Election Fraud

No one is surprised. Trump was asked several times in 2016 whether he would accept the results of the election. His answers included "We'll see" and "If I win". In 2016 it was a moot point because he did win. Russian interference did not extend to actually changing any votes, just spreading disinformation to our easily fooled electorate. The popular vote in our system of selecting a president is irrelevant, as much as we wish it wasn't. He could complain all he wanted about the imaginary 3 million undocumented immigrants whom he said voted for Clinton - it didn't matter.

In 2020 it matters.

Trump has been asked repeatedly if he would respect the results of the election, if there would be an orderly transition if he lost, and he repeatedly declined to unequivocally answer, proclaiming that he would win, or that he would only accept a legitimate result and suggesting that the only legitimate result was a win for him. 

For once, he told the truth. 

For months Trump has been working steadily to undermine faith in our electoral system. He has, without a scintilla of proof, alleged that the voting system was rigged, that it was rife with fraud, and invented all manner of bizarre scenarios. He and his Republican enablers, meanwhile, have been working overtime to make it harder for people to vote. Republicans in Florida effectively nullified a vote by the majority of Floridians to give felons who had served their sentences the right to vote. Republicans in Texas limited ballot drop boxes to one per county, even in counties with millions of voters, Republicans in Georgia closed many polling places. Republicans throughout the country refused to expand voting by mail for people concerned about voting in person during a pandemic and when the rules were loosened, went to court to prevent it. Republicans attempted to invalidate votes postmarked by election day but received afterward. I'm sure that I'm overlooking some of these moves. 

Despite all of these roadblocks, people found ways to cast their vote. People took advantage of early voting options, waiting in line for hours in order to exercise the franchise. Due to the likelihood that early voting would be done predominantly by people concerned about Covid-19, it was predicted that mail ballot and early ballots would lean Democratic. In many states, including several of the swing states, state law required that day-of ballot be counted first. The entirely predictable (and predicted) result was that several states would show Trump leads until the mail-in and early ballots were counted. This is what happened. Trump and the Republicans tried to get counting stopped while he was still ahead. 

Now Trump and his cultish enablers are claiming that the results are tainted. They are throwing around accusations and allegations that are based on nothing more substantial than a belief that Trump couldn't have lost, so any numbers showing that he lost must be rigged. 

The fact that Biden conducted no massive rallies and very few small ones is not proof that the numbers are wrong

Disbelief that Biden could have received more votes than Obama did in 2008 or 2012 is not proof of fraud

The fact that Trump rallies attract huge crowds does not translate into invalid polling results for Biden

Mainstream media outlets "calling" the election just means that they think the numbers warrant it; it is not proof that the media is manipulating the numbers. 

There is no real evidence other than "there must be fraud" scenarios that Trumpists are looking for any scrap of "proof" for.

The Republican post election talking points try to make it look like questioning every opposition vote and letting the courts decide is normal. It's not. It's a desperation move by a desperate man and his desperate enablers.