Tag: 2020 election

Detroit had more vote errors in 2016 when Trump won Michigan by a narrow margin. He didn’t object then.

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DETROIT — Republican Party leaders who urged Michigan’s state canvassing board to hold off certifying the Nov. 3 election results before it met Monday cited what they described as “significant problems and irregularities” in Wayne County, home of Detroit.

The GOP officials pointed to the number of “unbalanced” precincts, where there were small discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and the number of voters logged by election workers in the poll books. Party officials unsuccessfully called on the board to conduct an audit before it certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state with a 3-to-1 vote.

“To simply gloss over those irregularities now without a thorough audit would only foster feelings of distrust among Michigan’s electorate,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and state GOP Chair Laura Cox wrote in a letter Saturday. Continue reading.

Trump undercuts official who delayed transition as she gets slammed for ‘unprofessional’ letter

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GSA head Emily Murphy’s lengthy letter telling President-elect Joe Biden she is releasing transition funds to him comes with a strange set of personal remarks, including the claim she was not told how or when to authorize release the more than $7 million in those funds.

The only problem is that President Donald Trump says he is the one who told her to release the money.

“Please now (sic) that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts,” Murphy writes. “I was never directed or indirectly pressured by any Executive branch official–including those who work at the White House or GSA–with regard to the substance or timing of my decision.”

Continue reading.

Congressman seeks to have Rudolph Giuliani disbarred over attempts to overturn election

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In the three weeks since Election Day, Rudolph W. Giuliani has waged a prodigiously unsuccessful legal fight on behalf of President Trump’s campaign to overturn the election results. Giuliani’s bizarre news conferences and literal meltdown became fodder for late-night talk show hosts, while his even more bizarre legal arguments have prompted federal judges to unleash withering rebukes.

Giuliani and the rest of the efforts of the Trump campaign’s legal team won’t shift the election results in the president’s favor, but legal ethicists such as Scott Cummings of the UCLA School of Law do not view the former New York mayor as harmless.

“People are emailing me saying this is comical, and I’d say it would be comical if it weren’t so dangerous,” Cummings told The Washington Post on Monday in reference to Giuliani’s actions on Trump’s behalf. “We’re living through this moment where actions that should have consequences don’t seem to — at least not in a way we would have predicted in the past — and that erodes trust in the system.” Continue reading.

Wisconsin recount confirms Biden’s win over Trump, cementing the president’s failure to change the election results

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The recount of presidential ballots in Wisconsin’s two largest counties finished Sunday, reconfirming that President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Trump in the key swing state by more than 20,000 votes.

After Milwaukee County completed its tally Friday and Dane County concluded its count Sunday, there was little change in the final breakdown of the more than 800,000 ballots that had been cast in the two jurisdictions. As a result of the recount, Biden’s lead over Trump in Wisconsin grew by 87 votes.

Under Wisconsin law, Trump was required to foot the bill for the partial recount — meaning his campaign paid $3 million only to see Biden’s lead expand. Continue reading.

Supreme Court declines to take action on Trump’s Pennsylvania appeal prior to certification of Biden win

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The Supreme Court of the United States on Monday took no action to overturn a lower court decision that allowed the counting of late-arriving mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.

President Donald Trump’s campaign had sought to exclude mail-in ballots that arrived after election day.

In 4-4 decision in October, the high court upheld the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling that said ballots postmarked by election day can arrive up to three days after the election. Continue reading.

G.M. Drops Its Support for Trump Climate Rollbacks and Aligns With Biden

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General Motors said it would no longer back President Trump’s effort to strip California of the power to set fuel economy standards.

WASHINGTON — General Motors turned its back Monday on the Trump administration’s legal fight to nullify California’s strict fuel economy rules, signaling that it was ready to work with President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to reduce climate-warming emissions from cars and trucks.

The decision by Mary Barra, the General Motors chief executive, to withdraw her company’s support for Trump administration efforts to strip California of its ability to set its own fuel efficiency standards was a striking reversal. It was also a signal that corporate America is moving on from President Trump.

More specifically, it was a sign that Mr. Biden may find the auto industry amenable as he tries to reinstitute and rebuild Obama-era climate change regulations that Mr. Trump systematically dismantled, at times with the help of industry. Continue reading.

Wisconsin Lawyer For Trump Campaign Takes Action To Throw Out His Own Ballot: Report

In a bizarre development, former local judge Jim Troupis is seeking to toss out all early ballots submitted in person — including the ones he and his wife cast.

In a surreal twist, the lawyer leading Donald Trump’s Wisconsin election battle is seeking to throw out thousands of “illegal” votes, including his wife’s and his own, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.

Attorney Jim Troupis, a former Dane County judge, voted early and in person, which is one of a number of classes of votes Troupis and the Trump campaign have argued is illegal.

Both his name and his wife’s were on a list of voters whose ballots Troupis wants to be tossed out in an exhibit he submitted Sunday to the Dane County Board of Canvassers, according to records obtained by the Journal-Sentinel. Continue reading.

Michigan certifies Biden victory in another blow to Trump

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The Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Monday certified the state’s election results showing Joe Biden defeating President Trump in the presidential race.

The four-member panel voted 3-0 to certify the results from Michigan’s 83 counties, further formalizing Biden’s win amid Trump’s flailing efforts to challenge the election results in court. Biden leads Trump in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes.

Aaron Van Langevelde, the Republican vice chairman of the board, voted with its two Democratic members, Chairwoman Jeannette Bradshaw and Julie Matuzak, to certify the results. Norman Shinkle, the other Republican member, abstained. Continue reading.

Conservatives grumbling about censorship say they’re flocking to Parler. They told us so on Twitter.

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The pro-Trump Internet can’t stop talking about their exodus from Big Tech. But very few of them have actually abandoned their long-time social media homes.

Maria Bartiromo, the Fox Business anchor seen on TV six days a week, has joined a chorus of pro-Trump commentators urging followers to flock to Parler, the social network that promises no fact-checking or “editorial bullies trying to tell you what to think.”

She told Parler chief executive John Matze in an interview earlier this month that Twitter, where she has 927,000 followers and has posted more than 33,000 tweets, has suppressed her speech so mercilessly that President Trump himself should abandon the site.

“I will no longer accept the censorship that is happening on Twitter,” she said. She would still use the site to promote her guests and TV shows, she added, but she would not “be dropping any scoops” there, and that “it is Parler where you will find real stories and the things I’m working on and my opinions on things.” Continue reading.

Why Trump’s election fraud claims aren’t showing up in his lawsuits challenging the results

There seems to be a real disconnect between the claims of widespread fraud, a stolen election and illegal voting made by President Donald Trump and his allies and the actual claims formally made by his lawyers in court.

Both Trump in his Twitter feed and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany in her press conferences have made allegations of broad-based election fraud. But under questioning from judges in Arizona and Pennsylvania, Trump’s lawyers have backed away from actually asserting fraud. Despite Trump’s allegations to the contrary, his lawyers have acknowledged that they are not claiming that dead people voted or that occasional computer glitches were part of a deliberate conspiracy. 

In one of several Pennsylvania cases, Trump attorneys actually signed a legal document in which they stated, 

“Petitioners do not allege, and there is no evidence of, any fraud in connection with the challenged ballots; Petitioners do not allege, and there is no evidence of, any misconduct in connection with the challenged ballots; Petitioners do not allege, and there is no evidence of, any impropriety in connection with the challenged ballots; Petitioners do not allege, and there is no evidence of, any undue influence committed with respect to the challenged ballots.”

The attorney backpedaling is not surprising. Continue reading.