Clinton Scores Razor-Thin Win in Kentucky
Complete with reports of voting irregularities and angry Sanders supporters!
Recall the initial days of the 2016 presidential primary cycle, when Hillary Clinton’s victory over Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucus was the result of 6 perfectly tossed coin flips.
Now, as we are wrapping up the primary season, Clinton shas scored a razor-thin win over sanders in Kentucky.
Hillary Clinton is the apparent winner of the Kentucky Democratic primary Tuesday night, NBC News projects.
The win — which seems like it will be by the narrowest of margins, perhaps just a few thousand votes — will blunt rival Sen. Bernie Sanders primary winning streak by winning Tuesday’s nominating contest in Kentucky.
…After the results came in, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said, “Essentially a tie in a state they dominated last time. And Oregon is yet to come.”
The press is already massaging the news, because “a few thousand votes” is a stretch. It was approximately 1800, and less than 0.5% difference.
Consider the magnitude of Sanders’ achievement for a moment: When the process began Clinton was 44 percentage points ahead of him in polling.
Interestingly, there were 76 separate reports of election fraud during the primary.
Complaints included procedural and legal questions, voter assistance, voting machines, voter identification, residency, election officials, electioneering, poll disruption and vote buying.
The following counties in our region were among those with reported issues:
- Boyd County: Voting machine
- Floyd County: (two calls) Special or absentee ballot and one electioneering within 100 feet of polls
- Johnson County: Procedural question
- Pike County: Election official
- Rowan County: (two calls) Election official and procedural question
To say that Sanders’ supporters are skeptical of the results would be an understatement:
#FeelTheBern Now Kentucky is fixed. EVERY ONE OF THESE PROBLEMS WITH A PRIMARY BENEFITED HILLARY. The odds are astronomical. FIXED!
— J D Phillips LCSW (@JazzDad55) May 18, 2016
A lot of Kentucky citizens pissed off because of voter manipulation and fraud! #FeelTheBern @BernieSanders
— Victor Negrete (@viconeg) May 18, 2016
At least Sanders is not walking away empty-handed, though.
I can live with the fact that Bernie got half the delegates for Kentucky. Not happy about it but I can live with it #FeelTheBern — April (@RisingPhoenix89) May 18, 2016
Only 17% of Kentucky’s voters participated in the primary, and since Donald Trump won both that caucus and then went on to become the presumptive nominee, the clash between the two presidential candidates was the hot ticket item.
Let’s compare the two races for a moment:
1) Donald Trump faced a field of 16-other experienced campaigners, did not prepare for debates in the traditional manner, never relied on polling, and limited his use of political consultants. However, he became the GOP standard bearer a couple of weeks ago, and has actually earned more votes at this particular point in the race than Mitt Romney or John McCain during in their respective elections.
2) Clinton, whose main selling point is “experience”, faced a mere 2 candidates (neither of whom had run in a presidential race before) and still cannot make the sale. Interestingly, Sanders won the vaunted “women’s vote” in some states. Meanwhile, she is making the contingent of Sanders supporters angrier as the season progresses.
And I am suppose to buy that Clinton is “inevitable”?
And while there will be no “coin flips” during the November election, I sure hope Team Trump has an eye on the disturbing reports of fraud and takes appropriate steps to make sure that “every legal voter counts and every vote is counted only once” in the fall.
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Comments
Given the results of the process over the last going on a year, who do any of you honestly believe will have the best opportunity to exploit the developing political terrain? Cruz or Trump. Be honest now.
Hillary Clinton.
I see the pro-Hillary trolls are awake this morning.
Voter fraud, locked up super delegates, and having the main stream media watching your six ought to mean only one thing.
Bernie should be losing and losing big.
So, the real question is, why isn’t it all this working for Hillary?
Because she’s an awful candidate and worse human
Legacy ;
Exactly.
Trump is riding the crest of the wave of discontent.
Clinton is trying desperately to suppress that wave.
Trump has now at this point surpassed the previous record for most votes total in a Republican primary.
Yet some still insist he’s illegitimate & hope for his defeat in the general. Putting their own pride before what’s good for the country.
All I am learning from the Dem primaries is that Hillary is doing very little to placate the far left of her party. It gives me some hope that she will never get as many of them as she wants, because she will have to pivot more towards the center in order to win the general. Then again, Dem voters have proven for almost a generation that most prioritize party over politics.
This election may be the least predictable in my lifetime.
I think a minor correction is in order. Trump has more votes then any Republican in a primary ever. Not just beating Romney and McCain at the point, but completely.
There are many ways to present and reference the numbers. Trump has exceeded any winner’s past count already. But he has also had more votes cast against him, so to speak. The #neverTrump crowd not only likes to point that out but to also point out that if you pick Cruz and any ONE of the other top vote-getters like Rubio or Kasich and you have more anti-Trump votes that pro-Trump votes and also more votes than have ever been cast for a winner before.
Yadda yadda yadda.
I didn’t watch the returns continuously but I did see that with 93% of the votes in, Sanders was up by 12 votes.
Then, just like our Washington state gubernatorial elections, when the last few precincts are reported, there’s always just enough votes for the anointed Democrat to eke out the win.
Crooked Hillary could apply to the whole party.