Trump proclaims vote a fraud.
President Donald Trump's just declared that the November 3 vote is a fraud at approximately 2:30 A.M. The election result is close with Joe Biden holding 220 electoral college votes compared to 213 for Donald Trump. It is a long night and nerves are getting a little jangled. Jim Acosta of CNN proclaimed the President's statement was akin to an authoritarian leader and not an entrenched democracy. No wonder Kim Jong un and other despots get along with President Trump. We can see Xi Jinping manipulate the CCP by super-imposing unlimited term limits. But, hey, we expect that from the Chinese central government and not the United States or like minded democracies.
In essence, Trump said races that show him leading should be called in his favour, regardless of millions of outstanding uncounted ballots. Given his call for his legal team to get involved to basically call the election, Americans are left with a return to 2000 when George W Bush instructed his legal team led by Theodore Olsen to challenge the legitimacy of ballots that were damaged - hanging chads that were having problems being read to decide the outcome of Florida. The crux of the election has always been the presence of COVID - 19 affecting the legitimacy of the outcome. Some pundits declared that there was an election during the Civil War and that is well and good. Maybe, it should be asked, when do we postpone an election to preserve the integrity of each vote and when can America implement a third Party, funded by the state, if necessary, to insure the sanctity of democracy and contain the bitter partisanship that is forever tearing at the fabric of the American political system. Let's hope that Pennsylvania will count their millions of existing mail in ballots to certify their 20 electoral votes that may decide this election. The mail in ballots are providing everyone a voice and this is time consuming. It is an extraordinary year and election. Let the results play out organically. Bush 1, Gore 0. Like a classic boxing match this evening, think Hagler v. Leonard, perhaps Biden can even the rounds. Only then, can the sanctity of the November 3 election see poetic justice.
From Reuters Nov.4 Andrew Chung/Lawrence Hurley
Both Republicans and Democrats have amassed armies of lawyers ready to go to the mat in a close race. Biden’s team includes Marc Elias, a top election attorney at the firm Perkins Coie, and former Solicitors General Donald Verrilli and Walter Dellinger. Trump’s lawyers include Matt Morgan, the president’s campaign general counsel, Supreme Court litigator William Consovoy, and Justin Clark, senior counsel to the campaign.
Benjamin Ginsberg, a longtime Republican election lawyer, said on CNN that any attempt to toss out legally cast votes would likely “be viewed by any court including the Supreme Court as just a massive disenfranchisement that would be frowned upon.” Ginsberg represented George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000 when the Supreme Court ended a recount in Bush’s favor against Democrat Al Gore.