What To Expect Between Now and November 3rd: Dirty Tricks, and More

According to the reports we read, we expect to see a few things happen as we approach the election:

• Russia is in the process of doing its best, through whatever means, to discredit Biden.

• In democratic-dominated regions of swing states, we’ll see various voter suppression techniques like mailbox removal.

• In those same regions, we’ll see dirty tricks, like “polls closed” or “detour” signs near polling places.

So, what’s going to happen here? How concerned should we be?

We’ll, first of all, there are only so many swing states. At this point, Trump will have to win every “toss-up” state (Texas, Florida, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona), and then get at least one of those that is leaning to Biden (Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire and Maine).

The problem Trump faces here, however, is that the state governments are pretty well attuned to this chicanery (euphemism for felony election rigging), and are putting measures in place to defeat it. Here’s what the state supreme court of Pennsylvania just did, according to this report:

Green Party is off the ballot

Presidential candidate Howie Hawkins will not be allowed on Pennsylvania’s ballot this fall. Howie did not follow the proper electoral procedures and thus there will be no one representing the Green Party — leaving just Trump and Biden as presidential choices.

Normally, Pennsylvania’s deadline for mail-in ballots is 8 p.m. on election day. However, since the court relaxed this rule in the face of the coronavirus pandemic votes will now be counted as long as they are received before 5 p.m. on the Friday following the election. The decision to extend the deadline is expected to boost voter participation, although it will mean the election results from this important swing state will not be final on election night.

Drop boxes have been added

The court also ruled that the state could install ballot drop boxes. It is a move likely to enrage the Trump team considering his campaign sued the state to stop them from being used — baselessly claiming they were unconstitutional:

Trump’s poll watchers are denied

The Trump campaign wanted to instill its poll watchers in Philadelphia which has a high number of Democratic voters. But according to Pennsylvania law, the poll watchers have to be a registered voter in the county where they are volunteering. Republicans were trying to skirt the law, but Democrats in the state pushed back, worried about voter intimidation.

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This will get ugly at some point. Though it appears to be under control as of this moment, anything can happen.