As Donald Trump faces the grim reality of electoral defeat, the Presidential election progresses to the next phase of his voter suppression campaign: Republican litigation to prevent the counting of legally submitted mail-in and provisional ballots. The President’s refusal to accept defeat—to be viewed as a ‘Loser’—is not surprising. But, his arguments for legal intervention are fundamentally flawed and, subsequently, have been dismissed by the appropriate courts.
The major problem for President Trump is that US juris prudence requires factual evidence. He has NONE! The contested election in Georgia is overseen by a Republican Governor that, as the previous state Attorney General, was responsible for the 2018 state-wide voter suppression policies that led to the narrow defeat of his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams. It is ironic that her voter registration campaign was instrumental in mobilizing a greater number of votes for the Democratic Presidential candidate. And, the recently deceased Civil Rights icon, US Congressman John R. Lewis, will be proud to know that the "Good Trouble" from his US Congressional district propelled Democrat Joe Biden to victory in Georgia.
Another Republican legal effort to influence the counting of ballots is in the state of Arizona. Vice-President Biden’s lead is approximately 30,000 votes with 90% of precincts reporting; the Libertarian Party candidate (Jo Jorgensen) received 47,632 votes (1.5%). Again, a state whose election process is overseen by a Republican governor. In the case of these Republican states, the President’s conspiracy theories of Democratic politicians “rigging” these statewide elections do not have any plausibility. Nevertheless, the narrow majority of votes in Georgia for Joe Biden (about 7,250) merits a state-wide ballot recount that will certify Georgia’s award of its 16 electoral votes. The Libertarian Party candidate received 61,792 votes (1.2%).
The remaining contested states are Nevada and Pennsylvania. Both states elected Democrats as their governors. But, while Caribbean and Central American-origin voters tend to be strong supporters of President Trump in South Florida, the large Latino population of Nevada is primarily comprised of Mexican and Mexican Americans that are employed in the unionized entertainment and leisure sector of the economy—many are union workers in Las Vegas and Reno. Trump’s treatment of hotel and casino workers is well known, especially following the bankruptcy of his Atlantic City, New Jersey casino in 2004. With most of the remaining ballots to be counted from suburban Las Vegas, Republicans are intent in blocking the tabulation of these remaining ballots. They are expected to increase the 22,600 vote lead of Biden that is currently based on 89% of reporting precincts. The Libertarian Party candidate has received 12,435 votes (1.0%). Although Trump campaign supporters have demonstrated vociferously at county vote tabulation offices, many seeking to provoke and to intimidate with their open display of arms, none of their allegations of voter fraud have not been confirmed.
The most important remaining ‘contested’ state is Pennsylvania. This “game over” electoral prize is a must win for the President and ‘Plan B’ for the Vice-President; if Biden wins Arizona and Nevada, he reaches the US Constitutional required threshold of 270 electoral votes for victory. This is why the Trump campaign has focused its litigation efforts on Pennsylvania as well as its propaganda campaign against the state’s large, minority population centers where rampant electoral fraud is alleged.
Based on the Pennsylvania’s election day policy of processing “walk-in” votes first, followed by mail-in and provisional ballots throughout the rest of the week, both campaigns anticipated that Republican ballots would be counted first and that Republican candidates would have the most votes on Tuesday evening. Not surprisingly, Donald Trump was leading by nearly 600,000 votes in Pennsylvania on early Wednesday morning—before ballots from urban centers and suburbs such as Philadelphia were tabulated. And, of course, the President famously declared himself the electoral winner before ALL legally cast votes were counted.
Today, Vice-President Biden has 28,800 more votes than President Trump in the pivotal state of Pennsylvania, based on 99% of reporting precincts; the Libertarian Party candidate received 77,116 votes (1.1%). For the Trump campaign, the only realistic explanation (within the FOX NEWS bubble!) is unsubstantiated claims of fraudulent tabulation procedures. Based on the video recording of the vote counting process and the multiple verification/authentication procedure for validating ballots, allegations of falsification of voting records in Pennsylvania are extremely unlikely to be substantiated. Intriguingly, the only confirmed evidence of vote counting “interference” occurred on Friday. Two armed QAnon supporters were arrested near the Philadelphia Convention Center where ballots were being authenticated and counted. The police investigation alleges that the defendants conspired to deliver a large number of fake election ballots in an attempt to compromise the vote counting process.
Overall, the integrity of the US electoral process and system of tabulating a record number of valid election ballots (over 140 million Presidential votes) have been vindicated during the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. In view of President Trump’s efforts to undermine the US Postal Service’s delivery efficiency and systematic voter suppression campaigns, the US electoral system successfully survived its unprecedented series of “stress tests.” With the impending certification of Joe Biden as the next President of the United States, attention will shift to the ongoing transfer of power. Although nearly one-half of the US electorate disagree, most American voters declared to the Commander-in-Chief: “You’re Fired!” Now, the negotiation of Trump’s terms of departure will commence. Let the torrent of Pardons begin…
