U.S. Congress approves conservation bill

JULY 23, 2020, by Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-congress-bill.html

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Congress has passed sweeping legislation allocating $900 million a year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and an additional $9.5 billion over five years to address an urgent backlog of maintenance projects at the nation's parks and other public lands.

The legislation, S.3422, is a once-in-a-generation gift to the future, expected to more than double the money available under the program every year for parks and outdoor recreation of all sorts in Washington state. The work of many hands on both sides of the aisle in both houses of Congress, the legislation would for the first time guarantee the full $900 million originally authorized for the fund be allocated every year.

The legislation was passed on Wednesday by the House in a 310-107 vote and has already passed the Senate. It now goes to President Donald Trump, who has said he will sign it.

'The program had been chronically underfunded, even though it is paid for entirely by revenues from offshore oil and gas leases.

Since its creation in 1964—led by U.S. Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson of Washington—the program has funded a conservation, recreation or access project in every county in the country. The program has benefited every type of outdoor enthusiast seeking access to public lands for hunting, fishing, recreational shooting, hiking, biking, birding, wildlife watching and other pleasures of the outdoors.

In Washington state alone, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has paid for more than 700 state projects, investing more than $725 million in everything from urban parks, such as Gas Works Park in Seattle, and recent upgrades to the boat house at Green Lake Park, to trails all over the state and more.

The $900 million includes both spending for the federal LWCF program (which mainly purchases land from willing sellers to add to the nation's public lands) and the state LWCF programs (mainly cost-shared dollars that go to states and municipalities to invest in urban green spaces). The grants are selected by a competitive process.

The $900 million a year Congressional allocation mandated under S.3422 will raise by two to three times how much was typically spent on the program in the past, ending the nearly annual underfunding that has since the program's inception diverted an estimated $22 billion from the fund to other purposes.

In Washington state, the bill is expected to raise the annual allocation from the fund from about $15 million to about $35 million.

The legislation also is a boost to small towns all over Washington and the rest of the country that depend heavily on outdoor recreation for their economy. People are turning to the outdoors more than eve It now goes to President Donald Trump, who has said he will sign it.r for recreation, respite and rejuvenation as the COVID-19 pandemic closes off many other options for vacations, recreation and family fun.

Addressing daunting deferred maintenance needs in the national parks and other public lands also is long overdue. From crumbling trails and roads to outdated water systems and flood damage at campgrounds, the billions provided by the legislation over the next five years will help reopen miles of trails and other public amenities.

In Washington state, more than $427 mill It now goes to President Donald Trump, who has said he will sign it.ion in deferred maintenance projects are waiting for work at national parks, historical reserves, recreation areas and historical parks. The legislation is expected to address about half the maintenance backlog nationally, with an estimated $250 million coming to Washington state alone over the next five years.

From upgrading a nearly 50-year-old water treatment system at Olympic National Park, building new sidewalks at Mount Rainier's Paradise visitor center, and upgrading campgrounds at Mount Rainier, there is no lack of work to be done.

A total of $6.65 billion is allocated for the National Parks Service, $1.4 billion for the U.S. Forest Service, and $475 million each for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Education, for schools.

The economic value of the outdoor economy helped generate the bipartisan support needed for the legislation, especially among lawmakers who already have large amounts of public land in their districts, or who had favored energy development and other land uses over open space and outdoor recreation, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said in an interview Tuesday.

"Truth be told, we turned the focus to the economic value of land and open space," said Cantwell, citing a recent study that estimated the outdoor economy in Washington state alone at $26 billion in consumer spending, 200,000 jobs, and $7.6 billion in wages and salaries. But that's just the start of what the outdoors means to many Washingtonians, Cantwell said. "We know the value of it is in our hearts and souls."

Cantwell in March helped negotiate what came to be called the Great American Outdoors Act, which ultimately combined several legislative approaches to both permanently and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and pay down a big chunk of the country's deferred maintenance backlog on public lands.

U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., spoke in support of the bill Wednesday as the House undertook final debate on the legislation, which brings to fruition his work to find a solution to the maintenance backlog.

"Growing up on the Olympic Peninsula, I learned how important protecting and supporting our parks and our public lands is to driving tourism, growing jobs, and supporting local communities," Kilmer said in a prepared statement.

