LEFT-CENTER BIAS FACTUAL REPORTING: VERY HIGH
- Trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election
- The President’s legal team is laying the groundwork to circumvent the vote count in battleground states
- The administration is pressuring legislators to appoint Trump loyalists as electors that will ignore a vote count contrary to a Trump victory
- Lawrence Tabas states that direct appointment of electors is one of the options available to controlling the outcome
The Election That Could Break America
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Trump’s state and national legal teams are already laying the groundwork for postelection maneuvers that would circumvent the results of the vote count in battleground states. Ambiguities in the Constitution and logic bombs in the Electoral Count Act make it possible to extend the dispute all the way to Inauguration Day, which would bring the nation to a precipice. The Twentieth Amendment is crystal clear that the president’s term in office “shall end” at noon on January 20, but two men could show up to be sworn in. One of them would arrive with all the tools and power of the presidency already in hand.
“I’ve mentioned it to them, and I hope they’re thinking about it too,” Lawrence Tabas, the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s chairman, told me. “I just don’t think this is the right time for me to be discussing those strategies and approaches, but [direct appointment of electors] is one of the options. It is one of the available legal options set forth in the Constitution.” He added that everyone’s preference is to get a swift and accurate count. “If the process, though, is flawed, and has significant flaws, our public may lose faith and confidence” in the election’s integrity.
LEFT-CENTER BIAS FACTUAL REPORTING: HIGH
The Trump campaign is reportedly 'discussing contingency plans to bypass election results'
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A Trump campaign legal adviser who spoke to The Atlantic said that in this scenario, “the state legislatures will say, 'All right, we've been given this constitutional power. We don't think the results of our own state are accurate, so here's our slate of electors that we think properly reflect the results of our state.” Lawrence Tabas, chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, also told The Atlantic he has discussed the direct appointment of electors with the Trump campaign, saying, "I've mentioned it to them, and I hope they're thinking about it too." The Trump campaign said it is "fighting for a free and fair election."
LEFT BIAS FACTUAL REPORTING: HIGH
The Trump campaign is reportedly planning a way to bypass the 2020 election results in key swing states
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In previous years, enough of the vote has been counted by Election Day for networks and newspapers to announce a winner. Importantly, the results of any election are never finalized on election night; in most places, it takes officials days or weeks to fully canvass and then certify the results.
But as more Americans this year are expected to cast mail ballots, which take longer to process and count than in-person votes, it's very likely that there won't be enough ballots counted to declare a winner on election night.
During the canvassing process, canvassing boards — which are usually composed of county-level election officials — process and tabulate not just the ballots of people who voted in person, but absentee and mail-in ballots, provisional ballots, and ballots from overseas and military voters.
LEFT-CENTER BIAS FACTUAL REPORTING: HIGH