Amy Barrett Lights Trump’s Election Theft Fire

 

-by Harvey Wasserman

Team Trump’s latest Court coup has lit the fire on his 2020 coup d’etat. With Amy Barrett joining her John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh co-conspirators, The Donald is set to steal the election. They all did it before in Bush vs Gore.

With Barrett, three of the seated Supremes were direct conspirators in the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision that gave George W. Bush the White House despite his losing the popular vote.

As of right now, with the all-but-certain compliance of Supremes Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito, and with the agreement of enough Republican-held state legislatures, there is no legal barrier to Trump’s second term, no matter what the voters say.

In real terms, the only practical wall against such a coup might be a massive anti-Trump national vote-- but it would have to be overwhelming enough to make his would-be dictatorship politically unsustainable.

As for the Constitutional path, the road has been cleared. The calculation is simple.

Under the original Constitution, the power to choose electors to the Electoral College that chooses the President rests with the state legislatures. In fact, in diminishing numbers, they did that from the 1789 selection of George Washington to the popular election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 (who won the presidency in a four-way race with less than 40% of the vote).

By then the rise of grassroots democratic sentiment had redefined the young nation. The choice of electors was transferred to popular state-by-state votes, to which the legislatures deferred. But they never formally surrendered.

A gumbo of customs and laws includes the 1887 Electoral Choice Act and the 12th, 14th, 20th and 25th Amendments. Armies of lawyers, scholars, high-paid advisors and dirty tricksters (hired to create chaos) have struggled to find consensus. Any number will give you a “definitive” answer.

But, as in Bush v. Gore, confusion and contention are Trump’s ultimate allies. He can win merely by denying clarity and thereby getting the final word to his Supreme Court.

It goes like this:

Biden is highly likely to win an overwhelming popular majority.

In anticipation, Trump has been screaming since 2016 that this election will be a fraud. His “trifecta” of stripped voter rolls, subverted early voting and vote by mail, and a flipped electronic vote count has been set to guarantee just that.

How deeply he can cut into the final tally of the massive public rejection coming at him remains to be seen. No matter how it goes, he will be kicking and screaming that it is fraudulent.

From there, his bar is very low. He only needs to throw enough swing states into chaos to deny Biden the needed 270 electoral votes. He does that through state legislatures ready to step in and trash the public will.

That stage was set in 2010, when a team of Koch Brother Tricksters used limitless dark money to take gerrymandered state legislatures deep into the Republican swamp. Majorities and super-majorities emerged in 29 states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Iowa, Kentucky and others.

With the least excuse, any or all could cite “fraud” and “irregularities” while trashing the popular vote and appointing Electoral College delegations for Trump.

There are many complications between that and the coronation. You can Google endless legal tracts on most of them. But for Trump, just getting it to the Supreme Court means game over.

Until the ram-rodded appointment of Barrett, there seemed a glimmer that John Roberts might jump ship, deadlocking the Court at 4-4.

But Roberts, Kavanaugh and Barrett all did legal work for Bush v. Gore in Florida 2000. Clarence Thomas actually voted for it. And extreme conservatives Samuel Alito and Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch are unlikely to flinch.

So where does that leave the popular will?

If a Biden landslide is big enough, Trump could run short of states to steal. Claiming overridable chaos in tight races may be do-able in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.

But as Barak Obama showed in 2008 and 2012, there are limits. Even in an absurd, obsolete, thoroughly corrupted electoral system like America 2020, there are numbers beyond which Trump (who went bankrupt four times) may be unable to tread.

And thus the outcome of this election can be simply summarized: If Trump loses by big enough margins in more states than he can get his vassal legislatures to steal short of 270, his clear path to dictatorship becomes impassible.

If such an election can be fairly tabulated while denying the Supreme Court the final word, he loses.

But to do that, millions of citizens must be reinstated to the voter rolls; their ballots must be protected one-by-one at thousands of tables within the local election boards; the electronic scanning machines that will tally the votes must be saved from hacking.

None of this is rocket science. We have (hopefully) learned some hard lessons since Florida 2000.

But this coming week demands the absolute focus of everyone and anyone who cares about living in a democracy, or on a sustainable planet.






History Professor and author Harvey Wasserman co-convenes the Grassroots Emergency Election Protection Coalition. His People’s Spiral of US History awaits Trump’s departure at Solartopia.

Trump Plans To Win 6-3 Or 5-4… In Overtime

 

From Newsmax

-by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Trump's Kampf (German for struggle) has been clear since before he got in the White House:

Endlessly scream Big Lies about a “fake” election.

Pack the Court with flunkies, culminating with Amy Barrett.

Create chaos in the swing states.

Use gerrymandered TrumpCult state legislatures to override the popular vote (see below for the 1887 Electoral Count Act).

Sabotage the Electoral College past its “Safe Harbor” date. Let all the deadlines pass.

Get the whole mess in front of the Trump-owned Supreme Court. Win either 6-3 or 5-4, depending on a wavering John Roberts.

The stage was set in 2010, when the Koch Brothers gerrymandered fascist legislatures into 29 states, including Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and other Electoral College pivots.

In a well-funded covert operation known as the Redmap Coup, GOP agents took state power throughout the US. The Obama Democrats said and did nothing (see David Daley’s Ratf**ked).





Since 2016, Trump has screeched that millions of Mexicans swam the Rio Grande to vote for Hillary Clinton. Defeated by obvious election thefts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, Clinton said and did nothing.

From 2010 to now, GOP Dirty Tricksters have filched a thousand elected offices, including at least six US Senate seats and those three on the Supreme Court. The Democrats have said and done nothing.

A Florida referendum decisively re-enfranchised more than a million ex-felons, only to be trashed by a governor and legislature empowered in a stolen 2018 election.

Nationwide, the TrumpCult has stripped some 17 million citizens from the voter rolls.

It has budgeted $20 million for 50,000 armed White Supremacist militias to intimidate voters.

It has assaulted vote-by-mail, gutted the US Postal Service, obliterated drop boxes, misdirected voters, subverted ballots, intimidated citizens, trashed precincts, sabotaged reception and recount deadlines, and done all else possible to sabotage this year’s vote count.

Inside the voting centers, they’re disqualifying countless ballots without significant opposition from the supine Democrats.

And they’re sabotaging digital scanners set to count virtually all of 2020’s ballots, illegally destroying electronic ballot images, which can supply an accurate vote count quickly and easily.

Instead, in virtually any state, those machines (many linked to the internet) could be hacked to produce any tally the TrumpCult might want.

