Clicking on the link brought me to the White House website where there a petition looking for people to sign it. Now because I watch The Rachel Maddow Show, I already knew that this was a feature that the Obama White House offers because Rachel did a segment about one of those petitions. Not only is President Obama's team good a running campaigns, they are actually good at governing too.

The petition program is called We The People: Your Voice in Our Government and the stated purpose is: "Giving all Americans a way to engage their government on the issues that matter to them." Anybody can put up a petition and if it gets 25,000 people to sign the petition, then the final step is:



The White House Reviews and Responds Once the petition reaches the required threshold, it will be put in a queue to be reviewed by the White House. Others can still sign the petition while it is awaiting a response from the White House. When the White House responds, everyone who has signed the petition will get email from the White House to let you know that we’ve reviewed and responded to the petition.

we petition the obama administration to:

Recount the election! It has become blatantly obvious the voter fraud that was committed during the 2012 Presidential elections. In one county alone in Ohio, which was a battleground state, President Obama received 106,258 votes...but there were only 98,213 eligible voters. It's not humanly possible to get 108% of the vote! If ID laws had been enforced (which the administration is completely against because that meant they would lose) then this wouldn't be an issue. Recount NOW!

3,000

The particular petition I was being asked to sign was posted by an American Citizen who is demanding a recount in the presidential election. What? That doesn't surprise you? Yeah, it didn't surprise me either. But, the premise made me curious. Here's the petition:They've already received over4,000 signatures in one day (the number grew that fast while I was writing this diary). You know that they will not have any problem finding 25,000 people to sign the petition. The thing is, if they would just read this diary I can tell them right now what the response will be.

(1) It has become blatantly obvious the voter fraud that was committed during the 2012 Presidential elections.

Yes. Fraud was committed. Unfortunately for the writers of this petition, it was two Republicans who were arrested. If somebody wants me to sign a petition, I expect them to provide evidence of the claims they are making or I won't be signing. Seriously? Two cases out of how many millions of ballots? And both Republicans? Wow!



In Nevada, 56-year-old Roxanne Rubin, a Republican, was arrested on Nov. 2 for allegedly trying to vote twice, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The newspaper quoted a report by an investigator with the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office that said Rubin “was unhappy with the process; specifically in that her identification was not checked.” Rubin allegedly voted at one polling location in Henderson, Nev. on Oct. 29 and then went to another voting location in Las Vegas to try to vote again. Poll workers told her records indicated she had already voted, but Rubin allegedly told them she hadn’t. A poll worker reportedly overheard Rubin tell another man that she had “signed my name differently, and they did not ask for ID.” She was arrested at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and charged with a category “D” felony. On Tuesday in New Mexico, a Republican poll watcher was taken into police custody after also apparently trying to test the system. According to the Las Cruces Sun-News, the man voted, then obtained a second provisional ballot and announced he was simply “testing the system to see if people could get away with voting twice.” Santa Clara, N.M. Police Chief Lonnie Sandoval told TPM the suspect’s name would not be released because the investigation was ongoing. He expected to complete the investigation by today and send the report to the district attorney, who would ultimately decide whether to bring charges. “From what we understand, he was trained by the Republican Party,” Sandoval told TPM. The Grant County Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment. Republicans ‘Test’ For Voting Fraud, Wind Up In Custody

Oh my! That's terrible. I wonder why they didn't name the county? Oh never mind. I know how to use Google. It turns out that this supposedly happened in Wood County based on this quote:



You know, we really do need to improve our educational system if we're producing people like this who can't do basic critical thinking nor basic arithmetic. If you click the second link in that article it takes you to a page with a table at the end listing each county. And indeed, the table indicates that Wood County, Ohio had 106,258 registered voters on 9/2/2012, and the last column indicates that the voting age population is 98,213. So we know where they got the numbers for the claim. But where did those numbers come from? Source: Plain Dealer analysis of Ohio Secretary of State and U.S. Census Bureau data.

So what does the U.S. Census Bureau have to say about Wood County, Ohio?

