Protecting election integrity means voting for those who do so | Hour 3

And again, thank you so much for your support. So I keep talking about and referencing the General Assembly because there are a lot of people that are that are doomering over the the potential for Democrats to win control of the North Carolina legislature. And if you are new to North Carolina, like within the last 15 years, you were not here when Democrats ran the show. And honestly. going back to that crop of Democrats that were running the show would be preferable than turning the reins over to the current crop of Democrats who want to run the show. Because the current crop are, a lot of them are just crazy. They're talking crazy stuff. And again, if they were to somehow, it is possible, I don't know if it's probable, I'm just looking at the numbers. We talked with Andy Jackson from the John Locke foundation from the, uh, Civitas partisan index and looking at the numbers and, uh, you can see like it, it is possible. They have to flip a bunch of seats, uh, and depending if it's, uh, as Dr. Chris Cooper at Western Carolina said, you know, is it going to be a blue, uh, ripple blue wave, blue tsunami? Would that be a blue Nami? I don't know. Um, depending on like how good of a day it's going to be for Democrats. And by the way, this is the historical trend. So it's like I see like these lefties and they're on social media and they're all like, you know, gloating and celebrating and all of this. Well, like, yeah, I mean, historically, the party that does not control the White House, they they win a bunch of seats in the House and Senate. They win in the midterms. That is the historical norm. That's what usually happens. That's why you hear a lot of comparisons to 2018, because that was the midterm. under Trump won. You hear comparisons to 2022, right? That was the midterm under Joe Biden. And so that's the historical norm. And usually it's because the angries vote. People who are more angry go out and vote. And when your party, particularly the Democrats, because remember, we've brought to you these polls, like for a reason, I brought to you the surveys, not like polling is, like the horse race, who's leading in a particular race. No, no. The surveys of people's sentiments, what people think about things, right? I've been bringing you these surveys for years because when you ask people, like, do you love America? And Republicans say yes, no matter who controls the White House, whether it's their guy in the White House or it's the other guy in the White House, they're still saying yes. But Democrats don't do that. Democrats say that they don't love America as much if the Republican is in the White House. That's what the surveys show. So they're just built like that. They're just angrier when their party is not in control of the White House and the government. And so they are more motivated to go turn out and vote against the Republicans, and then they can love their country again. So, and the same dynamic does occur on the right, but their sense of love of country is not tied to who's in the White House as much as the Democrats are. So whoever's out of power are angrier. And like, it's only been two years. Like, it's been two years. Did you not see what Biden did when he had complete control at the federal level. That is what is at risk with the legislative races as well. Same thing. Do you think that we're not going to go the route of Virginia? Governor Josh Stein, Democrat, is not on the ballot, right? He's going to serve another two years. Do you want to give him A Democrat legislature? What do you think they start doing if they get control, where they don't need any Republican votes and they have the governor's mansion? Because like right now, Josh Stein and his veto, right, he is the limiting factor on a Republican legislature. If you turn over the legislature to the Democrats, well, they've got a guy in the governor's mansion who's going to sign everything that they pass. Just look up the road in Virginia. What did they race towards? You know what they're voting on right now in Virginia? They're looking to enshrine abortion in their constitution. I believe up until birth. That's the way like that's how far and how fast the Democrats will run to the left, because they're not sure that they're going to have another chance to do all of these things that they want to do. So they're going to run as far left as fast as they can. That ratchet just keeps turning in one direction. But in North Carolina, over the course of 15 years under the Republican legislature, they have actually been able to turn the ratchet back in the other direction. They've been able to lower the taxes, put in place election integrity measures, right? They have been able to do these things. Even at the federal level, like people who are dooming about Congress, like, are you aware what they've been able to do? Like the things that were done in the one big beautiful bill, right, allowing Trump to do the things that he's doing. I'm not saying everything he's doing is awesome. You can oppose individual things that he's doing. I just don't see why you would want to thwart that kind of progress. I've got the whole list here. I'll try to get to it. But at National Review, Inez Fletcher Stepman taking stock of the Trump administration's victories. Here's from this from the John Locke Foundation, Caitlin Shepard. The year 2020 was a stress test for election administration and integrity in North Carolina. While the system generally held together well, that stress test exposed problems with how election officials conducted themselves. It also exposed or exacerbated problems with election law and policy. Since then, the General Assembly has addressed several of those problems. Changes are still needed to ensure that election results accurately reflect the electorate's intent. Some of those changes are in a bill. Now, a bill that Josh Stein vetoed, the General Assembly can still try to override that veto. A John Locke Foundation report on the conduct of the 2020 election found numerous problems with policy and practice. Number one, Board of Elections illegally suppressed election observers in 2020. They attempted to change election