Cantwell said in an interview Tuesday she was thrilled to see the legislation on the brink of passage.

"The bottom line is I am just so grateful, deep down in my soul," Cantwell said. " ... This is so important ... to the next generation of people, and their children, being able to have the same experiences their parents did because we did the right thing."

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Tortured homeless pair had feet broken with ax, teeth pulled with pliers, police say

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/crime/tortured-homeless-pair-had-feet-broken-with-ax-teeth-pulled-with-pliers-police-say/69-510ef399-8c54-4359-a9ce-c298c0ef6c45?fbclid=IwAR0frI251_RpCA17YheupKnph8yH1Pd8dH2Ew1Qst3q-5ova5fA4h2q8L_Q


The man charged with torture in a brutal Grand Rapids assault at a homeless camp has been ordered to undergo a competency exam.

 A man charged with torturing two people at a Grand Rapids homeless camp used pliers to remove their teeth and an ax to break their feet, according to court documents.

Antwoine John Antwine, 31, has been ordered to undergo a forensic exam to determine if he understands the charges against him and can assist in his own defense.

Gruesome details of the June 23 assault indicate Antwine sprayed his victims with Mace and restrained them with zip ties before working them over with an ax, club and pliers. 

He tortured the man and woman before leaving several hours later with a purse and two cell phones, court records indicate.

“During the assault he had used the back side of an ax to break their feet and several other bones,’’ Detective Case Weston testified on June 25 in swearing out a warrant. 

“Also during the assault, he took a pair of pliers and removed several of the teeth from both the individuals as a way to elicit information from them,’’ Weston wrote.

Grand Rapids police were called to the area of Hamilton and Broadway avenues on the city’s Northwest Side on a report of a woman in distress, court records show. They found the woman, who was nearly incoherent. 

“She had been beaten quite severely and had made comments that she lived at a homeless camp nearby and that there was a male with her,’’ Weston testified, according to a court transcript. 

Police went looking for the homeless encampment and “found a male submerged in the river that they lived by, with his head still above water and was clinging to life.’’

“He had been zip tied with his feet and his hands and had been also fairly brutally beaten,’’ Weston testified.

The pair told police another homeless individual by the name of Antwoine “had come during the night and assaulted them and then stayed for several hours.’’

The victims were taken to a Grand Rapids hospital with critical injuries. Both suffered broken bones and the woman had a collapsed lung. 

Police located Antwine at a separate homeless camp. He admitted to beating the pair “because he had felt that they had stolen something from his homeless camp and wanted to get some information from them,’’ Weston testified.

“He admitted that he had removed their teeth with pliers and that he had zip tied them and basically had done all those things that he was charged with.’’

Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker charged Antwine with two counts of assault with intent to murder, one count of torture and one count of armed robbery. The offenses are punishable by up to life in prison.

Antwine was also charged with unlawful imprisonment, a 15-year felony.

The torture charge accuses Antwine of intending to “cause cruel or extreme physical or mental pain and suffering, inflict great bodily injury or severe mental pain or suffering’’ upon the victims.

“We don’t see torture that often,’’ Becker said. “It’s a fairly troubling charge and there are some serious allegations.’’

Investigators found a video at a local hardware store that shows Antwine purchasing Mace and zip ties. A search of his tent turned up a purse and two cell phones that belonged to the victims, court records indicate.

“Those were found in the tent where Mr. Antwine was ultimately arrested at,’’ Weston testified. “He denied taking the items. But they were found in his tent.’’

Antwine, who was born in New Jersey, has been in Grand Rapids for about a year and does not have a job.

During a recent court hearing, a Grand Rapids District Court judge approved the forensic evaluation, which could take several months to complete. Antwine remains held without bond in the Kent County Jail.

I’m EXEMPT FROM WEARING A MASK Because I Identify As A TWO YEAR OLD…I’m ...

Twitter Unlocks Accounts with Stars of David, Won’t Say Why They Were Blocked in the First Place

By

 Jewish Press News Desk

 -

 2 Av 5780 – July 23, 2020 
www.jewishpress.com

 

Twitter decides that Jewish stars are hateful imagery.

