[Disclaimer: I’m writing quickly at the end of a long day. Any typing errors or garbled sentences are the fault of keyboard gremlins.]
Trump and pals have been busy trying to subvert American democracy. They’re finding out it isn’t so easy.
I. Wayne County Canvassing Board
There was a bit of drama today out of Wayne County, Michigan. First, came the news that the two Republicans refused to certify the election results. There are four members of the board, two Democrats and two Republicans. A majority is necessary to certify the results. (The County went for Biden by about 300,000 votes)
The two Republicans claimed that there was massive fraud and irregularities and therefore they would refuse to certify. The hitch: The County board doesn’t have the authority to refuses to certify based on irregularities. Problems are dealt with through other mechanisms. They just certify the total numbers of votes.
Moreover, the Republicans specifically wanted to exclude votes from the largely Black city of Detroit.
When social media had a meltdown, the Michigan governor and secretary of state went on Twitter to reassure people that the final decision about certification was up to the state:
The Michigan AG then filed a suit to force the county board to do their jobs (certify the results.)
Then this guy gave them a good talking to. Give it a listen:
I wish he’d give the entire FOX-Trump-GOP a good talking-to.
Next, Trump tweeted this:
He also tweeted that there are a lot of “problems” in Detroit.
Literally minutes later came the announcement that the Wayne County Canvassing board unanimously voted to certify the results.
It was a dramatic, but short-lived crisis. It was also a microcosm of all these other lawsuits. They all go like this: There was fraud, therefore throw out all the Democratic ballots.
II. Rudy Giuliani Argues in Court
This morning, 4,000 people were permitted to listen to the Rudy Giuliani argue the Pennsylvania case (the one in which the other lawyers quit the case after abandoning most of the issues).
This is the case in which Trump is trying to prevent Pennsylvania from certifying the election based on allegations of fraud. What the case comes down to is the claim that the county of Philadelphia took steps to allow voters to fix errors with their mail-in ballots. Other counties didn’t. Therefore, the entire election needs to be invalidated.
If that sounds stupid, it’s because it is. Even if it was true, the remedy would be to allow everyone to cure their mail-in ballots, not disenfranchise the entire state of Pennsylvania.
The hearing today was an oral argument on the defendant’s motion to dismiss. Basically the state of Pennsylvania (the defendants) filed a motion with the court asking that Trump’s lawsuit be dismissed, which is the way courts get rid of frivolous lawsuits before wasting much time on them.
So Rudy was trying to persuade the court that Trump had enough of a case so that they should be allowed to proceed.
Giuliani rambled for what seemed like an hour. Mostly he rambled about how there is widespread fraud with mail-in ballots. (There isn’t.)
He kept saying all the “problems” are in big cities controlled by Democrats, particularly Philadelphia. He also said that Philadelphia was run by a Democratic “machine” and that Philadelphia was known for cheating and corruption. (Philadelphia. Detroit. See the pattern?)
The meat of the argument, of course, was that Philadelphia helped voters cure their ballots, but other counties didn’t so it was totally unfair and corrupt.
His other complaint was that the Republican observers were not allowed to sit close enough so that the could clearly see the voting and tabulation.
So, yeah, basically, he argued Philadelphia allowed voters to fix errors in their ballots and didn’t let Republicans watch.
About halfway through the hearing, the judge announced that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had ruled that there were no errors with the Republican observers.
The judge asked pointed questions, like why would the remedy be to disenfranchise millions of Pennsylvanian voters? Why not sue the counties that were not taking steps to allow voters to cure their ballots? (The answer is obvious: Giuliani and Trump don’t want any ballots fixed. They want all the mail-in ballots tossed out.)
We’ll probably get a decision next week. I expect this case to get tossed out.
III. The Nevada Republican Electors’ Lawsuit
Also today, the Nevada Republicans filed an equally outrageous lawsuit. It’s here if anyone wants to wade through it. Basically the lawsuit goes on and on, complaining about irregularities in the election, including complaints about how the Nevada Legislature chose to run the election.
(The “discrepancies” didn’t concern the presidential race. Moreover, there were 936 discrepancies identified in the county out of 974,185 ballots cast.)
The complaint went on for pages alleging lots of irregularities, and then concluded by saying that the nature and scale of the irregularities undermined the entire election, and all the results should be thrown out.
The remedy demanded was that (1) Trump be declared the winner in Nevada or (2) the Nevada election of November 3, 2020 be annulled and Nevada doesn’t get to vote for president.
That’s not how it works. You don’t get to claim the election officials did a bad job, so the solution is to disenfranchise millions of voters. It’s nuts. It’s exactly what Giuliani was doing: argue that something went wrong, therefore, overturn the entire election.
WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?
I believe it’s about this:
Trump doesn’t want to admit he lost, so he’s putting the entire nation through these absurd lawsuits.
Also, this is what he’s always done when things don’t go his way: Tell his lawyers ‘sue ’em. Tie it up in court,’ except now he’s President, millions of people are scrutinizing these lawsuits, and he’s a national embarrassment.
HOW THIS WILL BACKFIRE
Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger said that Trump’s railing against mail in voting cost him the Georgia election. Tens of thousands of Republicans voted in the primary, but didn’t vote in the general election. Raffensperger believes that the Republican absentee voters stayed home.
Moreover, all these shenanigans are obviously hurting the Republican brand. It’s hard to believe people of Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Michigan will forget that the Republican Party actually tried to disenfranchise their entire state.
I also suspect it will backfire in Georgia, where the run-off election will decide whether Republicans or Democrats control the Senate. Given what Raffensperger said, I suspect Trump’s insistence that there is rampant fraud in Georgia will keep Republicans home. It certainly isn’t helping the cause of Republicans in Georgia when Trump and the two candidates for Senate are attacking the Republican Secretary of State because he’s refusing to disenfranchise Georgia voters to hand the election to Trump.
