Same as it ever was

It is rare to find such a headline so prominently displayed. It is sad there is a need for one.

My CNN colleagues looked into 50 of the names on a viral MAGA list supposedly showing 14,000 Michigan cases of ballots being cast in the name of dead people.

Result:
– 37 are dead, no vote cast
– 5 are alive and voted
– 8 are alive and didn’t vote https://t.co/2qvoVmRI3N

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 10, 2020

I’ve been writing about this for years. Republicans make headlines with fraudulent allegations of fraud or the dead voting and by the time they’ve been debunked the story usually ends up buried deep in Section A. That’s what happened in South Carolina in 2012.

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“Dusk of the Dead,” Scrutiny Hooligans (2/25/2012):

Even as Fox News pressed ahead with its zombie voter headlines, the State Election Commission pressed ahead with its investigation, reporting its findings this week:

In 197 of [the 207 cases examined], the records show no indication of votes being cast fraudulently in the name of deceased voters. Research found each of these cases to be the result of clerical errors, bad data matching, errors in assigning voter participation, or voters dying after being issued an absentee ballot. In 10 cases, the records were insufficient to make a determination.

Alas, this is not a sane world, and the report was no bullet through the brain for these zombies. The South Carolina Republican Party is — unsurprisingly — undeterred, NPR reports:

The state attorney general’s office in South Carolina said in a statement Thursday afternoon that the question of “dead” voters is still being investigated by the State Law Enforcement Division and that no “final answer to this problem” can be determined until that investigation is concluded.

“To give this state’s election process the clean bill of health we would like, we can’t simply rely on the review of some 200 of 950 records … that is unsatisfactory,” the statement said.

That’s why the GOP insists we need Zombie ID. Because we must be absolutely certain. Because absence of evidence is not evidence of absence where the Voting Dead are concerned. The minority-looking people in line in front of you, all around you at the polls — What’s that BEHIND YOU!  — may seem  normal, but what if they’re not? They might be zombies.

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Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner on CNN: "I have seen the most fantastical things on social media, making completely ridiculous allegations that have no basis in fact at all…One thing I can't comprehend is how hungry people are to consume lies."

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 11, 2020

Lies are what’s for dinner when you’re fresh out of brains.