A 20-year-old Democrat who admitted to spreading revenge porn has been elected to the Kansas state House of Representatives

Ashley Collman

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INSIDER•November 5, 2020

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• Aaron Coleman, a 20-year-old progressive Democrat, won Tuesday's election to represent Kansas' 37th District in the state House of Representatives.

• Coleman's campaign has ben plagued by scandal. In June, he admitted to spreading revenge porn and harassing girls online when he was 14, and in July, he made insensitive comments about the COVID-19 pandemic.

• While Coleman initially dropped out of the race after beating seven-term incumbent Stan Frownfelter in an August primary, he decided two days later to continue his campaign.

• However, Coleman had by then lost support of the state's Democratic Party, which scrambled to find a replacement, which included backing a write-in campaign for Frownfelter. 

• On Election Day, Coleman ran unopposed in the Democratic stronghold district, winning 3,496 of the votes. More than 2,000 write-in votes were cast, but it's unclear what names were submitted. 

The 20-year-old Democrat who earlier admitted to circulating revenge porn and harassing girls online in middle school has won a seat in the Kansas state House of Representatives.

Aaron Coleman has won a seat in the Kansas state House of Representatives. Aaron Coleman for Kansas/Facebook

Aaron Coleman, a dishwasher and community college student, ran unopposed in Kansas' 37th District, which encompasses part of Kansas City.

Coleman won Tuesday's election with 3,496 votes, KSHB reported. More than 2,000 write-in votes were counted, but it's unclear what names were submitted.

In June, Coleman admitted to allegations that he bullied and threatened girls online when he was 14 years old, including calling one girl fat and saying she should kill herself, and circulating a nude image of another girl when she refused to send him more pictures, according to The New York Times.

—Rep.-elect Aaron Coleman 🌹 (@Aaron4KS37) November 4, 2020

In July, he was also widely criticized for making insensitive comments about the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Kansas Reflector, Coleman mocked the death of former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain -- who died of the coronavirus -- and said he would "giggle" if former state GOP Rep. John Whitmer caught the virus and died. Coleman later apologized for his comments.

Despite the scandals, Coleman beat seven-term incumbent Stan Frownfelter, also a Democrat, in the August primary, albeit by a narrow 14 votes.

Coleman apologized for the bullying and revenge porn in a statement to The Kansas City Star after winning the primary.

"I made serious mistakes in middle school and I deeply regret and apologize for them. I've grown up a great deal since then," Coleman said.

But this wasn't good enough for the state Democratic Party, which refused to back Coleman as a candidate.

Coleman actually dropped out at one point after the primary, but continued with the campaign two days later, saying the fact that he won even with his background was a strong message from voters.

"They said that they did not vote for me expecting that I was a perfect person," he said in a statement on Twitter, according to The Hill. "They told me that all of us have sinned, and we all make mistakes."

"Voters do not throw out a 7-term incumbent for a person like myself unless they are deeply frustrated with their lack of representation and demanding a change."

The state Democratic party scrambled to present an alternative candidate, backing a write-in campaign for Frownfelter, KSHB reported.

On Wednesday, Coleman tweeted: "Thank you to all of my supporters. This campaign would not have been possible without you. I promise to work hard to serve the residents of this district."

—Rep.-elect Aaron Coleman 🌹 (@Aaron4KS37) November 4, 2020

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Politics

The USPS can't account for 300,000 absentee ballots, but that's probably not as bad as it sounds

Peter Weber

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The Week•November 5, 2020

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan was furious Wednesday that the U.S. Postal Service had defied his order to sweep postal processing facilities in 15 states Tuesday to find missing absentee ballots and deliver them on time. The USPS had said in a court document that 300,000 ballots had been scanned into facilities but not scanned out, suggesting they were misplaced.

Instead of complying with Sullivan's order, the USPS kept to its own schedule, raising concerns that tens of thousands of ballots would not be delivered in time to be counted. "It just leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth for the clock to run out — game's over — and then to find out there was no compliance with a very important court order," Sullivan said. He suggested he would demand a deposition from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

Notably, there were 81,000 untraced ballots spread across postal districts in key swing states with a combined 151 electoral votes, The Washington Post reports, though, according to its analysis, the missing ballots "are unlikely to affect the outcome of the presidential race." In many cases, USPS said, the ballots had been hand-sorted and delivered without an exit scan. The USPS did not provide data to indicate how prevalent that practice has been, though it did disclose that 7 percent of ballots in its sorting facilities Tuesday were not delivered in time to be counted.

"Even in a worst-case scenario where all potentially misplaced ballots in a state are permanently lost, those ballots amount to just a fraction of both current two-party vote margins and estimates of the number of outstanding ballots yet to be tallied," the Post reports. In Georgia, for instance, the maximum 6,624 missing votes represent just 8 percent of the margin between President Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

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In other states, though, the number of missing ballots is larger — more than 11,000 in Pennsylvania and 16,000 in Florida — and the untraced absentee votes in Arizona make up 24 percent of the outstanding margin between Biden and Trump, the Post reports. Also, its analysis that "misplaced mail ballots will not be a significant factor in final vote tallies" has the caveat that it might be a factor if "the final presidential vote margins shrink to low three- or four-digit numbers in the coming days." In some states, like Arizona and Georgia that's a distinct possibility.

 

 

 

USPS's handling of mail-in ballots was 'gross negligence': Fmr. USPS Board of Governors Chair

Yahoo Finance Video•November 5, 2020

Former USPS Board of Governors Chair David Fineman joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to discuss the postal service's handling of mail-in ballots. 

