US elections 2020

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Could Donald Trump refuse to accept defeat in US presidential election?

      by

      [embedded content]
      As the US prepared for a Joe Biden or a Donald Trump victory, Americans were forced to consider an extraordinary scenario in which Trump loses, but refuses to concede.
      The president has suggested he may not accept the results of the 2020 election enough times to prompt alarm over whether he may actually be serious.
      Over the past six months Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power, when asked, and has claimed he will only lose if the election is rigged.
      Trump displayed the same non-commitment in 2016, but this year an expectation of delays in the result gives the president more scope to claim election results can’t be trusted, or even to claim victory before enough votes are counted.
      Back in July, Trump seemed to be laying the ground for potentially repudiating the vote. In an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News, largely remembered for Wallace confronting Trump with the “very hard” cognitive test the president claimed to have taken – the test required the sitter to identify an elephant, an alligator and a snake – Wallace asked Trump if he would accept the election results.
      “I have to see,” Trump said. “Look – I have to see. No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no.”
      On other occasions he was happy to bring up the question himself.
      “The only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged,” Trump told the crowd at a rally in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in August. “Remember that. That’s the only way we’re going to lose this election.”
      The president repeated the message in a rare White House news conference in September, and during the first presidential debate a week later.
      But how real is the threat of Trump refusing to accept the results?
      Well, the circumstances of hosting an election in the midst of a pandemic make it more of a possibility than in a normal election.
      The changes to voting habits have made it easier for Trump to level baseless accusations of fraud, and even create a scenario where he could prematurely declare himself the winner.
      Record numbers of Americans have voted early, with a significant proportion doing so by mail. The increased number of mail-in ballots, in particular, could mean it takes polling workers longer to count – and announce – the results.
      As some election experts have pointed out, the US could find itself in an election week, not night. If Trump finds himself in the lead early in some states, there is a chance he could declare himself the victor, before enough votes have been counted to be certain who has won.
      The likelihood of the president finding himself in an early lead is exacerbated by the trend for Democrat votes to come in later, as votes from urban areas, which tend to be more Democratic-minded, take longer to count than those from more Republican areas. An academic study has shown how “overtime votes” – votes counted in the days after an election – have in the last 20 years shifted in favour of the Democratic candidate.
      overtime votes
      In the Florida elections for Senate and governor in 2018, both Republican candidates’ early leads shrank in the days after the vote, as mail-in ballots were counted. As Trump watched the Democratic candidates narrow the gap, he attempted to intervene.
      “The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged,” Trump tweeted.
      “An honest vote count is no longer possible – ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!”
      Exploiting confusion
      The potential for confusion, which Trump could potentially exploit, is exacerbated by laws that prevent early processing of ballots. Some key swing states – including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – are only allowed to begin opening and counting mail-in ballots on election day.
      Doing so as officials also hold an in-person election could lead to a delay in announcing results – opening the window further for a candidate to potentially, and wrongly, claim an early victory.
      Away from vote counting, Trump’s rhetoric around voting fraud could also confuse matters. The president has urged his supporters to go to the polls, and in September a group of Trump backers supporters intimidated early voters at a polling location in Fairfax, Virginia.
      There is also the threat of legal action against states, as lawyers could attempt to rule ballots, particularly mail-in ballots, illegitimate.
      Post-election litigation is normal in the US, and includes issues such as allowing a poll site to remain open for two extra hours because its machines broke down in the afternoon.
      Franita Tolson, a University of Southern California law professor, said these mistakes are more dangerous because of the president’s rhetoric about fraud.
      “We will be in a particularly vulnerable spot because the president has spent months and days talking about how the system is rife with voter fraud and it’s rigged and it’s illegitimate and all these other things,” Tolson said.
      “It’s hard to not confuse election mistakes with deliberate election irregularities.”
      Some experts, however, believe Trump’s rhetoric has encouraged early voting and that chances have actually risen that a clear result will emerge, if not on election night, then in the following days.
      And if there is a clear result, Trump’s chances of plausibly “stealing the election” – using the confusion of the pandemic as cover – vastly diminish.
      It has also been pointed out that, if lawsuits drag on past 20 January, preventing a victor from being declared, neither Trump nor Biden would be sworn in as president. In that scenario, the law is pretty clear:
      “If, by reason of death, resignation, removal from office, inability, or failure to qualify, there is neither a President nor Vice President to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, upon his resignation as Speaker and as Representative in Congress, act as President.”
      That would mean Nancy Pelosi, as speaker of the House, would assume the presidency – presumably not an eventuality Trump has in mind.

