JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
- 63,590
- 16,753
- 2,220
OK, I am leaving out the specifics that would assign a party or faction of any type to the dirty tricks involved here. I simply want to list as many as we can and discuss how they are done and how they can be prevented.
I am using the concept of the 'dirty trick' as ways in which the voters will is frustrated, suppressed or misdirected by party establishments.
List of Dirty Tricks
electoral - high end dirty tricks done mostly before one enters the voting booth
Gerrymandering - defeat popular candidates by redrawing his district to include ethnicities he is unpopular with or simply eliminate his district altogether.
Stalking Horse - a candidate who is not serious about getting elected, but he is similar to the actual intended candidate and he tests the waters for him, gets opposition prep misdirected, then bows out
'Lets you and him fight' - get two natural allies to go to war with each other while the more distinct candidate gets a pass
Splitter third candidate - divide ones opposition into two camps and win by plurality
disqualifying valid candidates - challenging the petition signatures to get them on the ballot is the most common way of doing this, but other things can be challenged as well.
illegal voter drives - targetting unqualified voters to turn out to vote
intimidating voters - scarring voters by various methods from telling them that they face prison time if they vote and are not qualified.
shrink the voter pool - making a campaign so negative and foul that it decreases voter participation
logistical attacks - slammed phone service, bad traffic, fake invitations to rallies on election day
legal harassment - shut down get out the vote drives through court action
fake PACs - absorb funds that would go to candidate Smith by setting up a fake 'Elect Smith' PAC that actually doesnt give a dime to Smith.
fake attacks - victimization fraud
spying - break ins on head quarters, electronic snooping, internet hacking
blackmail - coersion of opposition to become passive and lose
slander - 'push' polling - fake news stories - misrepresentation of parlaimentary actions
Waving the Bloody Shirt - using soem action of mass violence to generate support - popular tactic after the Civil War
scandal mining - aka 'opposition research' that digs into canidates past for any plausible scandal
Illegal contributions - soliciting contributions from foreign governments or corporations or violating legal donation limits by spreading money out to a network of contributors who donate the money in order to evade the personal limits
damaging/removing/preventing opposition advertising/speech - stealing yard signs, vandalizing billboards/posters, shouting down opponents speech and preventing organization of opponents by attending meetings uninvited and disrupting them.
Miscounting votes
throw out votes/delegates for minor errors - bad handwriting, hanging chads, DL signature does not match ballot signature
disqualify candidates/delegates by various justifications - not a party member, failed to register (when they did), registering check not cashed yet, unsubstantiated rumors and cant chance it being bad
'lost' ballots - ooops, cant find where we hid them!
'found' ballots - Hey, look! More ballots appeared in my cars trunk! And they all vote for Mr Smith!
'late' ballots - It will take 2 weeks for your military ballot to get to your state, and you only got the ballot one week prior to the election? Wow, so sorry, but we have to follow the rules!
misdirection for voting:
can vote by phone - Yes, Ms Smith, you dont have to get out in the cold and drive to the school, I can take your vote right here over the phone! It's like an absentee ballot!
voting day is changed - Yeah, we arent voting this Tuesday, its Wednesday this Year because its Leap Year.
illegal for you to vote - I'm sorry Ms Smith, but your address is not in the 3rd district any more, the district boundaries changed, you are now in the 13th district. Yes, Virginia got a new district tow months ago in a court ruling, two in fact. Oh, you just moved to that new address? You cant vote until you have lived there a full two years.
give wrong locale - It's not at the school any more, Ms Smith, its at the old bowling alley by the train tracks.
give erroneous early ballots - putting fake mail-in ballots on peoples doors that dont qualify
Byzantine rules - this is to confuse and frustrate new political enthusiasts into giving up in frustration or just blindly following the party leaderships direction
secret rules committee meetings - Change the rules so you can replace anyone or any rule you want in your own parties cadre/rules and dont tell the 'bad guys' till they challenge how you are doing things in court, or just give your guys a substantial edge in the process without telling anyone else about the change!
multiple voting
'twofers' - machines that register two votes or five if you live in Philadelphia
voting vans - take people from precinct to precinct to vote as often as possible
revotes - disguised voters who vote many times at the same place for different folks who cant or are not voting
voting dead - all at same vacant lot address and over 100 years old
Internet
faked email spamming posed as though from target candidate to alienate potential voters
campaign website DOS attacks/hacks
internet based voice phone call attacks - bad info - intimidation - confuse
fake leaked texts - showing Mr Smith has ties to unsavory groups like KKK, Al Qaeda, Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles
fake campaign sites - these give offensive details or misinformation about a candidate, often by grabbing his natural URL before he can, or using redirect viruses to send people to other sites if they try to go to his website.
Reform proposals
Federal standards for voting and primaries - Clean up the confusion, make it less of an insiders game
National Election Day and National Primary Days - drop a couple of ethnic holidays and have a holiday for primaries and Election Day so people can take their time and vote.
Ban all for-profit corporate contributions to all PACs and campaigns.
