Presumptuous Politics

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

New York comptroller orders audit after reports of voting issues

The city's comptroller has ordered an audit of its Board of Elections after reports that some voters were turned away from polling sites during the state's presidential primary.
Comptroller Scott Stringer said his office had received complaints that some people couldn't vote and others had to deal with polling locations that opened late or had malfunctioning ballot scanners.
"The people of New York City have lost confidence that the Board of Elections can effectively administer elections, and we intend to find out why the BOE is so consistently disorganized, chaotic and inefficient," he said.
Stringer also questioned the fairness of a board process to cancel the registrations of people who haven't voted in recent elections and didn't respond to notices asking them to confirm their addresses.
Between Nov. 1 and April 1, the number of registered Democrats and Republicans in the city was trimmed by roughly 1.4 percent, from 3.58 million to 3.53 million, according state Board of Elections statistics. Much of that decline occurred in Brooklyn, where the number of people registered in the two parties fell by 64,000.
The city Board of Elections' executive director, Michael Ryan, dismissed the issues Tuesday, saying the "overwhelming majority of voters cast their ballot without an issue."
He said the purging was part of a routine review of voter records and was in response to a scathing report that was issued in 2013 accusing the agency of failing to maintain updated voter logs.
Specifically addressing the issue in Brooklyn, Ryan said that between the fall and the primary 126,000 voters in the borough either were removed from voting lists or had their statuses changed to "inactive" because they had moved, their mail was returned as undeliverable or they failed to vote in two federal elections and didn't respond to letters.
Voters on the inactive list are still eligible to vote but must do so by affidavit ballot.
Stringer's complaints were echoed by fellow Democratic lawmakers, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said monitors reported voting lists that "contain numerous errors, including the purging of entire buildings and blocks of voters from the voting lists."
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, whose office runs a state elections hotline, said the majority of the 700 complaints it received by Tuesday afternoon were from people who said they were told they weren't registered to vote or they weren't registered in a particular political party.

Dem tensions flare as superdelegates flock to Clinton, even in states Sanders won

When Democrats caucused in Washington state last month, Bernie Sanders scored an overwhelming victory – winning 73 percent to Hillary Clinton’s 27 percent.
But that wide margin did nothing to sway the state’s superdelegates, party insiders and officials free to back whomever they choose. Of the 16 up for grabs, all nine who have announced their support have gone for Clinton.
All are elected leaders, including Gov. Jay Inslee. “I’m endorsing Hillary Clinton,” Inslee said. “I’ve worked with her for over 25 years, I know she’s tough, I know she can really be an effective leader.”
But the disconnect with the voters who put Inslee and other Democrats into office has sparked a backlash. The same tensions over superdelegates are flaring in states across the country. Sanders supporters want party insiders and elected leaders to follow their lead, and not – as it so often seems – act as a counterbalance to their vote.
“The danger in my mind, as a Democrat, is it makes our Democratic party look corrupt,” said David Spring, a leader of WashingtonforBernieSanders.com.
Over the last month, the Vermont Democratic socialist has won seven of eight nominating contests. That’s netted him two-thirds of the pledged delegates that were up for grabs in those states. But, among the superdelegates in those same states, Clinton leads 25-1.
After winning the Wisconsin primary on April 5, Sanders started lobbying to change some minds.
“I think that a lot of superdelegates are going to be looking around them,” Sanders told a crowd in Laramie, Wyo., “and they’re going to be saying ‘which candidate has the momentum, which candidate is bringing out the numbers of people.'”
Democratic Party officials point out that superdelegates are free to switch candidates and they’ve never been the deciding factor in any nomination since being created before the 1984 presidential election. But there always could be a first -- if it’s this year, those currently ‘feeling the Bern’ might simply feel like they got burned.
Sanders’ backers, though, are turning up the heat with websites aimed at pressuring Clinton superdelegates to switch candidates. One, www.superdelegatesdemocracy.com, gives the social media accounts of all 469 superdelegates pledged to Clinton. Another recently described itself as a hit list and gave phone numbers and emails of Clinton superdelegates.
Washington state’s delegation has been especially targeted. Rep. Rick Larsen, after wishing Facebook friends a Happy Easter, was greeted with "happy last term as a congressman." Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene was accused in one post of “undermining her constituents.” And Rep. Derek Kilmer was told his support for Clinton made him “the same type of subhuman.”
The Sanders camp says it has no connection to the websites and denies any attempt to embarrass or harass Democratic superdelegates. But Sanders supporters say the current system is undemocratic. Former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn wrote an op-ed piece saying superdelegates poisoned the nomination process by trying to create an air of inevitability early on.
A Sanders supporter in Colorado who attended a campaign event in Wyoming agreed.
“There is something completely wrong and the superdelegates currently have the power to change the outcome,” said Victoria Bard. “And we want the people to be able to decide the outcome.”

