U.S Election 2020

Originally Posted by papa smurf

87 Do these people ever retire

We all think America is land of the free, democratic and egalitarian, but the reality is it is as susceptible to cronyism, sinecures for rich old white men and political dynasties as anywhere.

Originally Posted by Mick

If anyone says the election went smoothly, needs a psychological assessment. There is no excuse for what’s happening, batches of votes being found and not counted, now in 3 counties in Georgia. Forget that this is Trump for a minute, the U.S is suppose to be top notch at elections, but this years has been a farce. Delayed counts-Problem after problem.

It's a country of 180 million voters or whatever the final turnout will be. A few issues with a few thousand votes is not evidence of fraud and is not especially unusual. That's why when the margin is narrow there are recounts, recounts which found the issues you're talking about. It happens. It happened in 2016 too: https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/sto...tion/97665238/ This stuff is eventually caught in the audit process but the margins are rarely thin enough to matter. Only in 2000 has it proved an issue.

I imagine if we did a recount of the last General Election the vote totals should change by a small margin each time you counted as well. It's just an imperfect process.

Even with the narrow margins involved those extra votes are not even close to being a threat to Biden's lead.

And again Trump has a well funded legal team that is losing case after case when they actually try to produce evidence of fraud. That's the problem the Trump campaign has with this 'let the courts decide' approach, in court, you have to prove it.

I think the US needs to revisit its voting system though. They shouldn't use computers as people will never have as much faith in them as they will pen and paper, they should have the same procedures in each state and they should allow the counting of ballots before Election Day.

They were never top-notch in elections though. They make everything too complicated and partisan.

There's no way to enforce a uniform voting system in that way though - State control of elections is IIRC explicitly provided for in the constitution.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/1...sconsin-437662

President Donald Trump’s campaign said it will seek a partial recount in two heavily Democratic counties in Wisconsin, which President-elect Joe Biden carried by roughly 20,000 votes statewide.

In a statement, the Trump campaign said it would request recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties, which overwhelmingly backed Biden. Because Biden’s margin in the state is greater than one-quarter of a percentage point, the Trump campaign has to foot the bill for the recount, according to Wisconsin state law. A recount of the entire state would’ve cost $7.9 million.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission tweeted it received a wire transfer of $3 million from the Trump campaign shortly before 11 a.m. Eastern but it had not yet received a petition from the campaign formally requesting the recount.

The recount is exceedingly unlikely to change the results in Wisconsin. In 2016, a statewide recount changed the totals in Trump’s favor by just 131 votes as he carried Wisconsin over Hillary Clinton.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-wis...3102c4f97599c1

In the two counties Trump chose for the recount, Democrat Joe Biden received 577,455 votes compared with 213,157 for Trump

Allegheny, Pennsylvania - Judge sides with PA Board of Electors to allow Mail-in votes with no voter-supplied dates to be counted (they were date stamped when they arrived before the election date).

This is the case - https://www.wesa.fm/post/allegheny-c...unted#stream/0

An Allegheny County judge heard arguments Tuesday morning about whether 2,349 mail-in ballots that came in by Election Day should be counted, even though voters forgot to write down the date themselves before returning the ballots.

This is the outcome.



Of the 28 cases put before the Courts by Republicans so far, 27 have been lost, 1 won (and that was moot).

[papa smurf]

'It would be a brave person to bet against Donald Trump': Jones


Mr Jones said he suspects the Trump team is in the process of gathering “irrefutable evidence of criminal collusion” in the fallout of the US election.

He said under an Executive Order of 2018, signed by President Trump, the government has the power to arrest and seize the assets of any organisation or individual who attempted to alter the result of the 2020 election

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6210572679001

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

'It would be a brave person to bet against Donald Trump': Jones


Mr Jones said he suspects the Trump team is in the process of gathering “irrefutable evidence of criminal collusion” in the fallout of the US election.

He said under an Executive Order of 2018, signed by President Trump, the government has the power to arrest and seize the assets of any organisation or individual who attempted to alter the result of the 2020 election

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6210572679001

Lindsey Graham going to be arrested then?

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/16/p...ntv/index.html

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by Mick

But it’s not official, it was not official in 2016, so yes Fox News was wrong, if me saying that floats your boat, BenMcr.

The Office appears to officially exist though.

Originally Posted by papa smurf

'It would be a brave person to bet against Donald Trump': Jones


Mr Jones said he suspects the Trump team is in the process of gathering “irrefutable evidence of criminal collusion” in the fallout of the US election.

He said under an Executive Order of 2018, signed by President Trump, the government has the power to arrest and seize the assets of any organisation or individual who attempted to alter the result of the 2020 election

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6210572679001

This Trump Executive Order about rigging elections

btw, the Executive Order refers to "Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election" - not "any organisation or individual", only organisations or individuals from outside the USA...

[Mr K]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1724717.html

Donald Trump's fervent campaigning to undermine mail-in voting may have ultimately cost him victory in the crucial swing state of Georgia, its Republican secretary of state has said.

While the state is undergoing a recount, Joe Biden leads Georgia by around 13,000 votes, meaning he is poised to become the first Democrat to claim victory there in decades.

Georgia’s leading election official Brad Raffensperger, who has already faced the ire of Trump supporters for projecting a Biden victory in the state before a recount is complete, said the outgoing president’s unsubstantiated claims about the vulnerability of mail-in voting likely suppressed about 24,500 Republicans from casting their ballots.

Oh dear, what a pity, never mind

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Mr K

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1724717.html

Oh dear, what a pity, never mind

" outgoing president’s unsubstantiated claims about the vulnerability of mail-in voting likely suppressed about 24,500 Republicans from casting their ballots."
That's hilarious. Never has the rule of unintended consequences been clearer!

[papa smurf]

The Wisconsin election board is trying to change the recount laws


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_MT...S4HwwfZr24%3A6

Blergh, now I've got Donny's Youtube channel in my watch history

Originally Posted by papa smurf

The Wisconsin election board is trying to change the recount laws


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_MT...S4HwwfZr24%3A6

Nearly right...

https://apnews.com/article/trump-wis...3102c4f97599c1

Dean Knudson, a Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said Trump raised “significant legal questions that have never been adjudicated in Wisconsin.”

But a fellow commission member, Democrat Mark Thomsen, said Trump was trying to change the rules of the election after he lost, but only in two counties.

“That’s like losing the Super Bowl and then saying ‘I want a review of a certain play using different rules than what applied to the rest of the game,’” Thomsen said. “That is the essence of hypocrisy and cheating and dishonesty.”

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat, called the recount “an attack on cities, on minorities, on places that have historically voted Democratic. Don’t let anyone fool you that this is about irregularities.”

On Tuesday in Michigan, Republicans on a canvassing board for the county that includes Detroit temporarily stopped certification of the vote after claiming that poll books in certain parts of the majority-Black city were out of balance. The deadlock brought claims of racism from Democrats before the board later voted unanimously to certify the results

But guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, in place since 2016, says that clerks can fix missing witness address components on the envelopes that contain absentee ballots if they have reliable information. That guidance, passed unanimously by the bipartisan elections commission, has been in place for 11 statewide elections without objection.