By Jonathan Chait, writing in New York Magazine (read entire article here):
“Rudy Giuliani, who Trump has entrusted with running his election challenge operation, explained the theory this weekend on Fox News. I am quoting the entire explanation because it is intricate, sweeping, and utterly, utterly bonkers:
‘It’s way beyond what people think, including a very, very dangerous foreign company that did the votes in 27 states, a company that’s not American, a company that’s foreign, a company that has close, close ties with Venezuela and, therefore, China and uses a Venezuelan company software that’s been used to steal elections in other countries.
‘I mean, I don’t think people have any idea of the dimension of the national security problem that Dominion creates. This Dominion company is a radical-left company. One of the people there is a big supporter of antifa and has written horrible things about the president for the last three or four years. And, the software that they use is done by a company called Smartmatic, a company that was founded by [Hugo] Chávez and by Chávez’s two allies, who still own it. And it’s been used to cheat in elections in South America. It was banned by the United States several — about a decade ago. It’s come back now as a subcontractor to other companies. It sort of hides in the weeds. But Dominion sends everything to Smartmatic. Can you believe it? Our votes are sent overseas. They are sent to someplace else, some other country. Why do they leave our country?
‘And this company had — and this company has tried-and-true methods for fixing elections by calling a halt to the voting when you’re running too far behind. They have done that in prior elections. Now, what happened on election night? He [Trump] was ahead by 800,000 votes in Pennsylvania. Impossible to catch up, unless you’re cheating, and same thing in Michigan, Wisconsin. He was ahead in all those states by numbers that, in prior times — and I can show this to you — networks would have called for him. But they didn’t call it for him.’
“Now, you don’t need to familiarize yourself with every detail in this story to understand that the general contours are completely implausible.
“First, the ‘mystery’ Giuliani purports to solve — that Trump took the lead in several states on Election Night, only for subsequent voting to thrust Biden ahead of him — is not a mystery at all. As voting experts have explained for months, Republicans voted primarily on Election Day, while Democrats were voting disproportionately by mail. States like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin tabulated Election Day ballots first. Republicans in those states refused to allow early tabulation of mail-in voting, precisely because Trump wanted to seize the early voting lead so that he could discredit the election. Trump’s initial ‘lead’ is … exactly what the experts forecast and … his Republican allies engineered.
“Second, while it is possible to hack an individual ballot machine, … ballot tabulation is simply not vulnerable to this kind of hacking:
‘State processes include robust chain-of-custody procedures, auditable logs, and canvass processes. The vast majority of votes cast in this election will be cast on paper ballots or using machines that produce a paper audit trail, which allow for tabulation audits to be conducted from the paper record in the event any issues emerge with the voting system software, audit logs, or tabulation. These canvass and certification procedures are also generally conducted in the public eye, as political party representatives and other observers are typically allowed to be present, to add an additional layer of verification. This means voting system software is not a single point of failure and such systems are subject to multiple audits to ensure accuracy and reliability. For example, some counties conduct multiple audits, including a post-election logic and accuracy test of the voting system, and a bipartisan hand count of paper ballots.’
“Third, Giuliani is arguing not only that ballot machines in numerous states were hacked, but that the software is designed to manipulate totals … that Dominion software is not just vulnerable to mass hacking but designed to engineer it. What you have to ask yourself is, why have 27 states, many of them controlled by Republicans, turned their elections over to a communist-controlled software program designed to manufacture Democratic votes? … that, according to Giuliani, has been engaged in a systematic international vote fraud scheme for the better part of two decades? … why didn’t they produce the handful of votes they needed to stop Donald Trump in 2016?”
The-Ave.US editor’s comment: The strength of this conspiracy theory is it’s a simple idea — the election results are fake because the votes were counted with software created by the right’s favorite bogeymen, George Soros and commies — and is hard to counter because the truth is complicated (try debunking it in a few words). It’s a lie, and won’t change the election results or get anywhere in the courts, but smoothly segues into Trump’s next act.
And what is that? For starters, “whining publicly about having been cheated, riling up his similarly aggrieved followers, and generally drawing more attention to himself.” And then, “Even if he never runs for president again,* he is laying the groundwork to become a political martyr for the right. That status is formidable. Ridding the White House of Trump is unlikely to rid our national politics of him. Americans rejoicing in his defeat should prepare accordingly.” (Paraphrased from another New York Magazine article, by Zak Cheney-Rice, here.)
* Mary Trump, the president’s niece and a research psychologist, believes he won’t run again because he can’t stand the idea of losing again. (Read about that here.)
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There are some significant issues out there. If voting data is being sent anywhere away from the machines that should be totally isolated or on a isolated network is a security issue. It should not be happening and the mere appearance should suggest manipulation of results could happen.
The counts will continue. I do think the President has one issue that could ultimately upset the apple cart depending how serious the courts take it. In a number of states election laws were changed this year sometimes by officials sometimes by the courts and sometimes by the legislature. The Supreme Court has said repeatedly changes cannot occur too close to the election. Changes in an election year on its face should receive robust scrutiny by the court. While the Gore v Bush case is not precedent there is the concept in it that only State Legislatures and Congress can change the laws for Presidential and other elections. The question is how do the courts remedy these unconstitutional changes. They can throw the election results out. and the courts should do that.
There are of course other ways states could distribute electors. Perhaps in the case of close elections particularly those within 1 percent both candidates should receive half the electors. The fact both major parties like the winner take all in all states but two suggest the electoral college is not going anywhere.
Meanwhile this years election is not over, not that any Presidential election is over until the electors votes are counted in front of both houses on Congress. Then it will be all too soon the beginning of the 2024 race and it is going to be a humdinger of a race. Possible with Trump as President or as the leader of the loyal opposition. And if Republicans take the house in 2022 how about some political payback in the form of an impeachment. Could be some pay back for the past four years going on. And if so the Republicans are doing some good politicking.
Good luck with your fantasies. Have your boarding pass ready when you get on that UFO. I predict Joe Biden will be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2021.