After the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) reported that Twitter was locking accounts featuring Stars of David in their profile pictures, Twitter is reviewing its policy, which it claims was directed at ‘yellow stars’ specifically, which it categorized as “hateful imagery” (Twitter Locks Accounts with Jewish Stars for Displaying ‘Hateful Imagery’).

Several Twitter users recently contacted Campaign Against Antisemitism reporting that their accounts had been locked, and Twitter provided the following rationale: “What happened? We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically for: Violating our rules against posting hateful imagery. You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. As a result, we have locked your account.”

Twitter appeared to have deemed the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism and Jewish pride, to be “hateful imagery”, and was locking the accounts of users who displayed it.

Now Twitter has claimed that the policy was directed only at “yellow stars.” Yet the Stars of David in the profile pictures of locked accounts that we saw also included artistic blue Stars of David and graffitied white Stars of David.

Twitter has claimed in its statement that “While the majority of cases were correctly actioned, some accounts highlighted recently were mistakes and have now been restored.”

We are pleased that Twitter has taken remedial action in this individual cases, however questions remain as to whether this was a genuine policy ineptly administered, or whether Twitter has provided an after-the-fact rationalization for why the accounts of Jewish users displaying their identities were locked.

In response to Twitter’s statement, Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Only one of the accounts locked featured a yellow star, and it very clearly did so as a means of reclaiming the yellow stars used by the Nazis. This is precisely the kind of inept response to antisemitism that we have come to expect from Twitter, which just last week tried to convince us that the viral antisemitic #JewishPrivilege hashtag was legitimate.

“We would happily help Twitter, but they largely ignore us when we approach them, which we take as a reflection of their inconsistency in addressing this. It seems that Twitter prefers to go after Jewish users who proudly display their identity but not after antisemitic users who unabashedly promote anti-Jewish vitriol.”

Others also observed the locking of accounts with Stars of David in their profile pictures.

Recently, Twitter refused to take action against the viral antisemitic hashtag #JewishPrivilege, and earlier this year the social media giant was forced to apologize for permitting advertisements to be micro-targeted at neo-Nazis and other bigots.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

Report exposes rampant illegal fishing in North Korean waters

JULY 22, 2020, by Global Fishing Watch
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-exposes-rampant-illegal-fishing-north.html

By combining satellite data, artificial intelligence and on-the-ground expertise, Global Fishing Watch uncovered the largest known case of illegal fishing perpetrated by vessels originating from one country operating in another nation's waters. 

Credit: © Global Fishing Watch

A new study published today in the journal Science Advances reveals widespread illegal fishing by dark fleets—vessels that do not publicly broadcast their location or appear in public monitoring systems. These fleets are operating in the waters between the Koreas, Japan and Russia, some of the world's most disputed and poorly monitored waters.

The study, "Illuminating Dark Fishing Fleets in North Korea," found that more than 900 vessels of Chinese origin in 2017 and 700 in 2018 likely violated United Nations sanctions by fishing in North Korean waters. The vessels likely caught almost as much Pacific flying squid as Japan and South Korea combined—more than 160,000 metric tons worth over US $440 million in 2017-2018.

"The scale of the fleet involved in this illegal fishing is about one-third the size of China's entire distant water fishing fleet. It is the largest known case of illegal fishing perpetrated by vessels originating from one country operating in another nation's waters," said Jaeyoon Park, senior data scientist at Global Fishing Watch and co-lead author of the study. "By synthesizing data from multiple satellite sensors, we created an unprecedented, robust picture of fishing activity in a notoriously opaque region."

Following North Korea's testing of ballistic missiles, the U.N. Security Council adopted resolutions in 2017 to sanction the country, and some of these prohibit foreign fishing.

The detected vessels originate from China and are assumed to be owned and operated by Chinese interests. However, because these vessels often do not carry appropriate papers, they are likely "three-no boats"— operating without official Chinese authority, with no registration, flag, or license.

Devastating impact on North Korean small-scale fishers

The study also found about 3,000 North Korean vessels fished illegally in Russian waters in 2018.