Trump, Clinton cruise to New York wins; Cruz must rely on contested convention

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton regained their stride in the presidential race Tuesday night, winning their respective primaries in New York — and sending a message to their rivals that their campaigns are back on track after recent stumbles.
Trump, in his home state, notched what appeared to be his biggest victory yet. Speaking to cheering supporters Tuesday night at Trump Tower, he declared: “We don’t have much of a race anymore.”
“[Texas] Senator [Ted] Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated,” Trump claimed. “We’re really, really rockin’.” Indeed, Cruz's poor showing left him with no mathematical chance of clinching the nomination before the Republican convention in July, though Trump could still end up short of the needed 1,237 needed to seal victory before the gathering.

With 94 percent of precincts reporting, Trump had garnered 60 percent of the vote, his highest total in any state. He had claimed at least 89 of New York's 95 Republican delegates.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich finished second in the state with 25 percent of the vote, leaving Cruz to finish third with 15 percent. Kasich was awarded at least three delegates, leaving Cruz in danger of getting shut out.
As of Tuesday night, Trump had 845 delegates. Cruz had 559, and Kasich had 147.
Cruz, who infamously panned Trump's "New York values" earlier in the primary, had been bracing for a tough showing in the Empire State and showed no signs of throwing in the towel. The Texas senator was already looking ahead, turning his attention to Pennsylvania, where he delivered a speech calling on Americans to join together to move the country forward.
"It is time for us to get up, shake it off and be who we were destined to be,” he said.

In the Democratic race, Clinton soundly defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in her adopted home state, which she represented in the Senate for eight years. Despite the Brooklyn-born Sanders’ hard-fought attempt at an upset, the former secretary of state successfully staved off that possibility Tuesday night. With 94 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton had 58 percent to Sanders’ 42 percent.
“There’s no place like home,” Clinton said at her victory rally.
Clinton claimed the race for the Democratic nomination is now entering the “home stretch” and “victory is in sight.” In an apparent bid to bridge divides in the party amid an increasingly bitter primary, she directed a message to Sanders voters: “There is much more that unites us than divides us.”
Clinton and Trump both were seeking rebound victories Tuesday after recent setbacks. Cruz had complicated Trump's path to the nomination by winning recent contests like Wisconsin and getting allies elected to state delegate slates. On the Democratic side, Sanders had been on a winning streak up until Tuesday – winning seven of the eight prior contests.
Whether Trump and Clinton's performance Tuesday will help either wrap up the race in the coming weeks remains an open question. The campaigns head next to five Eastern states that vote next Tuesday: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.
It’s potentially friendly territory for the front-runners. But unless Trump can drive Kasich and Cruz out of the race, the billionaire businessman still may have to fight all the way to the final primary contests on June 7 – including delegate-rich California, which may end up being the deciding race – to see if he can clinch the nomination.
On the Democratic side, Clinton could easily attain the necessary 2,383 delegates to win by June. The question is whether Sanders would accept it – as her tally includes the support of party insiders known as “superdelegates,” and the Sanders campaign has suggested they shouldn’t count toward that 2,383-delegate threshold.
As of Wednesday morning, Clinton had 1,893 total delegates, compared with Sanders’ 1,180.
Sanders also campaigned in Pennsylvania Tuesday. He hammered his campaign themes about a “rigged” economy and “corrupt” campaign finance system, while urging voters to join him in challenging the status quo.
“We’re gonna win this election,” Sanders vowed. However, his senior adviser Tad Devine told the Associated Press that the campaign planned to "sit back and assess where we are" after a next week's contests.

According to an Associated Press tally, Clinton won at least 135 of New York's 247 delegates. Sanders had won 104, with eight delegates outstanding.
The importance of every last delegate has increased in recent weeks as Cruz has appeared to outmaneuver Trump’s campaign in the behind-the-scenes preparations for July’s convention.
Cruz has been laying the groundwork for a contested convention – one in which where no candidate has the required number of delegates – by getting allies elected as delegates. That way, if voting extends to a second round, some of those pledged to Trump on the first round could peel off and support Cruz. This has heightened the pressure on Trump to clinch the nomination before the convention.
A Kasich campaign memo, meanwhile, touted the Ohio governor’s chances in the upcoming state contests – and his prospects for securing delegate support in the event of a contested convention.
“The next 7 days are absolutely critical," the memo concluded. "It’s now or never to stop Trump and save the Republican Party."
The primary-day voting was not without its problems in New York. Voters ran into an array of polling-site glitches earlier Tuesday as they tried to cast ballots – with some locations opening late and others using broken machines.
The Wall Street Journal reported that some voters waited hours to cast ballots at a site in Brooklyn, where workers apparently did not have the keys when it was supposed to open Tuesday morning. Elsewhere in the borough, voters reportedly were turned away due to technical problems.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also responded Tuesday to reports that thousands of registered Democrats have been dropped from the rolls, especially in Brooklyn. In a statement, the mayor called for major reforms to the election board and voiced support for an audit -- which the city comptroller has ordered.
“It has been reported to us from voters and voting rights monitors that the voting lists in Brooklyn contain numerous errors, including the purging of entire buildings and blocks of voters from the voting lists,” he said in a statement. “I am calling on the Board of Election to reverse that purge and update the lists again …”

