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The Myth of Non-Citizen Voters · Conspiracy! The Show

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Speaker 2: Destroy.
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Speaker 1: Welcome to Conspiracy The Show, the world's most trusted conspiracy
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Speaker 1: theory podcast, with your hosts Adam Todd Brown and Olivia Heidar.
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Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome to Conspiracy the Show. I'm your host,
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Speaker 2: Adam Todd Brown joining me as co host this week. Oo,
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Speaker 2: my favorite co host of all no co host. I
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Speaker 2: am actually going it alone this week. This was going
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Speaker 2: because big news. Starting in October, Conspiracy the Show will
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Speaker 1: Now.
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Speaker 3: there will.
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Speaker 2: Let's get to this week's episode. As the title I'm
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Speaker 2: assuming you've already read, implies, I'm talking about the latest
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Speaker 2: and hottest twenty twenty four election conspiracy, the one that
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Speaker 2: claims millions and millions of non citizens are registering to
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Speaker 2: vote just under two months away from election day. But
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Speaker 2: chatter about stolen votes and tales of crooked election officials
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Speaker 2: have been swirling since I don't know the second the
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Speaker 2: twenty twenty election ended. I think it's pretty clear that
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Speaker 2: Trump and his followers are only going to accept the
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Speaker 2: results of this election if he wins in a landslide,
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Speaker 2: and if he doesn't.
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Speaker 3: It's pretty clear.
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Speaker 2: At least on the Trump administration side of things, that
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Speaker 2: the groundwork is already being laid to contest the results
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Speaker 2: of this election. One way they're going to do that
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Speaker 2: is by employing one of the key tactics of the
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Speaker 2: campaign overall, which is demonizing immigrants. Leading the charge in
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Speaker 2: that way is our country's future Minister of Propaganda, Elon Musk.
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Speaker 2: He's been going hard in the paint pushing a batshit
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Speaker 2: theory that millions upon millions of non citizens have been
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Speaker 2: registered to vote in the twenty twenty four election. And
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Speaker 2: I know he's a silly bitch, and no one you
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Speaker 2: know pays attention to his bullshit. But the guy does
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Speaker 2: have one hundred and ninety seven million Twitter followers, and
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Speaker 2: it's a highly unfortunate reality that the demographic his rantings
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Speaker 2: are most likely to resonate with our Silicon Valley tech
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Speaker 2: bro types who have plenty of money to throw behind
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Speaker 2: whatever initiative their hero says they should, including fighting election
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Speaker 2: fraud in big air quotes. When you combine these claims
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Speaker 2: with all that nonsense about immigrants eating pets in Ohio,
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Speaker 2: which is the topic of next week's you don't even
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Speaker 2: like this show for the record, what you get is
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Speaker 2: absolutely perfect conditions for some actual purge type shit to
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Speaker 2: jump off, because Elon Musk's claims don't just resonate with
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Speaker 2: tech bros. In the show notes, I'll link to a
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Speaker 2: very long Washington Post article that includes interviews with state
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Speaker 2: and local election officials all around the country, and one
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Speaker 2: of the things they report is that whenever Elon Musk
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Speaker 2: posts a crazy election theory, people start showing up at
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Speaker 2: city council meetings and things of the like to push
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Speaker 2: those same theories, Like when on April fourth of this year,
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Speaker 2: he retweeted a claim that quote, the number of voters
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Speaker 2: without a photo ID is skyrocketing in three key swing
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Speaker 2: states Arizona, Texas, and Pennsylvania end quote. His retweet was
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Speaker 2: seen by some thirty seven million people, and more than
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Speaker 2: a few of them picked up that theory and ran
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Speaker 2: with it, spreading it far and wide.
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Speaker 3: Problem is, the claim isn't true.
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Speaker 2: When someone registers to vote without an ID, they are
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Speaker 2: referred to the Social Security Administration for verification. That two
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Speaker 2: million figure is the number of people who were refer
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Speaker 2: to the Social Security Administration. It is in no way,
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Speaker 2: shape or form an indication that two million non citizens
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Speaker 2: registered to vote. And just think of how stupid that
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Speaker 2: claim is. Arizona is registering non citizens to vote. Arizona
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Speaker 2: the state that passed an anti immigration law that was
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Speaker 2: so gestapo esque it was dubbed the show Me Your
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Speaker 2: Papers Law. That Arizona ground zero for twenty twenty election fraud.
