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Putin says past U.S. elections were rigged

(Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, running for a new six-year term in an election that his opponents say is a parody of democracy, said on Tuesday that past U.S. elections had been rigged by postal voting.

“In the United States, previous elections were falsified through postal voting … they bought ballots for $10, filled them out, and threw them into mailboxes without any supervision from observers, and that’s it,” Putin said, without providing evidence.

GiddyGap ,

So, Putin and Trump are on the same page…? Color me surprised.

Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug ,

I mean

The Bush family rigged W’s election against AI Gore. Why did that get swept under the rug?

Maggoty ,

If by rigged you mean they stole it in broad daylight and got SCOTUS to aid in that then yeah. We haven’t forgotten.

theotherverion ,

Because russian elections are the most transparent ones!!

AshMan85 ,

He would know. He was the one providing the outside interference

echodot ,

And he wouldn’t lie would he. Internationally known as being a reasonable person that he is.

God, what a stupid article, why the hell was this even reported? Oh never mind it’s Yahoo news, that’s why

acceptable_pumpkin ,

$10 a ballot sounds steep. I wonder if they offered a Costco sized box for cheaper? Maybe people should look for ballots off a knock-off site.

badhops ,

I saw an empty slot at my Costco where the Kirkland ballots were supposed to be

iAvicenna ,
@iAvicenna@lemmy.world avatar

phew I thought Russian elections were rigged too, glad to hear that is not the case, what a real relief

5in1k ,

Putin dying will be a holiday.

fosforus ,

Always has been.

en.wikipedia.org/…/United_States_Electoral_Colleg…

Of course, if it was a popular vote, the parties would apply entirely different strategies in elections, so we cannot be sure what would’ve happened in the past if popular vote mattered.

fidodo ,

Inequitable is different than rigged.

fosforus ,

Ok, fair enough.

GaMEChld ,

I will grant that it is different. But is it meaningfully different? Either way, the people are not represented.

fidodo ,

IMO the difference is it happening in the open. Rigged is too conflated with fraud so I don’t like using the same word as it doesn’t clearly capture the difference.

GaMEChld ,

Fair enough. I’ll never argue against being specific and accurate!

dangblingus ,

Okay, but when you factor gerrymandering of districts into the concept of the EC, now you have a rigged election.

wildcardology ,

I never really understood this. Why do an election when the electoral college decides who the winner is?

I’m not a US American.

fosforus ,

Why do an election when the electoral college decides who the winner is?

The voters decide what the electoral college chooses, though. I suppose it has been a sort of buffer against the dumbfuck citizens making dumbfuck choices. Donald Trump’s presidency of course has shown that if any such buffer ever existed, it sure doesn’t now.

bob_lemon ,

Historically, it was implemented because in the 1800’s, a lot could happen between an election in, say, Wisconsin, and the time the electoral college member arrives in Washington DC.

The US being the oldest democracy might have a nice ring to it, but realistically it’s just means that there’s a lot of outdated baggage attached.

Xatolos ,
@Xatolos@reddthat.com avatar

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    fosforus ,

    Not to mention that the economy is also typically better when a Democrat is the president.

    This might be explained by the latency that large economic decisions have. As a practical example, the leftist government in Finland increased expenditure by quite a lot in Finland during 2019-2023 (mostly due to Covid-19 and Russia, but also beyond that) leading to a much increased governmental deficit. As a result, the economy is doing poorly now, and since the Finns chose a rightist austerity government in 2023, it looks as if the economy was doing well under a leftist government, and poorly under a rightist government – even though the consequences for the current situation can clearly be derived from the previous government and there’s no way the current government has had enough time contribute to the situation.

    Xatolos ,
    @Xatolos@reddthat.com avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    fosforus ,

    I’m unfamiliar with the details of economics decisions in the US. How much does the president get to decide those things versus the House and Senate?

    i_am_not_a_robot ,

    That would make sense, but that’s not the law. In most states, the electors can vote differently and it still counts, and in only some of those states is it even illegal for the elector to do that.