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Biden Cartoon

Trump refers to terror attacks on '7/11' at pre-NY primary rally

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's final rally before Tuesday's New York primary was marked by an unfortunate slip of the tongue, as the real estate mogul mistakenly mentioned the name of a popular convenience store chain in place of 9/11.
Trump was about to deliver prepared remarks lauding New York values at Buffalo's First Niagara Center Monday night when he referred to 7-Eleven.
"It's very close to my heart because I was down there, and I watched our police and our firemen down at 7/11, down at the World Trade Center right after it came down, and I saw the greatest people I've ever seen in action," Trump told the crowd.
Trump, who polls show holding a sizable lead over rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich in New York, has repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as he campainged across his home state. He paid his first visit to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum earlier this month.
Trump billed the Buffalo event as a final push to rally supporters and make sure they vote.
"No New Yorker can vote for Cruz, no one can vote for Kasich", Trump told the estimated crowd of more than 11,000 people. "You know Cruz is way down in the polls, Kasich is not even showing up."
Cruz, who has made up considerable ground on Trump in the Republican delegate race, tried to downplay his Empire State expectations in an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly Monday.
"New York is Donald’s home state," the Texas senator said. "Of course he will do well in his home state. When we were in Texas my home state well walloped him."
Trump countered later Monday by calling Cruz "a catastrophe. He didn’t even [garner] 50 percent [of the vote] in his own state."
The rally was briefly interrupted by about a dozen protesters, who sat locked arms and sat down on the floor of the arena shortly after Trump took the stage — forcing authorities to carry several out by their arms and their legs. Trump continued speaking as the demonstrators were removed.
Buffalo police said they arrested six people, mainly for disorderly conduct and trespassing. They added that 21 people were ejected from the event, but no arrests were made inside the arena.

VA accused of shredding documents needed for veterans' claims

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been systematically shredding documents related to veterans' claims -- possibly affecting benefits for veterans, according to an investigation by the inspector general.
Investigators with the Department of Veterans Affairs audited 10 vererans benefits offices around the country and found that staff were destroying mail related to claims, according to a report by Military.com, citing an OIG report released on Thursday.
The surprise audit, which was conducted at the offices on July 20, 2015, came after reports of such document shredding in Los Angeles, the website reported.

Investigators reportedly sifted through some 438,000 documents awaiting destruction at the regional offices. Of 155 claims-related documents, 69 were found to have been incorrectly placed in shred bins at six of the regional offices, according to Military.com.
Those offices were in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Reno, Nev. At least two of the 69 documents headed to the shredder directly affected benefits and nine had the potential to, according to the website.
The OIG report concluded that, "The potential effect should not be minimized."
"Considering that there are 56 [VA regional offices], and if weekly shredding is conducted, it is highly likely that claims-related documents at other VAROs are being improperly scheduled for destruction that could result in loss of claims and evidence, incorrect decisions and delays in claims processing," the report s

Biden slams Netanyahu hours after Jerusalem attack

Vice President Joe Biden said Monday night that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government was leading the country "in the wrong direction" hours after a bus bombing in Jerusalem wounded at least 21 people.
In a speech to the Israel advocacy group J Street, Biden did single out Palestinian leaders, including Mahmoud Abbas, for declining to condemn specific acts of terrorism carried out against Israelis. The vice president said he didn't know whether Monday's explosion was a terrorist attack, but added that the U.S. condemns "misguided cowards" who resort to violence.
However, the bulk of the Biden's criticism was reserved for Netanyahu, reflecting diminishing patience within the White House as President Barack Obama's term nears an end, compounded by deep disagreements over Iran and a strained relationship between the two leaders.
Biden suggested that Netanyahu's approach raised "profound questions" about how Israel could remain both Jewish and democratic.
"I firmly believe that the actions that Israel's government has taken over the past several years -- the steady and systematic expansion of settlements, the legalization of outposts, land seizures -- they're moving us and more importantly they're moving Israel in the wrong direction," Biden said.

He said those policies were moving Israel toward a "one-state reality" -- meaning a single state for Palestinians and Israelis in which, eventually, Israeli Jews will no longer be the majority.

"That reality is dangerous," Biden added.
Biden, who met in March with both Netanyahu and Abbas, said he came away from that trip discouraged about prospects for peace anytime soon. Still, he said the U.S. is obliged to guarantee Israel's security and to "push them as hard as we can" toward a two-state solution despite "our sometimes overwhelming frustration with the Israeli government."