Make voter fraud a felony with minimum 5 year sentence if convicted
Folks feel free to add anything I missed or got wrong.
I am using the concept of the 'dirty trick' as ways in which the voters will is frustrated, suppressed or misdirected by party establishments.
List of Dirty Tricks
electoral - high end dirty tricks done mostly before one enters the voting booth
Gerrymandering - defeat popular candidates by redrawing his district to include ethnicities he is unpopular with or simply eliminate his district altogether.
Stalking Horse - a candidate who is not serious about getting elected, but he is similar to the actual intended candidate and he tests the waters for him, gets opposition prep misdirected, then bows out
'Lets you and him fight' - get two natural allies to go to war with each other while the more distinct candidate gets a pass
Splitter third candidate - divide ones opposition into two camps and win by plurality
disqualifying valid candidates - challenging the petition signatures to get them on the ballot is the most common way of doing this, but other things can be challenged as well.
illegal voter drives - targetting unqualified voters to turn out to vote
intimidating voters - scarring voters by various methods from telling them that they face prison time if they vote and are not qualified.
shrink the voter pool - making a campaign so negative and foul that it decreases voter participation
logistical attacks - slammed phone service, bad traffic, fake invitations to rallies on election day
legal harassment - shut down get out the vote drives through court action
fake PACs - absorb funds that would go to candidate Smith by setting up a fake 'Elect Smith' PAC that actually doesnt give a dime to Smith.
fake attacks - victimization fraud
spying - break ins on head quarters, electronic snooping, internet hacking
blackmail - coersion of opposition to become passive and lose
slander - 'push' polling - fake news stories - misrepresentation of parlaimentary actions
Waving the Bloody Shirt - using soem action of mass violence to generate support - popular tactic after the Civil War
scandal mining - aka 'opposition research' that digs into canidates past for any plausible scandal
Illegal contributions - soliciting contributions from foreign governments or corporations or violating legal donation limits by spreading money out to a network of contributors who donate the money in order to evade the personal limits
damaging/removing/preventing opposition advertising/speech - stealing yard signs, vandalizing billboards/posters, shouting down opponents speech and preventing organization of opponents by attending meetings uninvited and disrupting them.
Miscounting votes
throw out votes/delegates for minor errors - bad handwriting, hanging chads, DL signature does not match ballot signature
disqualify candidates/delegates by various justifications - not a party member, failed to register (when they did), registering check not cashed yet, unsubstantiated rumors and cant chance it being bad
'lost' ballots - ooops, cant find where we hid them!
'found' ballots - Hey, look! More ballots appeared in my cars trunk! And they all vote for Mr Smith!
'late' ballots - It will take 2 weeks for your military ballot to get to your state, and you only got the ballot one week prior to the election? Wow, so sorry, but we have to follow the rules!
misdirection for voting:
can vote by phone - Yes, Ms Smith, you dont have to get out in the cold and drive to the school, I can take your vote right here over the phone! It's like an absentee ballot!
voting day is changed - Yeah, we arent voting this Tuesday, its Wednesday this Year because its Leap Year.
illegal for you to vote - I'm sorry Ms Smith, but your address is not in the 3rd district any more, the district boundaries changed, you are now in the 13th district. Yes, Virginia got a new district tow months ago in a court ruling, two in fact. Oh, you just moved to that new address? You cant vote until you have lived there a full two years.
give wrong locale - It's not at the school any more, Ms Smith, its at the old bowling alley by the train tracks.
give erroneous early ballots - putting fake mail-in ballots on peoples doors that dont qualify
Byzantine rules - this is to confuse and frustrate new political enthusiasts into giving up in frustration or just blindly following the party leaderships direction
secret rules committee meetings - Change the rules so you can replace anyone or any rule you want in your own parties cadre/rules and dont tell the 'bad guys' till they challenge how you are doing things in court, or just give your guys a substantial edge in the process without telling anyone else about the change!
multiple voting
'twofers' - machines that register two votes or five if you live in Philadelphia
voting vans - take people from precinct to precinct to vote as often as possible
revotes - disguised voters who vote many times at the same place for different folks who cant or are not voting
voting dead - all at same vacant lot address and over 100 years old
Internet
faked email spamming posed as though from target candidate to alienate potential voters
campaign website DOS attacks/hacks
internet based voice phone call attacks - bad info - intimidation - confuse
fake leaked texts - showing Mr Smith has ties to unsavory groups like KKK, Al Qaeda, Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles
fake campaign sites - these give offensive details or misinformation about a candidate, often by grabbing his natural URL before he can, or using redirect viruses to send people to other sites if they try to go to his website.
Reform proposals
Federal standards for voting and primaries - Clean up the confusion, make it less of an insiders game
National Election Day and National Primary Days - drop a couple of ethnic holidays and have a holiday for primaries and Election Day so people can take their time and vote.
Ban all for-profit corporate contributions to all PACs and campaigns.
Make voter fraud a felony with minimum 5 year sentence if convicted
Folks feel free to add anything I missed or got wrong.
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