Using multiple satellite sensors, Global Fishing Watch's new Science Advances study reveals rampant illegal fishing in one of the world's most disputed and least monitored waters. Credit: © Global Fishing Watch

"Competition from the industrial Chinese trawlers is likely displacing the North Korean fishers, pushing them into neighboring Russian waters," said study co-lead Jungsam Lee of the Korea Maritime Institute. "The North Koreans' smaller wood boats are ill-equipped for this long-distance travel."

Hundreds of North Korean boats have washed ashore on Japanese and Russian coasts in recent years. These incidents often involve starvation and deaths, and many fishing villages on North Korea's eastern coast have now been coined "widows' villages."

"The consequences of this shifting effort for North Korean small-scale fishers are profound, and represent an alarming and potentially growing human rights concern," said co-author Katherine Seto, an assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Rogue vessels plunder squid as catch declines

The study claims the previously unidentified vessels pose a huge challenge for squid stock management, with reported catches plummeting by 80 percent and 82 percent in South Korean and Japanese waters respectively since 2003. Pacific flying squid is South Korea's top seafood by production value, one of the top five seafoods consumed in Japan and, until recent sanctions, was the third largest North Korean export.

Disagreement over boundaries in the waters between the Koreas, Japan and Russia have prevented joint fisheries management and hampered national efforts due to a lack of comprehensive stock assessments.

"Illegal fishing in these waters is a very serious matter in Japan, and the lack of shared data and management is a major challenge considering the critical importance of squid in the region," said Masanori Miyahara, President of the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency. "We must face this challenge using the evidence provided by this study and other credible science."

A satellite image of pair trawlers in North Korean waters. Grey ovals show where the neural net classifier identified pair trawlers. In this area, Global Fishing Watch received AIS messages from several vessels (only two shown). White lines connect their most recent AIS position to the estimated position during the time of the satellite image, based on extrapolating the vessel's speed and course. In white is the 9-digit Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) of each vessel. 

Credit: © Planet

The study used four satellite technologies to illuminate the dark fleets. Automatic identification system (AIS)—a collision avoidance system that constantly transmits a vessel's location at sea—provides detailed vessel information, but is used by only a fraction of vessels. The study added radar images, which can identify large metal vessels and penetrate clouds, night time imaging which picks up the presence of fishing vessels using lights to attract catch or conduct operations at night, and high-resolution optical imagery, which offers the best visual "proof" of vessel activity and type. These technologies have never before been combined to publicly reveal the activities and estimated catches of entire fleets at this scale.

"These novel insights are now possible thanks to advances in machine learning and the rapidly growing volume of high-resolution, high-frequency imagery that was unavailable even a couple of years ago." said David Kroodsma, research and innovation director at Global Fishing Watch and co-author of the study. "We've shown we can track industrial fishing vessels that are not broadcasting their locations."

New analysis could underpin inter-Korean cooperation

The 2018 inter-Korean summits underlined the need to build peace through cooperation on the waters, create a joint fisheries management area, and address illegal fishing. Achieving these laudable ambitions will rely on unbiased information that all sides can trust.

"Global fisheries have long been dominated by a culture of unnecessary confidentiality and concealment. Achieving a comprehensive view of fishing activity is an important step toward truly sustainable and cooperative fisheries management, and satellite monitoring is a key part of the solution." said Associate Professor Quentin Hanich of the Australian National Center for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong and co-author. "This analysis represents the beginning of a new era in ocean management and transparency."

The study was itself an example of international cooperation, with scientists from South Korea, Japan, Australia and the United States collaborating to reveal fishing activity in the region.

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U.S. police forces experiment with cameras mounted on guns

July 22, 2020 / 9:57 AM
www.reuters.com
Reporting by Nathan Frandino; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Bernadette Baum

 

KING CITY, Calif. (Reuters) - Amid demands for more police transparency after the killing of George Floyd, U.S. police departments are experimenting with a new way of capturing potentially deadly moments: putting small cameras on their guns.

The police department in King City, California last month became the state’s first force to mandate cameras on all its officers’ handguns.

“With (the) public’s responses to officer-involved shootings, I really felt it was important to have that perspective of what the officer most likely can see and the best point of view to see that from is the barrel of the handgun,” said Robert Masterson, King City police chief.

