Mega-Thread: 2020 United States General Election

[Adam Jensen]

Biden is now ahead in PA than there are remaining votes to count.

It's time for fucking GOP to get with reality.

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Literally happens every year. I woke up to the heart wrenching news of Trump being declared the president elect on Nov. 4th 2016 by the major media outlets.

Had state electors cast their votes? No.

Had any state certified their counts? No.

Had any state even fucking finished their initial count completely? No.

Did Trump win in 2016 by smaller margians than Biden currently has? Yes!

Now shut the fuck up please.

Literally how every election has worked for as long as I'm alive.

[Xeones]

I think we're dealing with a lot of --- that are either too young to remember previous elections or didn't follow politics at all before Trump.

That's not all of them, some are just idiots who drink the kool-aid and parrot everything the right wing media tells them, others are desperately coping.

I think we have a good portion of the nation. Like 1/3 who actually believe Trump tells the truth. Now Trump constantly lies, he lies about anything and everything generally for no reason and he tells stupid just easily disprovable lies. And people believe every word he says.

I know a guy who in the face of everything being debunked is holding on to that one update that happened where Biden got some votes and Trump got none, now while that was debunked, he's still hanging on to it like his life depends on it.

They don't understand that all of Trumps lawsuits have been thrown out for being frivolous and lacking merit or evidence. They still think that this is going to go to the supreme court and they are going to flip a minimum of 3 states for no reason. They seem unwilling to accept that Florida in 2000 only happened because Bush "won" the state by 537 votes. I don't know how much more AZ has to count, but it and every other state Biden is winning in have him up over 10k votes. You would have to have less faith in this country than I do if you think the supreme court is going to flip that many states with such a big difference.

But this irrational drive they feel to defend Trump and believe he still has a path to victory comes from them being in a cult. He is their figure of faith, he is their religion and they can't imagine a scenario in which their divine being can lose.

[Kathranis]

I think we have a good portion of the nation. Like 1/3 who actually believe Trump tells the truth. Now Trump constantly lies, he lies about anything and everything generally for no reason and he tells stupid just easily disprovable lies. And people believe every word he says.

I know a guy who in the face of everything being debunked is holding on to that one update that happened where Biden got some votes and Trump got none, now while that was debunked, he's still hanging on to it like his life depends on it.

They don't understand that all of Trumps lawsuits have been thrown out for being frivolous and lacking merit or evidence. They still think that this is going to go to the supreme court and they are going to flip a minimum of 3 states for no reason. They seem unwilling to accept that Florida in 2000 only happened because Bush "won" the state by 537 votes. I don't know how much more AZ has to count, but it and every other state Biden is winning in have him up over 10k votes. You would have to have less faith in this country than I do if you think the supreme court is going to flip that many states with such a big difference.

But this irrational drive they feel to defend Trump and believe he still has a path to victory comes from them being in a cult. He is their figure of faith, he is their religion and they can't imagine a scenario in which their divine being can lose.

Reuters just released some polling numbers that show about 80% of Americans believe Biden is the valid winner and that Trump should concede.

If you look at the total population of the US, it was only about 21% of Americans that turned out and voted for Trump.

This is just another example of the so-called "silent majority" refusing to shut the fuck up about something they don't even comprehend.

You're right about it being a cult of personality, though. A decent chunk of these people literally think he was chosen by God to lead this country. Of course they're not going to comprehend him losing. And rather than taking it in stride as part of "God's plan" it'll probably devolve into some sort of "demoncrat" conspiracy to summon the devil with baby blood and goat cum.

[Adam Jensen]

TL; DW: Trump's legal team is terrible, the courts are defeating him, and even if the judges ruled in his favor, the vote counts would still give Biden a victory.

[passingthrew]

TL; DW: Trump's legal team is terrible, the courts are defeating him, and even if the judges ruled in his favor, the vote counts would still give Biden a victory.

