Hello again, this is the third installment of my chronicling of the events surrounding both criminal ballot tampering that was revealed in a recount of Maine's District 25 Senate race last month, and of the subsequent underhanded manoeuvrings of the new GOP Senate Majority around that issue as it affects a critical early vote in the combined Maine House and Senate to elect the state's Constitutional Officers (or "COs", the AG, SoS and Treasurer) this afternoon. Here's installment 1 and 2
I just spent the morning as the guest of my local Senator, Dave Miramant, a Democrat from Knox County, who, along with the entire Democratic caucus and election integrity proponents here and around the country, is extremely disturbed about the cavalier attitude of the GOP leadership. Dave invited me to watch the swearing in of the new Senate, something I thought might be historic due to the expressed intention of the incoming GOP Senate President, Mike Thibodeau, to fast-track seating of the Republican in District 25, Cathy Manchester, in order to have her vote available for the CO vote soon to follow. What I was expecting, based on Thibodeau's published comments a week ago, was an attempt to rush an investigation of the disputed recount in order for the Senate to vote Manchester in. What actually happened, which I was informed of after having been seated in the Senate chamber next to Dave's lovely wife Dee, was an unprecedented Parliamentary move that summarily removed the candidate that the Secretary of State had provisionally installed, Cathy Breen, seating her opponent, Manchester, by means of a simple Order of the Senate which bypassed the messy and time consuming process of conducting an investigation into what can only be described as an overt, ham handed case of electoral fraud.
And the reason for the change in plans is given by the GOP Chair of the Senate Committee that is charged with investigating the recount mess. Here's what he said:
Katz said “there’s unlikely to be enough time” for the committee to make a recommendation Wednesday. So the machinations of the GOP leadership in order to increase their chances of winning the CO vote were worse than I thought they were going to be, but the ballot tampering case itself was revealed to be even more egregious and more obviously criminal than I was aware of before this morning. Those of you who've been following this story know that that's a pretty low bar to slide under, but slide the GOP did, and it's not over yet.