Tag: Election 2020

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Politics Politics Feature

The Bleat Goes On

A widely disputed graph posted by Lee Mills (Photo: ZeroHedge)

If, in the aftermath of a decisive (if narrow) victory for Donald Trump in the just concluded presidential election, anybody expected Republican-minded folks to put aside their “stop-the-steal” concerns from 2020, that was a premature hope.

It turns out that numerous believers in a stolen 2020 election still believe in it, and a fairly significant controversy regarding the matter continues to fester on social media.

One local believer is former Shelby County Republican chairman Lee Mills, who has carried on a brisk online conversation about it on Facebook.

“Now that it’s officially over,” Mills wrote on his page last week, “can we revisit 2020 for a moment?”

Whereupon he reproduced a dubiously sourced bar graph that’s been making the rounds in MAGA circles.

Crude and simplistic, employing blue and red bars, respectively, to indicate Democratic and Republican vote totals, it purports to compare the results for both parties in the presidential elections of 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024. Strikingly, it seems to show the Democratic vote holding to virtually identical levels in 2012, 2016, and 2024, while the Republican vote is represented graphically as steadily rising through the respective campaign years, finally out-distancing the Democratic vote total this year.

The year 2020 is seen as an anomaly, with the blue bar representing the Democratic vote vaulting high above the red bar representing the GOP presidential total. Both bars show an increase over previous years. 

The blue bar is depicted as coming back to “normal” for 2024. The red bar is somewhat lower as well.

Mills feels emboldened to comment: “This is a rhetorical question, but who can explain this anomaly?”

And he supplies some numbers, after a fashion. “So l’m not misconstrued by the Trump haters: The 2020 election saw a huge turnout spike — 159 million people voted, with Democrats getting nearly 80 million votes, which is a massive 23% jump from previous years. Statistically, that’s a total outlier. 

“A big factor was the sudden expansion of mail-in voting, which went from 21 percent in 2016 to 46 percent in 2020.

“Here’s the issue: A lot of these changes were made by unelected officials, bypassing the state legislatures. When you change the rules to allow massive non-in-person voting [sic], it opens the door for fraud to run rampant. 

“While this doesn’t flat-out prove fraud, it definitely raises red flags about how secure the process was with all these last-minute changes.”

Response on Facebook was forthcoming. William Albert Mannecke agreed: “They learned to cheat on an industrial level.”

As did Ellen Ferrara. “They stole 2020, 100 percent.”

Randy Higdon probed a little further: “We will find out he [presumably Trump] won all 50 states. Only states she [Kamala Harris] won were ones that didn’t require voter ID. Then this goes back to 2020. Many, many heads are gonna roll.”

But a demurrer would come from Cole Perry, a local statistician with both solidly Republican bona fides and a well-earned reputation for accurate analyses of election results: “Harris is going to end up with somewhere near 76.5 million votes, and Trump will end up [with] close to 78.5 million. That’s almost exactly the same total turnout as 2020. If they really did cheat in 2020, why did they suddenly forget how to do it?”  

A telling point. Another one is this, apropos the effects, such as it was, of write-in votes, which were disparaged by a suspicious Trump in 2020, the Covid year, but actively encouraged by him for his supporters in 2024.

That might be as good an explanation as any for the supposed “anomaly” of the 2020 electoral outcome. 

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WATCH: Tennessee Electors Cast Ballots for Trump, Pence

WATCH: Tennessee Electors Cast Ballots for Trump, Pence (2)

Electors are given instructions and cast ballots at around the 20:30 mark.

From Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett:

Tennessee’s presidential electors met at the Tennessee State Capitol today to cast their ballots for Donald J. Trump for President of the United States.

“Tennessee’s electors casting ballots in the Electoral College is the last step in our electoral process,” said Secretary Hargett. “Tennessee had a safe, sensible and responsible election, thanks to the hard work and planning by our Division of Elections, the administrators and staff of our 95 county election commissions and all of the poll officials who stepped up to serve in their communities.”

Tennessee has 11 of the total 538 electoral votes that make up the U.S. Electoral College. Each state gets two at-large electors and one elector for each congressional district. Tennessee has nine congressional districts.

