Warning: Trump and his Rioters can win using “The XII”Election won by Fire and Fury—and Loophole in Constitution

by Greg Palast

September 17, 2020

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Six weeks ago, I told Naomi Wolf, on air, that President Donald Trump can win via a constitutional coup d’état—via the first-ever use of the 12th Amendment. And yesterday, Trump let the cat out of the bag: he expects to invoke the 12th Amendment loophole.

He said, “You think November 3 [decides the election]….at a certain point it goes to Congress.” He was giving away what his minions must have told him: you’ll win using Amendment XII.”

Here’s what I said on August 5. (And thanks to Thom Hartmann for first warning about a “coup d’état by XII.”):

I want people to think about this carefully. For example, the Gucci Riot with Roger Stone back in 2000 where we saw $1,200 an hour consultants banging on the windows and stopping the vote count. Now we’ll get Boogaloo Boys in Hawaiian shirts with crowbars and pipes who will be smashing the buildings, Molotov cocktails thrown into post offices because our president has said there are a million ballots in these 12 Post Offices from Venezuela and we have to stop the election from being stolen.

There will be protests in the streets on both sides. We already had the test run in Portland. It’s a test run of the unmarked SUVs picking up people as if we were in Peronist Argentina.

And what I'm worried about is that, for example, the Florida legislature, you’ll have two Post Offices on fire, the Miami-Dade County Clerk’s Office is shut down because it's too dangerous to go in because of the Boogaloo Boys and the Proud Boys. Then what happens is, the rabidly Republican legislature of Florida says it's too much mayhem, we can't count the votes in time.

I expect Florida will have 6 million mail-in ballots. The GOP-controlled Florida Legislature will say, we can't count them in time, so we're not going to certify the election.

Republicans, who control the legislature, of Michigan, will also say, “We can't certify the election.”

Imagine: Detroit is in flames and Milwaukee's in flames. They won't certify the results.

So, you have three Republican legislatures say it's mayhem in the streets, it’s martial law, we've had curfews, we can't count the ballots. Therefore, there will be no certification. As a result, no candidate gets 270 votes in the Electoral College because they don't send the electors.

Real simple: you don't certify the election, you can't send your electors, no one gets 270 electoral votes. Then, under the 12th Amendment it goes to the House.

But it's not Nancy Pelosi who makes the decision. Each state gets a single vote. Wyoming gets the same vote as New York, and Donald Trump is reelected — constitutionally — because our cities are in flames.

What’s the solution? Massive in-person early voting.
Go mid-week when there are no lines.
Bring mask, gloves, sanitizer, ID and resolve.

The Nightmare Scenario That Keeps Election Lawyers Up At Night — And Could Hand Trump A Second Term

Paul Blumenthal: "A dynamic known as the “Blue Shift” already has shown that ballots counted after an election day tend to favor Democratic candidates, as their voters are more likely to cast provisional ballots in-person or return their absentee ballots closer to the receipt deadline….Combine the existing “Blue Shift” with the pandemic-induced jump in absentee voting and it becomes clear that a great divergence could emerge between the Nov. 3 returns and the actual final tally when late-arriving absentee and provisional ballots are counted. Trump could easily go to bed with a lead in key states based on an incomplete tally on election night and wake up to see that lead eroding based on the totally normal counting of valid ballots ― a “red mirage,” as one political consultant called it in an interview with Axios.

...During the 2000 recount in Florida, Republican operatives contrived protests, including the infamous Brooks Brothers Riot, to pressure state election officials to stop counting ballots. Democrats have already said they will not cede protest activity to the GOP, as they did in 2000….But right-wing protests that have emerged in support of Trump during his term in office don’t look like the work of astroturfing staffers dressed in the attire of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite. He has the backing of a broad network of heavily-armed militia groups, far-right street-fighting gangs, white supremacists and a pseudo-religious cult that believes Trump is a demigod operating in secret to prevent the apocalypse."

Biden Creates Legal War Room, Preparing for a Big Fight Over Voting

NEW YORK TIMES:"Mr. Trump’s talk of fraud drew a notable Republican rebuke last week, when Benjamin L. Ginsberg, one of the party’s top elections lawyers for decades, wrote a scathing Washington Post op-ed article…."The president’s rhetoric has put my party in the position of a firefighter who deliberately sets fires to look like a hero putting them out,” Mr. Ginsberg wrote, adding, “Calling elections ‘fraudulent’ and results ‘rigged’ with almost nonexistent evidence is antithetical to being the ‘rule of law’ party.””

