"Consider this fun scenario……PA's GOP legislature will agree with Trump, of course, and because we can't know if the Philly vote count is any way accurate, they move to award PA's electoral votes to Trump.”
[ “BMD”s" discussed here are ballot marking devices like the Dominion ICE that Westchester just purchased and the Expressvote XL that the NYS Board of Elections is in the process of certifying. NYS’s own expert reported that the ICE was “low probability, high impact” but they certified itn anyway. And Westchester bought it anyway. It’s only “low probablitly", what could go wrong? Do we all just cross our fingers? Allegra Dengler]
[For background on the legal framework for this scenario, check out this alarming webinar: Voting & The 2020 Presidential Race https://vimeo.com/466622256/fa32765beb
During this webinar, veteran election lawyer Jerry Goldfeder will discuss constitutional and statutory provisions that govern the election process, potential court challenges over the election results, as well as the surge in mail-in ballots as a result of the ongoing pandemic.]
From Brad Friedman-
Consider this fun scenario…
1) On Election Day in Philly (which is forcing polling place voters to use BMDs this year), there are reports from some voters that the BMDs are misprinting their votes for President. Never mind that their claim can NEVER be proven one way or another on a BMD system. That doesn't matter. The reports go out on Fox "News" that votes are not printing accurately on Philadelphia's new voting system.
2) The election ends up hinging on Pennsylvania (as the Trump Campaign and others have suggested could be the case.)
3) Biden "wins" PA, thanks to the margin of the BMD votes cast in Philly.
4) Trump claims we can't know if ANY of those Philly BMD votes accurately reflect the intent of any voter, because most people don't check printouts, most don't notice a vote flip, and we KNOW that "votes have been flipping all day in Democrat-run Philadelphia". HOW ARE YOU GOING TO PROVE TRUMP WRONG?
5) You can't prove Trump wrong. There is no way to know if ANY of those votes in Philly were cast as intended, much less how many of them. (Every vote will, at that time, be 100% unverifiable.)
6) PA's GOP legislature will agree with Trump, of course, and because we can't know if the Philly vote count is any way accurate, they move to award PA's electoral votes to Trump. (Which they are Constitutionally allowed to do.)
Good luck explaining to SCOTUS how some or most of those votes shouldn't be thrown out because they are probably accurate as per voter intent, though there is ZERO way to prove it. You'll have Trump's entire second term to try and make your point and explain your math.
(Feel free to replace Georgia or Wake County, NC or a few counties in OH for Philadelphia in the above if you prefer. Feel free to include ALL of them along with Philly, for that matter.)
Brad