The cameras, about the size of a thumb, are mounted along a rail on the bottom of a firearm’s barrel and automatically record when the gun is drawn from the holster.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2016, almost half of U.S. law enforcement agencies had acquired body-worn cameras. The use of gun-mounted cameras, however, is far less common and the numbers less known.

Minnesota-based Viridian Weapon Technologies, said more than 500 agencies across 47 states are in various stages of trialing or implementing its gun-camera system, which is aimed at supplementing images from police body cameras.

The gun camera was used in a case in Texas earlier this year to prosecute a suspect who became involved in a shootout with an officer in April 2019. Video from the body camera showed the officer’s arms in front holding the gun, whereas video from the gun camera showed the pistol’s point-of-view.

The gun camera would not be useful in cases of alleged police brutality where a gun is not drawn, and Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, warned that there were limitations to the technology,
“Even when a gun is drawn, they’re not going to capture the context of events leading up to the point where the officer draws their gun and often that is the most crucial part in evaluating an officer’s action and whether that was abusive or professional,” he said.

Rubio: Chinese Consulate in Houston is a 'front' for 'massive spy operation'

 
A firetruck is positioned outside the Chinese Consulate Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Houston. Authorities responded to reports of a fire at the consulate. Witnesses said that people were burning paper in what appeared to be trash cans, according to ... more >

By David Sherfinski - The Washington Times - Wednesday, July 22, 2020
www.washingtontimes.com 


Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, on Wednesday said the Chinese Consulate in Houston is basically a front for a massive spy operation after the State Department ordered the consulate to close.

“So this consulate is basically a front. … It’s kind of [the] central node of a massive spy operation — commercial espionage, defense espionage — also influence agents to try to influence Congress,” Mr. Rubio, the acting chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said on Fox Business Network.

Mr. Rubio said the closure was “long overdue.”The State Department said the move was necessary to protect U.S. intellectual property and private information.

China condemned the move and hinted that there could be retaliation.

Mr. Rubio predicted that China would close one of the U.S. facilities in China as a response.
The Justice Department on Tuesday announced charges against Chinese hackers suspected of trying to steal information from private companies on a potential coronavirus vaccine.

Mail-in voting faces slew of issues nationwide, as emergency USPS memo sounds alarm

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mail-in-voting-faces-slew-of-issues-nationwide

Mail carriers may need to leave packages behind at distribution centers, memo warns

Mail in voting across the country has led to a series of anomalous results in recent weeks – including delayed, misplaced and missing ballots, a review by Fox News has found.

As the issues surfaced, Fox News obtained a copy of a recent U.S. Postal Service (USPS) memo sent to employees detailing budget-related cutbacks. Mark Dimondstein, the president of the America Postal Workers Union, told Fox News that the changes are significantly slowing down mail delivery, and that he is concerned about the impact it will have on mail-in ballots in November.

“Anytime the mail slows down, it's harder for the postal workers to serve the customers, whether it's a mail ballot or anything else," Dimondstein said. "So, again, we're just absolutely opposed to any effort to slow down mail, to delay mail. And that includes, obviously, for the ballots as well."

In the memo, the USPS says mail carriers may have to leave mail behind at distribution centers in order to make it on time to their delivery routes.

"One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that – temporarily – we may see mail left behind or mail on the workroom floor or docks (in P&DCs), which is not typical," the memo reads.

In this May 5, 2020, file photo, Jordan Smellie moves absentee ballots to be counted at City Hall in Garden City, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

The memo continues: "We will address root causes of these delays and adjust the very next day. Any mail left behind must be properly reported, and employees should ensure this action is taken with integrity and accuracy. This is a critical time for us, when decisive, quick and meaningful action is needed."

USPS assured Fox News in a statement that mail-in ballots wouldn't be compromised: "The Postal Service is committed to delivering election mail in a timely manner ... the Postal Service’s financial condition is not going to impact our ability to process and deliver election and political mail," the statement read.

However, USPS has experienced rising delays during the coronavirus pandemic, and numerous sources tell Fox News that the Chicago USPS international processing center suffers from mailing delays of several months. A test package sent by Fox News that was routed through the Chicago processing center has been held up for five weeks and counting. In a statement, the USPS inspector general said more information may be forthcoming in September; the USPS itself offered no explanation.

