The 2020 Election

Rad · Nov 11, 2020, 03:29 AM

The Times contacted election officials across America - and found "˜no evidence' the vote wasn't legitimate

on November 10, 2020
Raw Story
By Sarah Toce

While President Donald J. Trump and his loyalists continue their rebuke in what was proven to have been a democratic voting system, The New York Times reached out to election officials in every state across America - and found "no evidence" of interference or foul play.

According to the report, top election officials across the country said in interviews and statements that the process had been a remarkable success despite record turnout and the complications of a dangerous pandemic.

"There's a great human capacity for inventing things that aren't true about elections," said Frank LaRose, a Republican who serves as Ohio's secretary of state. "The conspiracy theories and rumors and all those things run rampant. For some reason, elections breed that type of mythology."

Steve Simon, a Democrat who is Minnesota's secretary of state, said, "I don't know of a single case where someone argued that a vote counted when it shouldn't have or didn't count when it should. There was no fraud."

"Kansas did not experience any widespread, systematic issues with voter fraud, intimidation, irregularities or voting problems," a spokeswoman for Scott Schwab, the Republican secretary of state in Kansas, said in an email Tuesday. "We are very pleased with how the election has gone up to this point."

"The New York Times contacted the offices of the top election officials in every state on Monday and Tuesday to ask whether they suspected or had evidence of illegal voting. Officials in 45 states responded directly to The Times. For four of the remaining states, The Times spoke to other statewide officials or found public comments from secretaries of state; none reported any major voting issues," the article stated.

Statewide officials in Texas did not respond to repeated inquiries, but a spokeswoman for the top elections official in Harris County, the largest county in Texas with a population greater than many states, said that there were only a few minor issues and that "we had a very seamless election."

Even though Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed voter fraud in Pennsylvania, the office of the state's top law enforcement official said that there was no evidence to support his claims.

"Many of the claims against the commonwealth have already been dismissed, and repeating these false attacks is reckless," said Jacklin Rhoads, a spokeswoman for Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is Pennsylvania's attorney general. "No active lawsuit even alleges, and no evidence presented so far has shown, widespread problems."

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US postal worker recants voter-fraud claims after Republicans call for inquiry - reports

Democrats on House oversight committee say worker retracted allegations in interview with investigators

Maanvi Singh
Guardian
Wed 11 Nov 2020 03.26 GMT

A postal worker whose allegations of ballot tampering are the basis of Republican calls for investigations has reportedly recanted his story.

Democrats on the House oversight committee said that Richard Hopkins - the worker who claimed in a signed affidavit that a supervisor at the US Postal Service (USPS) in Erie, Pennsylvania, instructed staff to tamper with ballots by backdating ones that arrived late - had recanted the allegations in an interview with investigators for the USPS Inspector General.

Investigators told the committee that Hopkins "did not explain why he signed a false affidavit", the committee wrote in a statement.

Hopkins admitted to fabricating his claims, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing three officials. After he submitted the affidavit, the South Carolina Republican senator Lindsay Graham, who heads the Senate judiciary committee, called for a federal investigation.

Oversight Committee (@OversightDems)

BREAKING NEWS: Erie, Pa. #USPS whistleblower completely RECANTED his allegations of a supervisor tampering with mail-in ballots after being questioned by investigators, according to IG.

THREAD:
November 10, 2020

Yesterday, the US attorney general sent a memo to prosecutors approving federal investigations into voter fraud, despite a lack of evidence that such fraud was taking place.

In response, the top justice department official in charge of voter fraud investigations, Richard Pilger, resigned, pointing to a 40-year department policy to refrain from intervening in elections and carry out investigations only after elections are certified.

News that Hopkins had fabricated his claims came as the Trump campaign continued to pursue longshot lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia that are not backed by credible evidence.

Among these lawsuits is an effort in Pennsylvania to push the US supreme court to reject mail-in ballots that are postmarked by election day and arrived at election offices up to three days later. The state's supreme court had approved a deadline extension for ballots that arrived late; several other states accept late-arriving ballots.

The Trump campaign attempted to argue in federal court that Republican observers were blocked from monitoring the vote count, until a lawyer for the campaign had to admit that actually a "non-zero" number of observers had been allowed.

These dubious lawsuits and investigations have continued after media outlets projected that Joe Biden was the clear winner of the election. Trump has yet to concede and has illegitimately declared himself the victor.

Top Republicans, including the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, have defended Trump's right to challenge the election results. On Monday, McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor that Trump was "100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options".

Republicans have been scrambling to drum up any evidence to back their baseless claims of fraud, opening up a hotline that was inundated with prank calls. On Tuesday, Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas, said he was offering $1m to incentivize people to come forth with evidence of irregularities.

The party's efforts are unlikely to have any effect on the outcome of the presidential election. Biden has secured a big enough lead in swing states that even if some ballots that Republicans want thrown out were discarded, he would still win.

But critics have said that the president's refusal to admit defeat and Republicans' efforts to challenge the results are sowing doubt in the US elections system.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week of 1,363 adults found that 79% of Americans believe Joe Biden won the election, including about 60% of Republicans. About 72% said that the loser of the election should concede. A separate poll from Politico and Morning Consult, however, found that 70% of Republicans do not believe the presidential election was "free and fair".

The president and his party's efforts to undermine the effectiveness of the US elections system began before election day.

In August, Trump admitted he was undermining the postal service so the USPS would have a harder time delivering mail-in ballots. Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general and a major Republican donor, was found to have made cuts to the service amid major service delays reported around the country.

Rad · Nov 11, 2020, 08:35 AM

Trump attorney openly admits to judge under penalty of perjury that there's no election fraud

Raw Story
11/11/2020

An attorney for the Trump campaign admitted in court on Tuesday that a lawsuit against the local elections board is not alleging election fraud.

Trump campaign attorney Jonathan S. Goldstein made the statement while arguing that the Montgomery County Board of Elections must halt the counting of 592 mail-in ballots.

During the oral arguments, the judge asked Goldstein if the campaign is alleging fraud.

"Your Honor, accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step," Goldstein said. "And it is rare that I call somebody a liar, and I am not calling the Board or the DNC or anybody else involved in this a liar."

"I am asking you a specific question," the judge pressed, "and I am looking for a specific answer. Are you claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these 592 disputed ballots?"

"To my knowledge at present, no," Goldstein replied.

"Are you claiming that there is any undue or improper influence upon the elector with respect to these 592 ballots?" the judge asked.

"To my knowledge at present, no," Goldstein conceded.

The National Review, a conservative publication, noted that Trump campaign lawsuits like the one in Montgomery County have been ending "not with a bang, but a whimper."

"It is one thing to fume on Twitter that there is a sinister effort to steal an election; it is another thing to assert that sweeping claim in a court of law, before a judge, under penalty of perjury and/or disbarment," National Review correspondent Jim Geraghty wrote.

Today in court, a Pennsylvania judge asked a lawyer for Trump point-blank whether he was alleging fraud.
(Full transcript here https://t.co/K2mfxFbtGZ) pic.twitter.com/y17v0PFkMx

- Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 11, 2020

Rad · Nov 12, 2020, 03:15 AM

Can Trump actually stage a coup and stay in office for a second term?

Trump refuses to acknowledge Biden's win, but experts say there isn't a constitutional path forward for him to remain president

Sam Levine in New York
Guardian
12 Nov 2020 18.26 GMT

Joe Biden won the presidential election, a fact that Donald Trump and other Republicans refuse to acknowledge.

Trump's longshot election lawsuits: where do things stand?..Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/10/donald-trump-longshot-election-lawsuits

There are worries the president and other Republicans will make every effort to stay in power. "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration," Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, said on Tuesday. William Barr, the attorney general, has also authorized federal prosecutors to begin to investigate election irregularities, a move that prompted the head of the justice department's election crimes unit to step down from his position and move to another role.

Despite all of Trump's machinations, it is extremely unlikely he can find a way to stay in power or stage a coup. Here's an explanation of why:

Donald Trump refuses to accept that Joe Biden won the presidential election. Is there a constitutional path for him to stage a coup and stay in office for another term?

Not really. The electoral college meets on 14 December to cast its vote for president and nearly every state uses the statewide popular vote to allocate its electors. Biden is projected to win far more than the 270 electoral votes he needs to become president. His victory doesn't hinge on one state and he has likely insurmountable leads in Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona.

There is a long-shot legal theory, floated by Republicans before the election, that Republican-friendly legislatures in places such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania could ignore the popular vote in their states and appoint their own electors. Federal law allows legislatures to do this if states have "failed to make a choice" by the day the electoral college meets. But there is no evidence of systemic fraud of wrongdoing in any state and Biden's commanding margins in these places make it clear that the states have in fact made a choice.

"If the country continues to follow the rule of law, I see no plausible constitutional path forward for Trump to remain as president barring new evidence of some massive failure of the election system in multiple states," Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, who specializes in elections, wrote in an email. "It would be a naked, antidemocratic power grab to try to use state legislatures to get around the voters' choice and I don't expect it to happen."

For lawmakers in a single state to choose to override the clear will of its voters this way would be extraordinary and probably cause a huge outcry. For Trump to win the electoral college, several states would have to take this extraordinary step, a move that would cause extreme backlash and a real crisis of democracy throughout the country.

3:51..One week on: how Trump handled losing the US election - video report: https://youtu.be/8Ad15RCwbmg

"There's a strange fascination with various imagined dark scenarios, perhaps involving renegade state legislatures, but this is more dystopian fiction than anything likely to happen," said Richard Pildes, a law professor at New York University. "The irony, or tragedy, is that we managed to conduct an extremely smooth election, with record turnout, under exceptionally difficult circumstances - and yet, a significant portion of the president's supporters are now convinced that the process was flawed."

Shortly after election day, Jake Corman, the top Republican in the Pennsylvania state senate, indicated his party would "follow the law" in Pennsylvania, which requires awarding electors to the winner of the popular vote. In an October op-ed, Corman said the state legislature "does not have and will not have a hand in choosing the state's presidential electors or in deciding the outcome of the presidential election".

Could Republicans ignore the popular vote and choose their own pro-Trump electors?..Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/25/trump-attack-election-electors-republicans

But on Tuesday, Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature said they wanted to investigate allegations of voter fraud. There's no evidence of widespread malfeasance in the state, but the move is alarming because it could be the beginning of an effort to undermine the popular vote results in the state. The Republican-led legislature in Michigan is also investigating the election, as are Republicans in Wisconsin. There's no evidence of widespread wrongdoing in either place.

Is this related in any way to the lawsuits Trump is filing?

