The Presidential Election: A Work in Process

November 10, 2020

The media must be awfully forgiving. After four years of hammering home how suspect our election process is -- how vulnerable it is to meddling and interference -- they're suddenly comfortable with it. What happened to the talking heads who insisted that tech glitches had impacted the Midwest votes in 2016? Or that our online systems had been hacked? Like magic, their suspicions have vanished. Now, despite six states' worth of questions and a mail-in system that's ripe for more abuse, Americans realize: the only ones trying to influence the election are the ones who aren't interested in counting the legal votes.

The American people, it turns out, are completely united on that front. The day before the election, a Hill/Harris X poll found almost unanimous support -- 85 percent -- across the parties for an exhaustive process to confirm the outcome. Asked whether the priority should be counting the legal votes or having the results "as soon as possible," only 15 percent were in favor of what we're seeing play out in the news media today. Look, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, "The media do not get to determine who the president is. The people do." We'll know who the winner is, he went on, "when all lawful votes have been counted, recounts finished, and allegations of fraud addressed." In the meantime, what's the rush? What does Joe Biden possibly have to gain by claiming victory if half the country doesn't believe it?

Back in 2000, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said on "Washington Watch," "the Democrats felt extremely comfortable with Al Gore having 37 days." Then, as in now, the most important thing was making sure Americans could trust the process. Right now, 71 million voters are watching this unfold and wondering, like Louie is, how did President Trump's coattails help the state legislature, the House Republicans, and Senate, and "not elect the guy in the coat?"

"I've talked to some of the attorneys handling the suits for the president," he explained, "...and there are numerous grounds for having a recount -- and not just because the margin of error, that's a basis for a recount. But there are so many improprieties and anomalies and things that just can't physically happen." Other people, like Victor Davis Hanson, are just frustrated that this many Americans even found the stomach to vote for Joe Biden at all. "There was massive voter fraud. I believe that. But nonetheless, this shouldn't even have been close--the margins in places like Michigan or Wisconsin, even Minnesota or Pennsylvania -- given what [President Trump] had done for the country."

For now, at least, the wheels of justice are churning. U.S. Attorney General William Barr has agreed to investigate Republicans' concerns -- where appropriate. Making it clear that states are the lead dog when it comes to supervising elections, he did say that DOJ has "an obligation to ensure that federal elections are conducted in such a way that the American people can have full confidence in their electoral process and their government." Before any states certify their results, he authorized his team to "pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities." Maybe it won't be of a scale to impact the outcome of the election, Barr said, but that's not a good reason to ignore it.

His state counterparts are also going on offense. Ten of them -- state attorneys general in Ohio, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, South Dakota, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, and Oklahoma -- are now signed on to the legal challenge in Pennsylvania. "The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision overstepped its constitutional responsibility, encroached on the authority of the Pennsylvania legislature, and violated the plain language of the Election Clauses," they write. In the state's own legislature, members are demanding an audit of the votes. And no wonder. Right now, there are about 100,000 votes out of 150 million cast deciding states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Nevada. If this were Joe Biden, trailing by such a small margin, we would be dealing with the exact same scenario -- except for one thing. The media, ever eager to delegitimize Trump, would never have called the election.

"Let's have no lectures," Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told his colleagues on the Senate floor, "about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept the preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election... The core principle here is not complicated. In the United States of America, all legal ballots must be counted; any illegal ballots must not be; the process should be transparent and observable by all sides, and the courts are here to work through concerns.

Our institutions are built for this. We have the system in place to consider concerns. And President Trump is 100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options... And if Democrats feel confident [he has no case], they should no reason to fear extra scrutiny."

** Tune in tomorrow, Wednesday, November 11, at 8:00 p.m. (ET) for a special time of prayer with former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, Pastor Gary Hamrick, and me as we collectively seek God on behalf of our nation and ask His guidance and protection over the election process as it continues to unfold. Join FRC and believers around the country at PrayVoteStand.org. **