Trump does face significant opposition.

Polls showing a massive public rejection may understate the power of 86 million millennials who generally despise Trump, but have been slow to vote. Their younger Gen Z siblings also hate him, but are just starting to come to the polls.

Overall, Trump’s imperial white misogynist hate-base is on a demographic death march. Whites will soon be a minority in this country. A strong woman of color like Kamela Harris-- a “monster” in Trump’s eyes-- embodies their worst nightmare... and the tangible future they will fight to resist.

So the Millennial/Z’s diverse, tolerant, Solartopian mega-generation must flood the polls to overcome Trump’s election theft breakwater.

To start, as elders shun infectious voting centers, Millennial/Zs may transform the ranks of poll workers.

The epic shift to vote-by-mail and early voting is at last moving our elections away from hackable electronic touchscreens and onto hand-marked paper ballots.

With protected chains of custody and preserved digital images, we could get quick, accurate, reliable vote counts.

But tens of millions of youthful voters must arise, especially in the gerrymandered swing states.

Only overwhelming margins like those run up by Obama in 2008 and 2012-- at least 5%, probably more-- can prevent these fascist legislatures from voiding the popular vote and sticking Trump delegations into the Electoral College.

That means winning the 2020 Trifecta by restocking the registration rolls, protecting early voting and vote-by-mail, and preserving the digital vote count.

Otherwise, amidst the choreographed chaos, by a count of 6-3 or 5-4, Donald Trump will become President for Life.

Postscript: The Electoral Count Act of 1887

The US Constitution gives legislatures the power to choose their state’s Electoral College delegations, no matter what the public wants.

This became an issue when the 1876-1877 election devolved into the kind of chaos Trump aims to create this year.

Democrat Samuel Tilden got 250,000 more votes than Rutherford B. Hayes, whose Republicans stole enough Electoral College votes to force a five-month stalemate. Hayes finally cut a deal to end southern Reconstruction, disenfranchising the African-American population.

Ten years later, the Electoral Count Act set a “safe harbor” date-- this year an entirely unworkable December 8-- by which legislatures must certify their state’s Electoral College delegation. The role of the state governors is murky and untested.

An obvious Trump strategy would be to sabotage state vote counts and delay definitive tallies beyond the legal deadline. The Roberts-Kavanaugh-Barrett “Brooks Brothers Mob” did that in 2000 by physically assaulting Florida’s recount, allowing the Supreme Court to throw the election to George W. Bush.

This year, Trump could repeat history in Florida (not to mention Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and/or Arizona) delaying the certification of enough Electoral votes to deny Biden the presidency, even if he wins the popular vote by many millions.

Electoral votes must be delivered to the Vice President by December 23. On January 6, a joint session of the newly-elected Congress counts them, with a dizzying array of variables in between.

Any Senator can join with a Representative to force a closed two-hour joint session evaluating any state’s Electoral College delegation.

In 2001, then-VP Al Gore prevented the Congressional Black Caucus from challenging the Florida delegation that had been seated by armed thugs who got the Supreme Court to stop the Florida recount. Gore also stopped Rev. Jesse Jackson from staging a national demonstration demanding the popular vote be honored.

In 2005, with then-VP Dick Cheney presiding, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) joined Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Cleveland) to challenge Ohio’s fraudulent delegation. Congress didn’t care. Bush got a second term.

This year, Trump has his armed White Supremacists-- his Hitlerian Brown Shirts-- on “standby.”  Their orders are to create chaos at the polls and in the vote count.  The country’s laws are antiquated, contradictory, often incomprehensible.

But Trump's “November Surprise” bottom line is obvious: delay the vote counts, hijack the state legislatures, steal the Electoral College delegations, get it all to his “safe harbor” Supremes, who will crown him 6-3 or 5-4... or at least try.

Because the key questions have now become:

Could a huge popular landslide prevent this coup from happening?  How big does it need to be?  How much election protection will it require?

What (if anything) will the Democrats do about all this?

And, most importantly...what will YOU do about it?


 

 
 
  -------------------------


Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman co-wrote The Strip & Flip Disaster of America’s Stolen Elections, which resides at www.freepress.org along with Bob’s Fitrakis Files.

Trump Would be America’s Hitler

 

-by Harvey Wasserman

As The Donald unleashes his inner Adolf,  there must be no illusions about what we face.

Through his COVID/drug-induced madness (like Hitler's addiction to crystal meth) Trump’s  White Supremacism incites his violent fascist cadres. It’s all a terrifying re-run of Adolf’s rise to power in 1933 Germany.

The terror is escalating at the voting centers, inside and out. The Brown Shirts have blocked voter access at Alexandria, Virginia. Inside they pitch ballots on whatever pretext they can find.

This is  the most critical juncture of the election-- where an election board decides whether to disallow mailed-in ballots.

Prepare to see them gather when the votes are counted.

Trump’s fascist rhetoric has sunk to a whole new level in demanding the arrest of his electoral opponent, Joe Biden. No other major party candidate has done that, not even Dick Nixon. Given AG Barr’s sycophantic contempt for the rule of law, take this threat at face value. Terrified of any strong woman of color, Trump has called VP candidate Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) a “monster.”

Yelling at right-wing militia groups to “liberate Michigan,” he’s got nothing to say about the armed fascist alleged plan kidnap duly-elected governor Gretchen Whitmer. Got that? Kidnap the Governor of a major state!!

At the Mexican border, stealth sterilizations mirror what Hitler did to Jewish, Roma, and eastern European women.

Many of these refugees have come here fleeing Latin American dictatorships installed and maintained by US forces.  Some are U.S. citizens. Their children are held in cages.

All face Trump's COVID. None will get anything resembling his multi-million-dollar medical care we pay for. Death and disease rates are state secrets.

Hidden from the public and media, those who’ve seen the camps compare them compare them to Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, and other Nazi concentration camps.

Journalists, labor organizers, feminists, LGBTQ individuals, and progressive activists might remember that Hitler used such camps to “settle scores” once he consolidated power, a virtual inevitability with Barr by Trump’s side.

Like his racist, anti-semitic, Klan-lovting father, The Donald openly touts the “good genes” of his white followers. He attacks African-American, Mexican-American, and other citizens and immigrants of color as “murderers” and “rapists.”

Trump openly lauds Hitler's “racehorse theory,” arguing that human beings can be selectively bred like animals to produce a Master Race.

Here’s what Trump seig-heiled to a virtually all-white crowd in Bemidji, Minnesota, on September 18:

“You have good genes, you know that, right? ou have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it? Don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.”