Trump's campaign has filed a slew of legally dubious suits since election day. The purpose of these suits appears not to be to actually overturn the election results, but to try and create uncertainty and draw out the counting process.

Each state has its own deadlines for certifying election results that are then used to allocate its electoral college votes. In at least two states, Pennsylvania and Michigan, Trump's campaign is seeking to block officials from certifying results.

That certification timeline is important because federal law says that as long as election results are finalized by 8 December this year, the result is "conclusive". That provides a safeguard against Congress, which is responsible for counting the electoral college votes, from second-guessing election results. By dragging out the process, the Trump campaign may be seeking to blow past that deadline and create more wiggle room to second-guess the results.

Even if that is the Trump campaign's hope, courts are unlikely to step in, Pildes said.

"States are going to start certifying their vote totals beginning in less than 10 days, and there is no basis in the claims made thus far for the courts to stop that process," he said.

Yes. Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Nevada all have Democratic governors who would refuse to approve a set of Trump electors with the popular vote clearly showing Biden winning their state. Instead, they would submit the electors Biden is entitled to as the winner of the popular vote.

It would then fall to Congress, which is charged with counting the votes from the electoral college, to decide what to do. The law that outlines the process for how Congress should handle a dispute in electors from a state is extremely confusing, but experts believe the slate backed by a state's governor is the legally sound one. There is a rival theory that the president of the Senate, Mike Pence, could have control over the process. A dispute over electors between the US House and Senate is a worst-case scenario and the US supreme court would probably be asked to step in.

Regardless of however long a dispute is, the constitution does set one final deadline. Even if counting is ongoing, the president and vice-president's terms both end at noon on 20 January. At that point if there isn't a final result in the race, the speaker of the House - probably Nancy Pelosi - would become the acting president.

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"˜Crazy thing going on inside that White House': Retired General says Trump loyalists want to stage a coup

Raw Story
11/12/2020

A four-star United States retired general is sounding the alarm on key national security concerns after President Donald J. Trump shakes up the Pentagon staff less than one week after losing the election to President-elect Joe Biden.

"I have been shot at a lot and nearly killed a bunch of times," said Gen. Barry Richard McCaffrey (ret.). "I"˜m not an alarmist. I stay cool under pressure. Mark me down as alarmed. I just listened to Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) - wonderful, experienced, mature guy - say this is just payback to [Mark] Esper not being a loyalist. I don't believe it. We're watching a setup of some people who are unqualified for office to be in control of the 2.1 million men and women of the armed forces."

McCaffrey said, "And I remind our viewers, the only one who can give orders to the armed forces is the president and the secretary of defense. This acting secretary Chris Miller is a perfectly good, experienced combat soldier. He is unqualified for this office. The other three, one of them, a retired one-star, is a dangerous man. That team moving in, no one in his right mind would have accepted an appointment for 90 days. These people are in there to control a coercive institution of U.S. democracy. Watch out."

Host Ari Melber asked McCaffrey, "What specifically are you warning against, general? Do you feel based on your knowledge of these individuals and the situation that you have a credible reason or evidence to think that there could be an effort to enlist the military in something unlawful?"

"The federal government tools could be used in an oppressive manner, start with the attorney general of the United States, the Department of Homeland Security, and federal law enforcement agencies, who - unless they get an order that is patently illegal - will carry out their instructions. So the end of the story is, you know, I don't believe in any way this should be minimized or this is just a tantrum of a president trying to accommodate himself to the outcome of the elections. This is some crazy thinking going on inside that White House."

McCaffrey added, "If I was a CIA officer trying to understand what was going on in a third-world country and I saw this pattern of behavior, I would say the stronghand's trying to take over the government and defy an election - and I think they're playing with that idea inside the White House. I can't imagine that Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and even [Sen. Mitch] McConnell (R-KY) and people like this are going to disregard the Constitution, but I think that's the thinking that's going on in the White House right now and we ought to be worried about it. And the Republicans in Congress ought to speak up and push back."

Watch: https://youtu.be/8Sdbn7y7_bc

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Expert: Republicans could still "˜hijack' democracy - and keep Donald Trump in power - in this frightening scenario

on November 12, 2020
By Alex Henderson, AlterNet

More than a week after the 2020 presidential election, President-elect Joe Biden's lead in the vote count continues to grow in key battleground states - and when all is said and done, the former vice president might end up with more than 300 electoral votes. Regardless, President Donald Trump is refusing to concede, making the bogus claim that he was robbed of a victory because of widespread voter fraud and vowing to keep fighting the election results in court. And reporters Margaret Talev and Glen Johnson, in an article published in Axios on November 11, describe a frightening scenario in which Republicans in individual states could try to steal the election by refusing to honor the vote count.

"In this long-shot scenario," the Axios journalists explain, "Trump and his team could try to block secretaries of state in contested states from certifying results. That could allow legislatures in those states to try to appoint new electors who favor Trump over Biden."

An attorney described by Talev and Johnson as someone "familiar with" the Electoral College process, told Axios, "It's basically hijacking the democracy. They've got nothing else. You'd be trying to deny Joe Biden 270 (electoral votes)."

Talev and Johnson note that "Biden's status as president-elect is rooted in media projections based on raw vote totals reported by individual states. Those totals don't become official, though, until states certify them. The Constitution prescribes that those official results will be used to apportion electors who officially pick the president."

Far-right AM talk radio host Mark Levin has drawn widespread condemnation for recommending that Republicans in individual states flat-out refuse to give Biden the states' electoral votes even if Biden won the state. On November 5, Levin tweeted:

Donald Trump, Jr. has been slammed by his critics for amplifying Levin's tweet, which indicates that the president's son is on board with Levin's idea for an authoritarian power grab.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is drawing criticism for saying, during a November 10 news conference, that there will be a "smooth transition to a second Trump Administration." The Trump loyalist told reporters, "When the process is complete, there's going to be electors selected. There's a process; the Constitution lays it out pretty clearly."

Election law expert Edward B. Foley discussed the possibility of a Republican Electoral College power grab in a November 6 op-ed for the Washington Post, writing, "This is a horrible idea, one that should be morally repugnant to every American. For a state legislature to reclaim this power after voters have already cast their own ballots would be an even more egregious intrusion into the democratic process."

Rad · Nov 12, 2020, 03:52 AM

Pressure builds on Trump to concede as Biden pushes ahead with transition plan

Biden's popular vote lead grows to more than 5m
Trump makes first public appearance since weekend

Richard Luscombe and Joan E Greve
Guardian
12 Nov 2020 19.10 GMT

Pressure was mounting on Donald Trump on Wednesday to concede the US election that he lost to Joe Biden by more than 5 million votes, even as the president continued to pursue claims on social media and in court about ballot tampering and fraud - without evidence.

'Downright dangerous': Democrats' alarm as Trump stacks Pentagon with loyalists..Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/11/downright-dangerous-democrat-alarm-as-trump-stacks-pentagon-with-loyalists

The president's refusal to accept defeat is increasingly alarming those senior Republicans prepared to admit it, with one, former US senator and former defence secretary William Cohen, calling Trump's behavior "more akin to a dictatorship than a democracy".

As European leaders lined up to congratulate Biden, British prime minister Boris Johnson even referred to Trump as the "previous president" while talking in parliament, although Trump is president for 10 more weeks.

Trump fired his defence secretary Mark Esper by tweet on Monday and followed up with a purge of several senior civilian officials at the Pentagon, raising further concerns over his intentions.

Meanwhile Biden, the Democrats' winning candidate, who has already secured more than the 270 electoral college votes he needed, pressed ahead with building his transition team and speaking out about urgent issues facing the US, including the coronavirus pandemic.

As more votes from the election were counted and his popular vote advantage over the Republican incumbent continued to grow, Biden laid a wreath at a Korean war memorial in Philadelphia to mark
And in pelting rain, Trump, who had not had any public engagements since Biden was declared the election winner on Saturday morning, laid a wreath at Arlington national cemetery.

This in the wake of reports in September that Trump had previously referred to military veterans as "losers" and "suckers". The president did not make any public remarks during the remembrance ceremony.

Biden has attempted to lower the temperature of the furore swirling around the White House since election day, and promised on Tuesday "to get right to work" on the transition while ignoring provocation from the Trump administration, including baseless claims of voter fraud and the thwarting of access to intelligence briefings and federal funding to help finance the transfer of power.

Without money from the federal General Services Administration, headed by Trump appointee Emily Murphy, Biden's team is hampered from conducting background investigations and obtaining security clearances for prospective staff.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Biden attempted to reinforce his message of calm. "Today, we as a nation pause to honour the service, the valour, and the commitment of all those who have worn the uniform of the Armed Forces of the United States," it said.

"This Veterans Day, I feel the full weight of the honour and the responsibility that has been entrusted to me by the American people as the next president, and I vow to honour our country's sacred obligation."

A day earlier, at an event to unveil his plans for healthcare policy once he assumes office, Biden called Trump's refusal to concede "an embarrassment".

Numerous world leaders have congratulated Biden on his victory, including the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and some southern European and middle-eastern nations, although not China or Russia.

On Thursday, the leaders of South Korea, Japan and Australia held phone calls with Joe Biden for the first time since the US election, reaffirming plans to form close ties with the president-elect to tackle issues including regional security.

"President-elect Biden said that he looks forward to strengthening the US-Japan alliance and working together on achieving a free and open Indo-Pacific," Japan's Prime Minister Suga said.

For more than a week, other than a private trip to his golf club, Trump has been holed up in the White House, tweeting out unfounded claims of massive voter fraud, surrounded by family members and senior administration officials urging him to fight on with lawsuits in several states.

Trump loyalists including the senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, attorney general William Barr and Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, have also refused to acknowledge Biden's victory, with Pompeo on Tuesday promising "a smooth transition to a second Trump administration."

A growing number of senior Republican officials, however, have become more vocal in recent days, echoing Cohen's concern.

"I'm dismayed to hear the baseless claims from the president, from his team, and from many other elected Republican officials in Washington," the Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker said.

"I can't think of a worse time to stall a transition than amid a deadly pandemic," he added, referring to the resurgent Covid-19 virus that has infected more than 10 million Americans and claimed almost 240,000 lives in the US.

Larry Hogan, the Republican Maryland governor, was similarly concerned. "Most people realise that this election is over. It's really dangerous, I think, in the middle of this pandemic, this economic collapse, people dying across the country, to not know if we're going to have a transition," he said.

The 2020 election unfolded smoothly across the country and without any widespread irregularities, according to state officials and election experts.

Election experts said the large increase in advance voting - 107 million people voting early in person and by mail - helped take pressure off election day operations on 3 November. There were also no incidents of violence at the polls or voter intimidation.

