Trump advocate Roger Stone has a new op-ed out in The Hill newspaper that sounds the alarm bell on a rigged election and continues to set the stage for conspiracy theories to abound if Hillary Clinton does indeed win the White House in November. He even claims some primary election states where Trump lost were rigged.
In his op-ed Stone casts doubt on electronic voting technology and claims that voter fraud already occurred in the Republican primary at the hands of Republican leaders like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and the “Reince Priebus machine.”
Stone’s op-ed introduced a scenario where even rational arguments about voting security and the infrequency of voter fraud may be unconvincing to voters who may come to believe Trump was robbed if he loses.
“The issue here is both voter fraud, which is limited but does happen, and election theft through the manipulation of the computerized voting machines, particularly the DIEBOLD/PES voting machines in wide usage in most states,” Stone wrote in the op-ed.
Ever since general election polls began to show Trump collapsing in swing states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina, Trump and his campaign surrogates have begun arguing that the democratic institution of voting in America– the system which has been relied upon for centuries to ensure fair elections– is rigged and a lot of that blame is landing squarely on technology.
“Europe has rejected electronic voting machines because they are untrustworthy. This is not a secret. The media continues a drum
beat insisting voter fraud is non existent without ever addressing the
more ominous question of manipulation of the voting machines. It keeps
those in control in control,” Stone wrote.
Stone said the primary election in which John Kasich (R-OH) won in his home state of Ohio was rigged.
“This year, the results of machines in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio,
where Governor John Kasich controls the machines, must be matched with
exit polls, for example,” Stone wrote.
Stone accused RNC Chairman Reince Priebus of rigging the election in Wisconsin.
“Nowhere in the country has this been more true than Wisconsin, where there is irrefutable evidence that Scott Walker and the Reince Priebus machine rigged as many as five elections including the defeat of a Walker recall election. Mathematician and voting statistic expert Richard Charnin has produced a compelling study by comparing polling to actual results and exit polls to make a compelling case for voting machine manipulation in the Badger state,” Stone said.
He went on to blame Trump’s loss in the primary system on the machine.
“When the Trump vs. Cruz primary took place, the same pattern emerged again
of a Marquette University poll showing a 20 point shift from Trump ahead
by 10% to Trump behind by 10%, which was simply absurd. Shifts like
that don’t happen over brief intervals of time, absent a nuclear explosion. It didn’t make any sense — unless you knew what was going on was an “instant replay” of Walker’s victories. The machine Priebus built was delivering for Cruz big time.”
It seems now would be the appropriate time to reassert that rigged elections in America are not a common occurrence nor is such a thing realistically feasible. PoliFact recently rated Trump’s “rigged” election rhetoric as “pants on fire.”
Stone alleges that hacking a voting system is so easy that “if you have a plan in mind involving votes and their redistribution, you can find a programmer who can design the machine instructions to produce that outcome. Or you can hack the machine you are voting in with that $15 device that you can get at BEST BUY.”
It’s just not that easy.
