Trump's legal challenges to the election will help Democrats
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Norman Ornstein
@NormOrnstein
@jedshug has an important point here
Trumps legal challenges to the election will help Democrats - The Washington Post
Perspective | Trumps legal challenges to the election will help Democrats
Rejection in courts of Trump's spurious claims will help legitimize Biden's victory.
washingtonpost.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/11/12/lawsuits-trump-election-false-claims/
President Trump falsely claims that he won the 2020 presidential election and has begun legal action to challenge the results in several states alleging voter fraud with no evidence. Americans should not worry about these suits. Indeed, we should welcome them.
The lawsuits may prove to be the best way to legitimize President-elect Joe Bidens victory and draw to a close years of bogus complaints about voter fraud. The lack of merit in the legal complaints means they will be dead on arrival in the courts, and while the resounding rejection of Trumps fantasies by judges will not persuade his fiercest loyalists, it will prevent conspiracy theories from spreading.
It is also a bad idea, as a general matter, to object to election law litigation: In two years, or four years and possibly in two months in Georgia the shoe may be on the other foot. It would look hypocritical to condemn the very idea of challenging an election result now, only to turn around and do so in different (albeit more legitimate) circumstances.
Lets start with the merits, or lack thereof, in Trumps suits. Keep in mind that Bidens leads keep growing (or at least remain stable) as each state finishes counting provisional, military and overseas ballots. Not only has his national lead grown to more than 5 million votes, but Biden also now has a 53,000-vote lead in Pennsylvania (the state that pushed him over 270 electoral votes), and the gap stands to widen. (Trump won the state in 2016 by 44,000. Pennsylvanias legally questionable late-arriving ballots totaled only 10,000, and are irrelevant.)
Bidens leads in Georgia and Arizona remain steadily over 12,000, taking him up to 306 electoral votes. To make a difference, any fraud claim would have to involve not merely isolated cases of shady behavior but a massive criminal conspiracy affecting possibly tens or hundreds of thousands of votes.
*snip*