Voter Fraud Accusations in Nevada

Stoked by then President-elect Trump with unproven claims of voter fraud in the 2016 election, his supporters followed his lead and blamed the media, the Russians and well, everyone except the Man in the Moon.

Trump resurrected his voter fraud claim even as he was in the middle of a press conference with Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzō Abe . Despite no evidence, it’s a theme Trump returns to time and again.

Voter fraud accusations aren’t anything new in America. They’ve been going on for centuries. Lynn Westmoreland, an American politician, said, “The greatest threat to the constitutional right to vote is voter fraud.”

The first real move towards documenting voter fraud in the digital age came close in 2012 when Mitt Romney was repeatedly declared the “clear” winner in Clark County Nevada’s primary caucus. Voters “on-the-ground” in the precinct that watched the vote tally up close and personal saw Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas, enjoy a vast percentage of the votes.

Later, when the same voters watched CNN, Fox and other media outlets, they were amazed to hear that Paul hadn’t won after all.

In 2012, the Republican party, with the help of the corporate media, raised questions about the primary election system. Initially, it was the Iowa GOP — and media — that reported invalid Iowa Caucus results and they knew it.

A few weeks later in Nevada, history repeated itself and critics accused the GOP of nefarious behavior.

In both instances, the beneficiary of the vote-tabulating “mistakes” was former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Romney was also the politician openly backed by the GOP power-brokers AND the four corporations that own 95% of America’s media outlets.

Iowa

In Iowa, GOP precinct captains were in an uproar and on media claiming the vote counts had been changed sometime between leaving the local precinct and their arrival at the state’s GOP headquarters. Two weeks later, following the primary, the GOP declared Rick Santorum, and not Romney, had won. Two weeks later the results were reversed.

Nevada

As early as 2am the morning following the Nevada primary, while the votes were still being counted, supporters of Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, went to social media and cried foul over the Nevada Caucus election results.

Ron Paul’s supporters went to his Facebook page and vented:

  • Dorian wrote: “I am smelling voter fraud — again.”
  • Tom wrote: “I am not a big believer in conspiracy theories, but this election is making me rethink all of this.”
  • Patrick M. Said: “It’s not a conspiracy, it’s been proven.”

As each self-imposed deadline came and went, nothing was heard from the missing precincts in Clark County. The GOP said they would recount EVERY.SINGLE.VOTE from Clark County at GOP headquarters and would allow a representative from each candidate to observe.

Thinking the recount would be done by midnight, the deadline stretched into dawn. Dawn came and went, and no results were available. Voting fraud charges picked up steam.

At 8 pm (all times are Eastern Standard Time) some polls closed with about 3% of the total votes in. Romney led with over 50% of the votes tabulated while Paul and Newt Gingrich tied with 20% each.

An hour later, at 9 pm, national media outlets were declaring Romney, the winner by “a landslide.”

At 10 pm, media outlets spent two hours declaring Romney, the “overwhelming” winner of Nevada’s GOP Caucus — only 4% of the vote was in.

Around 11 pm, CNN moved their live coverage to the last remaining precinct in Nevada. Clark County. With a substantial demographic of devout Christians and Jews who refuse to violate their Sabbath by voting during daylight, voting was still being conducted. With 15% of the state’s precincts reporting, Romney still led.

About midnight, CNN broke away from Romney and Paul’s speaking to announce the vote counting had begun.

An entire auditorium fell quiet at 15 minutes past midnight as campaign representatives watched the GOP precinct captain call out each vote.

By 1 am, the precinct captain in Clark County announced the final vote was 150 for Ron Paul, 50 for Romney and 20 for Gingrich. Santorum had eight votes.

Five minutes later, the precinct captain announced a recount — to “ensure accuracy.”

By 2 am, thousands of Ron Paul supporters deduced that if Paul won 58% of Clark County’s voting, the Texas Congressman would win the Nevada Caucus. The networks kept covering a “victory” speech by Romney. CNN and Fox blacked-out their coverage and showed reruns of previous news coverage.

People started going to bed as Ron Paul’s lead continued to grow. They woke up around 9 am with 70% of the precincts reporting. They were staggered to learn that Ron Paul’s previous lead had evaporated and now the state-wide totals favored Romney with 47 votes, Gingrich, 22 and Ron Paul with 18.

At 11 am, Nevada’s GOP announced they would not release the final vote results. Instead, they were going to do an internal audit.

Five minutes later, social media exploded with outrage, frustration, and condemnation from Ron Paul supporters. Twitter erupted with accusations of wanton voter fraud by the state’s GOP officials. The news media, including the Sunday morning talk shows, blacked-out the events, the missing vote totals and outrage by the Paul campaign.

Instead, they held to their story line that the Nevada Caucus is over and another landslide victory for GOP’s “wunderkind” Mitt Romney.