      The barricade scenario
      In the unlikely event that Trump, still refusing to accept his loss despite Biden having been ruled the victor, barricades himself inside the White House and physically will not leave office, it’s not immediately clear who would be in charge of removing him.
      Biden, back in June, said the military would remove the by-now-former president. He told the Daily Show: “I promise you, I’m absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch.”
      The military seems to have other ideas, however.
      Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chief of staffs and the country’s top military officer, has said service members would not get involved in the transfer of power. “In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law US courts and the US Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the US Military,” Milley said. “We will not turn our backs on the constitution of the United States.”
      Clearly Trump would be removed somehow – at some point he surely would have to leave of his own accord – but Americans will be hoping this hypothetical does not come to pass.
      As Trump likes to say: “We’ll see what happens.”
      With additional reporting by Amanda Holpuch More

    • 175 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      'It's real fear': clash of two Americas could get worse before it gets better

      by

      “There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America,” Barack Obama said in 2004. “While I will be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president. I will work as hard for those who didn’t support me as I will for those who did,” Joe Biden said this year.
      Both Democrats preached one nation, but the 2020 presidential election has exacerbated fractures of American society: a profound polarisation that veteran journalist Carl Bernstein referred to as a cold civil war. Some fear that another victory for Donald Trump could tear the nation apart.
      And few are under any illusions that a Biden win on Tuesday would drain the poison overnight. Trump and Trumpism would persist, perhaps in an even more raw and angry form, its sense of racial grievance and injustice festering in opposition. Economic, social and racial fault lines predated the 45th president and will survive him.
      “That division and hatred and fear and frustration and anger are not just going to disappear the day after the election,” said Leon Panetta, a former defence secretary and CIA director. “The difference [if Biden wins] is that you have a president who wants to do what he can not to split the country apart but to bring it together.”
      “But it’s going to take time. It isn’t something that is going to be resolved by one election or one speech or even one bill passed through the Congress. It’s going to have to become a pattern that people ultimately agree is a better way to live in our country.”
      Since he rode down an escalator in June 2015 and fulminated about Mexico sending “criminals and rapists”, division and divisiveness have been defining hallmarks of the Trump era: female v male, Black v white, young v old, liberal v conservative, urban v rural, Hollywood v heartland, college-educated v blue collar, pro-choice v anti-abortion, “elite” v “deplorable”, instinct v science, hipster v hunter.
      The split that Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, once characterised as “Bubble-ville” against “Bubba-ville”, is intensified through the echo chambers of social media and finds myriad cultural expressions. Polls show that Democrats are more willing to wear masks to combat the coronavirus pandemic, whereas Republicans are more likely to heed Trump’s insistence that it is overhyped and fading fast. More

    • 188 Shares159 Views

      in Elections

      Biden joined by Lady Gaga as Trump hails crowd at final election rallies – video

      by

      As the presidential election campaign drew to a close, Biden and Trump conducted their final rallies. In Pennsylvania Joe Biden welcomed Lady Gaga to the stage to perform as well as have her say on the current president. ‘Now is your chance to vote against Donald Trump, a man who believes his fame gives him the right to grab one of your daughters, or sisters, or mothers or wives by any part of their bodies.’ Elsewhere, the singer-songwriter John Legend performed and spoke passionately about his vote for Biden. In Michigan, Trump wrapped up proceedings with further digs at Biden, adding: ‘This is not the crowd of somebody who is going to lose the state of Michigan’
      Lady Gaga attacks Trump’s ‘grab’ remarks at Biden rally
      US election day 2020: Trump and Biden supporters vote – live updates More

