If you’re like me you’ve been keeping an eye on the coordinated and multi-pronged effort from Team Trump and his GOP minions to steal the election. Today I’m specifically looking at the not-at-all secret movement to get Republicans on County Election Boards around the country including in Blue states to REFUSE to certify election results. The idea is that preventing counties from certifying results means that States can’t certify. From there the hope is it ultimately it would lead to the the election being thrown to the House of Representatives come January. Since each state gets one vote, and the majority of delegations will be Republican Kamala Harris could win by millions of votes but it wouldn’t matter. The GOP would say “Suck it!” and hand the keys to the WH over to Trump again. However, having made their efforts so open Democrats have been preparing for a fight.Â
As this article from USA Today tells us several states are already lined up to head to court immediately when the shenanigans start. With the law on their side lawyers representing the Democratic Party and its candidates should be well-positioned to beat back this crap AND do so in a timely fashion. As the article points out:
In battleground states and states where Vice President Kamala Harris is depending on victories to secure an Electoral College majority, county officials have voted against or delayed certifying the results of elections at least three dozen times since 2020 — from the presidential race down to school board recounts.
It’s an outgrowth of Trump and his allies’ strategy to overturn the 2020 election by stopping Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory. Local officials who refuse to certify a county’s results in 2024 may intend to stop Harris’ electoral votes from their state from being sent to Congress in the first place.
The GOP hasn’t really tried to hide what they want to do. As was the case with Project 2025 they telegraphed their punch. There are however some differences. First of all the various States have laws and sometimes even state Constitutional provisions that prevent some yahoo goobers on County Election boards from doing what they are being counted on (by Trump) to do. So there’s that. Same for judges who might be sympathetic. They will almost all get slapped down and quickly.
The second is in two parts. Democrats know what’s coming and as is the case with both major Parties for Presidential elections since 2000 the army of election lawyers ready to be deployed is large and ready to go. However Democrats seemed to be much better funded and as I’ve said have been proactive. The 65 Project, named for the number of bogus lawsuits Team Trump filed in the wake of the 2020 election has been hard at work targeting those who abused the system. If I’m not mistaken they were the ones who published a recent memo putting lawyers planning 2024 chicanery on notice. It points out that as Officers of the Court they are subject to sanction for filing ‘frivolous’ lawsuits. A combination of shaming and potential sanctions will make a lot of smaller time lawyers who’ve signaled a willingness to get on the Trump Train to sit things out when the time comes.
Finally, in some cases Secretaries of State can handle this crap under their own authority in some states. Even in some red states it seems they don’t want any part of this. It helps that more than a month out some are being quite public in saying they are prepared for what Team Trump is planning and ready to deal with it. From the linked USA Today article:
Top election officials in major swing states say they are prepared to take local governments to court if they refuse to certify the 2024 presidential election, a move that could impede an effort to overturn the election if former President Donald Trump loses.
Officials from Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin made the comments in interviews with USA TODAY and at a public event at the University of Michigan on Thursday, as they sought to assure the public that they would protect the legitimacy of the election.
The USA Today article is a short read but covers a lot more states than the three mentioned above. I highly encourage you to take the the two minutes to read it. A LOT of officials in a LOT of states know what’s coming from Team Trump’s minions on county election boards. And as I’ve noted so do an awful lot of lawyers working for the Democratic Party. It’s not hard for me to imagine many of our lawyers having conversations at meetings and around the courthouses in smaller jurisdictions chatting up all the frivolous lawsuits since the 2020 election and what’s happened to so many of the lawyers who signed up to push Trump’s bullshit in court. Just as some (not enough but some) judges clearly grew tired of Trump’s legal crap with his civil and criminal cases I suspect many will do a repeat of what we saw in 2020. Tell Trump’s lawyers to put up at least a little admissible evidence to support their ‘lawsuit’ or get the hell out of the courtroom pronto.
I’m not saying there won’t still be issues. Challenges WILL be made. What I’m saying is that our side is ready for them.
The fix is in and don-old knows it is in. Dems need to throw a wrench into the fix and break it into little pieces. Hope they are able to do so.
That’s my point spike. The asshats didn’t make any attempt to hide what they were planning. As a result we’ve had a chance to prepare. To be ready when the time comes. What I find encouraging is that we seem to be on offense. A sort of “We know what you’re up to. What you want to accomplish and how you intend to go about it. And we are ready for ALL of it. AND for lawyers who you are counting on to help you there’s a messages – take a look at what’s been happening to other lawyers who’ve gone over the line shoveling Trump’s bullshit?”
Like I said I’m sure there are counties that will go right ahead and try to prevent certification. But being told so openly that we know what they are planning and not only will it not work but there could be consequences will dissuade a pretty good chunk of this crap. Which will make it easier to concentrate forces where needed.
“The idea is that preventing counties from certifying results means that States can’t certify. From there the hope is it ultimately it would lead to the the election being thrown to the House of Representatives come January.”
If that’s what they’re relying on, they’re complete and total idiots.
The same House delegations that would vote to elect the President will ALSO be affected by those failures to certify. You CANNOT claim there’s election fraud for just *one* particular race. It might could work if, when you went into vote, you were handed a dozen of separate ballots (one ballot for each individual race) but if you’ve got 100 ballots and you’re claiming there’s a “problem,” then that “problem” applies to each and every single race appearing on that ballot–which includes races for the United States House. And if a House seat is left undetermined by the time Congress is convened on January 3rd, that seat is considered vacant (there’s no provision for a retired/electorally-defeated-or-challenged member to remain in the seat until a winner is determined). In some House delegations, if enough GOP representatives are held up because of “questions” about the election, that could move some close state delegations to Team Blue and it could completely remove some state delegations.
Then again, when have GOPers ever *really* thought out their schemes to account for some “pesky” little details? (I honestly can’t see that many counties, in House districts represented by Democrats, that would be electing GOPers to their local elections boards.)