laws.

Group With Ties To Kochs Mails Out Incorrect Voter Registration Info To... A Cat?

A conservative group with financial and political ties to the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch sent hundreds of North Carolina voters -- and at least one cat -- incorrect voter registration information, according to the State Board of Elections.

The Raleigh News & Observer first reported Thursday that Americans for Prosperity's North Carolina chapter was responsible for sending an “official application form” to voters that contained erroneous information.