"The 2020 general election was one of the smoothest and most well-run elections that we have ever seen, and that is remarkable considering all the challenges," said Ben Hovland, a Democrat appointed by Trump to serve on the Election Assistance Commission, which works closely with officials on election administration.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that it had spoken to officials in every state who told the outlet there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities played a role in the outcome of the presidential race.

Rad · Nov 13, 2020, 07:55 AM

2020 election "˜most secure in American history,' according to Department of Homeland Security, more groups

Raw Story
11/13/2020

Experts weigh in on security, validity of US presidential election

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a statement Thursday claiming the 2020 presidential election was "the most secure" election "in American history."

Together with the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, U.S. Election Assistance Commission, National Association of Secretaries of State, National Association of State Election Directors and the members of the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council, CISA issued the following statement Thursday:

"The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result.

"When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.

"Other security measures like pre-election testing, state certification of voting equipment, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's (EAC) certification of voting equipment help to build additional confidence in the voting systems used in 2020.

"While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too. When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections."

CISA, an agency that operates under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, made the announcement as President Donald Trump's campaign for reelection initiates several legal battles over election security and voter fraud throughout the country.

The agency's statement directly contradicts the rhetoric being pushed by Trump and his campaign, which alleges rampant voter fraud occurred throughout the U.S.

Trump has constantly insisted, without evidence, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him -- even when election officials nationwide from both parties say there has been no conspiracy. Democrat Joe Biden was declared president-elect on Saturday, Nov. 7.

In Michigan, Trump and his team have filed a lawsuit in an effort to halt the state's certification of its election results. The latest lawsuit included hundreds of claims asserting that GOP poll watchers were excluded from counting rooms or saw illegal activity in the count in the state.

Though these individuals have claimed they were not allowed to enter ballot-counting rooms, as it has been repeatedly explained, it was discovered that the number of poll watchers from both parties had already exceeded the legal limit allowed in the room at one time. That is why those individuals were not allowed entry.

The Trump campaign is suing Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson along with the Wayne County and the Michigan Board of Canvassers, which are in charge of reviewing elections. While the case is filed in the state's Western District, which does not encompass Wayne County, the campaign is more likely to find a sympathetic judge there as opposed to the Eastern District.

On Wednesday, Trump went after Benson on Twitter with another false claim of voter fraud, arguing that "Nobody wants to report that Pennsylvania and Michigan didn't allow our Poll Watchers and/or Vote Observers to Watch or Observe."

Benson replied to the tweet and said the reason why "nobody wants to report that is because it's not true." She included a link to her office's fact-checking page that explains there were hundreds of Republican challengers and poll watchers at the ballot counting in Michigan.

Benson also clarified another tweet from the president in which he falsely claimed voting software from the company Dominion deleted hundreds of thousands of votes for the president. A clerk in Antrim County failed to update the software, which caused it to incorrectly record votes. The human error was discovered and corrected.

Rad · Nov 13, 2020, 11:44 AM

Biden and Harris win Georgia - major upset in once-red state

on November 13, 2020
Raw Story

The Democratic Party ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have carried the state of Georgia, according to calls by CNN and NBC News.

Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to carry the Peach State, but he did it with less than 44% of the vote during the three-way 1992 race.

Native son Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to get more than 50% of the vote in Georgia.

In 2016, Trump carried the state by over five percentage points.

Rad · Nov 14, 2020, 03:30 AM

"˜They know their vote matters': the Georgia Senate runoffs battle is already on

Trump's defeat in the reliably red state has shown Democratic voters the power of their ballot, activists say as they focus on Ossoff and Warnock's races

Chris McGreal in Atlanta
Guardian
Sat 14 Nov 2020 09.00 GMT

Donald Trump may have forced a recount of the votes in Georgia that helped end his presidency, but the activists who organised the surge in turnout that helped defeat him have already turned their attention to two elections that will decide who controls the US Senate and the course of Joe Biden's presidency.

Tens of millions of dollars are pouring in to the Georgia runoff races, which can be expected to draw Biden back to the campaign trail as voters have the opportunity to make history by defeating the state's two Republican senators to give the new president control of both houses of Congress.

Traditionally, turnout has been low for runoff elections and that has favoured Republicans. But the presidential race in Georgia has already turned conventional political wisdom on its head. A concerted get out the vote campaign over recent years, combined with a surge of political engagement by younger people over demands for racial justice, narrowly swung the state for Biden.

Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter in Atlanta, expects the Senate runoffs to also be close and the result to hang on turnout. He said that Trump's defeat in Georgia has shown Democratic voters the power of their ballot in what was once a Republican stronghold, and he will use that to keep them engaged with the Senate elections.

"Black voters in particular really had an impact on this race. There's some black voters that may not have believed in their power to flip this state, but now they believe and so there's even more voters that can motivated to come out. Because now more than ever, they know that their vote matters, that they've got power. So there's all that momentum," he said.

Black voters in particular really had an impact on this race
Cliff Albright

Democrats are mobilising support for two very different candidates. The Rev Raphael Warnock is pastor of Atlanta's renowned Ebenezer Baptist church where Martin Luther King preached in the 1960s. If he wins, Warnock would be the first black US senator from Georgia.

"I think Warnock's going to drive the turnout," said Joshua Meddaugh, chair of the social sciences department at Clayton State University, a mostly black college in metro Atlanta. "He is a monster candidate. He is incredibly well liked. He is charming and well received and an easy person to get behind. There are going to be some of those moderate Republicans, maybe some of those religious values Republicans, that he'll be able to draw."

On the other hand, Meddaugh expects Warnock's opponent, the sitting Republican senator Kelly Loeffler, to struggle because of her loyalty to Trump and association with conspiracy theory groups such as QAnon.

Still, it's likely to be close. Warnock came out on top last week with 33% of the vote. Loeffler took 26%. If the votes for rival Democrats and Republicans among the 18 other contenders on that ballot go to their respective parties in the runoff they each win about 49% with the balance of Libertarian, Green and independent voters up in the air.

In the parallel race, Democrat Jon Ossoff came close to removing the incumbent Republican, David Perdue, who fell just short of an outright win with 49.7%. Ossoff took 48% with the difference won by a Libertarian party candidate who now drops out of the race.

Ossoff lacks Warnock's charisma but proved effective at rattling Perdue during a debate before the first election over his refusal to take coronavirus seriously and because he is under federal investigation for insider trading. Perdue refused to attend a second debate.

Activists who spent months and years getting out the vote in Georgia credit Stacey Abrams, the former candidate who many in the state believe was robbed of victory in the election for governor two years ago by Republican voter suppression, with mobilising a cadre of voters that paid off for Biden including in middle-class suburbs and among young people.

Helen Butler, leader of the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, said a surge in younger voters was significant in deciding the presidential election in Georgia.

"We targeted young people, 18 to 35, to make sure they turned out and by all of the information we have thus far, it shows that their demographics turned in record numbers," she said.

Butler attributed the increased turnout in part to the surge in Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis in May.

"For the young people, it was a driving factor because they now understand that if you're going to have great policing policy, if you're going to have the right people employed, that those positions are elected. Your judges, your district attorneys, your sheriffs, and your mayors who appoint the police chiefs. They understand that getting people who understand their situations will assist in making the change that they want to do," she said.

Albright said his organisation will focus on specific policies, not the broad issue of giving Biden a Democratic-run Senate.

"It can't just be about we want to control the Senate. Somebody who's not engaged is going to ask why they should care about that. We have got to say we've got to control the Senate because healthcare is on the line, because the Voting Rights Act is on the line, because racial justice and whether or not police officers and district attorneys are able to continue to get qualified immunity when they kill black folks, that's on the line," he said.

Butler gave the example of the supreme court hearing that could see the end Obamacare and rob low-income families of affordable health coverage. "That will definitely be on people's mind. If the court should overturn the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, a lot of people will lose coverage. They'll lose protection for pre-existing conditions and young folks won't be able to stay on their parent's insurance plans until 26," she said.

Becky Butler, who leads Necessary Trouble, a name that plays on the late Georgia congressman John Lewis's mantra to cause "good trouble", said a large increase in absentee balloting played an important part in swinging Georgia against Trump and that she will focus on encouraging those who voted before to immediately register to vote by mail again.

"We go for especially those counties that are rich in Democrats that are deeply, deeply blue. And we do our best to make sure that those frequent voters are hit, and also that we try even harder to engage the infrequent voters, which is what Stacey Abrams taught us," she said.

Meddaugh said that runoff races usually favour Republicans but this could be different. "You're going to hear a lot of energy and positivity coming from the left and that we have a chance here to flip the Senate and we have two strong candidates. What that does usually when there's one side that's so energised, it actually de-energises the other side. Maybe some Trump supporters were pretty bummed that they didn't win so they're not going to come out again. That's pretty common," he said.

For all that, Albright worries that Republicans still have one advantage through their control of Georgia statewide offices: the ability to suppress voter turnout and effectively rig the election.

"We need to be very much on the lookout for voter suppression now that the Republicans have seen what our power looks likes," he said. "My suspicion is that we're going to see an increase so we are going to be vigilant about that over the next over the next couple of months."

Rad · Nov 17, 2020, 01:17 AM

Georgia's secretary of state says Lindsey Graham suggested he throw out legal ballots

Brad Raffensperger says the Republican senator asked if he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in certain counties

Lauren Gambino
Guardian
Tue 17 Nov 2020 02.17 GMT

Georgia's secretary of state Brad Raffensperger has said that Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was possible to invalidate legally cast ballots after Donald Trump was narrowly defeated in the state.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Raffensperger said that his fellow Republican, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, questioned him about the state's signature-matching law and asked whether political bias might have played a role in counties where poll workers accepted higher rates of mismatched signatures. According to Raffensperger, Graham then asked whether he had the authority to toss out all mail-in ballots in these counties.

Raffspenger was reportedly "stunned" by the question, in which Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to throw out legally cast absentee ballots.

"It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road," he said.

Graham confirmed the conversation to reporters on Capitol Hill but said it was "ridiculous" to suggest that he pressured Raffensperger to throw out legally cast absentee ballots. According to Graham, he only wanted to learn more about the process for verifying signatures, because what happens in Georgia "affects the whole nation".

"I thought it was a good conversation," Graham said on Monday after the interview was published. "I'm surprised to hear he characterized it that way."

Trump has refused to accept results showing Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, falsely blaming rampant fraud and irregularities that election officials in both parties have dismissed as meritless.

Georgia, a reliably Republican state with 16 electoral votes, is currently conducting a hand recount of roughly 5m presidential ballots, which is expected to be completed by 20 November. Biden led in the state by about 14,000 votes after the initial tally.

