Another day, another unhinged rant by far-right VA GOP 2021 gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase…in this case “in Dugspur, Virginia [Saturday] at the Patriot Summit.” According to Chase:
“I’m going to tell you something different this year, something you haven’t heard yet: DO NOT VOTE ABSENTEE! I don’t care what Republican fool puts out there, something in your mailbox to vote absentee, don’t do it! You vote in person! Because this past week the liberal idiots in the Senate passed a bill that says we’re going to put a random voter box in every community in Virginia, and we want you to cast your vote in there if you’re too afraid to vote. Now forgive me for exposing the truth on the floor of the Senate, but I said if your mask works so well then get out and vote – let your mask protect you! They didn’t like that answer. And I said if you cannot keep the streets of Richmond from being destroyed, how are you going to keep those voting boxes from being destroyed? Captain Obvious. They didn’t like that either. So you’re gonna see it out there, y’all, you’re gonna see all these voting boxes all over Virginia and they’re gonna tell you to vote absentee. Don’t do it. You vote in person. And you have 45 days to do it to vote in person. And how do you do that? Go to your local registrar’s office…September the 19th you go to your general registrar’s office and start voting…But don’t you dare cast an absentee ballot! Because it will not vote! It’s going to be stuck in a warehouse somewhere. I am convinced they are going to go to all the Republican precincts where they have these voting boxes and they’re suddenly going to destroy, they’re going to disappear. But how much you want to bet those, uh, voting boxes in the Democratic precincts are still going to be there? Y’all, I might be blind but I’m not dumb. That’s right, you can count on it…The second thing is you have got to sign up to work in the local registrar’s office on election day…because we have to protect the integrity of this coming election.”
Of course, basically none of this is even remotely accurate. Now clearly, Chase thinks everyone – including most Republicans – is an “idiot” or whatever, so she wont’ care that “Republicans in key states continue urging voters to cast ballots by mail”; that drop boxes have “been utilized in various states over a long period of time” and “are absolutely safe.” Also note: drop boxes “are quarter inch steel, weigh between 250 and 750 pounds, and will be cemented to the ground in the same way that ATMs are.” And…
In Washington state, for example, which conducts all elections by mail, voters use drop boxes regularly. Voter fraud in the U.S. is rare, and states have security measures in place to ensure the person filling out the ballot is indeed who they say they are.
Also note that Chase is kind of confused about what constitutes “absentee” voting, and is presumably conflating it with voting by mail and also using drop boxes. Instead, Chase is encouraging her supporters to vote *in person* – either on election day or prior to election day, which is basically in-person absentee. As for her crazy conspiracy theory about an unspecified “they” going to “Republican precincts where they have these voting boxes” and either “destroy[ing]” them or making them “disappear,” that’s just out there in la-la land. But sure, make it harder and harder for your own supporters to vote – and vote safely, Senator Chase, that sounds like a *great* strategy! LOL
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