On the eve of probably the most important election in recent U.S. history, an election that will have worldwide implications, Donald Trump is once again trying to suppress the vote and manipulate the process in his favour.
Trump is demanding that the vote-counting stop at midnight on Nov. 3 and a winner be declared, as he contends happened in all other elections.
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Problem is, he’s wrong.
No election winner is ever declared on election night. It has always taken days and sometimes weeks for states to count every legitimate ballot.
It’s bad enough that the Postmaster General, a Trump lackey named Louis DeJoy, has tried to corrupt the mail-in ballots by shutting down thousands of mail boxes around the country, and that Republican governors have closed down polling stations in predominantly Black and Latino areas.
Now Trump wants to further corrupt the process.
What we hear on election night are projections by the TV networks, based on the information they have and, frankly, their best guess for the final outcome.
They’re not always right.
In 2000, the networks declared Al Gore the winner in Florida and the next president. But as ballot counting continued, the networks had to recant and declare George W. Bush the winner.
What Trump is suggesting is unconstitutional and likely illegal.
After all, they don’t declare the winner of the Kentucky Derby at the three quarter pole.
Besides, U.S. elections are supposed to be run by state and local government officials, not the federal government and certainly not the president.
Let every vote count and let the American people chose.
Bill Kelly is the host of the Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML.
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