Trump and Ballot recheck

 

November 12, 2020       Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu 'How hungry people are to consume lies' Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Trump campaign is predicting that he can still “win.” Here's why that's so unlikely to come true: There’s no indication that the President has evidence to back up in court his claims of massive voter fraud -- but even if he did, he probably still couldn’t win the election. Trump is down by massive margins in key states -- 150,000 votes in Michigan and by nearly 50,000 in Pennsylvania. It’s implausible isolated irregularities would convince a judge to invalidate that many votes.   Even if Trump could take one of those big states off the board, Biden would likely still have 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. The President-elect seems set to prevail in Arizona where votes are still being counted. And he’s up by 14,000 votes in Georgia, where even a recount is unlikely to overturn such a large margin.  So what’s Trump’s game? One thing is for sure: The man hates being seen as a loser. Tricking his 70 million supporters into thinking his second term was stolen will also be useful if he runs again in 2024. But another theory is bound up in complex constitutional choreography. While media organizations like CNN have called the results, the election is not official until it is certified by individual states. When Americans cast a ballot for president, they are effectively voting for a proxy: a slate of electors who correspond to the number of electoral votes in each state (which are doled out nationwide roughly according to population). Those electors are then formally appointed, and they vote for the president in January. In an admittedly long shot scenario, Trump could hope to convince Republican legislatures in key states to appoint electors that favor him rather than Biden -- a flagrant abrogation of the public will, though technically possible. This probably wouldn't work either: Some Republican leaders have already signaled they won’t play ball, and in many states, it is illegal for electors not to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote. But Trump has tried the unthinkable before.  Subscribe to Meanwhile in America 'How hungry people are to consume lies'   Asked on Wednesday whether the city of Philadelphia had caught any instances of widespread voting fraud yet, city commissioner Al Schmidt assured CNN’s John Berman, “We just had the most transparent and secure election in the history of Philadelphia.” Schmidt -- a Republican -- added, “I have seen the most fantastical things on social media, making completely ridiculous allegations that have no basis in fact at all. (...) One thing I can’t comprehend is how hungry people are to consume lies and to consume information that is not true.”   US President Donald Trump must have felt his ears burning. He soon responded on Twitter, blasting Schmidt with a derogatory term for Republicans seen as not conservative enough and insisting, “We win!” The tweet has been flagged as potential misinformation by Twitter.