The ‘GOP Clown Car Coup’ And Certification Of The Vote

A key part of the “GOP Clown Car Coup” is to delay the election certification processes in battleground states that Joe Biden won, in the hopes that, if state officials miss their deadlines, Republican legislators will subvert the popular vote and appoint pro-Trump slates to the Electoral College.

Seriously, this is their actual plan. Have you ever heard of anything so openly anti-democratic and anti-American?

This is sedition against the Constitution and the democratic electoral process of the United States the likes of which we have not seen since the election of 1860, when seven slave states in the South seceded after the election of Abraham Lincoln to form the Confederate States of America, and go on to wage a civil war against the United States.

Lincoln must be spinning in his grave over the antics of the modern-day Republican Party he founded.

Ari Berman explains that Trump’s Strategy for Contesting the Election Relies On Throwing Out Black People’s Votes:

On Tuesday night, when two Republicans on the canvassing board in Wayne County, Michigan, initially refused to certify the election results, GOP board chair Monica Palmer said she would be open to certifying the results in “communities other than Detroit.”

It was a revealing statement: Palmer raised no concerns about unproven irregularities in other parts of the county but was willing to block hundreds of thousands of votes in a city that is 78 percent Black and voted 94 percent for Joe Biden.

Singling out Detroit reflects a broader legal strategy by the Trump campaign to challenge votes in heavily Democratic cities with large concentrations of Black voters, like Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia. Though the Trump campaign has produced no evidence of voter fraud, it is clearly signaling through its strategy that such fraud can only be committed in Democratic areas with large numbers of Black voters.

“Really the themes that we see, that persist, are this: Black people are corrupt, Black people are incompetent, and Black people can’t be trusted,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, said last week. “That’s the narrative that is continually espoused by the Trump campaign and their allies in these lawsuits.”

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In Wisconsin, the Trump campaign has requested a recount in only two counties, Milwaukee and Dane (home to Madison), which together comprise nearly three-quarters of the state’s Black population. Both counties voted overwhelmingly for Biden.

In Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign’s legal strategy has centered on throwing out votes cast in Philadelphia, which is 44 percent Black and where nearly half of the state’s Black voters live. Trump falsely claimed there was a “mountain of corruption” in the election there.

These efforts are not likely to succeed. The Trump campaign has lost nearly every major post-election case in court and has not prevented votes from being counted anywhere or changed in Trump’s favor in any substantive way. But by spreading baseless charges of fraud in heavily Black areas, Republicans are laying the groundwork to make it harder to vote for these communities in the future—just as voter suppression efforts have targeted Black voters throughout US history.

In 2016, Trump famously asked Black voters, “What do you have to lose?” In 2020, the answer is clear: their right to vote.

This white supremacist Jim Crow Party cannot be allowed to succeed in ending our great American experiment with democracy by subverting this election. The next ten days will tell.

The New York Times has A Timeline of the Certification Process That Trump Is Trying to Disrupt:

Here’s a breakdown of the certification deadlines and other key dates in battleground states, and what will happen between now and Inauguration Day.

Friday, Nov. 20: Georgia

There is a 5 p.m. Friday deadline for officials to certify election results in Georgia, which Mr. Biden won in a rare Democratic victory in the Deep South that has left Republicans deeply frustrated.

The Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has said the state will meet the Friday deadline despite having conducted a time-consuming hand recount of the five million ballots cast there.

Mr. Raffensperger is responsible for certifying the results, and he has fiercely defended the state’s electoral process against attacks from Mr. Trump. And on Thursday, a federal judge in Georgia — Steven Grimberg, whom Mr. Trump appointed — rejected a request to block certification.

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1329579814194384901

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1329557156400599041

UPDATE: Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified Georgia’s election Friday, saying “numbers don’t lie” as vote counts showed Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump. Georgia recount shows ‘verdict of the people,’ results certified. “Working as an engineer throughout my life, I live by the motto that numbers don’t lie. As secretary of state, I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct. The numbers reflect the verdict of the people.”

Caveat: Trump has two business days to request a machine recount under a state law that gives candidates the right to another tabulation if they lost by less than half a percent. A recount would be paid for by Georgia taxpayers.

Monday, Nov. 23: Michigan, Pennsylvania

Mr. Biden won these two states.

Monday is the deadline for counties in Pennsylvania to certify their totals and send them to Kathy Boockvar, the secretary of the commonwealth, who will certify the state results. Pennsylvania doesn’t have a hard deadline for when Ms. Boockvar must sign off, but there is no reason to expect a delay.

In Michigan, the Board of State Canvassers has scheduled a meeting on Monday to review and certify the results previously certified by canvassing boards in each county. Despite Republican protests over the certification of results in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, the state is expected to certify on time.

Mr. Trump has invited Michigan Republican lawmakers to the White House on Friday, and his campaign is openly trying to block the certification process in the hopes of getting Republican state legislators to overrule millions of Michigan voters and appoint a pro-Trump slate to the Electoral College.

