I’m not a Democrat. By virtue of not being a Democrat, my first reaction when an election doesn’t go my way is not to claim the election was stolen or question the legitimacy of the election. I want to address real concerns about the election and the possibility of a stolen election, but I need you to understand that first.
Erick, Thanks for a very good post. There are lots of things going on in this election regarding verifying whether ballots are legally valid (or unlawfully submitted) and/or counting legal ballots without proper bipartisan observation. People from my area of the US know very well that large cities like Chicago and PHL have been run by Democrats for decades and that not all of these people have honorable intentions regarding producing a fair and accurate election result. While it is harder to commit large-scale voter fraud with in person elections it is much easier to commit it with vote-by-mail elections. It doesn't take a lot of bad apples to spoil a whole bunch. And as John James statement about MI indicated, a few dishonest people can theoretically produce an inaccurate election result that disenfranchises the votes of a multitude of legitimate voters. The best approach is for everybody to wait until all fraud allegations are investigated, all lawsuits are settled, and election results are officially recorded.
I am currently in Germany and voted absentee in PA before I left at the end of September. I have confirmed with the election official for my county (Lawrence) that my absentee ballot was received and that it should be counted. But I checked this PA-gov website again today and it still shows my vote was not counted ( https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/pages/ballottracking.aspx ). I sent another email to the head election official. I urge everybody who has voted in a critical state to attempt to verify if their ballot was received and counted. I urge Christians to pray for a fair and accurate election, as with this comment at the top of Kayliegh McEanny's twitter account: "GOD IS IN CONTROL‼️."
One last thing. The national election count is completely irrelevant to determining election results. The EC is not like the BCS and it doesn't reward states for running up the score. The one amazing thing about this year's national count is that Trump is currently at 69.65 M-votes, which is more than Obama's massive 2008 vote total of 69.50 M-votes. And Biden has about 4 M-votes more than that. So there is potential reason to consider whether the vote counts have been inflated by ballots that were not submitted by legal voters, and therefore should not be counted. But potential reason and/or anecdotal evidence needs to be evaluated by a fair and honest legal process before drawing conclusions and making definitive statements about who won this election when all legal votes and only all legal votes are counted.
Erick. Sorry but you know better. When someone alleges something, they have to provide the evidence. So far, the Republicans have provided no evidence of what they are alleging. In fact, they have said the STATES or the MEDIA have to provide the evidence of this "fraud".
I know that our country has dumbed down considerably. But we have to get back to the standard that the side that asserts MUST provide evidence for their assertions, or no one should have to take them any more seriously that we would take a Q follower.
Detroit has had issues with mismatches between poll book counts and vote counts as recently as the August, 2020 primary. Michigan law doesn’t allow a given precinct to be recounted if the poll book count and vote count are mismatched. A few links:
The Psalmist cried, "Destructive forces are at work in the city; threats and lies never leave its streets (Psalm 55:11, NIV)." Kohaleth wrote, "I saw something else under the sun: in the place of judgment -- wickedness was there..... (Ecclesiastes 3:16ff)." We cannot right every wrong in this life. Much must be left to God's judgment at the Last Day. Furthermore, it is not fitting for the President of the United States always to claim that he is a victim. He has victimized others. Ecclesiastes 4:13 warns about having "an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning." Thanks, Eric for your candor. Thank God for whatever peace reigns in our land.
All it really takes is recycling ballots. Take a box of ballots that are heavily democrat and run them through the machine again. As to creating ballots, "Veritas" has video of a guy already doing that by going to apartment buildings and paying cash for the ballot - fill in voter info, we'll do the rest. On one day he had over 300 ballots for Ilhan Omar.
