Of course this should normally be a domestic affair for the people of the United States of America. But this year seems so extraordinary in many ways. I’m following events with interest, hope and alarm (not necessarily in that order). In 2016, I posted my thoughts on the imminent election, never for one moment thinking that the US would elect Donald Trump as president. Boy, was I wrong. Can I be wrong again? What do others think? Not that we have long to wait.
Vote early and vote often!
I also think it’s worth asking why it is even possible to cheat.
Counting pieces of paper is not rocket science. Other countries manage.
You hinted it was, with your claims about harvesters forging ballots, didn’t you?
Any thoughts on how the Randroid/Libertarian vote might have impacted the election considering how close it’s been in so many states?
Yes, I hinted. And I followed up by saying it was speculation based on early reports.
I’ll bet you sometimes speculate.
In elections there is no doubt that fraud occurs. The only questions are how much and does it flip results. The conventional wisdom is a fraction of a percent, and no.
I observe that this election will be fought in court, much as was the 2000 election. That is not speculation.
I speculate that Biden will win. Even if “massive” fraud is found, there is no remedy except vowing to do better next time.
I observe that democrats lost a lot of down ballot races. This is odd, because democrats are typically ticket voters, and they worked hard to avoid this outcome.
It will be interesting to see the analysis of this.
There is an alternative to massive fraud.
Massive incompetence.
As in voting for a president who will be crippled because you didn’t vote down ballot.
The only explanation that makes sense to me is that many people voted against Trump, but don’t like the democrats either.
That seems plausible to me. People who might want Trump out of office, but still distrust Biden so they don’t want to give him a blank check, but what do I know
This is what it’s come to? The Presidential Election was been stolen by fraudsters, you say? But fraudsters so incompetent that they failed to fill out down-ticket choices? That’s why they couldn’t flip the Senate? They had weeks to do it!
ROFLMAO
But at least you are not a “tribalist”.
This is up there with the “the CCP might have made SARS-CoV2” fantasy.
Or perhaps many first time voters who did not know how to handle the lengthy ballot.
I think this is most likely. In the primaries last summer, tens of thousands of ballots were “naked ballots”, meaning the ballot was placed in the return envelope without being first put into the secrecy envelope. Now, this error only means that the person’s vote isn’t secret, but the Republicans managed to find a Trump judge who declared them invalid.
But for new absentee voters, there were lots of hoops to jump through – notarization, multiple witnesses, signature matching, crippled mail delivery, and inconsistent rules not only from one state to another, but from one legal decision to the next. Multiple states did not allow concern over standing in crowds during a pandemic as a valid reason for absentee voting.
As for down-ballot votes, the Alabama ballot had only TWO democrats on it, for President and Senator. Republicans were running unopposed for about 20 other offices. Several states allow a single block to be blacked in to vote a straight party ticket, without the need to vote individually for each one. In some places, this is a new (or newly removed) feature.
Tom English,
And both are operated from the same Moscow garret … I see you, comrade!
Georgia margin 463 on 5 million votes cast! Legitimate recount territory, whichever way it goes.
Wooohooooo!!
Today was a slow day for me. I think only 40 people asked me why the US is so messed up.
I think it is because I didn’t go outside.
Biden already ahead in Pennsylvania too. Holloway needs to RMA his crystal ball. Lulz
I’m wondering, can the republicans turn their back on Trump and force him to concede victory to avoid the potential ramifications of a situation like this? Maybe the republican controlled senate can do something about it? It must be a tough spot to be in, to be a republican senator or congressman in this shitstorm.
Лучший медведь – уютный медведь! [translate]
Were you walking past their cages when they asked you that? Do they not give the victims anesthetic before they steal their organs? Do they stack them up so you had to climb or where they all in a row?
That cancerous smog again was it? Don’t worry, it’ll pass eventually.
What is your job? Professional denigration? Arrogance team lead?
It’s a shame your country of residence will never get so “messed up” as America, I guess changing leader according to the preference of the people is a “messy” concept to a collaborator like you who has been paid sufficiently to become a propagandist for a one party one leader state.
Nobody can force Trump to do anything, not even tell the truth or obey the law. Conceding is something Trump cannot do, because he can’t want to do it. And his personality is such that if his lawyers can’t get him re-elected, he will certainly make a transition as difficult as possible and quite likely steal and destroy as much as possible before Biden is inaugurated.
