How Wisconsin Streetfighters Disrupted a Democrat Ballot-Gathering System
Ballots and votes. These two words seem synonymous, yet they imply opposite ways to choose a government. There is a big difference between
Ballots and votes.
These two words seem synonymous, yet they imply opposite ways to choose a government.
There is a big difference between "votes" and "ballots." The Republicans focused on winning votes; the Democrats focused on gathering ballots. The ballots won.
—Conservative Treehouse November 2022
When Election Day became Election Month, mail-in ballots replaced in-person voters, and the electoral world changed forever. It is not changing back.
Democrats, expert in anything government-related, drove states to change laws, increase voting days, loosen voter standards. Republican leadership dozed.
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The good news of the now permanent ballot-gathering strategy is that the Democrats need to keep voter rolls fat with the dead, people living in UPS boxes and R.V. parks. They need to physically gather all those floating ballots and vote them.
Republicans have a different, less steep hill to climb: keep voter rolls as clean as possible. Identify in advance where ballots will be mailed to addresses where nobody lives — and shut those ballots down.
For the Republicans, any friction injected into the ballot-gathering system has disproportionate benefits — so they have asymmetric advantages.
Votes require people, ballots require systems. Republican officials, Republican politicians and the Republican voters need to switch the emphasis from people (votes and poll watchers) to systems in these states.
—Conservative Treehouse November 2022
