November 5 - Three Remaining States Will Decide the Election; Armed Standoff in Wisconsin, Violence in Ohio, Chaos in Florida

Summary: With just three states remaining uncalled – Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin- Joe Biden has a 268-213 electoral college lead over President Trump.  Thanks to gigantic wins in several blue states, Biden has a much larger popular vote lead with 52% to Trump’s 44%, with 4% voting for third party candidates.  Amid severely delayed elections returns, demonstrations in Milwaukee were met with a combined force of DHS officers supported by “Citizen Sheriffs” led by former sheriff David Clark.  The former lawman, who is African-American, called activists “subhuman creeps organized by George Soros; who are finally being met with force.”  His heavily armed men are intermingled with DHS officials guarding the Milwaukee County Courthouse, where elections officials are slowly counting the over 150,000 outstanding absentee ballots, some of which local authorities believe are false.  Standoffs in Florida and Ohio are just as ugly.  If Trump manages to win all three states, he would secure 270 electoral college votes, and the Presidency.  End Summary

Former Sheriff Leads Standoff in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

With several hundred thousand absentee ballots across the state remaining to be counted, Trump currently leads in Wisconsin, 1,315,284 to 1,282,536.  Trump’s better than expected showing was buoyed by high voter turnout in many of Wisconsin’s rural and suburban areas, such as the heavily conservative and white “WOW” counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington, where he improved upon his 2016 margin of victory.

Turnout in the WOW counties appears to have been driven by ongoing protests in nearby Milwaukee, where former Milwaukee Country Sheriff David Clark formed one of the first “Neighborhood Watch” groups, calling them “Citizen Sheriffs.”  It is unclear if the Milwaukee County Sherriff has formally delegated any power to members of this group, which is composed of scores of heavily armed and irregularly camouflaged men.  However, the Citizen Sheriffs are intermingled with federal law enforcement officers positioned outside of the Milwaukee County Courthouse in downtown, where absentee ballot counting continues, despite protests.  Dressed in a formal uniform and wearing a cowboy hat, Former Sheriff Clark called protestors “subhuman creeps organized by George Soros who are finally being met with force,” in a video from the front lines posted to Twitter.  Dozens of protestors have been injured by rubber bullets and tear gas, but no live ammunition has been used so far.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett called for DHS and the Citizen Sheriffs to stand down and cede ground to local authorities before the violence resulted in more serious injuries than had been inflicted so far.  DHS released a written statement stating “DHS has deployed to cities across the country to enforce the law, defend our heritage, and protect the integrity of our elections when local officials will not.  We do not need permission to uphold the law – it is our duty.”  A senior DHS official told the Washington Post, off the record, that federal officials were justified in deployed to protect the County Courthouse because it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The final outcome of Wisconsin’s electoral votes will most likely be decided in the Milwaukee County Courthouse, where elections officials have counted just 273,000 so far, compared to 441,053 cast in the 2016 elections. Over 150,000 votes have been received by county clerks but remain uncounted, compared to an estimated 25,000 for the rest of the state combined.  Similar to the 2000 election in Florida, elections officials in some areas, including Milwaukee are being forced to hand count many ballots due to errors filling out the forms.  So far, 64% of votes in Milwaukee County went for Biden, just 1% less than voted for Clinton in 2016 but much less than anticipated.  In a press conference, Milwaukee County Elections Director Julietta Henry confirmed “a small number, less than a hundred false absentee ballots have been identified, and the Sheriff’s Office is cooperating with the FBI into the origin of this activity.  Our protocols easily identified these false ballots, which have not been included in any official elections returns.  We pray for calm and patience as we work to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.”

Outside analysts were more concerned about voter irregularities outside of Milwaukee, where several dozen counties in reported even higher vote totals for President Trump than in 2016.  Journalist/Activist Andrea Chalupa tweeted “How is it possible for these counties, most of whom lost population or were stagnant compared to 2016, voted for Trump in greater numbers and at greater percentages?”  In 2016, Donald Trump unexpectedly won Wisconsin by just 22,748 votes (0.77%).  He currently leads by 32,748 votes.