Apparently not. Gingrich is calling for all ballot counters to be jailed right now. Fox news is echoing Trump in claiming widespread fraud without evidence. Republicans have set up a fraud hotline and are waiting for reports to check out (none so far). The Republican party line currently is that all LEGAL votes should of course be counted, but mail-in Biden votes are not legal for unspecified reasons.
Don’t forget that even though Trump loses both electoral college and popular votes, he still received millions more votes than he got in 2016, and this time these votes were from people well aware of who they were supporting. Biden will be trying to govern while facing a stonewall opposing senate and nearly 70 million citizens convinced he stole the election. Not an enviable task. Don’t expect any of those voters to decide to vote against any Congressional republicans, who are after all the only thing standing between us and catastrophe, as Republicans are claiming. If anything, Republican Senate seats are now safer than ever – provided they invoke the holy name of Trump.
I can envisage Trump leaving a turd on the Oval Office desk. He’s that classy. A parting sh*t, if you will …
This makes me nostalgic for 2000.
Instead of Gore or Bush, we get Woodrow Wilson.
vox.com have declared a Biden win. Premature?
The lawsuits and recounts are just beginning, but I think it will end like 2000.
2000 seemed like a great crisis, but it had some good consequences. Most states abandoned punch card voting for optically scanned ballots. Great improvement in accuracy. Florida too a lot of heat, but no one questions Florida’s voting system now.
Perhaps out of this mess, other states will adopt the policy of recording all ballots by the end of election day, and counting mail ins first.
Flint,
Jesus christ, It’s insane. This is going to have long lasting effects in the US society.
What’s insane? The lawsuits? Were they insane in 2000.
Hi everyone,
I’ve been following the election from Japan, but I’m puzzled about something. Why is nobody commenting on the following reports by John Daniel Davidson, writing in The Federalist magazine? Or are they? Is there something I’m missing out on?
Yes, Democrats Are Trying To Steal The Election In Michigan, Wisconsin, And Pennsylvania
Reports Of Election Fraud Keep Piling Up In Michigan. What’s Going On?
Is there any substance to these reports? I’m not American, and I’m not able to access as many sources as some of you can. And what about other reports I’ve read in The New York Post, indicating that this kind of vote-rigging has been going on for quite some time?
Confessions of a voter fraud: I was a master at fixing mail-in ballots by Jon Levine (August 29, 2020)
Mass vote-by-mail really does invite fraud — we need to guard against it by Post Editorial Board (August 31, 2020)
Any thoughts?
Lastly, why does the American press continue to call for proof that ballot tampering actually happened? I would have thought that a simple demonstration that it could have easily happened (as suggested by Jon Levine’s article) should be enough to call the results into question. Elections in mature democracies should be tamper-proof.
In any case, the evidence presented by John Daniel Davidson, including the sworn testimony of a lawyer, Jessica Connarn, who was working as a Republican poll challenger, and who filed an affidavit saying she was told by someone counting absentee ballots that workers in Detroit were “changing the dates the ballots were received” so they would be considered valid, surely warrants an official investigation. By all means count every vote, but I say: verify every vote, too.
That said, I don’t think there’s any hope for President Trump. The numbers aren’t going his way. He needs to accept that, and focus on saving the Senate for Republicans. Right now, I think a split between a Republican Senate and a Democratic House of Representatives is the best bulwark against political extremism on both sides.
Because it is nonsense.
It was well known, even before election day, that Democrats were mostly voting by mail (absentee ballots) due to Covid and Republicans were mostly voting in person because Trump told them to do that.
It has also been known for years, that counting of the mail votes is slower.
There’s really nothing surprising about what has been happening.
Extremism on both sides? You gotta be kidding me. How is Biden an extremist? Trump certainly is, but Biden? Seriously?
Oh, look what I found! Trump is also a fraudster!
Pennsylvania:
vjtorley,
You get your news from the Federalist and the New York Post? But what about Alex Jones? David Ickes?
Is it possible that the reason for the election chaos is because the lizard Archons are stopping humanity from reaching its full potential ? Did you ever think of that? Why isn’t anyone commenting?
Quick question, please guys. Are the ballots different for each state? Is there specifically a presidential ballot and a separate one for everything else? How does that work, please?
