Forums → WEPR → Russian Meddling in US Elections

From the lies that popular media have told

It sounds like you've been sucked into the universe of so-called 'alternative facts' without doing any actual research yourself. If you're going to claim that the media has lied, you need to show 2 things:

1) That a major news outlet actually stated that Russia hacked polling machines or the like, and
2) The the above major news outlet knew (1) to be false, since that would constitute a lie.

many think that Russia has actively manupilated the votes... through hacking our polling machines, and tabulators.

Those who believe this claim only have themselves to blame. A lot of people just read the headlines or get their news from less-than-reliable sources.

In fact, all we accuse them of is having fake social media accounts

This is patently false. While that was a major part of their actions, the accusations run much deeper than this. The 12 Russians who were recently arrested have been indicted with several very serious charges. These include "spear phishing e-mails", sending "malicious software" and directly hacking the DNC servers and leaking those e-mails. That's, like, genuine hacking. You have to know that your statement here is false, under any reasonable context.
Source (BBC)

Is this really something to confront them about?

Of course it is! Even if it was just the fake social media accounts, that's a big deal. This is a major power interfering with the free elections of another world power. Yes, this is a practice that countries (including the US) will engage in, but that doesn't make it okay. That line of thinking is just a tu quoque.

we ignore the Democratic districts that supply more votes than registered voters, and in which dead people cast ballots.

The first of this is absolutely false. It would be impossible for a district to have more votes than registered voters--even if we were to grant that some voter fraud took place. That's because no district would have 100% participation.

And do you have any sources for dead people casting ballots? This is a charge I've heard over and over again, but I haven't seen any evidence. There are dead people who are still registered to vote. But I would assume that's because voting records aren't purged regularly. It doesn't follow that, because person X is dead, that a vote was cast in person X's name.

I'm not terribly interested in politics in the U.S. I find that the entire conversation is pretty much about nothing. But the line of thought you've presented here upsets me as an educator. I find that people just latch onto whatever outlets of information make them feel comfortable and don't really engage with the information they've been presented. Most of the time, this is fine. And to be honest, you're welcome to believe whatever you like. But if you decide to present this information as truth without doing any independent research, it makes me grumpy.

I did some research, and you're right. However,

1) News media gives the impression that they manipulated numbers
2) We are being hypocrites as we regularly engage in this behavior in other countries, even manipulating the numbers ourselves

and for dead people voting,

a)https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dead-people-voting-in-colorado
b)https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/08/election-fraud-registered-voters-outnumber-eligible-voters-462-counties
c)https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/dead-people-apply-to-vote-in-dallas-county/446702144

a)https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dead-people-voting-in-colorado

b)https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/08/election-fraud-registered-voters-outnumber-eligible-voters-462-counties

c)https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/dead-people-apply-to-vote-in-dallas-county/446702144

Yet again, no mention of who is being voted for. So, yes, that is a thing that happens sometimes. It doesn't support your claim that the Democratic Party is meddling in elections in this way.

I was quoting those to inform Moegreche. By the way, we do it too. Here, democrats are caught in fraud. And CNN tells how dead people generally vote for Democrats. And to spice it up, here's videos of Dem cheating. And to cap it off.

By the way, we do it too.

Here, democrats are caught in fraud.

And CNN tells how dead people generally vote for Democrats.

And to spice it up, here's videos of Dem cheating.

And to cap it off.