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Speaker 2: Claims Arizona they're letting non They're letting non citizens register
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Speaker 2: to vote in record numbers.
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Speaker 3: Of course not.
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Speaker 2: That's just one of the states where people are most
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Speaker 2: likely to get riled up by bullshit misinformation like this.
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Speaker 2: So you include him in the tweet, it's propaganda, And
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Speaker 2: with Trump talking about giving Elon Musk a cabinet position
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Speaker 2: if he's reelected, I'm comfortable saying it's state propaganda. But
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Speaker 2: because of shit like this, Musk's tweets also tend to
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Speaker 2: coincide with wild requests to purge voter roles, a thing
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Speaker 2: that's already happened in states like Ohio. In Georgia and Ah, purge,
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Speaker 2: there's that word again. Another piece of misinformation Musk pushed
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Speaker 2: on Twitter centers around a claim that forty seven thousand
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Speaker 2: non citizens would be registered to vote in Georgia. This
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Speaker 2: claim comes from a video made by a right winger
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Speaker 2: named Anthony Rubin where he goes to a nor Cross,
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Speaker 2: Georgia apartment complex and claims he works at a company
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Speaker 2: that helps Hispanic people register to vote. He asks everyone
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Speaker 2: in the video if they're US citizens and if they're
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Speaker 2: registered to vote, and a few of them seem to
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Speaker 2: confirm that they are non citizens who are registered to vote,
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Speaker 2: and ooh, scandalous. Now, Ruben claimed fourteen percent of the
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Speaker 2: people he talked to said they were non citizen registered voters,
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Speaker 2: and then he took that percentage and applied it to
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Speaker 2: state figures showing the number of non citizens in the state.
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Speaker 2: And that's how we arrived at the notion that forty
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Speaker 2: seven thousand non citizens would be registering to vote in Georgia.
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Speaker 2: Not even a hint of science in that methodology. There's
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Speaker 2: also lots of problems with the video. For one, The
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Speaker 2: New York Times also visited that apartment complex and talked
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Speaker 2: to the people in that video, and you're not going
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Speaker 2: to believe it. A lot of them just told Anthony
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Speaker 2: Rubin what they thought he wanted to hear in order
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Speaker 2: to make him go away. Several others said they lied
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Speaker 2: about being registered to vote because they were worried that
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Speaker 2: if they said they weren't registered, they'd be compelled to
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Speaker 2: register and that would put them on the radar of
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Speaker 2: immigration authorities. As pointed out in a mother Jones article
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Speaker 2: we'll link to by writer Isabel Diaz, non citizen voting
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Speaker 2: is damn near a non issue. Here's a quote from
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Speaker 2: that article. A study by the Brennan Center for Justice
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Speaker 2: found that in the twenty tenty sixteen election, election officials
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Speaker 2: in forty two jurisdictions overseeing the tabulation of twenty three
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Speaker 2: point five million votes only referred about thirty cases of
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Speaker 2: suspected non citizen voting for investigation or prosecution end quote.
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Speaker 2: It's also mentioned that data compiled by the Heritage Foundation,
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Speaker 2: the Conservative Shit Stains Behind Project twenty twenty five and
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Speaker 2: lots of other awful ideas over the years, actually proves
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Speaker 2: that non citizen voting is a myth. An outfit called
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Speaker 2: the American Immigration Council analyzed the Heritage Foundation's database of
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Speaker 2: fifteen hundred and forty six instances of voter fraud dating
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Speaker 2: back to the nineteen eighties, and they found just sixty
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Speaker 2: eight cases of non citizen voting again since the eighties,
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Speaker 2: and only ten of those cases involved undocumented immigrants.
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Speaker 3: So this is just blatant la meant.