End of Day 7: Trump is down nearly 5 million votes and he and his allies are 0-12 in court I guess.

[Kathranis]

End of Day 7: Trump is down nearly 5 million votes and he and his allies are 0-12 in court I guess.

I think it's 1-11 if you count getting the SCOTUS to tell counters in PA to segregate ballots, which they were already doing anyway. Go team!

[Breccia]

Biden is now ahead in PA than there are remaining votes to count.

Yep...I think it's time to get that Talluto's ravioli out of the freezer. The good ones, the portabella. I've been waiting for "official" and, well, hard to get more official than "Trump could cheat and still lose".

That said, Biden leadsd Georgia by 14,000 with 32,000 left to count. The fried chicken will wait, but maybe not by much. Yes, I'm doing fried chicken not peach pie.

Arizona, ahead by 12,000 with 51,000 left in play.

[Xeones]

https://twitter.com/marceelias/statu...45253360635904

Well the lawyers keep having to tell the truth in court.

[gondrin]

To tell you how dumb team Trump is, the one supposedly "HUGE CASE" in PA that he is trying to get them to not certify the results due to "irregularities in how votes were counted" was in 2 counties, both voted for Trump.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...?ocid=msedgdhp

Trump's big new election lawsuit alleges voter fraud potentially happened in 2 Pennsylvania counties. Both overwhelmingly voted for him.

The Trump campaign's new major lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleges that voter fraud potentially happened in only two counties.

Both counties, Fayette and Luzerne, voted for President Donald Trump. The news articles cited in the lawsuit to bolster its claims reported that local officials were addressing the irregularities before Election Day. The lawsuit also doesn't offer any basis for the kind of widespread voter fraud that Trump has repeatedly alleged without any evidence.
Trump and other Republicans have filed over a dozen lawsuits contesting the 2020 election. Their main efforts are in Pennsylvania, which gave President-elect Joe Biden enough electoral votes to clinch the race.

On Monday, the Trump campaign filed an 85-page lawsuit asking a federal judge to block Pennsylvania's secretary of state from certifying the results of the presidential election.

The lawsuit seeks to block President-elect Joe Biden from formally receiving the state's 20 electoral votes, which would reduce his overall total but would be unlikely to reverse the election result.

The lawsuit makes several claims of irregularities in how votes were counted, citing unnamed poll watchers and election observers. It also accuses Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar of giving improper guidance to election officials for processing mail-in ballots.

But the filing cites only two specific instances of potential voter fraud, Adam Klasfeld reported for Law & Crime. Both are in counties that voted heavily for President Donald Trump.

If votes were thrown out in those areas, they could widen the gap of 45,000 votes (and counting) between Biden and Trump in the state.

As the news articles cited in the lawsuit pointed out, authorities had already addressed the issues that opened the door for voter fraud well before Election Day. And the lawsuits do not offer any evidence of the kind of widespread voter fraud Trump has repeatedly and baselessly alleged.

The lawsuit says that in Fayette County, some voters received two ballots in the mail while others received ballots that had already been filled out. The lawyers representing the Trump campaign argued that both situations could lead to voter fraud. It cites two local news articles from October to back up the claims. One of the articles, about duplicate ballots, reported that the county election board had already resolved the issue. Other reports about ballots in the county being prefilled said election officials were addressing that issue as well. Trump won nearly 67% of the vote in Fayette County, according to data from Decision Desk HQ and Insider.
The lawsuit says that in Luzerne County, a "temporary seasonal elections worker" threw out nine military ballots that were in unmarked envelopes. It's not clear whether those ballots were for the primary or the general election. The lawsuit cites a local news article from September — which also reported that the incident was under investigation and that the county had already changed its rules to prevent similar issues. About 57% of voters in the county voted for Trump, according to data from Decision Desk HQ and Insider.
The lawsuit doesn't name Luzerne County or Fayette County as defendants, but it does go after the election boards in the counties of Allegheny, Centre, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Northampton, and Philadelphia — all based on allegations of irregularities from anonymous poll watchers and election watchers. Voters in all those counties preferred Biden to Trump, according to Decision Desk HQ data.

