by JK McALLISTER.
The fact that President Elect Joe Biden scored a decisive victory in the US Presidential Elections is beyond dispute. President-elect Biden secured 306 electoral votes to President Trump’s 232, and he won the popular vote by over 6 million. No President in history had secured more votes that President-elect Biden. Congratulations have been pouring in from world leaders from all parts of the planet. China, Britain, France, Germany, the European Union, just to mention a few. Yet President Donald Trump refuses to concede.
The Washington Post surveyed elected Republicans in Congress about what they feel about the elections. Of the 249 elected Republicans, only 27 were prepared to say president-elect Joe Biden won, while 2 of them incredulously said President Trump won. The remaining 220 refused to answer, and that is an answer in itself.
Some people have attempted to point to similarities between what is happening in the US, and what happened in Guyana. They pointed to the similarity of an incumbent claiming electoral fraud. However, this is where the similarities end.
In Guyana, the Coalition was able to produce thousands of cases of fraudulent voting. Evidence of missing poll books, unbalanced poll books, missing stubs etc, that were sufficient to erode the PPP’s 15,000 vote margin, were presented. Yes, the Republicans are saying the same things. They are alleging widespread voter fraud. They claim illegals voted, that the voting machines flipped votes from President Trump to President-elect Biden, that poll books did not balance, and maybe even that a man came from the moon and corrupted the process. However, the difference is, the Republicans couldn’t find any evidence to support their allegations.
In Guyana the Coalition went to court asking that the evidence of fraud be a factor in determining the elections. The court said no, the evidence could be presented in an election petition after the elections are determined. However, in the US the Republicans went to court 46 times and presented evidence on 45 occasions. They lost on all 45 occasions. The only time they won was on the procedural issue of how close to the ballot processing poll watchers should be allowed to stand. No, there is no similarity between what is happening in the US and what happened in Guyana.
While the election issue was moving through the courts in Guyana, President David Granger repeatedly said he would abide by GECOM’s declaration whenever it was made. He conceded within minutes of GECOM making an official declaration. Not so in the United States.
Republicans are trying their utmost to undo legally declared results. In fact, before Georgia made a formal declaration, Senator Lindsey Graham asked the Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger, to find ways to throw out legally cast ballots. There was no evidence that suggested these ballots should have been thrown out. Raffensberger refused and made the request public. Today, December 05, 2020, President Trump called Georgia’s Governor and asked him to get the State’s legislature to set aside the will of the people, and award him Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. The Governor refused.
The effort to blatantly defy the will of the people is ongoing in several states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona. There is no longer any pretense about fraud. The effort is to get some judge, or State Legislature to overturn the will of the people, period. Nothing of the sort happened in Guyana. In fact, in Guyana it is the PPP who is now asking the court not to consider the evidence.
The irony is that many cheered when Republican officials pronounced on Guyana’s elections. They demanded the Coalition Government demit office before the pronouncements of the courts, despite a critical mass of evidence that fraud occurred. US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, strategically issued statements on the Guyana Elections just hours before courts were scheduled to sit. He issued broad threats against all who the US would seem to be on the wrong side of the outcome the US wanted. It is not unreasonable to conclude some judges thought these threats were directed at them. Then the US administration announced the revocation of 15 visas but refused to say who was targeted. Clearly a tactic to cause mass hysteria. The rest is history.
It is amusing to see the Republicans making the same claims they dismissed in Guyana. In Guyana, the ballot count was the only thing to be considered. Now, President Trump is talking about 3 AM ballot dump, as if ballots reported after a certain time of the night are not valid. Now it’s not the ballot only, but the poll books, fraudulent voting, mismatched signature etc. It is a comedy. What they are claiming happened to them is what they did to the Coalition Government in Guyana. The difference is, the Coalition has credible evidence, they don’t.