Carter Centre to launch first-ever US election initiative, citing ‘erosion’ of democracy

The Independent: "The democracy promotion organisation founded by former president Jimmy Carter is to launch its first United States election initiative this year, citing an “erosion” of democracy in the country. ...the centre has prioritised countries where there is “a significant potential for an important change in the quality of democracy”, or where democracy is “under severe threat”.“

How to Save 2020: The Grassroots Emergency Election Protection "Trifecta" Action Guide 

Harvey Wasserman 14 August 20 “The 2020 election is not likely to be cancelled or postponed. But it CAN be sabotaged or stolen. It will not be enough this year merely to register and vote. Nowhere near…..Those hoping for a fair outcome in the fall must NOW join election boards, become poll workers and poll watchers, and more. Wherever possible, all citizens committed to American democracy must be present for every aspect of the 2020 election process, including the post-election ballot counting and recounting. “

New Voting Machines May Help With Early Voting But Advocates Say They Could Undermine Ranked-Choice Voting

The Expressvote XL is not only undermines ranked-choice voting, but would undermine election security. Read Common Cause New York’s report, and sign their petition: The ExpressVote XL Machine: Bad for New York’s Elections.

https://www.commoncause.org/new-york/resource/express-vote-xl-voting-machines-are-bad-for-new-york/

Allegra Dengler

A “war game” that tried to simulate the 2020 transition ended in violence.

Vox…" key flaws in our electoral system, ranging from the rickety 18th-century design of the presidential election system to our modern plague of hyperpartisanship. ... make the electoral system particularly vulnerable to a catastrophic collapse in 2020 — and some of them could still be addressed before it’s too late….Legislators in key electoral states need to “affirm [in advance] the process they’re going to use” to count votes and challenge results so everyone can agree on how to proceed after Election Day….”[New York is especially vulnerable to drawn-out vote counts since the only way for a “losing” candidate to get a recount is to sue, even if they lose by only a handful of votes. A lawsuit can drag on for months. Legislation mandating automatic recounts if the vote count is close is bogged down in Albany. Gov Cuomo authorized automatic recounts in close races for 2021, but nothing is protecting New York from a post-election nightmare this November.

The Post Office Is Deactivating Mail Sorting Machines Ahead of the Election

The Post Office Is Deactivating Mail Sorting Machines Ahead of the Election

New York must have ballot boxes or drive-through lanes for dropping off ballots for those who might not have confidence that the post office will be there for them. Trump appointee and USPS critic Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is making "drastic changes on the eve of the presidential election in which the USPS will play a critical role.”

Allegra Dengler

Vote-By-Mail Worries Mount As Election Nears

HuffPo— "The rapid introduction of new technologies and processes in state voting systems heightens the risk of foreign interference and insider tampering. That’s true even if simple human error or local maneuvering for political advantage are more likely threats.”

Note: Westchester just passed a bond for new hackable technology, the Dominion ICE voting machines, just in time for the November elections. If this concerns you, take action at this link:

Ask County Executive George Latimer to #VetoTheBond. Send your letter now!

Opponents cited state and national groups that questioned the security of the Dominion ICE system that was selected by the county Board of Elections from those machines certified by the state Board of Elections. Legislator Catherine Parker, D-Rye, noted that legislators on the state and federal level have bills pending that would ban the technology used by the Dominion ICE machines, which critics say could be susceptible to hacking.

Ransomware continues to be election-security fear for local officials 

The 2020 presidential election has already been upended by a disastrous pandemic that’s forced states to re-evaluate the methods by which people will vote this year. But election administrators, especially at the local level, must still contented with digital threats, like ransomware attacks, that could potentially disrupt voting infrastructure and create chaos on or after Nov. 3, county officials were warned last week during a webinar. The hour-long event, hosted by the National Association of Counties, laid out what a ransomware attack could do to a county’s ability to safely and accurately carry out an election. Ryan Macias, a former technology specialist with the federal Election Assistance Commission who is now an election security consultant to the Department of Homeland Security, laid out a pair of unsettling scenarios. “Picture it being National Voter Registration Day, Sept. 22, and your entire voter registration database is locked up,” he said. “Picture [on Nov. 3] that you’re getting to 8 p.m., close of polls, and you see a message that says: ‘Your system is locked up and you have no results for this election unless you pay us a ransom.'”