Says Rabbi Mark Diamond, a senior lecturer on Jewish studies at Loyola Marymount University: “To hear these remarks said at a rally in an election campaign for the presidency is beyond reprehensible...

“This is at the heart of Nazi ideology. This has brought so much tragedy and destruction to the Jewish people and to others. It’s actually hard to believe in 2020 we have to revisit these very dangerous theories.”

Steve Silberman, a best-selling New York Times author, adds: “As a historian who has written about the Holocaust, I’ll say bluntly: This is indistinguishable from the Nazi rhetoric that led to Jews, disabled people, LGBTQ, Romani and others being exterminated. This is America 2020. This is where the GOP has taken us.”

At Trump’s core is contempt for what Hitler called “Jewish values”: compassion, empathy, remorse-- democracy itself. As reported by his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, Trump thinks such beliefs (like science) are for “losers” and “suckers.”  “You’re brutal people, not nice people at all,” he once told a room full of Israel supporters, referring to how Jews allegedly do business.

Trump’s backers love his ties to Jews like Cohen; his mobster mentor Roy Cohn; his son-in-law and fellow real estate grifter, Jared Kushner; consigliere Stephen Miller; and mega-backer Sheldon Adelson. His daughter has converted to Judaism, they say. His grandchildren are technically Jewish.

They might remember that Hitler personally signed waivers saving at least 77 Jewish officers who were useful to him while serving in the Nazi Army. Then he exterminated many of their families.

 

Some still dismiss Trump as a mere Mussolini, calling him a “clown,” as did many American journalists when they first encountered Hitler.

They ignore his utter lack of care for the 220,000-plus Americans who’ve died from his denial of the deadly realities of the coronavirus.

Trump’s hard-core followers suffer no such delusions. They proudly flaunt their swastika flags and Nazi tattoos. They happily salute him as der Fuhrer and loudly hate both Jews and people of color.

These are the “fine people,” who killed Heather Heyer in Charlottesville. This is the “hero” 17-year-old who killed two peaceful demonstrators in Wisconsin (imagine if that kid had been black, how quickly the cops would’ve shot him to pieces, and what Trump would be saying about him now).

Now he’s urged his Proud Boy storm troopers to “stand back and stand by” in anticipation of a coming coup.

Approaching humankind’s most consequential election since 1933, Yale historian Timothy Snyder warns: “That the next atrocity will be different than the last one is not a reason to let it happen. It will be ours, and we have been warned.”

Our Election Protection campaign has become a terminal life/death struggle for our nation and our species.

It will take every ounce of our collective solidarity and strength to defeat Trump’s Hitlerian madness. Our survival demands we shed all illusions about what we face.

Never Again!!

-------------


Harvey Wasserman co-convenes the Grassroots Election Protection Coalition Monday zoom (www.grassrootsep.org). His California Solartopia broadcasts at KPFK/Pacifica 90.7 fm Los Angeles; Green Power & Wellness podcasts at prn.fm. His People’s Spiral of US History awaits Trump’s departure at www.solartopia.org.

Viral Trump Infects the Planet—-Who Has the Cure???

 

-by Harvey Wasserman

“When Trump entered the White House, I began to believe in Satan; when the virus got him, I began to believe in God”
- Ancient Folk Saying

Is Trump Done?

As a morbidly obese 74-year-old, he lip-smacks the core of the COVID’s favorite demographic.

His Evangelical Death Cult still loves his rapist, mobster self as a Lordly trickster, sent down to shutter the feminist uterus and shoot infidels of color.

The virus hit Britain’s Boris Johnson and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro. Both were weakened. Neither faced an election a month away.

Trump might live a long and thoroughly impaired life. Progressives must pray he sticks around at least until November 4.

Deep in his karmic gut he bears the burden of 207,000 humans he helped kill, the millions he got infected and the countless more he personally sickened (as at his recent rally in Cleveland and fundraiser in New Jersey and jaunt around town in his limo and Supreme Court reception, etc. etc.). He refused to wear a mask and trashed those who do.

Now even Melania suffers?

But there’s nothing more dangerous (or unpredictable) than a cornered beast, even one reeling from the virus.

No more “debates.” No mass rallies. No fawning sky pilots touting his Divinity. How will Trump’s Death Cult strike back, now that he’s ordered it to “stand by?”

He may be drinking bleach, mainlining hydroxychloroquine, running infrared lights up his veins. But he’s a god no more.

In 1919 the “Spanish Flu” that killed 675,000 Americans stroked out Trump’s fellow KKK racist, Woodrow Wilson, whose wife hid his dementia until he left the White House in a daze.

In 1974 Dick Nixon traded his escape for a pardon from VP Ford; it cost Gerry the 1976 election.

If he lives through November 3, Trump will lose a fair 2020 vote count. His debacle debate and coup talk and now his illness have freaked the uber-rich who value stability above all (see The Lincoln Project).

But that can’t stop him from flipping the table… or pushing the button. Do his doctors have the nuclear football? Will Kushner auction it off to Putin or the Saudis to pay off the Trump debt?

The planet has probably never been in greater peril.

Time is short. These monsters would rather blow up the Earth than lose an election.

If he gets his wits about him, he’ll blackmail Pence for his pardon, claim illness and leave a winne... or at least a non-loser...for which there’s no quid pro quo to the quintessential narcissist.

If it happens quick, could Pence then beat Biden?

That would depend on election protection.

The Trump cult has always pushed a dictatorial trifecta: stripping the voter rolls, trashing vote-by-mail and early voting, then flipping the vote count.

His bully fascists are already up in arms.

But a national election protection movement has risen to resist. (www.grassrootsep.org) Remembering Florida 2000, Ohio 2004 and Wisconsin-Michigan-Pennsylvania 2016—-be it Trump or Pence, by election theft or coup d’etat—-our lives depend on protecting what little is left of our tattered democracy.

Those mythical middle-aged midwestern mid-roaders won’t do it.

This election—- and the future of this country—- will turn on how many millennials come out to vote, work the polls, protect the outcome. A Democrat promise to abolish student debt and re-green the planet would help.

But the millions who marched for George Floyd MUST show up to beat an attempted coup, COVID or otherwise. 2020 must mark a major generational shift.

The Democrats must also deny Trump’s corrupt appointment to RBG’s pivotal Supreme Court seat (there are ample procedural ways to do it; we MUST guarantee they do).

They could start by impeaching Trump, or finding some other way to ascertain his true health, then forcing the Senate through the procedural Hell it so richly deserves.