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Speaker 2: To incite hatred and mistrust toward one particular group. Nazi
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Speaker 2: shit is what we used to call it. That's especially
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Speaker 2: scary because this is a claim that has already made
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Speaker 2: its way into more mainstream politics, and I use that
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Speaker 2: term loosely. With House Speaker Mike Johnson recently introducing the
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Speaker 2: Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which would make providing proof
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Speaker 2: of citizenship a requirement to vote, never mind that millions
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Speaker 2: of US citizens don't have a passport or birth certificate
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Speaker 2: to present when registering to vote. Depending on how long
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Speaker 2: it takes to track those documents down, an election could
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Speaker 2: very easily come and go without that person being able
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Speaker 2: to vote. And hey, that's fine. Voting is only the
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Speaker 2: foundation of our democracy and one of the most basic
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Speaker 2: rights afforded us as American citizens. What's one missed election,
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Speaker 2: especially this one, doesn't matter that much. You'll get them
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Speaker 2: next time. Don't worry about it. Hey, let's drop some
10:04
Speaker 2: good news in the midst of all this chaos. In
10:07
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, part of Trump's scheme to overturn the election
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Speaker 2: involved gathering what have come to be known as fake
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Speaker 2: electors in seven states, mostly swing states, to sign certificates
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Speaker 2: declaring Trump the electoral college winner in states where Biden
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Speaker 2: actually won. The good news is that a lot of
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Speaker 2: those co conspirators will not be returning to their election
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Speaker 2: certification roles in twenty twenty four. The bad news is
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Speaker 2: that fourteen of them will be Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico,
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Speaker 2: and Pennsylvania are all returning. At least some of the
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Speaker 2: fake electors from twenty twenty to their previous roles. Wisconsin
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Speaker 2: hasn't named their electors yet, but a legal settlement bars
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Speaker 2: the twenty twenty bunch from returning. Probably the biggest bit
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Speaker 2: of good news here is that Arizona and Georgia, both
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Speaker 2: the two where the twenty twenty results were contested the hardest,
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Speaker 2: will not be returning any of the pro Trump electors
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Speaker 2: from twenty twenty. I have no confirmation that that doesn't
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Speaker 2: mean both states will be bringing more pro Trump electors
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Speaker 2: this time, but still it sounds like good news on paper. Also,
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Speaker 2: a lot of things that were possible in twenty twenty
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Speaker 2: in terms of contesting election results are by law no
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Speaker 2: longer possible in twenty twenty four, thanks to the passage
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Speaker 2: of the Electoral count Reform Act, which plugged a lot
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Speaker 2: of the holes that were in the certification process in
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Speaker 2: twenty twenty. Still, if Trump loses, don't expect those fourteen
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Speaker 2: returning pro trumpers to sign off on the results quietly.
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Speaker 2: What's interesting about this part, the part where state election
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Speaker 2: officials might just refuse to do their job if Trump loses,
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Speaker 2: is that it will ultimately take responsibility for contesting the
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Speaker 2: election out of Trump's hands.
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Speaker 3: He won't need.
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Speaker 2: To fight it if election officials in swing states contest
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Speaker 2: it for him, and it seems like that's the plan here.
