2020 Presidential Election
Certified Electoral College Vote
Joseph R. Biden – 306
Donald J. Trump – 232
Five States flipped from red to blue.
Pennsylvania – 20 Electoral Votes
Michigan – 16 Electoral Votes
Georgia – 16 Electoral Votes
Arizona – 11 Electoral Votes
Wisconsin – 10 Electoral Votes
Biden also picked up one Electoral Vote out of Nebraska’s five.
All other states voted the same as in 2016.
Trump’s attempt to steal the election
For Trump to steal the election from Biden through the courts (or through intimidating election officials) he would have needed to change 38 Electoral College votes. If he could have changed Pennsylvania he still would have needed two more of the five states listed above. If Trump had somehow overturned both Wisconsin AND Arizona, he would have still needed two more of the five states.
I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.
Donald J. Trump, speaking to the Georgia Secretary of State
So even if Trump had managed, during his phone call on January 2nd, 2021, to persuade Brad Raffensperger, the Republican Secretary of State in Georgia, to “find” 11,780 votes, and change Georgia’s 16 Electoral College votes from Biden to Trump (and not get caught committing this act of treason), Biden would still be President.
Trump’s legal effort
Trump’s legal team fought the election results in all five “flipped” states, the Supreme Court, and in Nevada. Nevada’s six Electoral Votes would have made very little difference to the outcome of the 2020 election. Nevertheless, even though Nevada voted against Trump in 2016, he somehow thought he should have won Nevada in 2020.
As is well-known (at least among the reality-based community) Trump’s legal challenges went nowhere because they were baseless. The problem for Trump’s lawyers was that the courts, even those with Trump-appointed judges, still require claims to be supported with actual evidence.
On social media (and on Fox News) one can make any outrageous claim and tell any Big Lie you want to. When others try to counter your lie with facts, it is easy to simply double down, insist on the lie even more strongly, and spread it even farther. This has long been how Trump operates.
In court, however, an attorney who deliberately makes an unfounded claim risks his or her professional license. Time after time, Trump’s lawyers would claim that there was voter fraud in front of the cameras, but in the courtroom deny that they were claiming any fraud in the case they had filed. In other words, they had to admit in court that they had no case.
The truism here is that merely saying something doesn’t make it so. Yet, Donald J. Trump, who started out with millions of dollars from his father, has based his career on making brash, selfish, unfounded, assertions, and then doubling down, or changing the subject, when his lies were exposed. His ongoing success as a con man is made possible by the apparent gullibility of the American public.
Could Biden have stolen the election?
The same numbers apply if one wants to believe that the election was “stolen” by Biden. Presumably a person who believes this fantasy is happy with all the states whose Electoral College votes went to Trump. That leaves these same five states as the location of the supposed “steal.” And, depending on the combination of states, there would have to have been successful (and well hidden) conspiracies in three or four of these five states.
This theory reveals a vast ignorance about how elections work. Presidential elections in the United States are highly decentralized. Vote counting takes place at the county level. Any successful election fraud conspiracy would have to involve multiple county clerks, and at least some of their staff members, from multiple states. And many of those people are Republicans. Why would they participate? And why would they stay silent?
- Georgia – 187 counties
- Michigan – 83 counties
- Wisconsin – 72 counties
- Pennsylvania – 67 counties
- Arizona – 15 counties
Also, if there is one thing these County Clerk offices are good at, it’s elections. Many Americans only vote once every 2 or 4 years. However, counting Municipal elections, School Board elections, and Special District elections (water, sewer, etc.) most counties are holding elections at least once a year. If there was something fishy going on in an election, our County Clerks would be the first to notice.
Yet, there has been absolutely no evidence found to establish that such conspiracies existed. The shocking “evidence” that has been passed around on right-wing social media sites consists of hearsay, misunderstanding of election procedure, or outright fabrication. If this “evidence” had any merit, Trump’s lawyers would have used it in court.
There also remains this unanswered question: If the “deep state” Democrats were so skilled at election manipulation as to “steal” the Presidency, why did they allow Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham to win re-election?
The lack of evidence doesn’t matter to Trump
Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law, the President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election. It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Twitter, November 19, 2020
Having failed in the courts, Donald Trump moved on to trying to pressure election officials to overturn their county and state election results. When that failed, he invited his supporters to Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 to violently block Congress from certifying the election.
Trump will never stop asserting that the election was stolen from him. He does not know how to back down. The Republican party has a brief, but closing, window to sever their ties with him and return to truth-based reality and traditional Constitutional norms.
If this does not happen, the fanatics and the conspiracists, who have already established a foothold in Congress, will complete their transformation of the old Republican party into an outright Fascist party determined to destroy our form of government.
The best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth. That is the burden, and the duty, of leadership. The truth is that President-elect Biden won this election. President Trump lost. Scores of courts, the President’s own Attorney General, and state election officials both Republican and Democrat have reached this unequivocal decision.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, January 6, 2020
Sources
Jeff Amy, Darlene Superville, and Jonathan LeMire, “GA election officials reject Trump call to ‘find’ more votes,” AP News, January 4, 2021.
Bob Van Voris , Mark Niquette , and Patricia Hurtado, “Trump’s Challenge to the 2020 Vote: A State-by-State Guide,” Bloomberg, November 18, 2020.
Tessa Berenson, “Donald Trump And His Lawyers Are Making Sweeping Allegations of Voter Fraud In Public. In Court, They Say No Such Thing,” Time, November 20, 2020.
Mitt Romney, “Romney Condemns Insurrection at U.S. Capitol,” Official Senate web site, January 6, 2021.
Molly Ball, “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election,” Time, February 4, 2021.
One of my cousins committed suicide when Obama was reelected. One if my friends now is holed up in his house and won’t come out and is convinced the the country is going to fall any day now…. People are too deluded to reason with.
I’m doing a dystopian scifi screenplay in which Trump is re-elected. This could cheer up your friend.
Meanwhile there is no mention, NO MENTION, of Trump’s current impeachment in the Deseret News. Why? WHY? I think they relate to the man. And you can see it in our fellow ward members. I’ll tell you this, once we get past Covid (?) this is going to be a very different Church, some of good, and some of it bad. I’m going to tell folks here abouts just what I think of their Trump ideology. And I won’t be alone.
Lew, As you know, I have been speaking to LDS Church members about the Trump ideology for years right here on this blog. But I am not sure how you can claim that the Deseret News has made “no mention” of the current impeachment trial. You might want to look at this link.
OK. The D-News has not been completely quite about this, but they treat Trump with kid gloves most of the time. Question: if the Trump fascists ultimately take over will the Church protect us? Not sure.
So I’ll answer my question. NO, they won’t protect us or our families.