We have pictures of arms full of ballots being carried down an alley behind the Detroit Election Bureau, without any security, to the Detroit City County Building. Another picture of Absent Voter Ballots being delivered with the one carton seal - unsealed. This from GOP assigned surveillance team. When I acted as a Poll Watcher at the Primary in August, the Elections supervisor told us that many challenge stations were manned by two Democrats because they couldn't find enough Republicans in the city to have two independent observers looking at challenged ballots. On November 4, the same election officials barred extra Republican Poll Watchers to enter the Absentee Voter Board Room. Skeptical of voter malfeasance? Here you are
I appreciate this post very much. I did not wake up the day after the election screaming that Trump was robbed. I actually took your advice from an earlier post and put my trust in God. I remember being utterly unprepared and utterly lost when Obama won the first time. I had not put my trust in God, and that loss shook me. Since that day, I have learned more about the left's agenda, because I felt I had to know in order to survive. But I have also learned more about God's gift of peace to those who put their hope in him. This time my world is not rocked. I already know that neither Trump nor Biden is God. I will not only survive but thrive while I anchor my hope in God.
This is why I appreciate the reasoned, orderly presentation of your points. I knew some things and didn't know others, but this post is orderly, peaceful, and not a rant. I am utterly done with rants. Thank you for writing words worth reading.
"The President is behind by 3.5 million votes nationwide and that will impact the Electoral College."
Not strictly true. Running the numbers of 2016 from both CNN & DailyKos (that bastion of reason :-P ), Hillary's popular vote margin was ~+3Million. When Cali is removed from that count, popular vote shifted to Trump ~+1.5-2Mil depending on the source. California alone accounted for a 3.5M popularity vote swing. That would mean that Electoral map can be vastly different from the popular vote map.
In addition, the 3rd party dilution of "really can't vote for Trump" Repubs (that was me in 2016) is also gone. The popular vote vs. Electoral College comparison remains apples and oranges, heavily weighted on either side by deeply blue states on the left coast + east coast and deeply red states like TX and OK.
Again, Founding Fathers' wisdom treating POTUS election by states' preference rather than a mob-mentality vote from the super-blue cities and coasts. Somehow they understood and codified before France proved the mob-rule Democracy disaster during the French Revolution.
Good to see an expanded response, Erick, but I'm still left with the feeling that you don't think very highly of your readers/listeners/followers. It hasn't been the "first reaction" of folks I know (of a Rightish bent) to claim that the election has been stolen. I am seeing a lot of healthy skepticism that the processes are unfolding on the up-and-up, and that seems perfectly normal, especially given the Democrats' infamous history of election...activities.
Anecdotal, but watching friends on social media I will report that (even the loudest) Trump supporters are staying fairly quiet so far, it's the Lefties who seem the most...disgruntled, to put it mildly.
To be honest all this belly aching is an argument against the electoral college Because Joe Biden clearly is won the popular vote it’s not close there.
I think the electoral college should be kept but I would support a proportional system that that way 10,000 votes in some states doesn’t trump millions of votes. It would safe a lot of belly aching. The point of the electoral college is to make sure big states don’t run rush shot over small states but if a candidate is winning 48 percent in the small states a lot of support exits.
I'm with you Erick. I want a fair system but I just cannot trust the left. Back when Franken beat Coleman in that Minnesota Senate race by finding a lost ballot box with enough votes to beat Coleman just sits queasy with me. My questions are: why did the vote counting stop on election night? What happened in those hours that everyone was supposed to be asleep? And then when we all wake up all the Trump leads are gone or dwindled? This just reeks of questions. I want to trust the system but don't trust the left and since they hate Trump so much.
Here's one citizen who appreciates your conscious determination to report objectively and truthful. Keep up the good work, Erick.
Thanks for keeping an eye on things.
But here's a wild idea whose time might have come: What about . . . if the controversies and legal battles were to render this election to be one huge clusterfoible. Therefore, to resolve the question . . . petition the Supreme Court to grant true choice to the Electoral College, i.e. the Electors be freed to vote their conscience on this election, even as they are provided all evidence pertaining to the conduct of this election.
Too crazy? Maybe not, considering the complexity of these multiple behind-the-scenes manipulations on both sides.
Who knows? Maybe Complicated questions and challenges such as these . . . is why the Founders wrote in an Electoral College to begin with!
