Let’s try a simple quiz. You win an election by:
- [ ] Getting the most votes
- [ ] Declaring victory first
- [ ] Because you want to
- [ ] Stopping the count when you’re ahead
- [ ] Doing the election over if you lose
Few, if any, Republicans will pick “1,” the correct answer, because they’re not much into democracy. Most think “3” is the correct answer, and many have signed on for “4” and “5”. Trump, however, still appears to be stuck at “2”.
He’s urging Dr. Oz, who he endorsed, “to declare victory in Tuesday’s too-close-to-call Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary, even as ballots keep dribbling in,” BBC News reported on Wednesday, May 18, 2022 (see story here). Dr. Oz has a small lead; but, “Thousands of mail-in ballots must still be counted.”
“Here we go again,” Trump said.
Yes, here we go again: They’re counting all the ballots, because that’s how it’s done. Every. Time.
As of Wednesday, Dr. Oz has 416,678 votes and David McCormick has 415,435 votes, a difference of 1,243 votes, with roughly 21,000 ballots remaining to be counted. With the race that close, there is no winner until all the ballots are counted. This is elementary. It’s also beyond the understanding of Trump and many of his followers. In this country, you don’t have to pass a literacy test to be either a candidate or a voter.
The media probably have contributed to their confusion by “calling” races. But media calls are projections, not results, and everyone understands that. Well, most people do, I think. And sometimes they call it wrong and have to backtrack.
In the video below, an unruly pro-Trump mob descended on a Detroit election office, pounded on windows, and chanted, “Stop the count!” But those ballots were cast by people who have as much right to have their votes counted as the members of the mob do. (Many of those voters are black, which is why that white mob was there.)
Incidents like this show Republicans can’t be trusted with our democracy, and should never be put in charge of running elections or counting votes.