I had the "pleasure" - nay, just the experience - of living in Minnesota while she was in the legislature, making a very ... mmm ... distinctive name for herself, and getting reelected anyway. When there was an LGBT protest (for gay marriage?) on the state capitol steps, she was photographed hiding in the bushes nearby to spy on whatever horrible things she thought they might be planning.
On another occasion, when a woman wished to ask her a question while both were in the restroom, Bachmann ran out screaming that she had been sexually assaulted by the woman. The claim was quickly debunked.
She paraded her religious views as part of her qualifications for office in the extreme right wing back then. Nowadays it's not quite that unusual, but still far right. She made for herself a reputation for being ridiculous to those on the left, and apparently is still maintaining it.
Yesterday I heard a clip of her defending Trump's view of how this election is going to be "stolen" by people bringing in extra ballots to sway the result. Here's her explanation, as well as I can recall. Supposedly hundreds of thousands of ballots are going to be printed in "evil" countries like China. From there they will be shipped via other countries yet unknown into this country, there to sit in places like Minnesota barns while waiting to be used. Bad actors in charge of tallying ballots will decide they need 40-some thousand of them brought in to tip the vote away from Trump and the decided-upon number will be brought over from the barn and added to the ballot piles.
OK, I know a thing or two about Minnesota elections. (As should she!) First, there is no precinct anywhere in the state where 40-some thousand ballots can be slipped into the count unnoticed. And it's the precincts which EACH have their own individual ballot. One single paper ballot covers every election from the national level down to the precinct level. A precinct will be anything from a township to a small town or up, where the most significant office to be filled covers all those particular voters.
Take Shafer, for example. I mean the city, not the township. I personally sat out the post-election counting of several elections' worth of ballots for the city of around a thousand humans, not voters, at its highest by the time I left. Mayor, council members, and everything at higher levels - county, state, national all were on a single piece of paper, distinct from every other precinct's ballots. Nobody could possible "sneak in" more than a handful of ballots, even if there were some foreign country who would bother to identify each ballot from each precinct and print such limited amounts of each. Besides, the election judges marked each voter's name on the registration rolls, and the counts had to match.
In Arizona, my ballot outer envelope is given a distinctive bar code which identifies me. Not 2003 other people also. Just me. My filled in ballot goes into that big green envelope to be mailed back in, since I am on the Permanent Early Voters List down here, and that happens for every election. When my ballot reaches the site where it's counted, before opening it the sealed envelope is run under a barcode reader, links to a copy of my typical signature to compare to what's on my envelope, and only when approved as coming from me does it get opened and the ballot sent to where it gets counted. A digital record is kept stating that my ballot was received, found to be mine, and added to those to be counted. I can go online or even make a phone call to verify it got there and was counted.
I have a son who was an election judge in Minnesota, and a good friend who was an election judge here in Arizona. Both know their respective systems, and both trust the protocols, which include right from the top that there be representatives from both major political parties serving as election judges and ensuring the process. I trust our voting systems in both states.
Years ago Minnesota had a senate race, Franken vs. Coleman. Early results put them about 300 ballots apart, Coleman ahead. That close, the state legally requires a recount. All ballots were brought to the capitol, lawyers from both sides looked over the shoulders of those counting, and the whole process was videotaped and aired live. We all could see why certain ballots were rejected, such as voting for both men at the same time, or adding identifying marks to the ballot which might be used to prove one voted for some candidate for a reward. Some which were previously tossed out by the machines due to a voter both checking the printed name and also writing-in the same name in were deemed admissible. After months, the contest was declared by a few hundred votes in favor of Franken, the Democrat, and he was finally sent to Washington.
(For those who don't know, the five months between Franken coming in and Ted Kennedy leaving due to his brain tumor were the ONLY months that the Democrats had a majority of the Senate which could fully support Obama. Those who claimed Obama was weak because he had two years of Democratic control are either ignorant or lying. Just saying.)
But back to Bachmann now. Let's look at the idiocy about storing ballots in barns. I know a thing or two about Minnesota barns. They aren't just walls, hay, and boxes. Even if typical farm animals live elsewhere, like cows, sheep, horses, pigs, and whatever, along with their fragrant and flagrant messes, lots of other things reside in the barn. Like mice. A plethora of bugs. Pigeons and/or other birds. Spiders. In other words, a whole bunch of critters which will use their various capabilities and appetites to get in to those boxes, chew nests and tunnels, leave filth, and otherwise ruin most anything stored there for more than a couple days, while having a grand old time doing it. Perhaps you have to be Michele Bachmann to buy into that part of her story.
But then she wouldn't be Michele Bachmann without a huge dose of ridiculousness, would she?
So, folks, just get out there and vote, will ya? Or stay home and vote. Either way. VOTE!!!!
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