By law, Tennessee is a winner-take-all state. In the Nov. 3rd, 2020 general election Donald J. Trump received 1,852,475 votes and Joseph R. Biden received 1,143,711 votes. Therefore, the presidential electors representing Tennessee were those chosen by the Tennessee Republican Party’s executive committee.

The electors who cast Tennessee’s U.S. Electoral College ballots were:

Congressional District 1: Paul Chapman

Congressional District 2: Cindy Hatcher

Congressional District 3: Tina Benkiser

Congressional District 4: Dr. John Stanbery

Congressional District 5: Beverly Knight-Hurley

Congressional District 6: Mary Ann Parks

Congressional District 7: Jim Looney

Congressional District 8: Kathy Bryson

Congressional District 9: Terry Roland

At-Large: Scott Smith

At-Large: Julia Atchley-Pace

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Senator Jeff Yarbro Bashes AG Slatery’s Support for Election Lawsuit

The Attorney General of Texas sued four swing states in the U.S. Supreme Court this week for favoring “Democrat voters,” the Tennessee Attorney General agreed with him, and the top Tennessee Democrat called this “embarrassing.”

Texas AG Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin Monday directly with the U.S. Supreme Court. He said, “The 2020 election suffered from significant and unconstitutional irregularities in the defendant states.”

How? Paxton said “non-legislative actors’ purported amendments” to the states election laws were illegal. Also, “intrastate differences in the treatment of voters, with more favorable allotted to voters — whether lawful or unlawful — in areas administered by local government under Democrat control and with populations with higher ratios of Democrat voters than other areas of defendant states.”

For all of this, Paxton wants the states’ legislatures to convene and appoint Presidential Electors.

Tennessee AG Herbert Slatery agreed with all of this so much that he joined a friendly, but very official amicus brief on the matter with the state of Missouri.

Senator Jeff Yarbro Bashes AG Slatery’s Support for Election Lawsuit (3)

“The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office has consistently taken the position that only a state’s legislature has the authority to make and change election laws,” he said in a statement issued Wednesday. “This office pressed that argument in cases defending Tennessee’s election laws against pandemic-related challenges and in amicus briefs in cases involving similar challenges in other courts.

“This is not something new. Texas’s action in the Supreme Court seeks to vindicate the same important separation-of-powers principles, and that is why we joined Missouri’s amicus brief in support of that action.”

Later Wednesday, Tennessee Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) bashed Slatery’s move on Twitter.

Senator Jeff Yarbro Bashes AG Slatery’s Support for Election Lawsuit

Senator Jeff Yarbro Bashes AG Slatery’s Support for Election Lawsuit (2)


Read the lawsuit here:

[pdf-1]

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Appeasing the Mighty Oz

CREDIT: REUTERS | Brian Snyder

Was it really just a week ago that I was sitting up late with politics editor Jackson Baker and Flyer art director Carrie Beasley (in our own homes) waiting to decide what cover to run for our issue covering the 2020 election results? It seems a month ago now. At least.

We had three covers mocked up and ready to go to the printer, each with an appropriate photo. One was called “Biden FTW!” which we thought would have been a great reversal of our now-infamous (and eBay gold) “WTF?” Trump cover from 2016.

REUTERS | Brian Snyder

And we had one we were hoping never to have to run called “Trump Again!” with a smiling, thumbs-up-waving Don the Con. The third possibility was the one we finally chose: “Too Close to Call!”

Jackson had three versions of the lead paragraphs to the cover story ready to go. And I’d written three versions of my column. My “too close to call” column was titled “The Waiting is the Hardest Part” because, well, I like Tom Petty and why not? It turned out to be one of the most prescient things I ever wrote. I shoulda bought a lottery ticket.

I said if the ballot counting went on for several days, President Trump would do his best to sow discord and divisiveness and doubt about the integrity of our electoral process. Right on all counts.

I added: “Trump will remain in office (win or lose) until January, so there will be at least a couple more months of chaos and drama, of tweeting and conspiracy theories, and who knows what other kinds of outrages.” Bingo.