Republicans have cautioned that the risks are clear. Last week, the GOP notched a major win in a Florida election integrity dispute, and the party says its well-funded efforts are ongoing.

“States that abruptly transitioned to a vote-by-mail system saw elections plagued by fraud and infrastructure and logistical nightmares, which should be a clear and ominous warning ahead of November," RNC national press secretary Mandi Merritt told Fox News. "Democrats’ plot to rapidly implement nationwide vote by mail is a recipe for disaster, disenfranchisement and massive dysfunction in our elections."

Democrats counter that security concerns are overblown and that enhanced ballot access is a worthy tradeoff in any event. "Election officials spend a great deal of our time building in security measures," Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican, told NPR last month. "The idea that people could print millions of ballots either within the country or external to the country, just on its face, is not going to pass muster with an election official."

The following is a state-by-state rundown of major isues that have been detected with mail-in balloting this year alone.

New Jersey: 'Massive computer issues, genuine scandal'

The New Jersey Globe reported in June that "massive computer issues and U.S. Postal Service delays" meant that thousands of residents wouldn't receive their ballots until after the state's July 7 primary.

The paper found that the Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS) was "crashing several times a day for the last few days, leaving local election officials without the ability to process thousands of vote-by-mail ballots just 11 days before the New Jersey primary election."

The series of problems led Division of Elections director Bob Giles to tell election officials to "stop processing ballot requests because of network overloads," according to the Globe.

And, in May, experts said a "genuine absentee ballot fraud scandal" was underway following the May 12 New Jersey city council election. Thousands of ballots were disqualified because signatures on the ballots didn't match with those on file – and, perhaps more concerning, records showed that several thousand mail-in ballots were received but not counted.

"Videos are surfacing online of a single voter carrying numerous ballots," read one NBC report. "Postal workers were seen leaving some ballots sitting out in building lobbies.”

Video

The NBC report noted that Ramona Javier complained that she was recorded as voting, when in fact she had not.

"We did not receive vote-by-mail ballots and thus we did not vote," she told NBC, which then showed her an official list of people who had voted on her block – a list that contained her name.

"This is corruption. This is fraud," Javier said, adding that "there are eight relatives and immediate neighbors she knows of listed as having voted – but who insist they never even received ballots, including one relative who she says has been in Florida for weeks.”

Election law experts sounded the alarm, and Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh warned that so-called "ballot stuffing" may have occurred.

"This is corruption. This is fraud."

— Ramona Javier, who voted whether she wanted to or not

“There is a genuine absentee ballot fraud scandal going on in Paterson,” election law expert and University of California-Irvine School of Law professor Rick Hasen said. Hasen wrote: "When someone tries an absentee ballot scheme like this clumsy attempt in Paterson, it is hard to hide. People get caught.”

RealClearInvestigation's Mark Hemingway reported in June that "following accusations of widespread fraud, voter intimidation and ballot theft in the May 12 municipal elections in Paterson, N.J., state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced Thursday he is charging four men with voter fraud – including the vice president of the City Council and a candidate for that body."

More than 3,190 votes, constituting 19 percent of the total ballots cast, were "disqualified by the board of elections," Hemingway noted.

West Virginia: Postman admits altering ballots

Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced that Thomas Cooper, a mail carrier in Pendleton County, admitted to election fraud.

Cooper "held a U.S. Postal Service contract to deliver mail in Pendleton County," the DOJ said. "In April 2020, the clerk of Pendleton County received '2020 Primary Election COVID-19 Mail-In Absentee Request' forms from eight voters on which the voter's party-ballot request appeared to have been altered."

After the clerk reported the finding to the West Virginia secretary of state’s office, an investigation "found five ballot requests that had been altered from 'Democrat' to 'Republican,'" the DOJ said. "On three other requests, the party wasn’t changed, but the request had been altered."

A United States Post Office mail truck (USPS) parked in Miami, Florida (iStock)

Recent research from Stanford University indicates that mail-in balloting may have neutral partisan effect, and that overall vote shares wouldn't be significantly different.