This comes as Raffensberger faces mounting backlash from his own party after defending the state's electoral process. The state's two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both locked in tight run-off elections to keep their seats, have called for Raffensberger's resignation - calls that Raffensberger has dismissed.

Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia, who is spearheading the president's effort to prove fraud in the state, has also been critical of Raffensberger, accusing him of siding with Democrats because he refused to endorse the false claim that the election was stolen from Trump. In the interview, Raffensberger called Collins, who has not contested the result of the special election race he lost to Loeffler, a "liar" and a "charlatan".

Raffensberger said every accusation of voter fraud would be thoroughly vetted but there was currently no credible evidence that wrongdoing had occurred on a large enough scale to affect the outcome of the election. He also told the Post that the recount would "affirm" the results of the initial count and prove the accuracy of the Dominion voting machines, which Trump has falsely claimed deleted votes cast for him.

Voting rights and ethics groups condemned Graham's comments, and some called for his resignation as chair of the Senate judiciary committee.

"Not only is it wrong for Senator Graham to apparently contemplate illegal behavior, but his suggestion undermines the integrity of our elections and the faith of the American people in our democracy," said Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in a statement. "Under the guise of rooting out election fraud, it looks like Graham is suggesting committing it."

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Georgia GOP election official "˜stunned' after Lindsey Graham pressures him to throw out thousands of ballots

Raw Story
11/17/2020

On Monday, The Washington Post reported that Georgia's Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, revealed in an interview that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pressured him to toss thousands of valid ballots - and even suggested blocking entire counties from having their mail-in ballots counted.

"In the interview, Raffensperger "¦ said he spoke on Friday to Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has echoed Trump's unfounded claims about voting irregularities," reported Amy Gardner. "In their conversation, Graham questioned Raffensperger about the state's signature-matching law and whether political bias could have prompted poll workers to accept ballots with nonmatching signatures, according to Raffensperger. Graham also asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures, Raffensperger said."

"Raffspenger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots," said the report. "Absent court intervention, Raffensperger doesn't have the power to do what Graham suggested, as counties administer elections in Georgia. "˜It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,' he said."

Graham's office did not respond to requests for comment, other than to direct them to a letter from Republicans in Georgia criticizing the election process.

President-elect Joe Biden won in part to carrying the state of Georgia by a narrow margin of just over 14,000 votes. The state's two Senate elections are advancing to runoffs which will decide ultimate control of Congress.

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Lindsey Graham's shenanigans in Georgia could backfire - and cost the GOP the U.S. Senate

Raw Story
11/17/2020

The Washington Post"˜s Amy Gardner broke the news story reverberating around the internet Monday: that Georgia's Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, revealed that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pressured him to toss thousands of valid ballots - and even suggested blocking entire counties from having their mail-in ballots counted. Gardner spoke with Chris Hayes Monday night about why she thought the Republicans' angst might backfire - and cost the GOP the Senate.

"I think he thinks the Republicans aren't being very smart here," Gardner said. "The argument for all of this wrath coming down on his head and also just sort of the rhetoric that impugns the election officials arguably is to help [Republican senators from Georgia] Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue who have the runoff election on Jan. 5 because everybody knows Donald Trump is still talking about fraud even though there's been no evidence to suggest that any one of these close states that decided the outcome had any widespread fraud on a measurable level."

She continued, "So the fear is that Donald Trump is going to tweet something. He's going to tweet displeasure at Sens. Loeffler and Purdue - some of the other Republicans who see this election being administered fairly, legally, ethically, I think their view is that's not smart politically, that sort of casting doubt on the election is a distraction that does the opposite of unify the Republican party at a time they need to get all of their voters out again just in a few short weeks."

Gardner added, "And one of the biggest accusations of alleged fraud going on in Georgia is the manufacturer of the voting machines of dominion voting systems is [a leftist] Venezuela company that stole votes from Donald Trump in Georgia. That is causing Republicans to say, hmm, I don't know if I want to use these machines on Jan. 5. Everyone is saying these machines are terrible. It doesn't seem very smart for the Republicans either."

Watch: https://youtu.be/b2byH2CWtgE

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"˜Lindsey Graham should be investigated immediately': Widespread shock after reports of Republican's "˜election fraud'

Raw Story
11/17/2020

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Monday shocked the political world after Georgia's Republican Secretary of State accused him of election interference.

"Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that he has come under increasing pressure in recent days from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse President Trump's narrow loss in the state," The Washington Post reported Monday. "In a wide-ranging interview about the election, Raffensperger expressed exasperation over a string of baseless allegations coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the Georgia results, including claims that Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of Georgia's voting machines, is a "˜leftist' company with ties to Venezuela that engineered thousands of Trump votes to be left out of the count."

Here's some of what people were saying about Graham:

What Raffensperger told @AmyEGardner is genuinely stunning, with Graham apparently suggesting trying to get ballots from entire counties tossed https://t.co/CQqc09bbxX https://t.co/kWKqKlsuOi pic.twitter.com/gfRCYmQtsn

- Zach Montellaro (@ZachMontellaro) November 16, 2020

The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration has general jurisdiction and oversight responsibility over matters relating to federal elections.

- Patricia Zengerle ðŸ¦ƒ (@ReutersZengerle) November 16, 2020

Makes you wonder what type of pressure Lindsey Graham may have placed on the Secretary of State of South Carolina - for his own election - and whether that SOS had the ethics to refuse. https://t.co/TVIYLG6Adh

- Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) November 16, 2020

Hey, wasn't the Lt. Governor of Texas offering $1 million for evidence of vote fraud? Can I get the cash for turning in Senator Graham? https://t.co/F0eeKBnReu

- Dean Baker (@DeanBaker13) November 16, 2020

Attn: AG Barr

Still searching for evidence of attempts to interfere with election? Appears that Senator Lindsey Graham should be investigated immediately. https://t.co/V1Q23G2NSY

- Kristen Clarke 866-OUR-VOTE (@KristenClarkeJD) November 16, 2020

Just posting this random provision of Georgia election law for no particular reason:https://t.co/A3022Llyc6 pic.twitter.com/RdepRhGjeq

- Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 17, 2020

Lindsey Graham is a threat to American democracy. https://t.co/ijso3wwKIs

- Jess Phoenix ðŸŒ‹ (@jessphoenix2018) November 16, 2020

FOUND THE FRAUD! https://t.co/9w5d5Oh8iP

- Morgan J. Freeman (@mjfree) November 16, 2020

This should make it easy for Graham to point to at least one example of someone trying to tamper with the election https://t.co/bMHKEPvCId

- Ben Terris (@bterris) November 16, 2020

Well, when you put it that way"¦ https://t.co/siPLGMDlIT

- Dan Rather (@DanRather) November 17, 2020

Sen. Lindsey Graham needs to take up permanent residence on his fainting couch and RESIGN. https://t.co/nIlOaPJUU0

- BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) November 16, 2020

See, now THAT would be actual election fraud https://t.co/akBEGsKzLX

- Fiddler (@cFidd) November 16, 2020

It shouldn't be altogether surprising that Trump loyalists say in private the things they routinely say in public. I think there is this mass belief that this is a show, and they don't actually want this or act on it. This is not a show. This is what is happening.

- Jessica Huseman (@JessicaHuseman) November 17, 2020

This is the very same Lindsey Graham who said: "We win because of our ideas and we lose elections because [Democrats] cheat us."

- David Roberts (@drvox) November 16, 2020

Is there any consequence for trying to pressure government officials to commit crimes? Seems like Graham should get in trouble for this somehow. https://t.co/ZiRgkmTk8o

- Noah Smith ðŸ‡ (@Noahpinion) November 16, 2020

More evidence that Trump and his despicable enablers don't give a single damn about democracy, and will tell any lie and break any law to try to silence American voters. https://t.co/ZFIRsJCqe8

- Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) November 16, 2020

Some might call this"¦ election fraud. https://t.co/sB1r7QTzmv

- Amy Spitalnick (@amyspitalnick) November 16, 2020

This is nothing short of treason. Prosecute Lindsey Graham to the fullest extent of the law. This is a disgraceful and dangerous attack on our democracy. https://t.co/oe0s8rxn1Z

- MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) November 16, 2020

Lindsay Graham is out here committing federal crimes to get Trump to 233 electors https://t.co/1a6CUJAlLY

- Law Boy, Esq. (@The_Law_Boy) November 16, 2020

This demands investigation. If laws were broken, it demands prosecution. Clearly, if true, @LindseyGrahamSC has no business being in the US Senate. https://t.co/zQ1E5gEC58

- David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) November 16, 2020

Just a reminder that if Republicans keep control of the US Senate, Lindsey Graham will remain Judiciary Committee Chairman, which is where the John Lewis Voting Rights Act will live in committeehttps://t.co/jfqnRTlamU

- Jay Riestenberg (@JayRiestenberg) November 16, 2020

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"˜Outrageous': Legal experts call for Lindsey Graham to be investigated by DOJ and the Senate Ethics Committee

Raw Story
11/17/2020

Marc Elias, a top attorney for the Democratic Party who has spent decades defending voting rights, is calling on the Ethics Committee to investigate Senator Lindsey Graham.

The Georgia Secretary of State in a Monday interview with The Washington Post accused Graham of pressuring him to throw out what would be thousands of ballots from certain counties.

"This is both outrageous and should be investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee," Elias said via Twitter, in response to Washington Post National political reporter Amy Gardner's reporting.

This is both outrageous and should be investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee. https://t.co/7Xkp7aQN0v

- Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 16, 2020

Elias is not the only attorney calling for an investigation.