There were lots of things I couldn’t have predicted, of course — like Rudy Giuliani and a “witness” who turned out to be a convicted sex offender holding a Philadelphia press conference on a parking lot at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — next to a dildo store. That was straight out of a jump-the-shark episode of Veep.

Another thing I didn’t predict but should have been able to, in hindsight, is that the majority of the GOP leadership — national, statewide, and locally — would go along with Trump’s antics, as would most of Trump’s media allies. As a result, there has been a week-long drumbeat of lies, exaggerations, and false discrediting of the nation’s election process.

We knew, at some level, this was part of the plan. All the pre-election polling had Trump losing, so blocking people from voting became Job 1. The U.S. Postal Service was enlisted to delay delivery of mail-in ballots. The number of voting sites and drop-off boxes were systematically cut in red states. Numerous last-minute lawsuits by GOP operatives were filed to try to disqualify various kinds of ballots not cast on Election Day.

Sowing doubt on the counting process was Job 2: GOP legislatures in key states (Michigan and Pennsylvania, to name two), passed laws requiring local election commissions to refrain from counting mail-in, drop-off, and absentee ballots until Election Day, thereby ensuring several days of drama as the mandated post-Election Day count played out around the country — days that could be used to spread conspiracy theories and further incite the most rabid of Trump’s supporters.

Imagine how much angst the country would have been spared if other swing states used Florida’s system, which allows counting of mail-in and absentee ballots as they arrive. Florida’s results were basically in on election night. How great would it have been for the country to have been able to go to bed Tuesday night knowing the results of the presidential election, instead of having to wait four days? Really great, is how.

Except that would have spoiled the plan to delegitimize the electoral process, one Trump had been setting up for weeks by refusing to say that he’d accept the results of the election. And now, the game continues. No concession from the president, no work getting done. He’s just firing people, tweeting, and playing golf.

Meanwhile, Biden is almost five million votes ahead in the popular vote and has an insurmountable lead in the Electoral College. If Trump had any integrity or respect for the election process — or a grown-up brain — he’d do the right thing and concede. We shouldn’t hold our breath. My prediction is that when I’m writing my next column a week from now, he still won’t have done it.

The only question is how long will other Republicans play along to appease the Mighty Butthurt Oz.

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Tennessee Senate Republicans Stand With Trump on Voting “Irregularities”

President Donald Trump poses with a can of beans and other Goya products.

No winner of 2020’s presidential election should be declared until voting “irregularities” have been investigated and court appeals have been exhausted, according to some of Tennessee’s top lawmakers.

Twenty-four members of the Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus members signed a letter issued Tuesday stating they stand “absolutely and unequivocally with President Donald J. Trump as he contests the unofficial results of the presidential election of 2020.” The letter was sent at least to members of the press but was not addressed to any entity or organization.
Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus

The ultimate result of the election, they said, remains “uncertain.” The lawmakers cited unsupported claims of voting “irregularities” in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Nevada.” An election winner should not be declared for any candidate, they said, ”until these irregularities have been thoroughly investigated and court appeals have been exhausted.”

They also believe the coronavirus pandemic led to “an extraordinary amount of absentee ballots and voting by mail. Thanks to this and “razor-thin margins,” a winner in the election should not yet be called.

Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus

“While this election may have been ’called’ by various media outlets, the election process is far from over,” reads the letter.

Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus

Like Al Gore in the 2000 election, Tennessee Senate Republicans said President Donald Trump has another month to contest the election through recounts and litigation.
[pullquote-1-center] ”This is an important election,” the Republicans said. “There is no reason to come to a premature conclusion with this many lingering questions. While the results of most presidential elections are clear on or around election day, the results become official only when the presidential electors vote in December.

“President Trump has a right to challenge the results of this election until at least that point. We support him in doing so and encourage all Tennesseans and Americans to be patient until the result of this election can be determined.” Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus

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INFOGRAPHIC: Record Votes Cast in Tennessee

Untitled infographic
Infogram

INFOGRAPHIC: Record Votes Cast in Tennessee

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Tennessee Voters Showed Up for Kanye West

CREDIT: Kanye West/Twitter

Kanye West/Twitter

Donald Trump won Tennessee, but Kanye West won its heart.