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Speaker 2: It's mentioned in an article we'll link to from the
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Speaker 2: Minnesota Reformer that election canvassers in particular seem to be
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Speaker 2: getting more and more aggressive on the Republican side of things. Canvassors,
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Speaker 2: if you're unfamiliar, are the people who confirm that the
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Speaker 2: number of votes cast matches the number of ballots on
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Speaker 2: hand when voting is over. Sometimes the two don't match,
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Speaker 2: and it usually boils down to things like two ballots
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Speaker 2: sticking together when handed out, or someone getting a ballot
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Speaker 2: and then getting frustrated with long wait times and leaving
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Speaker 2: with that ballot in hand. Those are the kind of
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Speaker 2: discrepancies they're supposed to be concerned with. They happen, and
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Speaker 2: they're almost always explainable. But it's those exact kind of
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Speaker 2: discrepancies that fuel the twenty twenty stolen election rumors, especially
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Speaker 2: in Arizona, and now a bunch of fundamentalists supporters are
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Speaker 2: getting on canvassing boards all over the country and turning
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Speaker 2: the certification process into more of a look for illegals
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Speaker 2: voting kind of process. Again, this really makes things easy
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Speaker 2: on Trump because he doesn't have to be the one
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Speaker 2: to challenge the results and do the normal thing, which
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Speaker 2: is to call for a recount that happens all the
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Speaker 2: time part of the election process. This way, his supporters
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Speaker 2: can just make claims and file lawsuits on his behalf,
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Speaker 2: which is exactly what happened in Michigan in twenty twenty
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Speaker 2: when a group of MAGA finds sued to have votes
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Speaker 2: in three Michigan counties excluded from the final total, claiming
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Speaker 2: there had been quote issues and irregularities. It didn't work, obviously,
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Speaker 2: but I imagine that isn't going to stop any Trump types
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Speaker 2: from trying something similar this time around. So given all
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Speaker 2: the chaos surrounding the twenty twenty four election in their
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Speaker 2: state in particular, this makes for a great time for
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Speaker 2: Arizona to introduce a two page ballot into the process
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Speaker 2: for the first time since two thousand and six. There
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Speaker 2: are a few different reasons for it, apparently, one of
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Speaker 2: them being that lawmakers in droves sent ballot propositions to
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Speaker 2: be voted on by the people, rather than risking having
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Speaker 2: them vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs. This is apparently the
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Speaker 2: biggest factor in making Arizona's ballots so much longer this
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Speaker 2: time around, because with ballot initiatives you have to include
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Speaker 2: a whole write up explaining what it's about. You aren't
14:37
Speaker 2: just picking between two names. There are also an unprecedented
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Speaker 2: number of third party candidates running for office, so that
14:46
Speaker 2: doesn't help either. Longer ballots will mean voters spending more
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Speaker 2: time in the booth, which will lead to longer lines,
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Speaker 2: which someone on some side is sure to claim is
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Speaker 2: clear and obvious proof the election is rigged. Oh and
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Speaker 2: also two page ballots tend to jam in tabulation machines
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Speaker 2: more often, which is ensure to inspire a truth Social
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Speaker 2: post or two. Just altogether outstanding timing Arizona. I'm sure
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Speaker 2: there will be no blowback.
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Speaker 3: At all from this decision.
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Speaker 2: And speaking of blowback, if Trump loses, obviously we should
15:23
Speaker 2: be expecting chaos. What if he wins, though, I think
15:26
Speaker 2: we should still be expecting chaos. He recently posted on
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Speaker 2: truth Social the following quote. When I win, those people
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Speaker 2: that cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of
15:39
Speaker 2: the law, which will include long term prison sentences. Please
15:44
Speaker 2: beware that this legal exposure extends to lawyers, political operatives, donors,
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Speaker 2: illegal voters, and corrupt election officials. End quote. I know
15:56
Speaker 2: he keeps distancing himself from it, but does anyone actually
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Speaker 2: believe Trump and Project twenty twenty five have nothing to
16:04
Speaker 2: do with each other. Most of the authors of it
16:06
Speaker 2: are former Trump administration officials who will probably be back
16:10
Speaker 2: if he manages to serve a second term, like Gene Hamilton,
16:14
Speaker 2: a former Department of Justice official who served under Trump.
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Speaker 2: As covered by another Mother Jones writer p Malevy, Hamilton
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Speaker 2: wrote a section of the Project twenty twenty five Mandate
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Speaker 2: for Leadership document that suggests sending the Department of Justice
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Speaker 2: after any local election official who passes a voting law
16:33
Speaker 2: the Feds don't like. Ironically, the basis for his argument
16:38
Speaker 2: is the eighteen seventy one Ku Klux Klan Act, a
16:42
Speaker 2: law that was passed to protect the rights of former slaves,
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Speaker 2: including the right to vote. Hamilton points to a recent
16:49
Speaker 2: example where his newfangled local election policing version of the
16:54
Speaker 2: DOJ would swing into action, and it's kind of horrifying.