Here's Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:

Attn: AG Barr

Still searching for evidence of attempts to interfere with election? Appears that Senator Lindsey Graham should be investigated immediately. https://t.co/V1Q23G2NSY

- Kristen Clarke 866-OUR-VOTE (@KristenClarkeJD) November 16, 2020

Former FBI Special Agent:

So this seems like something that would come under the guidance Bill Barr recently gave DOJ to investigate ðŸ'€ https://t.co/QvKO3nUUIx

- Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) November 16, 2020

Political scientist, journalist, and CEO:

This demands investigation. If laws were broken, it demands prosecution. Clearly, if true, @LindseyGrahamSC has no business being in the US Senate. https://t.co/zQ1E5gEC58

- David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) November 16, 2020

U.S. Congressman Eric Swalwell blasted Graham:

More evidence that Trump and his despicable enablers don't give a single damn about democracy, and will tell any lie and break any law to try to silence American voters. https://t.co/ZFIRsJCqe8

- Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) November 16, 2020

More:

Some might call this"¦ election fraud. https://t.co/sB1r7QTzmv

- Amy Spitalnick (@amyspitalnick) November 16, 2020

Lindsey Graham should be investigated https://t.co/aXGulT4vl8

- Joe Hagan (@joehagansays) November 16, 2020

Is there any consequence for trying to pressure government officials to commit crimes? Seems like Graham should get in trouble for this somehow. https://t.co/ZiRgkmTk8o

- Noah Smith ðŸ‡ (@Noahpinion) November 16, 2020

this is a Holy Shit! story. Graham is nothing but a stooge but so are other Republicans. https://t.co/wgEzms2hYf

- Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) November 16, 2020

None of these moves ever had a real chance. But big names effectively announcing they'd toss out votes en masse or even replace electors in a heartbeat if they could get away with it has much more serious long-term implications. https://t.co/XW88KhWEez

- Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) November 16, 2020

Lindsey Graham is now begging election officials to turn our country into a sham democracy resembling Russia's. And he's far from alone in the GOP https://t.co/zt6WKKgpZ2

- David Nir (@DavidNir) November 16, 2020

I've said it before and I'll say it again - America cannot function as a society as long as the Republican Party remains intact. The entire structure, from top to bottom, needs to be razed to the earth, the earth salted, and the salted earth ejected into the sun. https://t.co/uQd7p66xbN

- Cassandra, Irredeemable Pudgy Nobody (@ChrisWarcraft) November 16, 2020

FOUND THE FRAUD! https://t.co/9w5d5Oh8iP

- Morgan J. Freeman (@mjfree) November 16, 2020

Rad · Nov 17, 2020, 08:37 AM

Georgia secretary of state responds after Lindsey Graham's denial: He wanted to "˜throw out the ballots'

on November 17, 2020
Raw Story
By David Edwards

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger doubled down on Tuesday after saying that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had suggested that state officials should exclude legally cast ballots.

For his part, Graham has said that he was simply asking Raffensperger "to explain to me the system."

Raffensperger recalled his conversation with Graham during an interview on CBS.

"I just assumed he was calling about the two runoffs for the senators so I called him back and then during our discussion, he asked if ballots can be matched back to the envelope, the absentee ballots," Raffensperger said. "I explained in our process after it went through two sets of signature match, at that point [the ballots and envelopes] were separated."

"But then Sen. Graham implied for us to audit the envelopes and then throw out the ballots for counties who had the highest frequency error of signatures," he continued. "I tried to help explain that because we did signature match, you couldn't tie the signature back anymore to those ballots. Just like if you voted in person, my name is not on my ballot and so it can't be tied back to me."

Raffensperger pointed out that Graham's suggestion would have violated the secrecy of the ballots.

The Georgia official also responded to Graham's denial.

"We just decided the best action was not to get back and not to reengage," Raffensperger remarked. "I thought we were going to be just asking what's the status of the senator races, the runoffs. When it went down this other path, I think the best thing was just to disengage and move forward."

Watch: https://youtu.be/Y5_qhBLWMyQ

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Georgia secretary of state had witnesses on call when Lindsey Graham plotted to "˜throw out' ballots

Raw Story
11/17/2020

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that at least two members of his staff witnessed Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) apparent effort to suppress the counting of legal votes in the state.

Raffensperger has told multiple media outlets that Graham had pushed him to throw out legally cast ballots.

"Sen. Graham implied for us to audit the envelopes and then throw out the ballots for counties who had the highest frequency error of signatures," he explained to CBS on Tuesday.

Graham, however, has denied that he attempted to disqualify the ballots.

"That's just ridiculous," Graham told reporters this week. "If he feels threatened by that conversation, he's got a problem. I actually thought it was a good conversation."

But Raffensperger told The Wall Street Journal that there were witnesses on the call who could contradict Graham.

The Journal reported:

Mr. Raffensperger said that when he was contacted by Mr. Graham Friday, he thought the senator was calling about the state's two senate races. After an initial conversation, Mr. Graham called back again and brought up the idea of invalidating absentee ballots from counties with higher rates of signature errors, Mr. Raffensperger said, adding that he had staffers with him on that call.

Mr. Raffensperger and his staffers agreed not to act on any of Mr. Graham's suggestions, he said. "We have laws in place," he said.

***********

Lindsey Graham admits trying to meddle with Nevada and Arizona vote counts in addition to Georgia

Raw Story
11/17/2020

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Tuesday admitted that he also tried to meddle with vote-counting operations in Nevada and Arizona, in addition to his previously uncovered efforts to meddle in Georgia.

According to Politico's Jake Sherman, Graham "told a group of reporters in the capitol that he's also spoken to Secretaries of State in Nevada and Arizona" because he's "a senator who is worried about election integrity."

However, shortly after Graham made this claim, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs denied that she had spoken with Graham about the election at all.

A fire storm erupted on Monday night when Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told the Washington Post that Graham pressured him to toss out legally cast ballots from certain counties in Georgia that just happened to vote for President-elect Joe Biden.

Even though Graham insists that his calls to officials were perfectly normal, critics have questioned why the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is calling other states' election officials to discuss vote counting procedures.

************

"˜What the hell is Lindsey Graham doing?' CNN analyst shocked by GOP senator's election meddling

on November 17, 2020
Raw Story
By Brad Reed

CNN political analyst David Chalian on Tuesday expressed shock and bewilderment that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was calling up secretaries of state and questioning their procedures for counting legally cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election.

Reacting to claims made by Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about Graham calling him and pressuring him to throw out legally cast ballots, Chalian said it was improper for Graham to even get involved in the first place.

"What the hell is Lindsey Graham doing?" he asked. "He thinks he's responsible for verifying, in his own word, that Georgia's vote count was done properly when the person who's charged with the responsibility in executing Georgia's election says there's no evidence of any kind of fraud?"

He then accused Graham of trying to undermine democracy by questioning the integrity of Georgia's election without any evidence to support such a claim.

"Lindsey Graham is"¦ trying to create fraud where there is none that exists, according to the top election official," he said. "This is other-level stuff going on here."

Watch: https://youtu.be/rNDH7ry1Vzg

Rad · Nov 18, 2020, 02:41 AM

Pennsylvania court deals blow to Trump campaign's bid to overturn Biden win

Supreme court justices ruled observers were not blocked from the counting and also reversed a decision allowing observers within 6ft

Sam Levine
Guardian
18 Nov 2020 23.46 GMT

Philadelphia election officials did not improperly block Donald Trump's campaign from observing the counting of mail-in ballots, the Pennsylvania supreme court ruled on Tuesday, a major blow to the president's already flailing legal efforts.

The decision is significant because one of the Trump campaign's loudest claims since the election has been that they were improperly blocked from observing the counting of ballots in Philadelphia.

While campaign observers were always allowed to observe, the campaign alleged they were being kept too far from the counting - about 15-18ft - to make any meaningful observation. It secured a court order in the days after election day requiring Philadelphia officials to let observers within 6ft.

But the Pennsylvania supreme court reversed that decision on Tuesday, noting that Pennsylvania law gives Philadelphia election officials wide discretion to decide the rules around observers.

"The board did not act contrary to law in fashioning its regulations governing the positioning of candidate representatives during the pre-canvassing and canvassing process, as the election code does not specify minimum distance parameters for the location of such representatives," justice Barbara Todd, a Democrat, wrote for the five justice majority.

"We find the board's regulations as applied herein were reasonable in that they allowed candidate representatives to observe the board conducting its activities as prescribed under the election code."

Even the two Republican justices who dissented from the majority opinion disagreed with the idea, advanced by the Trump campaign, that legitimate votes should be rejected because of improper observation practices.

"Short of demonstrated fraud, the notion that presumptively valid ballots cast by the Pennsylvania electorate would be disregarded based on isolated procedural irregularities that have been redressed - thus disenfranchising potentially thousands of voters - is misguided," wrote chief justice Thomas Saylor in his dissenting opinion.

"Accordingly, to the degree that there is a concern with protecting or legitimizing the will of the Philadelphians who cast their votes while candidate representatives were unnecessarily restrained at the convention center, I fail to see that there is any real issue."

Joe Biden currently leads Trump in Pennsylvania by 72,832 votes.

The decision came as Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, appeared in a Pennsylvania federal court on Tuesday to accuse Democrats in control of big cities of hatching a nationwide conspiracy to steal the election, despite no such evidence having emerged to support it.

Lawyers defending the Democratic secretary of state, Philadelphia and several counties said the Trump campaign's arguments lack any constitutional basis or were rendered irrelevant by a state supreme court decision.

They asked US district judge Matthew Brann to throw out the case, calling the allegations "at best, garden-variety irregularities" that would not warrant invalidating Pennsylvania's election results.

While a ruling has not yet been issued, a loss in the case would likely doom Trump's already-remote prospects of altering the election's outcome.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

**********

Republican certifiers in Michigan back down after refusing to approve Biden win

Wayne county certifiers refused to sign off on election result but changed course after outcry from Democrat counterparts and public gallery

Associated Press
Wed 18 Nov 2020 06.17 GMT

Michigan's largest county has reversed course and unanimously certified its presidential election results after Republicans first blocked the move in a party-line vote that threatened to temporarily stall official approval of Democrat Joe Biden's win in the state.

The Wayne county board of canvassers acted after their 2-2 tie was condemned by Democrats, election experts and the meeting's online spectators as a dangerous attempt to overthrow the will of voters.

The board met after days of unsuccessful litigation filed by Republican poll challengers and President Donald Trump's allies. They claimed fraud during absentee ballot counting at a Detroit convention center but two judges found no evidence and refused to stop the canvassing process.

Biden crushed Trump in Wayne county, a Democratic stronghold, by more than a two-to-one margin and won the state by 146,000 votes, according to unofficial results.

The canvassers first rejected certification of the Detroit-area vote with a tie. Monica Palmer, a Republican, said poll books in certain Detroit precincts were out of balance. In response, Jonathan Kinloch, a Democrat, said it was "reckless and irresponsible" not to certify the results. "It's not based upon fraud. It's absolutely human error," Kinloch said of any discrepancies. "Votes that are cast are tabulated."

The board then listened to spectators criticising Palmer and fellow Republican William Hartmann via Zoom during the meeting's public comment period.

The Reverend Wendell Anthony, a well-known pastor and head of the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), called them a "disgrace".

"You have extracted a Black city out of a county and said the only ones that are at fault is the city of Detroit, where 80% of the people who reside here are African Americans. Shame on you!" Anthony said.

Certification of the election results in each of Michigan's 83 counties is a step towards statewide certification by the Michigan board of state canvassers.

