Election 2020-get your popcorn ready!

[JohnLanders]

https://abc7news.com/politics/michig...tures/8198624/

LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan election officials on Monday certified Democrat Joe Biden's 154,000-vote victory in the state amid President Donald Trump's brazen attempts to subvert the results of the election.

The Board of State Canvassers, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, confirmed the results on a 3-0 vote with one abstention. Allies of Trump and losing GOP Senate candidate John James had urged the panel to delay voting for two weeks to audit votes in heavily Democratic Wayne County, home to Detroit.

The move is another setback in Trump's efforts to use unconventional means to undermine the results of the Nov. 3 election and comes even after he made direct overtures to Republican officials in the state by inviting them to the White House last week.

Under Michigan law, Biden claims all 16 electoral votes. Biden won by 2.8 percentage points - a larger margin than in other states where Trump is contesting the results like Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

*Counties are colored red or blue when the % expected vote reporting reaches a set threshold. This threshold varies by state and is based on patterns of past vote reporting and expectations about how the vote will report this year.

Some Trump allies had expressed hope that state lawmakers could intervene in selecting Republican electors in states that do not certify. That longshot bid is no longer possible in Michigan.

Trump's efforts to stave off the inevitable - formal recognition of his defeat - faced increasingly stiff resistance from the courts and fellow Republicans with just three weeks to go until the Electoral College meets to certify Biden's victory. Time and again, Trump's challenges and baseless allegations of widespread conspiracy and fraud have been met with rejection as states move forward with confirming their results.

Michigan's Board of State Canvassers, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, certified the results despite calls by Trump and allies to the GOP members to block the vote to allow for an audit of ballots in heavily Democratic Wayne County, home to Detroit, where Trump has claimed without evidence that he was the victim of fraud.

"The board's duty today is very clear," said Aaron Van Langevelde, the Republican vice chair. "We have a duty to certify this election based on these returns. That is very clear. We are limited to these returns. I'm not going to argue that we're not."

Mary Ellen Gurewitz, an attorney for the state Democratic Party, told the canvassers that attacks on the election results "are part of a racist campaign, directed by soon-to-be former President Trump, to disparage the cities in this country with large Black populations, including Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee."

"It sometimes feels like officials are attempting to tear up my ballot right in front of me by stalling and recounting until they find a way to change the results," said Wendy Gronbeck, a resident of Douglas. "I've been a voter for over 50 years, and I've never had to think about whether canvassers will certify an election."

Biden crushed the president by more than 330,000 votes in Wayne County, where two local GOP canvassers who certified the results unsuccessfully tried to reverse course last week after being called by Trump. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, has said an audit must wait until after statewide certification because only then would officials have legal access to documentation needed to conduct such a review.

Michigan's elections bureau has recommended that the Nov. 3 results be certified.

Norm Eisen, a constitutional law expert and former counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, said there was no legal basis to do anything other than certify the election.

"That is the clear mandate of state law," he said. Eisen dismissed various claims for why a delay might be necessary, including the need for an audit or time to investigate so-called "out of balance" precincts.

"The reasons that they have advanced for doing anything other than (certify) is totally spurious. They carry no legal or factual weight whatsoever under the law," Eisen added.

Trump has tried to defy the results of the election through the courts, but having found no luck there, moved on to personally trying to influence local lawmakers to convince them to ignore the popular vote and appoint Republican electors, a strategy that would send Americans into the streets in protest, election law experts have said.

Some Trump allies have expressed hope that state lawmakers could intervene in selecting Republican electors in states that do not certify, as the president and his attorneys have pushed baseless allegations of fraud that have been repeatedly rejected in courtrooms across the country. Trump met with top Michigan GOP legislators at the White House on Friday and tweeted over the weekend: "We will show massive and unprecedented fraud!"

Had the board delayed a vote or opposed certification, a lawsuit was expected. Legal experts have said the canvassers' role is limited and courts would order them to confirm the results. Under state law, it has the narrow responsibilities of reviewing vote numbers from Michigan's 83 counties and certifying them. It does not have the power to audit returns or investigate complaints of irregularities.

In Pennsylvania, a conservative Republican judge shot down the Trump campaign's biggest legal effort in Pennsylvania with a scathing ruling that questioned why he was supposed to disenfranchise 7 million voters with no evidence to back their claims and an inept legal argument at best.

But the lawyers still hope to block the state's certification, quickly appealing to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which ordered lawyers to file a brief Monday but did not agree to hear oral arguments.

The campaign, in its filings, asked for urgent consideration so they could challenge the state election results before they are certified next month. If not, they will seek to decertify them, the filings said.

And they insisted that they did not want to invalidate all of the 6.8 million ballots cast in the state - as Brann concluded based on their arguments in court last week. Instead, they said, they are taking aim only at seven Democratic-leaning counties where they take issue with how mail-in ballots were handled.