Study finds election officials vulnerable to cyberattacks

Quote: The Hill "“The disparate approaches to cybersecurity by state, local and county officials is such that should a cybersecurity incident occur in one small town, whether in a ‘battleground state’ or not, even if statistically insignificant, could cause troubling ripple effects that erode confidence in results across the entire country,” the researchers wrote in the report. “

Election Security Forum -- 7/28, 7:00 pm

Something we don't like to think about, but we must

From our friends at SmartElections.US:

You are passionate about what's happening in the world around you. You want be powerful and create change. You research the issues, contribute to the dialogue, participate in your community – and most importantly – you vote. Not only do you vote – you reach out and make sure others are voting as well.

But: is your vote being counted? And is it being counted for the candidate and the issues that you support? That is much harder to know. We need to become informed.

A month later, this New York City primary is still a train wreck and a warning to us all

Washington Post: "According to data from the BOE first published by the Intercept, up to 1 in 5 mail-in ballots were declared invalid before even being opened, based on mistakes with their exterior envelopes. The majority of mistakes are due to missing or late postmarks, and missing signatures. Preliminary numbers from the BOE show an invalidation rate of 19 percent in both Manhattan and Queens and 28 percent in Brooklyn, just in this district. That rate, if applied to all of Brooklyn, would equate to 34,000 ballots thrown out, in a borough with the city’s largest population of black residents.

"By comparison, in Wisconsin and Georgia, two primaries considered to be chaotic, the mail-in ballot rejection rate was 1.8 and 3 percent, respectively…
"All the action in their contest is focused on the count, and it is something out of a dystopian thriller about office tedium….The pace is equivalent to watching a sloth eat bark….
"The governor’s executive order called for the ballots to have business-class postage-paid return envelopes. In a normal year, voters provide their own stamp, which is considered first-class mail and always postmarked. ,,, It is not standard,.. to postmark the type of business-class mail used in New York’s primary election."

Testimony to the Weschester County Board of Legislators July 13 Jarret Berg, VoteEarlyNY

Some key points:

"Thank you for hosting this important Joint Meeting to discuss election administration in Westchester and for organizing the Election Information Gathering Task Force to receive feedback from the community about their voting experience in recent elections. I want to recognize your leadership in that regard. The voter access policies, siting, and resourcing decisions that impact our fundamental civil rights are too often shrouded in secrecy and generally lack accountability under New York’s still-antiquated Election Law.

...the countywide access and timely public designation and publicity of the plan, WBOE was drastically out of compliance in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020.8 Because WBOE has not yet indicated it will change course, we must lay out and defend these laws here.

… it would be disingenuous in the extreme and irresponsible for us to collectively shrug at these circumstances and attribute the vast and pervasive array of administrative irregularities,lack of transparency, statutory non-compliance, training issues, and questionable resourcing that have plagued Westchester elections for as long as we can remember, and particularly those issues that preexisted the Pandemic.

...at each turn it appears some counties have no inclination or ability to abide by New York State Board of Elections reporting deadlines and that when local boards miss filing deadlines little investigatory,enforcement, or corrective action is taken, including with respect to chronic patterns of noncompliance,nor is action taken to assure the public that these violations won’t be repeated. For this reason alone, state and local lawmakers and the Attorney General should take an active role.”

Testimony of VoteEarlyNY
presented to the
Westchester Board of Legislators Joint Meeting of the
Committees on Budget & Appropriations, Law & Major Contracts and Public Works
July 13, 2020

Contact:Jarret Berg, Esq., Co-Founder, VoteEarlyNY
Jarret.berg@VoteEarlyNY.org

Meeting with Election Commissioners on Voting Improvements Wednesday, July 29 at 10 a.m.

Meeting with Election Commissioners on Voting Improvements Wednesday, July 29 at 10 a.m.

FROM THE WESTCHESTER COUNTY BOARD OF LEGISLATORS

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The Westchester County Board of Legislators will convene a Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting on Wednesday, July 29 at 10 a.m. to hear from the Commissioners of the County's Board of Elections (BOE) about how to improve voting conditions in November in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pursuant to Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 202.1, as extended, in order to protect public health and maintain necessary social distancing, the meeting will take place without in-person public access, but, as with all our public meetings, the proceedings will be streamed live and archived on our website, www.westchesterlegislators.com.

A live link to the stream will appear on the Upcoming Events section of our online meeting calendar at https://westchestercountyny.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=1 when the meeting begins.