"Glad to see common sense prevailed in the end," said Detroit's mayor, Mike Duggan. "Thank you to all those citizens who spoke up so passionately. You made the difference!"

The Michigan Democratic party chair, Lavora Barnes, called the initial 2-2 vote tie "blatant racism".

At least six lawsuits have been filed in Michigan, the latest one landing on Sunday in federal court. But there is no evidence of widespread fraud in the US election.

The issues that Trump's allies have raised are typical in every election: problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots to have been miscast or lost.

The University of Kentucky law professor Joshua Douglas, who teaches election law, said certifying results was usually a routine task. "We depend on democratic norms, including that the losers graciously accept defeat. That seems to be breaking down.".

Rad · Nov 18, 2020, 04:45 AM

Trump campaign officials started pressuring Georgia's Secretary of State long before the election - here's why

on November 18, 2020
By Pro Publica

Long before Republican senators began publicly denouncing how Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger handled the voting there, he withstood pressure from the campaign of Donald Trump to endorse the president for reelection.

Raffensperger, a Republican, declined an offer in January to serve as an honorary co-chair of the Trump campaign in Georgia, according to emails reviewed by ProPublica. He later rejected GOP requests to support Trump publicly, he and his staff said in interviews. Raffensperger said he believed that, because he was overseeing the election, it would be a conflict of interest for him to take sides. Around the country, most secretaries of state remain officially neutral in elections.

The attacks on his job performance are "clear retaliation," Raffensperger said. "They thought Georgia was a layup shot Republican win. It is not the job of the secretary of state's office to deliver a win - it is the sole responsibility of the Georgia Republican Party to get out the vote and get its voters to the polls. That is not the job of the secretary of state's office."

Leading the push for Raffensperger's endorsement was Billy Kirkland, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign who was a key manager of its Georgia operations. Kirkland burst uninvited into a meeting in Raffensperger's office in the late spring that was supposed to be about election procedures and demanded that the secretary of state endorse Trump, according to Raffensperger and two of his staffers.

When reached by phone, Kirkland directed the request for comment to the Trump campaign, which did not respond. The White House and the Georgia Republican Party also did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Joe Biden has been projected as the winner of the presidential election in Georgia by a margin of roughly 14,000 votes. The state is now conducting a hand recount at the Trump campaign's request. Raffensperger's office has said that the recount won't swing enough votes to tip the state into Trump's column.

As the Georgia results have become increasingly clear, Republicans have unleashed intense criticism on the secretary of state's office, accusing it without evidence of mismanaging the election and allowing Biden to carry the state by fraudulent means. Georgia's U.S. senators, Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both of whom failed to win majorities for reelection on Nov. 3 and face Democratic opponents in January runoffs, called for Raffensperger's resignation. All of the Republicans representing Georgia in Congress also signed a letter sent to Raffensperger's office from the personal email account of the chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Earl "Buddy" Carter, criticizing the office for a series of supposed irregularities.

Rep. Doug Collins, who recently lost a bid for Loeffler's Senate seat, has been particularly vocal. On Monday, Collins tweeted, "In a year of political division in Georgia, few things have unified Republicans and Democrats - one of them is Brad Raffensperger's incompetence as Secretary of State." Raffensperger has reserved some of his sharpest responses for Collins, calling him a "failed candidate" and a "liar" on social media.

On Monday, The Washington Post reported that Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, had phoned Raffensperger to see if the secretary of state had the authority to toss out legally cast ballots. Graham has said that he was simply asking how the process works. Two members of Raffensperger's staff who were on the call told ProPublica that the secretary of state's account was accurate and that they were appalled by Graham's request.

Raffensperger said that the Trump campaign "scapegoated" him. Its contention that he ineffectively managed the election amounts to "hot air and hyperbole," he said. "In Georgia, it is not new to see failed candidates claim fraud or suppression. At the end of the day, the Trump campaign's messaging didn't resonate with 50% plus one of the voters."

The campaign's formal efforts to gain the secretary of state's endorsement began on Jan. 10, when Kirkland emailed Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs, assuming that Raffensperger would welcome the opportunity to serve in an unofficial role. "We are getting ready to release the campaign's statewide leadership team and wanted to make sure you were good to be listed as an honorary co-chair?" he wrote, according to an email obtained by ProPublica. At the direction of Raffensperger, Fuchs declined.

"It is our standard practice not to endorse any candidate. This policy is not directed at any specific candidate, but all candidates, as the Secretary oversees elections and the implementation of new voting machines here in Georgia," she wrote.

Kirkland has a long history in Georgia Republican politics. He has also worked for the Trump White House - first in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and then for Vice President Mike Pence. He left the White House in the fall of 2019 to become a Georgia-based senior adviser to the Trump campaign. He also serves as a senior adviser to Pence's leadership PAC. FEC filings show that Kirkland is paid for consulting by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee. Loeffler hired Kirkland to be her campaign manager in January.

It's not unusual for candidates to ask for the endorsement of state elected officials, including secretaries of state, said veteran Republican elections attorney Ben Ginsberg. "But usually, campaigns accept the answer they are given if they know how to behave," Ginsberg said.

The Trump campaign did not accept Raffensperger's refusal. After Raffensperger announced that his office would mail absentee ballot applications to every registered voter in the state ahead of its June primary, a move opposed by the Trump campaign, the executive director of the Georgia Republican Party, Stewart Bragg, requested a meeting. He told Raffensperger's staff that he wanted to discuss election law and outstanding public records requests for voter data filed by the party.

Kirkland crashed the meeting shortly after it began. "A lot of people have noticed you didn't endorse," he said, according to two staffers. Raffensperger again made clear that any endorsements were against office policy, he told ProPublica.

Raffensperger had to leave the meeting early for another event. When the meeting came to a close, one of his staffers offered to continue the conversations at a later date and asked if there was any additional publicly available voter data that the party needed. "We'll see how helpful you are in November," Kirkland said, before leaving the office and slamming the door behind him, according to the staffers.

Trump has repeatedly and baselessly questioned the Georgia results on Twitter, accusing both the secretary of state's office and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp - a Trump loyalist who, unlike Raffensperger, did agree to be an honorary campaign co-chair - of coordinating with activist and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams to make Georgia's elections less secure.

"The Consent Decree signed by the Georgia Secretary of State, with the approval of Governor \@BrianKempGA, at the urging of \@staceyabrams, makes it impossible to check & match signatures on ballots and envelopes, etc. They knew they were going to cheat. Must expose real signatures!" Trump tweeted over the weekend.

Nothing about the consent decree - which was aimed at addressing the disparity in signature matches among racial groups - prevents clerks from verifying signatures. Raffensperger said his office has repeatedly and publicly explained the process for signature matches, and he laughed at the idea that he would coordinate with Abrams, who has criticized his office over issues such as long lines at the polls in minority neighborhoods in prior elections.

Trump and the Republican legislators have pressed their allegations even as the National Republican Senatorial Committee has distributed talking points implicitly acknowledging that Biden won the election, according to an internal memo obtained by ProPublica. That message contrasts with what Trump, his campaign and his administration are telling supporters.

The memo was circulated last week among Georgia field staff, who are preparing for two runoff elections in January that will determine which party controls the upper chamber. It contains a series of "key" talking points directed at prospective voters. One says that the Democratic candidates, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, "are funded by out of state liberals because they'll be a rubber stamp for their radical agenda to defund the police, open our borders, and pack the courts." Another states that, should Warnock and Ossoff get elected, "Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi will have the votes they need to transform our country into a socialist state."

The talking points omit any mention of Biden, but none of the outcomes outlined by the NRSC, which did not respond to requests for comment, would be possible with a Republican president.

Raffensperger expressed frustration at the lack of action by Republicans from the White House down to proactively address issues of election integrity. "If Trump and Collins were concerned about voter fraud, they would have proposed and passed legislation to fix it." Instead, he said, "they did nothing, absolutely nothing."

Rad · Nov 18, 2020, 11:57 AM

"˜Grow up': Georgia elections chief accuses GOP politicians of 'emotional abuse' with bogus voter fraud claims

on November 18, 2020
By Meaghan Ellis, AlterNet

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger accused Republican politicians of emotionally abusing the American public with ongoing, misleading claims of voter fraud.

On Tuesday, Raffensperger expressed concern about the election-related falsehoods Trump, his allies and Republican politicians are circulating on social media. According to Raffensperger, the unfounded claims are "playing with people's emotions." He described the behavior as emotional abuse as he advised them all to "grow up and start acting with integrity."

"There's just people who are really angry and they're being spun up," Raffensperger said, adding, "It's really the spinners that should be ashamed for playing with people's emotions. Politicians of both sides should never play with people's emotions. It's one thing to motivate people, I get that. But to spin people up and play with their emotions, it's emotional abuse and they ought to grow up and start acting with integrity."

Raffensperger's remarks come as a recount takes place in the state of Georgia. Over the last two weeks, Trump has not only been responsible for circulating many of the baseless claims on social media but he has also attacked those who accurately say former Vice President Joe Biden won the election. In fact, he also attacked Raffensperger as he described him as a "Republican in name only (RINO)."

However, Raffensperger made it clear that his political affiliation has nothing to do with Trump's spread of misinformation or the outcome of the election. His role is to ensure that all legal votes are included in the official count.

"I'm a Republican, I'm a conservative one, and I don't like the idea that President Trump is not going to win," Raffensperger said. "But at the end of the day, I want every voter to know we're going to do our job and make sure every legal vote is counted.

***************

"˜Lindsey Graham must resign': Outrage grows over GOP senator's alleged assault on election integrity, voting rights

on November 18, 2020
By Common Dreams

As President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued to call his loss to President-elect Joe Biden the result of a "rigged election" without a shred of evidence to support his mounting claims of voter fraud, demands kept piling up for probes-and even the resignation-of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, in light of his election interference efforts in Georgia.

Graham, a South Carolina Republican who held onto his key seat in this cycle, has faced an onslaught of criticism this week after Georgia's GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told the Washington Post that the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman had appeared to suggest finding a way to toss out legally cast ballots in a state narrowly lost by Trump.

The senator has dismissed allegations that he tried to interfere in Georgia's election process as "ridiculous," while admitting he's also been in touch with officials in Arizona and Nevada-which both have been called for Biden-"as a United States senator who is worried about the integrity of the election process nationally, when it comes to vote by mail."

Amid Graham's denials of improper interference and a statewide hand recount in Georgia ordered by Raffensperger ahead of the November 20 certification deadline-which is not expected to alter Biden's projected 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232-civil rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers have demanded that Graham be held accountable for his actions.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has repeatedly demanded this week that he resign in the name of accountability and justice:

Lindsey Graham must resign.

