Tag Archives: Bruce Poliquin

Dec 28 2018

To Us, The Republic

 

Disappointment is the understated term of choice at the news that Bruce Poliquin will not continue his challenge to the travesty of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). If need be, the voters of the 2nd Congressional District (CD2), who voted in a strong majority against the RCV, were keen to have their interests represented, to it’s fruition, at the highest levels of court in our Nation. This is not to be.

This voter expected my Representative to adhere to the oaths he has taken. This writer expressed publicly the duty ascribed to a public servant within a Republic to do so. But here we are, expectations still pining.

The counter to these arguments is that it is the dime and the reputation of the aforementioned servant that is spent and sullied in the public eye. It is his choice. To this, there can be no argument.

The legal expenses are burdensome. The media bias is insurmountable. The solution must come from a grassroots reckoning.

For now, the 1st Congressional District enjoys two Representatives at the expense of CD2. Yet, this is not the time for rural Maine to withdraw towards the temptation of apathy and sullen indifference at the repeated political slights from the elitist south. It is time for rural Maine to regroup, unite, and win back our vote.

An adage this writer has rejected on principle becomes a truth, in earnest, for the days to come. Until Jared Golden can win a “one person-one vote” election, instead of a manipulated, discordant violation of voter’s rights, he is quite literally not our Representative. It falls now to us, the citizens of this great Republic in the Sovereign State of Maine, to repeal Ranked Choice Voting!

-Andy Torbett

Dec 18 2018

Finish the Task

 

Bruce Poliquin will, and must, continue his challenge to the Ranked Choice voting system and the Constitutionality of the results. He will, because it is his choice as a citizen of this Republic and he has the freedom to do so. He must, because he is a Representative of the voters in the 2nd Congressional District (CD2) who, 20,000 strong, voted against the RCV and feel disenfranchised by the results of the new voting system.

It bears repeating that those who decry the challenges to RCV as an effort to erode the voter’s confidence in the voting process spent millions in an effort to erode the voter’s confidence in the voting process in order to pass RCV. To one eligible citizen there is given one vote. That is the Constitution and, as Representative Poliquin took an oath to defend the Constitution, he is required by that oath to challenge this attack on the very foundation of our Republic.

In this light, the argument and subsequent mockery of Poliquin that he did not fully criticize the RCV during the election and that this somehow invalidates his challenge is at best irrelevant and at worst, laughable. The Representative is bound by his oaths of public servitude to his constituents, the integrity of this Republic, and the ideals set forth in the Constitution of the United States. Yet, he is, of course, free to violate these oaths, as some do, for personal ease and deflection of responsibility, but the erosion of the individual voting rights of the citizen will only continue.

No, Bruce Poliquin is bound to see this through, to finish this task. In so doing,perhaps, he can raise the awareness of the, too often, apathetic voter. Maybe there can arise enough passion to repeal this travesty.

-Andy Torbett

Nov 27 2018

The Latest RCV Farce

A press release from the Maine Republican Party

On eve of recount, Maine SoS Matt Dunlap “finds” more ballots
Augusta – On the eve of the recount deadline for Maine’s Second Congressional District, Maine Sec. of State Matt Dunlap has told a Maine newspaper that his office has suddenly “found” more votes, adding to Jared Golden’s round 2 lead by about 600 additional votes.
“Trust in this system is shaken from start to finish, and now we are told that Secretary of State Dunlap simply ‘found’ more votes and added them to the totals to expand Jared Golden’s lead, but that he didn’t bother telling anyone until this recount deadline was upon us,” said Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine GOP.
“This addition to the vote count appears to us to have been done under the cover of darkness with no notification of any of the processes that were taking place and no public observers.”
Not only is the public denied the ability to review the algorithm that powers the RCV software, but now the vote total changes when nobody is looking. So much for the RCV process being transparent to the public.
“This is all the more reason for the recount and lawsuit. Nobody should be able to just add to vote totals under the cover of darkness without proper notification and transparency measures. Those results are sacred. They should not be treated like a seventh grade homework assignment,” concluded Mr. Savage.
Nov 13 2018

The Maine Way

 

Bruce Poliquin has won reelection to Congress to represent CD 2 by 2,000 votes. In the realms of sanity and fairness, that would be the headline, but once again, forces from outside CD 2 have conspired to work against the wishes of the voters in this District. The cycle of southern liberal arrogance continues.

Ranked Choice Voting was created to insure that Republicans would never be elected again. Southern liberals have been constantly frustrated with the conservative vote in Northern Maine. The voting block leans right so, in the minds of the political elites, rural Maine doesn’t vote the “right” way. So, how do overcome the obvious intellectual deficits of northern hicks, those lovable, quaint, and post card worthy but not vote worthy backwoods Mainers?

So convinced of their intellectual superiority, liberals have simply awarded themselves extra votes. If the Democrats can’t win the first time, it just wasn’t fair, so they will add in the votes of their stealth democrat candidates, a.k.a. Independents. Extra votes, do-over votes, everybody-gets-a-win-as-long-as their not Republican votes, and Democrats can now say not only do they have 3 campaign dollars to every one Republican dollar, but also, 3 votes per Democrat voter to every one vote per Republican.

The voters of CD 2 voted against RCV by 20,000 votes but it narrowly passed because of its support in CD 1. So which District supports Ranked Choice voting? Certainly, not the Second Congressional District!

But the majority will of the voters for the First Congressional District (RCV)will now be used to circumvent the majority will of the voters of the Second Congressional District, who have given Bruce Poliquin the victory to represent them in Washington. The voters in CD 2 voted against do-over, twosies, and threesies votes, but CD 1 has overruled rural Maine and demanded we vote and vote again until we get it “right”. In other words, voting the Southern Maine Way is all we have Left.

-Andy Torbett