Erick, Thanks for a very good post. There are lots of things going on in this election regarding verifying whether ballots are legally valid (or unlawfully submitted) and/or counting legal ballots without proper bipartisan observation. People from my area of the US know very well that large cities like Chicago and PHL have been run by Democrats for decades and that not all of these people have honorable intentions regarding producing a fair and accurate election result. While it is harder to commit large-scale voter fraud with in person elections it is much easier to commit it with vote-by-mail elections. It doesn't take a lot of bad apples to spoil a whole bunch. And as John James statement about MI indicated, a few dishonest people can theoretically produce an inaccurate election result that disenfranchises the votes of a multitude of legitimate voters. The best approach is for everybody to wait until all fraud allegations are investigated, all lawsuits are settled, and election results are officially recorded.
I am currently in Germany and voted absentee in PA before I left at the end of September. I have confirmed with the election official for my county (Lawrence) that my absentee ballot was received and that it should be counted. But I checked this PA-gov website again today and it still shows my vote was not counted ( https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/pages/ballottracking.aspx ). I sent another email to the head election official. I urge everybody who has voted in a critical state to attempt to verify if their ballot was received and counted. I urge Christians to pray for a fair and accurate election, as with this comment at the top of Kayliegh McEanny's twitter account: "GOD IS IN CONTROL‼️."
One last thing. The national election count is completely irrelevant to determining election results. The EC is not like the BCS and it doesn't reward states for running up the score. The one amazing thing about this year's national count is that Trump is currently at 69.65 M-votes, which is more than Obama's massive 2008 vote total of 69.50 M-votes. And Biden has about 4 M-votes more than that. So there is potential reason to consider whether the vote counts have been inflated by ballots that were not submitted by legal voters, and therefore should not be counted. But potential reason and/or anecdotal evidence needs to be evaluated by a fair and honest legal process before drawing conclusions and making definitive statements about who won this election when all legal votes and only all legal votes are counted.
Erick. Sorry but you know better. When someone alleges something, they have to provide the evidence. So far, the Republicans have provided no evidence of what they are alleging. In fact, they have said the STATES or the MEDIA have to provide the evidence of this "fraud".
I know that our country has dumbed down considerably. But we have to get back to the standard that the side that asserts MUST provide evidence for their assertions, or no one should have to take them any more seriously that we would take a Q follower.
Detroit has had issues with mismatches between poll book counts and vote counts as recently as the August, 2020 primary. Michigan law doesn’t allow a given precinct to be recounted if the poll book count and vote count are mismatched. A few links:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/after-botching-past-elections-detroit-aims-avoid-black-eye-november-n1243920
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/21/michigan-election-officials-call-detroit-primary-voting-problems-alarming-appalling/3410790001/
https://wdet.org/posts/2020/11/02/90238-detroit-election-officials-take-steps-to-resolve-issues-that-plagued-the-primary/
It is up to Trump to prove voter fraud since he is leveling the accusation. Without it, he is just blowing smoke.
The Psalmist cried, "Destructive forces are at work in the city; threats and lies never leave its streets (Psalm 55:11, NIV)." Kohaleth wrote, "I saw something else under the sun: in the place of judgment -- wickedness was there..... (Ecclesiastes 3:16ff)." We cannot right every wrong in this life. Much must be left to God's judgment at the Last Day. Furthermore, it is not fitting for the President of the United States always to claim that he is a victim. He has victimized others. Ecclesiastes 4:13 warns about having "an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning." Thanks, Eric for your candor. Thank God for whatever peace reigns in our land.
All it really takes is recycling ballots. Take a box of ballots that are heavily democrat and run them through the machine again. As to creating ballots, "Veritas" has video of a guy already doing that by going to apartment buildings and paying cash for the ballot - fill in voter info, we'll do the rest. On one day he had over 300 ballots for Ilhan Omar.