    • 238 Shares179 Views

      in US Politics

      I’m a working-class teenage Latino, and I can’t vote this year. But I hope you do | Isaac Lozano

      by

      Chills ran down my neck when I watched Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent Instagram story. “Turn your fear into fuel,” her words reverberated off my phone’s screen. “Let this moment radicalize you.”I knew then that she was right: “November is about survival.” And if young Latinos like me – a key voter base in swing states – make the right choice on Tuesday, I can go to sleep knowing my president isn’t a fascist.But hearing Ocasio-Cortez’s words of wisdom and courage, I felt a sinking sadness. As a working-class 17-year-old Mexican-American, I can’t vote – not until next year. And throughout this election cycle, I’ve felt a deep sense of powerlessness, a reminder of my position in society.Since the onset of the pandemic, I’ve been cramped in a two-bedroom apartment with two brothers and my parents, who are essential workers in one of San Diego’s coronavirus hotspots – where Hispanics comprise 45% of Covid-19 deaths. And earlier this summer, I was horrified to find my uncle died from the virus.Passing the cracked sidewalks of my apartment complex, I’m disheartened by the disparate impact of the pandemic, which disproportionately victimizes Latinos. Parents clad in yellow vests or fast-food aprons leave their doors every morning to work as essential employees, risking their lives, their families, and our community to coronavirus. In each glance we exchange, I sense silent despair. It’s hard not to surrender to the material challenges we face.Our current administration is chipping away at our democracy, and another four years of it would prove devastating for people like meAnd starting my seventh month in remote learning, I’ve felt the consequences. I attend a Title 1 school in a district where 60% of students – including myself – are socioeconomically disadvantaged. My unreliable internet connectivity has made remote learning challenging, and I’ve found myself struggling to balance my schoolwork, extracurriculars and college applications. I think I’ve formed permanent eye bags and my mental health has suffered like never before in the last few months. With support from teachers, however, I’ve kept up my grades and sanity – but I can’t say it’s been easy.My struggles mirror those of millions of Latinos like me, which makes our solidarity so important. No matter our differences, our communities share a devotion to our families and to each other.I still remember the month in elementary school I spent living in a motel. My father had just lost his job and we were buying groceries at the 99-cent store. But it was my grandfather who helped us secure stable housing. It was my grandmother who drove me and my siblings to school when my parents were working. It was the Uruguayan lunch lady who smiled at us at school, making our days a tad sweeter. Only in recognizing our solidarity can we overcome the obstacles of the pandemic – a path made more viable with Biden’s plans to address disparities in vulnerable communities.Fortunately, many of us have rightfully changed our minds since 2016. An aunt of mine, finally fed up with Trump’s racism, has decided to vote for Biden. And speaking with Latino voters, I’ve noticed many have compromised on key issues like abortion to vote Democrat in the upcoming election. Trump’s separation of families and proto-fascist rhetoric have simply harmed Latino communities for far too long. We may not agree on every issue, but electing Biden now is a matter of survival.And let me be clear: a successful Biden presidency is no reason to quell our current political spirit. It is a call to action. Though Biden hasn’t committed to Medicare for All and continues to swallow corporate cash, his presidency, if victorious, should galvanize us to demand for needed reform.Our current administration is chipping away at our democracy, and another four years of it would prove devastating for people like me. Voting for Biden this Tuesday is a decision of moral clarity – and we need young Latinos’ support now more than ever.With Biden, I could return to school faster with his campaign’s legitimate plans to curtail the pandemic. With Biden, I could step out of my apartment knowing my government isn’t fanning the flames of white supremacy. With Biden, I have hope for my future and the fate of millions of Latinos like me.Por favor, fulfill your civic duties this Tuesday. I won’t be able to vote, but you can – and together, we can restore the soul of our nation. More

    • 150 Shares159 Views

      in Elections

      Pennsylvania: the battleground state most likely to take entire election with it

      by

      [embedded content]
      In a presidential race with an extraordinary number of moving parts, election day finds Pennsylvania under intensifying scrutiny as the place where it could all come together – or fall spectacularly apart.
      The state and its 20 electoral college votes are sitting at the center of a perfect storm. Polls show one of the tightest races among the battleground states between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Models project Pennsylvania as the state most likely, when it tips, to take the entire election with it.
      The state also overhauled its election laws last year and is allowing no-excuse mail-in voting for the first time. There could be as many as 10 times as many mail-in votes as there were in 2016, Kathy Boockvar, the state’s top election official, said on Sunday.
      Pennsylvania law also prohibits election officials from processing mail-in ballots until election day, which means it could take days to know the winner in the state, leaving a window for Trump to claim victory before all the votes are counted. Boockvar has said she’s confident the majority of votes will be counted by Friday.
      It’s possible that the entire national election could encounter a physical bottleneck in Philadelphia, the state’s most populous city. Every mail-in ballot in the city – as many as 400,000 – is to be counted inside a cavernous convention center downtown using new equipment and newly trained staff observing social distancing measures. More

