First a little history: back in '92, the year Clinton was first elected, there was a scandal in Augusta, Maine on election night when an aide to Democratic Speaker of the House, John Martin, was caught red-handed in a restricted area stuffing ballot boxes. That little bit of inept fraud became known as Ballotgate, and while Martin was never indicted for that crime the fallout from it prompted Maine voters to inact term limits shortly thereafter. Martin himself was term limited out the next election but by that point he had had the longest stint as a state legislator in Maine history - and has since added to the record as a State Senator plus just got his old House seat back; I guess term limits don't count for much here in ME. More on that later.
Now, 22 years later, we have another incident that bears all the hallmarks of what should be termed "Ballotgate II," although no one was caught red handed this time - and another difference is that the perpetrator(s), (if the results of the tampering are any indication), works for the GOP. If you follow me below the fold, we'll dive into some pretty sordid and depressing details.
First, this involves one State Senate race (District 25) which encompasses an area North of Portland which is relatively affluent. The contestants are two Cathies: Cathy Breen (D) and Cathy Manchester (R). On election night, Breen was the apparent winner by just 32 votes out of almost 22,000 votes cast. A mandated hand recount gave the election to Manchester by an 11 vote margin, but there were two major discrepancies in the tallies: in Cumberland, 10 ballots went missing (I'm not sure at this point how the Cumberland total might have changed); and the big one: a glaring, red-flag discrepancy from Long Island where an additional 21 votes appeared in the ballot box for that small precinct, all 21 of which went for the Republican, Manchester. Moreover, and to add to the suspect nature of those ballots, the voter manifest (ie, the census of all who voted) corresponded exactly to the election night tally of 171 votes total, but was exactly 21 - that magic number! - ballots short of the recounted number of ballots which was 192.
Read that link. Your blood will boil at just that part of the story, but, dear god, there's more - and it revolves around the way Maine chooses its "Constitutional Officers" aka, the AG, SoS and State Treasurer. Maine is unique in the country (thank god we're alone because our method is rife with inherent conflicts of interest) in that it chooses these critical positions by a vote of all newly-elected State Legislators from both Houses as the first order of business when the Legislature convenes...which is happening this coming Monday!
But here's the thing (and if you read that link you'll have discovered this): the current SoS, Democrat Matt Dunlap, supervises elections (his career Deputy SoS Julie Flynn is the Director of Elections) and he could, if he determined that there was sufficient cause to suspect criminal activity (as was the case with FLynn, the Elections chief, when the controversy was unfolding over a week ago, said she couldn't recommend a further review of the recount because both parties don't agree that it's necessary! How convenient for any party that might want to commit voter fraud!
Since SoS Dunlap chooses not to subject this controversy to an investigation outside of the politically charged confines of the legislature, then the decision to resolve disputed elections is left to the newly elected Senate - which is yet another method that is rife with inherent conflict of interest). The newly elected Senate is going to be GOP-controlled, and the just-elected Senate President is a Tea Party nutcase and Paul LePage acolyte, Mike Thibodeau, who just announced that, instead of holding a vote for the Constitutional Officers as a first order of business, he will instead have the new Senate decide who the winner of the disputed District 25 race is. If you read that link you will see that he's already made up his mind who that winner is and the Senate review of the recount will be quick and merciless, ignoring the voter fraud staring them in the face.
And now for the real kicker: without that extra Senate seat from District 25, the vote for Constitutional Officers (assuming all the Democrats and allied Independents show up), the GOP would lose the vote. With Manchester seated instead of the Democrat, Breen, they will have a one vote margin to get their slate of tea baggers elected as AG, Sos and State Treasurer.
I'm sorry I haven't posted this very important piece of news here earlier. It is critical that we make this a national issue post haste, and that we bring it to the attention of those who can bring it to a wider audience. I've been trying to get a prominent local columnist to take the issue up, but haven't been sucessful. I've been talking to my local State Senator who has been getting the run around from Dunlap and others in the SoS bureaucracy and who has been fed some bad info. I originally got the news of the "phantom ballots" in a MoveOn email (HT to those folks) asking for petition signatures appealing to Dunlap to investigate, but Dunlap has already washed his hands. Here's the petition page if anyone wants to sign it, but I think Dunlap is beyond reasoning with and may be in the bag on this one. I signed it with a blistering comment to Dunlap for his dereliction of duty. I wouldn't at all be surprised to see him on a split ticket of Constitutional Officers as payback for handing the decision to the GOP Senators; LePage's main target is the AG, currently Democrat Janet Mills, for whom LePage has a deep and abiding personal and political animus.
This is beyond the pale, folks. It's a microcosm of our democracy's demise. We have to stand against this, even if it looks impossible and likely is impossible to correct. We have to stand against this however we can. I don't know what the next step is, that's why I'm putting it up here. Maybe folks on this site can send it to allies who cherish democracy in the media (all forms) or in the halls of power if possible. We are on a very slippery slope now and need to stand against the hollowing out of our rights.
Please rec this diary first, then tweet it and use whatever social media you're comfortable with to bring it to further attention, especially to folks in Maine. Other than that, I'm at a loss. As I said, the shit will go down on Monday and Thibodeau is obviously intent on seating Manchester in a pro forma vote and then move on to the Constitutional Officers vote. It's a done deal unless public pressure can be brought to bear soon and forcefully.
(UPDATE): I am going to post a follow up diary later today but just wanted to update this one because I got the timing of the scheduled votes wrong: everything is happening on Wednesday 12/3 instead of today, the 1st. This is good, more time to prepare. I still haven't heard of any actions planned despite a fair amount of probing, and hope to have any info about that when I post the next diary. Thanks for everyone's support (including the dKos admins).