rules illegally in 2021 and to limit the number of observers, and in 2022, to restrict how they could perform their duties. And that, by the way, is why the legislature, among many reasons, but that was a big one, that's why the legislature removed the Board of Elections from under the governor and moved it to the state auditor's office for oversight. Because of this kind of shenanigan, right? Or shenanigans. These kinds of shenanigans. This is what we were dealing with. So if the Democrats take control of the General Assembly, do you think that they'll move it back under Governor Stein? And then do you think that they're going to start doing this kind of stuff again? I do. Why wouldn't they? They also accepted any absentee ballot up to three days after Election Day. That got changed. State law also required ballots be transmitted to county elections boards only by mail or courier service by the voter or by the voter's near relative or verifiable legal guardian. But the Board of Elections executive director, Karen Brinson Bell, nullified that law by issuing guidance to county officials to accept a ballot even if it was delivered by somebody who was not authorized to even possess the ballot. That's what the Democrats were running in North Carolina until the General Assembly moved the Board of Elections from under the governor's control. That's what's at stake here. 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Go to createavideo.com or visit them in Mint Hill just off I-485. Your photos and videos are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you. And they will tell others to come who you are. Visit createavideo.com. More from Caitlin Shepard at the John Locke Foundation. going over what the Republican General Assembly has done to improve election security in North Carolina. That's on the ballot, okay? When you don't vote and you empower people who want to tear apart all of the guardrails on voting integrity, then you're going to get a corrupted voting system. That's how that works, right? For example, The State Board of Elections entered into what was called a collusive lawsuit settlement. I've talked at length about this, also known as sue and settle. This is a legal tactic. They did this with Democrat attorney Mark Elias just before the 2020 election. The aim was to weaken a bunch of laws protecting election integrity. And they cut out the legislature that was a party to the lawsuit. So they had left-wing groups sue the state and then the governor and the attorney general, both Democrats, they were like, oh, well, I guess we're going to have to go along with what, uh, these people are demanding. And so they settled and they agreed to do what the, uh, the lefties wanted. Meanwhile, the general assembly, a party to the lawsuit, defendants in the lawsuit were not consulted. They weren't even aware that the settlement was, um, was offered and accepted. They don't allow that anymore either. Mark Zuckerberg, remember that? Spent like $ 7 million, sent it to the State Board of Elections in 35 counties during the 2020 election, and there's evidence that the money went to predominantly blue counties to help them with their election process, the Zuck Bucks, remember that? In the years since the 2020 election, Those supporting election integrity have won several important victories, and I would add thanks to the Republican control of the General Assembly, because this is not something Democrats are interested in doing. They have fought all of these measures. The first victories were over the collusive settlements. They also beat back the actions to restrict the election observers. The Board of Elections updated guidance to the county boards in 2026 this year to spoil and reissue a ballot if they had specific firsthand information that the ballot was delivered by somebody other than the voter or the voter's near relative or legal guardian. Okay. What else did they do? 2023, they did a whole bunch of reforms. They made Election Day the deadline for election officials to get most of the absentee ballots in by. No more of this ballots arriving two, three days after the election. They required the Board of Elections to report violations of election law to the SBI, right? Because this was another problem, was that whenever there would be some issue, then you would have to report it to what? Your local DA or something? Local police? It was not a priority. They never did anything. They would never investigate this stuff. And so... then that was cited as no proof. There's no proof of any fraud occurring. There's no proof of any problems. Why? Because there were no convictions. Well, you don't get convictions if you don't indict, and you don't indict if you don't have any evidence, and you don't have any evidence if you just ignore the complaints, you know? They banned the Zuck Bucks and other private funding. North Carolina has made significant progress on election integrity over the past six years. Again, with no help from Democrats on this stuff. Zero help. Further reforms are in House Bill 958. There's still work to do. This is the bill that Stein has vetoed. Don't know if Republicans will have enough votes to override that veto. But if Democrats win back the House and or the Senate, they're not going to override that veto. They don't want this stuff done. They don't want performance audits. They don't want that. Privacy protection and voter list maintenance. They don't want that. The bill would make data shared with other states through such a program, not a public record, which would let North Carolina securely share data and better clean up the voting rolls. North Carolina has been working with the federal government and their database, the SAVE database, in order to cross-reference voters. That's list maintenance. That's ensuring election integrity. Democrats oppose all of that. They're suing everywhere to block any kind of measure that cleans up the voter rolls. It doesn't matter to them that tens of thousands of people are registered on the voting rolls, many of whom have voted, and they're not citizens. They don't live there. They don't care. Well, I shouldn't say that. They do care. They just care about ripping down all of the guardrails. They want it as easy as possible to, quote, vote, because then you can, you know, take advantage of the loopholes. I am left after covering these issues for almost 20 years. I am left with no other rational reason why Democrat lawmakers continue to fight on all of these issues and when the majority of Americans and the majority of people in their own party want to see election security. They support voter ID, yet the leadership, the lawmakers, they are opposed to it all the time. And they accuse you of being a racist for wanting to have secure elections. That's on the ballot today. All right, real quick, every government number gets revised, right? Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real, it's in your name, and 10 minutes tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to Calendarmetals.com. That's Calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. just getting a chuckle from Shirley the lefty on the text line, who says, real clear, Republicans want a king. Democrats don't. We will get rid of the king by 2028. Blue wave on the way. Enjoy the ride. So did you know that, Republicans? You guys want a king and the Democrats don't. That's why They have had all of those totally transparent and open primaries for their presidential nominees for the last two cycles. Right. Yeah. You guys don't want the tyrant. Uh-huh. Sure. Also, we will get rid of the king by 28. So impeachment, you want to do impeachment against Trump again? You're going to do that? You're going to go that route again? Okay. You know, the other team gets an at-bat here, Shirley. They, uh-huh. Um, but also I was assured that, uh, this is, that that would be weaponization and, and lawfare. And you guys are totally against all of that. This is really just stop sniffing your own farts, Shirley. Um, Dave says, Pete, thank you for the excellent review of North Carolina's election integrity improvements in recent years. It was excellent. Oh, well, that was that was Caitlin. What's her last name? Caitlin Shepard at the John Locke Foundation, putting all of that info together and me filling in some of the color commentary. Stan, is there any way to determine how many of the early votes are actually provisional ballots? I believe they do break that out. Yes. Since North Carolina allows same-day registration and voting during the 10 days of early voting and only require proof of residency and will accept an out-of-state driver's license, I was curious when– well, you've got to have proof that you live where you live. I was curious when provisional ballots are verified and then counted. That's part of the canvas. I also asked because if you don't have a valid North Carolina ID, you can still vote, but until verified, your vote is classified as provisional. Yeah. So you have to, what they call that curing the ballot, because it's defective in some way, it's sick. So you have a sick ballot. And so you then have to cure the ballot and you have a deadline. to do so. And if you don't do so, then they toss it. They spoil it, as they say. Trisha says the same people on the left also think we're racist if we want to be safe in general, safe from crime, safe from terrorism, safe with financial security, etc., etc., I'm sorry. I value my life and I care about things, not purple hair, killing my children, letting immigrants share a home with me, getting to work really late and pushing the envelope to get what I want like a brat. They are the most Fruit Loops screwed up people, uh, group of people. Yeah. Uh, yeah, they are. Every accusation is a confession. Um, Mary says they obviously want a queen since they inserted Kamala without a primary. Yeah. Um, Jason says, Democrats don't want a king, but they do want some socialism. That's right. We'll all control the means of production. Yes. Now, we will need like a politburo and a dictator tyrant to run the commie machine, but not a king. Dennis, with the obvious point, if Trump were king, there would not be elections to remove him and impeachment would not be allowed. Precisely. Yes. Yes. Many kings step aside after they lose the reelection, as he did. Yes. Oh, my gosh. This is just a wall of text. I'm going to have to check that before I start down that path. Steve, I spent too much time in the DMV. The people in front of me were trying to register to vote after about 10 minutes at the check-in. The woman working the check-in informed them they were not citizens and they could not register to vote. But don't worry, people that aren't citizens never try to register to vote. Yeah, I've gone over the problems with this system. Thanks to the 1994, was it the Voter Registration Act or the national, I forget what it was called. But yeah, basically made all welfare agencies, the Help America Vote Act or HAVA, like turn DMV offices like auto, like you're automatically registered. or you automatically apply to vote. And then it's on the Board of Elections to go through and do the due diligence to find out whether or not you're eligible to vote, and a lot of states don't do that. Yeah, that's why they're finding all of these illegal aliens registered to vote, many of whom may not have realized that they're not supposed to be registered to vote. Like, I'm not accusing people of intentionally breaking the law. I'm saying the system is geared to accept people and to put more of those applications through the system. And to just rubber stamp them and approve them. I went over this last week. Robert says, I voted. I hope Watley wins. Judith says, if they don't know what a woman is, how can they tell if it's a king or a queen? That's fair. No, that's a fair point. Fair point. Inez Flesher Stepman at National Review wrote a piece, very lengthy, taking stock of the Trump administration's victories. Because I know there are a lot of people in Blackpillville that believe nothing has changed. There's no difference, right? I didn't get everything I wanted. I'm going to stay home. They need to lose. The Republicans need to lose all of this, right? And that means losing the state legislature. That means having Democrats win back control of the legislature and roll back all of the tax reforms, roll back all of the election integrity measures, right? Because they're