In arguing that voter fraud overall is a significant risk in Pennsylvania, the lawyers cited only three cases over a 21-year period in the entire state.

Election experts have said voter fraud is extremely rare. A 2020 analysis from the right-wing Heritage Foundation found that a very small percentage of votes cast resulted in any kind of criminal conviction.

The lawsuit's arguments about problems with how mail-in ballots were processed "make no sense," Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law School professor who studies election litigation, told Insider.

"In effect, they are saying the mailed-in ballots are unconstitutional, which is ludicrous," Briffault said. "In any event, any challenges to PA's mailed-ballot procedures that were on the books prior to Election Day (and not imposed by a court) could have and so should have been brought before the election, and so should be thrown out for that reason alone."

The new lawsuit is one of more than a dozen the Trump campaign and other Republicans have filed across the country seeking to undermine the 2020 election result. Pennsylvania is particularly important because its 20 electoral votes ensured Biden's victory.

But even if the highly unlikely happens and Biden's electoral votes in Pennsylvania aren't certified because of this lawsuit, Trump would still have to win Arizona, Georgia, and Alaska to secure the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the presidency. Of those, he is expected to win only Alaska and its three electoral votes.

The Trump campaign is also seeking to join a Supreme Court case over the validity of mail-in ballots that arrived at processing centers after Election Day. But it's unlikely that there are enough such ballots to overcome Biden's lead.

[Breccia]

TL; DW: Trump's legal team is terrible

My favorite part? "The motion is based on speculation and conjecture".

"Which case is that from?"

HAHAHAHAHA...hee hee...which "one". That's funny.

[Mormolyce]

He could but the US need to lessen the polarization so it has its downsides.
US dont really want get into a circle of tossing everthing prior out whenever the president changes.
Better with bipartisan legislation which went through the house and senate than a zillion executive orders.

The Republicans have discovered that division and partisan hate is the only thing their base is interested in, they couldn't give less of a rat's ass about policy, even if current policies directly, personally effect them. They are interested in their grievances and nothing else - just look at that McCain video for example. What the Republicans take away from the last four years is that they can lie, cheat and steal to their hearts' content and there will be no repercussions, their base will always back them no matter what, provided they lean heavily into partisan hatred.

It will likely tear the country apart and leave it open to exploitation by its enemies, but they don't give a shit about that either.

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It's time for fucking GOP to get with reality.

You're talking about a group of people who still think the world was created in seven days.

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Shit, why not just /invoke @Skroe: "WE TOOK YOUR PRESIDENT FROM YOU"

How is he still banned when his last infraction was in March? Is he permabanned?

Imagine banning Skroe, a prolific poster who put actual thought into his posts, while an endless daisy chain of low effort trolls continue with nary a finger wagged in their direction. Shit this forum has its own resident Putin bot lol.

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/marceelias/statu...45253360635904

Well the lawyers keep having to tell the truth in court.

Holy fuckin shit, read the document - https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-c...Transcript.pdf

THE COURT: Does it make a difference whether a claim of irregularity or technical noncompliance with the election code is made with or without an accompanying claim of fraud or improper influence?

MR. GOLDSTEIN: It does not. I mean, to claim the technical defects are immaterial, which is in some sense some of the thrust of what the DNC argued, is really to misperceive what is going on in the election code. The election code is technical.

These requirements are all technical. And some of them sit in that code for reasons that are a mystery for all of us. I mean, I sort of recounted for you my view of why the elector signing in his own hand is material. The DNC have their reasons for why they think it is material or immaterial. The fact of the matter is, it is in the code. The code is itself technical. Those technicalities are part and parcel of the law and a violation of the results in a ballot that can't be counted.

THE COURT: All right. I don't have any questions for you.

I'm no lawyer but...this sounds VERY "My Cousin Vinny" to me.

