Tag: 2020 election

Posted on

Arizona Certifies Biden Win In The Grand Canyon State

Arizona has officially certified its results of the 2020 election cycle indicating President-elect Joe Biden won the Grand Canyon State’s 11 electoral votes. The certification also makes it possible for Senator-elect Mark Kelly to be sworn in to the U.S. Senate this week. From CNN:

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, certified the election results Monday morning, saying the elections process was the most secure in recent history, “despite unfounded claims to the contrary.” The state’s Gov. Doug Ducey and Attorney General Mark Brnovich, along with Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel, witnessed the certification, as required by state law. These three officials are Republicans.

Ducey, who echoed Hobbs’ comments and praised the integrity of Arizona’s election system, also said he would sign official documentation on Monday and have it hand-delivered to the president of the US Senate, so that Kelly “can be sworn in as swiftly as possible.”

More than 3.4 million ballots were cast in Arizona this election cycle indicating a turnout of nearly 80% of eligible voters in the state. The official tally shows Biden beat Donald Trump by 10,457 votes. Donald Trump’s lawyer Jenna Ellis complained on Twitter the certification was ‘rushed’ but it’s been 27 days since Election Day – the exact same length of time as in 2016.

Posted on

Maria Bartiromo Trends On Twitter After Disastrous Trump ‘Interview’

Fox News Channel host Maria Bartiromo began trending on Twitter this morning after allowing Donald Trump to call into her ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ program where he ranted on several baseless claims about the results of the 2020 presidential election without one fact check in sight. As Trump threw blame left and right — at one point suggesting the FBI and Justice Department might be involved in a conspiracy to stop his reelection — Bartiromo sat silently with only an occasional tilt of her head to indicate any sense of journalistic curiosity. The Donald complained about ‘massive dumps’ (poor choice of words considering #DiaperDon recently trended on Twitter) which we can only guess referred to the adding of mail-in ballots in some states that weren’t allowed (by law) to be counted until after the polls closed on Election Day. #MassiveDumps soon began to trend on social media as well. Trump also attacked Dominion Voting Systems saying the machines and software were defective. What he didn’t address, however, is that Dominion systems were used in 24 states during the 2020 election, including states Trump won like Louisiana, Iowa, Missouri, and Ohio. And yet, Trump hasn’t challenged the veracity of the voting there… During one exchange, Bartiromo posited, “If you take out the swing states…” which makes no sense, obviously. We can’t just pretend Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan don’t exist. “So this is no longer about you, President Trump. This is about America and many people agree with you,” Bartiromo actually said out loud.

Posted on

Biden Gains Votes In Wisconsin Recount Requested By Trump

L-R President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden
Reuters reports the Trump requested recount in Wisconsin’s largest county concluded on Friday with Democratic President-elect Joe Biden gaining votes. Oops. The recount of nearly 460,000 ballots in Milwaukee County showed Biden gained 257 votes to Trump’s 125, resulting in a net gain of 132 votes for Biden. The unofficial statewide tally shows Biden defeated Trump there by about 20,600 votes. Since a full state-wide recount would cost the Trump campaign $7.9 million, the Donald chose to only recount Dane and Milwaukee counties — home to the cities of Madison and Milwaukee for the discount price of $3 million. Such recounts in the past have rarely changed the eventual results by more than a few hundred votes. Green Party candidate Jill Stein requested a more extensive statewide recount in 2016 and the recount only altered the results by 131 votes (in Trump’s favor).

Posted on

Trump Loses PA Challenge In 3rd Circuit Court Of Appeals

Donald Trump

Donald Trump on 60 Minutes (screen capture)
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed last weekend’s ruling dismissing the lawsuit brought by Team Trump in Pennsylvania that was argued by Rudy Giuliani. Pennsylvania has already certified its election results which show President-elect Joe Biden won the Keystone State by 81,660 votes. And Trump can’t blame the judge in this new ruling – it was one of his own nominees. The all-GOP panel agreed the case had ‘no merit.’ From the New York Times:

The 21-page ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals was a complete repudiation of Mr. Trump’s effort to halt Pennsylvania’s certification process and a full-throated affirmation of a decision last Saturday by Judge Matthew W. Brann of Federal District Court in Williamsport, Penn., who dealt the Trump campaign its initial defeat in the case.

“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,” Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote on behalf of the appeals court. “Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”

Trump’s lawyers have already announced they plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court where Trump believes his 3 handpicked justices would give him a win. BUT – most legal eagles doubt the high court would be willing to take up a case where the evidence is lacking and ultimately won’t change the outcome of the race. Even if SCOTUS were to take the case and rule in Trump’s favor, Biden would still have 286 votes in the Electoral College – far more than the required 270 to win the White House.

Posted on

Snappish Trump Loses Cool At Press Conference

During his Thanksgiving Day address at the White House on Thursday, Donald Trump told reporters that if the Electoral College confirms president-elect Joe Biden’s victory, “they’ve made a mistake,” but he would give up power and leave the White House. When Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason asked to clarify his response in a follow-up question, Trump blew his cool and snapped at Mason, “Don’t talk to me that way – you’re just a lightweight. Don’t talk – I’m the president of the United States. Don’t ever talk to the president that way.” Note – Jeff Mason is no ‘lightweight.’ He’s an experienced journalist and highly regarded in Washington, D.C. Trump did not confirm whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration in January. Experts and officials have said there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 US elections.

