Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
Two ballots are nothing. The votes on them are statistically meaningless, and one of them was a vote for his guy. So why steal them? What else might he do with two real ballots? Could he maybe make more? Could he test a hack for the machines? Perhaps there's a way to doctor the ballots to cause a machine malfunction?
There's no believable excuse for wanting to keep those ballots that doesn't include skullduggery.
He was at a test run of the voting process/machines.
He pocketed two of the ballots... then the count and verification process began.
He then started whispering to people "fucked up count", started posting on social media that the machines were faulty, went outside, showed some other guy the two ballots he stole, and got a pat on the back from him.
A review of security footage, which was subsequently being live-streamed online, showed Savage handling the two missing ballots. He can also be heard confirming with an election official that these are “absolutely, totally real ballots.”
In the video Savage can be seen looking around the room before folding up two ballots and putting them in his sweatshirt pocket.
After this, Savage is seen leaning over to a woman in attendance and saying “f***ed up count.” Less than 10 minutes later, Savage is seen leaving the building and showing a man the ballots in his pocket. The man then pats Savage on the back and Savage gets into his car and leaves.
... He very, very obviously did this to attempt to propagate a notion that the election is going to be rigged.
Also one could reasonably expect that as of yet unidentified pat-on-the-back man would also be a person of interest, as he may have directed Savage to actually do what he did.
Conspiracy to tamper with the voting process is... hopefully also a crime.
Ah, well that's a horse of a different treason.
Fucking clown
This was an event to test and verify the voting machines and it was open to the public because it's important for people to be able to trust the systems. He stole the ballots in order to throw off their count and manufacture a story because everything they do is baseless projection and all they have are their false claims of election interference and vote tampering.
And proved it worked great. Task failed successfully.
Even identified the "enemy within" trying to steal the election. Solid work.
Then they let him out on $500 bail a week before the election.
Exactly this. The point was to cast doubt on the election process.
I get what you're saying, but an intentional attack on the electoral process is an intentional attack on the United States Constitution and all that it encompasses. It's only two ballots but it's the voices of two people, and there are senate and congressional seats up for grabs. Furthermore, it emboldens others.
$500 bail is a couple million short imo. Do not give a mouse a cookie when it comes to our liberties. Squash the mouse
Edit: I'm also not any sort of hardass... But looking at this relative to other transgressions, it should be right up there with murder. Impeding on a country's ability to self-govern is really really serious shit regardless of citizenship status (being a US citizen should not make it any less egregious), and it's all getting normalized
He could have kept them as personal souvenirs for what may go down as a pretty historical event.
Or he could plan to plant them somewhere as evidence of tampering.
“The votes on them are statistically meaningless” is incorrect though; I just went through an election where the two sides in one district differed by 27 votes.
The article explains he stole the 2 ballots on purpose to throw off a certification process that Indiana's voting machines go through that's open to the public.
The machines ran through 136 test ballots, then he stole 2 and left. He leaned over and is heard on video saying "fucked up count" to a women he was coordinating with, who then raised the issue of "missing ballots" to the officials, all while live streaming to facebook.
This guy, who then shows the stolen ballots to another guy outside who laughed and patted him on the back, then joined the live stream and said "they are missing ballots! Don't trust anything!"
Cops reviewed video footage, then got a warrent. He claimed intially that he had been allowed go take them by officials. When they proved that wasent true, he claimed he took them as souvenirs, even though they were explicitly marked as official documents. Text messages that the suspect sent also make it clear he knew they were official ballots.
The sad truth is that the Trumpettes are going to see "man stole republican ballot", stop reading further, and raise their burning ~~crosses~~ pitchforks.
What a wonderful time to be alive...
Honestly we will never know, he could have been using them to make tiny origami hats for frogs.
The hats are making the frogs gay.
Innocent people don't lie repeatedly
You want rampant voter fraud? You got it!
Is this testing process normal or only specific to Indiana? Are the "test" ballots that are used added to the overall count and then subtracted after the fact, is that why he said he "fucked up count"? Or was the intention to steal the ballot to cast during election day?
He a republican stole actual ballots which would have counted both in the test phase and in actual results to prove elections couldn't be trusted.
Presumably be didn't think they would check the camera and see him.