While that sickening Supreme Court nomination gets run out of time.

Remember: there’s ALWAYS that screaming movie moment when the beast seems dead….then leaps for the jugular.

Until he’s gone from the White House, on a stretcher, with his respirator, pardon in hand, with RBG’s Supreme seat on hold til ’21, Trump and his satanic beasts pose the ultimate death threat to both American democracy and the human species.

This and all future elections must be protected. The race to Solartopia must be won. The Millennials must take their rightful place.

Momala Nature may offering us one final smile, a karmic opening we dare not refuse.

Can we grab and hold it?

—————————-



Harvey Wasserman co-convenes the Monday Grassroots Emergency Election Protection zoom(www.grassrootsep.org) dissecting vote theft. His People’s Spiral of US History awaits Trump’s departure at www.solartopia.org. California Solartopia airs at KPFK/Pacifica-Los Angeles; Green Power & Wellness podcasts at prn.fm. A version of this piece was originally published at www.rsn.org.

After Election Protection, Is A General Strike the Way to Beat a Trump Coup?

 

-by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Donald Trump has made it clear he will not peacefully relinquish power after the coming election, no matter what the outcome.

To get him out of the White House, it may take the ultimate non-violent action: a nationwide general strike.

Trump says he’ll brand any legitimate vote count that shows him losing to be “fraudulent” and proclaim himself emperor for life.

He’ll push to fill RBG’s Supreme Court seat before the election to give himself a solid majority there should he lose it in the popular vote.

Until it reaches that point, those opposing his permanent dictatorship face an apocalyptic trifecta, a three-part test of the human ability to save our democracy, and our place on this planet:

1- Protecting the Actual Election:

The daily battle for election protection has long since escalated to ceaseless hand-to-hand trench warfare against Trump’s infamous assault on the democratic process.

It’s highly unlikely Trump will command a legitimate majority of the American electorate. But if he subverts enough of the electoral process to win a majority of the votes cast and counted, or of the Electoral College, American democracy and the human ability to survive on this planet may be finished.

Mainstream polls generally show Biden ahead, even in the swing states that Hillary lost. In a legitimate election, those would give him an Electoral College majority.

But the New York Times has also published the only graph that really matters: if the polls are “as wrong as they were in 2016,” Trump wins 278-260.

That margin could come from Trump’s escalation of his 2016 attack on every conceivable aspect of the electoral process. It ranges from stripping the registration rolls, to destroying the US Postal Service to trashing paper ballots, to demanding (in Florida) ex-felons pay fees before they can vote, to every other Dirty Trick imaginable, from blowing up drop boxes, to terrorizing in-person voters, to hacking digital imaging machines, to torching election centers and whatever else Roger Stone and his Nixonian thugs can conjure.

As we report at grassrootsep.org and discuss every Monday at our 90-minute zoom calls, the grassroots work of fighting back for a free and fair election is a desperate 24/7 race for survival, with just five weeks to prevail.

But we are handicapped by the lack of response from the Democratic Party. In 2000, Greg Palast and Bev Harris reported on how the Bush GOP led by W’s CIA brother Jeb (then Governor of Florida) stripped more than 90,000 citizens of color from the Florida voter rolls and flipped the electronic vote count in key counties. Al Gore stopped Jesse Jackson from staging protest demonstrations, failed to sue for a comprehensive state-wide recount, failed to protect south Florida vote counters, stopped the Congressional Black Caucus from challenging the illegitimate Florida Electoral College delegation and much more (he also failed to carry his home state of Tennessee, which would have won him the election).

The Gore Democrats have since done nothing significant to rid us of the Electoral College (which seated Trump in 2016) instead spending the next two decades trashing Ralph Nader. In 2004 we reported from Columbus on a hundred (literally) different ways the Bush-Rove GOP stole the decisive Ohio vote count from John Kerry. We briefed his staff on the dire detail. In response, with 250,000 votes still uncounted, Kerry shafted us all by instantly conceding.

Since then we’ve been endlessly attacked by Democrat and “progressive” writers who could not be bothered to come to Columbus or dig past faux interviews with corrupt hacks.

In 2016, Green Party candidate Jill Stein slogged into decisive Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, unearthing a rat’s nest of manipulation and theft. Hillary ignored it all, joined Gore and Kerry in a quick concession, then attacked Stein in her ghastly memoir.

In 2018, absurdly rigged outcomes in Florida were sealed by another aborted vote count. With no serious objection from the Democrats, they seated a US Senator and a Governor now stripping the right to vote from more than a million ex-felons who may owe small fees. Those negated votes could easily put Trump back in the White House.

So too in Georgia, where Stacy Abrams was denied the governorship by a corrupt, vote-burning KKK Secretary of State who again could hand yet another decisive state—- with two US Senate races—- to the Trump Cult.

Now, in 2020 , we face the ultimate desperation. While the Democrats again ignore the massive untapped “youth vote” (millennials & GenZ) hard-working election protectionists must fight Trump’s Dirty Tricks. With early voting and vote by mail, the most critical juncture is poll workers decide whether to allow a ballot to be counted.

Trump says he’ll spend $20,000,000 to hire 50,000 “volunteers” to assault the polls. Many may strong-arm poll workers to trash countless ballots from suspected voters of color who omit a middle initial or a dotted i. Without fair-minded stalwarts to withstand that assault, the election could be decided simply by how many ballots Trump’s minions can trash before they’re counted.

Election protectionists must also guarantee that voters stripped from the rolls are reinstated, that vote-by-mail ballots actually go out, that drop boxes are deployed and then protected, that early voters get paper ballots and aren’t harassed by armed terrorists at the polls, that digital images aren’t hacked or pitched, that they’re counted quickly and accurately, and more.

2020 could well turn on poll workers, poll monitors and site protectionists.

Most precincts require them to be local residents, but will allow them to be under 18, potentially marking a major generational transition in who conducts our elections.

All who marched for George Floyd and police reform now must become poll workers. Those election boards are begging them to come in. The days are long, but the pay can be good, potentially marking a monumental generational transition from an historically elderly crew of poll workers to one spearheaded by a new generation.

But once all the above is said and done, the future will likely depend on whether Biden and the Democrats will stand and fight against a stolen outcome.

Or, beyond that, whether there’s a larger, more deeply committed “small-d” grassroots movement willing to fight for democracy and survival where the Democratic Party is not.

2- Protecting the Polls Against Trump Terror Assault

As Greg Palast has shown, Trump has a “12th Amendment option” to throw the election.