16:58
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, Pennsylvania election head Kathy Bukvar authorized counties
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Speaker 2: to give provisional ballots to voters whose mail in ballots
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Speaker 2: were disqualified for minor issues. We're talking about things like
17:12
Speaker 2: having the wrong date on them, for example. So Kathy
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Speaker 2: Buokvar's solution was you toss that ballot out and just
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Speaker 2: give that person a provisional ballot and let them vote
17:23
Speaker 2: that way, not against the law in the slightest The
17:27
Speaker 2: decision led to absolutely zero people voting who shouldn't have
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Speaker 2: not a crime at all, So right out of the gate,
17:36
Speaker 2: they're making it clear that they aren't so much looking
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Speaker 2: for crimes as much as they are people who strive
17:43
Speaker 2: to make elections fair in a way that doesn't benefit
17:46
Speaker 2: King Trump. And that's pretty goddamn terrifying. But again, Trump
17:51
Speaker 2: and Project twenty twenty five have nothing to do with
17:53
Speaker 2: each other. So it's fine, right, it's fine, This is
17:56
Speaker 2: all fine.
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Speaker 3: Okay.
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Speaker 2: One last election related story, and it might be a
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Speaker 2: lucrative one for you. Do you think you know how
18:04
Speaker 2: this election is gonna end? Are you confident enough to
18:07
Speaker 2: put some money on it? If so, great news that
18:10
Speaker 2: might be possible soon, like in a quasi legal draft
18:13
Speaker 2: Kings kind of way. Even for the longest time, betting
18:17
Speaker 2: on election outcomes has been very much illegal in this country.
18:22
Speaker 2: But a federal judge in Washington just struck down a
18:26
Speaker 2: decision by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an outfit that
18:30
Speaker 2: I absolutely knew existed and am highly knowledgeable about, that
18:34
Speaker 2: prohibited a company from offering bets on the outcome of
18:38
Speaker 2: congressional elections. The CFTC initially shot down the idea proposed
18:44
Speaker 2: by a New York based company called Kalshi on the
18:46
Speaker 2: grounds that, yes, no bets on the outcome of congressional
18:51
Speaker 2: elections constituted gambling that was not in the best interest
18:56
Speaker 2: of the public, unlike most other forms of gambling, which
18:59
Speaker 2: are great for the public. Apparently, gambling on elections is
19:03
Speaker 2: a widespread thing in Europe, but no jurisdiction in the
19:07
Speaker 2: United States has ever allowed it, and a lot of
19:10
Speaker 2: states straight up outlaw it. Here's a quote from Calshie
19:14
Speaker 2: about the decision. The Commission lost fair and square on
19:19
Speaker 2: the law. It should not be allowed to snatch a
19:21
Speaker 2: procedural victory from the jaws of defeat by running out
19:25
Speaker 2: the clock as the election nears. Calshee and the public
19:29
Speaker 2: deserve access to the contracts that the CFTC has blocked
19:34
Speaker 2: for too long already end quote. And honestly, I see
19:39
Speaker 2: no way this could go wrong at all. Gambling has
19:42
Speaker 2: been great for the integrity of professional and college sports
19:48
Speaker 2: both and I have no doubt it will be great
19:51
Speaker 2: for the integrity of our elections. Also, if you disagree,
19:55
Speaker 2: I got fifty bucks, it says you're wrong. And hey,
19:58
Speaker 2: that's our episode once again. In October, we're going weekly,
20:01
Speaker 2: moving back to Tuesday for public episodes.
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Speaker 3: Keep your ears peeled for all of that.
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Speaker 2: Fridays, we'll be doing two bonus episodes every month. They
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Speaker 2: won't all be solo episodes. Don't worry about that if
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Speaker 2: that's not your thing. I don't know why it's not
20:15
Speaker 2: your thing, but hey, to each their own. If you
20:18
Speaker 2: want to subscribe for bonus episodes, go to all the
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Speaker 2: places I mentioned at the beginning of this episode. And hey,
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Speaker 2: check out my solo podcast in broad Daylight wherever podcasts
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Speaker 2: are at, or at Adam Toddbrown dot substack dot com,
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Speaker 2: or on YouTube at Adam Todd Brown Comedy.
20:34
Speaker 3: And that's it. Thanks everybody. I absolutely love you
20:43
Speaker 1: People kind of Stu