    AlijahTheMediocre , (edited )

    The electoral college complicates things by having each state be its own separate popular vote.

    Two states, Nebraska and Maine, will split their electoral votes based on their popular vote. But the rest of the states just give all their electoral votes to their popular vote winner.

    The core issue is that a presidential candidate can win 50.1% of the vote in a state and will receive all electoral votes as if 100% of the state voted for him.

    A secondary issue is that electoral votes aren’t equal. Each state has a minimum of three electoral votes. This creates a situation where Wyoming, a state who’s population is smaller than our capital Washington D.C., has more voting power per person per electoral vote than California; the most populous state.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    Two states, Nebraska and Maine, will split their electoral votes based on their popular vote.

    Only Maine splits their vote. Nebraska awards votes by congressional district, allowing the state to effectively gerrymander the electoral college.

    i_am_not_a_robot ,

    Without proportional electors, in a close election where the swing states–the only states that matter–vote near 50-50, the outcome is essentially random. In the states that vote 50.1% for one candidate, 100% of the votes will go to one candidate, and in the states that vote 50.1% for the other candidate, 100% of the votes will go to that candidate. Random noise in how votes are aggregated, from the district level up, can theoretically lead to wildly unfair results. In the worst case, all voters in 49.9% of states (by elector count) vote for one candidate, and then all voters in 49.9% of the voting districts in the remaining states vote for the same candidate, but 50.1% of voters in the remaining districts vote for the other candidate, that other candidate’s ~25% of the popular vote becomes a majority and they win the election. The required popular vote percentage is even lower if you factor in how California voters are less than three fifths people (closer to one fifth than two fifths, even) compared to Wyoming.

    uid0gid0 ,

    Depending on how you count it, you only need 23-27% of the popular vote to win the electoral college. This scenario is very unlikely but it illustrates how skewed the electoral college can make our elections.

    limelight79 ,

    The original thinking was the electoral college could stop any truly disastrous votes. But we’ve seen how that goes! Now we’re stuck with it because it helps one party and would require a constitutional amendment to abolish, and too few people in power are interested in doing what’s right for the country - they’re interested in doing what’s right for their party.

    (For another example of the “party first” mentality that has taken over: Washington, DC residents have no vote in Congress. This seems like an obvious thing to fix, give them a two members of the House and two Senators…but whoa, we can’t do that, it would change the balance of power in Congress! Seriously. That’s why DC residents have no real voice in Congress. For clarity, their votes do count for the Presidential election.)

    crypticthree ,

    It all goes back to slavery. The South has lower population and wouldn’t sign the constitution unless they had a handicap to ensure they were able to keep owning people. As more states entered the country the slavers got worried about the likelihood of slavery being made illegal. Look up Bleeding Kansas for more info.

    Maggoty ,

    Wrong compromise. That was the 3/5ths a person. This is large population states against small population states. States with small populations (including Southern but not exclusively) wanted a guarantee that it wouldn’t just be a parade of presidents from New York.

    Maggoty ,

    Originally the electors were actually meant to deliberate. It was supposed to be a no party system.

    In practice the electors have never demonstrated any independence from the political power that sent them there.

    Then you have states having to figure out how they select those electors, under the eyes of voters. Back then the representative to voter ratio was a lot smaller so losing your seat was a lot easier. So they did the politically reasonable thing and made the electors an elected position.

    It wasn’t long before that transformed into candidates selecting their electors, and people just selecting the candidate on the ballot.

    So electoral college remains now as a compromise between large population states and small population states. And the backup. Which is supposed to be Congress voting by state, is similarly population balanced because they get one vote per state in that instance.

