The Maelstrom of Violence

[pbrower2a]

It is impossible to prove a non-existent fraud. There is less shadiness in the 2020 Presidential election than there was in 2000. Still we have ways in which to define who wins and does not in accordance with the laws that include procedures for administering the election and counting the votes. In all of the states that were close there have been opportunities for both Parties to clamp down on any possibility of electoral fraud through

• tampering with machines
  
• forged ballots introduced into electoral devices
  
• falsification of voting results
  
• ineligible votes (such as by the deceased)
  
• intimidation of voters
  
• people voting in multiple places
  

This time we had a possible cheat, and it was a non-human participant: COVID-19, a literal threat to anyone who appeared at the polls. COVID-19 is about as welcome at a polling place as is an armed militia that threatens voters with such a message as "VOTE HERE AND DIE". Law enforcement could clear out a militia with such a message, but it can't remove the SARS-2 virus.

Extended time for voting and absentee ballots without excuses can not drive COVID-19 away, but it can certainly keep people from deciding to not vote. If there is any perception that COVID-19 discriminates against any ethnic minority, then states have every right to protect that minority. If it is white people -- likewise.

There were law suits by people associated with the Trump campaign, and they fell flat.  Some states had recounts as mandated by law. Those worked against Trump. 

So you tell me where the cheat was and what the cheat was. So the count came in slow?

Let's take a look at another election. Yes, it was obvious on November 4, 2008  that if Obama amassed 193 electoral votes by 11 PM he was going to win the Presidency because Obama was seen as sure to win California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington with their 77 electoral votes.  At 8:59 ET Obama had amassed 102 electoral votes. Quick calls in several states (MI, MN, NY, RI, and WI) put Obama at 175. There were plenty of states that were close and not yet called, and some yet to even close their polling. 

At 9:23 PM, about everyone concluded that the Republicans had run out of votes in Ohio, and Obama was going to win Ohio. That put Obama at 185. It's over except for waiting for the votes to come in from the West Coast. Well, we know the rest. 

It took two days to count the votes to decide North Carolina, and fifteen days to count the vote in Missouri. Slow counting is possible. Quick calls indicate that the margin is large enough that only a fool would deny the final result. Slow counts indicate a tight margin. Votes counted late (in some states the absentee ballots had to be counted last, and those paradoxically included the first ballots cast) count as much as those cast on Election Day. 

States counted their votes in different orders. Biden started out with leads in Florida, Ohio, and Texas, all of which he lost. 

Yes, yes, yes... I know that you are disappointed with the result. Well guess how I felt in 2016? Elections don't all go our way, do they? Maybe the 74 million who voted for Trump were more convinced that Trump was the necessary choice for a "real America" as you describe it and that the 81 million who voted against him acted in treachery, malice, or delusion (if that is how you see it). That is not how we decide an election.