Hours after Doug Jones upset Roy Moore in Alabama’s special election, the far right began cooking up conspiracy theories about busloads of voters being brought in from out-of-state:
I am hearing rumors that black voters from MS were encouraged to cross over into AL and vote. Anyone else hearing this? Anything to it? That might explain the 30% turnout higher than population percentage. Just reporting the rumor.
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) December 13, 2017
How likely is that scenario?
“I used to write cons & heists for a living,” John Rogers, co-creator of the show “Leverage,” wrote on Twitter. “And very few things piss me off like sloppy heist plotting. And racism. So this is a two-fer.”
Rogers picked apart the conspiracy theory until there was nothing left.
Here’s his thread:
1/ Okay, you racist hack, apparently I have to do this every time. Like all conspiracy theories, this falls apart as soon as one asks "How?" https://t.co/oksvKlmCVI
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
2/ Let's just go with the most popular right-wing conspiracy, George Soros (because, of course, you blame a Jew, you fucks) bussed in enough out of state black people to win Doug Jones the election.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
3/ Now he's not going to MAYBE fix an election, he's going to have himself a margin of error, And remember the conspiracy is this gave Jones the WIN, didn't PAD the win. That proves nothing.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
4/ to get a 20,000 vote margin, you want to give yourself a pad to get OVER what Moore was supposed to win by. Should he have won by 20,000 votes? Does that seem right?
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
5/ Sure, why not, it's a Fermi problem anyway. (Look it up) So we have to find 40,000 votes minimum to get the results we want.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
6/ So apparently the Soros conspiracy finds 40,000 paid votes without anybody noticing. Nobody leaks. Nobody tells a friend. Not a single slip-up. That is some fucking OPSEC.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
7/ We then have to bus them in. The standard transit bus carries about 45 people. School buses can go higher. Let's say 50. So that's 2 busses per hundred, 20 buses per thousand, that's about 800 buses?
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
8/ So, right now your brilliant conspiracy has some genius renting 800 buses from, well, how many buses does one company have, say a couple dozen companies, all on the same day, requiring 800 drivers who ALSO have to be in on it. And still. Nobody. Notices.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
9/ Hey, I'll spot you somehow they go to only the voting places where not a single Moore voter will notice a busload of strangers showing up -- of course that means multiple busloads at very few stations.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
10/ Then these 40,000 or so fake voters -- like, the number of troops who hit Utah Beach on D-Day -- stroll in and HAVE ID SINCE ALABAMA HAS STRICT ID LAWS, and ARE ALREADY REGISTERED. Holy shit, the conspiracy!
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
11/ Somehow Soros et al had these sleeper voter ID's in place, and not on the inactive list, JUST IN CASE the GOP nominated anybody even remotely beatable. Or they managed to do so between Moore winning the primary and the election.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
12/ And they did this all under the nose of Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican, who's made it his life's work to hunt down voter fraud, and was a vocal supporter of Moore.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
13/ 20,000-40,000 fake voters, all recruited secretly, paid somehow, transported in hundreds of buses with hundreds of drivers, no witnesses, no leaks, no paper trail, voting in dozens of stations, no witnesses, with 10k forged ID's.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
14/ At least have a modicum of dignity and claim the machines were hacked.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
15/ I'm sorry, I know this is dumb, but I used to write cons & heists for a living. And very few things piss me off like sloppy heist plotting. And racism. So this is a two-fer.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
16/ fin.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) December 13, 2017
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Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
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