Assuming he’s about to lose the popular and Electoral College vote, Trump can simply resort to organized violence, official and otherwise. He can send military hit squads and fascist pouring into the key voting stations.

Non-violent activists must be there to confront them.

Trump hates vote by mail and early voting largely because (among other things) their diffuse nature makes it harder to terrorize the actual electorate in person at the polls. Trump’s Ku Klux Klan father was all about preventing people of color and other untermenschen from voting.

But the polling stations are still there, along with the ballots. Trump’s minions could make November 3 a new Kristallnacht, with armed troops and militias blowing up drop boxes, trashing stored ballots, destroying imaging machines, torching election centers and warehouses, trashing the legitimate vote count.

That would include assaulting poll workers, jamming the ballot approval process, sabotaging the timely reports needed to seat the Electoral College delegations set to choose the next president.

Should Trump succeed—- as so many US-sponsored mobsters have done in Third World countries—- he could (as per the 12th Amendment) throw the election into the US House of Representatives, or back to Republican-dominated state legislatures.

A reshaped Supreme Court, with a 6-3 fighting majority, could seal the coup.

3- The Ultimate Resistance: A General Strike

THEN what happens? Will the public resist? Does this nation have a non-violent core strong to stop such a coup d’etat?

The ability and willingness of an aroused, uncompromising, multi-racial public to shut the country down in the face of such a coup may be the only way to make an electorally defeated mobster give up power.

As Trump telegraphs his full Mussolini, much of the labor force in key industries must be ready to literally “shut it down” while occupying the means of production and distribution.

A national non-violent resistance must be ready to peacefully disrupt business as usual, and to sustain that silence until Trump leaves.

There’s plenty of history behind a new American general strike.

The first, of sorts, came in Virginia, 1685. An upstart landowner named Nathaniel Bacon wanted Governor William Berkeley to conquer more indigenous land. Bacon drew together an army of black and white indentured servants that overthrew Jamestown, burned it to the ground and forced Berkeley to flee.

Both Bacon and Berkeley soon died, as did the Rebellion. But southern landowners quickly separated the races by inventing chattel slavery, history’s harshest form of human servitude. Turning a class system into a caste regime, they put into the category of “subhuman” and gave whites a “gift” of superiority. No matter how badly exploited a white worker might be, they were still legally superior to blacks. This “invention” of slavery was the “original sin” of racial separation that divides us to this day.

Centuries later, the black scholar W.E.B. DuBois dubbed the never-ending mass defection of black slaves and poor whites from the plantation south a “general strike” and urged it as a highly effective tactic.

In 1835 a three-week general strike in Philadelphia won the working class some brotherly love in the form of higher pay and a shorter work day.

In 1877 railway workers birthed the modern labor movement with the Great Railway Strike. Coming in response to a 10% pay cut by the Pennsylvania Railroads greedy CEO Tom Scott, angry workers spontaneously shut the national system, burning many rail yards to the ground.

In 1894 the great Eugene V. Debs led his young American Railway Union again shut the national system in support of workers at the Pullman factory in southern Illinois. The strike was broken with federal troops who killed at least 35 workers, and soon turned Debs into a Socialist.

In 1919, some 65,000 workers shut Seattle. The generally conservative American Federation of Labor joined with the radical Industrial Workers of the World to handle essential services like garbage collection and medical care.

In 1936-7, auto workers seized physical control of the General Motors production system in Flint. With 2,000 unionists on strike, the nascent United Auto Workers won a union contract soon duplicated in much of the rest of the industry. Strikes in Minneapolis, Toledo and throughout the US defined the decade.

Amidst the 1946 post-war crash, with some two million Americans unemployed, general strikes erupted in Rochester, Pittsburgh and Oakland, California. Workers supporting female retail clerks held Oakland for about five days.

In the wake of those strikes, a right-wing Congress passed the brutally anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act over Harry Truman’s veto. Democratic administrations have since failed to repeal that and other anti-worker laws, vastly weakening the American union movement.

As in France, 1968, European and Asian general strikes have brought down governments. The Soviet grip on Eastern Europe was broken in 1989 by massive non-violent outpourings, as was the Soviet Union itself in 1991. Slobodan Milosovic’s fascist Serbia was also toppled largely by mass non-violent demonstrations.

America’s movements for peace, civil rights and social justice ihave mobilized millions. The recent marches for George Floyd may collectively have been the largest in world history.

They may have moved the American mind on racism and other critical issues. But we’ve yet to face toppling a fascist thug intent on becoming Dictator for Life.

Mass marches alone cannot force Trump to step down. His joy at deploying troops and militia for mass killings is not in doubt. Countless millions could march for days with no tangible impact on Trump’s lethal mindset.

There’s no precedent for an American non-violent movement shutting down the country or toppling a dictator.

Woodrow Wilson did assume dictatorial power amidst World War I (which most Americans opposed) the infamous Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 (which was mostly his fault) and his 1918-20 Red Scare (which he used to illegally crush the Socialist Party).

Amidst it all, Wilson (an avowed White Supremacist) caught the flu and had a stroke, leaving his wife Edith to (badly) run the country for a year.

Meanwhile some 675,000 Americans died in an entirely avoidable Pandemic, along another 100,000+ on the killing fields of Europe, and 70 more in a futile assault on the Russian Revolution. The strikes of 1919 impacted the nation, but not sufficiently to rid us of Wilson.

Should Trump lose the election, he will proclaim it fraudulent and use force to keep power, and perhaps do even more damage than Woodrow.

There would be no effective non-violent response other than shutting the country down.

Let’s protect this election to make sure it doesn’t come to that.

If it does, let’s be prepared for a general strike far bigger and more effective than all that have come before.

An Action Guide For Saving The 2020 Election Protection Trifecta

-by Harvey Wasserman,
Grassroots Emergency Election Protection Coalition

The one thing certain about the 2020 election is Donald Trump’s desperate try to destroy it.

Here’s a practical, hands-on, county-by-county guide for saving it.

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.

This Guide is meant to lay out 2020’s vital details as simply as possible so YOU can ACT to make things right:

This fall’s outcome turns on the Election Protection Trifecta:

1- Voter registration rolls
2- Vote by mail
3- Tabulation/recount of the ballots

All are under serious attack.

Losing just one can undermine all else.

THE SIX, TWELVE OR EIGHTEEN SWING STATES

The “EP Trifecta” of registration rolls, vote by mail, and ballot counting will play out differently in a series of state (plus DC) and county contests.