"Appellants seek to exclude the defective mail ballots which overwhelming favored Biden, which may turn the result of the election," they said in a filing Monday said.

Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes. The other litigation has failed to change a single vote.

Pennsylvania county election boards were voting on Monday, the state deadline, about whether to certify election results to the Department of State. The boards in two populous counties split along party lines, with majority Democrats in both places voting to certify. After all counties have sent certified results to Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, she must then tabulate, compute and canvass votes for all races. The law requires her to perform that task quickly but does not set a specific deadline.

In Wisconsin, a recount in the state's two largest liberal counties moved into its fourth day at a slow pace, with election officials in Milwaukee County complaining that Trump observers were hanging up the process with frequent challenges. Trump's hope of reversing Biden's victory there depends on disqualifying thousands of absentee ballots -- including the in-person absentee ballot cast by one of Trump's own campaign attorneys in Dane County.

[JohnLanders]

[JohnLanders]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ch...ip-11605298187

PR ploy for Sympathy

Four days before this year’s presidential election, Charles Koch — the voluble Kansas billionaire who has spent a fortune injecting his particular brand of prairie libertarianism into the American political debate — pauses at the other end of the line when asked if he will vote for Donald Trump or Joe Biden.

“That’s a very divisive question, because, however I answer, that’s going to upset a bunch of people,” he says. “That’s why there’s a secret ballot.”

Koch, whom Forbes calls the 15th wealthiest man in the U.S., says he isn’t interested in more division. At age 85, he says, he is turning his attention to building bridges across partisan divides to find answers to sprawling social problems such as poverty, addiction, recidivism, gang violence and homelessness. His critics are skeptical, noting that his fierce Republican partisanship over the years blew up a lot of bridges.

Koch has written, with Brian Hooks, a new book, “Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World,” which is set to be published on Nov. 17. It is part mea culpa, part self-help guide and part road map toward a libertarian America. Along the way, the book traces Koch’s life from hardheaded adolescent to student, engineer, industrialist, tycoon and political mastermind. The book suggests that he wants to add one final act: philosopher and, he hopes, unifier.

The key to successful, long-term movements? “Unite a diversity of people behind a common goal,” Koch says. “That’s our approach today.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/12/koch...s-victory.html

The political advocacy organization backed by billionaire Charles Koch is preparing for life after President Donald Trump as the libertarian-leaning group looks at policies where they may push back and seek possible alliance with President-elect Joe Biden.

The Koch network has had a mixed relationship with the Trump administration. They cheered for Trump’s tax cuts, business deregulation, push for criminal justice reform and his nominees to the Supreme Court. They fought against his implementation of tariffs and the way he treated those participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

The network has been open to backing Democrats in congressional races and refused to help Trump’s bid for reelection. A Koch-backed group known as the Libre Initiative recently supported Democrats, including Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, during his successful primary earlier this year. The Koch-linked Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, backed Republican Senate candidates in 2020.

Still, that slight change of tune by the network could lead to a different relationship with Biden compared with the often tense battles they had with the former vice president’s old boss, President Barack Obama. The group spent millions against Obama during his 2012 reelection campaign and pushed back on a wide array of his proposals, including the Affordable Care Act.

“It’s a very different Koch network that Biden didn’t see much of during his years under Obama,” a longtime associate of the organization told CNBC.

Those who declined to be named in this story did so in order to speak freely.

The network is keeping a close eye on the Georgia Senate fight to determine its priorities in the coming months, according to others briefed on the matter.

At least one Senate race in that state, between Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock, has been called by NBC News to go to a runoff in January. NBC News has yet to determine whether the other race, between Democrat Jon Ossoff and GOP Sen. David Perdue, will also go to a runoff. Americans for Prosperity recently announced it will be involved with an Ossoff-Perdue runoff.

Both races could decide the fate of which party controls the Senate’s agenda.

AFP declined to comment for this story. A spokesman for the Biden transition team did not return a request for comment.

Dan Garza, president of the Libre Initiative, pointed to Biden’s goal of reaching across the aisle to Republicans as a good sign for his organization. He said further reforms to the criminal justice code, immigration policies and trade proposals could be some of the areas where the network may support the president-elect.

Issues of concern, Garza said, include Biden’s proposal to raise taxes, any move to pack the Supreme Court and what he called a “war on energy production.”

“I see opportunity, but I do see areas where we are going to have to resist,” Garza said in an interview with CNBC.

Some of Biden’s reported goals in his first 100 days in office seem to be at least partially aligned with what the Koch orbit has been pushing for in the later stages of Trump’s term.

Biden, according to The Wall Street Journal, is expected to review the tariffs levied by the Trump administration on a variety of European and Chinese goods. CBS News reported that Biden plans to fully restore the Obama-era DACA program after Trump’s unsuccessful attempts to end it.

Though Trump did sign a criminal justice reform bill known as the First Step Act, Biden appears to want to build off that. His campaign’s plan mentions the idea of creating a “new $20 billion competitive grant program to spur states to shift from incarceration to prevention” and the need to incentivize states to focus on creating jobs and mentorships as a solution to youth incarceration.

A person familiar with the network pointed to Obama’s remarks in 2015 mentioning the Koch network for its efforts on criminal justice reform as a sign that Biden could find a way to work with them.

“You’ve got the NAACP and the Koch brothers,” Obama said at the NAACP annual convention, referring to Charles and his late brother David, who died in 2019. “No, you’ve got to give them credit. You’ve got to call it like you see it,” he said when discussing the groups working to fix the criminal justice system.

Grover Norquist, the president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, told CNBC he’s known the Koch brothers for over 40 years. He supported Trump’s tax cuts and has seemingly opposed all of Biden’s economic proposals. Yet even he admitted that criminal justice reform could be where the Koch network finds common ground with Biden.

He also hinted, however, that outside of trade agreements, a Biden White House could see a plethora of disagreements with the Koch network.

“Some trade agreements possible. But not much,” Norquist told CNBC when asked where Biden and Koch could see eye to eye.

Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor who has attended Koch seminars in the past, says the network might ultimately focus on pushing its goals on trade and protect its other gains.

“Koch will seek to protect the gains made under the Trump administration on taxes and regulatory reform through the Senate majority,” Eberhart told CNBC. “They may try to reset the trade agenda under Biden, who is certainly more committed to free trade than the Trump administration has been.”

[JohnLanders]

https://fox40.com/news/political-con...e-seats-biden/

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will leave the White House if the Electoral College formalizes President-Elect Joe Biden?s victory ? even as he insisted such a decision would be a ?mistake? ? as he spent his Thanksgiving renewing baseless claims that ?massive fraud? and crooked officials in battleground states caused his election defeat.

?Certainly I will. But you know that,? Trump said Thursday when asked whether he would vacate the building, allowing a peaceful transition of power in January. But Trump ? taking questions for the first time since Election Day ? insisted that ?a lot of things? would happen between now and then that might alter the results.

?This has a long way to go,? Trump said, even though he lost.

The fact that a sitting American president even had to address whether or not he would leave office after losing reelection underscores the extent to which Trump has smashed one convention after another over the last three weeks. While there is no evidence of the kind of widespread fraud Trump has been alleging, he and his legal team have nonetheless been working to cast doubt on the integrity of the election and trying to overturn voters? will in an unprecedented breach of Democratic norms.

Trump spoke to reporters in the White House?s ornate Diplomatic Reception Room after holding a teleconference with U.S. military leaders stationed across the globe. He thanked them for their service and jokingly warned them not to eat too much turkey, then turned to the election after ending the call. He repeated grievances and angrily denounced officials in Georgia and Pennsylvania, two key swing states that helped give Biden the win.

Trump claimed, despite the results, that this may not be his last Thanksgiving at the White House. And he insisted there had been ?massive fraud,? even though state officials and international observers have said no evidence of that exists and Trump?s campaign has repeatedly failed in court.

Trump?s administration has already given the green light for a formal transition to get underway. But Trump took issue with Biden moving forward.

?I think it?s not right that he?s trying to pick a Cabinet,? Trump said, even though officials from both teams are already working together to get Biden?s team up to speed.

And as he refused to concede, Trump announced that he will be traveling to Georgia to rally supporters ahead of two Senate runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate. Trump said the rally for Republican Sens. David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler would likely be held Saturday. The White House later clarified he had meant Dec. 5.

One of the reasons Republicans have stood by Trump and his baseless claims of fraud has been to keep his loyal base energized ahead of those runoffs on Jan. 5. But Trump, in his remarks, openly questioned whether that election would be fair in a move that could dampen Republican turnout.

?I think you?re dealing with a very fraudulent system. I?m very worried about that,? he said. ?People are very disappointed that we were robbed.?

As for the Electoral College, Trump made clear that he will likely never formally concede, even if he said he would leave the White House.

?It?s gonna be a very hard thing to concede. Because we know there was massive fraud,? he said, noting that, ?time isn?t on our side.?

?If they do,? vote against him, Trump added, ?they?ve made a mistake.?

Asked whether he would attend Biden?s inauguration, Trump said he knew the answer but didn?t want to share it yet.

But there were some signs that Trump was coming to terms with his loss.

At one point he urged reporters not to allow Biden the credit for pending coronavirus vaccines. ?Don?t let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and I pushed people harder than they?ve ever been pushed before,? he said.

As for whether or not he plans to formally declare his candidacy to run again in 2024 ? as he has discussed with aides? Trump he didn?t ?want to talk about 2024 yet.?

All states must certify their results before the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14, and any challenge to the results must be resolved by Dec. 8. State have already begun that process, including Michigan, where Trump and his allies tried and failed to delay the process, and Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Vote certification at the local and state level is typically a ministerial task that gets little notice, but that changed this year with Trump?s refusal to concede and his unprecedented attempts to overturn the results of the election through a fusillade of legal challenges and attempts to manipulate the certification process in battleground states he lost.

Biden won by wide margins in both the Electoral College and popular vote, where he received nearly 80 million votes, a record.

[JohnLanders]

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/politi...ction-results/

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A judge threw out a lawsuit filed by Republican Dan Rodimer, saying that the court did not have jurisdiction on the issue. Last week, Rodimer filed his own lawsuit, joining fellow Nevada candidates Jim Marchant and April Becker. Rodimer lost his bid for Congressional District 3 to Congresswoman Susie Lee.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria were named in the lawsuit, along with the Clark County Board of Commissioners. Rodimer was seeking an order that would force the Clark County Commission to hold a new election for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District because of a variety of election fraud claims.

RELATED:
Rodimer files lawsuit following election loss
On Wednesday, the judge in Rodimer’s case also told him that even if he could rule on the lawsuit, he wouldn’t have sided with him.

Both Jim Marchant and April Becker filed lawsuits as well, and did it on the same day the Trump Campaign. All three take issue with ballot signature verification systems. On Monday, a judge in Las Vegas refused to order a new election for Becker, who argued that ballot discrepancies reported by Clark County’s top elections official might have made a difference in her 631-vote loss to the Legislature’s top Democrat.

Judge Joe Hardy Jr. said Tuesday that GOP candidate April Becker’s effort to force a re-vote could be re-filed as a contest-of-election against incumbent state Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro.

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/politi...sylvania-race/

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s legal team suffered yet another defeat in court Friday as a federal appeals court in Philadelphia roundly rejected its latest effort to challenge the state’s election results.

Trump’s lawyers vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court despite the judge’s assessment that the “campaign’s claims have no merit.”

“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote for the three-judge panel.

The case had been argued last week in a lower court by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who insisted during five hours of oral arguments that the 2020 presidential election had been marred by widespread fraud in Pennsylvania. However, Giuliani failed to offer any tangible proof of that in court.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann had said the campaign’s error-filled complaint, “like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together” and denied Giuliani the right to amend it for a second time.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called that decision justified. The three judges on the panel were all appointed by Republican presidents. including Bibas, a former University of Pennsylvania law professor appointed by Trump. Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, sat on the court for 20 years, retiring in 2019.

Friday’s ruling comes four days after Pennsylvania officials certified their vote count for President-elect Joe Biden, who defeated Trump by more than 80,000 votes in the state. Nationally, Biden and running mate Kamala Harris garnered nearly 80 million votes, a record in U.S. presidential elections.

Trump has said he hopes the Supreme Court will intervene in the race as it did in 2000, when its decision to stop the recount in Florida gave the election to Republican George W. Bush. On Nov. 5, as the vote count continued, Trump posted a tweet saying the “U.S. Supreme Court should decide!”

Ever since, Trump and his surrogates have attacked the election as flawed and filed a flurry of lawsuits to try to block the results in six battleground states. But they’ve found little sympathy from judges, nearly all of whom dismissed their complaints about the security of mail-in ballots, which millions of people used to vote from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump perhaps hopes a Supreme Court he helped steer toward a conservative 6-3 majority would be more open to his pleas, especially since the high court upheld Pennsylvania’s decision to accept mail-in ballots through Nov. 6 by only a 4-4 vote last month. Since then, Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett has joined the court.

“The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud,” Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis tweeted after Friday’s ruling. “On to SCOTUS!”

In the case before Brann, the Trump campaign asked to disenfranchise the state’s 6.8 million voters, or at least the 700,000 who voted by mail in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and other Democratic-leaning areas.

“One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption,” Brann wrote in his scathing ruling on Nov. 21. “That has not happened.”

A separate Republican challenge that reached the Pennsylvania Supreme Court this week seeks to stop the state from further certifying any races on the ballot. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is fighting that effort, saying it would prevent the state’s legislature and congressional delegation from being seated in the coming weeks.

On Thursday, Trump said the Nov. 3 election was still far from over. Yet he offered the clearest signal to date that he would leave the White House peaceably on Jan. 20 if the Electoral College formalizes Biden’s win.

“Certainly I will. But you know that,” Trump said at the White House, taking questions from reporters for the first time since Election Day.

Yet on Friday, he continued to baselessly attack Detroit, Atlanta and other Democratic cities with large Black populations as the source of “massive voter fraud.” And he claimed, without evidence, that a Pennsylvania poll watcher had uncovered computer memory drives that “gave Biden 50,000 votes” apiece.

All 50 states must certify their results before the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14, and any challenge to the results must be resolved by Dec. 8. Biden won both the Electoral College and popular vote by wide margins.

[JohnLanders]

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/politi...oe-bidens-win/

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A judge in Las Vegas refused to order a new election for a Republican state Senate candidate who argued that ballot discrepancies reported by Clark County’s top elections official might have made a difference in her 631-vote loss to the Legislature’s top Democrat.

Judge Joe Hardy Jr. said Tuesday that GOP candidate April Becker’s effort to force a re-vote can be re-filed as a contest-of-election against incumbent state Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro. In other election cases, a hearing was set in a voter fraud case filed by Trump campaign attorneys, and another judge was due Tuesday to take up failed GOP candidate Dan Rodimer’s bid for a re-do of voting in his race.

RELATED CONTENT
Two Republican candidates file lawsuits, asking for new Clark County election
I-Team: Judge denies congressional candidate’s request for new election citing lack of evidence
In other Election 2020 news, the Nevada Supreme Court made Joe Biden’s win in the state official, approving the final canvass of the Nov. 3 election. The unanimous action Tuesday by the seven nonpartisan justices sends to Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak results that will deliver six electoral votes from the western U.S. battleground state to Biden.

The court action drew extra scrutiny amid legal efforts by the state GOP and Trump campaign to prevent sending vote-by-mail ballots to all 1.82 million active registered voters and then to stop the counting of the 1.4 million votes that were cast.

Certification of the vote does not stop several lawsuits pending in state and federal courts.

[JohnLanders]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/28/reco...dens-lead.html

A recount in Wisconsin?s largest county demanded by Republican President Donald Trump?s election campaign ended Friday with Democratic President-elect Joe Biden gaining votes.

After the recount in Milwaukee County, Biden had a net gain of 132 votes, out of nearly 460,000 cast. Overall, Biden gained 257 votes to Trump?s 125.

Trump?s campaign had demanded recounts in two of Wisconsin?s most populous and Democratic-leaning counties, after losing Wisconsin to Biden by over 20,000 votes. The two recounts will cost the Trump campaign $3 million. Dane County is expected to finish its recount on Sunday.

Overall, Biden won the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election with 306 Electoral College votes ? many more than the 270 needed for victory ? to Trump?s 232. Biden also leads by more than six million in the popular vote tally.

After the recount ended, Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said: ?The recount demonstrates what we already know: that elections in Milwaukee County are fair, transparent, accurate and secure.?

The Trump campaign is still expected to mount a legal challenge to the overall result in Wisconsin, but time is running out. The state is due to certify its presidential result on Tuesday.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...margin-2020-11

President-elect Joe Biden gained votes in Wisconsin's largest county on Friday after Trump's election campaign demanded a recount earlier this month.

The Trump administration spent $3 million to request two recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties after the president lost Wisconsin to Biden by over 20,000 votes.

But county election officials in Milwaukee County completed their recount on Friday and found that Biden actually made a total net gain of 132 votes out of nearly 460,000 votes cast.

This further boosted Biden's margin of victory, who overall gained 257 votes to Trump's 125.

Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said on Friday: "The recount demonstrates what we already know: that elections in Milwaukee County are fair, transparent, accurate and secure," according to Reuters.

Dane County is expected to announce its recount results on Sunday. Both Milwaukee and Dane are two of Wisconsin's most populous counties and have a large number of Democrat voters.

Trump is still expected to mount a legal challenge to the overall result in Wisconsin, but the window of opportunity is slowly closing as the state is due to certify its final result on Tuesday.

Certification is done by the Democratic chair of the Wisconsin Election Commission, which is bipartisan.

Trump has carried on pushing unproven claims of widespread voter fraud as his election campaign continues to file legal challenges in several states.

A US chief election administration official, who was appointed by the president, previously told Insider in an interview that there is "no evidence of widespread voter fraud" and that the president's claim "hurts the fabric of our nation."

Trump's legal team suffered another defeat in Pennsylvania on Friday after a federal appeals court rejected the campaign's latest attempt to challenge the state's election results, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, in the key swing state of Georgia ? which Biden won ? the president's baseless claims have concerned fellow Republicans who feel his comments could hinder the party's efforts to retain control of the Senate. Biden won the popular vote by a margin of 4 percentage points, 51% to 47%, according to Decision Desk HQ data published by Insider

Cartoon sounds like today.

