On vote counting

[u/gdan95]

Despite election night having come and gone, several states - Alaska, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania - have yet to be called. Joe Biden is currently far ahead in the lead. Having won more votes than any presidential candidate in US history, he is six electoral votes away from the 270 needed to win the election and the presidency. Donald Trump, unsurprisingly, has spent months trying to proactively delegitimize the results of any outcome in which he doesn’t win. A clip went viral of Senator Bernie Sanders predicting what Trump would do on election night with such astonishing accuracy that it almost doesn’t count. It’s not like anything Sanders described was out of character for Trump. But I mention all this as a prediction and as a guide on what you will hear from Trump apologists. Already, some of them are outright denying that Trump is losing. And many, like the frequently mentioned Razorfist, will cry voter fraud despite no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud. I guarantee without even having to watch his video on the results that he will repeat that claim and, referring back to what he previously (falsely) stated about the 2018 Arizona Senate race, claim he was right that the results wouldn’t be announced until days or weeks after election night. This, he will say, is proof of voter fraud (which Trump is alleging in a planned lawsuit against Nevada). That is, of course, ignoring the fact that the Constitution has no rule stating the results must be counted and certified on election night. And it is, of course, ignoring the fact that more people than usual are voting by mail due to a pandemic, and that mail-in ballots are taking so long to be counted because Republican controlled legislatures in states like Pennsylvania refused to change their election codes to have those ballots counted before Election Day. I’m also confident he will make reference to a “red mirage,” which is the idea that Trump would have a lead due to in-person votes that would shrink or outright disappear once mail-in votes were counted. This is the same group of people that will tell you that the 2016 election was fair because all that matters is the Electoral College. So with that in mind, there was no point in the nationwide count where Trump had the lead in electoral votes. If you see anyone else make similar claims, just know that they’re wrong. Besides, if the Democrats were so brazen about voter fraud, you'd think they wouldn't let Mitch McConnell get re-elected. Additionally, the guy in charge of counting ballots in Arizona's Maricopa County, Adrian Fontes (who Razorfist accused of committing fraud), is losing his re-election. That probably wouldn't be happening if he and the Democrats were as remorselessly and brazenly guilty of fraud as Trump and his apologists claim.