    • 213 Shares109 Views

      in Elections

      This election isn't about the next four years. It's about the next four millennia | Bill McKibben

      by

      All American elections determine the character of the country for the next four years. And they have a lot to say about what the world will feel like too – that’s what it means to be a superpower. But this election may determine the flavor of the next four millennia – maybe the next 40. That’s because time is the one thing we can’t recover, and time is the one thing we’ve just about run out of in the climate fight. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2018 report made it clear that we had until 2030 to make fundamental transformations in our energy system – which they defined as cutting by half the amount of carbon that we pour into the atmosphere. Read that sentence again. Because it carries deep political implications. Very few of the problems that government deals with are time limited in quite the same fashion. Issues like housing or education or healthcare last throughout our lifetimes, and we take bites out of them when we can, hopefully moving two steps forward for every one we retreat.
      But climate change isn’t like that. If we don’t solve it soon, we will not solve it because we will move past tipping points from which we have no retreat. Some we’ve passed already: the news that Greenland is now in an irreversible process of melt should remind us that the biggest things on our planet can shift in the course of a very few human years.
      Electing Donald Trump the first time cost us dearly. The momentum coming out of the Paris climate accord was completely undercut by the administration’s insistence on rolling back environmental laws, favoring the oil industry, and removing the US from international negotiations. But at least for the moment some of that momentum still exists: in the last few weeks we’ve watched the Chinese make new pledges and the state of California announce a prospective end to the era of internal combustion. A Biden administration can join in those efforts; indeed it can lead them. Vice president Kamala Harris has announced that one of her first acts would be to convene a meeting of high-emitting nations, perhaps spurring more of them to ratchet up their ambition in anticipation of the next UN meetings in Scotland in 2021.
      [embedded content]
      But four more years of Trump and all-out climate denial? If the world’s largest economy is acting as a brake on climate progress, rather than accelerator, progress will be lurching at best. There will be no way to put any kind of pressure on leaders like Russia’s Putin or Brazil’s Bolsonaro. The effective chance to halt the rise in temperature at anything like the targets envisioned in the Paris Accords will slip by forever. And the job of future presidents will increasingly involve responding to disasters that it’s no longer possible to prevent. The one degree celsius that we’ve already increased the planet’s temperature has taken us into what is effectively a new geological era, one markedly less hospitable to human beings. But it still bears some resemblance to the world that our civilizations emerged from. If we value those civilizations then a vote for Joe Biden isn’t really about the next four years. It’s about the long march of time that stretches out ahead of us. And about every creature and human being that will live in those misbegotten years.
      Bill McKibben is an author and Schumann distinguished scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College, Vermont. His most recent book is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? More

    • 125 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      Lady Gaga attacks Trump's 'grab' remarks at Joe Biden rally

      by

      Lady Gaga gave an impassioned message of support for Joe Biden as America heads to the polls, making reference to Donald Trump’s history of crude sexual remarks and alleged sexual assaults.“Vote like your life depends on it, or vote like your children’s lives depends on it, because they do,” she told a rally in Pennsylvania. “Everybody, no matter how you identify, now is your chance to vote against Donald Trump, a man who believes his fame gives him the right to grab one of your daughters, or sisters, or mothers or wives by any part of their bodies … Vote for Joe. He’s a good person.”Her words referred to Trump’s infamous 2005 boast that “when you’re a star, they let you do it … Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything”.Trump referred to Gaga at his own Pennsylvania rally, saying she “is not too good … I could tell you stories about Lady Gaga. I know a lot of stories.”On Sunday, Trump’s communications director Tim Murtagh tweeted: “Nothing exposes Biden’s disdain for the forgotten working men & women of PA like campaigning with anti-fracking activist Lady Gaga. This desperate effort to drum up enthusiasm is actually a sharp stick in the eye for 600,000 Pennsylvanians who work in the fracking industry.” Gaga responded: “I’m glad to be living rent free in your head.”At his Pennsylvania rally, Trump also criticised Jon Boni Jovi, Jay-Z, and LeBron James, who won the 2020 NBA championship with the LA Lakers in October. “I didn’t watch one shot, I got bored, back forth, back forth,” Trump said. “You know why? When they don’t respect our country, when they don’t respect our flag, nobody wants to watch”, a reference to the kneeling protests James and his team made on their return in July.James later endorsed Biden on Instagram, saying: “We need everything to change and it all starts tomorrow.” More