“The assumption that there are unaccounted ballots within the Postal Service network is inaccurate. These ballots were delivered in advance of the election deadlines. We employed extraordinary measures to deliver ballots directly to local boards of elections." - USPS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Politics

U.S. Postal Service says 1,700 ballots found in Pennsylvania facilities

David Shepardson

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Reuters•November 6, 2020

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said about 1,700 ballots had been identified in Pennsylvania at processing facilities during two sweeps Thursday and were being delivered to election officials.

In a court filing early Friday, USPS said 1,076 ballots, had been found at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center. About 300 were found at the Pittsburgh processing center, 266 at a Lehigh Valley facility and others found at other Pennsylvania processing centers.

Ballots must be received by Friday evening in Pennsylvania in order to be counted. The vote for the U.S. president remains extremely close and Pennsylvania is one of the states that remains undecided.

About 500 ballots were also discovered in North Carolina during sweeps, USPS said on Friday.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on Thursday had ordered twice daily sweeps at USPS facilities serving states with extended ballot receipt deadlines as votes were still being counted in U.S. election battleground states.

Some states, including Nevada and North Carolina, are counting ballots that are received after Election Day as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday.

Lawyers said at a court hearing on Thursday that USPS had delivered about 150,000 ballots on Wednesday.

"The vast majority were destined for postmark states and would be delivered on-time under state election law," USPS said.

Sullivan said the processing centers must perform morning sweeps and then afternoon sweeps "to ensure that any identified local ballots can be delivered that day."

Sullivan issued a separate order requiring USPS to "coordinate with all local county Boards of Elections in North Carolina or Pennsylvania" in order to deliver all ballots "before 5:00 PM local time in North Carolina or Pennsylvania" on Friday.

Ballots were still being counted by election officials in battleground states after polls closed Tuesday in one of the most unusual elections in U.S. history because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden was cutting sharply into Republican President Donald Trump's leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia. The former vice president retained slim margins in Nevada and Arizona.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Robert Birsel)

 

John legend is a BULLY

 

 

Instead of asking for calm...he is telling his followers to act a fool.

 

He should know better than to start fights instead of being the peace maker.

 

 

LeBron James, Michael Jordan among celebrities paying court fees to help Florida felons vote

Ryan YoungWriter

Tue, November 3, 2020, 9:40 PM EST

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Two of basketball’s biggest stars have been chipping in to help Florida felons vote in this year’s election.

LeBron James and Michael Jordan helped join Michael Bloomberg’s $27 million effort to help clear fines and fees for about 40,000 felons in the state so that they can vote in Tuesday’s election, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

It’s not clear how much they contributed. Spokespeople for both Bloomberg and James’ “More Than A Vote” organization did not return the Times’ requests for comment.

Bloomberg enlists celebrities to help Florida felons

James and Jordan are just the latest to help pitch in and assist Florida felons vote in this year’s election.

About 1.4 million Floridians had their right to vote restored in 2018 thanks to Amendment 4, which allowed convicted felons who have served their sentences to vote again — with the exception of murder or sexual abuse.

Last year, however, Republican lawmakers and the governor passed a law that required ex-felons to pay back court fines and fees before regaining their right to vote — which is essentially a poll tax and was found to be unconstitutional in May.

An appeals court ruling earlier this year overturned that unconstitutional ruling. Five of the six votes that overturned that ruling, according to The New York Times, came from judges who were appointed by President Donald Trump.

About 75 percent of former felons owe court debt, and about 70 percent of them are unable to pay. There is no central database used in the state, either, making paying those fees extremely difficult if not impossible.

Several groups have joined the fight to help restore their votes in time for Election Day. James and “More Than A Vote” had previously committed $100,000, and the Miami Heat donated $45,000.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, about 32 percent of the 4,700 felons who had their rights restored through Bloomberg’s foundation in the states four biggest counties had registered to vote.

A $27 million effort led by Michael Bloomberg, LeBron James, Michael Jordan and others helped Florida felons vote on Tuesday. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

 

 

 

U.S.

Local Police Say Biden Staffer May Have Been ‘At Fault’ in ‘Trump Train’ Highway Incident

Mairead McArdle

Mon, November 2, 2020, 5:14 PM EST

Local police in Texas said over the weekend that the vehicle of a Joe Biden staffer may be “at fault” in a minor collision that occurred during an incident where Trump supporters in trucks surrounded and followed a Biden campaign bus.

The incident occurred on I-35 in Hays County and involved a Biden staffer’s white SUV making contact with a Trump supporter’s black truck.

The San Marcos Police Department, which is handling any potential police reports on the crash, said it has researched the collision and watched footage of the incident online.

“The at-fault vehicle may be the white SUV and the victim appears to be the black truck,” the police department said in a statement.

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“Calls to the driver of the white SUV have gone unanswered and SMPD has not been contacted by the driver of the black truck. Since SMPD has not spoken to either driver at this time, additional investigation would be required to fully ascertain who was at fault,” the department said.

The police department also said the Biden bus requested a police escort, but due to traffic police were not able to reach the campaign bus before it exited the jurisdiction.

Katie Naranjo, chair of the Travis County Democratic Party said in a tweet that Trump supporters followed the Biden bus through central Texas “to intimidate Biden supporters.”

“They ran into a person’s car, yelling curse words and threats. Don’t let bullies win, vote,” she wrote.

The Biden campaign also condemned the group of Trump supporters, accusing them of endangering those close to the campaign.

“Rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters, and others in harm’s way,” said Tariq Thowfeek, the Biden campaign’s Texas communications director.

President Trump on Saturday tweeted a video that appears to show his supporters surrounding the bus along with the words “I LOVE TEXAS!”

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report on Wednesday moved the presidential race in Texas from “lean Republican” to “toss up.” Trump is up by one point in the state as of Tuesday, a day before the election, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls.