2020 Presidential Election Problems

11/10/2020

On Tuesday, November 3, the United States of America held the last day of its Presidential election between President Donald Trump and Vice President Joe Biden. As of November 10, it is still unclear who won. Due to various states’ decisions to extend dates to receive mail-in-ballots, the tight race in these same states, and various lawsuits that deal with fraud and equal treatment of voters, it is unclear how long it will be before Americans know who won the election. According to news networks such as CNN, AP, CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox, Joe Biden has won the Presidency. However, according to Real Clear Politics, News Max, Breitbart, and Epoch Times, no one has yet won the election. What does the Constitution say?

The Electoral Process According to the U.S. Constitution
Based on the U.S. Constitution, the legislature of each state determines how to choose electors that will vote for a President and Vice President. How many electors each state has is determined by the number of Representatives and Senators in each state. In the first few elections in America, the state legislatures chose the President and Vice President. Over time, however, each state moved to choose its electors based on the popular vote within each state. Still, the state legislatures must commission electors to vote for the President and Vice President, and this need not be based on the popular vote. A candidate must win state certified votes and 270 electors much choose a candidate at a meeting of electors. No state has so far certified any of their electors to either candidate. The electors are scheduled to vote on December 14 within their own state. At this time, who will be the U.S. President becomes official.

Coronavirus and Reaction to Coronavirus
Typically, there is one election day to vote for the President, who is voted for every four years. However, the coronavirus and reactions to the virus has dramatically changed how the 2020 election for President was held. Democrats throughout the country placed over 300 lawsuits desiring mail-in-ballots, extension of deadlines for states to receive ballots, and changing of voter verification requirements. In some states, Democrats won the lawsuits and through court order, states had to change how elections were conducted. Republicans claimed that this was unconstitutional, as state legislatures did not determine the electoral process but judges did. Now, President Trump is hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will decide.

Voting Irregularities in the Presidential Election
There are a variety of voting irregularities the 2020 Presidential election. Candidate Joe Biden, for example, received less votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Barack Obama in 2012 in all of the states that went Democrat except the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Wisconsin. Typically, a candidate’s successes improve nationally, not only in battleground states. Another anomaly is in Wisconsin, where over 89% of the registered voters voted. That is a 29% increase from the last record, which was set in 1984 in the Reagan/Mondale election. An 89% voting statistic sounds more like a piece of data from a third-world country led by a dictator. A third anomaly is the Republicans picked up seats in the House of Representatives, lost one in the Senate, and held all governorships and state legislatures, and picked up seats in some state legislatures. For the country to decide for Republicans but rejects the Party’s leader does not make sense. A fourth oddity is that in the battleground states, Biden won more votes than the Democrat candidates for the House and Senate. There were a large number of ballots with only Biden chosen.

Claims of Fraud in the Presidential Election
In a number of states, namely Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, Republicans have accused Democrats of fraud and have filed lawsuits to pursue their cause. In many of these states, Democrat poll workers decided to stop counting votes sometime around midnight on election day. This unprecedented action led President Trump to immediately claim fraud. After polling stations reopened in the early hours of Wednesday morning, 100,000 votes came in for Biden in Wisconsin, and then over 120,000 for Pennsylvania, with no votes coming in for Trump. This does not make sense because poll workers, or the election machines that count votes, do not separate ballots depending on who a person voted for. In Pennsylvania, over 50 Republican poll observers were denied access to observe vote counting at a time where over 600,000 votes were entered after the election day. Over 450,000 Biden votes in Pennsylvania were entered with no verification of identity or signature. Democrat poll workers acted illegally in denying Republicans access, and continued to deny access even after a court order. A Pennsylvania postal worker filed an affidavit claiming that his supervisors instructed all postal workers to stamp ballot received after election date (which would make them illegal) November 3rd. A software glitch in Georgia was found that correctly placed 6,000 votes that had been given to Biden back to Trump. This software was used in Georgia and Michigan, while Texas rejected using it because of its unreliability. In Nevada, over 3,000 votes were placed by dead people. In Michigan over 10,000 votes were placed by dead people. In Nevada, an observer saw Biden/Harris employees opening up mailing ballots, making one choice, and sealing ballots inside a van. When noticed, Dems surrounded the van so nobody could see inside. This same person saw individuals entering the polling station with multiple ballots in hand throughout the day. At a number of polling places in Arizona, poll workers gave voters Sharpie pens, when they were supposed to hand out ball point pens. When a Sharpie runs to the other side of a paper, the machine rejects the vote.

Lawsuits Filed
Donald Trump has filed a number of lawsuits, with video evidence and witness affidavits, in a number of the battleground states of Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Because of these legal proceedings, some news networks are not declaring Joe Biden the President-elect. Still, many news media are declaring Biden the winner. In 2000, Vice President Al Gore sued George W. Bush over the Florida election count. At that time, no news network declared Bush the President-elect until the lawsuit was settled 37 days after the election.

As the electors have a December 14th date to place their votes in each of their states, it appears that the 2020 Presidential election has to be resolved before then.

Questions
1. How does someone become President in the United States of America?
2. Why do some news networks claim Biden won and others claim we do not know who won?
3. Name two voting irregularities that occurred in the 2020 Presidential election.
4. Name two cases of potential fraud that occurred in the 2020 Presidential election.
5. By which date will the problems involving the Presidential election most likely be resolved? Why?

Christopher Bedford in The Federalist: https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/07/saturdays-media-declaration-is-a-naked-attempt-to-silence-republicans-and-nothing-has-changed/
Rush Limbaugh at www.rushlimbaugh.com
https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/11/09/nevada-whistleblower-workers-instructed-process-illegitimate-ballots/
Epoch Times, https://www.theepochtimes.com/

11 Comments

Wendy

11/11/2020 05:36:08 am

Too bad you didn't try to present an unbiased, educational presentation of the facts and the process. Based on this, I won't trust any of your materials to help educate my students.

Julie Wright

11/11/2020 08:04:24 am

This is an unbiased presentation of facts and the process. In what way do you see this as biased? Please state your claim with facts and not emotion. I see that Mr. De Gree has presented both sides and backed it up with what the Constitution requires during this time of election turmoil. We are a country that was founded on the Constitution of the United States of America. Rule of Law is how we function this day and every day in history.

11/11/2020 08:22:41 pm

Julie, thank you for your interest. Here are some of the details I observed.

The first section is essentially factual about the electoral process. However, compare the tone and focus with Mr. De Gree’s blog post on Nov. 15, 2016, well before the electors were certified by the states, when he wrote: “On November 8, 2016, Americans voted Donald Trump as their 45th President. ... Because of Trump’s performance in a majority of states, he captured the Presidency, based on the Electoral College.” and “American politicians in the 1820s and 1830s, especially Andrew Jackson, thought that all American citizens should choose the electors. Because of Jackson and others, the people became the main voice in choosing electors, not the politicians.” This 2016 summary contains no suggestion that a state legislature might commission electors contrary to the candidate who wins the majority vote in that state. There is no mention of the timeline for certifying the electors and when the electors actually vote, and no caveat that the election isn’t official until that time. It also doesn’t mention that recount requests were yet to be resolved in five states.

Returning to the current post: In the next section, Mr. De Gree implies that this year is atypical in having votes submitted other than on the “one election day”, and that this change is because of Democrats. In fact, absentee voting has been a facet of U.S. elections for well over 100 years. In 2016, only 54.5% of all ballots nationwide were actually cast in person on Election Day; more than 33 million votes were accepted via early, mail-in, or provisional ballots. This year, Trump himself voted by mail in his state’s primary election, and voted early in-person in the general election. His own campaign, at times, encouraged voting by mail even as Trump himself sometimes disparaged the idea — and sometimes encouraged voters to try to cast ballots both by mail and in person.

Mr. De Gree goes on to cite a number of statistical shifts in this election and calls them “irregularities.”
In his first example, I assume he means to compare percentage of votes by party, rather than actual number of votes; this year both parties’ presidential candidates exceeded previous vote numbers in most states. The assertion about Biden’s percentages compared to 2012 and 2016 is inaccurate. For example, in California, Virginia, Maryland, and Colorado, Biden’s percentage was higher than the Democrat presidential candidate’s percentages in both 2012 and 2016. In Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, Obama’s percentages were higher than Biden’s. It is beyond the scope of this discussion to analyze all the factors in why such fluctuations might occur.

The second example may also be inaccurate. According to Bloomberg, Wisconsin’s turnout this year was about 76%, compared to 69% in 2016 - hardly the 29% increase that Mr. De Gree asserted. Furthermore, most states, not just battleground states, showed increased turnout this year. Other states whose turnout exceeded 70% in this election include Florida, Montana, Iowa, and Idaho. Montana’s turnout jumped more than 10% compared to 2016. In addition, it’s unwarranted to indicate that high turnout would be expected only in a dictatorship. The Pew Research Center reported that the United States’ 2016 voter turnout (56% of voting-age population, VAP) was lower than VAP turnouts in recent elections in a majority of OECD countries, most of which are developed democracies. Voter turnouts in Belgium, Australia, and the Netherlands, for example, exceeded 75%. One could argue that high voter turnout rates are a sign of a healthy democracy.

The third and fourth anomalies cited could have reasonable explanations other than simply stating they do “not make sense.” One such explanation is a strong dislike of President Trump among some voters, which is different from their reaction to, or interest in, the candidates for other positions. A more insightful and thorough analysis might have considered these possible perspectives.

The section on claims of fraud lists a number of such claims. However, many of them seem to be stated as facts, without evidence to support them as such. There are plausible reports countering many of these claims. Certainly any legitimate evidence of such claims can be presented to the appropriate authorities, including the court system where & when appropriate. This process is underway. It remains to be seen how many of these purported incidents will be proven. Further, it is unclear whether any proven incidents would affect enough votes to make a difference in electoral status. In contrast, the presidential election recount in 2000 involved a single state where the results were less than 1000 votes apart, and with enough electoral votes at stake to de

11/11/2020 08:29:53 pm

[The comment submission cut off the end of my previous reply.]

The section on claims of fraud lists a number of such claims. However, many of them seem to be stated as facts, without evidence to support them as such. There are plausible reports countering many of these claims. Certainly any legitimate evidence of such claims can be presented to the appropriate authorities, including the court system where & when appropriate. This process is underway. It remains to be seen how many of these purported incidents will be proven. Further, it is unclear whether any proven incidents would affect enough votes to make a difference in electoral status. In contrast, the presidential election recount in 2000 involved a single state where the results were less than 1000 votes apart, and with enough electoral votes at stake to determine the winner.

Finally, I note that all the websites listed at the end are right-wing sources.

I believe in the United States system of democracy and balance of powers, and I look forward to seeing this election resolved fairly, expediently, and in accordance with the Constitution and laws of our country.

https://time.com/5892357/voting-by-mail-history/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/10/24/trump-votes-in-person-and-slams-mail-in-voting-as-campaign-urges-voters-to-vote-by-mail/

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-vote-idUSKBN25U0KK

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/03/in-past-elections-u-s-trailed-most-developed-countries-in-voter-turnout/

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-us-election-voter-turnout/

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-ap-fact-check-joe-biden-donald-trump-virus-outbreak-79c34b72633683af195ae945503883fe

https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news

11/11/2020 08:54:07 pm

Apologies, I accepted an incorrect auto-fill word above: I meant expeditiously, not expediently.

John J DeGree link

11/16/2020 08:54:54 am

Hello Wendy,
Thank you so much for your in-depth reply. It was awesome in detail. There is at least one major revision I can see before I read it more closely, but the problem is key in understanding where many of the issues arise.
You equate mail-in voting with absentee-voting.
Absentee-voting has been an option in elections for quite some time. Mail-in-voting is new. Democrats argued for it as a response to the coronavirus.
Absentee-voting is where the voter requests by mail a ballot. A ballot is then sent to this voter.
Mail-in-voting is where the state sends a ballot to every single person that is on the voter registration. The Carter-Baker report of 2005 argued that mail-in-voting and absentee-voting are the two areas where the most fraud could happen. As mail-in-voting was not available in the U.S., the Carter-Baker report was referring to other countries that use mail-in-voting.
One other thing I find interesting and telling in your response. Whenever there is evidence that shows Democrats have engaged in fraudulent activity but it has not yet been argued in courts, liberals always argue that no one should write about it. However, whenever liberal journalists write about claims or anonymous sources arguing that a conservative has done something (Mueller Report, for example), one never hears a liberal claiming that journalists should not write about it. The double standard is terrible.
I understand you may not want to go to my history sources to teach your child, however, it appears it may be because there are inconvenient truths you don't want to teach your child. Or, I wonder if you are even teaching your children from our materials in the first place.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/heed-jimmy-carter-on-the-danger-of-mail-in-voting-11586557667

Maria Berg

11/11/2020 10:24:21 am

Thank you for a clear, concise presentation of the happenings of today! This was so well done, and I appreciate being able to share this information! Thank you!

Ms. Jessica

11/11/2020 03:21:21 pm

Thank you for providing a concise explanation of the issues involved in this year's historic election. I prefer your articles over the media as you offer facts siting your sources and you do not persuade with opinion or misleading ideas. It is increasingly difficult to find unbiased sources regarding our nation's history and current events. Often times our foreign neighbors have a clearer picture of our issues because they don't live in the thick of our overly censored, highly divisive, and emotional bubble. I appreciate being able to search your website for articles and can rest assured they are free from misleading information. Thank you for making my job in education easier and more accurate as I teach future generations!

Ali

11/11/2020 05:30:02 pm

I appreciate your summary of what’s actually been happening without emotional drama. It’s important for all Americans to desire the constitution to be followed and only legal votes counted, regardless of political affiliation or results hoped for. We cannot be a nation of freedoms without it. I want my children and grandchildren to inherit an America that honors legal voting of its citizens, even if sometimes a candidate not of my choosing wins occasional elections. Thank you, Mr. DeGree for the summary.

Leanne

11/11/2020 07:04:44 pm

Thank you for this clear explanation — very helpful!

Lynda Dion

11/11/2020 07:41:43 pm

Thank you for this timely article relating this year's election debaucle in light of the constitution and recent history. We are blessed to have inherited the freedoms granted by our constitutiinal republic, hopefully we can keep it. We need to pray that God expose the truth and have mercy on our nation. Thank you for helping us teach our children to think with wisdom and integrity.

2020 Presidential Election Problems

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John De Gree

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