The Electoral College will likely decide the presidency based on Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, and Arizona, followed by Ohio, New Hampshire, Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, and Iowa, and then Maine, Texas, Kansas, Montana, Kentucky, and South Carolina. Many of the above have key US Senate races.

Less than 40 counties could determine the presidency. Less than 50 gerrymandered state legislative races could call the Congress.

The trifecta of protecting registration rolls, mailing ballots back and forth, and how they’re received and counted will decide the human future.

Only an informed, dedicated, grassroots groundswell can protect this election.

Less than three months remain to make that happen.

PRESSURE POINTS

Among the key challenges demanding grassroots election protection:

• Stop stripping the voter rolls
• Restore those wrongly removed
• Register new voters
• Proofread paper ballots before they’re printed
• Make sure they’re printed on time
• Make sure enough are printed for all registered voters
• Win reasonable official deadlines for ballot returns
• Get the ballots sent out early enough to return on time
• Provide secure neighborhood ballot drop boxes
• Provide safe places for any citizen to vote in person
• Support early voting
• Protect submitted ballots from arbitrary, partisan disqualification
• Get provisional ballots rightly counted
• Protect digital images
• Use the digital images to quickly provide the initial tally
• Preserve paper ballots for recounting
• Make sure deadlines for counting and recounting are met
• Protect the vote counts

ACTION PLAN / EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Anti-democracy forces have pledged $20 million to deploy 50,000 “volunteers” to the polls.

At least as many Election Protectionists must embed with state/county election boards, as soon as possible, for as long as necessary...
The millions who’ve marched for civil rights and police reform must now join local election operations through November 3 and beyond to guarantee a sustainable outcome.
After protecting the voter rolls, implementing Vote by Mail, and monitoring the vote count, we can deal with gerrymandering.
Groups listed at www.grassrootsep.org need your help to protect the election in key states and counties that will determine our future.

THE GRASSROOTS STATE AND COUNTY ACTIVIST CORE

DC, the states, and the territories all vote differently, as do the 3141 counties within them. A single local board could flip an entire US presidential election.

A Koch-financed 2010 “Redmap Coup” embedded far-right legislatures in most of this year’s key swing states.

Nearly all have decimated election protection, promoting sabotaged, stolen vote counts. The key right-wing “pincer strategy” is to limit voting places while decimating vote by mail, vastly reducing turnout.

The COVID pandemic has reduced the 116,990 polling places in 2018 to a tiny fraction in 2020. Franklin County (Columbus) Ohio’s 2020 primaries had a single, shabby voting center in an abandoned, hard-to-find Kohl’s. Voters in Wisconsin and Georgia were exposed to COVID and armed Trump terrorists, who will certainly return November 3.

In response, the NBA Atlanta Hawks have volunteered their 21,000-seat arena. Voters can take a number, sit socially distanced, and see their turn on the scoreboard. Most stadia offer central, secure locations, with ample parking, restrooms, and food services.

In every state and county, true election protection demands an informed, committed coalition of grassroots activists, experts, and attorneys embedded in the local election boards, rooted in multi-racial/cross-generational coalitions. Among others, Joel Segal has helped organize just such a coalition in North Carolina, serving as a template for what needs to happen nationwide (contact: joel.r.segal@gmail.com).

Voters and vote counters alike have been physically assaulted throughout US history. Clearly 2020 will be no exception.

At the choke points of certifying incoming ballots and then facilitating the recounts, and at two dozen other key junctures along the way, this grassroots EP force could decide the American future.

2020’s primary vortex-- its EP “trifecta”-- goes like this:

PILLAR ONE: THE VOTER REGISTRATION ROLLS

The first “leg” of the election protection trifecta is to register new voters, protect those now on the rolls, and restore those who’ve been purged.

The federal Election Assistance Commission and the Brennan Center say some 17 million Americans have been stripped from the 2020 voter rolls.

Legitimate reasons for stripping can include death, change of residence, convictions for treason, etc. But John Roberts’s US Supreme Court has allowed local and state election boards to strip voter rolls based on race, class, ageist, ID, and other partisan pretexts.

Millions who assume they’re securely registered may not be. Everyone must check registration lists online or call the election board.

Among other groups, Andrea Miller’s People Demanding Action works to restore voters to the rolls and to add new ones.

PILLAR TWO: VOTE BY MAIL

In 2020 we expect the percentage of absentee or VBM ballots in many states to jump from 5% to as much as 80%.

At its best, VBM can represent a historic transition from hackable electronic machines to universal paper ballots. It’s long been the core system in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah, and Hawaii.

But it’s now under serious attack. States like Texas, Georgia, and Ohio are making ballots hard to get. The assault on the US Postal Service throws their delivery into doubt. In states using VBM for the first time to this extent, logistical vulnerabilities are significant.

How effectively the grassroots EP movement protects VBM could define 2020’s outcome:
1. Printing and Publishing

Paper ballots must first be designed, printed, and published. Simple typos and deliberate manipulations can destroy elections.

“Butterfly ballots” in Florida 2000 induced elderly voters to mistakenly choose Pat Buchanan. Absentee ballots in Ohio 2004 omitted John Kerry.

EP activists must proofread all draft ballots BEFORE they go to the printer, guarantee enough are printed for all registered voters, and make sure they get back to the election boards on time.

Ink specifications must be verified so ballots will be readable in electronic imaging machines.

2. The ballots must be carefully protected during initial delivery.

Once back at the election boards, the printed ballots must be protected before they go out to the voters.

Enough paper ballots must also be available at the polling stations to supply all registered voters who need one.

3. Who gets a ballot, when and how?

State and county election boards should simply send ballots to all registered voters, as early as possible.

Early in-person voting must also be made easy in all states and counties. “Souls to the Polls” begins now.

The earlier ballots are available, the less likely there will be problems on November 3. Voters who get them early should be encouraged to walk (rather than mail) them into election boards as early as possible.

But some partisan legislators, secretaries of state, governors, etc. have contrived to first send a voters postcard... then (maybe) an application... then (maybe) a ballot. All must meet firm deadlines.

Such flimsy, complex, time-consuming procedures add (deliberately) to the risk of documents being lost in the mail, ignored at home, trashed at the election board, etc.

Election protectors in all states and counties need a thorough knowledge of what’s going on with these procedures and how voters can be protected.

4. The military, diplomats, and other overseas Americans

The US military votes by mail, or electronically, often with reports that some officers may illegally intimidate soldiers into voting a certain way.

Deadlines and counting procedures can be problematic.

