From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.advocacy

"More Signs the Dem Establishment Stole the Election From Hong?"

<https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/08/14/more-signs-the-dem- establishment-stole-the-election-from-hong-n4956141>

"Wisconsin Democrats just got a preview of what happens when the party
that brands itself the guardian of democracy runs its own primary. On
Tuesday, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley (D-Wis.) pulled off
what pollsters insisted was impossible, beating state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Wis.), who was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA),
in the Democrat gubernatorial primary. RealClearPolitics, PPP, and
Marquette all had Hong up by 18 to 22 points heading into election night,
and her victory was seen as inevitable. CrowleyAs victory has plenty of
people asking questions, and now more have come up.

Advertisement
The trouble started as soon as the polls closed. USB drives carrying
voter data went missing in multiple counties. A server outage slowed
reporting across the state so badly that it became impossible to deny something bizarre was going on. But nothing beat the mess in Milwaukee,
where election commission staff loaded the wrong files onto the USB
drives Milwaukee uses to report results. Instead of vote totals, they downloaded audit logs. It took more than an hour to sort out.

WeAve seen this kind of mess before, where blue cities are very late
reporting results compared to other areas, and that played out in
Wisconsin on Tuesday as well. WeAre expected to believe that's just how
it is because of how many votes need to be counted, but many suspect itAs
more about how deep-blue cities like to see exactly how many votes they
need before locking in a final number so they can generate the result
they want. And on Tuesday, we saw an outcome so far removed from where
the polls said the race was at, itAs hard not to wonder. Despite HongAs
20+ lead in the polls, she lost by fewer than 3,300 votes, a mere 0.42%.

ICYMI: Election Night Chaos in Wisconsin Raises Some Uncomfortable F-Word Questions

Reporter A.J. Bayatpour dug into the USB drive issue and found
photographic evidence that the drive's export screen clearly read "audit-
log export" before it ever left the building. That raises an obvious
question: How does trained election staff miss a label sitting right on
the screen in front of them?

Advertisement

State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Wis.) wants a legislative investigation into
what's happening at Milwaukee's central count. He's also eyeing a rule
change that would let Milwaukee start processing absentee ballots the
Monday before Election Day, something currently barred under Wisconsin
law. Wisconsin is one of only six states with that restriction. But Krug
isn't pretending a calendar fix solves everything. He says the personnel
and staffing problems at central count would remain even with a Monday
head start, and Milwaukee city and county government need better training
and better appointments across the board.


Advertisement
Bayatpour also asked Ann Jacobs, a past chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, whether Milwaukee's election operations need tightening up.
Jacobs wouldn't fully commit, saying she couldn't assess the staff's
budget and personnel limitations from the outside. But she agreed the procedures need fixing so incidents like this stop happening, and she
noted that when she personally visited central count, the machines were locked, sealed, and visible to observers.


According to Bayatpour, this marks the third consecutive election cycle
in which Milwaukee's central count operation has run into trouble. How
does this happen three times in a row? Remember, Florida cleaned up its
act after the 2000 recount fiasco and has since become the gold standard
for election administration in America. They count elections quickly and accurately. Milwaukee has had three chances to do the same and has blown
every one of them. A system that keeps breaking the same way, in the same city, in favor of the same political machine, and never gets fixed, is functioning exactly as its overseers want it to
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2