We have pictures of arms full of ballots being carried down an alley behind the Detroit Election Bureau, without any security, to the Detroit City County Building. Another picture of Absent Voter Ballots being delivered with the one carton seal - unsealed. This from GOP assigned surveillance team. When I acted as a Poll Watcher at the Primary in August, the Elections supervisor told us that many challenge stations were manned by two Democrats because they couldn't find enough Republicans in the city to have two independent observers looking at challenged ballots. On November 4, the same election officials barred extra Republican Poll Watchers to enter the Absentee Voter Board Room. Skeptical of voter malfeasance? Here you are
I appreciate this post very much. I did not wake up the day after the election screaming that Trump was robbed. I actually took your advice from an earlier post and put my trust in God. I remember being utterly unprepared and utterly lost when Obama won the first time. I had not put my trust in God, and that loss shook me. Since that day, I have learned more about the left's agenda, because I felt I had to know in order to survive. But I have also learned more about God's gift of peace to those who put their hope in him. This time my world is not rocked. I already know that neither Trump nor Biden is God. I will not only survive but thrive while I anchor my hope in God.
This is why I appreciate the reasoned, orderly presentation of your points. I knew some things and didn't know others, but this post is orderly, peaceful, and not a rant. I am utterly done with rants. Thank you for writing words worth reading.
"The President is behind by 3.5 million votes nationwide and that will impact the Electoral College."
Not strictly true. Running the numbers of 2016 from both CNN & DailyKos (that bastion of reason :-P ), Hillary's popular vote margin was ~+3Million. When Cali is removed from that count, popular vote shifted to Trump ~+1.5-2Mil depending on the source. California alone accounted for a 3.5M popularity vote swing. That would mean that Electoral map can be vastly different from the popular vote map.
In addition, the 3rd party dilution of "really can't vote for Trump" Repubs (that was me in 2016) is also gone. The popular vote vs. Electoral College comparison remains apples and oranges, heavily weighted on either side by deeply blue states on the left coast + east coast and deeply red states like TX and OK.
Again, Founding Fathers' wisdom treating POTUS election by states' preference rather than a mob-mentality vote from the super-blue cities and coasts. Somehow they understood and codified before France proved the mob-rule Democracy disaster during the French Revolution.
Good to see an expanded response, Erick, but I'm still left with the feeling that you don't think very highly of your readers/listeners/followers. It hasn't been the "first reaction" of folks I know (of a Rightish bent) to claim that the election has been stolen. I am seeing a lot of healthy skepticism that the processes are unfolding on the up-and-up, and that seems perfectly normal, especially given the Democrats' infamous history of election...activities.
Anecdotal, but watching friends on social media I will report that (even the loudest) Trump supporters are staying fairly quiet so far, it's the Lefties who seem the most...disgruntled, to put it mildly.
To be honest all this belly aching is an argument against the electoral college Because Joe Biden clearly is won the popular vote it’s not close there.
I think the electoral college should be kept but I would support a proportional system that that way 10,000 votes in some states doesn’t trump millions of votes. It would safe a lot of belly aching. The point of the electoral college is to make sure big states don’t run rush shot over small states but if a candidate is winning 48 percent in the small states a lot of support exits.
I'm with you Erick. I want a fair system but I just cannot trust the left. Back when Franken beat Coleman in that Minnesota Senate race by finding a lost ballot box with enough votes to beat Coleman just sits queasy with me. My questions are: why did the vote counting stop on election night? What happened in those hours that everyone was supposed to be asleep? And then when we all wake up all the Trump leads are gone or dwindled? This just reeks of questions. I want to trust the system but don't trust the left and since they hate Trump so much.
Here's one citizen who appreciates your conscious determination to report objectively and truthful. Keep up the good work, Erick.
Thanks for keeping an eye on things.
But here's a wild idea whose time might have come: What about . . . if the controversies and legal battles were to render this election to be one huge clusterfoible. Therefore, to resolve the question . . . petition the Supreme Court to grant true choice to the Electoral College, i.e. the Electors be freed to vote their conscience on this election, even as they are provided all evidence pertaining to the conduct of this election.
Too crazy? Maybe not, considering the complexity of these multiple behind-the-scenes manipulations on both sides.
Who knows? Maybe Complicated questions and challenges such as these . . . is why the Founders wrote in an Electoral College to begin with!