Tuesday November 3 2020
Election Day
“… because the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged; remember that.”
President Trump in August 2020
Fraudulent, faked, and rigged results are what our president, in his own words, is most worried about, a sentiment he continually shares with his followers. He’s been planting this seed of doubt for several months now, with one particular tweet describing an imaginary scene of wrong-doers gathered in someone’s living room filling out thousands and thousands of fraudulent ballots. Experts in such matters report that mail-in ballot fraud is “very rare,” especially in the volume as our president suggests.
Meanwhile, our nation is preparing for another hunker down as riots and violence is being predicted. If Trump loses this election, there is a population of hyped up followers that are ready to take to the streets in protest of what they believe to be a rigged election. New York City is seeing storefront businesses board up their showroom windows in anticipation of violence.
I voted by mail, carefully filling out every box and line to ensure my vote will be valid. I checked this morning on the VoteOhio website and confirmed my “ballot has been received and is being included in the election results.” Don voted in person this morning at the polls.
We’ve fulfilled our responsibility to be active participants in electing the next leaders of our municipality, county, state, and, of course, the President of the United States for the next four years.
And now we wait for the results.
And the aftermath.
Update November 18 2020
Joe Biden was voted in and is now our President-elect. I’m glad to say the post-election riots never happened.
The talk of an uprising and rioting was certainly just media hype, but we also have the fact that President Trump refuses to concede that he lost to Joe Biden. Trump has double-downed on his claims of fraudulent results and has his legal team filing lawsuits against some of the states where Biden won.
So Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have been under pressure to prove everything was done both within legal guidelines and correctly. Which is actually a good thing, right? If there’s been fraud, let’s identify it. But alternatively, if the results are indeed correct, we can have confidence that our voting systems are sound.
So far, there have been some anecdotal findings involving small numbers of ballots, but nothing that will change the outcome of the election.
This was a close election, real close. Joe Biden will step into the office with a good percentage of the nation believing he stole the election.
The chasm widens.
Donnatopia 