Trump Begs Questions on Elections

The fact that President Trump wants to "nationalize" elections immediately raises the question of Why? His pouting for years about his 2020 loss leaves no doubt that he wants to change something about how we conduct our elections. In his mind, he should have won, and by his words, we are to believe he wants to make these "rigged" elections more "fair."

For anyone who has better things to do than listen to whining, but is concerned about what such an openly corrupt politician might want to do, George Will has a nice primer on what is going on.

Spoiler alert: Trump is indeed up to no good. After recounting Trump's indulgence in conspiracism on the matter, Will engages with some facts:

Someone should read to him "Lost, Not Stolen," [pdf] a 2022 report by eight conservatives (two former Republican senators, three former federal appellate judges, a former Republican solicitor general, and two Republican election law specialists). They examined all 187 counts in the 64 court challenges filed in multiple states by Trump and his supporters.

Twenty cases were dismissed before hearings on their merits, 14 were voluntarily dismissed by Trump and his supporters before hearings. Of the 30 that reached hearings on the merits, Trump's side prevailed in only one, Pennsylvania, involving far too few votes to change the state's result. Trump's batting average? .016. In Arizona, the most exhaustively scrutinized state, a private firm selected by Trump's advocates confirmed Trump's loss, finding 99 additional Biden votes and 261 fewer Trump votes. [link and italics in original. Bold added.

Trump, who started his term with the sound and fury of an entire agency allegedly devoted to combating fraud and waste in government, surely has better things to spend his political capital and your tax capital on than "fixing" a clearly functional system -- if, that is, by fixing, one means "causing to work as intended."

"I just want to find 11,780 votes." -- Presdent Donald Trump

As for myself, I'll view this in light of his famously pressuring an official in Georgia to "find 11,780 votes."

-- CAV