Last Saturday, multiple media outlets confirmed Joe Biden as the projected victor of the 2020 Presidential Election. President Trump, however, was less than willing to admit defeat so easily. A plethora of lawsuits and accusations of voter fraud swelled in his Twitter feed and among his supporters. Trump has already appealed to his donors to contribute to a defense fund so he can take the cases to court. Yet, while the GOP and Trump’s base spout claims of serious fraud in certain states, the actual court cases have been less significant complaints, likely seeking to delay the counting of ballots that would affect the results. As of now, little has come of these court cases, as the Republicans lack enough specific evidence. The Department of Homeland Security has denied any kind of large-scale voter fraud, defending the election integrity measures.
Early in the counting, Trump appeared to be favoring well against Biden, but that changed once the mail-in absentee ballots began to be counted. In Pennsylvania, a pivotal battle ground state this year, Republicans argued that they should be able to observe the counting process, as they were allegedly being prevented from entering the rooms where votes were being counted. Simple transparency, they argued, would hurt no one. But as it turns out, there were in fact Republican observers present for the counting, according to Trump’s own attorneys.
Trump’s next tactic was to designate a cut-off date for votes, seeking to limit the number of mail-in ballots, which mostly consisted of votes for Biden. Trump and his team had success in this goal, getting the Supreme Court to issue an order that election officials are to separate ballots that arrived after Election Day but before Friday evening. This separation was made in case of further legal developments over the status of those votes.
Republicans have raised suspicions over large and sudden increases of Biden votes in certain states, and have specifically gone after the counting officials. Conspiracy theories have run rampant all over the Internet over how both parties have participated in large-scale fraud.
Democrats have cited the fact that they still lack the majority in the Senate as evidence that there's no coordinated voter fraud. Still, several Republicans have shown their support of investigating the fraud allegations. Attorney General William Barr authorized federal prosecutors all over the U.S. to pursue any instances of irregularities in ballot counting.
As of now there has been no concrete evidence of voter fraud brought forward. The Texan Lt. Governor, Dan Patrick, has even offered a $1 million reward for any proof of fraud. Trump and his base are currently the ones pushing the accusations, precisely because he’s losing to Biden. The current situation is reminiscent of the 2016 election, in which the Republican candidate won, and the Democratic base made accusations of election interference and large-scale national fraud.
Regardless of what the truth really is behind these claims, without proof, Trump and his team have little to work with in court to stall the outcome.
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