I thought close enough races could trigger automatic recounts, but if one party insists and it doesn’t change the outcome, in the end, then they have to foot the bill for the recount.
How can he afford all the recounts he’s demanding? Are his people really donating enough for this?
SOP. He won’t pay.
Different states, different rules.
Also, I imagine the state has to send a bill to the people who requested the recount. Doubtless the Trump campaign will renege on paying but the recount will have been done.
Aye; that’s key. For instance: Arizona does not allow requested recounts.
The Pennsylvania bit seems to indicate that fees must be paid up front; that’s been my understanding for requested recounts for years: no work will begin until the person contracting for it pays for it.
Trump won’t pay for a recount and he (and his minions) will simply work that into the narrative: that he couldn’t even trust the recount! “They were going to make me pay for the recount to fix their fraudulent error! And then they were gonna lie about that too! They were going to take my money and then steal the election from me AGAIN! [hushed voice] What am I stupid? I’m not stupid; I’m a very smart man, very smart. Wharton School of Business, rich, president… I wasn’t gonna fall for that! So I didn’t do the recount; who cares? We all know I won, right?”
Who thinks he won’t?
I dunno, Trump is happy to spend other peoples’ money. It’s not like he’s paying out of pocket for recount fees.
Biden already had plans for a transition without administration cooperation. In my opinion, possibly it will be an even better transition than if there was cooperation.
From the Washington Post:
“Go postal” with what? a golf club? in those tiny little hands? C’mon, dude.
Non paywall article with similar info (but less detail):
My guess would be budget. It’s not Arizona which is counting, it’s the counties and municipalities. And, the different counties and municipalities only have so much of a budget to spend on vote counters, set before the election, and they don’t have any authority to hire more even though bum bum bum “The eyes of the nation are on you!”
Remember, counting normally takes a long time, up to a week. Van Jones made this point on CNN one night last week - ALL of the states are still counting.
It’s just that in those other states, the results were clear enough that the news media were comfortable in calling them, even though the counting isn’t done in those states either. (Hell, CNN called California, Washington and Oregon within minutes of the polls closing, local time.)
Usually, the results are clear enough on election night that news agencies feel comfortable calling the election in each state. It’s just that this time, with postal ballots taking such a big part, they’re not comfortable calling close states, and they have to wait until the counting process is finished.
If the counties and municipalities don’t have the money to hire more counters, then the vote counting will take a while, but that’s the normal vote-counting schedule.
Well, there’s plenty of those around. I wonder if this would give toddler-in-chief a reason not to fire someone because that would help Biden.
I figure they’re more likely to get honest information, and to get the dirt on what’s going on, and what’s going wrong.
This worries me. I didn’t see it mentioned here but could have missed it. It’s supposed to be a free article because it’s about the election.
Pressure mounted on state and local officials in battleground states to accept claims of ballot-counting irregularities and voter fraud in the election despite a lack of evidence, as Republicans sought new ways to block certification of Joe Biden’s clear victory in the presidential race.
The GOP is going to try to pressure election officials to delay certification and sue to delay it if need be. Scaring me!
To what end, though? None of the lawsuits have gone anywhere. Even partisan-leaning judges haven’t let them get anywhere trying to overturn an election without evidence.
I’d be very worried if it was a Bush v. Gore scenario, with a very small number of votes in one state, so that, say, getting one county’s provisional ballots thrown out would matter. If there were even a shred of a real legal argument for doing it, I might worry about how that case would go. But they aren’t even challenging meaningful numbers of ballots, and it they’d have to reverse the results in at least 3 states.
Trump’s so used to being surrounded by sycophants he doesn’t understand how the real world works. Not very many people are into overturning the results of an election. Judges are not having it. Governors are not having it. Election officials are certainly not having it. You might feel better if you learned how trivial these lawsuits are and how unimpressed the judges are. Even if his dumb lawsuits caused votes to be thrown out, it wouldn’t change the results of the election. We’re talking about a comparative handful of ballots. And even the attorneys filing these lawsuits can barely keep a straight face in court. Everyone who matters knows this is a farce.
I think the Dems should file suit on every seat the GOP picked up in congress, and every state legislature.
Just saw on the CNN site that not only is the orange man-child preventing Biden from receiving top-level presidential daily briefings as has always been customary for a president-elect, he has also ordered the State Department to block all communications to Biden from foreign leaders. This has now progressed from the level of a tantrum of a five-year-old to the dangerous and traitorous actions of a madman. It’s basically a five-year-old with the power and ruthlessness of a tyrannical dictator. This at a time when COVID infections are higher than ever, and America is being watched by its adversaries for signs of weakness, and ridiculed by friends and enemies alike for the failings of its democratic institutions.
Not that I doubt what you saw, but how could they even do that? Telephones are still a thing.
Of course they could phone him, email him, etc. But official communications from foreign leaders are conventionally handled through the State Department, and the Orange Fuck has blocked that channel out of the sheer petulance of an angry toddler:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/11/politics/state-department-biden-messages/index.html
I am quietly confident that the incoming Dems do know what they’re doing, are listening to some top people who can deal with this kind of obstacle cleverly, and are fully prepared for the madness that’s ensuing. I hope they paid attention to all the people who can point directly to the shortcomings they have had this past four years and can articulate a better way, and that they’re implementing those plans.
Basically, Trump can whine and wheedle all he wants, but things are going to happen procedurally anyway, and most likely he’s too stupid to truly anticipate what is really happening behind his back.