It has now been corroborated that he urged the Secretary of State in Georgia to find a way to throw out legally cast ballots. There must be accountability and justice for this dangerous attack on our democracy.

- Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) November 18, 2020

First, Graham and Republicans fought like hell to suppress the vote. Then, Black, brown, and young voters organized and turned out in record numbers to win the state anyway. Now, he's trying to get their legally cast votes thrown out.

He must resign. https://t.co/mw8XslMqRw

- Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) November 18, 2020

In a televised interview Tuesday, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told MSNBC's Ari Melber, "It appears that Lindsey Graham may have crossed the line into illegality as part of an effort to rip away Joe Biden's victory in Georgia, and perhaps this is part of a scheme to try to steal this election in other places."

While calling for accountability if the senator's actions are deemed illegal, Jeffries added more broadly that the Trump campaign, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, and Graham are all "out of control" and they seem to be suggesting that their efforts to "poison" U.S. democracy are "just not going to stop."

The co-chairs of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights' Voting Rights Task Force-the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, MALDEF, and Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law-said in a joint statement Wednesday that they "are deeply disturbed by the allegations" against Graham-which, "if true, are of the same character as the myriad voter suppression tactics witnessed in this election and are focused on the same objective of denying the right to vote."

"To suggest, directly or indirectly, that any election official act in such a manner is an affront to the democratic process and may violate the law," the statement continued. "Our democracy hinges on one fundamental principle-counting every vote. It is an obligation, a moral imperative, and a duty that upholds our sacred right to choose our leaders."

The groups urged the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and the Committee on House Administration "to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation" into Graham's recent interactions with election officials across the country.

Others issued similar calls for investigations and encouraged Graham to step down from his committee appointment:

Lindsey Graham's suggested election interference in Georgia undermines the integrity of our elections and the faith of the American people in our democracy. He should step down from his chairmanship immediately. https://t.co/TQxCiwpe4j

- Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) November 18, 2020

Indeed I amðŸ'‡

"Marc Elias, a top attorney for the Democratic Party who has spent decades defending voting rights, is calling on the Ethics Committee to investigate Senator Lindsey Graham."https://t.co/fBYRfCFpxS

- Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 17, 2020

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, on Tuesday called for the Justice Department to open an investigation into any potential federal criminal election law offenses by Graham.

Clarke also called for a probe by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, and said that "a public official using his office to potentially pressure a state official to discard ballots cast by eligible voters is deeply troubling conduct that should not be tolerated in our democracy."

"Voters across Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona overcame tremendous obstacles in order to have their voices heard this season," she added. "A potential attempt made by one of our nation's most senior officials to disenfranchise them after the fact should not be taken lightly."

Rad · Nov 19, 2020, 11:39 AM

Michigan GOP lawmakers meeting with Trump as he tries to stop state from certifying Biden win

on November 19, 2020
Raw Story
By Brad Reed

A group of Michigan state Republicans is flying into Washington D.C. to meet with President Donald Trump as he desperately tries to stop the state from certifying President-elect Joe Biden's win.

According to the Washington Post's Amy Gardner, the Michigan lawmakers are flying into Washington at Trump's request.

According to the Detroit News, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield are both expected to be at the White House.

Trump's legal team has spent the last two weeks trying to overturn the results in Michigan, despite the fact that Biden defeated him in that state by more than 150,000 votes.
ON THE PODCAST: Journalist claims Georgia Senate race 'stolen'

Trump's legal team has said that they want GOP-led legislatures in swing states to appoint their own electors who will overturn the vote results in their states and hand the election to Trump.

Such a move would be unprecedented in the history of American democracy and many legal scholars believe that it would not be permitted by the Constitution.

Adav Noti, chief of staff at the Campaign Legal Center and a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises, told Politico this week that "there's pretty much impossible-to-overcome obstacles" to state legislatures firing the current electors and replacing them with people who will defy voters.

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"˜Raise the alarm': Experts warn of "˜sedition' and "˜coup' attempt as Michigan GOP leaders fly to DC to meet with Trump

on November 19, 2020
By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

Experts are clearly on edge as news breaks that the two top Republican officials from the state of Michigan are flying to DC to meet with President Donald Trump "at his request," according to a Washington Post reporter, and local Michigan news outlets.

And some are warning of a possible "coup."

Even The New York Times is reporting: "Trump tries to subvert the election, inviting Michigan G.O.P. lawmakers to the White House."

"After failing repeatedly in court to overturn election results, President Trump is taking the extraordinary step of reaching out directly to Republican state legislators as he tries to subvert the Electoral College process," the Times says.

Michigan by law is required to certify its election results Monday, November 23. President-elect Joe Biden won the state by 3 percentage points and over 150,000 votes. There are no credible reports of fraud and yet Trump has declared himself the winner.

Some are worried the lawmakers could use the legislature to substitute Trump-supporting Electoral College electors, thereby swinging the state back to Trump.

Here's what some experts, including journalists, are saying:

Longtime progressive talk show host:

Now he's moving to his 12th Amendment strategy. Time to absolutely raise the alarm. https://t.co/14rPWOnq8N

- Thom Hartmann (@Thom_Hartmann) November 19, 2020

Professor of political science:

This is appallingly destructive. https://t.co/yh9LJ2vjIJ

- Julie Novkov (@NovkovJulie) November 19, 2020

Award-winning MSNBC host:

This is really nuts. He is actually, actively attempting a coup. Stuart Stevens called it sedition the other night and I'm inclined to agree. https://t.co/OhYhz20aqN

- Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) November 19, 2020

Writer, editor, and historian:

I am sincerely frightened at where this is going to end. https://t.co/5qj8sG41T3

- Audra J. Wolfe, PhD (@ColdWarScience) November 19, 2020

Editor at The Nation:

I need someone to explain why this isn't election tampering. I need someone to explain why the Dems hair isn't on fire about all of this. "Everything will work out fine" is not a strategy against a desperate, cornered pig who happens to hold Executive power. https://t.co/w0RnBv6yAV

- Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) November 19, 2020

Former Senior Advisor to Speaker Pelosi, and former Special Assistant to President Obama:

Criminal conspiracy in plain sight. https://t.co/9iSaaPfz6y

- Jesse Lee (@JesseCharlesLee) November 19, 2020

NYT columnist:

I hope Congress is prepared to subpoena them right after https://t.co/a7ATPGOHmU

- Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn) November 19, 2020

Bloomberg Opinion writer:

Not good at all.

Long past time for Republicans in the Senate to put an end to it. Even the handful who have been good so far need to do more. https://t.co/V5Jzjw7KSM

- Jonathan Bernstein (@jbview) November 19, 2020

Former Elizabeth Warren staffer:

They couldn't make this any more coup like if they tried.

The Four Seasons Total Coup is still an attempted coup! And elected Republicans are silently supportive and elected Democrats are passively opposed. https://t.co/vwFgCuEW3r

- Max Berger (@maxberger) November 19, 2020

Writer at Daily Kos Elections:

Michigan's state legislature has operated under GOP minority rule for practically the entire decade since their current gerrymanders went into effect, with Dems winning more votes but no majorities.

Trump keeps trying to get them to steal the election. Every R must condemn this https://t.co/0nC2d5ItOX pic.twitter.com/GVutQvQveW

- Stephen Wolf (@PoliticsWolf) November 19, 2020

Yale Law School Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy:

In. Broad. Daylight. https://t.co/QmCc0Ttiqv

- Scott Shapiro (@scottjshapiro) November 19, 2020

Think tank:

The president is trying to launch a coup. https://t.co/La8x3GrZ9L

- African American Policy Forum (@AAPolicyForum) November 19, 2020

Former Editor-in-Chief of LIFE magazine:

who else will be in the room? Barr? https://t.co/jESxc2NP9C

- Bill Shapiro (@Bill_Shapiro) November 19, 2020

Rad · Nov 19, 2020, 11:42 AM

Wayne County Republican who asked to "˜rescind' her vote certifying election results says Trump called her

By Tom Hamburger, Kayla Ruble and Tim Elfrink
WA Post
November 19, 2020 at 6:22 p.m. GMT+2

DETROIT - President Trump called a GOP canvassing board member in Wayne County who announced Wednesday she wanted to rescind her decision to certify the results of the presidential election, the member said in a message to The Washington Post on Thursday.

"I did receive a call from President Trump, late Tuesday evening, after the meeting," Monica Palmer, one of two Republican members of the four-member Wayne County canvassing board, told The Post. "He was checking in to make sure I was safe after hearing the threats and doxing that had occurred."

The call came after an hours-long meeting Tuesday in which the four-member canvassing board voted to certify the results of the Nov. 3 election, a key step toward finalizing President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state.

All the president's "˜Guys': Where are they now?

Trump has also invited leaders from Michigan's Republican-controlled state legislature to meet with him on Friday afternoon in Washington, according to a person familiar with those plans.

The Republican-controlled state legislature could, in theory, step in to award Michigan's 16 electoral votes, if the state's board of canvassers does not certify a winner. Earlier this week, Michigan's Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) said that Biden is the president-elect, and that an effort to award Michigan's electoral votes to Trump "not going to happen," according to the news outlet Bridge Michigan.

The Detroit News reported that Shirkey is among those set to meet with Trump. Shirkey's office did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post.

For now, Trump's interventions seemed unlikely to change the course of events in Michigan. Biden is winning the state by a wide margin, more than 148,000 votes. The state's board of canvassers is still scheduled to hold a hearing Monday to certify the results.

But Trump's actions in Michigan showed how he has used the prestige and platform of the presidency in an unprecedented ways in the election's aftermath -- including by reaching out directly to the officials who must certify Biden's victories.

The president has now spent two weeks making false claims on Twitter, and filing lawsuits that have generally gone nowhere in the courts. On Thursday, his campaign dropped its lawsuit seeking to block Michigan's results -- a sign, perhaps, that they believe their most likely path to success is a political one, persuading the state's elected Republicans to award Trump a state he lost.

In affidavits signed Wednesday evening, the two GOP members of the board allege that they were improperly pressured into certifying the election and accused Democrats of reneging on a promise to audit votes in Detroit.

Here's what happened when Rudolph Giuliani made his first appearance in federal court in nearly three decades

In an interview, Palmer estimated that she talked with Trump for about two minutes Tuesday. She said she felt no pressure to change her vote. Palmer has said she received messages threatening her and her family during and after the tense Tuesday meeting.

"His concern was about my safety and that was really touching. He is a really busy guy and to have his concern about my safety was appreciated," she told The Post.

Asked if they discussed the presidential vote count, she said: "It's hard for me to describe. There was a lot of adrenalin and stress going on. There were general comments about different states but we really didn't discuss the details of the certification."

