There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
          There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.

 Let’s hope it’s not too late for Stacey Abrams to inspire people to plug the holes, and bring to justice the traitors who keep punching the holes.
 As a home brewer I have had the experience more than once filling a bucket, filling it to the top again, and finally realizing I need another bucket. Small crack, tiny hole… I feel the same way about our voting system, but these aren’t tiny or small. Yet we don’t need a new bucket: we need to stop those who want to punch holes in the bottom, in the side and prevent them from doing anything they can to stop politically incorrect votes from going into the bucket.
 Republicans and the president like to make much of thousands, yes even millions, of illegals voting. Fine: prove your case. Not just one, two, three voters voting where they shouldn’t, or attempting to vote twice… in a nation of how many legal voters? Let’s see the pictures or videos of hundreds of provable illegals pulling up to a precinct and voting. Hear from hundreds of poll workers saying, “Yeah, I knew they shouldn’t be voting, they weren’t on our lists, had no card, but I was told I had to allow them to vote.” Provide proof or BUGGER OFF.
 Punching holes in the Democratic bucket arguably started in 2000, though other tactics were used with varying results before that: like soon to be Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist and helpers standing in a precinct and challenging voters who looked like they might not vote the politically correct way. So inefficient. Why not have voting machines with vulnerable, yet proprietary, software so votes can be flipped, or dumped? Why not have in each vulnerable state their secretary of state, governor or appointees close down inconvenient polls, or send too few machines, defective machines. Sent to districts that tend to vote in politically incorrect ways. Why not cut down on voting hours, eliminate or limit early voting, consolidate districts and eliminate voters who didn’t vote last time in same said politically incorrect districts? Don’t tell these politically incorrect voters their right to vote has been exterminate until they reach the polls! That will “serve the cause.” If they raise hell give them the ‘right’ to placebo vote: better known as provisional voting… that which probably will NEVER be counted.
 Just a few of the many tactics to block voters from placing their vote in the bucket and to punch holes in the bucket. Let’s not even go to computer generated gerrymandering methods that make it so majority rule turns minority.
 To be fair both buckets have never been perfect, and neither of the two major parties has been pure. But only one has gone to this extent, while the other avoided the topic for at least 20 years because “it might discourage voters from voting.” Hey, JERKS, it may be getting to the point where discouraging won’t matter! In 2020 we may have to once again revise the McDonald’s slogan into; not 3 million, but 5 million voters NOT served.” Or MORE.
 Stacey Abrams has been working on this. A hero for sure, and she has personally been a victim of this hole in the bucket strategy. When did it become OK for the person who was responsible for election security to treat election security as a joke, an oxymoron, and then run their own election?
 Don’t expect third parties to save us. Don’t expect “maybe they’ll know better next time” to translate into them actually behaving as if they really know better once elected. We need to fix the election security crisis before we deal with that. We have a two bucket political system with one party dedicated to long term schemes to punch as many holes possible in the other party’s bucket. The other party has been trying to overcome this via massive get out the vote campaigns. With so many holes sooner or later that may no longer matter.
 You know how you can tell when Republicans KNOW they’ve been spewing moose squat? Let’s take just one tactic: provisionals. When they lose in a very close election: close mostly because of all the damn holes, you can hear them collectively scream, “COUNT THE PROVISIONALS!!!”
 Why would they do this if they knew, as they so often have claimed, that provisionals get counted if the election is close? I pose the obvious conclusion: they know they AREN’T. They know provisionals are just another way to create holes in a bucket.
 Exact Match, Crosscheck, are INTENTIONAL holes in the bucket sold as “cleaning up the voter rolls:” conveniently used in districts that tend not to vote Republican.
 One party has been in denial for many years. The horse has no longer just escaped the barn. He’s out on the interstate causing massive pileups: preventing voters from voting, making hoof punched holes in the bucket. Stacy Abrams is out there trying to lasso him, meanwhile most Dem pols, armchair pundits and, yes, even some progressives go on as if, once again, the election is going to be fair. And if we lose it has to be whomever we ran and NOTHING ELSE. Last time it was Hillary, the progressive firing squad shooting at more moderates. Next time it very well could be Bernie and the “moderates” will be telling THEIR firing squad to target progressives.
 Meanwhile the other party will still know that their base is shrinking. What to do? What to do? What to do? It’s obvious…
 Punch more holes in the bucket.

                                        -30-
 Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 40 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks, and into the unseen cracks and crevasses, that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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