[JohnLanders]

[JohnLanders]

[JohnLanders]

[JohnLanders]

. HARRISBURG (KDKA) ? Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers have introduced a resolution intending to dispute the 2020 election results on Friday.

The resolution intends to declare the 2020 election results as being ?in dispute,? delay the certification of votes from Pennsylvania for both the state and presidential races and asks for the U.S. Congress to also declare the 2020 presidential race to be in dispute.

The legislators contend that a multitude of factors put the election results in dispute, including the extension of the mail-in ballot deadline and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court?s ruling that loosened restrictions regarding signature authentication. They also accuse Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar of certifying the results of the election ?prematurely? despite ongoing litigation.?

The resolution does not specify how the state or presidential electors would be determined if the resolution were to pass.

The resolution is sponsored by Rep. Russ Diamond, Rep. Eric R. Nelson, Rep. Paul Schemel, Rep. Greg Rothman, Rep. Francis X. Ryan, Rep. Dawn W. Keefer, Rep. Mike Jones, Rep. David H. Rowe, Rep. Michael J. Puskaric, Rep. Barbara Gleim, Rep. Bud Cook, Rep. Cris Dush, Rep. Stephanie Borowicz, Rep. David H. Zimmerman, Rep. Daryl D. Metcalfe, Rep. David M. Maloney, Sr., Rep. Dan Moul, Rep. Brad Roae, Rep. Kathy L. Rapp, Rep. Jim Cox, Rep. Rob W. Kauffman, Rep. Matthew Dowling, Rep. Eric Davanzo, Rep. Rich Irvin, Aaron Berstine and Rep. Andrew Lewis.

The resolution has not yet been voted on by either the state House or Senate. It is not expected to get a vote before lawmakers? terms end on Monday.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman told KDKA last week that if the votes are not certified in Pennsylvania by Monday, Nov. 30, there will be no members of the state House and half the state Senate will not be in office as that is when their terms expire.

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020...ts-resolution/


Hell no if that took place it would lead to these politicians being killed in Protests because of their actions for not siding with the voters.

[JohnLanders]

https://www.kget.com/national-news/c...in-over-trump/

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin finished a recount of its presidential results on Sunday, confirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump in the key battleground state. Trump vowed to challenge the outcome in court even before the recount concluded.

Dane County was the second and last county to finish its recount, reporting a 45-vote gain for Trump. Milwaukee County, the state’s other big and overwhelmingly liberal county targeted in a recount that Trump paid $3 million for, reported its results Friday, a 132-vote gain for Biden.

Taken together, the two counties barely budged Biden’s winning margin of about 20,600 votes, giving the winner a net gain of 87 votes.

“As we have said, the recount only served to reaffirm Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin,” Danielle Melfi, who led Biden’s campaign in Wisconsin, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Jenna Ellis said in a statement that the Wisconsin recounts have “revealed serious issues” about whether the ballots were legal, but she offered no specific details to validate her claim.

“As we have said from the very beginning, we want every legal vote, and only legal votes to be counted, and we will continue to uphold our promise to the American people to fight for a free and fair election,” Ellis said.

With no precedent for overturning a result as large as Biden’s, Trumpwas widely expected to head to court once the recount was finished. His campaign challenged thousands of absentee ballots during the recount, and even before it was complete, Trump tweeted that he would sue.

“The Wisconsin recount is not about finding mistakes in the count, it is about finding people who have voted illegally, and that case will be brought after the recount is over, on Monday or Tuesday,” Trump tweeted on Saturday. “We have found many illegal votes. Stay tuned!”

The deadline to certify the vote is Tuesday. Certification is done by the Democratic chair of the Wisconsin Election Commission, which is bipartisan.

The Wisconsin Voters Alliance, a conservative group, has already filed a lawsuit against state election officials seeking to block certification of the results. It makes many of the claims Trump is expected to make. Gov. Tony Evers’ attorneys have asked the state Supreme Court to dismiss the suit. Evers, a Democrat, said the complaint is a “mishmash of legal distortions” that uses factual misrepresentations in an attempt to take voting rights away from millions of Wisconsin residents.

Another suit filed over the weekend by Wisconsin resident Dean Mueller argues that ballots placed in drop boxes are illegal and must not be counted.

Trump’s attorneys have complained about absentee ballots where voters identified themselves as “indefinitely confined,” allowing them to cast an absentee ballot without showing a photo ID; ballots that have a certification envelope with two different ink colors, indicating a poll worker may have helped complete it; and absentee ballots that don’t have a separate written record for its request, such as in-person absentee ballots.

Election officials in the two counties counted those ballots during the recount, but marked them as exhibits at the request of the Trump campaign.

Trump’s campaign has already failed elsewhere in court without proof of widespread fraud, which experts widely agree doesn’t exist. Trump legal challenges have failed in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

[JohnLanders]

[Nic B]

Ugh, this is still going on? I haven't been paying attention because it is annoying me.

[curiouscat]

I think I'm going to do a mail in ballot for Georgia's Senate seats, because my vote didn't count for the presidential election, and I'm not going to take my son anywhere unnecessary again.

[raisedbywolves]

I think I'm going to do a mail in ballot for Georgia's Senate seats, because my vote didn't count for the presidential election, and I'm not going to take my son anywhere unnecessary again.

I'm afraid to ask, why do you think your vote didn't count for the presidential election.

[JohnLanders]

Ugh, this is still going on? I haven't been paying attention because it is annoying me.

Yes I know right Governor Newsom was supposed to announce the Next US Senator from California right after the election but he had to wait for Trump to stop filing election related lawsuits though and the court outcome to do so.


Kamala Harris was supposed to move and resign from her Senate Seat because of her win as VP elect but we have to wait until Inauguration Day to find out.

[JohnLanders]

Here is what is supposed to appear on this thread.

[JohnLanders]

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/som...ction-rhetoric

ATLANTA - Gabriel Sterling, the Voting Systems Manager for the Georgia Secretary of State's office, came out swinging during a press conference Tuesday afternoon after weeks of harassment, threats, and division.

"It has all gone too far," Sterling said. "This has to stop!?

Sterling started the press conference calling out President Donald Trump and Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who he said he still fully supports, for not coming out against the on-going threats being made on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his wife, and numerous elections officials and contractors.

"Be the bigger man here and step in and tell your supporters to stop," Sterling, a life-long conservative, directly challenged the president.

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He said the ?straw that broke the camel?s back? was a 20-something Gwinnett County contractor with Dominion, the company entrusted with Georgia?s new voting system, had a noose out in front of his home with his name on it after a video was posted online claiming to show him ?manipulate data.?

?He just took a job,? an emotional Sterling said adding he chose to have a high-profile job, but the young man who was threatened was just doing his job. ?People started accusing him of treason."

Sterling asserted the contractor did nothing wrong and was transferring a report on batches so that he could read it.

?Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions,? Sterling said, visibly angry. ?This has to stop. We need you to step up, and if you?re going to take a position of leadership, show some.?

He also outlined how Raffensperger?s wife has been receiving "sexualized threats" on her personal phone.

"?Death threats, physical threats, intimidation is too much. It's not right. They've lost the moral high ground," Sterling said.Over the weekend, trucks flying ?Trump? and "Stop the Steal" flags drove up and down the street outside of Secretary Brad Raffensperger's property, honking their horns as they passed by. The group was protesting what they perceive as a stolen vote.

"Someone is gonna get hurt, someone is gonna get shot, someone is gonna get killed," Sterling said.

Sterling has also been the target of threats and said he required police protection at his home during the certification of the presidential race.

"I'm kind of pissed," Sterling said about Georgia?s two current Senators who last month called for Raffensperger's resignation. He said that the president calling the secretary of state an enemy of the people ?opened the floodgates" to the intimidation, harassment, and threats by those who have opposed the election results in Georgia that show Joe Biden won. Both senators are in a heated runoff scheduled for Jan. 5.

"You have to be responsible on your rhetoric,? Sterling said. "You have to be responsible on your statement. You have to be responsible on your deeds, that shouldn't be too much to ask."

Casey Black, a spokesperson for Sen. Perdue released a statement that reads:

"Senator Perdue condemns violence of any kind, against anybody. Period. We won?t apologize for addressing the obvious issues with the way our state conducts its elections. Georgians deserve accountability and improvements to that process ? and we?re fighting to make sure the January 5th election is safe, secure, transparent, and accurate."

Stephen Lawson, a spokesperson for Sen. Loeffler release a statement that reads:

?Like many officials, as someone who has been the subject of threats, of course, Senator Loeffler condemns violence of any kind. How ridiculous to even suggest otherwise. We also condemn inaction and lack of accountability in our election system process?and won?t apologize for calling it out. Senator Loeffler will continue fighting to ensure we have a fair, trusted, and accurate election because the future of our country is at stake.?

SEE MORE: While dealing with death threats, Raffensperger says recount tracking toward Biden win in Georgia

Raffensperger and Sterling both have police stationed outside their homes, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said it?s investigating possible threats against officials to determine their credibility.

The comments came the day before a midnight deadline to complete a recount requested by the Trump campaign since the vote came within one percent. Sterling said as of 3 p.m., 91 of the 159 counties in the state have completed their rescan of the ballots. He said all counties should be complete by the deadline.

[JohnLanders]

Here is the full context from the Press conference in Georgia and he went directly after Trump for failing to stop his supporters such as Qanon from harassing and calling for the deaths of poll workers.

