Five-year-old GOP emails in Wisconsin show the true purpose behind Trump's claims of 'rigging'

Trump was in Green Bay WI last night chatting up voter fraud.





Five-year-old GOP emails in Wisconsin show the true purpose behind Trump's claims of 'rigging'

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/18/1583947/-Five-year-old-GOP-emails-in-Wisconsin-show-the-true-purpose-behind-Trump-s-claims-of-rigging


By Meteor Blades


Tuesday Oct 18, 2016 · 10:55 AM CST


Trump isn’t alone in taking this approach. Voter fraud has been a key Republican theme for many years now, all part of the party’s long-since unmasked agenda to make it harder to vote for people less likely to cast ballots for the GOP. Call it “fraud,” call it “rigging,” this is totally focused on persuading voters that any results contrary to Republican victory is illegitimate. Pretty amazing considering that so much election machinery in swing states is under the control of GOP secretaries of state.

One example appears in internal emails regarding a 2011 Wisconsin election that shows Republican allegations of voter fraud were viewed not as a serious concern but rather a technique to sow suspicion and discord about the validity of contests they lose or think they might.

After the April 6 election in which the race pitting state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser against Joanne Kloppenburg was too close to call, state Republican leaders discussed alleging the possibility of election fraud and getting their rabid helpers on talk radio to push that theme:

Writing from the Prosser election night party in the early hours of April 6, Scott Jensen [...] a former GOP Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, wrote, "talk radio needs to scream the Dems are trying to steal the race." [...]

[Lobbyist Steve Baas, a former aide to Jensen, messaged]: "Do we need to start messaging ‘widespread reports of election fraud' so we are positively set up for the recount regardless of the final number?” Baas wrote. "I obviously think we should."

Rick Hasen, proprietor of the Election Law Blog said at the time:

It shows that all this talk of fraud is all about manipulating Republican public opinion to believe that if Democrats won a close Supreme Court race, and the recall went to a recount, that the election was stolen by Democratic voter fraud. This cynical “messaging” is sadly validating of what many of us have said.

Fast forward to today.............................