Posted on

Rudy Giuliani Claims Trump ‘May Have Actually Won Virginia’

Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani

Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, told Republican lawmakers at a meeting in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that – in addition to believing Donald Trump won the Keystone State (he didn’t) – Trump “may have actually won Virginia” as well. Trump lost Virginia to Joe Biden by a margin of 451,138 votes. If Team Trump had come within 1 percent of winning in Virginia, don’t you think those results would have been bandied about and challenged publicly these last few weeks??? At the end of the day, Rudy and his team did not present ANY actual evidence of vote tampering or voter fraud. But keep talking Rudy… Bloomberg reporter Josh Wingrove followed the event on Twitter here.

Posted on

Nevada Certifies Joe Biden’s Win

Nevada’s seven nonpartisan Supreme Court justices unanimously approved the state’s final canvass of the November 3 election today. From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

The Nevada Supreme Court signed off on the state’s election results Tuesday, making President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state official, following numerous failed post-election court challenges that sought to delay or thwart the statutory move.

Though a few legal challenges are still pending, the court’s formal acceptance of the results from the Secretary of State’s office essentially closes the book on the 2020 election. It took less than half an hour of the court’s time Tuesday to conclude a routine matter in an election year that was anything but routine.

Nevada’s certification follows Michigan’s move to certify on Monday and Pennsylvania’s certification early Tuesday, and ahead of Wisconsin’s and Arizona’s certifications later this week. All are states President Donald Trump lost on Nov. 3, and all are states where the Republican Party and the Trump campaign filed lawsuits challenging the outcome.

Biden officially won Nevada by 33, 796 votes – 703,486 to Trump’s 669,690.

Posted on

Michigan Certifies Biden’s Win In Great Lakes State

UPDATE: I realized I wanted to include this information as some GOP officials or Trump supporters have made mention of ‘unbalanced precincts’ which occurs when there are a small number of ballots that don’t equal the total number of voters noted in the poll books. I think this is important to know. From the Washington Post:

Out-of-balance precincts can occur for several reasons. A machine may fail to scan the name of a voter on an absentee ballot envelope. A voter can make a mistake on a ballot and request a new one, or sign into the poll book but leave before casting a ballot.

This fall, 179 Detroit precincts, or 28 percent of the total, had discrepancies of at least one ballot, accounting for at least 433 votes, according to state and county data.

Four years ago, when Trump won the state by a narrow margin, the number of out-of-balance precincts was larger: 392 Detroit precincts, or 59 percent of the total, had discrepancies of at least one ballot, accounting for at least 916 votes, the data show.

In 2016, when the discrepancy was less than half that of 2020, neither the RNC nor the Trump campaign asked for an audit to verify the veracity of the ballot count.

The Michigan Board of Canvassers voted to certify the results of the 2020 election on Monday. The 3-1 vote by the board – made up of two Democrats and two Republicans – effectively awards the state’s 16 electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden, who garnered over 155,000 more votes than Donald Trump in the election. One of the two Republican members – Norman Shinkle – was the lone holdout who abstained from approving the results. Shinkle told the Washington Post in an interview last week that he was considering delaying the certification citing a debunked conspiracy theory pushed by Trump and his campaign that voting machines had deleted thousands of Trump votes. As CNN’s Jake Tapper points out via Twitter, with Georgia having certified Friday, Michigan doing so today, and Pennsylvania tonight (once Philadelphia certifies at 7 pm tonight), President-elect Joe Biden will have more than 270 electoral votes.

Posted on

Chris Christie: Trump’s Legal Team Has Been ‘National Embarrassment’

Former NJ Gov. Chris Christie (screen capture)
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told ABC News’s George Stephanopolous today that after dozens of failed legal challenges in court, Donald Trump should stop trying to delay the obvious results of the 2020 presidential election. “I have been a supporter of the president. I voted for him twice, but elections have consequences and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn’t happen.” The former Trump ally added that the president’s legal team has become a ‘national embarrassment.’ “Quite frankly, the conduct of the President’s legal team has been a national embarrassment,” said Christie on ABC. “They allege fraud outside the courtroom, but when they go inside the courtroom, they don’t plead fraud and they don’t argue fraud.”

Posted on

Trump Loses Pennsylvania Election Lawsuit (Again)

Donald Trump (via Axios – screen capture)
A federal judge has thrown out the Trump campaign’s lawsuit in Pennsylvania hoping to stop the certification of ballots there likening Team Trump’s arguments to Frankenstein’s monster, saying it appeared “haphazardly stitched together.” From the New York Times:

A federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed on Saturday night a lawsuit by the Trump campaign that had claimed there were widespread improprieties with mail-in ballots in the state, ending the last major effort to delay the certification of Pennsylvania’s vote results, which is scheduled to take place Monday.

In a scathing order, Judge Matthew W. Brann wrote that Mr. Trump’s campaign, which had asked him to effectively disenfranchise nearly seven million voters, should have come to court “armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption” in its efforts to essentially nullify the results of Pennsylvania’s election.

But instead, Judge Brann complained, the Trump campaign provided only “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations” that were “unsupported by evidence.”