National election results as of 12/2/20:
Joe Biden has won the presidential election with 306 electoral votes (270 needed to win). Trump lost with 232 electoral votes.
Georgia has gone through its third recount with Biden still winning and no substantial changes over the other recounts.
Popular vote, as of 12 02 20: Biden with 81,009,468 votes or 51.3% to 74,111,419 or 47% for Trump
In Michigan, Biden won 2,804,040 or 50.6% of the vote to Trump’s 2,649,852 or 47.8% of the vote.
The Democrat Gary Peters won a second term in the U.S. Senate with 2,734,568 votes or 49.9% to 2,642,233 or 48.2% votes for the Republican John James.
For more election results, see your local county or state election Website or check out Ballotpedia, an online encyclopedia of American Politics.
Without credible evidence, the Democrats in Michigan have been accused of stealing the election for Biden with fraudulent mail-in or absentee ballots. Using the same allegedly fraudulent ballots, however, the Democrats were not clever enough to steal the state House of Representatives that remains in Republican control.
Nationally, the Trump appointed Attorney General William Barr declared on 12/1/20 that the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.
President Trump declared months ago, before a single vote was cast, that if he lost the election, it would be because it was “rigged”. Without evidence, he complained that allowing voters to use Mail-in or absentee ballots would result in massive fraud. That’s his story and he's sticking to it.
Despite losing the election, Trump and the Republican Party have raised over $170 million on claims of election fraud, but the funds can be used for far more than legal challenges to elections. They can ultimately be used to pay down campaign debt, to launch a new political action committee, and to cover the personal expenses of Trump and his family. [see “Trump campaign, GOP raised at least $170 million since Election Day pushing baseless election fraud claims” by Will Steakin and Soo Rin Kim, 12/1/20 from ABC News]
One of the false claims made by the President regarding the election in Michigan, was that Michigan instituted universal mail-in voting "right in the middle of an election year." As some of you may recall, Republican and Democratic voters overwhelmingly approved changes to the state constitution that expanded absentee voting in 2018.
Despite the foofaraw over alleged election fraud at the TCF center in Detroit where absentee ballots were counted, no credible evidence of massive fraud has been found throughout numerous court challenges. Problems with vote counting in Detroit were mostly clerical errors and fewer than 500 votes were ever in question, nowhere near enough to change the results of the election. [see The DD News Blog, "2020 election misinformation and disinformation…"] The situation there became chaotic when Trump began losing his lead in Michigan to Biden. A call went out to Trump supporters to flood the TCF center. It was perfectly predictable that more Biden votes were counted later than same-day election results. Democrats had been encouraged for months to vote by mail-in or absentee ballots and Republicans were urged to vote in-person on Election Day. Absentee ballots took longer to count because they had to be handled and processed without much lead time to have been counted more quickly.
This article from Politico,"The Inside Story of Michigan’s Fake Voter Fraud Scandal" by Tim Alberta,11/24/2020, is a good summary of how Michigan became the center of national attention following the election and unsuccessful legal challenges to overthrow the results of the presidential election.
Most memorable was a statement by Aaron Van Langevelde, a Republican member of the State Board of Canvassers, made before it was clear that the Board was going to certify the vote that had already been certified locally in all of Michigan’s 83 counties:
“'We must not attempt to exercise power we simply don’t have,' declared Van Langevelde, a member of Michigan’s board of state canvassers, the ministerial body with sole authority to make official Joe Biden’s victory over Trump. 'As John Adams once said, 'We are a government of laws, not men.' This board needs to adhere to that principle here today. This board must do its part to uphold the rule of law and comply with our legal duty to certify this election.'"
I am personally tired of the drama and want this thing to be over, but I suppose it is not up to me.
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By the way, here is what real voter fraud looks like:
"Florida attorney under investigation for registering to vote in Georgia, encouraging others to do the same" by Nicole Carr, WSB-TV, 12/2/20
See more on responses to Michigan legal challenges:
"State elections director knocks down Trump claims about TCF, fraudulent vote count" by Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press,12/03/ 20
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