Trump claims his lead 'started to magically disappear.' The truth lies in GOP laws that may backfire
As states count their legally-cast ballots, President Donald Trump claims his lead is "magically" disappearing. But fact checkers are hitting back at that president's claim and reminding him that Republican-led efforts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are the real reason why his leads are diminishing.
Although some states did begin counting mail-in votes prior to Election Day, Republican lawmakers blocked efforts to count mail-in votes early in the three battleground states. Now, the American public is awaiting the highly anticipated results of the election in these three states.
That one law within those key states is the only reason why the results are behind. In states like Ohio, mail-in vote counting was handled differently. According to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, mail-in votes were among the first ballots counted at the close of Election Night. Ohio's results were announced in a timely fashion because election clerks were allowed to process mail-in ballots as they were mailed in. As a result of early ballot processing during the days and weeks prior to Election Day, Ohio election clerks had ballots prepared to be tabulated and counted at the time the polls closed.
During an interview on the Yahoo News podcast, "The Long Game," LaRose explained the state's process.
"We can start processing those right away, meaning: Cut the envelope, open, verify the information on it, put it through the scanner, but not hit 'tabulate.' That can't happen until 7:30 on election night," LaRose, a Republican explained.
LaRose also noted how multiple other Rust Belt states do not have the same type of law in place to allow for early processing of mail-in votes, which could contribute to delays in results.
"Now our friends up the road in Michigan, they can't start processing ballots until Election Day," LaRose said, adding, "If you think about a big county like Wayne County – where Detroit is – I mean, they're going to have pallets and pallets of ballots waiting to get processed, that they really can't touch until election day. And that's unfortunate."
You can listen to this podcast discussion on the matter below:
As Trump's Twitter meltdowns continue, election clerks in multiple states are continuing to process and count ballots. In those states, the gap between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is appearing to close.
