Tuesday, August 13, 2024

A Rejoinder

I often come across tweets from otherwise reasonable people (not the Twitter crackpots and detritus, I mean.  Lord, don't go off the beaten path and pursue replies!  DON'T DO IT!!!  You have been warned.) declaring doom and portents of doom because Republicans or MAGA or both (what's the difference anymore, amirite?) are "creating evidence" of electoral fraud which will WIN THE ELECTION FOR THE GOP!

This includes MAGA local election officials who will refuse to certify election results and cause the entire edifice of the US electoral system to collapse!  In a heap!  Those people have been watching too many movies where one brave man takes on an entire army and defeats them single-handedly.  (For historical context, this is how the veterans returning from WWII saw the war movies where John Wayne did this on the regular.  They despised those films.  We live in degenerate times.) 

Does no one remember 2020, when Trump tried to present "evidence" (or more precisely, sued so he could use discovery processes to find the evidence he needed to support his claims.  Pro tip: to file a lawsuit, you need some evidence sufficient to establish your claim before you discover more evidence.  Sort of like the law can't arrest you without probable cause.  There is no "throw him in jail, find evidence later" provision in the Bill of Rights.  Nor in civil court, for that matter.)  Every case, without exception, was tossed for want of evidence.  Every last damned one.  "Manufacturing evidence" won't work.  Just ask Tina Peters.

Her argument, apparently, was that she had "evidence."  Except it couldn't clear the hurdles of the rules of evidence that govern our courts, state to federal.  If you can't meet that bar, you don't have evidence.  As Trump and Giuliani (who should have known better) found out in 2020.

What about the election officials?  Mandamus actions.  The courts can require officials to carry out their official duties, or step aside and let someone else do it.  Remember the clerk who wouldn't issue licenses for same sex marriages after Obergefell?  Yeah, her protest didn't last long.  Same will happen with election officials who think they are constitutional election officials (like the "constitutional sheriffs".  Get it?)

So calm the fuck down.  MAGA is full of idiots like this:
Or like this: Don't be like MAGA. Don't assume they know what they're talking about, just because they do. Most of them understand the law about as well as Fitton does. Need I say more?

Speak of the devil:
CREW explains that it isn't legal to not certify the election. So, for officials who seize upon the moment to "politically grandstand," it recommends that legal action be taken.

Specifically, it cites ex-New Mexico county official Couy Griffin, ex-county officials Jerry Forestieri and Timothy DeHaan in North Carolina and Arizona county officials Ron Gould and Hildy Angiu for their role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

If county officials successfully obstruct certification, it could have a cascading effect on state and federal certification deadlines. It could also lead to mass disenfranchisement of qualified voters.

The first two paragraphs are sound enough, but the last is pure scare-mongering.  The courts are quite capable of moving quickly enough if the need arises, especially since we are all aware of the drop-dead deadline of the Electoral Count Act, thanks to Bush v. Gore. 

I don't have a problem with taking legal action, though I think the courts will want to wait until the individual officials actually act.  Their statements could certainly be used against them in an emergency hearing, but I'm not sure they can be used prior to acting.  That's kind of like arresting a guy because he said he wanted to rob the bank; but he never did.

Remain calm.  All is well.

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1 comment:

  1. The Thought Criminal7:09 AM

    I agree except with the federal judiciary the way it is now, who can say how anything will end up? The Rehnquist and Roberts Courts have done outrageous things and gotten away with them and the current majority is obviously all-in on ratfucking things for Trump and the Republican-fascists. I wouldn't put anything past them and the way things are structured, they'd get away with anything.

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