"There is at the moment no political will that I observed from either Israelis or Palestinians to go forward with serious negotiations," Biden said.

The vice president's remarks to J Street, a dovish group that frequently criticizes Netanyahu, came at the height of a campaign season in which candidates have been scrutinized over their adherence to traditionally stalwart U.S. support for Israel.
Ahead of Tuesday's primary in New York, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has sparked controversy by saying the U.S. should be even-handed and mustn't always say that Netanyahu is right.
In another dig at Netanyahu and his Likud party, Biden singled out for praise Stav Shaffir, a young member of Israel's parliament and a Netanyahu critic from the left wing of Israeli politics.

"May your views begin to once again become the majority opinion in the Knesset," Biden said.

Sanders camp touts growing Latino support; crucial in NY, Calif. races

Bernie Sanders, even as he struggles to win over black voters from Hillary Clinton’s side, appears to be making gains among Hispanics -- including in key primary states like New York and California, where a total of 722 delegates are at stake.
The Sanders campaign points to several recent polls, including those showing the Vermont senator essentially tied with Clinton nationally for the Hispanic vote and having largely closed a double-digit gap with Clinton among Hispanic voters in California.
Sanders pollster Ben Tulchin told FoxNews.com on Monday the campaign thinks it finally has caught up with Clinton in terms of message and name recognition, especially among Latinos who have supported Clinton as far back as 2008, when she ran for president against Barack Obama.
“Look at the national polls. The campaign is now doing better than ever, and Latinos are part of it,” said Tulchin, who touted Sanders’ popularity among young, working-class Hispanics. “Bernie has a very powerful message that includes health care for all and free college tuition. … New York has a huge Latino population, and California is the prize of the elections.”
Nationally among all voters, polls show Sanders has now pulled roughly even with the front-running Clinton at about 48 percent. He has won seven of the last eight contests.
After the New York Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, in which 247 delegates are at stake, Sanders and Clinton will eventually compete in California on June 7, for 475 delegates, the most of any state.
The Clinton campaign did not return a request Monday for comment.
An April 11 poll for the NY 1 news station showed Sanders leading Clinton in New York 55-38 percent among Hispanic voters.
A national poll released four days earlier, by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, found Democratic-leaning Hispanic voters preferred Sanders over the front-running Clinton 48-47 percent.
The California poll was released April 8 by the nonpartisan Field Research Corp. It found Sanders now trails Clinton 42-49 percent among Hispanic likely Democratic primary voters, after trailing 35-53 percent in January.
Sanders’ gains with Hispanic voters stand in stark contrast to his ability to win over black supporters, something he failed to do in primary races across the South.
Despite big outreach efforts ahead of the Feb. 27 South Carolina Democratic primary, Clinton won roughly 80 percent of the black vote. Sanders was never able to break through the so-called “firewall” that black voters had created for Clinton across the region.
“Secretary Clinton cleaned our clock in the Deep South,” Sanders said in last week’s CNN debate. “We got murdered there.”
Still, Sanders nearly beat Clinton in the Feb. 20 Nevada Democratic caucuses with the help of the Latino vote.
The Clinton campaign continues to dispute entrance poll numbers, touted by the Sanders camp, showing Sanders won the Latino vote by 8 percentage points. However, the larger point, Tulchin argued Monday, is the Latino vote helped Sanders close on Clinton’s early, double-digit lead.
Sanders still faces a daunting task of catching Clinton in the race to get 2,383 delegates before the July convention. Clinton leads in the delegate count, 1,758-1,076, with New York, California and just 15 other contests remaining.
As the country’s fasting-growing minority, Hispanics have become an increasingly important voting bloc for Democrats and Republicans.
In the 2012 presidential race, President Obama won at least 70 percent of the Hispanic vote, out of an estimated 23.3 million eligible Hispanic voters. Hispanics account for roughly 9 percent of the total eligible vote, essentially unchanged from 2012.
However, a recent Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data shows an additional 4 million more Hispanics are eligible to vote this cycle, with those 35 or younger accounting for nearly half of the increase, good news for Sanders who is widely popular among millennials.
Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola University Law School in Los Angeles, on Monday acknowledged the value of the Hispanic vote in the state’s Democratic primary.
But she argued Sanders will need a strong voter turnout, as he does in other states, to do well, considering Hispanic residents are under-represented in terms of registered voters.
“Hispanics could be a big voting bloc, extremely powerful,” said Levinson, who specializes in election law. “But they have to do two things -- register and show up.”
Levinson says Clinton still appears to have the overall advantage considering “she has a better ground game and support from party elders.”
And the contest could in large part be determined by who has the money to compete in California’s expensive TV market.
“It’s about commercial advertising, not retail politics,” Levinson said.