Democracy shamed
US President Donald Trump is in no mood to concede defeat in the wake of election results that were announced few days back. Trump and his aids have publicly made their intention clear of not conceding to the poll results which has not only divided the nation but also put the entire poll exercise to shame.
After Trump made his views public the state of Georgia has announced to conduct a manual hand recount of millions of ballots cast in the battleground state where President-elect Joe Biden is leading by more than 14,000 votes over President Donald Trump.
The meager victory margin has made Trump bold enough to make unfounded claims about widespread voter fraud and electoral malpractice. And with the margin being so close, it will require a full by-hand recount in each county.
The authorities in Florida have been insisting that it will be an audit, a recount and a recanvass all at once. Though they are claiming that officials and volunteers have worked hard to bring fair and accurate counts to assure that the will of the voters is reflected in the final count.
Georgia has 16 electoral college votes. Trump has alleged there has been massive voter fraud and electoral malpractice and therefore the hand recount of votes, however, will be only for the presidential election.
As of Wednesday, President-elect Biden had 279 of the 538 electoral college votes, with 270 being the halfway mark. Biden has enough electoral votes to be the president even without Georgia.
On Wednesday, Biden was up by less than 0.3 per cent of the nearly 5 million votes cast in Georgia. On Saturday, he was declared winner of the presidential election as some states continued to count votes, largely because his margins in several states are too wide for Trump to overcome.
Interestingly, the state officials have said that there has been no such evidence of any malpractice so far. Georgia’s presidential race has not yet been called because of the close result, but Biden appears poised to take the state’s 16 electoral votes.
Though the recount may be considered by some as an important first step in the process to ensure that the election was fair and that every legal vote was counted, but at the same time it is setting a bad precedence.
Even if Trump manages a win in Georgia after the recount but still he will be lagging behind from Biden and won’t be able to lay his claim for Presidency. That makes him a bad loser as his claims for fraud and other malpractices have not stood any ground.
The claims made by Donald Trump also paints US considered the world’s one of the largest democracy in a bad taste and also raises questions over his believing the fair play game.
KV Network
