Government

Trump Demands Election Night Declaration Of Victory, Uncounted Ballots Be Damned

Because counting ballots is illegal, according to the Election Law Scholar in Chief.

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(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on November 3rd, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate, and I don’t believe that that’s by our laws,” the president said yesterday. “I don’t believe that. So we’ll see what happens.”

President Trump failed to mention exactly which of “our laws” would be broken by delaying the declaration of a winner to count all the ballots. After all, the 1887 Electoral Count Act allows 41 days for states to name electors to the Electoral College for an official vote.

It took six weeks for the New York City Board of Elections to declare Rep. Carolyn Maloney and City Council member Ritchie Torres the victors in their respective primaries, and democracy didn’t come to an end. Nor did anyone sue alleging that counting all the absentee ballots somehow violated “our laws.”

Nevertheless, the Trump campaign is currently using its very limited dollars on dozens of lawsuits to limit the number of ballots counted. Yesterday it sued Clark County, Nevada, demanding the elections registrar turn over the signature on each ballot as it comes in, along with the signature on file with the county. It’s probably a coincidence that this would allow the state Republican party, which is also a plaintiff in the suit, to scan party rolls at its leisure and challenge every Democratic ballot as it comes in.

The campaign is also demanding the names and party affiliations of all poll observers, by precinct and shift. And while they’re at it, they’d like “any other official, representative, candidate or delegate from the democratic [sp] party regarding the 2020 election.”

You know, just your standard public records request, not harassing litigation meant to get as many votes tossed in deep blue Las Vegas as possible.

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That’s in addition to a different suit the campaign and local party filed against Clark County seeking an injunction prohibiting it from beginning to count mailed ballots. Why Trump is going all out in a state where Biden has led consistently for months is unclear. Nor is it clear how these suits will help ensure a result on November 3, in accordance with “our laws.”

Although the argument seems to hold sway with Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who theorized in a meticulously researched (AHEM) opinion that it was more important “to be able to definitively announce the results of the election on election night, or as soon as possible thereafter” than to actually count the votes.

Aaaaaand, even as we type, the president is at it again.

Here on Planet Earth, we’ve never had certified vote tallies on election night. But if we do get results on the evening of November 3, the president is not likely to be very happy about it. Pennsylvania and Michigan will probably take several days to tally their votes. But after the 2000 hanging chad debacle, Florida overhauled its laws to allow speedier processing, including preparing mail-in ballots for tabulation before election day. So, if we know who the next president is in the wee hours of the morning on November 4, it’ll almost certainly be because Trump lost Florida, all but obliterating his path to 270 electoral votes.

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As Politico reports, the president is deploying thousands of lawyers and poll “observers” to challenge the result of this election and generally gum up the works to bring the result into doubt. The GOP is clearly gearing up for another Brooks Brothers Riot. So it’s pretty ironic that the previous preppy uprising sparked changes in state law which may put down the planned rebellion before it even gets started.

Maybe “ironic” is the wrong word. How about … fitting?

Trump campaign, Nevada GOP sue Clark County for detailed records on ballot counting process [NVIndy]

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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