The crux of the big media back-and-forth yesterday between CNN’s Brian Stelter and Fox News’ Sean Hannity was 59 Philadelphia voting districts in 2012 where Mitt Romney got zero votes. Hannity said that’s a perfectly reasonable stepping-off point for concerns about voter fraud and the election being “rigged,” as Trump said.
Stelter pointed to findings that President Obama got zero votes in some Utah districts.
Ryan Godfrey, who works as an election inspector in Philly, went on a lengthy tweetstorm yesterday rebutting Hannity’s suggestion of fraud in Romney getting no votes in dozens of voting districts:
1. I'm an inspector of elections for a Philly voting division. Independent but was a Republican as recently as June. https://t.co/pd82mOkEKh
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
2. People like me sign off on election results in every division in Philly. We take job seriously: certifying the accurate will of people.
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
3. Claim that 59 divisions in Philadelphia engaged in electoral fraud in 2012 because no votes for Romney is absurd & personally insulting.
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
4. First, there's absolutely no way to erase votes from the machines we use in this city.
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
5. I've had to tell this to several parents who took kids into booth w/ them & said kids pressed VOTE button too early. Sorry, no do-overs.
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
6. Next, we get a paper tally at the end of the night that we match against physical count of voters who used machines (like an odometer).
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
7. We match that against the count of the individual names of voters who have signed our rolls (and whose names we also recorded in books).
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
8.It's this paper tally we certify, display publicly & send downtown (along w/ data cartridge w/ same info) to be added to overall results.
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
9. So, where is the opportunity for fraud, if I and my four or five colleagues of different parties are doing our jobs and not colluding?
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
10. (And if we were colluding, we would be colluding to add votes—again, votes can't be subtracted.)
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
11. Incidentally, poll workers have colluded to get machine count to match voter count, but it's rare & prosecuted. https://t.co/7fbUzLnTQO
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
12. So, # of votes corresponds with # of voters, & can't be tampered with after fact, but what about having machines change R votes to D?
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
13. It's a liability of Philadelphia's touch-screen voting machines that I can't say for certain that votes can't be switched in software.
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
14. It's theoretically possible the Democrats that for all intents control Philly politics have surreptitiously installed
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
15. sophisticated firmware on some? all? voting machines to change some votes from R to D or whatever.
BUT.BUT:
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
16. Why would they ever change *ALL* R votes to D votes, when anybody who voted R could easily refute the results just by saying they had?
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
17. It would be idiotic to do so! And indeed in 59 divisions with no recorded votes for Romney,
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
18. The Philadelphia Inquirer couldn't find anyone who cast a vote for Romney. Anyone. https://t.co/5hmtwwP1wi
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
19. Finally, Romney got 6.6% of the vote in my racially mixed middle-class West Philly division. 43 votes out of 653.
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
20. How many votes should Romney have expected in those 59 almost entirely poor and almost entirely black communities w/ <1% registered Rs?
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
21. (Running against the first black president, with very high approval ratings in the community?)
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
22. Are you thinking like 100 votes in those 59 divisions? Because stealing those 100 votes would be extremely risky and stupid.
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
23. And, you know, not such a great return on your highly illegal and risky activities in a city where 700,000 votes were cast.
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
24. So yeah, fuck off very much w/ your 2012 Philly election fraud accusations. It didn't happen then & it won't happen this year, says me.
— Ryan Godfrey (@rgodfrey) August 7, 2016
We will see if Hannity responds to him or Stelter on his radio show or TV show later today.
[image via screengrab]
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