Posted on 09/21/2020 4:49:59 AM PDT by dennisw
At the end of Nov. 3, hundreds of thousands of ballots will likely remain left to count in key states, particularly Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
It will be nearly impossible for election clerks on Election Day to count the record number of absentee and provisional ballots that are anticipated to be cast in those three states, as well as in other crucial battlegrounds. Election officials in many states are underfunded and under-resourced, and in some by law are not allowed to begin counting ballots until Election Day.
Polling and absentee ballot request data from some states show that Democratic voters are far more likely to cast their ballots via the mail during the coronavirus pandemic and that Republicans are more inclined to vote in-person. In Pennsylvania, for example, 70% of all absentee ballot requests were made by registered Democrats, as of Sept. 14.
A dynamic known as the “Blue Shift” already has shown that ballots counted after an election day tend to favor Democratic candidates, as their voters are more likely to cast provisional ballots in-person or return their absentee ballots closer to the receipt deadline.
Combine the existing “Blue Shift” with the pandemic-induced jump in absentee voting and it becomes clear that a great divergence could emerge between the Nov. 3 returns and the actual final tally when late-arriving absentee and provisional ballots are counted. Trump could easily go to bed with a lead in key states based on an incomplete tally on election night and wake up to see that lead eroding based on the totally normal counting of valid ballots ― a “red mirage,” as one political consultant called it in an interview with Axios.
(Excerpt) Read more at huffpost.com ...
MORE from lefty Huffington Post>>>>>
“It’s easy to see those normal corrections and calibrations that happen after Election Day being fodder for conspiracy theorists like Trump,” Hasen said.
This nightmare scenario continues as lawsuits are filed by both parties over which votes should or should not be counted. But as the late-counted ballots begin to turn the three key Rust Belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in Biden’s favor, Trump can be expected to declare the whole vote-counting process illegitimate.
A "dynamic." Suuuurre....
“The nightmare” that should be keeping everyone up at night is Americas future as Venezuela if Biden snatches the election. With little knowledge of history and economics, Americans are ignorant of this inevitability.
“...based on the totally normal counting of valid ballots”
In truth, it’s the normal counting of fraud ballots.
It’s is the ONLY reason they are pushing the mail-in ballot vote. There is NO accountability. Anyone can send it in, including all non-American citizens.
What? The check from Soros didn't clear?
and they think if they keep saying it, it will come true.
nah.
The only reason it would currently be keeping election lawyers up at night isn't worry or concern for the country, its the glee of the giant dollar signs they see
That was the very first thought I had. I'm amazed that it took nine posts for somebody to mention it.
I don’t think people will accept continuous counting. This business about allowing ballots received days after the election is nuts. If the left wants to see civil disobedience, well, they ain’t seen nothing yet.
For the sake of appeals as per the due process of law, a ballot should never be irreversably separated from its election security envelope.
I have worked as an election lawyer and monitor for the FL GOP (and in some years the GOP candidate’s campaign) for the last 12 years in FL. It is a very frustrating role to play because of the limited time and opportunity to object to a ballot.
You literally have to stand close enough to the registrar’s table to hear the dialog between John Q Public and the little old lady working the registrar’s table. If you get too close and are accused of interfering with the polling place operation you can be tossed out or even arrested.
So you have to be close enough to hear who it is that is approaching the registration table, but not close enough to interfere. Those are often mutually exclusive depending on the acoustics of the precinct.
Then, if you can identify the putative voter, you need to have some way of knowing that there is an objection that can be lodged. Here in FL the registered voter list can be purchased from the county election authority on the 29th day before the election. (You must be registered 30 days prior to the election to vote here.) The campaigns can load this into a database and may then have as much as 29 days to identify who is registered who shouldn’t be (which is not an easy task) and then have a method to identify this situation to the election monitor/election lawyer at the precinct.
In the infamous ORCA (Official Romney Campaign App) fiasco of 2012 the plan was to have a monitor at or near enough to the table so that they would hear the voters name (”Public, John Q.!”), enter it into a tablet or smartphone device, and see if the voter was indeed registered. The Romney campaign was planning to have those who appeared to vote subtracted from a list of registered voters, so they would know on whom to concentrate the call center outreach (”this is the Romney campaign calling, we notice you have not voted yet today, thus is a reminder to get to your polling place and vote today.....”) Well, that idea went up in smoke when the app failed to work and then when the call center outbound and inbound phone system crashed.
Even if the app and the phones had worked - this was a GOTV mechanism, not a system for objecting to the ballot being given to the putative voter at the registrar’s table.
The critical point is that once the voter’s hands touch the ballot, they get to cast that ballot and have it counted (if it is not spoiled). You have to object and state the objection, and then sign an affidavit listing the objection before the ballot is handed to the voter. To my knowledge there is no information system set up for 2020 that will put that information in the hand for mail in voting of the election monitor fast enough to object in time.
The larger point this year is that there will be no monitoring possible for the states that flooded the zone with mail in ballots. There is no equivalent to the polling place day of election observation. However the ballot is completed (by a campaign operative, by a relative exerting undue influence over a nursing home resident by voting for them, or by a postal union employee) there is no possible information to verify the circumstances of the ballot completion.
The GOP needs to be collecting data about the real time conduct of this election that will buttress constitutional and statutory claims, post-election, to invalidate results an seek re-runs with controls and in-person voting at some later date. Election law is something that does not get to the SCTOTUS often. The public misunderstands things like the principle of “One man one vote” and assumes it applies to an entire election process, when it only applies to apportionment of Congressional districts. We need to litigate the issues coming from the 2020 election process to extend on man one vote from the apportionment arena to the entire process (conduct of election process on election day, tabulation, etc.) so that there is no systemic dilution of votes by the allowance of illegal voters or by the large scale casting of ballots by imposters or usurpers.
The Democrats are seeking an end-around assualt on the voting process with the distribution of mass mail-in ballots. Civil RICO actions should be considered against the election officials and Governors who are pushing these flawed and vulnerable approaches. Unfortunately, what I have seen of the GOP monitoring efforts in the past, they will not be anywhere close to being ready to fight this battle.
Every ballot received after Election Day should be challenged as invalid, and, only if permitted by local law and actually postmarked BEFORE that day, should they be added to vote totals. No postmark (or a plainly false one), Ross the ballot. Note that many jurisdictions require absentee (and, one would presume, mail-in) ballots to ARRIVE on or before Election Day, so any ballot arriving later should be tossed.
Oh, and the DoJ needs to prosecute any mailman caught throwing out mail - and, just like with tax returns, do it weeks before the deadline (in this case Election Day) so as to serve as a deterrent. Note to DoJ: you are far more likely to find such activity in politically conservative areas.
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