[curiouscat]

I'm afraid to ask, why do you think your vote didn't count for the presidential election.

They already said Biden was president before they announced the Georgia results.

[raisedbywolves]

They already said Biden was president before they announced the Georgia results.

Oh, ok. You had me concerned about you there for a moment.

[JohnLanders]

https://www.11alive.com/article/news...0-5e8d793aa510

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. ? A Gwinnett County employee was followed from the county elections office on Tuesday by a man conducting a Twitter livestream, who believed the worker was moving computers in violation of a court order.

The "computers" were desk phones, according to a Lawrenceville Police Department report.

In an episode underscoring the misinformation and conjecture coursing through Georgia's election process, the police report outlines how the Twitter livestream spawned a call to Lawrenceville PD from a man in Oklahoma.

RELATED: State election official to Trump: 'Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence'

The Oklahoma man, the report says, "was very upset that there was a vehicle... leaving the elections building filled with, what he believed to be, computers containing data for the 2020 General Election."

The man, the responding officer writes in his report, "demanded that I watch the Twitter live stream, figure out where the vehicle is on the road and stop it."

In the stream itself, the Twitter user followed the worker all the way to a Gwinnett County water treatment facility, 10 miles away.

The Lawrenceville officer describes in his report watching that video, in which the Twitter user interacted with a Gwinnett County officer when he tried to get onto the grounds of the county facility.

"(The Twitter user) advised why he was following the vehicle, because he believed the vehicle contained computers that had data on the 2020 General Election still on their hard drives. The Officer in the stream investigated the boxes in the (vehicle) and found that they were boxes of new desk phones that the County was upgrading to," the report states. "The Officer advised that the driver of the (vehicle) was simply driving to different locations and upgrading County workers' desk phones."

At the county elections office, where the officer responded, he found a group at the back entrance "wishing to make sure the election office does not discard any computers" and spoke to an elections official who told him the group "had been harassing the county staff and that they needed to leave the rear of the building."

The Lawrenceville officer made the group move to the front of the building.

In the stream, two Gwinnett County officers interact with the man. He indicates he arrived in Georgia from another state the night before.

"I came down just because nobody was monitoring the voting facilities," he says.

"They've been monitoring the facilities all day," the first officer responds.

At one point, he explains that he believes computers were taken from the elections office.

The second officer tells him: "I'm gonna tell you, straight up, you're wrong. Because he's just a county worker replacing phones for the county."

A little later he asks if they're sure that was what was in the boxes.

"I already told you... the whole county's phones are getting switched out, my desk phone just got switched out. That's all he's doing," the second officer says.

"So I feel like I've done my dude diligence as a patriot," the Twitter user says at that point.

The officers appear to let him leave with a warning and ask him to "be mindful of what you're doing who you're following, cause you're liable to get in trouble."

The Twitter user, however, did not seem convinced. After speaking with the officers, he told his audience following the stream: "They didn't check the boxes."

[JohnLanders]

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/dem...ction-rhetoric

ATLANTA - Democrats were quick to respond to angry comments made by one of Georgia’s top elections officials on Tuesday.

Gabriel Sterling, a life-long Republican who oversaw the implementation of the state’s new voting system, came out swinging on Tuesday afternoon against members of his own party, admonishing the president and Georgia’s two Republican senators for continued rhetoric surrounding the election and the threats of violence that have resulted.

Trump last week called Raffensperger an “enemy of the people,” Sterling noted, adding, “That helped open the floodgates to this kind of crap.”

Sterling openly challenged President Trump as well as Republican U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to denounce violent threats and to rein in supporters from continued threats based on conspiratorial denials of defeat in the presidential election on Nov. 3.

Biden won by fewer than 13,000 votes out of about 5 million cast and the state is currently undergoing a recount at the request of the Trump campaign since the vote was within a one-percent margin.

Calls to end harsh election rhetoric

Georgia elections officials call for an end to threats and disinformation.


The campaigns for Perdue and Loeffler both issued statements Tuesday evening condemning violence but also criticizing election officials, according to news outlets. They previously called for Sterling’s boss, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign over what they call a mismanagement of the statewide election.

Democrats, who have become energized by Biden's win and eager to try to flip Georgia’s two Senate seats, were quick to respond to Sterling’s comments.

Former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate and found of Fair Fight, Stacey Abrams released the following statement:

"Fair Fight and I condemn in the strongest terms possible all threats against election workers, contractors, and election officials. We are deeply grateful for the local elections staff and elections volunteers who devote their time and talents in service to our democracy. Without these patriots, our voices could not be heard and our votes could not be counted. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who have echoed election conspiracies without evidence and contributed to the culture of intimidation and fear, should join us in condemning those who engage in these despicable attacks. Georgians deserve better from their leaders than self-serving silence."

[JohnLanders]