[Mormolyce]

The election was called by who? The media? Laughable.

Biden didn't win YET. He hasn't been confirmed by any official organism. It's only the media that is the kicking and screaming that he won.

Who confirmed Trump's victory in 2016, causing Hillary to concede?

[PhaelixWW]

To tell you how dumb team Trump is, the one supposedly "HUGE CASE" in PA that he is trying to get them to not certify the results due to "irregularities in how votes were counted" was in 2 counties, both voted for Trump.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...?ocid=msedgdhp

The new lawsuit is one of more than a dozen the Trump campaign and other Republicans have filed across the country seeking to undermine the 2020 election result. Pennsylvania is particularly important because its 20 electoral votes ensured Biden's victory.

I will point out again that nullifying a state's EVs without swinging them to Trump doesn't do Trump as much good.

If Biden had 280 EVs, for example, and needed 270/538 to be President, but then they nullified PA's 20, people might think that Biden would lose the election. But the reality is that Biden would have 260 EVs... but only need 260/518 to be President, because that 20 gets taken off the denominator, as well.

At an expected 306 EVs for Biden, Trump would have to find a way to invalidate at least 74 EVs from states that Biden won in order to bring down the denominator low enough for Biden to lose via a tie (232-232). Obviously that total is less if Trump is able to steal a state's EVs, but I'm less inclined to think that that's possible than some state nullifying fuckery.

GA, PA, WI, MI, and AZ combined are all 73 EV. So even if every single one of those states is tied up legally and unable to send their electors to vote for Biden, Biden still wins 233-232. Special shout out to Obamaha and NE-2!

[Breccia]

So one of Trump's tweets that wasn't flagged today was that Hannity was going to do a big special on voter fraud.

Ballot Corruption will be exposed tonight at 9:00pmE on SeanHannity on FoxNews!

Hannity himself beat the drum as well.

TRUMP: Why are Republicans backing the president in his fight to have every legal vote counted? KayleighMcEnany and GOPChairwoman give you the answer TONIGHT on “Hannity” at 9 PM ET.

The tweet responses to both are...excellent

In any event, the RNC claim was that they have 234 pages containing 500 sworn affidavits alleging 11,000 incidents of voter fraud!

"Yeah! MAGA!"

And how many of these were presented in court?

"Uh...that guy who admitted he made the story up, I guess?"

Oh, don't you worry, we'll come back to him.

If these 500 peopla are willing to go under oath, I'll be more than happy to hear what they say under oath. Just because it's inadmissible doesn't make it perjury. "I heard some guy say he did it" is not going to land you in jail, but it's not likely to move the needle much.

The RNC chair did not volunteer, nor did Hannity ask, why these cases weren't admitted in court. That video linked a few pages back made a very good point: what Team Trump says under oath, and what Team Trump tells the American people, is very different, probably because lying to the American people is not a felony and won't get you disbarred.

Plus, as we do know from a court case from sworn testimony under oath, people don't take Hannity seriously.

So instead of posting more on FOX News (read that out loud, slowly) I'll quote this TIME Magazine artcile that has come out since.

A person who speaks to Trump frequently said he believes Trump’s fight, as disruptive as it is, is a way for him to posture for what comes next. If Trump doesn’t prevail in his legal challenges and leaves office, as many aides are anticipating, Trump can use a new leadership political action committee (leadership PAC) to fund candidates of his choosing and potentially pay for political travel and events he might want to do after leaving office—or launch a 2024 presidential campaign, says the person close to Trump.

Yep, Trump's going to find a way to let donors continue to pay for his expenses.

In the meantime, his campaign’s email and text message spam lists have been going full bore to raising money to pay off the more than $1.2 million in campaign debts that was already on the books three weeks before Election Day. That debt likely ballooned in the final weeks of the campaign as Trump’s fundraising haul trailed Biden’s and his campaign tried to fend off being swamped by Biden television ads, says Republican pollster Frank Luntz. In addition, Luntz adds, “he needs money to fight these court cases.”