With 10,256 votes for him here, Tennesseans pulled the lever for West more than voters of any other state. Minnesota had the next-highest vote total for West with 7,654 votes cast for him there. Kentucky was next with 6,259 votes cast for West.

Tennessee Secretary of State

Here is West’s national total, according to Vulture:

Arkansas: 4,040

Colorado: 6,127

Idaho: 3,092

Iowa: 3,197

Kentucky: 6,259

Louisiana: 4,894

Minnesota: 7,654

Mississippi: 3,117

Oklahoma: 5,590

Tennessee: 10,195

Utah: 4,311

Vermont: 1,255

West was Tennessee’s fourth-highest vote-getter. He was sandwiched between independent Jo Jorgensen (29,806 votes) and Independent Don Blankenship (5,350 votes).

West came in fourth in Shelby County, too. Here, he won 1,598 votes, coming behind Jorgenson (2,418 votes) and above write-in candidates (1,160 votes).

Shelby County Election Commission

Davidson County (Nashville) secured the most votes for West. There, he won 2,590.

West won votes in all of Tennessee’s 95 counties. He scored the lowest in Hancock County (Sneedville), which is north of Knoxville on the Virginia border. There, West won one vote.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Defrocked Democrat John Deberry Stars at GOP Event

CREDIT: Connie McCarter

Connie McCarter

DeBerry with Republican well-wishers

It isn’t often in an election year that a prominent declared Democrat becomes the star at an official Republican event, but that’s what happened this week when John DeBerry headed the card at a Republican rally at local GOP headquarters.

It should be remembered, of course, that DeBerry, who has represented state House District 90 in the legislature for 26 years, was formally booted off the party ballot earlier this year by the state Democratic executive committee. His offense? Years of alleged over-coziness with Republicans, especially in support of their positions on social issues such as abortion.

There is no great surprise, therefore, that DeBerry’s cause would have been taken up by Republicans. He is running for reelection as an independent, but is regarded as something of a lion by the GOP.

Hence his getting top billing at a candidate event of the East Shelby Republican Club Tuesday night. Others appearing included Patricia Possel, the party’s nominee in House District 96 and Rob White, running in District 86.

In his remarks, DeBerry clung to the identity of independent, explaining the background of his status this way: “I’m running as an independent not because the folks in my district didn’t qualify me to run. They did. Not because they hadn’t voted for me 13 times. They had. Not because they didn’t know what I was saying before. They’ve known that since 1995. But because … a group of people, many of whom have never set foot in District 90 in their lives, sat in a zoom meeting in the middle of a pandemic, [and] with 48 hours notice … removed a 26-year-incumbent from the ballot.”

He enlarged upon that point while engaging in some media-bashing: “It’s not whether or not you are Democrat or Republican, or whether you like the president or you like the challenger, but what the media has been able to do is take our eyes off the prize, what is important, the principles that are important, that made this nation in the first place — the principles that made us great, that gave us a great economy, that gave us freedom.”

Elaborating further, he underscored his anti-abortion position: “The media has been able to make us stupid, to the extent that we’re not looking at what’s really important. What’s important. What’s important is whether or not we protect life, whether an unborn child has the constitutional right to be born to take his or her first breath as a human being. I’ve always wondered how a human male and a human female can get together and have something that is not human.”

And, without specifying anybody in particular, DeBerry warned of candidates who held social and political ideas antithetical to his own. “What do these people stand for?” he asked. “What do they stand for? Are they murdering babies? Are they destroying the institution of marriage? Are they allowing those who refuse to obey the law to have more protection of the law than everybody else? Are they removing our First and Second Amendment rights?”

Clearly, DeBerry, a businessman (marketing, advertising, and public relations) and minister, is hopeful of compensating for his lack of a party label on November 3rd by putting together votes from independents and Republicans, in addition to those Democrats who remain loyal to him. He is opposed by Democratic nominee Torrey Harris, who is counting on the support of the party faithful.