Why the Michigan Certification of 16 Biden Electors Was the Dead End for Trump, and Why the December 8 "Safe Harbor" Electoral College Date Sealed His Fate. A BuzzFlash Editor's Commentary.
November 23, 2020
The turkey in the White House now will certainly be evicted on January 20 (The White House)
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH
Trump's Brazen, Ruthless, in Plain-Sight Effort to Subvert Democracy and Steal the Election from the Voters and Joe Biden Is Now Effectively Over. There Will Be Final Flailings to Wound America, But Trump Will Not Be President on January 20.
After machinations to subvert democracy unseen in US history, the end of the Trump presidency is finally in sight. Yes, the sociopath in the White House will continue to cause massive and ongoing damage to democracy and continue enabling the COVID spread. But, BuzzFlash can say that after a few nail-biting days about whether or not Trump's efforts to have the Republican Michigan legislature appoint a Trump Electoral slate might succeed, democracy prevailed -- and there is simply no path for Trump to overturn the will of the voters at this point.
On Monday afternoon, November 23, at a much anticipated meeting the Michigan certification canvassing board -- and despite fears it might deadlock and cause a state constitutional crisis -- certified the 16 Biden electors by a vote of 3 to one abstention. Biden won Michigan by more than 155,000 votes.
The failure of the last chance Hail Mary attempt unlocked the GSA, which is now authorizing a transition to Joe Biden, including funding and administration access.
Lacking any proof of voter fraud, Trump's clownish lawsuits were doomed. But Trump had long personally signaled that he wanted to cause Electoral College chaos and force Congress or the Supreme Court to confirm a Trump win. Neither of those goals is now going to happen.
Many Americans and BuzzFlash readers did not realize the stakes of Trump's efforts to undermine the Electoral College Certification process. There are three key dates in the Electoral College process as far as determining the winner: December 8, December 14 and January 6.
It is the December 8th date that Trump and his campaign had their eyes focused on. It is called the "Safe Harbor" deadline. Why is it so important? Because all states that submit their certified votes by that date cannot have their electoral slates challenged at the time that the Electoral College meets to vote on December 14. State legislatures cannot submit Trump slates if their states are certified by December 8.
Pennsylvania will be certified in the next day or two. Nevada will be certified tomorrow. Michigan was certified today. Georgia was certified last Friday. Arizona on November 30. Wisconsin on December 1.
Michigan was Trump's best and most brazen chance to heist the election through holding up certifications past December 8 and having at least three Red State legislatures vote for Trump electors and send them to the Electoral College vote on December 14. Mike Pence, as President Pro Temp of the Senate, will preside over the final vote that officially designates the President and Vice-President on January 6, and with Joe Biden having 270 or more votes at the end of voting on December 14 makes it all but impossible for Trump to overturn the will of the people.
Trump also will not be able to throw the vote to Congress under the 12th Amendment by delaying certifications for Biden that would deny him less than 270 votes when the Electoral College casts its ballots on the 14th.
Expect more mad big lie baseless claims from Trump on Twitter, and expect right-wing media to bluster, strut and blare about "a stolen election."
But your anxiety can rest now. All the swing states who elected Biden will have their votes certified by December 8. There will be no legislative coup, and it would be highly unlikely for the Supreme Court to accept cases that the last federal judge to rule on one in Pennsylvania dismissed by calling a Rudy G. filing a "Frankenstein Monster."
There will be dangerous and destructive Trump actions in the coming weeks, but he will no longer be president after January 20. The Michigan certification has driven a final stake in Trump's ignominious efforts to subvert and attack democracy.
In a tribute to the impact of an honorable individual on the fate of democracy, it was just one vote that may have saved Trump from his attempt to subvert Republican legislatures in states he lost to steal the vote for him. The Michigan State canvassing board has two Democrats and two Republicans on it. One Republican, Norman Shinkle, vocally told the press in the past week that he was not likely to vote for confirmation of the Biden win, on what was basically a pro forma action recognizing Biden carried the state by more than 155,000 votes. Shinkle echoed Trump’s conspiracy theories, a clear member of the Trump bubble of shredded truth.
That left it to the other Republican on the board, Aaron Van Langevelde, to make a decision, under great pressure, as to whether or not he was going to disenfranchise 155,000 votes, particularly those of Blacks in Detroit. After all, consistent with the racism of the Trump administration, it has largely focused its baseless charges of fraud on Black cities in battleground states. Aaron Van Langevelde had not made his opinion on the certification vote known prior to an open hearing of hundreds of people before the board voted on November 23.
“The law regarding certification gives us a clear duty,” he said. “There’s nothing in the law that gives me the authority to request an audit as part of the certification process.”
“Our duty is very simple, and it is a duty,” he added.
It is from such small acts of duty, an act of integrity, that democracy knows its finest moments, a vote cast on an obscure state board in a state in the Midwest, whose members became part of a fulcrum upon which the destiny of the great American experiment in elected-government was teetering. It is upon such an act that Aaron Van Langevelde withstood the demagogic pressure of Trump and his angry followers. Van Langevelde was thrust into a role with extraordinary ramifications. He exercised a profound profile in courage by respecting his oath of service to the rule of law and democracy. To such an unheralded hero, much is owed, an American, on a bureaucratic board in an antiseptic room, performing his civic responsibility with such a profound impact.
Trump’s big lies about the election will continue, as will his con to raise money through fundraising and his fraudulent racist lawsuits, but they will have no impact on the outcome.
Joe Biden will be the 46th president.
As proof of that, as noted above, the GSA has just ascertained the transition to the Biden-Harris administration.
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