    This all made a lot of sense in a semi-decentralized country that wasn’t supposed to have parties. Unfortunately parties formed literally right away. Also, since the Civil War we’ve been a lot more centralized. But we’re stuck with old voting systems because if we held a Constitutional Convention to update it then the Republicans would do stupid shit.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    if it was a popular vote, the parties would apply entirely different strategies in elections,

    Sure. Strategies would change to appeal to popular opinion rather than focusing forever on maximizing campaign contributions.

    Wilzax ,

    And speeches along the campaign trail would focus on broadly important topics instead of being individually tailored to the concerns of a few key districts that can swing entire states

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    Might be nice to revisit that whole “benefits of Open Medicare Enrollment” rather than going a full six months hovering around the Iowa Fair grounds and fixating exclusively on corn and soy futures.

    Wilzax ,

    If our democracy ever got that functional, how would we fund our billionaire oligarch daddies?

    EdanGrey ,

    Ah yes, a Putin, the bastion of honesty and truth.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    Pot calling Kettle black, but he ain’t even wrong.

    Not even getting into the Brooks Brothers Riots or Operation Eagle Eye or the straight explicit rigging of Jim Crow, the modern political class fully endorses rigging elections

    Putin knows the US elections can be rigged because he’s had his hands on the levers of power. But he’s hardly unique in that regard. Certainly, not given how we’ve eviscerated the Voting Rights Act over the last twenty years.

    echodot ,

    Right so why doesn’t he provide proof then? He’s absolutely motivated to provide it if he has it so the fact that he doesn’t have it basically proves he just making stuff up.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    Right so why doesn’t he provide proof then?

    I cited multiple examples with ample proof behind them.

    Are you denying the Brooks Brothers Riot and Operation Eagle Eye happened? Or are you just upset that Putin isn’t enumerating them from his bully pulpit?

    BobGnarley ,

    Lol see, this dude had facts to back up his claim but because what he said was something people dont want to hear he gets downvoted to zero. I notice that a lot on here. It’s part of the sewer that leaked over from Reddit.

    Fades ,

    Or maybe they simply worded their comment poorly. Yeah we have had elections stolen before but Putin is NOT right in stating that it was by way of mail in voting. Absolute bullshit on that.

    beardown ,

    we have had elections stolen before

    Pretty gross how it took so long for you to admit this. Especially since this point is the entire essence of the article.

    If you agree that American elections have previously been stolen then why are you disagreeing so emotionally with the post? If you admit that US democracy is a sham then why are you yelling at Putin rather than yelling at your own country’s lack of human rights?

    Maggoty ,

    Whoa there buddy. It ain’t a sham. Not yet anyways.

    Fades ,

    Yes he IS wrong, what the fuck???

    The brooks brothers riots had nothing to do with mail in voting, neither did any of the other examples you gave. If you’re going to say he’s right you need to qualify that since he specifically stated postal voting as the medium for rigging.

    UnderpantsWeevil ,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    The brooks brothers riots had nothing to do with mail in voting

    They very explicitly stopped a district from counting mailed in absentee ballots.

    boredtortoise ,

    Well, this one is a confession from him

    VikingHippie ,

    Once again proving the old adage that every accusation from the fascists is a confession, in Russia too.

    Shotgun_Alice ,

    Say it with me kids, Projection.

    the_third ,

    No, just casually driving another stake into the split of western societies.

    Landmammals ,

    So weird that Trump and Putin have the exact same opinions. Do you think Trump is controlling Putin?

    hakunawazo ,

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/364aa41c-2468-4736-b48f-a48e26a8b3f1.jpeg

    XTornado ,

    I wish.

    zik ,

    I mean he should know since he was one of the people paying to influence the election.

    BlackSkinnedJew ,

    You don’t need rigged elections if you have secret services with mindcontrol technology, the political actors will just be good looking marionettes at the end of the day, the perfect fascist wet dream comes to reality…

    FlorianSimon ,

    🤪

    dangblingus ,

    5 dollars?! Get outta here…

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