What’s Happening:
Many elections are being reviewed, contested, and recounted all over the country—not just the presidential race.
And if you trust the courts to sort out this fairly, that’s not always the case. This latest story shows how judges can twist the rules to help candidates.
A Republican in New York had a big lead on election night. The gap got smaller when all the mail-in ballots came in. Then a Democrat judge decided to review the results. From The New York Post:
After trailing in the polls by over 28,000 votes on election night, upstate Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi claimed victory Wednesday in the 22nd district over his Republican challenger — celebrating a slim 13-vote lead.
But Jazz Shaw on Twitter explains how this seemed to actually go down:[contentad widget=”427100″]
In NY-22, the Democrat incumbent was trailing by almost 30K on election night. The mail-in ballots got him close. Then a Democrat judge from Syracuse ruled he would personally “review” all of the spoiled ballots that had been rejected. Guess what happened next.
The judge miraculously “found” enough ballots that he felt were okay and the incumbent now “leads” by 13 votes.
As usual, election results were conveniently stretched past Election Night, giving Democrats a chance to see thousands of apparently new ballots shift the election in their favor.
In many states, Democrats have tried to extend the deadline for ballots, so that late mail-in ballots can be counted. You can see how that can jeopardize the integrity of the election, as they can produce less-than-legitimate ballots after Election Day.
In this case, it appeared the Republican candidate was the clear winner on election night. But when a judge decided to interfere, the Democrat had just enough to edge out a victory.
This leaves a lot of questions, and hopefully the case can be appealed to a higher court above this judge.
Because what does it matter if Americans vote when a party can just flip the results after the fact?
Election Day is one day for a reason. Delaying the counting process is just too easy to allow cheating or other “irregularities.”
Judges have no business interfering with an election unless there is a need for them to act. But in this case, things are looking fishy.
How many times has this happened in this election, all over the country?
Key Takeaways:
- A Republican was winning by 28,000 votes on election night in New York State.
- A judge interfered, reviewing the ballot count and finding the election flipping for the Democrat.
- The Democrat challenger suddenly won by a mere 13 votes.
