2020 Election Already Stolen?
Yes, Says Top Investigator Greg Palast
NEW YORK – In his latest book How Trump Stole 2020 – The Hunt for America’s Vanished Voters, investigator Greg Palast kicks the leaves upon the ground to uncover a sordid plan to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming November election. Published by Seven Stories Press and illustrated by Ted Rall, the book begins with a review of Donald Trump’s modus operandi in 2016 and warns that “unless we wise up, 2020 will be déjà vu all over again.”
Palast gives a case-by-case explanation of several of Trump’s tactics, mainly aimed at eliminating black voters in the Old South. For instance, 340,134 Georgians were purged from the voter lists incorrectly. Writes Palast, “More than a third of a million wrongly purged – in this one state. The list was more than 74 percent wrong. Three out of four.
“This was not a statistical sample, not an algorithm nor and estimate. This was a name-by-name investigation of those disappeared in plain sight,” notes Palast.
He says that these tactics have spread like a tsunami into swing states that could determine the 2020 election – Ohio, North Caroline, Wisconsin and other states. “The total of voters wrongly removed would hit many millions by November 2020.” He backs up his theory with intricate details that include statistics provided by the Elections Assistance Commission as compared to U.S. Census data.
The investigator says that the coronavirus outbreak could skew election results to new heights. “In 2016, 512,696 mail-in ballots – over half a million – were simply rejected, not counted.” By calculating that 22 percent of the votes by mail are lost, interjecting an 80 percent mail-in voter turnout means 25 million Americans will lose their vote in 2020.
The book goes on to describe other voter removal methods that are supported or instigated by the Trump administration.
In an interview, Palast described his views on the latest voter issues as the clock ticks:
ICONOCLAST – We are cynics at the Iconoclast and when the coronavirus pandemic hit, our first thought was “Aha, that’s how Trump is going to cancel this year’s election.” Apparently, that thought went a little far, but our concern now is that if he loses the election, he is going to challenge it, which could end up with a meltdown similar to the Bush-Gore debacle a few years back. Do you see this happening, especially with all the weapons at his hands as described in your book?
PALAST – I’m quite concerned about violence on election day and during the 2 to 3 weeks needed to count the mailed votes. if the Miami vote count is stopped by a riot by the proud boys, Republican Legislature Florida can refuse to certify the vote, leaving neither Trump nor Biden 270 electoral votes. Then, under The 12th amendment to the constitution, each state gets one vote, and Trump is then reelected, not by the people but by the rioters
ICONOCLAST – One big push by Democrats during the National Convention was to flood the ballot boxes with mail-in votes, the earlier the better. One negative commentator implied that this was improper by making use of the convention to gain voters and not waiting until the judge and jury have spoken come election day, a sense of unseen bias by promoting early voting. Defenders of the idea said that getting ballots mailed early was to assure the ballots arrived on time. What is your advice to mail-in voters?
PALAST – Don’t go postal if you can avoid it. Ask for your mail-in ballot early. If you don’t get it three weeks before the election, get it from your county elections office. And that’s where you drop it off, not at a mailbox.
ICONOCLAST – Former President Obama sounded an alert, again pushing voting, that our democracy is at stake with the 2020 election. Do you have a methodology to assure that the forecast in your book does not come true?
PALAST – My book is a warning, not a prediction. That’s why it ends with my special two page, “new and improved ballot condom.“ No, you don’t wrap it around your ballot, you follow the seven steps to make sure you get your ballot and it gets counted. You can download a copy of the ballot condom at Greg Palast.com
ICONOCLAST – Greg, this is the longest question ever asked an interviewee, so please bear with me. Back in the early 1970s, a college history professor in Hillsboro, Texas, Dr. Alden Smith, often stated in class, “Cruddy little peasants don’t make revolutions.” He had been a supporter of Senator Ed Muskie who became the target of illegal dirty tricks perpetuated by then-President Richard Nixon, some of these tricks carried out by U.S. mail. Dr. Smith had an international viewpoint in that, for instance, each year he erected a gigantic Christmas tree and called it the Tree of Understanding, as it featured elaborate hand-pointed ornaments from all over the world, a coming together of cultures if even for a short time. Move forward several decades to author John Grisham’s book, The Firm, where a young attorney learns that his colleagues at the firm have been over-billing all clients by adding extra unearned hours to the workload. When the bills are mailed out, a federal crime has been committed by these lawyers that carries hefty punishments. And lastly, the U.S. Postal service for decades charged varying rates and schedules for delivery of different classifications of mail. First-class mail was handled, you guessed it, first. Second-class mail (now known as periodicals) was charged slightly less and was put into boxes second. Most newspapers used this rate. Third-class mail was for cheap periodicals and put into boxes third and cost a lot to mail, and fourth-class mail was for books, etc. What if “ballots by mail” were handled as their own class for immediate delivery? To tamper with this mail on any level was a federal crime with extended prison sentences for all involved. Losing a ballot would be a federal crime (of course, if you could prove it), but an audit system would need to be in place where authorities traced random mailers to see what happened to their expresses. Would something like this work?
PALAST — Voting by mail has always been a crap-shoot. My book has a lot of suggestions on how to make the system more democratic. But it’s all completely meaningless unless the two parties agree that all American should be allowed to vote and all votes should be counted. Neither party is willing to make that commitment.
ICONOCLAST – Is there anything you want to add?
PALAST – Be prepared for the violence during the ballot count
How Trump Stole 2020 is 335 pages in length and is available in book stores. It is copyrighted in 2020 by the Palast Investigative Fund. Portions of the book have appeared in The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Salon, Vice, and on Al Jazeera, Democracy Now! and BBC Television’s Newsnight.
Palast co-hosts The Election Crimes Bulletin with Dennis Bernstein on Pacifica Radio Network’s Flashpoints.
SIDEBAR:
Bombshell! Two Supreme Court Rulings That Will Help Trump
By Greg Palast
The Supreme Court decision to allow states to ban “faithless electors” opens a path for Trump to stay in office even if he loses the popular vote and electoral vote. Let’s say Biden wins Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin by a hair…but the GOP cries, “Fraud!” or simply mail-in ballot system collapse (quite likely). The Republican legislatures won’t certify the results and electors do not appear or do not vote, denying 270 electors to Biden. Under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, each state in the House will then get ONE vote…thereby assuring Trump’s “re-election.” (It happened in 1867.)
This outcome is made more likely with the OTHER Supreme Court decision, overturning restrictions on mail-in and drive-up voting in Alabama. Alabama now, as I state in the book, requires a notary to sign a mail-in ballot. The lower courts threw that out, but the Supreme Court brought it back …as well as allowing Alabama to prohibit drive-up voting. This will reverse several lower court decisions nationwide to make mail-in / virus voting easier. The result: I expect the collapse of the already-dysfunctional mail-in voting system. With swing states declaring that too many ballots are lost, stuck in the post-office or missing the notary stamp, witness signatures or other requirements (postage due!), Scenario #1 — the election going to the House — is more likely.
And that’s how Trump stole 2020.