VJ is also failing to point out that it is well known that the Republicans have committed so many egregious actions to stop the voting and other democrat communities, that is so wide spread you would nears years to unravel all they have done. This is voter fraud that is KNOWN, not some fantasy from the Federalist that well it could happen…It did happen!
So this is one reason why no one is commenting VJ, because we know the Republicans cheated, they always cheat. How many sources of news do you need on this one, because there are literally thousands. And let’s not even get into all the illegal gerrymandering that has been done (again, almost exclusively by Republicans) which artificially gives the Republicans more seats in both the house and Senate. Without all that gerrymandering the Democrats would almost certainly control all the branches every year-as they are without a doubt the majority party in America.
But I doubt you really care about democracy.
Different in each state; usually different in each county in each state. Even the presidential candidate lineup varies by state, as minor parties don’t always manage to get their candidates on the ballot in every state.
James Chapman,
Thanks, James, much appreciated.
Going to hard to reverse the outcome by The Supremes if Biden has over 300 electoral votes. While three of the Supremes might owe their position to Trump, he has no leverage over them.And on the political side, the deafening silence from Republicans at large bodes badly.
Looks like your prediction on deaths from COVID is not working out, by the way. It has moved to the heartland away from the cites and is an approaching 1,000 a day again.
If Trump had lost Florida ,he would be.
That was a strategic decision by some State Legislatures controlled by Republicans, they knew the Democrats were more like to vote by mail which takes longer to tabulate. Trump would take a big lead and declare victory and try stop the voting. Exactly what happened. Just did not work.Republicans know they lose without voter suppression, in general. We will see a lot of work to flip the House by redistricting In the next two years.
Biden beats Obama’s record for most popular vote, on track to more than three hundreds electoral votes.Won back the three states which cost Clinton the election. Biden flipped Georgia, though credit for that goes to Stacy Abrams I apologize for the boondoggle.
You missed your calling, you should have gone into political consulting.
Am an American , get better sources than the Post, is my suggestion. Though yes vote rigging has been going on for years, Republicans have done everything the could to suppress the wrong people from voting.
So did the orange idiot, don’t be ridiculous.
If his policies are nearly the same as Obama’s why didn’t he win at least as many states as Obama against the worst, least popular president probably in history? Certainly the least popular president in the last 90 years or more.
No offense, but it is delusional to think Trump will not burn everything down.
Not as good a bulwark as the Democrats having control of all three branches. Right now the heavily conservative Supreme Court is deciding whether to take away healthcare from millions of Americans. Republicans will happily drive the economy into the ditch to hurt Democrats election chances. Trump will continue to encourage gun toting ,pickup driving, rednecks to terrorize their fellow citizens. Bannon wants to ,metaphorically maybe , go Joffrey on the head of infectious disease and FBI.
How would those actions be viewed in Japan, as a sign of cool headed moderation?
I’m not going to prejudge the outcome of the court cases. I do think there will be manual recounts in a number of states. And some audits.
What I hope happens is we make a few steps toward security and transparency.
I’d readily trade votes by felons for voter ID and simple paper ballots that can be audited.
Hi guys,
Excerpt from “The Kafka Election: Finding a Way Out of the Maze” by Frank Miele of Real Clear Politics (November 6, 2020):
Look. I don’t know whether there is any truth to these reports or not, but it definitely seems to me that they warrant an investigation.
I never read Alex Jones, let alone David Ickes. On a typical day, I read stories from The Guardian, BBC news, Real Clear Politics and occasionally, The Federalist. I also look at Drudge Report, but I’m well aware that its coverage is somewhat sensationalistic, to say the least.
I make no apologies for reading The Federalist, when it reports the stories that other news sources should be reporting but are afraid to touch, such as this one:
First-Hand Account Of Election Fraud In Detroit: ‘They Did Not Want Us To See What Was Happening’
In a nutshell: “GOP observers are being kept away from counting tables, expelled, harassed, and prevented from doing the job of ensuring ballots are counted fairly.” Read the report for yourself. Call it what you like, but that’s not democracy.
Take a look at this:
End abortion extremism within the Democratic Party (a petition by Kristen Day, a pro-life Democrat, who points out that since 2016, “the [Democratic] Platform effectively endorsed abortion-on-demand, up until birth, for any reason, and funded by the taxpayer” – an extreme position which “is only supported by 21% of Americans, according to a 2020 Marist Poll.” Biden and Harris both support the current Democratic Platform, which is far to the left of what most Americans think, as well as being far to the left of most countries in Europe.