"Our paper has a clear takeaway: Claims that vote-by-mail fundamentally advantages one party over the other appear overblown," researchers said. However, deliberate fraud in key districts could alter their conclusions.

California: 100K ballots rejected

More than 100,000 mail-in ballots were rejected by California election officials during the March presidential primary, according to data obtained by The Associated Press in July, highlighting a glaring gap in the state’s effort to ensure every vote is counted.

The California secretary of state’s election data showed 102,428 mail-in ballots were disqualified in the state’s 58 counties, about 1.5 percent of the nearly 7 million mail-in ballots returned. That percentage is the highest in a primary since 2014, and the overall number is the highest in a statewide election since 2010.

Two years ago, the national average of rejected mail ballots in the general election was about 1.4 percent and in the 2016 presidential election year it was 1 percent, according to a U.S. Election Assistance Commission study.

The most common problem, by far, in California was missing the deadline for the ballot to be mailed and arrive. To count in the election, ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received within three days afterward. Statewide, 70,330 ballots missed those marks.

What is bal

An additional 27,525 either didn’t have a signature, or the signature didn’t match the one on record for the voter.

Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation that seeks to improve elections, called the uncounted figure discouraging.

“The only thing worse than people not voting is people attempting to vote and having their ballot uncounted,” she said. The tally of nullified votes “can make a difference in a close contest.”

The data didn’t break down the uncounted ballots by party registration. While the overall number was large in March, if it’s the same in November it’s unlikely to affect the presidential race – Trump lost to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 4.3 million votes.

But there are expected to be at least several tightly contested U.S. House races where relatively few votes could tip the balance. In 2018, Democrat TJ Cox upset Republican David Valadao by less than 1,000 votes in a Central Valley district. They have a rematch in November.

New York: 'Scattered problems'

The New York Times reported in June that systemic issues forced many voters to show up at polling places because they simply never received mail-in ballots.

“With many people reluctant to vote in person, or unable to because they have relocated, roughly 765,000 absentee ballots were distributed in the city, according to data released by the New York City Board of Elections," the paper reported. "Yet many people interviewed at polling stations said they were forced to vote in person because they never received absentee ballots that they had requested.”

Indeed, the "overwhelming majority of calls received through the state attorney general’s voting hotline leading up to Tuesday’s primary were from voters who applied for an absentee ballot but had not received it," the paper observed. "More than three weeks after the New York primaries, election officials have not yet counted an untold number of mail-in absentee ballots, leaving numerous closely watched races unresolved, including two key Democratic congressional contests. The absentee ballot count — greatly inflated this year after the state expanded the vote-by-mail option because of the coronavirus pandemic — has been painstakingly slow, and hard to track, with no running account of the vote totals available.”

The president's view

In May, Twitter slapped a warning label on one of President Trump's tweets for the first time, cautioning readers that despite the president's claims, "fact-checkers" say there is "no evidence" that expanded, nationwide mail-in voting would increase fraud risks – and that "experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud."

Twitter's new warning label was issued even though a Twitter spokesperson acknowledged to Fox News that Trump's tweet had not broken any of the platform's rules, and even though several experts have called mail-in balloting an invitation to widespread fraud.

"Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud," read the conclusion of a bipartisan 2005 report authored by the Commission on Federal Election Reform, which was chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker.

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"Twitter 'fact-checkers' really suck," wrote Dan Bongino, a Fox News contributor. He linked to a 2012 article in The New York Times headlined, "Error and Fraud at Issue as Absentee Voting Rises." The article states that "votes cast by mail are less likely to be counted, more likely to be compromised and more likely to be contested than those cast in a voting booth, statistics show."

Separately, GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel observed that Alabama's secretary of state, John Merrill, told CNN earlier in the day that five of the six voter fraud convictions during his tenure related to absentee balloting.

Fox News has reported that Twitter's "Head of Site Integrity" Yoel Roth is in charge of fact-checking efforts – and that he has previously referred to Trump and his team as "ACTUAL NAZIS," mocked Trump supporters by saying that "we fly over those states that voted for a racist tangerine for a reason," and called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a "personality-free bag of farts."