Lessons from a Failing State
In 2016, Venezuela had 30.7 million people but became engulfed in political and economic crises, which led to more than 7.7 million people leaving the country. How did this oil-rich country, which used to be the third-richest country in the hemisphere, get into so much trouble? In the recent Presidential election, Venezuela’s opposition party alleges massive government corruption.
It has been widely reported that Maduro had used fraud and physical force to retain power when all polls showed the opposition party and candidate had won. There are reports of ballot boxes being seized and burned.
Further, as Red State reported today, "Kamala Harris and Joe Biden had different ideas. While the press will no doubt bury the story, the current administration was at the center of this fraudulent election, having handed Maduro sanctions relief in exchange for "free and fair elections." That sounds like a great deal in exchange for only a hollow promise. Just two weeks before the elections, Kamala and Joe throw Maduro a bone and a boatload of economic benefits. Figures, I guess; leftists supporting leftists.
AP Photo by Fernando Vergara. © Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Licensed for our use.
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Latest Blog Posts
Since October 9, 2021, Jennifer, Susan and Bill have written regular blog postings on the dallasgop.org website. Since all of their postings are no longer being published on that site by the new DCRP team, we are republishing those posts written by those three authors (all are now members of the DCR United team) to provide continuity. Going forward, new blog postings published after June 15, 2024, will be shown here.
Texas Gets Redder, Again. Now, Let's Make Dallas County Redder!
- 11/12/2024
- Susan Fountain
- Commentary
Democrats have not won a state-wide election in many years, mainly due to statewide conservative rural areas, which offset the 5 largest blue counties. Yet they are vowing to get up again and get to work TODAY to work on turning Texas blue! This is how the Democrats turned Dallas County blue...slowly and surely over the last 25+- years. If nothing else they are very patient. There were some conservative victories. All eight of the Court of Appeals candidates recruited under Jennifer's leadership, including the new Chief Justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals, Justice JJ Koch won, and Republicans now dominate the 13 Panel Court. And Dallas County Republicans managed to keep its two incumbent Texas House Districts, District 108 and District 112, in spite of unprecedented opposition from members of the Dallas County Republican Party. God bless every one of you who put a sign in your yard, block walked for Republicans and helped in any way to get out the vote! We worked hard and put Trump back in, but not in Dallas County. In Dallas County, Democrats swept almost every race.
E-Pollbook Problems
- 10/23/2024
- Bill Anderton
- Commentary
On the first day of early voting, Monday, October 21, there were widespread problems with the ES&S E-Pollbooks used in Dallas County to check in voters. The turnout on the first day of early voting was heavy (long lines) and the e-pollbook problems contributed to even longer lines.
The problems resulted in the election workers being kicked off the system frequently requiring new logins every time it happened. The problems occurred every 2 to 10 voters. Worse, as a direct artifact of the core problem, the incorrect ballot style (wrong precinct and/or sub-precinct) and its races being printed for some (but not all) voters. When noticed by election workers or voters, this required spoiling the incorrect ballot and generating new ones. In some cases, this required multiple cycles to generate a correct ballot which consumed more time. One Voting Center reported a total of over 200 spoiled ballots on Monday. For these voters, they ultimately cast corrected ballots but this error caused more time and resulted in even longer lines.
Fortunately, these problems were quickly noticed by our Election Workers (Election Judges and Election Clerks) and reported to DCED. The problem was diagnosed and its causes and effects were found an fixed. A more complete background of the problem and its fix are included in the Dallas County Elections Department press release.
Do You Hear Yourself?!
- 10/14/2024
- Jennifer Stoddard Hajdu
- Commentary
To the Dallas County Republican Party’s Resolution Committee: You voted to propose a resolution requiring candidates to believe exactly as YOU do or face Republican opposition and negative campaigning to defeat them. To you, I repeat what I heard JD Vance say to a reporter on a Sunday morning program: “Do you hear yourself?”
You would rather see a liberal Democrat who does not agree with you on anything elected over the only two Republican State House members we have in Dallas County who agree with you on 90% of the issues? Are you listening to what you are saying?
Punditry and Persiflage
The "Punditry and Persiflage" section will feature curated selections of the news of the day and social media. From serious to silly, these things simply require comments. You are invited to add your comments to the posting as well.
VP Harris bungles interview with influencer so badly he doesn't air it
- 11/4/2024
- Bill Anderton
- Reporting
See Fox News Article