This is arguably a violation of 52 U.S. Code § 20511:

A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office—

(2) knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by—

(B) the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held,

shall be fined in accordance with title 18 (which fines shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury, miscellaneous receipts (pursuant to section 3302 of title 31), notwithstanding any other law), or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

Legislators aren’t likely to do that. But even if they did, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, could certify a separate, pro-Biden slate of electors. It would then be up to Congress to choose between the two slates, and election lawyers say federal law would favor the governor’s, including if Congress deadlocked. Congress could also, in theory, toss out Michigan’s electoral votes altogether — in which case Mr. Biden would still win the Electoral College.

Tuesday, Nov. 24: Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina

In Nevada, which Mr. Biden won, the state Supreme Court will meet on Nov. 24 to certify the results. Ultimately, the governor will need to confirm the outcome. The Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit baselessly claiming that Mr. Trump actually won Nevada, and conservative groups are trying to nullify the results, but these claims are highly unlikely to lead anywhere.

This is also the certification deadline for Minnesota and North Carolina, neither of which is expected to be contentious. Mr. Biden won Minnesota; Mr. Trump won North Carolina.

Saturday, Nov. 28: Ohio

This is the deadline for Ohio, which Mr. Trump won, to certify its results. No challenges are expected.

Monday, Nov. 30: Arizona, Iowa, Nebraska

Arizona has to certify its results by this date, as do Iowa and Nebraska. Mr. Biden won Arizona, Mr. Trump won Iowa, and in Nebraska, Mr. Trump won statewide but Mr. Biden won one electoral vote in the state’s Second Congressional District.

The Arizona Republican Party asked a court to postpone certification in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, but a judge rejected the request on Thursday.

Given this, counties are expected to certify on time and Katie Hobbs, the secretary of state and a Democrat, is expected to sign off on the final, statewide certification.

No disputes are expected in Iowa or Nebraska that could delay certification.

The Associated Press adds, Judge Rejects GOP Bid to Delay Vote Certification in Phoenix:

A judge has rejected the Arizona Republican Party’s bid to postpone the certification of election results in Maricopa County and dismissed the party’s legal challenge that sought a new audit of a sampling of ballots.

Maricopa County officials are expected to certify election results Friday. It’s unclear whether the party plans to appeal the decision.

While the Republican Party said the purpose of its challenge is to determine whether voting machines were hacked, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ office said the suit is a delay tactic aimed at undermining the certification. No evidence of fraud or hacking of voting machines has emerged during this election in Arizona.

The court ruling comes as the state GOP has pressured county officials statewide to delay certifying their election results, leading officials in Republican-heavy Mohave County to postpone their certification until Monday.

When postponing their certification vote until Monday, officials in Mohave County cited what they said was uncertainty about the fate of election challenges across the country, while still expressing confidence in county’s own elections. In contrast, the Republican-dominated governing board for Maricopa County said it planned to certify as early as Friday, and its chairman has said there was no evidence of fraud, misconduct or malfunction in the election.

Trying to pull another Wayne County, Michigan in Mohave County? Has Donald Trump been in direct contact with anyone in Mohave County to delay or refuse to certify the vote? This violates state and federal law.

Maricopa County completed a hand-count of some ballots on Nov. 9 that showed its machine counts were 100% accurate. The same was found Wednesday during routine post-election accuracy tests on the counting machines.

Eleven of Arizona’s 15 counties have already certified election results.

Kelli “Chemtrails” Ward, chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, responded to the court’s decision by asking for an examination of a larger audit of ballots cast throughout Arizona.

Read Judge Hannah’s order, you dumbass, and get out your checkbook to pay the Secretary of State’s attorneys fees for having brought a frivolous lawsuit.

The New York Times continues:

Tuesday, Dec. 1: Wisconsin

This is the deadline for Wisconsin, which Mr. Biden won, to certify its results.

Wisconsin has already completed county-level certification, but the Trump campaign is seeking paying for a partial recount, which, if it proceeds, should be complete by the deadline and is not expected to alter the results significantly. Once the recount is completed, the Wisconsin Elections Commission will meet to certify the results statewide.

Tuesday, Dec. 8 – “Safe Harbor” Date

This is a key date in the democratic process: If states resolve all disputes and certify their results by Dec. 8, the results should be insulated from further legal challenges, ensuring that states won by Mr. Biden will send Biden delegates to the Electoral College.

The certification processes leading up to this date vary from state to state, but the final step is the same everywhere under federal law: The governor of each state must compile the certified results and send them to Congress, along with the names of the state’s Electoral College delegates.

So Republican governors are potentially the last resort in this “GOP Clown Car Coup” strategy? Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all have Democratic governors, so it’s not much of a strategy. Only Arizona and Georgia could subvert the Biden vote.

Monday, Dec. 14

Electors will meet on Dec. 14 in their respective states and cast their votes. This vote is, constitutionally, what determines the next president.

Mr. Biden has 306 electoral votes to Mr. Trump’s 232. Many states formally require their electors to vote for the candidate they pledged to vote for, generally the winner of the state’s popular vote. Historically, rogue electors have been few and far between, and have never altered the outcome.

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt with “faithless electors” last June in Colorado Department of State v. Baca and Chiafalo v. Washington, holding that states which have faithless elector laws will be able to continue to enforce them.