Jennifer Roberts, former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, and a former diplomat, says others voting from afar include overseas workers with the US Commercial Service, USDA, USIA, AID, and more; corporate executives and contractors working overseas with international companies; students studying abroad; teachers. Hundreds of thousands of ballots can be involved.

Unless protected, these votes can be lost, stolen, or manipulated.

5. Will return applications & ballots be pre-stamped, put in drop boxes, mass harvested, or what?

Election protectionists must work to guarantee that pre-paid return envelopes go out with VBM ballots, as required by law.

They should also encourage voters to walk their ballots into the election boards or put them in neighborhood drop boxes (which some election boards don’t want to provide). But care is needed: some election boards may require that walked-in VBM ballots be delivered before November 3.

“Ballot-harvesting” (i.e. the mass gathering of paper ballots) has already been linked to criminal fraud in North Carolina and elsewhere.

“Ballot parties” in elder/nursing homes conducted by partisan activists, where witnessing and/or notarizing can be accomplished, are a gray area.

6. Will there be a US Postal Service?

Louis And Donald Fix The Post Office by Nancy Ohanian

A sabotaged USPS will pose huge challenges to a fair 2020 election. This hallowed, unionized institution demands protection. The White House is already gutting the USPS, making clear its intent to subvert the fall balloting. Making Vote by Mail work in the face of official subversion will be among the greatest challenges ever faced by this nation.

Key in 2020 is getting ballot applications and then ballots out from the election boards to the voters and then back within a legal time frame. Deadlines vary, as do postmark requirements.

Ohio now requires that returning ballots be postmarked a week before November 3. In Wisconsin’s fall primary, many returning ballots were not postmarked at all; some counties accepted them, some did not.

So EP activists advocate all citizens vote in person as early as possible. Many are getting ballot applications from election boards and distributing them as widely as possible. Where allowed, some are printing them independently.

We encourage citizens to take ballots they receive in the mail and as quickly as possible fill them out and walk them into the election board (make sure you bring your envelope). We want neighborhood drop boxes and voting in arenas as well.

Above all, we want the functioning, protected and respected US Postal Service the nation deserves.

7. Early voting and where?

In 2020, election protection demands as many voting stations and drop boxes as possible, with as much early voting as can be made available.

Early in-person voting shrinks dependence on the USPS and uncertainty about whether ballots will actually arrive on time to be counted. It also helps avoid overcrowding and long lines on November 3.

Team Trump opposes neighborhood voting centers, drop boxes, and vote by mail, aiming to pinch voter turnout. (Voter ID requirements are also used to prevent non-millionaires of youth and color from voting.)

Ohio’s 2020 primary featured a single election center for each of the state’s 88 counties. In Franklin County (Columbus; pop. 1.3 million) it was in an abandoned Kohl’s department store in a remote, hard-to-find corner of Columbus. There were no drop boxes. Long lines (mostly in cars) built up through election day with voters trying to drop off their ballot or to obtain one. (Rural counties in Ohio had no such problems). On August 12, Ohio’s secretary of state ruled each Ohio county, no matter how big, would have just one ballot dropbox (he’s being sued).

Numerous safe, accessible election centers with ample parking must begin to operate well before November 3. Downtown sports arenas could be ideal.

8. Chain of custody

Tens of millions of paper VBM ballots will arrive at election boards, voting centers, and drop boxes this fall. There are always those who’d steal, destroy, corrupt them.

So they can’t be thrown around. Drop boxes demand cameras. Voting centers demand 24/7 security. Official results cannot be entrusted to laptops or thumb drives. Tally tapes must be posted in public as quickly as possible. Digital images must be preserved.

All votes cast, mailed, dropped must be protected, preserved, and properly prepared for precise, reliable counting and re-counting.

Above all, we don’t want them trashed, burned, pitched in rivers, or confiscated by armed troops deployed by the White House, all of which may take an EP army to prevent.

9. Voting centers, perhaps in sports arenas

Even with VBM, we still need well-advertised and convenient voting centers, with big parking lots for drive-by drop-offs to deal with special needs, registration issues, not having received a ballot, etc.

Well before election day, at universally known voting centers, citizens should be able to pick up and/or drop off ballots, register, consult with poll workers to straighten out registration issues, etc.

Centers should be open and staffed with long hours of access to avoid long lines and to provide timely, accurate, friendly service.

If Trump does mobilize thousands of armed thugs, election protection activists must be at the voting centers to embrace them.

In response, the NBA Atlanta Hawks have volunteered their 21,000-seat arena. Voters can take a number, sit socially distanced, and see their turn on the scoreboard. Most stadia offer central, secure locations, with ample parking, restrooms, and food services.

10. The Surrender Rule

With the attack on the Postal Service comes the need for voters to walk their ballots into voting centers and “surrender” them. To avoid long lines and mass confusion, it’s better to do that as early as possible.

Rules vary. But voters should always bring their envelopes as well as ballots. It can be possible to vote without them. But that could mean getting a provisional ballot, which may not be counted.

Before leaving, voters must confirm with poll workers that everything is properly filled out.

11. Election protection at the voting centers

Trump has promised $20 million for 50,000 paid, armed “volunteers” to threaten intimidation and violence at the voting centers. Nonviolent election protection activists – lots of them – will be needed to neutralize the assault.

Violent organized attacks, especially along racial lines, have been part of the American electoral reality since at least the end of the Civil War. Everyone who marched for George Floyd and police reform should now march to the polls to protect the vote.

12. Will Vote by Mail Mean Universal Paper Ballots?

Yes, VBM should mean a major transition to paper ballots, representing a huge leap away from the hackable electronic machines that have been used to steal so many of our elections in the past two decades.

True election protection also requires that all voting centers provide paper ballots to citizens who’ve not received them in the mail.

Appropriate electronic machines should be available for those with special needs.

But a hand-markable paper ballot must be available to all who want one, as the bulwark of this and all future elections.

Especially during this pandemic, electronic touch-screens can spread infection, and are even less acceptable than ever.

If the 2020 transition to paper ballots is successful, it can mark a major leap forward in all US elections to come. But getting there will require every ounce of our EP effort and energy.

13. Deadlines

Deadlines for ballot mail-out, postmarking, receipt, counting, recounting, and final reporting of the official tally must be clear and transparent to the public, the media, lawmakers, the courts... and the world.

In Florida 2000 and 2018, tens of thousands of votes were simply trashed because arbitrary counting and recounting deadlines weren’t met. Upheld by the Supreme and other courts, such deadlines have had decisive impacts on races for the presidency, governorships, US Senate seats, and more.