See also: Joe Biden’s extremist labor agenda (Steve Delie, The Hill, October 17, 2020) and How Joe Biden is moving left while still being seen as a moderate (Paul Waldman, The Washington Post, July 17, 2020). A brief excerpt from the latter source:
And from the final presidential debate:
If you want to know why that’s a bad idea, see here.
I’ll leave it there.
vjtorley,
Right, I am asking you why not? They are reporting all kinds of things.
Chemicals in the water are turning frogs gay…
Bill Gates is on a mission to wipe out minorities..
Hillary Clinton is running a pedophile ring out of a pizza parlor..
The world is run by reptilian elite…
Covid 19 is caused by 5g networks…
Come on VJ, why AREN’T you reading these things?? The media isn’t reporting it. Jones and Ickes are no less right wing crazy than guys like Frank Miele at Real Clear politics, so why aren’t you reading them? If the world is run by satanists turning frogs gay, don’t you want to know more?
Yes, let’s read the oil industry propaganda to be properly informed about the feasability of renewable energy.
LOL, there’s a 3 second vid on twitter that shows nothing at all, so let’s blindly believe the whole story just because!
What kind of journalism is that?
This greatly concerns me too. Even if that non-Trump guy wins (forgot his name there), then the US clearly have a lot of healing to do.
Corneel,
Well give VJ a break, its understandable he is angry at the Obamas. Did you know its been said that the Democrats have been manipulating the weather in Japan for the last ten years? Look I am not saying it is true or not, but its been reported…
Not that the mainstream media will tell you anything about it.
I mean when the deep state is conducting a soft coup to remove the orange idiot, its not like you are going to here about it on CNN. You have to go to Sean Hannity to find out about this.
It seems to me that these have been checked, and there is no basis to them.
Yes, there were some gun waving people who demanded to be allowed in to watch the vote counting. And they were kept out. However, there were already GOP people in the ballot counting center monitoring the process.
Finally, NYT gives PA to Biden, it’s over.
I note the passive voice: irregularities have been reported. Now, I’ve been watching and reading from all the major networks (including Fox) and I have seen none of these reports. Could you be so kind as to switch to active voice and tell us WHO reported these things? These would all have been MAJOR news stories on every network if they were true.
Now, this one I have seen. Turns out to be another bogus Trump lie. No approved election observers were banned anywhere. In some places the Trumpies tried to stampede unapproved “observers”, who were barred. The only lawsuit the Trump campaign won let the real observers stand a few feet closer to those counting votes.
Perhaps it’s not fear of touching, perhaps it’s because most of these things never happened.
It’s also not true. Observers from both parties were specifically approved, and were there observing. Common citizens, no matter how polarized, simply aren’t allowed to crash the counting process and claim to be “observers”. There are rules. Some “GOP observers” broke the rules. No counting anywhere went unobserved by approved people from both parties.
Beware of half-truth. Nothing in the Democratic platform endorses anything like last-day or partial birth abortion. The platform simply endorses the woman, rather than the government, deciding on abortion. But here we have some anti-abortion fanatic noticing that simply because the platform doesn’t prohibit extreme positions, therefore it must endorse them. Neither Biden nor Harris has ever approved of these extremes, but your extract doesn’t QUITE say they do, it simply says they run on the platform, therefore they must approve of something it doesn’t say. This what I call “Republican honesty”.
Golly, all your quotes say is, Biden wants to address pollution and climate change, and has set a high bar for doing so (which he probably can’t clear, but the point isn’t to craft a funding bill, it’s to set a policy goal.
I don’t blame you for looking at a wide range of sources to gather information. But what you’re doing here is cherry-picking false, exaggerated, or misleading extreme editorial positions and presenting them as facts. If only the most extreme sources make a claim, which is either explained to be false or simply not worth bothering with outside the bubble, you might notice this.
If it IS true, I wish they’d do a better job of manipulating the weather in the US. We’re not happy with floods, droughts, hurricanes, huge forest fires, rising ocean levels, dying corals, etc. If they had the ability to ameliorate these things, why keep it secret? It would be hugely popular.
Well, outside the Hannity-sphere, what he calls a “soft coup” is known as a “popular vote”. Although Republicans won the Presidency despite losing the popular vote two of the last three times they won. I wonder if Hannity considers an electoral college win despite a popular vote loss as a “soft coup”?