In the 48 hours after Biden was projected to have won the presidency, the Trump campaign sent more than 53 versions of emails to supporters asking them to donate to his legal defense fund. The barrage of fundraising emails to donate to his legal battles have come under the names of Trump himself, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Lara Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, the “Election Defense Task Force,” “TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP,” and the “Trump Election Defense Fund.”

According to the fine print at the bottom of the emails soliciting donations, not all the money contributed by supporters will go towards litigation efforts to ensure election integrity and “counting all legal ballots.” Instead, at least half of the funds contributed by each supporter to some solicitations goes towards paying off the Trump campaign’s debts. One of the websites the fundraising emails link to, set up by the “Trump Make America Great Again Committee,” notes at the bottom that 40% of the donations made through the site will go to the Republican National Committee and the rest will go towards Trump’s campaign debt. On Tuesday the disclosures in some Trump fundraising emails said that as much as 60% raised would go to Save America, a new leadership PAC set up to support Trump.

Yeah we've covered the bolded before, but it fits the theme. Trump owes a lot of money personally, professionally, and politically. He doesn't want to pay it back. He wants other people to pay it back for him. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for $130,000?

"That metaphor is terrible."

Want to know what's worse? WaPo reports that's how much the guy who admitted he lied about voter fraud, was paid $130,000 to do it. By the way, his name is apparently Richard Hopkins and I guess he was just paid the going rate to be fucked by Trump.

[zorkuus]

So one of Trump's tweets that wasn't flagged today was that Hannity was going to do a big special on voter fraud.



Hannity himself beat the drum as well.

This is going to be as impressive as Rudy's evidence against the Bidens (which he never showed).

[Breccia]

ABC News tells us a bunch of stuff we already know and a few things that we might not have.

According to multiple sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, the team's post-election efforts have run into some of the same problems that plagued them down the final stretch of the campaign: money woes and mismanagement.

Many campaign staffers have been left in limbo regarding their employment status past the end of this week when contracts are set to expire, while they man a "voter fraud" hotline for hours a day getting bombarded with prank phone calls. Staffers have been told if they come into the office they need to answer calls or go home, sources said.

"We are spending our final days answering prank calls and don't know if we will have jobs by next week," one campaign aide said.

In an effort to boost the team's spirits, the campaign on Sunday plastered the walls, kitchen and office front door of their multimillion-dollar Arlington, Virginia, headquarters with a front-page newspaper printout purporting to be from a 2000 issue of The Washington Times that read "President Gore" as a "reminder that the media doesn't select the president."

Hours later, The Washington Times tweeted that the front page was fake and they "never ran a 'President Gore' headline."

[Mormolyce]

To tell you how dumb team Trump is, the one supposedly "HUGE CASE" in PA that he is trying to get them to not certify the results due to "irregularities in how votes were counted" was in 2 counties, both voted for Trump.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...?ocid=msedgdhp

"There were voting irregularities!"

"But the irregularities were coming from your side..."

"See? Irregularities! Therefore election's off, Trump gets to be President again."

-Trump's actual legal argument.

[zorkuus]

"There were voting irregularities!"

"But the irregularities were coming from your side..."

"See? Irregularities! Therefore election's off, Trump gets to be President again."

-Trump's actual legal argument.

Sir! We found fraud!
-By whom?
It was you
-See? The election was rigged.

[Mormolyce]

ABC News tells us a bunch of stuff we already know and a few things that we might not have.

Who could've known a serial failure, cheat and swindler would run an incompetent corrupt campaign that runs out of money because he keeps dipping his hand in the cookie jar?

A second time, I mean.

Actually I guess third... I presume his run in 2000 was the same.

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Sir! We found fraud!
-By whom?
It was you
-See? The election was rigged.

And the media said we were liars! But there you have it, plain as day, cheating. Better not trust them anymore!