EP activists embedded at the precincts must work to make sure all deadlines are appropriate, reasonable, and completely public.

14. The Ballot Acceptance Choke Point

2020’s most critical and least discussed pressure point may be the moment of decision on whether to accept or reject mailed-in ballots.

Procedures will vary widely between states, counties, and precincts. In all or nearly all cases, a poll worker will examine the incoming ballots one-by-one.

They will accept or reject based on a wide range of inconsistent criteria, ranging from signature verification to the tiniest omission of the least significant details. Such would include the omission of middle names or initials, a misstated address, the lack of a date, putting information above or below an arbitrary line, missing a box, etc.

In many precincts “independent observers” are allowed to sit next to poll workers and lobby (or strong-arm) for the acceptance or rejection of individual ballots. In 2016, many of these critical decisions were turned by right-wing enforcers seated at the sorting table.

In 2020, grassroots election protectionists must be embedded at the critical juncture of this decision-making process. In a massive VBM deployment, literally millions of ballots will arrive with small glitches, errors, inconsistencies that are entirely irrelevant to the validity of the voter’s intent. Here EP activists must be personally present to make sure nonpartisan balance is at the core of the acceptance/rejection process.

In many places, the law allows election boards to telephone voters and let them return to correct obvious inadvertent errors. EP activists everywhere must guarantee that this happens as often as appropriate.

They must also work to avoid unnecessary, contrived delays that could clog the system and push vote-counting beyond critical deadlines.

15. Voter ID, signature verification, witness and notarization requirements

In reality, decisions made on who can and can’t vote turn in many states on details meant to eliminate voters by race, class, age, likely party leanings, etc. These include arbitrary photo ID requirements that in some states are being imposed even on mail-in ballots.

Texas accepts a gun or hunting license, but not a student ID. Some states require that a mailed-in ballot include a document signed by one or two witnesses, plus notarization. The COVID and other restrictions can make it impossible for elders and others to do that. Some nursing home employees are banned from serving as witnesses.

Registering the homeless, and thousands of the Indigenous who have only post office boxes, represents a huge challenge with no easy answer beyond hard EP work at the real grassroots.

Ultimately, there’s no easy or consistent way around these often arbitrary and always confusing barriers to voting except at the nitty-gritty precinct level, with on-the-spot activists standing their ground.

16. Internet Registration and Voting, Vote by Phone, the Digital Divide

Some states now accept ballot applications via the internet.

This unjustly favors the urban educated. But it’s reliable, and it avoids the delays and dangers that come with registering by mail or in person. EP activists can use laptops or digital phones to register citizens who don’t have their own internet access.

Such is NOT the case with submitting and counting actual ballots, or transmitting outcomes from precincts to voting centers. Any actual voting or vote counting entrusted to the internet at any point in the process is hackable, vulnerable, and unacceptable.

PILLAR THREE: COUNTING AND RECOUNTING THE BALLOTS

In addition to the challenges of safely storing them, early VBM ballots that arrive before November 3 could tempt locals officials to do early counting, and then to leak results (real or concocted).

This can’t happen. Ballots that come in early must remain secured and unopened until 7 p.m. local time on November 3. There’s no legitimate reason to open or count them beforehand.

Electronic ballot imaging machines are in place at 80% or more of our US precincts. The paper ballots that are mailed in to-- or filled out at-- the election centers can, starting at 7 p.m. November 3, be inserted into these machines.

The machines in turn produce an electronic ballot image. The paper ballots go into clear plastic bins on the backside, preserved for recounting.

These ballot imaging machines can deliver an accurate tally of even very large numbers of votes within a few minutes.

But some election officials insist on erasing the electronic images, which is illegal under federal law. A Florida lawsuit (which should not be necessary) now aims to stop this.

Even if the ballot images are computer-read for a fast initial vote count, recounts using the preserved paper ballots are inevitable. And reporting deadlines that must be met to validate the (re)counts vary widely.

In south Florida, 2000, when a “Brooks Brothers mob” assaulted poll workers, the US Supreme Court made G.W. Bush president.

In Ohio 2004, a federally mandated recount failed when official records from 56 of Ohio’s 88 counties “disappeared.” US Senate and governor’s races in Florida 2018 were decided when dense Southern counties couldn’t meet critical deadlines, effectively trashing thousands of legitimate votes.

In 2020, all key swing states will likely be forced into recounts. EP activists must be present to guarantee they’re done securely, reliably, and quickly enough to meet legal deadlines.

The real test will come in the precincts, as deadlines loom and those tabulating the ballots may be assaulted by hired thugs. If election protectionists aren’t there to guarantee all ballots are admitted and counted fairly, 2020 could be decided by armed terrorists.

ACT NOW!!! BECOME AN ELECTION PROTECTIONIST

What can I do to save 2020?

Contact your state coordinator (see listings here).

• Pick a critical county/precinct.
• Hook up with an EP organization already in place.
• Learn everything about how your chosen county will conduct its election.
• Apply to get on the election board.
• Learn everything you can about who’s already on it.
• Apply to be a poll worker.
• Learn how to become a ballot acceptance worker/observer.
• Inspect the voter rolls.
• Find those who’ve been wrongly stripped & get them re-registered.
• Register new voters (maybe using your cell phone or laptop).
• Spread ballot applications far & wide.
• Encourage early mail-outs of ballot applications.
• Watch how the actual ballots are drafted.
• Follow the trail of how they’re printed.
• Make sure enough are printed for all potential voters.
• Encourage their rapid return from the printer.
• atch to see that the ballots go out as early as possible.
• Watch to see the ballots go to everyone who is due one.
• Make sure envelopes have return postage on them.
• Be available to help those who are confused or restricted in voting.
• Protect the acceptance of rightfully submitted ballots.
• Encourage early voting.
• Get sports arenas accepted as voting centers.
• Encourage neighborhood drop boxes.
• Prepare to non-violently confront anti-vote terrorists.
• Monitor the chains of custody.
• Prepare to protect ballots from troops deployed by the White House.
• Protect digital scanners from being hacked.
• Help feed ballots into the digital scanners.
• Make sure digital ballot images are preserved.
• Work to guarantee recounts meet legal deadlines.

Listings of allied organizations, state coordinators, critical documents, Trifecta articles, and more appear at www.grassrootsep.org.

Join our weekly (usually Monday) Zoom meetings as linked here

Next Zoom gathering is Monday, August 24, at 5 p.m. Eastern Time.

Write to me at solartopia@gmail.com

No More Stolen Elections!!!!