So the last census data was for 2011. Somebody at The Plain Dealer must have done some multiplying to determine what the current population in Wood County is in 2012. And without the variables they used, it would be difficult to determine exactly how they came up with the voting age population of 98,213. But here's the thing? How do we know the math was correct? How many of the 106,258 registered had died and not been removed from the voter rolls yet? (Remember the 30,000 dead people on the voter rolls in North Carolina?) It takes time to get those people off the rolls. That doesn't mean anybody tried to vote for them. How many of the 21.3% who were under the age of 18 in 2011, actually celebrated their 18th birthday? Look at the growth rate compared to the rest of the state. Is there something going on in Wood County that is causing people to move there faster?

Irrespective of what the actually voting age population in Wood County was, the only question we need to answer is how many people in Wood County actually voted. And that is an easy question to answer. Just look it up at Google where a colorful map is provided. Click on a state, and then within the state you will find the vote breakdown for each individual county.



Now please correct me if my arithmetic is wrong, but the way I learned to add: 31,596 + 28,997 + 896 equals 61,489. Oh the horror! The fraud! Call the police! Only 57.87% of the 106,258 registered voters in Wood County actually voted! What happened? The one sentence the author of the petition was correct about:Perhaps that's why only 57.87% of the people on the voter rolls actually voted. Or if you want to go with that 98,213 number of citizens of voting age, it's still only 62.61%. It certainly isn't anywhere near 108%. But hey, arithmetic is hard for some people.

(3) If ID laws had been enforced (which the administration is completely against because that meant they would lose) then this wouldn't be an issue.

Good grief! I'm a white woman who lives in another swing state, Florida. And guess what? After standing in line to Early Vote, I was not handed a ballot until I had swiped my Driver's License in the machine, and then handed it to the clerk who compared the signature on it to the signature I provided in order to get the ballot. Once again, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the objection to the voter ID law in Pennsylvania have to do with the fact that it was enacted so soon before the election that voters did not have time to actually obtain the ID they would need to vote? Talk about something that was not humanly possible! And Ohio does have a Voter ID law just like Florida. What evidence does this petitioner provide that voters weren't required to show their ID when they voted?

And as Think Progress points out about the two cases of Voter Fraud quoted in (1) above:

There are many reasons why in person voter fraud — the “problem” these voter ID laws purport to solve — is virtually non-existent. Most people accept the principle of “one person, one vote” and don’t try to cheat the system because doing so is morally wrong. Others recognize that doing so is illegal and do not want to risk being charged with a category “D” felony. And with more than 121 million votes cast in Tuesday’s presidential election, voting twice would be a hugely inefficient way to influence the election. While polls initially showed statewide support a voter ID measure in Minnesota, once voters learned that such a measure was unnecessary (no one has ever been convicted of voter impersonation in the state’s history), would create hurdles that could keep citizens from voting, and would potentially cost the state millions, it failed with nearly 54 percent of voters refusing to back the effort. Why Republicans Caught Committing Voter Fraud Show Photo ID Laws Are Unnecessary

Did I mention that the acquaintance that posted that petition on Facebook lives in Minnesota? I wonder if she voted for that ID Law in Minnesota that would have cost her state millions?

I'm almost tempted to sign the petition just so that when it reaches 25,000 signatures I could receive the email the White House sends out to all the people who sign it. I'm curious if their response will contain any of the information that I have provided here. On the other hand, the White House may take the less wordy, shorter route and just inform the people who sign the petition that it is the states that run the elections and that their petition would more appropriately be addressed to the Secretary of State of whichever State they want recounted because they believe there was voter fraud. Anyway, if you happen to see somebody you know post that petition on Facebook, or send it to you in an email, I've done the arithmetic so you don't have too.

Poor, poor Republicans. How the little bombs must be constantly going off in their heads after this election and the sweeping gains that Democrats made, especially here in Florida. I received an email from the Florida Democrat Party yesterday:



Despite being outspent four to one, Florida Democrats re-elected President Obama and Senator Bill Nelson, added four more Democrats to Florida's Congressional delegation, and broke the GOP supermajority with historic gains in the Florida Legislature.

Yes! I'm gloating! I worked hard for this! I deserve to gloat! Speaking of those little bombs, I think it's time to watch Charles Blow explain what that particular phenomena happens.

If you missed this on Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell back in July, the transcript and full segment is in this diary: Charles Blow Explains What Makes Little Bombs Go Off In Republican Minds.