Asked again about possible pressure from such a call, Palmer said: "It was not pressure. It was genuine concern for my safety."

William Hartmann, the other Republican on the board, has signed a similar affidavit, according a person familiar with the document. Hartmann did not respond to a message from The Post.

Jonathan Kinloch, a Democrat and the board's vice chairman, told The Post that it's too late for the pair to reverse course, as the certified results have been sent to the secretary of state in accordance with state rules. He lashed out at the Republicans over their requests.

"Do they understand how they are making us look as a body?" he said. "We have such an amazing and important role in the democratic process, and they're turning it on its head."

Also on Thursday, the Trump campaign dropped a lawsuit it had filed in federal court to block Michigan from certifying its election results. In explaining the move, Trump's lawyers said - incorrectly - that the Wayne County board had voted not to certify the county's results.

The Secretary of State's Office, which handles Michigan elections, has said that - after the Wayne County board voted to certify the election results Tuesday - the decision is now out of their hands, according to news reports.

"There is no legal mechanism for them to rescind their vote," Tracy Wimmer, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D), told The Washington Post. "Their job is done and the next step in the process is for the Board of State Canvassers to meet and certify."

For three hours, an obscure county board in Michigan was at the center of U.S. politics

At the heart of the dispute is a last-minute compromise between Kinloch and the Republicans to seek a comprehensive audit of results in the Detroit area, where the GOP members said the votes were out of balance - meaning the poll book, the official list of who voted, didn't match the number of ballots received.

Palmer and Hartmann said in their affidavits that they believed they had a firm commitment to an audit. But Palmer says in her affidavit that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) later said she didn't view their resolution asking for an audit as binding.

"I felt misled," Palmer told The Post earlier Wednesday, before signing the affidavit. "I stand firm in not certifying Wayne County without the audit."

Kinloch, though, said Palmer and Hartmann knew exactly what they were agreeing to Tuesday, and the board has yet to even formally ask Benson for the audit.

Palmer "knew it wasn't binding," Kinloch said. "We just voted yesterday."

Kinloch said he and Palmer texted each other into the early hours of Wednesday, with the Democrat explaining he had support across the board for the request. But he said Palmer was aware he had not been able to directly reach the secretary of state's office on Tuesday night.

He said the two also communicated about the need to prepare a joint letter to the secretary of state to ask for the audit.

Hours before signing the affidavit, Palmer told The Post that her experience Tuesday night had left her shaken. After first voting against certifying the results, a parade of activists and elections workers spoke to the board, with many accusing Palmer and Hartmann of racism for calling into question the results from majority-Black Detroit precincts.

"Last night was heartbreaking," Palmer told The Post. "I sat in that chair for two hours listening to people attack me" as a racist who was attempting to disenfranchise Detroit residents. She said her intentions were the opposite - but her efforts have been lost in a sea of invective that night that included death threats against her and her family.

Palmer said she and Hartmann had been concerned since the primary vote last summer that a number of precincts were out of balance. She said she never believed that corrections, which were made in some precincts, would change the vote totals in the county or the state in a way that would upend the victory for Biden, who carried Michigan by nearly 150,000 votes.

"We were not delaying the inevitable," said Palmer, referring to complaints that the GOP board members were stalling on behalf of Trump. "We always knew that the margin of victory was such that it was not going to change the result."

After she filed her affidavit asking to rescind her vote, Kinloch accused her and Hartmann of bowing to pressure from the Republican Party and the White House, which has waged a legal campaign seeking to overturn the results of the election.

Trump supporters attacked the decision to certify the Wayne County vote all day Wednesday, with Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, describing criticisms of Palmer and Hartmann as "mob rule."

In her interview with The Post, Palmer put it differently. "There wasn't mob rule," she said. There was pressure to certify, but she said she didn't succumb to it. She only went forward, she said, because of the promise of an audit.

Kinloch lamented the late attempt by Republicans to change their vote.

"They're playing with the vote and the will of the people," Kinloch said.

Rad · Nov 20, 2020, 02:39 AM

Joe Biden confirmed as Georgia winner after recount

President-elect wins Georgia's 16 electoral college votes
Biden first Democrat to win there since Bill Clinton in 1996

Martin Pengelly in New York and Maanvi Singh in San Francisco
Guardian
Fri 20 Nov 2020 01.06 GMT

President-elect Joe Biden has been confirmed as the winner of Georgia, after the state conducted a hand recount.

The first Democrat to take the state since Bill Clinton in 1996, Biden wins its 16 electoral college votes as part of a victory by 306-232.

The Associated Press called the race on Thursday evening following the recount, which election officials said reaffirmed Biden's victory more than two weeks after election day.

The recount resulted in officials in four counties discovering a total of about 5,800 votes. Trump has inched about 1,400 votes closer to Biden as a result, but remains the loser. The Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, has said that the discount was due to human error, and there was no evidence of rigging or widespread fraud.

"Georgia's historic first statewide audit reaffirmed that the state's new secure paper ballot voting system accurately counted and reported results," he added. "This is a credit to the hard work of our county and local elections officials who moved quickly to undertake and complete such a momentous task in a short period of time."

"The recount process simply reaffirmed what we already knew: Georgia voters selected Joe Biden to be their next president," said Jaclyn Rothenberg, the Biden campaign spokeswoman, in an email to the Associated Press.

"We are grateful to the election officials, volunteers and workers for working overtime and under unprecedented circumstances to complete this recount, as the utmost form of public service."

Donald Trump has refused to concede the race, contesting and questioning results in states including Georgia and pursuing recounts or delays in certification while making wild and unfounded accusations of electoral fraud.

The president continued to do so on Thursday, with specific reference to Georgia, before the result was confirmed.

But the hand recount of about 5m votes was not held in response to any suspected problems with results in Georgia or any official recount request.

It stemmed instead from an audit required by a new state law. Selecting the race to be audited, the Georgia secretary of state, a Republican, said the presidential race made the most sense because of its significance and the tight margin separating the candidates. That, he said, made a full hand recount necessary.

Gabriel Sterling, the official who oversaw implementation of the new Georgia voting system, said before the recount result was announced that previously uncounted ballots in four counties would reduce Biden's margin of victory from around 14,000 to about 12,800.

The state has until Friday to certify results certified and submitted by the counties. Once the state does so, the losing campaign will have two business days to request a recount if the margin remains within 0.5%.

That recount would be done using scanners and would be paid for by the counties, Sterling said.

The news came as Biden approached a record 80m votes with ballots still being counted in California and New York. Voter turnout in the 2020 election was the highest in more than a century, according to data from the Associated Press and the US Elections Project.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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Donald Trump mounts all-out assault on election result in Michigan

President calls county officials in attempt to derail Biden victory
Plans to fly Republican lawmakers to meet with him in DC

Wayne county board of canvassers chair Monica Palmer, left, talks with Vice Chair Jonathan Kinloch before the board's meeting in Detroit on Tuesday.

Tom McCarthy
Guardian
11/20/2020

Donald Trump has mounted an all-out assault on the election result in Michigan, reportedly planning to fly state lawmakers to meet with him in Washington and phoning county officials in an apparent attempt to derail the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's 150,000-vote victory in the state.

On Tuesday night, Trump placed phone calls to two Republican members of a county-level vote certification board the night before the pair tried to reverse their previous endorsement of a large chunk of the vote in Michigan.

The news emerged as Republican lawmakers in Michigan prepared to fly to Washington on Friday to meet with Trump at his request, the Washington Post first reported.

While no explanation for the meeting has been given, Trump has been pressuring Republican state lawmakers to try to hijack the electoral college by advancing slates of electors that could compete with those selected by the states' voters.

There was no indication that Trump's strategy, which in addition to the consent of legislatures would require a string of highly unlikely court victories and ultimately participation by Democrats in Congress to succeed, had any remote chance of overturning the election.

But Trump's full-court press in Michigan has raised concerns about the integrity of the state's election result, which has an election certification deadline of Tuesday 23 November.

As members of the Wayne county board of canvassers, William Hartmann and Monica Palmer played a crucial role this week in transforming Michigan's popular vote into all-important electoral college votes for Biden. Michigan has 16 electoral votes.

But at a meeting on Tuesday night, Hartmann and Palmer at first refused to certify the vote in Wayne county, which hosts the city of Detroit and where more than 80% of the vote is African American, citing minor irregularities. Biden won the county by more than 330,000 votes - his largest margin of any county in Michigan.

After three hours of discussion among community members attending the meeting virtually, some of whom accused Hartmann and Palmer of carrying out a brazen, racist assault on the right to vote, the pair certified the Wayne county vote. In the past the process has been treated as routine.

Trump spoke with Palmer on the phone later that night, she told the Detroit Free Press. "He was checking to make sure I was safe," she said. Palmer said that she and her family had "received multiple threats".

The next day both Hartmann and Palmer filed affidavits in court seeking to reverse their certification of the Wayne county result, claiming that they had been promised internally that the vote would be audited, only to discover it would not be.

The White House did not reply to a request for comment. Neither did Hartmann or Palmer. Trump inaccurately tweeted on Tuesday night that the board had declined to certify the Wayne county vote, indicating that he was following the process closely.

The Michigan secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, said through a spokesperson on Thursday that the certification was final. "There is no legal mechanism for them to rescind their vote," she said. "Their job is done and the next step in the process is for the board of state canvassers to meet and certify."

The vice-chairman of the Wayne county board of canvassers, Democrat Jonathan Kinloch, denied the substance of the affidavits, telling the Washington Post that the Republican pair understood the process and knew what they were certifying.

Ever since Trump's election loss two weeks ago, the Trump campaign has been filing lawsuits and applying pressure on Republican officials in multiple states in an effort to overturn the election result or, barring that, to spread the false belief that Biden's victory was illegitimate. Polling indicates that they are succeeding in the latter objective with a majority of Republicans.

Trump campaign tampering had not caused a serious hitch in the process of vote certification, however, until Tuesday night.

Biden needs electoral votes to make his win over Trump official, although he defeated Trump in a sufficient number of states that he still would win in the electoral college even if the Trump campaign managed to steal the election in multiple big states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Separately in Michigan on Thursday, the Trump campaign withdrew an election-related lawsuit in federal court, making the false assertion in court documents that the Wayne county vote had not been certified. The Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was leading that case.

The Trump campaign's legal strategy came under question in a separate case in Pennsylvania, where on Wednesday the campaign proposed that the campaign itself should conduct a review of mail-in ballots and let the court know what it found. As of this writing the court had not taken up the offer from the campaign, which has failed to advance any of its dozens of lawsuits since election night.