responsible for what Donald Trump did or didn't do, whatever. It's worth recalling where America was just two years ago. The domestic policy record of the first two years of Trump's second term should be described from a conservative perspective as a major achievement worth celebrating. There are exceptions, of course, but on the whole, these two years have been among the most productive of any administration in my lifetime, she says. Immigration, these are the categories, and she does big write-ups on all of them. Immigration, economy, Real equality under the law, no woke exceptions. Higher education. K-12 education. Law and order. First serious rollback of the administrative state in a century. And enforcement actions against leftist fraud and activism networks. Right? I understand... like people have this idea of the Republican party, but guys, it's not the nineties or the early two thousands anymore. Like there, there have actually been a lot of things that the administration with the help of the legislature, with the help of Congress that they have done on immigration. You've got deportation of a million illegal aliens, another two and a half million self-deporting that we know of. You had substantial restrictions, um, that have led to lower visa approval numbers. The H-1B program went from approving 130,000 visas annually to down to about 35,000. Asylum claims went from 60,000 to 30,000. Student visas went from 155,000 down to 40,000. Legal immigration from Muslim-majority nations in particular has taken a whopping 96% cut in this administration, 3 million people, foreign born population are now not here. Like, I'm not sure. I mean, you can want more. That's fine. But if you say that nothing has changed, like that's just, that's just asinine. All right. So among some of the, um, uh, the victories of the Trump administration over the last two years, For example, K-12 education, the school choice revolution that has swept many states after COVID closures, received a major boost from the Trump administration and the one big, beautiful bill. The first federal school choice program set to launch January 1, offering tax credits for donations to scholarship-granting organizations that then provide vouchers or flexible education savings checks. to families wishing to send their kids elsewhere than the public system. More than 30 states have already opted into the school choice program. In addition, in another regulatory repeal, the administration has revoked rules around school discipline that forced schools to equalize punishment at the mass race level. Right. So they were not treating individual kids as individuals. They were saying, what race are you? And we have to equal out the punishments. Law and order. Perhaps no story has been more undertold in the lead up to the election than the substantial drop in violent crime, partly attributable to Trump's border and immigration policies. If the crime rates under Biden in 24 had continued through this present day, approximately 5,000 more Americans would have lost their lives to homicide. Along those trend lines, there would have been 8,500 more rapes, 1,000 more carjackings, and 100,000 more burglaries. Nationally, violent crime is down, and it's down a lot. And the most likely explanation? The huge number of people who were in the country to commit crimes simply are not here anymore. And then there is the first serious rollback of the administrative state in a century. Other than immigration, she says, I suspect no area of Trump policy will leave a more critical or lasting impact than what this administration has done with regard to federal personnel. Curtailing the power of unelected bureaucracies and restoring the constitutional integrity of the executive branch under the guidance of the elected president. Federal workers, as a share of the total workforce, are at their lowest point since 1939. The federal workforce, as a share of the total workforce, lowest point since 1939. And then there's the enforcement actions against fraud and left-wing activists. Nearly every week, the DOJ announces another prosecution of the kind of fraud rings that created headlines about quality leering centers that had no kids, Medicaid payments, going to patients that don't exist, and all sorts of other schemes that turned out to be far more common than many of us had ever imagined. Antifa. CARE. Southern Poverty Law Center. They're all embroiled in federal charges stemming from alleged criminal behavior. Finally, bringing to justice these leftist networks that operated as though they were above the law. The parties are not the same, folks. Our political parties are not the same. You have to update that talking point. I used to believe this same. I used to believe much of that same sort of rationale. Oh, we're going to the same destination, just a different speed. I used to say that. The parties have been in a realignment. I don't like everything about what the Republican Party is now either. I didn't like it before. and I don't like some of it now. The only political party that you're ever going to agree with 100% of the time is a party of you. That's it. She says the domestic conservative victories notched by the second Trump administration in two years would be a remarkable record for two full consecutive presidential terms. More, they amount to laying the groundwork for a full-scale counter-revolution against what has been until now a one-way ratchet favoring the institutional left. She said this is not the uniparty politics of the 90s and the 2000s that left many Americans feeling that it didn't much matter which party was in power. We have two very distinct visions for the future of the United States. She is exactly right. And if you can't see that, then you need to, I don't know, maybe get your news from other sources. Maybe stop listening. By the way, anybody who's a fan of Nick Fuentes, he's out there telling everybody to vote Democrat today. Just in case you were wondering if there was any merit to the whole horseshoe right and the woke right stuff, that they're really like the left. Yeah, he's out there telling everyone vote Democrat. So, James Lindsay was right. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.