Polarization in Ohio; Violence in Columbus

Trump voters in Ohio followed a similar pattern; winning with huge victories in a lot of small counties. In fact, he carried 70% of the vote or more in 36 of Ohio's 88 counties.  Trump won 81% of the vote in rural Hocking County, where Kevin Kislingbury, identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white supremacist, led a group called the “Alliance for Homeland Defense” as they surrounded the county courthouse in Logan, the county seat.  Hocking County Clerk Carter Blanc told the Logan Daily News “these actions actuibs did nothing to interfere with people’s ability to vote, or our ability to tabulate votes… while we don’t agree with those guys about everything, we are grateful to them for defending us against Antifa.  I’m convinced their presence kept Antifa out of Hocking County.”

Early returns showed Biden winning handily in Ohio's largest counties and cities, including Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Franklin (Columbus) and Hamilton (Cincinnati); however there are many fewer absentee ballots being turned in from these areas than expected.  A ProPublica investigation has identified several dozen people from Columbus who say they voted absentee, but according to the County Elections website, have not been received.  County officials say they will count every ballot mailed with a postmark before election day, but Republican operatives have filed simultaneous suits in local and state court attempting to prevent newly received ballots from being counted.

One young woman told reporters that after she received a second absentee ballot in the mail, she checked the addresses on both.  Coincidently, she had taken a picture of herself mailing in the first ballot, to celebrate her first time voting.  When she compared the two addresses, she found the first one was for a fictional address.  When she contacted the police to report the matter, she was told to send in her second (correct ballot) but not to worry because state officials were investigating.  However, at the time journalists contacted the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, they had no record of such investigation.  County Elections officials are now investigating, but said their resources are stretched thin by the laborious process of counting incoming absentee ballots and responding to requests for information on several court cases.

Former Ohio Governor John Kasich called for President Trump to remove federal “stormtroopers” from Ohio cities, particularly Columbus, where a skirmish between supporters of the “bugaloo” movement, “Proud Boys” white supremacists, Black Lives Matter protestors, and federal officers all converged in a melee near the Joseph P. Kinneary Federal Courthouse in downtown.  After an explosion– possibly from a firework - broke several windows in the courthouse, protesters say they heard gunshots coming from the federal building.  One person was severely injured by the stampeding crowd, but several dozen were treated for less serious injuries, including broken bones.  Columbus Police say one “subject” was transported to the hospital with a gunshot wound, but declined to give further details about “an ongoing investigation.”  Current Governor Mike DeWine said “I defer to our expert law enforcement officials and their judgement about how to respond to this act of terrorism.  At this moment, I don’t think Ohio can afford not to have DHS’s help in confronting this threat.”

Trump currently leads Ohio, 2,441,005 to 2,394,164.

Florida in Chaos, as Usual

Americans have come to expect election chaos from Florida, and this year is no exception.  Wayne Brody, Chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party Voter Protection Committee, said “Yet again, Republicans talk about cracking down on ‘suspicious’ people voting when they really mean suppressing people of color exercising their right to vote them out.”

Governor Ron DeSantis called Brody’s comments “rubbish,” saying “independent monitors are embedded with elections officials to make sure people follow the rules- and that includes when people don’t fill out their ballots correctly.  It is only fair to all the people who did follow the rules that they be applied strictly and equally.”  Democrats allege people of color make up a disproportionate amount of the high numbers of absentee ballots being challenged by Republican-affiliated “observers” in many locations in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.   Exit polls show Trump won 65% of the Cuban-American voters in the state—in comparison, 64% of Latino voters from other origins voted for Biden.

In person voting was problematic as well.  Heather Joyeux, an African American former poll worker with 10 years’ experience, had changed her address prior to November 3. Based on her familiarity with election procedures, when Ms. Joyeux went to vote at Miami-Dade County, she completed a change of address affidavit. But when the poll worker tried to call the office of the supervisor of elections to verify Ms. Joyeux’s registration status, she was unable to get through.  According to Ms. Joyeux, the phone lines remained busy for three and a half hours—a delay she had never experienced during her time as a poll worker.  Ultimately, the poll workers refused to allow her to vote because they could not verify her voter status.  Another poll worker said they were hung up on by the hotline two or three times over the course of 12 hours.  Miranda Pettimore, an African-American first-time voter, went to her polling place to vote, she was told by a white poll worker standing outside that the poll was closed. As she turned to leave, the poll worker allowed a white man to walk in and get in line to vote.

Trump retains a slight lead in Florida as well, 4,526,886 to Biden’s 4,514,875; a margin of 12,011 votes with tens of thousands of ballots outstanding.

Note: If these examples seem like they ring true, some of these events are directly adapted from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report on the 2000 election.  These things have already happened here.